PZG302

When it's on the road and looking flasher than a rat with gold tooth......

And some more slow progress...... After playing with the doors I have been busy with work and just started uni for this semester and getting two assignments out of the way before I head off to Indonesia for my first stint this year, so the S14 has been sitting tucked away up the back of the garage gathering dust and boxes and other crap, it will be tough flying business class and spending one week working in Sumbawa, and then two weeks working in Bali Any ways, back to the car..... The plan was to get the suspension finalised when I got back from the first stint, but that is now on hold as the engine is being sorted out. The top end is being done at the moment with the head that was chosen for the race motor getting a service, new larger valves and porting to suit the valves, plus a pair of HKS bumpy sticks. When I get back from Indonesia, the bottom end will be sorted, we should be able to use the standard crank that was good out of the two motors I had, and will just need a set of pistons and rods and the block machined to suit and then it gets all buttoned up and I save some dollars for computer and wiring harness. The suspension will hopefully be sorted when I get back after my second stint, working in Sulawesi, for Ramadan and hopefully have some more fun tickets stacked away for bouncy stuff. The other problem I have is that my Charger is progressing at the same time and a lazy $10k has been thrown at it to get it into colour. Curse me wanting a shiny black Charger with not so shiny bonnet patches and stripes.... takes dollars away from the other build..... But it is slowly progressing, not bad for a six week rebuild that I started 15 years ago....... I'm told, like the S14, it will be ready Friday, I just don't know which Friday. If all goes well, I plan to have the car on the track late this year for a shakedown with a view to race in 2016, hopefully both in the PSCRAQ sprint Championship and the Willowbank 300 plus the one hour endure up here. In future years I want to do the three 300km races or the sprint series and local one hour on alternate years as the budget won't be there to do both each year.

Unless it is still in a bottle with an unbroken seal, don't be using brake fluid that has been lying around the shed. If you have to buy new fluid, the Penrite race fluid, was called sin, not sure what it's called now, will do what you want to do.

Simon, I wouldn't worry about the booster. A 1" master cylinder isn't that heavy without one and you get much better pedal feel without it. Also if you are going down the pads for track and pads for road path, look at a set of track and road rotors as well. That way you won't bugger the pads with contamination from the other set if you don't clean the rotors with a sand between swapping the pads, and then you have to bed the pads to the rotors again to get the best performance. For your car I would look at getting something like Hawk HPS or Blues, that will work on the track, but are still good enough for the road if you are aware that they need a little heat to work well, but cold take a little longer and will be noisier than a road pad. Other brand pads, I would look at something about the equivalent of those compounds that will do both track and road, track optimum, road compromised.

Black with polished rim, or gold with polished rim.....

I bought my Charger for $1000 back in 2000 as a driver that needed work. You now can't find a Charger for under $5k that doesn't need a full restoration. I am now calling mine my superannuation fund, mainly because I have spent on it what most of lost in the GFC crash...... The way the Charger prices are going, whilst not stupid pre GFC, they are increasing steadily that if I ever need to sell it I won't do too bad.

Simon, if your running wide sticky tyres you are putting more lateral strain on the stubs. As an example my little 1600 hairdresser car on R888 gets up around a lateral force of 1.2 G through the corners at QR. If you are running semis your car will be doing the same or more and is a lot heavier than mine. You would be surprised at the forces going through the suspension. But, personally I would be looking at doing the simple things first. Check the run out on the rotors to see if they are warped. Check pads, they may have cooked, if that is the case then the fluid won't be the best, but best to change the fluid anyway. The calipers front and rear should be fine, but it maybe worth looking at upping the M/C size to get more fluid, you may be marginal with the current one and the volume of fluid needed for the system as a whole. Next step would also be pads, look at something a little track orientated than what you have now, my personal recommendation would be hawk pads, probably the HP Plus or Blue, if you want to try them I can get them a lot cheaper than the local suppliers, just delivery is longer. Than after sorting the brakes, if you still have dramas, then get the extra bracing for the stubs and struts done.

As said above, a lap record can only be counted when it is done in a race. The taxi commentators love to quote the qually records as the fastest laps ever but they mean nothing in the record books. In the 12 hour the lap record was reset at a 2:03.309 set by the Pheonix racing Audi R8

I was close, $960 for 15x9 and up and $840 a set up to 8" wide for 15's. But they still offer the option of drive in and drive out plus you can try different wheels on the car.

Foe $5 more Option 1 at Hamilton can sell you a set of Rotas and they will test fit to make sure all is well. Thay can also supply a range of tyres to suit and do a wheel alignment to set the car up. They are very competitive on tyre price and the wheel alignment that is done is much better than a high turnover franchise where old school cars aren't the norm.

In that case, look for a new roof. There is a member on the Gold Coast, Patch that has a few bodies, including my old very broken race shell, he may have something suitable for you to use as a roof donor. The roof in the race shell I bent would be suitable to replace your moon roof.

A pukka restoration old school shop Gav, so that figure is at around $90 an hour, but wait until you see the finished car in colour, you see where near $60k has gone.....

A decent panel beater will charge at least if not more the cost of a new roof section to get it right due to the compound curves in the roof and a lot of welding if they are starting from scratch and having to make a panel. I know this because I did the "fill the shitty 70' sunroof in" trick on my charger and refused to let the restorer cheat with a vynal roof. 35 hours later the repair was done to a high enough standard with a file finish, minimal filler and the curves in both directions right. I was also stupid because I was having no other colour than black for the car, so it had to be perfect......

Well I'll have a bintang for the forum then, as I will be spending easter in the wilds of Sumbawa in Eastern Indonesia......

My Zed did 61-62 sec around the clubman at a MX5 club day when I did a shakedown for the motor after it's last rebuild. Was chuffed to get FTD on a shakedown, but a bit unfair when you take a howitzer to a fist fight. My NA6 mx5 propels me around the clubman in around 67-68's No Pete, your times are pretty good for the first time in a car and not having spent much time going around there. As simple a track as QR is the clubman circuit can be tricky to get right when going through the dipper. Plus turns 1 and 2 take a bit to get used to and to trust the car to get through.

Sam, a couple of things: 1. do you have contents insurance for your stuff? If so first point of call is them. You still may not be covered for the loss under contents as it was kept in a communal area of the units. 2. Have a chat with the onsite manager of the complex if there is one, or if there is a owner occupier there, get the management details off them. The real estate agent will no 3/5th of 7/8th of fuck all about what is covered and what is not under the body corporate. All the real estate agent does is take your money for the rent, dick you around in regard to notices for inspections, not get back to you if you a have a problem and then dick the owner around by paying them your rent late and not notifying the owners of any dramas you have with the unit. What Simon said, the body corporate will have insurance for this, they will be claiming on it to replace the lock and any damage to the cage, your loss and anyone else's will also go on this claim. That's what people pay the corporate fees for, amongst other things. As the bike is kept in effectively common property the body corporate are responsible for it if you are not allowed to keep it in your unit because of the body corporate rules. Chase up the body corporate itself, not the real estate agent. Oh and if you the arse hole that did this, I know people who know people.......

Simon, I would do the following: 1. sack your tyre and wheel management team for the Zed..... 2. get the set of 4 from Ben as you know you may or may not forget to remove the caps at another track day...... Hope that helps.....

I don't know George, my Zed was used sparingly and babied, if you call revving it to only 6800rpm on every gear change on most race tracks up and down the east coast on weekends as being used sparingly and babied..... But good see a result for a very nice car.

Or. if in Sydney.... http://www.pentastarparts.com.au/store/index.php?l=product_list&c=710 I have a set for my Chugger, so jetting may have to be tweaked to be right for a Zed. These guys are also agents for the retro sound radios as well. http://www.pentastarparts.com.au/store/index.php?l=product_list&c=855

Not much happening with the car at the moment as I am working again, and as with those things, when I have time - no money, and when I have money - no time. At this stage the suspension will be done in April/May between trips to Indonesia and then some more stuff for the brake lines and other little bits that are cheap and easy to do. I did have a play today with an old door i picked up for $50, so it was time to see how much lighter it could be made, bearing in mind i will be keeping the fast glass as I am lazy, and the doors are frameless so not easy to fit plastic windows like the old zed was. The door I had with the door card removed but complete otherwise was 25.5 kg After stripping the door down to nothing but the mirror attached the weight was 16.3kg I then set about removing the intrusion bar to see what weight could be saved there, in the end about 2.5kg for the bar The glass was weighed seperately and came in at 5kg, surprisingly heavy. With all the window mechanism put back in, but as much of the inner door skin cut out as I dared to keep some rigidity for operating the windows the door came in at 17.5kg, so once the plastic window is fitted, probably near 19kg all up. I don't know if the hassle of cutting out the intrusion bars is worth the effort for a 2kg saving, but removing the wiring harness, the bits of the door locking and opening mechanism not needed and cutting away the inner door skin is worth the 4kg saving from the original 25kg. The other option would be to go fibreglass or carbon doors, but there are advantages to metal over other materials, mainly being that in door to door there will be contact between cars. With metal doors a dent is a pretty easy fix and doors are still common and reasonably cheap. Fibreglass or carbon tend to shatter or break and generally can't be repaired after a decent hit, and are more expensive than a second hand standard door.

Or, here is a more extreme method of removing the windscreen...... The car was stuffed, but the screen came out in one piece and didn't break......

For mine the numbers don't matter, I own the 129th VH Valiant XL Charger built, but it is still worth what anyone is prepared to pay. For a Charger I'm lucky that people will pay more for one than a VH 4 sedan, but will still fall way short of what the checque book restoration will cost me. I also have a NA6 MX5 that was in the first shipment to Australia, number 321, whilst I get comments on how nice the car is for one the earliest still around, I don't really care that much about it in terms of originality as there were a metric shit load of them bought. I look at it that the whatever car you own is yours to do with what you want. If I was in the position to own a Ferrari 250GTO, I would be racing it every track I could in Europe at all the big Historic meetings and thrashing the life out of it, prepared for it to be a steaming pile of bits if things go wrong and wait for the haters to hate for what they think should be a museum piece to be revered. My old Zed was just a run of the mill production car, that because of the ravages of time became reasonably desirable, but it was modified for racing with rear quarters tubbed to fit bigger wheels in, a cage welded in, the windows replaced, panels lightened, the interior stripped and over many seasons of racing ended up with battle scars and eventually a written off shell I sold on to someone else who though it could be rebuilt. Whilst I had an emotional attachment to that car for the joy it bought me and a few others over many years of racing, in the end it was just a piece of metal that did a job and when it had finished that job was discarded and I moved onto the next car. For anyone to take on a major restoration the end value wouldn't be the goal. For my Charger it was to build the car to a standard that I always wanted, and until recently couldn't afford. For some reason I have always liked Valiants and Chargers in particular, so when I could afford it I got one and set about turning it into the car I wanted, basically an E49 small tank on steroids, cranky and loud enough that the neighbours will hate me even more.....

I have but am in Brisbane so shipping will be worth more than the box.

No arguments here just two old men who like yelling at clouds As I said, consider what you want to do, is it sprints, hillclimbs or targa type events or do you want to eventually make the step to door to door? Once you know what you want to do, find out what the rules for that type of competition is and then just go from there. Nothing worse than building a car and then finding that you can't play. You can also look at doing some "low" level competition where the minimum is required in mods for the car and still have fun, and if the bug bites look at then getting another dedicated car that will make the most of where you are running and what you want to achieve. For me, I always wanted to go door to door racing, started in a quickish car doing lap dashes, supersprints and hill climbs, bought a sports 1300, got my circuit licence, and promptly wrote the car off at Amaroo in my first ever proper race meeting. A year later playing again in a 180B SSS in 3J Street Sedans at the back of the field, but learnt a lot of race craft, especially when I got in front of someone I wasn't giving that position up. Next step was to a mid field car in what is now prodsports for a couple of years and honed my racing in more traffic and passing and dicing with a lot more cars. Then the step up to a competitive outright car where I would be dicing in the top 5 and got the odd outright placing and taking out the NSW championship many years ago. I couldn't afford to develop the car further and technology moved on so it wasn't as competitive as I would like and I also had to take a near ten year break from serious racing. I was looking at upgrading the car and having it written off forced my hand so I am now building an S14 for prodsports that will be up towards the pointy end. Whilst it will be outgunned by the corvettes and Porsches it will have the consistency to take out a championship. For the build of the S14, I know what I want to achieve, what rules to build it to and that is having a big effect on how the car is being put together and what I am doing in terms of body preparation, suspension and the mechanicals. If I was building this as an IPRA car rather than a 2b car the build would be completely different as the rules are very different, 2B for a turbo car standard turbos and manifolds, for IPRA, these are allowed to be modified but must run a restrictor, 2B wheels up to 40" in width total for the weight I will run at so looking at 18x9 or 18.9.5", for IPRA maximum of 17x8". 2B hanging panel material is free, IPRA must be standard steel panels, in 2B the windows are free so I have very thin plastic window kit to fit, IPRA must have the standard glass and so it goes. I also have a near enough to standard 1600 NA6 1989 MX5 that runs around lakeside in the 66-65 second range and if I could turn up to all the MX5 Club track days in a year would take home a trophy most years, for the two or three out of 5 track days I can do I miss out on a trophy by not a lot of points, this is my weekend toy so I don't spend any money on it, it won't be used for any other track work than these club days and I have a ball out there. Lots of cars are quicker than me, but I am also quicker than a lot of cars out there. I use the days as just seat time on a track to try to keep me reasonably sharp behind the wheel so it isn't as big a jump for me when the S14 is ready to go. So have a look at what level you want to play a, how serious you want to be, how quick you want to go and how much you want or can sacrifice financially to play, and then that should point you to the type of competition and from there how to build the car and the best mods to get the most out of it.

Geez Gav, a Zed bar is flimsy no matter if it is a repro or OEM...... Well compared to real steel bumpers anyway..... I could flex and twist the OEM bumpers on my old blue 260 almost as much as the body shell would twist and flex, thanks Jason...... Compare to any 70's aussie car and you'll know what I mean, ZG Failrane bars are almost a two man job to remove or fit and my VH Charger bumpers aren't much lighter. For anyone in Brisbane who needs any chrome work done, see Tony at Pacific Plating on Kingsford Smith drive out at Pinkenbar just near the Sugarmill road intersection. He aims for perfection and pretty near gets it, I was more than happy with the job done on my Charger bars and for what I though was a more than reasonable price for the work needed.