jamo240

Thankyou John....the job only took about an hour, and sorted out a problem that's plagued stereo installations on Z's forever...I glassed up the speaker mount today as well, so I will have some pics of the whole lot installed sans trimming by tomorrow afternoon. Having looked at your project post and the HUGE mods you are doing, I imagine you will be thinking of power windows and those door locks that pull themselves closed!....I sure admire your desire to create a different car altogether. Anyway, you can now route the wires nice and neatly, and you saw it first here on Auszcar!!!! Cheers Jamo

And here is the installation complete....

OK ladies....here is a photo expozay on how to put the rubber belows in your doors for speaker wiring. I fiddled around for a while to come up with a good combo, but I think this one works. The part i ended up using was the one off the 2000 Daewoo Lanos (No. 1 in the picture from the last post). THis one had the right angles and length, and I did end up fitting the body end into the area that is reinforced, but there is a 20mm hole in the reinforcement that you can slightly elongate to allow the grommet to fit. The dimension of the hole at both the body and door ends is 22 x 31mm. You have to remove the door and lower hinge to complete the job. Cheers lads Jamo

You also need to be sure the ratio of front/rear piston diameters is within the authority of the prop valve...by that I mean the prop valve does not have infinite ability to reduce the pressure to the rears to nothing, so if youre front/rear ratios are too far out by design (ie rear pistons are too big), the prop valve may not be able to reduce the pressure enough. In that case, you either need larger diameter pistons at the front, or smaller at the rear. I had the opposite problem on mine originally...when I had VS Commorodore rear calipers (36mm dia), no matter how much pressure i fed them I could not lock up the rears, so I went to VT calipers (44mm dia), and then I could. From there, i could use the prop valve to balance them up so i have the fronts locking first. Cheers Jamo

Hey men....I will be there with ma two-fifty Zed. Jamo

The other comments on here pretty much cover it...the price is reasonable for the scope of work. For the guys who don't have much experience doing up old cars....it's an expensive exercise fellas! It's actually cheaper to fix modern cars, because the parts are easy to get, and you almost always only have to fix the actual problem you're working on. Inevitably in fixing up old cars, parts are expensive, and often aren't 'ready to go' and consume more time than anticipated in the fitting process while you sort out unexpected problems etc. It's like doing up old houses compared with building a new one..it's usually cheaper to knock down the old one and build a new one Doing up old cars is expensive any way you cut it, but it's especially costly if you aren't able to do any of the work yourself, because of the many hours of labour involved and scarcity of parts. That's just how it is. So, either learn how to do it yourself, or be prepared to pay good money to have skilled tradesmen do the work for you. Pay peanuts, get monkeys....It's that simple. Cheers Jamo

Fair enough. What are you planning to put in the space where the tank used to be?

Where is the spare wheel going to go? Jamo

Hey Gents I made a visit to pick-a-part today to check out a few cable conduits to route the speaker cables through. I have included a picture for your viewing pleasure. The three parts in the picture, from left to right, come from: 1. (LHS of pic) - 2000 Daewoo Lanos sedan (front doors) 2. 1998 Daewoo Nubira sedan (rear doors) 3. (RHS of pic) - 1995 Hyundai Excel (front doors) I had originally intended to position the conduit between the two hinges, which is a peachey spot for it, except there is too much reinforcement in the door and A-pillar assemblies to go through here, given I do not want to interfere with the reinforcement (I imagine this would be a no-no from an engineering approval perspective, as the door mounting system forms part of the intrusion protection system). So, I am now fiddling with the conduit mounted at the curve at the bottom/front of the door...this area is where the reinforcement ends, and there is a small area on the A-pillar where the other end can go...I just have to get the two positions spot on so the two ends dón't foul each other when the door shuts. At this stage, conduit number 2 is looking the goods. I will post some more pics of it all in-situ when I have it done. Although the position is a bit unconventional, it does have the advantage of bringing the cables through near the bottom of the door, well away from the window mechanism, and actually quite close to where the the speaker actually is. The parts cost me $8 a pair from Imlach's in Centre Rd, Clayton. Cheers lads Jamo

OK gents...tweeter location got sorted overnight, and here are a few pics to give you an idea...it is kind aimed up and back, although the pics don't really show that depth. I am going to put the mid-range speaker down lower and forward, where they always go on Z's. I was going to mount it on the door frame and have the speaker poke through, but given how the stiff the door card has turned out with the fibreglass reinforcement, I am now considering glassing the mount into the door card, and coming up with something other than the round grill over the speaker...I will have a hunt around at pick a part and see if anything appeals! I think I will add an extra door trim clip or two in the area between the speaker and the window winder, as it needs a bit more support with the extra weight it will be carrying. Final job is to line the door skin and frame with dynamat...really improves the sound quality of the finished product. Cheers Jamo

Hey Decoy...they probably are worth about that, but I have decided to persevere with refurbishing my old ones, so will hold off buying yours for now. Cheers Jamo

No worries Mick...I am leaning toward the rear door conduit from a VT-VZ Commodore. Unless you have a contact at a OEM harness maker (like Australian Arrow), you need to go to pick-a-part, as the mainstream wreckers don't want you to ruin a harness to get them. I will do some pics and keep you posted on the one that fits best. CHeers Jamo

Why thankyou for the kind comments Dave...it's nice to have your work independently assessed!! On to other things though...with the mechanical work mostly done except for a few tidy-ups, it's time to sort out the interior. I have settled on door mounted speakers, so I have been working on grafting a Commodore cable grommet/conduit (the one that goes between the A-pillar and the door, through which the cables go), into the car. At the same time, I decided to go with tweeters as high as I can in the door panel, and mid-range speakers lower in the door. I may install a sub later if i decide it needs it. Given I decided both to cut up the door card as well as re-trim it, I decided it was a waste to buy new door trims just to cut them up, so I repaired the old one in preparation for the mods. I will mount the tweeter in the door card itself, because it is light enought to do that, but the mid-range speakers are too heavy, so I will glass up a mount to angle them up and back as far as possible. The mount will be fixed to the inner door panel, and I will put a hole in the door trim to let it poke through. I will then glass a corresponding shape in the door card which I can trim around, and finish it with a mesh panel built into the door trim, rather than the clip on 6" diameter ones that look a bit 80's these days. Here are some pics of the door card restoration. I made a jig up to clamp the card to, with the shape of the lower area built in to it. I then fitted up 3mm MDF which I then glassed in place. I prefer MDF over masonite as it tolerates water better, but can still be stapled when you re-trim it. The jig is finished in spray putty and waxed with releasing compound so that the glass resin won't stick. CHeers, Jamo

Hey decoy That's right about where i want to put my speaker (and tweeters up a bit higher), so those trims would work. What are you after for them (both sides I assume). Also, I have some that don't have the holes for speakers, so a trade might be a possibility too if you're interested. Cheers Jamo

Dave I've got a tool to do bubble or inverted flares. Let me know if you want to borrow it. Cheers Jamo

Good to hear it's coming along John. I don't see a problem running the cross flow BA setup, and it will cool your engine no problem. Only issues to consider are packaging the mounting system, and the overflow bottle and coolant fill points. As you know, the original car did not have these, and you have to have them for the modern systems. Also, make sure you have considered how to bleed the air out of the system when you fill. Either the fill point has to be the high point, but if not, then you have to be able to bleed the air out of the system at the high points. In the case of my RB installation, I kept a bleed point above the cooling jacket in the inlet manifold to let the air out.. Finally, if the bleed point in the engine is higher than the fill neck of the radiator of overflow bottle, then you will need a stand pipe to provide a head of coolant to fill ensure there are no air pockets. Cheers Jamo

Hey d3cOy...that could work. Do you have any pics? How much do you want for them. Cheers Jamo

Hey Fellas I am getting ready to retrim the Zedder, and am contemplating what to do with the door trims. I intend to retrim them, and while the LH one is good, the RH one is a bit shabby. Soooo, before I start rebuilding the panel in fibreglass, does anyone have a donor trim suited to retrimming, but that still has the masonite card in reasonable condition?? Probably a long shot, but worth asking! Cheers Jamo

Good to hear you've got it sorted out Roady, but a shame we never figured out exactly what was at fault. Never mind, it's working now so happy days. Jamo

Yes indeed John, there is certainly a place for original cars. I too have kept my original bore, original numbers-matching L24 engine for the same reason. But I find the car a much more enjoyable thing to drive with a few improvements, as well as the fun of planning, researching and executing the modifications. Cheers Jamo

Agree John, but having run two L-series in my Z (N/A and turbo), both of which went great, and now running an RB, I feel qualified to answer the question. I don't run the L-series because it's a clunker. The RB drivetrain is so much better (performance, refinement, fuel consumption, breathing etc etc etc) than the L-series it's hard to compare. The L-series was a great thing for it's day, and if you want to keep your car original, obviously it's the only way to go, but comparing it with 20+ year younger drivelines is the mutton vs lamb thing. Cheers Jamo

sounds like you're well on the way John, but I can advise I am very happy with how the subaru rack worked out with the Nissan R33 skyline pump. It has a very nice weighting to it, and is noiseless. Cheers Jamo

Hi SanGK You can get used engine harnesses for RB25Det's on ebay. Just make sure you get one for the right series of engine you are using (Series 1, 2 or NEO). Your auto electrician should be able to do the adaptation into the car if they're prepared to nut it out. It is not a particularly difficult engine to graft into a Z car. Cheers Jamo

This is like a Datsun version of World Wrestling Federation! Go boys...the more trash talking the better! As for improving the Z so it can beat the R33....you're contemplating spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to try (invane) to save $500?? Might be better to hand over the cash and head down the pub to spend it! Jamo

Hey Dave...good to see you are getting through the issues one by one...it's a bit of a tough project period when you are sorting out rattles and squeaks! Keep it up mate. Cheers Jamo