260DET

Shipping costs for those sorts of bulky parts from the US to AU are very expensive and very few people here will spend a lot of money on S130's.

As well as rust repairs these bodies have some large openings for various purposes, my idea is to weld all but the few essentials up. Pictured are before and after shots of a vent opening in the lower B pillar which had weakened it so much that both sides were cracked at the top outside corner of the opening. Also shown is a large hole rusted through both inner and outer panels just forward of the A pillar door hinges on both sides, caused I suspect by the car being parked facing up hill so water could not get out the drain holes. There are a few bits like this that need repair and which could not be seen when inspected, the bodies on these cars have lots of double panels and are way more complex than a S30's.

Rust 'repair' race car style. If the part is non structural, like a front guard, then just fix it up the easiest but permanent way possible. If it is structural then my procedure is to clean the area removing all loose rust, hit it with rust neutraliser then work out if the part should be made stronger/stiffer during the 'repair' process, always keeping weight to a minimum. On the Z31 the top of the rear panel that meets the bottom of the hatch was significantly rusted in several places, it's certainly a structural piece so the decision was to plate the entire panel using stiff zinc plated 1.2mm sheet. I avoid using plain mild steel for any structural part. Pics show what was done and the procedure, note that the back edges of the plates will be welded when on the rotisserie and the whole job will have a final dose of fish oil.

^ ^ The OP's spoiler is an excellent design, if it would fit a Z31 it would be mine by now.

Sounds like a great package, lighter than a R200 too, they are often overkill.

Hi tech is not always the best, a conventional fuel gauge setup is clear and simple, clearer than any digital dash. Have not decided yet but the Z31 may have a traditional analogue dash plus a shift light, lap timer and analyser, maybe a GPS speedo and a big low oil pressure light. The beauty about designing a dash layout from scratch is that everything can be placed in it's optimal position. Enough of that, is a sumped fuel tank with foam going to work using a EFI pump only, no surge tank or pickup pump. EDIT Just had a brain wave. How about having the tank outlet run directly into one of those big glass bowl filters which will act as a reservoir with the EFI pump pulling fuel directly from it. Vent the filter back to the tank to get rid of any air that comes through.

Why a fuel gauge? Why not, particularly when actually doing laps with a new car and you are not sure how much fuel is being used or the fuel is not going to be drained after. With the VG turbo bitch used to devour fuel when using a lot of boost.

Cool, so how did you fit the sender in the tank? Far as I know only the Jaz Pro Street tanks have provision for one.

Fuel gauge? The Jaz Pro Street tanks have provision for one but the smallest is 12 gal, about 45 litres.

The present idea is to use a tank like that below, fill the bottom 75% of the tank with foam blocks leaving the sump part clear and hook up the EFI pump directly to one of the outlets or maybe both. The idea is that the foam blocks will always act to keep fuel in the sump. If we think that won't work then it's back to the Holley fuel mat idea.

One possible negative about foam is it moving around inside the tank resulting in small pieces breaking off. If it was possible to use some sort of restraining net around it in the tank then for my purpose a tank with a small sump and an outlet for an outside fuel pump would work. Wonder if insect screening would be OK? An outside pump by itself without a separate pickup pump would be fine, it would not heat the fuel up as much as a in tank pump would.

It can to some degree plus foam can be used. But foam can break down and baffling is a bit hit/miss as to how effective it will be.

Looked at yours Peter but unfortunately for racing stock type intank pumps need the fuel level to be kept up, unnecessary weight sloshing around. What would be good is to adapt a stock type intank pump to a Holley Hydramat. But I don't know of any that can be adapted to do that, the Hydamat requires a 3/8" fitting.

Wonder if nutserts sealed with, say, locktite would be OK to use on the top of an aluminium fuel tank? Thinking of cutting a circular hole in the top for a fuel gauge sender, I guess there is a suitable sealant for that sort of thing.

For an inlet manifold that's a pretty good looking exhaust manifold

Yeh, that's the way that the 280ZX is done but it's messy with lines everywhere. May have to go for an aluminium tank to get internal baffles and provisions for an in tank pump and a fuel gauge sender. Must check out that Holley fuel mat thing.

Some useful ideas there Peter, thanks.

Looking for general advice on fitting a fuel cell, what to look out for and do and how to hook up the filler. Thinking a plastic 30litre capacity job, it's for the Z31 race car. Not keen on using foam in the tank so fuel pickup is relevant, what pumps and everything else relevant to not starving of fuel. Will do a Google to see what articles are available but personal experience can't be beaten so give me yours. Please

Yeh, the avatar pic does not help but if you really want good, serious advice you have come to the right place. So speak up or forever hold your piece.

Did you drill your drums around the working surface Jason? I'd be very careful doing that as it may contribute to the drums expanding under heavy use.

How can I put this without offending anyone hmmm. OK, on items like the bonnet stay you are going to find that the postage cost is very roughly somewhere around your asking price Alan. Just a friendly warning to save difficulties HTH.

And perhaps the cylinder pistons are over extending.

It sounds like the wing mods you did were effective too Gordo.

More of the trivial that eventually ends up as a race car, I love the practical detail, working out what will do the job reliably, simply and which involves minimum weight by paying attention to design. Underneath all the crap the Z31 is quite decent, the body carries very little extra weight and should be quite stiff when everything is done. Today we are getting really trivial, the steering wheel adapter was a real lump of pot metal so we got stuck into it and carved off about half of the original weight by the simple expedient of chopping a chunk off it, the other pic shows the replacement steering wheel after drilling and tapping what was left of the adapter and screwing the wheel to it. Total weight 140 g compared with 223 for the original wheel.

Man I'm looking forward to this, going to be epic And if I wasn't driving waving a flag or two would be on for sure, plus it's free so how good is that