310Z

There are company that will reskin dashes. I do not remember the names but I have known friends with classics that have had to go that route.

Yesterday I had to make a run to an out of area doctors appointment and wanted to take the LGT as I wanted to get a price estimate to tint the windows and take the SSR wheels in case I could find the summer tires I want in stock. However it was going to rain and the car is clean. So I put the car cover on the LGT and drove the Tundra. The summer tires I was looking at were not in stock so I am looking at ordering those. I did get a price estimate for a variety of window tint products not including the front row windows as I am in CA. The prices ranged from $220 to $520 depending on the product not the % of tint. There was a example of the different products with a heat lamp demonstrating how much heat transfer difference there is between the products. The most expensive 3M product blocked almost all the heat transfer, I was impressed. The medium grade product allowed about 50% heat transfer than the 3M product and the lowest cost appeared to block no heat. I really like the brightness inside the car with no tint but some of your cars look soooo good with the dark window tint that I want to go with that look. So my question to the group is what percentage of tint to go with. I need to be able to identify Law enforcement out the rear view mirror so I assume less tint on the rear window? I also want to be able to see well out the side windows. Or should one go with a lighter tint on all windows so they have the same % all the way around. Any input would be appreciated. The car is black. My thought is going for the high end 3M product in a medium to light tint. Where I live I have seen outside temps of -22 to 122 degrees and I am a little afraid of having a black car and the green house effect of all the glass.

On the dash topic, It appears mine was replaced under a recall for Air bags but I am not sure. Is that something that was done with the air bag recall? The dash had areas that looked dull and not like the rest of the dash. I applied 303 and that made it look uniform. Until the next day and the dull spots appeared again. So I kept applying 303 everyday until the dullness stopped showing up. I think for me it was five days. The leather also had some dull dry looking areas so I kept applying leather conditioner until it kept a uniform look. That was in October as I just got the car and was bringing it back to its new car luster. Three months later and the dash and leather look good.

It was so nice today I left the cover on the LGT and broke out the Z as it reached an unseasonable 59 degrees in January allowing the R compound tires to be warm enough to have some grip. As I returned home and came screaming up the driveway my wife came out and said take me for a joy ride (very un-like my wife) she hates my Z and having to wear harness. So I said OK, and for the first time she buckled up the harness straps by herself. We rolled down the windows and drove. Then we took the cover off the pool and went for a swim then laid in the sun to dry off and gain some needed Vit D.

Wednesday I hoped in the LGT to deliver some late arrival Christmas stuff to my son and one of his room mates at college. About 400 mile round trip. It was lightly raining when I left that turned to snow on the roads in about 20 miles at higher elevations although the temps were warmer 36-42 but the roads were frozen. Slightly lower elevations the roads were wet with temps at 32-36. On the way home the roads no longer had ice on them. Thursday the sun was out and had 45 degrees so I washed the car an put a cover on it. As for the suspension talk above I can say having the ultra cool low hard suspension is great on a track or possibly somewhere were the public roads are great and I do not know were that is. But for a road driven car compliant suspension with larger sway bars makes for a great handling road car that does not brake your wheels and kidneys. My struts and springs are stock but I added Whiteline 22mm front sway bar and 20 mm rear. The car rides like stock (comfortable) but corners dramatically better. It no longer dips and sway with turn in and when finishing a corner. It holds a line with little body roll. Just my $0.02

That looks just like a heating element that I installed on my Toyota Hi-Lux about 30 years ago running 10w-30. As I recall I used hi temp silicone to attach to the bottom of the oil pan. It helped when the temps dropped below (0). The motor would crank over easier. What even made a bigger difference was the addition of Slick 50 to the motor and manual transmission. There were times I could not move the shift lever to change gears. Slick 50 changed all of that. It is hard to even find Slick 50 anymore, it is available but I have only seen it on line. However, oils have changed. I know we all have our own preferences with oil brands and weights and not all oils are the same. Even oils that meet the same viscosity have different flow rates when cold. The test I have seen using easy to find oils that are available on the shelf show a drastic flow rate difference even with 0w-20 oils. And the best flowing oil I have seen tested is Mobil-1. I have not seen any off the shelf oil flow as well in the cold as Mobil-1, it's not even close. So my 2010 Supercharged Tundra 4x4 that has spent it's entire life outside gets what flows the best in the cold and that is Mobil-1, 0w-20 as called for. My GT is getting Mobil-1 5w-30. I am not trying to start an oil argument just helping inform those having extreme cold motor cranking over problems.

Today, I think I spent my final day at the DMV finalizing my LGT purchase with proper title (post the death of one of the owners on the title) to make the bi-state transfer. The process started in October. I have made one over night trip back to Oregon to deal with their DMV with the previous owner and I received a title in my name today. Then I went straight to the CA DMV. Legal issues with titles can be an issue. CA has the option of owner 1 and/or owner 2. Either named person can sell the vehicle. Oregon does not have and/or although allows both names on the title. So in Oregon both signatures need to be present to sell a vehicle. So when one of the people dies that needs to sign the title you end up where I have been for months. A family trust can eliminate this type of issue. I highly recommend a family trust if you can trust your family as your family members get older. A family trust allows other named on the trust to deal with financial/legal issues. Then I got a new set of wiper blades and installed them along with the new license plate.

Looks good. More photo angles please. How did you get the hole below your mirror?

Take a break! Then create a priority list. Safety first, reliability second, wants third. Don't give up and be glad when you finish one task. Then take another break before taking on the next project. Eventually you will be proud of the work you have accomplished and how much money you saved.

A 215-45-18 is a 25.6 inch diameter tire with an 8.3 inch section width. That tire will gear up the final drive decreasing acceleration and over all performance as the stock tire diameter is 24.7 inch. I would recommend a 225-40-18 as that tire diameter is 25.1 inch with a section width of 9 inch as that is closer to the stock diameter thus keeping the final drive closer to stock. Just my $0.02

Congratulations on extending your family. My son and his girl friend go to different colleges in different states about 400 miles apart but that is a short weekend commute when you are young. Hopefully they will finish college. My daughter turns 18 next week, senior in high school, smart, wooped on all the boys growing up playing soccer and they are all afraid of her, or me. As for the cars, sorry that sucks. That was a beautiful car and to have two damaged at once. It is one thing to have a modern/replaceable vehicle damaged and you can just go get another one. But when they are not replaceable that is another story. I am always paranoid when my Z comes out of the garage and to a somewhat a lesser point the LGT. I bought the LGT to be a daily but now I know what I really have and I want to have garage space for it but a car cover is going to have to do for now and we live on property so there is no traffic on my driveway.

Speaking of wheels, I got my SSRs GT-7 done. They came out better than I was expecting. I don't think I will be installing them until spring.

You did not mention the size and off set of the Sparco? What is your goal with tires?

I really liked what Ashtone did with the useless cubby to make it useful. I have never had my phone up where I could see it while driving and as Ashtone said He did not want it to obscure the view or the temp/clock. I did not have the same products either but I found the same phone mount. Then I walked around a Walmart and looked for something similar that would work that I could adapt to my needs. What I found was a Walmart brand yoga block that I thought would work. I had done some custom work on a motor cycle seat years ago so I had some ideas to go about changing the block into the size I needed. I took some rough measurements and used a electric kitchen knife to cut the block down to size. Then an electric vibrating sander (not circular) with 60 grit sand paper and then finished off with 220 grit sand paper. I did not think the adhesive on the phone holder would stick to the dense foam but it did. The block fits snugly and can slide out if needed. I just returned from a eight hour drive and this set up worked well. Thanks for the great idea Ashtone.

Did you look at the old spindles and compare them to the new ones? If there is a difference in the spindles, measure to see if there is 0.5 in.

Yesterday I purchased a set of era specific SSR GT-7s. They are 17x7.5 - 50 offset. They came with 14 year old 225-45-17 tires and that was good for sizing. The wheels have little use but there is light sun damage. I only put them on one side to see how they looked on the car and took these photos. All the wheels have the original stickers on the inner wheel. I like the look and color combination. I also like the tire size as it fills out the wheel well better. The bad news is that when I was cleaning them up in good lighting I found a crack on an inner bead of one. It is repairable but I wish I would have seen it when making the purchase. I will also want to attempt to clean up and respray the wheels.

Everything in this world comes and goes, wealth, fame, ETC. When you are stripped of everything the only thing you really have is your word.

Yes that is the clip-on brass fitting and hose from Fumoto. However, on my LGT I had to brake out a file and file one side of the drain valve a little and the cross member in order to get it to thread into place.

Yesterday, I changed the oil using the new Fumoto quick drain valve for the first time. This appears to be a nice addition and if the outside high temperatures for the day was beyond 37 degrees the new drain tube might not want to curl up as it was packaged and drain oil everywhere except the drain pan. I will have to work with the drain tube and get it straightened prior to my next oil change. I have been helping out a family friend's daughters take care of their vehicles. One is a 2010 Legacy wagon and while home from college we try to catch up on maintenance so we bled the brakes on her car. I would guess that was the first time that had been done in 13 years. Then my son changed the oil in the other daughters 2011 Toyota Tundra. Now it is time to send them all back to school.

Thank you! I was thinking about 17x8 -45mm offset and 225-45-17. That looks good and still usable for may needs as I will use my car year round in snow country.

Not that I did not notice the Hottie in the picture. But you did not say what diameter, width, or offset wheels you are running or the tire size. I would be interested to know.

Ok, new to reading the codes. I am assuming that the last four numbers on the Vin. are what the production number is? I am an 05 LGT, wagon, Limited, 5MT, black. Appears to be 1 of 108?

So I am just curious, no one knows who's LGT Wagons were at Sonoma race way? The owners were obviously enthuses. I took this picture of one of the cars and the other one was a black XT with personalized plates referring to the motor and transmission ( I do not want to post someones license pates on the web) and that is what I took the photo of.

I noticed the my left rear brake light was out so I replaced both the right and left bulbs. Yesterday I worked on a friends newer OutBack. I repaired a driving/fog light housing by plastic welding and stainless steel wire suturing the mounting tab back in place. The reason I was working on the car was that it had both R&L headlights out, high beams worked. She said it is the third time that she has had a headlight out in three months. This seems odd to me and both elements were broken but did not have the black look of a burned out element. I have gathered that this is a common problem with some of the headlights but no one seems to have an answer to the cause. My first thought was electrical, fuse, light switch, but that did not seem to be the issue. But this made since to me and I will try it. The parts guy I was talking to said he had a customer with the same problem and he corrected the problem by attempting to change the vibration frequency (attaching a zip-tie some how) putting pressure toward the back end of the long tube low beam housing. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on this topic?

That is a good looking wheel and a good color. The best deal I have seen on tires is on the Tire Rack. They currently have Contintal ExtremeContact DWS 06 plus in 225-40-18 for under $500 delivered. This is an ultra high performance all season tire. They currently have two rebates being offered on this tire. It is normally much more expensive. I have this tire on my car and they are great. Everyone has a different driving style and need. My son and I have pushed the heck out of these tires on dry mountain roads and they just work. They are quiet and have a smooth ride. They also work good in icy conditions. My son took the LGT fishing yesterday as he knew the north side of the mountain 7000 plus elevation then dropping to 5100 ft elevation on a very steep road is always an issue this time of year. He made it in and out and there were five vehicles that went off the road. He said these tires just work amazingly, from high performance to ice. When I find a tire I like I stick with it and I will be purchasing another set of these with new wheels.. Or possibly BFG G Force Comp 2 A/S I also know they work well everywhere.