Mikey303LSZ

Shot the interior floor boards. Followed up with self leveling seam sealer on the inside and out.

Taped off the garage, cleaned the full bottom side with metal prep./etch & shot it with a POR15 type product. Seems to be holding up well so far. The key is good prep.

Bought a set of Bad Dog frame rails - highly recommended. Reasonable price, great fit, really stiffened things up. Closing the doors even sounded different after burning them in.

Rust near the hatchback - before & after.

Soon I started with rust repair. Goal was to clean up underside of vehicle to where I wouldn't need to remove the interior or suspension again if I decided to repair/paint the body. Thought about welding in whole floor boards but after additional review settled in on spot repairs since the floors weren't that bad. The pnumatic scale remover and cup brush were my friend for several hours (perhaps days). Thanks SunnyZ for the tip on the cup brush.

Test fit the JCI headers. I welded in an extra bung for a wideband and added Flowmaster collector ball flanges. The ball flanges work GREAT - highly recommended because they add adjustability (extra degrees of freedom), always seal well and require no gaskets. Even though I used JCI motor mounts and headers the LH mount had to be trimmed to give clearnance to the header - no big deal, 10 extra minutes with a cut-off wheel.

About that time I started fitting the engine into the car. The JCI mounts worked well. Spent time beating in floor boards & trans tunnel making room for the 4L60E and dual exhaust. My goal was to keep the exhaust up tight and allow room to remove the trans. pan for oil & filter changes.

I'll give more updates and the conclusion in a few days - it's getting late. Long story short... I've got 4500 miles on the car now and it's a blast to drive. It's been on a 1/4 mile track, a local 2.5 mile track, I drive it to work and it's been on a 10 day 4000 mile road trip.

My neighbor offered up his glass bead cabinet for my project. I cleaned up one part, then remembered how long it takes to remove heavy rust scale. Someone on HybridZ turned me onto a local powdercoater. They blasted and powder painted the parts for something like $250. Money well spent... The parts looked great!

Tearing down suspension. Thank God for pnumatic tools. The spindle pins were a complete pain in the $%! I sprayed them with penetrant on and off for 1+ weeks, beat on them with a heavy ball peen, air chisle etc... I can't begin to explain the feeling I had when they finally broke loose!

Brother-in-law stopping over with a few barley pops...

Removed all suspension parts to expose floor boards, rust etc.

Posted the old engine & trans on Craigslist, found a buyer, drained fluids and pulled it.

I started looking at engine options - that's when I stumbed on HybridZ. The LS conversion made a lot of sense to me. Lightweight, better center of gravity, lots of torque, awesome fuel economy, reliable etc. At the time, JCI was a popular place to buy an LS kit and he made an A/C mount. I work long hours, travel at times so I would rather take the Engineering someone else started and tweak from that point. I debated on a 6 speed vs automatic. I thought an auto would be better for rush hour traffic, better in the 1/4 mile and if I wanted to drive a 6 speed I could drive the Corvette. I found an LS1 with an auto from a 2002 Z28 with 50K miles. I heard it run and was able to get everything I wanted from the car including harness, fans, cruise control etc.

I started tearing into the car to sort out how much work it would take on floor boards and clean out the stench - I found the hole in the shifter boot where mice and rat(s) got in. I found this little guy under the passenger seat. They had a nest going near the fuel evap. cannister.

I could spend a lot of time and money messing with this engine/transmission to give it more power. I started adding up what it would cost to add fuel injection, cam, ported head, perhaps a turbo etc. At the end of the day it would take a lot of $ to dial in the straight six. If the car was clean I would have returned it back to original and perhaps restore it. I started looking at alternatives including something for the garage to keep me off my back during the build. Found this for $1500 on Craigslist. Wife thought I was crazy but when she came home, it was installed and I had the Datsun lifted. After she walked under the car she understood and lucky for me thought it was pretty cool...

I could spend a lot of time and money messing with this engine/transmission to give it more power. I started adding up what it would cost to add fuel injection, cam, ported head, perhaps a turbo etc. At the end of the day it would take a lot of $ to dial in the straight six. If the car was clean I would have returned it back to original and perhaps restore it. I started looking at alternatives including something for the garage to keep me off my back during the build. Found this for $1500 on Craigslist - wife thought I was crazy when I mentioned it. A few days later she came home, it was installed and I had the Datsun lifted. She walked under the car and lucky for me thought it was pretty cool...

I blew the dust off the dwell meter, broke out the flow meter to sync the carbs and started dialing it in. About that time I looked across the engine bay and read the Datsun S30 plate that said, "max HP = 150."

It sat most of it's life under a carport in Texas and didn't get driven much over the last 5 years or so. Many hoses were dry rotted in the engine compartment. I replaced all hoses, rebuilt the carbs, new ignition components, fuel pump etc..

At first I thought I would clean it up, get it running properly, redo brakes, springs, struts etc. and start driving it.

Wanted to take the time to thank everyone for the inspiration, support and advice many of you provided over the last 4 years during my build. I never took the time to share - I'm hopeful this provides others inspiration like the Hybrid site has for me. My goal was to complete the project myself and have a car that's a blast to drive to work, use for long road trips, race and simply remember the good times I had riding in the back of the car as a kid with my Dad and sister. Also doesn't hurt if it knocks down +26MPG, has cruise control, A/C, comfortable to drive etc. Dad wanted to clean a few things up around his place so he offered me first right of refusal. It's a '73, he bought it used in '74. I have memories riding around in the back as a kid while my older sister rode up front. How could I let him sell it? This is the day I picked it up @ his place.

Here's a photo of my '73 240z with an LS1 and 4L60E. Had to beat the floor boards in around the tunnel to fit the exhaust.