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Hi everybody, long time for updates. Been quite busy with kids and a very nasty divorce going on. The good news is my garage and cars are still intact and I am still making progress, although very slowly. Car is very close to track testing. I decided to have a new pair of steering arms machined to match the front geometry. I will post more when they are finished. In the interim, I took the time to catch up on some side projects I wanted to do. With the advancement of AI, some of the projects I considered impossible a couple years ago have turned out to be quite easy now and very inexpensive. Based on Arduino technology, I have integrated a motion sensor into my data acquisition system. I use a Race Technology DL1 Club box which is limited to 8 analog sensor inputs, but can decode an almost unlimited amount of CAN signals. So I built a circuit that decodes the motion sensor and outputs a CAN signal. I now have 3-axis roll, pitch, and yaw angles along with speeds and acceleration live data. It will all be packaged in a small box that mounts in the car. Next is a infrared tire temperature monitor. A 16x4 temperature array sensor once again combined with Arduino and CAN output board. I am trying to package this as small as possible so it can be mounted on brackets roughly 4" above the tire. Again real time data of inner, middle, and outer tire temps while driving. Hopefully saves a lot of time when dialing in the camber and pressures. More to come...........

Trickflows are a great choice. I have a turbo 351 so not a direct comparison but when I switched from GT40s to 11r 190s it made a massive difference. Unrelated to the engine. I weighed my stock 280z door today. Its gutted so I can paint them. so no glass, regulator, handle, lock, hardware, window frame ext. just a empty door shell. 34lbs.

Thanks. Interior is gonna be, black carpet in the front half. (unsure on door panels based off what will fit) Rear half will be a combination of the semi gloss charcoal grey that the cage is and some black with the raw aluminum bead rolled panels around the cell. May carpet the wheel tubs for a more "finished" look. The color goes real well with gray/black.

Long week number like 200 but happy with the my progress. Made a tweak to a color based off a cadillac cts5 v blackwing. Its a bit more "copper" tone of orange than I was picturing with the modifications but I am very happy with it. As soon as I started pulling the masked off areas and was seeing the contrast with the grey I loved it. Did get some fisheye on one door so I'll have to fix and respray that at some point and a couple sags/runs in the clear to sand out, but I can make some serious progress on the build now. did get the engine stripped down as well. Bearings, rings, valve springs and a gasket kit have been ordered to freshen it up. but otherwise everything measured out good and seems like a good starting point.

spend tons of time last week doing body work. I am TIRED of sanding. Saturday got the whole car in epoxy. Spent 13hr sunday, and 5 hours monday, block sanding and some final little body work touches. Weather got cold for some reason so taking the next couple days to dial in the last of the little details and hopefully later in the week get some color on this thing. I thought i had a good size garage until I need to hang 16 things from the ceiling for painting. A friend let me park my truck at his house. My 240 i just keep moving in and out of the garage. and have the dailies living outside in the driveway during this process.

Back out in the garage this past weekend. I made some progress sectioning in one of the repair panels: I used the new drill press and a hole saw to cut the drain hole in the replacement section. It is a tiny bit undersize, so I will use a die grinder to open it up the last bit to get to the correct diameter. I also used the "shrinker" die that I got from Mittler Bros back before the holidays They were running a Black Friday special. I also used the sheet metal brake I got from them at the same time. I am pleased to be getting some use out of these new tools. I should be able to finish welding this repair section into the right side floor soon. After welding and grinding down the welds, I will be doing some shrinking with an oxy acetylene torch to get the floor panel flat and eliminate any "oil canning".

Axles finally came in. Didn’t have much time this weekend, but cleaned the top of the motor and bolt holes and got one head installed.

Fastest s30 IRS timeslip is now 8.38@163.9 mph in the 1/4 mile. Shown are Terrys previous 8.42 timeslips in the same car from different days. https://youtube.com/shorts/KBKmwaQPq6M?si=9UDUJY_FMOOc9f4o

Hello hybrid z, its been so many years since this thread. Im now 46 years old. After reading through my build thread it brought back so many memories. I still have the car (I'm never selling it) it has seen some upgrades through the years gtx3582r turbo, injectors, standalone..etc. the car is still running like a champ and I have never been inside the engine all stock factory toyota. What's most amazing is how reliable the car has been...I think the only major problem i had is when the stock ecu went out.. Things I would like to do in the future are, totally new wiring throughout the whole car, all new fuel system and lines, stainless exhaust system, new dash and seats, new rear suspension setup.( i did the front a few years ago). Reflecting on this build also brings to light how expensive everything is now...in 2008 I paid $2000 for a 1jzgte and r154 trans...today that would cost 6k or more...my z was only $600 running and driving..now, that is about 4k or 2k for a z with trees growing through it... any kind of build like this now us easily 10-15k from the jump.. and thats not counting what you have to upgrade and replace because the car is 50 years old..lol It was and still is a awesome journey! Currently projects (nothing ever changes😊) 84 chevy c10 super charged 4.8 ls engine swap....should be done soon... 84 rx7, s5 roatry engine, ida weber, wide body, 10x17 all four corners😉...

Been a long week but got everything completely stripped and got some epoxy primer layed down on all the metal surfaces. have plenty of body work to do but atleast its sealed and protected now. Hopefully in the next week or two i can get the bodywork done and get some color on it. I did talk to john and his comment is "I don’t claim to be an expert on bonding. But in my experience cracking at a bond line is often due to inadequate surface prep both the underside of the fiberglass and the underlying metal), poor bonding agent, not enough bonding agent, cheap body filler, and/or excessive flexing of the unibody. On the other hand, I know a lot of guys who do the bolt-on installation. For performance applications, it can be an advantage for working inside the wheel well". With that said I think I will spend the time to make the fitment as good as possible and make a last minute decision based on how well it fits/looks.

Always an inspiration Mark! A lot of what you do is well out of my abilities, but seeing your project still being refined after so many years keeps me motivated on mine.

That has got to be the best balance of Form and Function of a Datsun that i have EVER Seen!! Absolutely amazing!!

if anyone's still tracking this build I have what might be a last update since the car is mostly done (lol is it ever done?). I finally cad-designed the front fenders and then had a local shop 3D print the parts, then took that to a bodyshop to integrate into the existing fender part and paint it. After that I overlayed the inside walls of it with carbon fiber for added stiffness and protection. I also cut the lower part of the rear fenders and put in a horizontal cf winglet to better extract air. Overall I think it looks great and the resulting new parts helps downforce a ton by extracting air from the wheel wells.