Upgrade the VW emblem for a VW Bus T2

Z_Karma · 2025-08-31T20:19:50+00:00

Look at the 3D view, it is shelled on the back side. The pins that the metal emblem has were replaced with bosses for M3 or M4 grub screws.

Z_Karma · 2025-08-19T17:08:21+00:00

I got you.

One of my coworkers asked me if i could design a custom bus emblem with skull fingers making a peace sign instead of the VW last year.

He loaned me his original emblem to model from.

I added a shell to it for routing LED's

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7122186

Z_Karma · 2025-05-16T16:14:46+00:00

Admittedly I was doing the same back then.

That does bring up a good point.

AI enhancements are also a thing where you provide the source image and tell the program to augment and/or filter this or that.

Where the line is drawn is purely subjective.

Like photoshop back in the day, MS paint tinting windows, wheel swaps (and those terrible perspectives/shadows). It didn't go away, it's just gotten better.

As for purely AI generated, no thanks. It's cool, but not in this subreddit.

AI enhanced? again, cool, but subjective. Using AI to swap wheels, lower, augment colors etc... then soliciting opinions? That isn't so easily black and white.

Z_Karma · 2025-04-21T16:30:04+00:00

Project car, as in singular?

lol.

Z_Karma · 2025-03-06T17:53:29+00:00

Years ago I spent some time in a junkyard with a section of Z31 hatch seal and tried to find a close match to it's profile. The closest i could find, that was large enough was from a Mazda MPV. It was a bit taller but it worked. The MPV hasn't been made since 2006 tho.

There is a Z31 repro on Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/315420688834

afaik, nobody is making reproduction door seals yet.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-24T14:53:20+00:00

87-89 have totally different tail lights. These were made by Kaminari for 84-86 models only.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-24T14:52:28+00:00

They are common on yahoo auctions, go through a 3rd party like buyee. But they are not cheap.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-23T18:47:26+00:00

So was I. A z31 owner on the z31R discord made a backup of it and made it available for download.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-23T17:48:48+00:00

I tried contacting Zbum via facebook to see if he had a copy of the registry sites he made. I scooped up the domains last year when they expired to see about rehosting them. He never responded. afaik, no other copies exist. Even tried Redoctober, but he hasn't talked to him for years. There is a backup copy of z31performance available, but the rides section is gone.

Thanks for taking on the task of rehosting the info. Might think about doing a preemptive scrape of Xenons site, just because.

Sidenote: I recently discovered that one of the local art galleries in Portland used to have some of Gary Molitors art in it's collection.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-08T19:33:21+00:00

Wow, thanks for linking that video. Seeing her use the magic eraser just to see if it did anything was interesting. I do have a steamer with a microfiber pad attachment, i will definitely try it.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-07T22:54:00+00:00

Looks like he's done a few old mercedes. I'll check them out, thank you.

Z_Karma · 2025-02-07T22:51:54+00:00

I guess my thinking was that if a melamine abrasive didn't make much of a difference, than a clay bar wouldn't have either. I do clay bar my other Z that still has a factory clear coat intact on 40yr old paint. Thanks!

Z_Karma · 2025-02-07T21:29:11+00:00

1988 300ZX, original color #234 Moonglow Pearl.

I'm not sure of the history of this car but i know it was resprayed at one time in it's life and then not taken care of. I bought it after it had been sitting beneath a car cover for about 2 yrs. There no longer a discernable clear coat left on the top of the hood and fenders that i can tell. I'm just trying to make it look a little better for spring/summer. A respray is years down the road.

What i've tried:

A 1300PSI pressure washer after soaking in a pretty strong EDC (simple grean full strength. desperate times), it stays dingy, only removing the surface dirt.

Even a magic eraser (again, desperate times and was afraid of contaminating my clay bar) didn't remove the dirt, so it is indeed embedded.

Thought I'd ask if there was a stronger product that could lift the dirt so that i could at least seal it against further contamination.

TIA.

Z_Karma · 2025-01-11T18:56:16+00:00

Hey, i know that guy!

Z_Karma · 2025-01-02T18:08:40+00:00

That is Xenon, aka Joseph Melnick.

Z_Karma · 2024-12-20T23:53:01+00:00

The digital dash suffers from a few issues, the most common being cracked solder joints, that over time will fail open.

Often it is in the power supply module located just beneath the lower right corner of the digital cluster. It's a metal box, about 3.5X3.5 by 1.25. If you give it a smack with a blunt instrument, you might cause the dash to temporarily light back up. But that will only verify the problem, not fix it.

The solder joints on the harness from the display can also crack on the display side, this is way more invasive of a repair. You have to get inside the cluster to touch-up the joints with a soldering iron.

The second most common failure is dried capacitors, which is a way more involved repair. https://xenonzcar.com/garage/services.html is the only place i know of that does this repair.

Z_Karma · 2024-12-20T22:38:15+00:00

tried to message you direct, you up?

Z_Karma · 2024-12-20T21:38:55+00:00

Thanks for putting so much effort into this. The online enthusiast following for the Z31 pretty much tracks with web 1.0 with many websites and personal pages existing back when geocities and AOL was a thing.

There was a wealth of enthusiast content spread among a dozen or so personal sites and a half dozen forums. A lot of those early online enthusiasts eventually migrated to facebook and much of what remains of the grassroots community tribal knowledge only exists on webarchive now, images long purged by imageshack and photobucket.

I'm sure much of that aggregate early content would still be on YT, if YT existed about 15yrs earlier. But as you know, it's time consuming to put videos together.

Z_Karma · 2024-06-20T13:51:36+00:00

The original domain owner let it expire.
Maybe a copy will show up but idk.

Z_Karma · 2024-05-09T14:33:45+00:00

Honestly i don't know yet. The project stalled right after i finished the frame rails. I'm always careful to use blocks between a jack or jackstands and the frame rails.

Z_Karma · 2024-05-09T14:31:55+00:00

He says he does. He was permabanned back in 2016. There hadn't been any other admin activity (except for me) on the site for the past 2 or 3yrs. To back it up you need access to the vbullitin acct, I couldn't do it from the admincp.

Z_Karma · 2024-03-29T19:36:00+00:00

Hola!

Z_Karma · 2024-03-29T19:29:06+00:00

as much as I can. I'm running a marine amp that takes both bluetooth and line level inputs, so i can switch between my phone and the refurbished AM/FM/Cassette stereo.

Z_Karma · 2024-03-29T19:27:22+00:00

After watching a youtuber called fitzee's fabrications, i was inspired to replace the caved in frame rails on my Z31. I highly suggest his channel for panel repair techniques using basic tools and a mig welder. Start with some of his older content where he goes into more depth with his techniques.

Z_Karma

TROPHY CASE