rturbo 930

Didn't get as much done today as I would have liked. Got my 280Z radiator out... doesn't fit. Great. Got out what I thought was the correct driveshaft that came with the car. I measured, and it would seem that it's 2" too long, and it was the shorter of the two I got with the car. It's a series 1 with what I believe is the stock rear end in the forward position, and it currently has an L28+5spd in it. Any ideas? I haven't tried putting it in yet, but I doubt I measured wrong. I'd like to avoid a custom drive shaft, or taking off the transmission. I do have two 4spds (from a 76 and 72) if absolutely necessary though. I did get the throttle linkage hooked up though, and the shifter is back in. Uh... that's about it. Hopefully I get more done tomorrow. I later took a wire brush to the rust on the A pillar, and along the weather strip lip. It doesn't look as bad as I thought, but I haven't cut any out yet. I don't think I'm going to get the car on the road before summer ends though, so that may be a winter project.

I get all my news from message boards.

It's in. Still need to do everything else that doesn't include bolting the engine and tranny mounts though. And I want to replace the bolts that are holding it in. But, nonetheless, it is in.

About to make attempt #1 at putting an engine in a Z. I've never put one in a Z, and I've never done it by myself. Should be an interesting experience. I also learned that the "bubbling" where the roof joins the quarter is actually rust underneath the lead. That's going to be fun to pay for/fix...

This will be insane. Can't wait to see more progress. OT: If you don't mind me asking, what did you do with all the original pieces that came with the car? Specifically the wiring harness. My '71 could use one, and there's only a few months during which Zs were built that had the same harness as mine (so I'm told)... I think yours may be within that range. PM me, please.

Yeah I think 2k would be a fair price.

That is quite a spectacular build. Great job.

Nice shirt. Progress looks good!

We're looking at floors and frame rails, right? I can't imagine the floors will be a deal breaker. The frame rails will take quite a bit of work, but I believe you can buy new frame rails... not sure. But it can be done, without doing a tube chassis. You could also just use some square tubing. Looks like both damaged areas are forward of most anything important which I guess is "good" relatively speaking. Quite a few people on here have replaced their frame rails, if you want to look them up. I believe user 78LT1 did, might start off with looking at his build just to give you some ideas. Looks like you've really got your work cut out with you though.

Welp, I'm almost in the market for a 94/95 325is 5psd. Just need to sell off my current car. Can't wait.

Yeah, I don't really see it either... His bumper definitely got pushed up though. With that in mind, I would think looking at the bumper shocks, mounts, and all that, you would be able to tell if it was just the bumper or the car that was bent.

I think Aziza Z also has a very, very, rust free '78 bare shell. I agree that it might justbe best to get a shell out of CA. They're much more plentiful, and generally in better condition.

I think someone has done a similar swap before, although I think it was just the L28e. I haven't seen or heard anything about it in a long time though. Cool swap though, keep us updated.

Those are some really cool lightning shots, BRAAP!

Not even close to what I expected to see in here. LOL.

Do they carry new windshields? Just asking because it sounded like you couldn't find a place that sells new windshields in the first post.

The cowl isn't coming off without a good bit of effort. The screws are rusted tight. Here's the same spot on my 240z, minus the top half... And one more of the crack... you can kind of see that it's dented now where I poked at it with a screw driver. Lead, without a doubt. Here is a pic of jmortensen's 240Z, same area, after melting the lead out. You can see that it was covering spot welds. Notice that the joint there on Jon's car is not the same as the joint on that 260Z. I'm thinking this is another one of the design changes between the 240Z and 260Z, or maybe just early and late 240Zs. I wouldn't be surprised.

Jon, Could you rehost the pictures that were in this thread? None of them are showing up for me. I'd like to see the pictures you have since it looks like I'm going to be going through this exact same process. What do you mean by pooched out? Did it look like this?

Yeah, that's the same area. Tomorrow I will see about removing the cowl and fender to get a better pic. On my previous 240z, I cut the roof off in almost the exact same spot the crack is in on the new 240z. Without a doubt, there is lead in that area. It didn't have the shine of sheet metal, but did have the shine of lead, a lot like in the picture at the end of my post and certainly looked like it was used as filler. I'll get a pic of this too. I poked at it with a screw driver, and like I said, it was FAR too soft to be sheet metal. It is, without a doubt in my mind, lead filler. I can't think of anything else it could be. I don't blame you for being concerned, and thinking it's a crack in the sheet metal. That's exactly what I thought too! Anyway, tomorrow I will try to get pics of the area on both cars with cowl and fender removed. Thanks again for your input.

Go through the stickies in the brake and suspension forum. There's one that discusses a lot of the popular brake upgrades. Another discusses struts, etc. Lots of good info there. If you still have questions, do a search - you should be able to find the answer to your question. A lot of topics/subjects have been covered here.

On classiczcars.com, it seems the rule of thumb is if it's a series 1, it should be left stock. But this is HybridZ, so that doesn't really apply here . My thoughts are more or less that cars under ~8k should be left more or less alone, condition pending, and series 1 cars in general shouldn't be hacked up too much. Just my personal opinion. That said, I'll probably end up putting an RB into my series 1, which is #17955. 11154 is a pretty low production number, but it was a lot higher than I expected for a '70. From what I've seen a VIN that high would be titled as a '71. Logan1, that looks like a pretty nice, clean, early car to start with. Good luck with it. Do you know what you want to do with it?

As stated above, the vertical defroster lines aren't all that rare, since all '70, '71 240z had them, as well has '72 240z's built in or before 12/71. The hatch vents, and side emblems are only found on series 1 cars, so you could say they're rare. The knob on the gas door isn't really rare, it's found on all '70 and '71 cars. Depends what you call rare, I guess. Some other parts that are only found on the series 1 cars (like yours), are the steering wheel, dash (glove box lock is different from later '71 dashes), I believe the map light, seats (I think), and depending on the build date/VIN of your car, could be quite a few other parts. Logan1, what is the VIN of your car? Just curious.

The vertical heating strips came on all 240zs built up until 12/71. The exhaust looks to be a twice pipe setup, if I'm not mistaken. Looks like a pretty clean car to start with. What is the VIN? What are your plans for the car?