OldAndyAndTheSea

Thanks, this car will definitely ease the pain of not having the 240 on the road. It'll allow me to properly finish that car, as it's definitely snowballed into something I consider pretty special. Such a stark difference in quality between the two cars. It's nuts hopping back and forth between rust, and factory fresh. My quality of work has to adjust depending on what car I'm working on, that's what I find the be one of the hardest parts. Realizing this car will never be the 240, and just need to get it close. Anything I do is better than it was. Sometimes I forget that. Anywho..... Passenger floor is pretty much done. Finally painted (brushed), with some Rustoleum gloss paint I had kicking around the garage. Thinned with acetone 50:50. I used about a 1/4 cup of paint to do the entire floor. ....And more passenger front wheel well adventures today. Lots of little holes. Lots of time. Lots stronger now. Finished areas painted with same paint mixture. I still have the tow hook area and a little bit of the headlight bucket area to contend with, then the entire passenger side will be done. From then on, it's just the driver's floor and anything in the driver's wheel well. I'm close! Oh and I spoke with my friend with the E30 he wants painted some sort of gunmetal color. He said he thinks it would actually be cool if we both had the same color car. So I guess Gunmetal it is! The grey will definitely look great with the blue. Only a few more spots stand in my way. Days worked on project to date: 18 Total Money spent on project to date: $793

If your only option is aeosol rattle can, I've found that the engine enamel paints, with a ceramic coating proved to be most durable. As far as spray paint goes, that is. Prime first, optional sand, paint with ceramic engine paint, That's yeilded the best results for me. No paint will resist impact chipping very well, but it certainly is scratch resistant. EDIT: I like the Duplicolor Engine enamel line. I've had the best luck with that over other paints. And definitely tape, unless your interior is stripped out. Overspray gets anywhere it can. It's quite amazing.

You and me both. The optical sensor in my dizzy died when I decided to retest my cranking RPMS. I too am going 36-1 crank mounted trigger wheel. I have to wait for tax returns to do it though...We'll see what happens. I'm definitely not a fan of distibutors after this ordeal. AND no more timing the stupid oil pump driveshaft!

Thanks, and yeah, this car is total garbage. Haha. But for 650 bucks. I can't complain, it's fun to vent on this when things on the 240 are stalled. Blizzard today, so I'm not going into work. That means most of the day will be spent out in the garage hacking away at the 280zx. I have just about finished the passenger floor board. A little more welding, grinding, yada yada yada, it will be ready for some paint. Then I'll probably pull the drivers side stuff, and see if I can't start getting that side squared away. There isn't much weld work after that. A couple more hurdles. Then I make it smooth, and make it loud. And wait for the thaw. More to come tonight.

Tonight I made a little progress. Basically got myself prepped for tomorrow evening. Did a little welding, some cutting, and threw some filler on the rocker panel. Putty and paint, as they say, makes purdy what ain't. But most importantly, I started exhaust stuff I ripped all the old stuff out of there, I'll begin measuring and mock the new piping up as soon as I'm back out there. Another "whoops wrong part, I have to order ANOTHER one" piece left from the 240. 2.5" ID - 3" ID I'm excited to see what I can fab up. Time will tell Days worked on project to date: 16 Total money spent on project to date: $793

Got back out to work for an hour or so tonight after work. Here are some progress shots. Somewhere in the welding process.... After I connected the tacks. I laid some chopped strand mat over the freshly cleaned and welded patches. That'll make sure no gaps remain. We're talkin' high quality here. Then I turned my attention to the rocker panel. I had to rebuild inside the car before being able to rebuild out here. So I got to making some more "off cut" patches. Real rough, there's a lot going on, hopefully you get the gist. I'll try to finish it up and make it pretty sometime tomorrow evening. Days worked on project to date: 15 Total money spent on project to date: $793

Or just use some some unidirectional carbon in 0 and 45 axis.

I actually spent some money on the car, for the first time since buying a silicone coupler for my intake. I bought some 3" exhaust making materials. But technically, the scrap price of the old catalytic converter will pay for most if not all of these. So once I do that I'll probably subtract that price from the total once again. The way I see it, this still won't cost me anything in the end. : Muffler - $49.50 shipped rounded up to $50.00 and some mandrel bends. $80 shipped The rest of the straight pipe, and the remaining parts are already owned, thanks to the 240 project. So for now... Total money spent on project to date: $793 Also, I got back to working on the 280 today. Some progress ensued. Passenger floor got my attention for most of the afternoon. Stripped the floor of all the sound deadening. Luckily there is still some nice steel hidden beneath all the insulation. Saving weight! I had to take at least 15-20 pounds of material out of car today. Where I stopped for the evening. Merely tacked in place. Tomorrow is another day. Days worked on project: 14 Total money spent on project to date: $793

Any pics of the rollbar progress? Specifically the strut tower plates? And awesome! Finally going in for the cut! The car is going to look incredible.

Phew! I was jonesin'!

Oh man! You're right where I was this time last year. Keep with it! And yeah, the aluminum foil wire is the shielded one. Be careful stripping the outer shell. The inner wires are little and can easily be nicked. I'm about to fire mine.....If the temperatures would rise just a little... You're really close!

I paid 650 for a running driving, albeit rusty, 83 zxt. Manual. 1500 is crack pipe price for what that car has to offer.

All welded back up. As I said, once the ambient temperature is a little more sustainable, I'll properly prime/coat/paint the new fender lips. Here are the pictures of today's welding escapade. Lets hope the temperatures start to rise again. I'm ready for Spring. I want to start this thing.

Progress from tonight. Got a half day in. This side seemed to go a lot smoother now that I have developed a method. Rivnuts installed, and mock fit. Ready to cut. Once again, I'm at a good stopping point for the evening. Tomorrow, after work, I'll stick the pieces back together.

Saab sonnet III? First gen rx7?

Hours of work later... It's too cold to put any coatings on the exposed metal currently. I'll do all the wheel wells at once, when I am finished with the flares.

That car is a beaut!

Nah definitely not too high. And yeah, it just allows you to throw more meat under there. And for what you're putting down...The more meat the better I'm jealous of your BAMF flares. They look like a nice set. Are you still playing with the idea of making a steel or thermoplastic set?

When I was out working earlier I took these pictures showing the height. Somewhere around 4 3/4" from the highest point of the flare to the body line. Thanks! and yeah, the wheels have made me neglect the zx, that, AND not having an air compressor to clean/blast metal.. Now that I have a compressor again, that car will be my main focus after I finish the flares on this one. and it's -2 here currently, the garage is a balmy 15 degrees....My air tools were not caring much for this cold. It was quite frustrating at times. But I got a little work done. Not nearly as much as I wanted, but it's also really poorly lit out there right now, I would like the daylight to help when I begin welding. It's nothing but shadows currently. Pics for clicks. I trimmed the inner fender tabs off...That's about it. haha Tomorrow I will weld the Bajesus out of it.

I believe my measurement was either 4 3/4" or 5" roughly from the eye balled highest point of the flare to the body line. I'll confirm later. When I have the flares mounted up again, I'll take a picture and label my measurements as well for future reference. I know that you pretty much can't mount these things too high, I just made sure I was a little higher than Austin's in his sticky, because I believe he still had rubbing issues after his install.

Progress... DIDN'T come easy.. But I made it to a good stopping point for the evening. So many cuts had to be made to safely reveal the inner fender. I think the pictures can explain the process better than I.... Tomorrow, I weld the two skins together once again, a little trimy trim, and I'll move on to the passenger's side. Then it's the weekend! It's car time!

As for this morning. Before heading to work, I decided to get a jump start on the rear rivnuts. Like I said, fitting the flares is going to be a but trickier than the fronts. It will require some cutting, metal work, and some welding. That part will come tonight, but here's the morning progress... Due to the inner fender I had to shim the installer tool with a few washers so it could fully seat in the holes, before being crushed. Rivnuts installed. I had to blast out the inner fender on the first mounting point with a 'center punch' (big broken toothed phillips head screw driver) to allow the rivnut and installer to fully seat here as well. I'll weld the back up once I start the surgery tonight. And here's the mock fit. Initially (when I first bought them years ago) I thought these flares fit like hell.....But man does mounting them on the correct sides, and at the appropriate heights help.....Dayum.....Now they actually make sense to the eye. I'm happy. Tonight I make sparks....Lots of em...

Yeah, the Harbor Freight inserts are aluminum. I have those in the driver's fender, and I'll have the steel everywhere else. It'll be interesting to see what weathers better. And you hit it on the head with the cheap pop riveter looking thing. That's the one. Thread the insert on.....Put it in the hole..... Give it a squeeze..... Turn the knob on the back threading the tool in a little more.... Give another squeeze...... Remove installer tool. Done. Here's the installer tool. Pretty sure it's the same one you have. And there are the two different 1/4" - 20 Rivnuts I have used. The aluminum are the Harbor Frieght, note the large collar. The smaller of the two are the steel inserts, which are slightly harder to squeeze. Both nuts install with excellent results with the tool.

Thanks! They are regular width ZGs, and they are from a really early run by MSA, I am not sure of their supplier at the time. But I intend on making molds from these once they get tired. The rivnuts are are steel, with zinc coating. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-20-UNC-SF-Steel-Rivet-Nut-Rivnut-Insert-Nutsert-/370309717552?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160 The installer was bought from harbor freight, and it came with 10 of their own 1/4-20 rivnuts as well, but they don't offer them for sale out of the kit. I'll note that I PREFER the harbor freight rivnuts to the ones I linked. The collar size is much larger on the HF rivnuts than the others. You'd just have to spend 45 bucks to buy three kits to get the amount of rivnuts you'd need. And you'd have two spare installers too, haha.

Tonight I managed to get the passenger's fender squared away. Rivnuts installed. Fender lip cut. Then the welting and flare go back on... I'll start the rear flares tomorrow after work. The rears will require a bit more fussing around. More pictures to follow.