Grandad

Hi All Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag but mostly good. The event was an afternoon-twilight (under lights) super sprint, we got to the track at 12.30 and drove through the pits looking for the Zed brigade, we did attract a bit of attention but the Zed brigade were nowhere to be found so we found a vacant car port and unpacked then signed on and attended the drivers briefing at 1.30. There were ~ 85 entries so the field was split into two groups A and B which suited us well, Whittie was in A and I was in B, each run consisted of a warm up lap, three flying laps and a cool down lap with up to ten cars on the track at once, there would be one practice session and four competition sessions two in daylight and two after dinner in the dark. Whittie did his practice and came in reporting the car to be in great condition so I went out onto the dummy grid ready for my practice when Murphy arrived to see how we were getting on and wouldn't you know it, the timing broke down officially because of the heat but you just never know when Murphy's around although it was 38deg ambient so much more where I was parked near the timing box, it seamed to take forever for the timing to be fixed and I was wringing wet by the time I actually got going, my warm up was fine and my first flying lap was going well but over the top of the hill on the main straight I thought I could smell coolant so checked the gauges and the temp was right up and the charge light on so even tough tempted to complete the lap to record a time I managed to see through the red mist and returned to the pits where inspection showed we had thrown a fan belt. Fortunately Whittie and I had gone to the track in separate cars so I took off to the local car accessory shop little knowing that Murphy had slipped into the passenger seat so when I got to the parts counter I was served by the local "Village Idiot" who couldn't get his head around the fact that because of balancer mods the part I need will not be the same as the one listed in his parts book and even though I told him I'd thrown the belt he asked if I could bring it in because that would make it much easier to match, DER it's somewhere out on the bloody race track, anyway with a belt and coolant in hand I went back to the track only to discover that Murphy had selected a belt too short so while he was preoccupied with the MX5 beside us I went back to the shop and bought two slightly longer belts and some more coolant, why two belts you ask, because in the ten years we have been in competition with the Zed this is the first time we have had a belt failure and the first time we haven't carried a spare. Back at the track the belt fitted perfectly so I went out in what was my first timed event which meant that we had only lost my practice session and Whitties first timed run, the car felt great and my times were ok but it will take me a while to really get brave with the new brakes and that will take track time. When Murphy wasn't bothering as and other competitors he was clearly up in the timing office, we have double entered the Zed forever at tracks across the country and have our own Dorian but some how Whitties times weren't being recorded so after a couple of visits to the timing office they gave us another Dorian which we had to change after each run which is a bit inconvenient but as we have a dedicated bracket it's not a big deal. After Whitties first timed run I was in the dummy grid when he came up and said he'd just seen on the timing screen that he did a 69.1 which is sensational, we discussed it for a moment and he said he wanted to go and photograph it (probably to post here) then I was out for my run, when I returned to the pits it was time for the dinner break and Whittie told me his times had dropped of the timing board again so I went back up to timing to find out what was going on, they were able to restore some of Whitties times but not the hot lap and said what's there is all we can do for you so I thought do I blow up like its World War three or thank the volunteer timers for their efforts under trying conditions, I thanked them for their efforts and left knowing that there is a lot more in the car than will appear on the time sheets today. John Fowler came out to support us and following Whitties run checked tyre temps and pressure and lowered pressures for us he also said with all the caster we have we need to reduce the camber because the inside of the tyre is now working too hard, this track side assistance is fantastic and gives us confidence that there is a lot more in the car. At the end of the day Whittie won the class and set a new class track record with an official time of 70.450 beating the old mark of 70.565, over the course of the day we had a lot of people admire and photograph the car which was great, at the trophy presentation the MC (Mike Grogan) said about Whittie that he first met him as a 15 year old school boy and had seen him as a regular competitor over many years before he dropped off the scene but it's great to see him back with a spectacular looking car, Whittie accepted his trophy and said he's been away for four years doing the rebuild and special thanks to The Old Man because without his input we wouldn't be here now, as we were leaving Tony Flood a long time competitor and previous series winner who rallied Datsun 1600s in his youth and now builds and maintains not only his own cars but many class winning customer cars stopped us at the door and said I didn't recognize the car but the numberplate was familiar, congratulations on a sensational rebuild the car not only looks good but performs well, well done. The things that have kept me going through the re-build process have been the goals of producing a show quality class winning car and achieving that first time out with the accolades of our peers is beyond expectation. I must be in heaven. Cheers Dad

HI all I've been preparing for the Speed Event tomorrow and have re-fitted the 16" Rotas on the front, while the stock 14" are conservative and great for the commute, the 16" Rotas are Tuff and eye catching. A bit more protective film and re-fit the film protected mud flap. And now for a little teaser, we are out to set a new Speed Event Series class 3D Wanneroo Long Circuit lap record which currently stands at @70.565 and is held by a 260Z. Kicks or Kisses, tomorrow will tell. Cheers Dad

Hi 77260Z Thanks for your interest in our re-build. These are sensational little cars with a great body shape and an admirable sporting pedigree and although frowned on in some quarters as being Japanese they are increasingly being recognized as genuine classic cars so from here on I can only see them going up in value. The trim on the other hand is fashion and that comes and goes, when these cars were new chrome was in fashion but that changed, black or no hi-lites became the fashion but now chrome appears to be making a bit of a comeback. I really like the body color/black combo stealth look that we've achieved but if in future fashions change or Whittie decides to return the car to a more factory look, gunwash will do it in almost no time so if you want to go for the black look then do it just make sure you don't damage the underlying trim by sanding or preparing it in any way other than with something like gunwash. Cheers Dad

Hi 77260Z It's all gloss black powder coat much harder wearing than paint, the powder coater was reluctant to do the locks because of small springs in the mechanism so I said let's just give it a go at my risk and it worked a treat, the plastic light surrounds had to be painted because they would melt in the oven. Here's some before and after of what we did. Cheers Dad

Hi All The wheel alignment went well we now have the extra caster I was after and John's "Wanneroo set up" which is a touch extra neg camber on the left to allow for the clockwise circuit. The scrutineer wasn't available yesterday so I took the car in this morning and it flew through as expected although because I haven't done this for so long I had completely forgotten stickers like battery and tow but there on now. I've been driving round with the stock wheels on and must say that as everything on the car is now muscle assisted the hard tyres certainly make it easier to drive but the aggressive look and feel are gone and it doesn't attract as much attention which I guess is a good thing. Here it looks like a well maintained (almost) stockie. Bring on Saturday. Cheers Dad

Hi All After a four year hiatus we have both renewed our Cams licenses and entered our first competition event which is round one of the local Speed Event Series next Saturday so there's still a bit of pressure to get the car right but it's good pressure. Here's a link to the SES http://thenewspeedeventseries.lsdlconnect.net/documents/ At 9.30 tomorrow morning John Fowler will give us the extra 1 degree of caster that I asked for last time but he wouldn't do until he saw the car with guards on so he knows there is sufficient wheel clearance then it's off to scrutineering, the Guy I'm taking it too has done the car lots of times so it will be interesting to see his reaction to it now. Did a bit more on the film today and will continue with it during the week as time allows, when I was researching this stuff the high priced people told me you can't just attack it with a Stanley knife and scissors, it must be computer cut but another guy said that a Stanley knife and scissors work perfectly well so as there's no computer pattern available for these cars, that's what I'm using, when the backing is on you can see that it's not perfect but when it's applied it becomes virtually invisible. The front two guard vents are exposed to stone damage from inside so get the film. Cheers Dad

Hi George I'm not sure they have a name they're stock 260Z mags. Cheers Dad

Hi PB and All Thanks for the feedback. The latest polish took about three hours but it was the worst wheel and I did a couple of things twice so I'm thinking the rest won't take quite as long. When we did them first time round as Whittie said they took ~ 20 hours a piece because they were quite badly pitted and required substantial sanding before any polishing could begin, we were new Zed owners at the time so our enthusiasm was high but I'm not sure I'd do it again I think I'd rather but some good used ones that don't need as much work. This is what we used. Cheers Dad

Hi All Our next event is 22 Feb and I need to have another wheel alignment done to add more caster but I don't want to drive round town on sticky race tyres so collected the old stockies from Whittie the other day, the last time I tidied them up was ten years ago so they're not looking as sharp as I want them to. The car was delivered new in England meaning that the stockies have done time on English roads so were quite degraded when we got them but with enough determination, man hours and material they came up quite well. Fast forward ten years and this is how they look. This is the worst. I figured that because I clear coated them it would be a simple enough job to touch up the black then wipe the clear off with gunwash, give the alloy a quick hand polish then reapply the clear, job done, after all Murphy's nowhere to be seen so first up is a quick wash to remove brake dust then give them a round with my favorite KIWI. I masked the tyre and cut loose with the gloss black. So far so good now for a quick wipe with Gunwash a quick hand polish and we're done, enter Murphy, after ten years the clear has well and truly cured and took significant effort to remove then the alloy didn't want to know about hand polishing, suddenly it was a major Autosol machine polish again. With the machine polish done it was time for some more gloss black followed by a Gunwash cleanup then finally a coat of clear. Here's the finished worst wheel next to the second worst. And finally a direct before and after comparison. It's really interesting that the old 14" rims fitted with balloon tyres actually have a greater rolling radius then the 16" rims fitted with low profile tyres. When I get all four done and fitted I'll post a pic. Cheers. Dad.

Hi All It's been a great day but I've been out in the sun for most of it so am now feeling completely stuffed but happy. Yes it happened again this morning, I hadn't gone more than 5ks from home when stopped at a set of lights a guy beside me in a 4x4 wound his passenger window down and said Wow nice Datsun you've got there so we chatted until the lights changed then shortly after that when I was on the freeway I noticed a 370Z catching me rather quickly, we cruised together for the next 25ks, that was really cool, two brand new Zed cars together one the latest model and the other the original. The photo shoot was a lot of fun, we went to an isolated location in a new subdivision so we could have our own space without other vehicles around, I learned a lot about pic angles and copied some of them which I will post later but first some pics of the crew and set up. Getting the angle right. Picking up stones. Long interior shot with a remote flash inside the cab. Engine bay. The pics taken today will be offered to some car mags for publication so can't be released to us until they've finished with them so here are some I took on my Brownie at about the same angle albeit without the trick lighting and computer editing. Hope I haven't bored you. Cheers Dad

Hi All Car's good to go to the shoot and I'm just a little excited, I'll take some pics of the photographer taking pics and put them up later today. I can't help myself I'm in the mood. Cheers Dad

Hi All There's nothing like a dead line to maintain motivation, the track debut was one and tomorrows photo shoot is another and it looks like DADSON are gonna make it...Just. The last bits of the car were thrown together for the engine break-in and track event so there were no door trims and the windows didn't move but that didn't matter, at least the drivers window moves now and both door cards and trim are on so it looks complete. I've taken a lot of pics of the rebuild for this thread but as I think I've mentioned previously it is actually aiding me in getting thing right like this one that probably would have gone unnoticed. I had to wait for the film on the inside of the drivers mud flap so adhere fully before I could fit it but it's on now so we're good to go for the photo shoot tomorrow, I just need to find out where it is. Cheers Dad

Hi All I've fitted plenty of decals to vehicles over time so figured this would be well within my capability, this film is amazing stuff to work with and is way easier than I was expecting, I'm loving it. When fitting decals I have used a dish washing solution as a slip agent which works perfectly well but baby shampoo is recommended for this because the film is transparent and dish washing liquid can leave a visible residue, so I dutifully followed directions and bought some baby shampoo. My first attempt was the drivers door cup, we've had to put tape on the handle because it touches the body, I soon found the limits of this material so had to adjust my thinking and go with half cover. I've trimmed the front mud flaps to fit so decided to apply film to the inside. I decided to apply film to the bottom of the guard and where the mud flap touches the guard. So finally the front flaps are on. Cheers Dad

Hi All I picked some film up today, it looks pretty unassuming. I've watched the how to vids on the net and got some tips from the supplier so decided to experiment on a mud flap. That cut out looks pretty ordinary but I will smooth the edges and the end result will be perfect. The material I'm working with currently is almost totally inflexible, it is currently in a three ply configuration with an inflexible backing sheet attached to the malleable protection film covered by another inflexible transit protection film, the how to vids show this material to be highly maneuverable so i decided to test it and found it performed way beyond my expectation so am now expecting a great result in spite of those people who told me it must be computer cut. Here the outer layers are at full stretch but the inner protection film still has more to go. Here's a how to. http://www.altapac.com/index.php/car-protection/car-protection-films Cheers Dad

Hi Zedman240® We've gone full circle on this one starting with leading edge protection much like your suggestion to almost full body protection which of course comes at significant cost then back to leading edge protection. I e-mailed a few companies and here's one reply I received, it's a classic example of CYA (cover your ass) Thanks for the image. Sorry but after carefull consideration I wouldnt apply PP film to your car. If the film needs to be removed it may peel the cars paintwork as well as its not original paintwork. (Im not willing to take the chance of film lifting paint after a period of time ) Regards, Luc Del Casale This guy was talking 5K to do the car. Anyway I've secured local supply of the film and will apply it myself to the most vulnerable areas and in a sense we've got 5K in up our sleeve for paint touch up. Cheers Dad

When I first saw this car my initial reaction was why bother, then I saw the build no with matching numbers and thought that's a very good reason to bother. This is a marathon re-build that's way beyond my capability, it won't surprise me to see it take ten years to complete and surely must be faithfully re-built to factory spec. Gav240Z made a couple of comments I fully support. Focus on one win at a time. Enjoy the journey as much as the result Please keep us informed of your progress, I look forward to following it.

Hi All In getting the car going for its track debut we simply threw the door windows in without adjusting them so that's currently a task in hand, fortunately the late 260 has plenty of adjustment so all will be good given enough time. When that's done it's time for door trims to go back on so I gave them a scrub and then a once over with KIWI, the thing to be aware of in doing this is that any polish put on will eventually come off and better it does that on a polishing cloth than clothing, this process takes longer than a wipe over with Armorall the result is the same but this lasts longer and doesn't attract dust. These pics are of the passenger side, the driver side results were more dramatic but sadly the pics didn't work. Cheers Dad

Hi All One of the final jobs left to be done is fitting new door seal rubbers as the old ones are no longer up to it so off I went to my local Clark Rubber store only to be told that they're out of stock but they have it on order and it will be in early Feb, (this is sadly an owner operated "Franchised Business" so there's non of that friendly, just a moment please Sir I'll check to see if any of our other stores have some) anyway not wanting to wait that long I went to the next Clark Rubber store and wouldn't you know it, they had it, all two meters of it which of course was a great help so I fumbled along through their stock and found something I thought might just do and asked for a cutoff that I could use to test fit, they gave me a bit that was shorter than I would have liked but anyway at least I had some and it fitted rather well so I went back and bought the amount I needed. We replaced this rubber not long after acquiring the car and have always had leaking doors but put it down to poor door fit but I'm thinking I might have stumbled onto the problem, time of course will tell. Here's the old rubber and the new with the old at the top, can you pick the difference? Look closely, there will be a test. It was only after fitting it that it looks as though this is a perfect fit. Cheers Dad

Hi All I have another deadline to keep me motivated, Whittie has a photographer mate who wants to shoot the car the weekend after next so with that in mind I let the KIWI loose on the first of the Yokis. The Aust Post courier called yesterday and look what he delivered. Very sexy but no hose connectors, a quick stop off at our local race shop and I had what I need but my wallet was considerably lighter. This will fit where the old fuse-able links and voltage regulator were I just need to fabricate a couple of brackets and decided to use rectangular ali rod so picked up an off cut from a local window fabricator, of course had to be polished. I don't mind doing the polishing thing occasionally but don't want to be doing it regularly so after doing a trial fit I lacquered it. The catch can also got the lacquer treatment. Now all that's left is to fit it. I've done a bit of research on the vinyl and found how to instructions all over the net and it doesn't look difficult, I have a friend in the printing business so she'll be getting a call first thing tomorrow. Cheers Dad

You're exactly right but who checks the thread pitch on new wheel nuts supplied with new wheels??? From now on...Me! A pic of your car will be a great help thanks. When the car was silver I always had a spray can of touch up paint handy and would spray the peppered areas regularly to keep the car looking as presentable as possible but we now want to protect it before it gets damaged. The tyre fitter who has known the car for years couldn't believe what we've done with it and after saying it's too good to put on the track said at least put some film on it and gave me vague directions of how to find the local body protection expert, so on leaving the tyre shop I drove around a bit looking for him without success and went home. Once home I made a couple of calls and found out the guy trades as Protec and does a lot of upmarket cars so I got in the shopping trolley and went to see him, I wandered into his workshop to find him fitting protection to a brand new Maserati and it was only a really close inspection that revealed it had film on it so I was impressed, he said he covered a GT3 Porker that did Targa Tas and apart from the gravel that gets thrown up by sticky tyres, the driver tested it with a few off road excursions through scrub, when the car returned to Perth the film was removed revealing unmarked paint, Ok I'm impressed, how much does it cost? What sort of car do you have? 260Z. It's not blue is it? It is actually. I saw it go by earlier and thought, wow you don't see those too often, I don't have a template for those so I will need to make one, it's not just a matter of getting the Stanley knife out you know, I need to make a template so I can use the computer cutter, I think you'll be looking at somewhere between $800 and $1400. Gulp! (reply in squeaky voice) I'll bring the car in for you to quote it. NOT!!! I think we're heading in the right direction now, I know how to apply film so tomorrow I'll contact my printer friend and see if she can supply what we need then I can attack it with the Stanley knife, even if I don't get it right first time I'm thinking I'll still be in front coz $800 should buy a lot of it. TBC Cheers Dad

Hi All I have scored four ~50% worn A050's which should last us a couple of events and will at least allow us to thoroughly evaluate them. We have over time had issues with wheel studs becoming cross threaded and I recently replaced two but the problem is still there and one nut in particular is problematic so before having the tyres fitted today I bought a few new 12mm 1.25 nuts so I could replace any damaged ones. Once the wheels were off the damaged stud was clearly visible, fortunately the tyre fitter had a die the correct size and repaired the stud, while he was fitting the tyres I went over a few other studs so that now the nuts spin up all the way by finger as they should. Here's a trap for the unwary, when Whittie bought the Rota wheels they came with a complete set of nuts as expected but that was where the trouble started because one of these things is not like the others. Wow I love driving this little car, when I was on my break-in drive I had a few admiring glances and one guy tooted as I passed, today I took the car all of ten minutes from home, I had one guy get his phone out to photograph it and on the way home a Honda in front of me slowed so I could catch up, he stuck his hand out the window and gave a big thumbs up them moved over so I could pass. After all the time I've put into the re-build it really is a nice feeling to get this reaction from random strangers, think I'll go for another drive. Cheers Dad

Hi All I've bought tyres from both St George and Telb in the past, I get the feeling St George are a reseller for Taleb because their price is a bit higher and they are both currently out of stock of the size we need, they are available from Tire Rack in the US but with the A$ where it is currently there's no advantage over buying from the local distributor who does have them. I might have stumbled onto some used A050's in our size which will at least give us the opportunity to evaluate them before parting with lots of hard earned, I'll know more tomorrow. Cheers Dad

Hi All Thanks for your comments Gareth, interesting you mention the noise because I think it sounds quite different and much better than it used to but the only change is a bit more compression, anyway I'm with you, I love it. A050's are certainly the talk of the town but with R888's available from Taleb at ~half the price of A050's it really is a no brainer for what we do but as I mentioned earlier, our size is not currently available so I'm thinking the A050's are top of the list but Whittie and I were talking to a friend at the track day and he told us he recently entered an auto test event held on a skid pan with a particularly abrasive surface, he was attempting to set a record time on 50% worn A050's but had to sit out his final round because he'd shredded them, we double enter the car so I'm not sure we can afford that tyre life but we do want to try and set some good times before Whittie leaves so we will examine all currently available options and make our decision. Cheers Dad

Hi All Oh no! just realized I haven't posted for four days, better go do some work on the Zed We're really happy with the Zed's first hit out but the rebuild's not complete yet, those with eagle eyes will have noticed the head light protectors fitted in recent pics were absent on the track day, that is because they had been removed for final detailing but didn't get back on in time so I fitted them today but first polished the area they enclose. Then polished the covers while wearing latex gloves so not to leave tell tale finger prints. Then curse and swear and make thing go where they really don't want to. I then decided it might be a good idea to fit the front mud flaps before we do too much damage to the bottom of the front guards but a trial fit showed them touching top and bottom with a massive gap in the middle, they are a far worse fit than the rear which probably has something to do with the amount of work Will put into modifying the guards, anyway what ever the reason I decided it was a job best left for another day. There's an event coming up at Wannas on Australia Day that we'd like to do but we need tyres for the new rims, we have traditionally bought Toyos from the parallel importer, Taleb Tyres in Sydney http://www.talebtyres.com.au/toyo-tyres.asp but they don't currently have our size in stock and their next delivery won't arrive for two months which is no good to us and leaves us with no alternative but to pay full retail price which really hurts, the upside to this is that with Toyos price advantage removed we will now review all the tyres available in our size. Cheers Dad

Hi Billy, It's looking like Whitties work will take him out of the country some time this year so before that happens we will be entering every local event we can, when you see us please come and say hi and yes you're most welcome to thoroughly inspect the Zed. It was Whitties dream to re-build the Zed and while I didn't discourage him I did warn him that it would run over budget which of course with our "while we're at it" attitude it has, given that it has been four years since the car was stripped, Whitties enthusiasm for the project has ebbed and flowed, when we got the car back from Will Whittie was into it as though he would have it on the track within a week but after a couple of days the other pressures in his life took precedence and he was nowhere to be seen. Knowing that it's Whittie's project, I let it sit for a while but soon realized that if I didn't put it back together it would end up as yet another unfinished project up for sale, so I started and I also started posting the progress here, the interesting thing is that the interest in the re-build thread actually motivated me to keep the momentum up so I could post more. Oh no! Surely I'm not a Hamster? No I'm not and when the test day came watching Whittie lap quicker the ever before, I had smiles and tears in equal measure. Cheers Dad