[question about grounding the coil]

I do not have 12v going to the coil. I have 5.6, and the FP runs when the coil is connected. 

 

But I do not have 12v that drops to 5.6. It is only 5.6.

[question about grounding the coil]

According to the wiring diagram on DIY Autotune, the + side of the coil connects to the fuel pump, which is why I mentioned it. So, when I complete the circuit the fuel pump kicks on.

 

In reference to your comment, I had this MS professionally installed 5 years ago. Have never had any problem out of it. I did some work on this car that had it out of commission for awhile. One of the things I did was the maxi-fuse upgrade, and while freshening up the car I found a bad connection on the ground for the coil. I had previously thought I had the coil was dying on me. So, I fixed the connection. 

 

I cut the wire under the passenger seat for the fuel pump but reconnected it after my floor work was done. 

[question about grounding the coil]

I imagine this coil is probably good. 

 

I'm only getting 5.6 volts to the positive terminal. Fuel pump will kick on when it's hooked up, 

 

Thoughts?

[question about grounding the coil]

Okay. Thanks. Could you tell me if the secondary resistance is acceptable? 

[question about grounding the coil]

I have a thin sheet of rubber wrapped around my coil, between the coil and the coil bracket. 

 

Is this a problem? Because I'm not getting spark right this second, and I think the coil is good. I've got an Accel Super Stock 8140c with 1.6 ohms on the primary and 7.05k at the secondary, which I believe is within range (definitely for the primary, pretty sure for the secondary)

 

I can't remember exactly why I put that piece of rubber in there at the moment. I think it was because I had moved the coil bracket mounting location and noticed that the bracket wasn't tight enough to clamp around the coil. I'm getting the impression that the coil should be in direct contact with the mounting bracket, grounding it to the chassis. 

[possible fuel issue]

I suppose it's possible. It's just a little weird that the OUT would be the top nipple. But, that may be what it is. I'll swap em and see what it does.

[possible fuel issue]

I just put my car back together after my budget restoration.

 

I had removed the fuel tank and painted it. When I reinstalled it, I had some difficulty finding anything to reference where the fuel tank nipples connect to, but I connected the bottom nipple to the outgoing fuel filter.

 

The fuel pump is kicking on, and there is a little gas in the bottom of the filter, but it doesn't seem to be building pressure. I replaced the rubber lines under the car and have them tightly hose-clamped into place. If it matters, my car does not have a charcoal canister under the hood. The metal fuel line that connects to the canister is sitting open.

 

The tank has ~7 gallons in it. Maybe the fuel tank doesn't have enough fuel for the pump to prime? Thoughts?

[My budget resto]

No no, didn't go too far with that. You did take that murderous rage and do something productive with it.

[My budget resto]

I wish I could've seen his face when you told him that. Did he say anything back?

 

Nice symbolism on the Captain Morgan gift. In my case, I had no interest staying in business. The boss liked my ideas before he started downplaying them. I think he found it a little insulting that I'd rather wait tables and have fun rather than go make money, even if it would've been working for someone else. I was good at what I did. It was odd to see that from a supposed greenhorn in his early 20's when the average age of everyone there was...something higher than that. I think what I enjoyed most was all of the older employees who'd been there for years working for peanuts knowing why I left.

 

But it does feel good to be able to go back and twist that knife a little bit. Part of me wishes I enjoyed the business so I could've tried to do something like what you did. Very very cool. Thanks for sharing it.

 

I read The Fountainhead. Loved it. Ironically I read while on a crappy work-class trip for that company. I have Atlas Shrugged, but I need to read it.

[My budget resto]

"Your brain is a muscle. You can work it like any other muscle."

Beware, that statement will draw the ire of those adverse to exercising their brain (see Tool Shed!)

 

 

 

Now, that sounds like he had a great manager above him, someone who realised his strengths and used him accordingly. Productive for the company, but never "fixing" him as you phrased it. Successful, but never tied down, always moving.

 

Like you said, people don't know...by shuffling him between projects at the one Employer-they just USED him, and were oblivious to the cycle of unproductivity they were perpetuating. They thought "he has limitations we will just use him where he's good" and never looked any deeper than that. Fostering his perpetual downward spiral. People that knew him then can't believe how well he's closing projects of the size he's overseeing now. It was inconceivable to them. It was in there all the time, unfortunately too few care to look into their fellow man further than their own immediate needs...

 

Well, when I said you work the brain like any other muscle...whatever you do to it has an effect whether you intend it or not. Of course no one wants to be depressed, but not doing anything can put that on you. Kinda like how if you don't move you're more apt to be a wiry dude with a gut. You can't help but get input from your environment. It's going to effect you one way or another, just a matter of whether you're conscious of it and what output you wanna get. I'm oversimplifying it a bit I think, but that's what I meant.

 

This was really encouraging to read. My boss did something similar to me before I quit. When I became aware of what was going on with me, I realized that it was impossible for him not to know something was badly wrong. As much time as I spent there (60 hrs a week minimum, and on call 24/7) it got to be a manipulative thing, using those insecurities against me to avoid pay raises and demand more productivity/hrs. When I started to get better, I got balls enough to demand more money. I started tracking how much more was coming in than previous years. I got my raise and the hours cut, then quit out of spite. One of the best things I ever did for myself. I've watched that company circle the drain ever since (it was a large plumbing contractor, but hemmoraging money bc of the economy, and the Service Dept was the only thing keeping the company afloat). It's been a year and a half and they still haven't found a replacement that lasted more than a few weeks. Nothing felt better than my last day on the job, except maybe when I pigeonholed him into not fighting the unemployment claim, or maybe it was after I left when a job that I had volunteered for (plumbing a house for a wounded veteran. He refused to let the company do it, so I had to do it on my own time with one of the techs who was a good friend) decided out of kindness to pay us each a thousand dollars. We finished the job the week after I left, and the non-profit sent us a Thank You letter addressed to the company. He called me furious, and I took great joy in telling him what I thought of him without threat of being fired.

 

 

 

This is very inspiring and a fresh look on people's health today.  I'm currently in medical school, and only in the last 2-3 years have people even acknowledged that med students get depressed.  As physicians, people like to think we are the most stable, functioning individuals on the planet.  In reality we spend 16 - 20 hours a day studying, reviewing cases, hacking through cadavers to learn anatomy, and putting up with the immense stress that comes with (a) the risk of failure to the tune of $50k/year, and ( the more experienced above you who believe putting med students down makes them tougher.

 

It's hard to go through that without it severely affected who you are.  Bottom line...if you need help guys, get help.  There is no shame in it, and we all get depressed.  The sad fact is that society today sets more people up for depression.  It's a treatable condition often perpetuated by environment.

 

Unfortunately a lot of people going through that don't know. Danny knew, eventually. And I figured it out eventually. Take this next statement with a grain of salt, but most people who are crazy have no idea they're crazy. With my friend, I can kinda relate to what you said. People think doctors can treat themselves, and that they're the picture of health. They also think doctors have it made with a somewhat fulfilling job and good pay. I frequently heard people tell Danny what a great life he had - cool job, awesome work schedule, good money, had his own house (bought it at 24 - who the heck buys a house at 24, on their own?). It made everyone less receptive to the idea that he wasn't happy, myself included, and he was well aware of that.

 

I appreciate the responses. I thought I might get a bit of flack for mentioning the whole thing. Thanks.

[My budget resto]

First off, I'm really sorry about what happened to your friend. I wouldn't even know what to do if my best friend did that.

 

Next I'd like to say that for the money, your car definitely looks good. You put a lot of time into this project and it shows. That being said, I can't believe you did most of it drunk lol

      He was a shy, 27 year old commercial airline pilot with a dark sense of humor. He loved doing Quagmire impressions over the intercom while he was flying. I'm (currently) an amateur standup comic. He was very encouraging when I decided to take a chance and quit my day job. The great thing about him is that I couldn't give anyone the picture of him that I had without it taking the 15 yrs that I knew him. I suppose that's true of anyone, but I've rarely felt that way about people.

He was responsible for a lot of good in my life.

     Suicidal depression is definitely something worth talking about and spending time on. What's sad to me is that I spent three years in a crippling black depression. Danny encouraged me when I wanted to be a writer and a comic. Expressing myself, and reading my own material eventually helped give me an idea that something was wrong. I had no idea that the way I felt was just my brain's interpretation of things around me, that it could be changed. Your brain is a muscle. You can work it like any other muscle. Might need more rest, might need physical exercise like running, might need to find a fulfilling thing to do, might need medication.

     I know this is a car forum, but maybe someone would benefit from reading this. I was very lucky to have seen my depression for what it was. As bad as I was at the time, no one else saw it. No one close to me ever said to me "something might be wrong with you that can be fixed". I just came across as a negative person, but what went on inside my head all the time was like a white noise of anxiety. It was screwing up my entire life at the time. I'm a talkative open person, and still I will say now that I was very very lucky to have gotten out of it. I don't think most people get out of that. You try to live with it, maybe because you think you'll figure it out, maybe you're afraid you'll ruin a relationship (or several) if you talk about it. My family didn't believe in mental illness, so it made it that much harder to see and deal with. But it's like an animal. It grows and adapts. Good things you do don't look good to you. It gets to where everything you think about is horrific, and you're not aware that's not normal. I found out after Danny died that he talked about it with his ex-girlfriend. He was afraid of not being able to fly if he got help. I mean, what would you think if you knew your co-pilot was suicidally depressed?

     Danny saw all of what I went through almost firsthand. When I came out of it I was very vocal about it, because I knew how lucky I was. It is a difficult mindset to describe to someone, because if you have any idea what it's like it tends to stick. It's hard to understand it without getting into that mentality yourself.

 

     Thank you for the compliment on my car. It should've been done much faster than it was, but some of it was slow-going. I had to learn how to weld, so my welds aren't pretty. There were also parts of the project that were simply not fun to do and for that reason took much longer than they really should have. I was afraid of screwing up the car. Eventually I realized that I had forgotten what it was like to even own the car because it had been so long since I'd driven it. At that point I stopped worrying whether I'd even finish the car. If I finished it I looked at it as a bonus because, like I said, I had gotten used to the car being a bunch of random junk strewn across the garage. I should have enjoyed the project more, but there were several parts of it that were a blast.

     I usually didn't weld drunk, but I was buzzed enough to have the courage to try it (ex: welding the gas filler to the body). But all body work and painting, between the fumes and the beer, it was pretty interesting. Someone once told me that all good painters are drunks.

 

 

 

 

Dang, for a roller job, that looks pretty darn good.  Really sorry about your friend... Makes me want to call around to my friends/family and check up on them, make sure they are doing ok.

 

I'm responding to your post too with that rant above.

[My budget resto]

Few more shots.

 

[My budget resto]

I'll attach a few more that I have at the moment.

The car is an hr and a half away right now. I'll get some better pics when its totally finished. I assume you're wondering about the quality of the roller job.

 

If the body work isn't perfect, it'll stick out. There are a few spots on the car that show but only if you're looking for it. For a $70 paint job I'm pretty satisfied. I do have some pics of the door jambs I'll post also. I still have to polish it though. Attached is a pic of my 78 Toyota I painted the same way.

 

I uploaded some of the other pics I took while I was working on the car into my gallery if you want to see them.

 

[My budget resto]

I can't figure out how to edit. My apologies.

 

I wanted to say that I used Bad Dog frame rails, Black Dragon dog legs and frame reinformcements (for the frt sway bar, to help stiffen it up after I repaired the hole), Black Dragon weatherstripping kit. And I used a RT rear dif mount.

 

On a side note, my last work on the car was stone cold sober. But, that was because beer probably wouldnt help the feeling that comes with laying underneath a car in the exact spot where someone just ended their life. The mood was sober, I'll put it that way.

 

To everyone who gave me advice during the project, thank you.

[My budget resto]

I just posted a few pics to be brief. It was primer grey, matte black hood, cowl and access doors. The body was COVERED with glazing compound. It was like a friggin M&M. I spent I know two weeks, sanding with like 80 grit and a mouse sander, chiseling with a hammer and screwdriver. Dear Lord.

 

Paint it Rustoleum Gloss White, I painted it with a roller.

 

Welded in new dog legs, new frame rails, welded the gas neck to the body, patched a hole in the left quarter. had to patch a hole where the left side of the front sway bar mounts to the frame. A rectangular sized piece of metal had been ripped off and was still bolted to the sway bar, leaving a hole in the frame. Painted the tail light housings/bezels, painted the chrome black based on Vintage-TechZ's instructions. New weatherstripping, fixed some wiring, installed all the AC components under the hood except for putting my compressor back on (Idk yet if anything is wrong with it).

 

The hood is off a 73 and was junk when I started the project. Managed to save it and the original hatch (which was rusty...). I had another hatch that was clean but the hinges on one side had rusted at the weld and allowed the hinge to warp. I ended up deciding to save my old one.

 

New struts (kyb), new tie rods, patched 4 spots in the floorboard and had to make new rear seat mounts on both sides, which I did with come C-channel from Lowes. POR-15'd the engine bay, top and bottom of the floorboard. Used internal frame sealer from Eastwood everywhere it would reach, in addition to drilling holes in the frame rails and capping them with plastic rivets. Then I undercoated it heavily with the nice 3M stuff that's like $10 a can.  I believe I used four cans.

 

Did the fusible link upgrade, polished my wheels, installed the cowl drain tubes inside both fenders. For the money, I did everything I could do and as well as I could do it.

 

I don't mind the Rustoleum paint job so much. Looks good, and I can always repaint if something happens. I don't intend to get rid of the car, and I'm aware that I can't paint it with anything else unless the Rustoleum comes off. I figure if it looks good it's more apt to last longer than it would looking like a dog turd with window louvers.

 

I spent about 7 mos on the car and about $1500 or so. Someone gave me a pretty nice CD player to put in it. Basically, I got the car as close as I could to the condition I wanted it in, balancing with that cost. I was unemployed during this project (I have an amazing fiance who has preferred, for the time being, that I stay home and do bitchwork, which I enjoy), so my budget was limited.

 

I was also completely hammered or otherwise inebriated throughout pretty much every aspect of this project. My goal was to have fun during the project. Other than a handful of things, I absolutely dreaded working on this car, and for no particular reason. Some of what should have been fun was a complete pain until I had a 6-pack or a 40. Probably not the best example to set, but I did enjoy it, and I learned a lot about the car, about myself (yea, I went there), and I learned some pretty decent skills and unwound some - which, like I said, was my initial goal.

 

I live in an apt and just moved to a new city. My best friend let me keep the car in his garage throughout the entire process. Very cool of him. I bring that up because, when I showed up for the last weekend of work, and to bring the car home, my friend had killed himself (rubber hose...exhaust...his car), right where my car was before I backed it out of the garage a few weeks earlier. Knew him for 14 yrs, very upbeat and positive guy, commercial airline pilot, really had his stuff together but apparently kept much of his depression to himself.

 

It was excruciating to clear out that garage, and then to have to work on the car before I could move it. I had to have a friend hang out with me, because I couldn't stand to be in that room alone. But because I spent so much time there with Danny chewing the fat, tossing back beers and watching tv with him while I worked, this car has particular meaning. He was very encouraging in the project and was a hell of a friend.

 

Wanted to show you guys my car, after I bugged some of you on how to do these things.

 

I have to put the interior back in it, but other than that it's pretty much done.

 

Sorry for the sad story, but...thanks, and enjoy.

 

 

 

[280z hatch outer seal]

google image search

 

     I tried that. Didn't have much luck. I found a few pictures, but not what I was looking for. I know what it should look like when the glue is dry, but I have no way of knowing (based on the pictures I've seen) if the seal is glued via the flat surface, is glued to the lip, or both. My seal came from Black Dragon, and it seems a little odd. If you lay it down on the body, it won't wrap around the metal lip. If you wrap it around the lip, the flat surface won't lay against the body. It looks like if I glue the flat surface to the body I'll be okay. But I'm trying to do it right, and know it's right before I start.

 

 

The drawings in the Body Chapter of the FSM are probably better than any picture you'll see.

    

     Thanks. I'll check that out. Perhaps it'll help me out with a few other seals I have questions on.

[280z hatch outer seal]

bump.

[What does your girlfriend/wife think of YOUR project??]

My wife one upped me by finishing her 1969 Camaro w/555 big block.  :/

That's pretty badass.

[280z hatch outer seal]

Can I get a quick pic from someone? Pretty please with a cherry on top? I have to move Saturday, and I am busting ass to get my car back together in time.

[280z hatch outer seal]

Can someone post a pic or describe to me the placement of the seal with regard to the hatch lip? I found a pic online so I can figure how to install the side pieces, but the top is a little confusing. I know which side of the seal is the top, but it looks like it just wants to sit inside of the hatch lip, rather than ON it like the side strips.

 

My car didn't have these pieces when I bought it. Although to be honest it's possible I would've pulled it off without taking pictures before starting my resto.

[Rustoleum roller job, check it out]

No. And here's the (maybe odd) reason. I did one roller job prior to this, and when I did that one it was new to me and I was only following instructions. The write up said that you didn't have to clear it. Ive heard that other paints won't adhere well to the Rustoleum, so maybe the clear won't adhere to it as well..? I know with my truck, it looks great as long as I wash it every 3 weeks or so. But the finish is nice enough that it stays relatively clean, but looks awesome after I wash it. The finish on my Datsun is much better than the one I got on the truck. I think when I'm done polishing you won't be able to tell and it'll look pretty great. I'll post some pictures when its back together (goal is by Sunday, but will settle for mid-week). The bodywork isn't perfect. I had to straighten out the rear pan by hand. I had to weld a few spots at the bottom of the car on that 1" metal strip that runs along both sides where a saw had cut into it at some point. Drivers side qtr patch, both dog legs, several holes around the hatch glass and one or two around the windshield. The great thing about this paint is that in some places it can hide things. Sometimes it will fill in spots (don't count on it, but in some places it will), and it seems like the finish is bright enough to distract from most of that. I've noticed that now with both the gloss white and safety yellow.

[Rustoleum roller job, check it out]

I got the practice out of the way earlier in the year when I painted my truck. I figured out you could use the rattle can to touch it up as long as it got several coats on top to even it out. Make sure it has plenty of time to dry (everyone says 8 hrs, but that bit me in the butt when I did the truck. I waited 8 hrs and one of the coats still wasnt dry. It screwed up my progress, making the layers beneath want to separate, I assume bc it had too much mineral spirits  given the fresh coat of paint combined with the not-yet-dry coat). I let it dry a full day between coats. Never underestimate how much wetsanding helps the later coats. I used a lighter grit sandpaper than most recommend (they say start with 600, then 800, then I think they finish with 1000 - some ppl will go to a lighter grit), but thats bc early on in the process, before I have a good base of paint built up, the 600 will strip it right off.

 

I didn't prime most of the car. As always, I was in a rush, but it didn't hurt anything. Except that this stuff doesn't really like to be put on bare metal. I had to redo one of the rockers bc the paint didnt want to stick. Everywhere the paint didn't stick (both of my fenders, the drivers side rocker, and the hatch top - I painted the bottom side first and it came out fine), I had to sand everything off and put a coat of primer on before starting fresh.

 

I have a friend that roll-painted his S10 recently and it looked like hell. I know he didn't wetsand, and I doubt he thinned the paint well. He just didn't spend a lot of time on it, and it is a process that takes A LOT of time. But it's documented online that this can be done outside by someone with little money and possibly no garage space, so there's that advantage. I didn't think mine would look as good as it does, especially the jambs and the hood. That hood was almost garbage when I removed it, and so was the hatch.

 

I had bought another hatch to replace mine, then found that the welds were cracked at the hinges. I couldn't get the new hatch to true up with the rest of the car, so I opted to try and save my old rusty hatch. I internal-frame-sealed it, ground off the rust, cut out the rot around the glass opening and welded up the holes. It is an excruciatingly slow process, but if you do anything too quickly it will definitely show, and people will immediately know it's a crap job. So far, I think by the time I'm finished you won't be able to tell it wasn't sprayed.

[Rustoleum roller job, check it out]

I'm rolling the last coat on tomorrow, but I took some pics yesterday and wanted to post them.

 

Rustoleum Gloss White, rolling with high density foam brushes. Paint mix is a little thicker than the recommended 50/50 mix with mineral spirits. I just liked the paint going on a little thicker...

 

Got lucky and have had more than a week of unseasonably warm weather, which I thought would help. Wetsanded every two coats - 800 grit, 1000, 1200, and I'm gonna do the last wetsand with 1200 before polishing. Car was originally metallic blue. Since I was going with a different color, I painted the door jambs with the roller and a foam brush. Also painted around the doors.

 

My hood was almost junk when I started the project. It was on the car when I bought it, and originally came off of a 72. It had rust and bondo, both of which I think I cleaned up decently well. The bottom side of it looked awful. It was chipping from at least three repaints. So, before I started rolling on the white, I rolled the bottom side with POR15 to smooth out the surface. I think it came out pretty well. And keep in mind before I started the entire car was covered with a 2+mm thick sheet of dolphin glaze. I used a screwdriver and hammer to chisel off around the windshield. I'll do a build thread after I finish putting it back together.

 

Til then, check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My welded-on gas filler

 

 

 

 

[What does your girlfriend/wife think of YOUR project??]

Kinda like reviving these old threads...

 

I needed money last year. I wanted to quit my job to pursue standup comedy. My gf (currently my fiance, she's a keeper...) hated my job, and was supportive of me wanting to be a comic, but she wouldn't let me sell my Z, no matter what. We've moved twice now, and she always looks for a place with a garage for my Z. Over the last year I've been more or less unemployed - enjoying being the housewife - and I decided to restore the Z.

 

When I did my truck (78 yota), she hated it and bugged me every day I went to work on it. With the Datsun, she actually asks how it's going, what I'm doing and why, and is really interested in learning more about the car. She loves it. Down side is she wants to drive it. I only let her drive it once, before I started the resto. She barked my tires after every stop. I had a feeling she was gonna step on the gas and blow right through a road sign or over a curb. Not sure how I'm gonna handle her driving it when I finish. I only drove it a few times a month myself. Probably won't drive it much more than that, but I know already she's gonna want to drive it a lot.

[Youngins: How'd you end up with a Z?]

My first car was an 84 300zx na. My granddad gave it to me when I was 16 (I suspect because he couldn't sell it). It was a junker, but had decently low miles. I started learning how to work on cars with it because I had no money. When I sold it, I had fixed it up very nicely for very little money. I spent alot of time on zcar.com finding out how to fix this or that, and I kept hearing about S30's. I'd hear things like, "If you want to make your NA fast, push it off a cliff". S30's kept coming up, and they really seemed like the ideal car for anyone who liked z cars. Everyone seemed to talk about them like they were the holy grail. So, not really being aware of what one even looked like, I looked it up. Turns out, it was one of my favorite cars from when I was a kid, I just didn't know what it was until then. I decided I wanted one, preferably with a turbo swap. When I graduated college, with no money and about to start my first (and worst) real job, I found one on zcar in Dallas. I have a friend who's a pilot, and he got me basically free tickets to go to see it. I bought it for $1500, got drunk and flew home. Had it delivered a few weeks later, and that was 4 1/2 yrs ago.

 

Since then, it's been megasquirted, and I've added a million things that it was missing when I bought it. I'm about to finish a budget resto on it now. Rusty sheet metal has been replaced with new, POR-15's both sides of the floorpan, replaced frame rails, added ac on it (but probably won't have it working until summer, but won't really care by then), and painted Rustoleum gloss white (just put my next-to-last coat on today). I had to learn to do a lot to finish the project, and I'm not totally finished with it yet. I have alot of memories of doing very stupid things, yet fun, things while owning this car. I once stayed up all night changing the clutch before going into work at 7am at my crappy dealership job. I ended up getting in trouble because of my appearance - scrapes on my arms and grime under my nails. I used to spend breaks sometimes washing the car behind the dealership. Here I am now fixing things on the car that previously I didn't know existed. Internal frame sealer? Pfffft!

 

What's interesting is that I remember whey I bought the car knowing nothing about zcars and knowing much less about cars than I do now. It's a little surreal.

 

The last part to the story is that I have to be moved in less than 3 weeks (another city an hr and a half away), and I'm hoping to have the car reassembled by the end of this weekend. So, I've been on pins and needles hoping that this car will both start and run when I'm finished with it.