She's Back!!!
 

Well, "Marilyn" got me there and back again just fine, thank you!
I left April 6th and got back last night (May 7th) on a proposed 7 week roadtrip. She carried me from Arizona to Florida and then up the Eastern seaboard to Montreal, Canada and finally across the midwest and the Rockies and back home to Arizona again. It ended a bit soon due to a family emergency, but all in all it was a blast.
Here is a pic of my total miles and trip miles shot as I parked "Marilyn" in the garage last night. http://images2.fotki.com/v2/photos/1...ipmiles-vi.jpg Flawless performance all the way. Lots of bad weather and abismal road conditions and she never whimpered once. The Eibachs may turn out to be the best mod (After the clear bra!) she has ever recieved. The ride was just excellent. BTW, I had bad tire feathering @ 4,000 miles on the OEM Bridgestone's, but I now have over 11,000 miles on the new wheel/tire combo (Privat/Fahren and Nitto 555 Extreme) and no tire feathering! In fact, they look like new after this run of 8,756 miles of sustained high speed hiway usage. Thanks, Todd!
The only "iffy" time came when the auto shutoff on the gas hose failed while I was inside the station getting water for the windshield wash buckets in Moriarity, NM. A near disaster for all involved as 38 gallons of gas gushed out and splashed on one hot exhaust tip and flodded the fuel island! I won't bore you with the ensuing details, but simply say it was wild for awhile!
In nearly 9,000 miles, I saw only 2 other Z's on the open road and only 2 other Z's in towns along the way (other than the owners I arranged to meet with.) I tried to locate a 1/4 mile track at every place I stayed and I managed to run her several times and the people are fascinated with the 350 ("Marilyn") everywhere I took her. Still a pretty exclusive automobile across the US. I had a CB radio w/me and the truckers were/are big fans of "Marilyn" and couldn't stop calling me and wanting to talk about the 350. Interesting side note: Every motel manager allowed me to park her in the guest sign in area (read: covered and well lit!) and often it was their suggestion, not mine!
I met some great people along the way and even garnered a grand prize trophy while attending a great meet and run with the northeast group up in Plaistow, New Hampshire.
Trying to put some pix and words together to frame this great experience and will post later. Regards, Jim

Sounds like you had a memorable journey. I'd love to see those pics!

Hi Jim, great to hear that you had a safe trip. I really enjoyed meeting you and "Marilyn". I'm kind of suprised about your tire results with the Eibachs. There's no excessive wear on the inside of the tires at all? I'm thinking about putting them on my car when I get the new wheels, but I was concerned about the neg. camber and not being able to adjust it back to normal. Anyways, thanks for meeting me and taking some beautiful pics of my car.

I like it, a man not afraid to drive his Z, that's what it's built for!

Sounds like a trip you could write a book about, very envious, sounded like fun.

JIM, a very important question for you regarding the feathering.

was the wheels/tires the ONLY thing you changed since you had the feathering or did you have any align work done (In other words do you feel like that was THE FIX???)

I think I need to start looking for feathering, 2525 miles in less than 3 weeks, I should probably see it soon? That's with one autocross on the tires as well....

Feathering
 

Rod, I did these 4 things, all at the same time:
1) Changed from stock 17's to 18" wheels
2) Changed from OEM (Bridgestone) to Nitto 555 Extreme's (240fr and 275 rears)
3) Installed Eibach springs
4) 4 wheel alignment
It would have been nice to do one change at a time and evaluate each change, but we needed to do a photoshoot with "Marilyn" right away with all in place and so I cannot say which change did what and that is a little frustrating.
To more directly answer your ? I feel the Eibach's were the biggest help in regard to the feathering issue, followed closely by the Nitto's harder compound. The alignment made changes as well, but this is my estimate of the order of things that stopped (?) my feathering. Regards, Jim

Scott
 

Scott, Great to hear from you. See my reply to Rod, re: feathering.
I really appreciated your time and help to setup and shoot your car and the boss' Viper. The nice weather that day was about the last of the good wx. for many days for me after I left Florida so I was very happy we got your ride in.
I would not hesitate for a minute to go w/Eibachs. The ride improvement alone is reason enough, but then toss in the cornering improvements and better control/mating with the oem shocks that have resulted in killing the feathering issue (for me so far) and it is a no brainer. Don't forget that it looks soooo nice w/that subtle drop too! Regards, Jim

I bet it was the Eibach springs,

Sounds like you had a great trip! Nice to see you are getting some great use out of the car!

I am in Tucson, AZ, and I cant find any one to do a 4 wheel alignment, only a 2 wheel alignment. The dealers cant handle a 4 wheel alignment for some reason!

I know that sounds very strange, but do you have any advice, I would be willing to drive to PHX if need be..haha.

Eric

Eric
 

Eric, Give Network Alignment a try. I'm not sure if they are in Tucson or not, but there are several here in the valley and they did my alignment. Also, if you can wait 30 days, there is a brand new Nissan dealership opening up here and they have already told me they will be able to handle the Z completely. Regards, Jim

Re: Feathering
 

dang, I don't want to lower it, so I might be out of luck.

was yours an early or late VIN/build date????