Zetsaz

Would probably be less work and similar cost to just get something like the T3 kit to mount the short nose. Just like with engine swaps, it's all the tiny little things that start to add up and drain you. I would stay on the lookout for a good R200 longnose LSD. $1200 seems very high unless it's been rebuilt. I was lucky enough to get mine for $800 with a finned cover and rebuild for much less, but I had also purchased a lot of other random parts from the seller. I'm sure you could find a good deal on the datsun parts and needs facebook page if you're patient. I've seen maybe a half dozen pop up for less than your price in the last 2-3 months.

They seem to have some pretty accurate restampings of tricker parts. I'm excited for it and hoping they're successful. A lot of American classics you can almost rebuild from next to nothing, but we don't have quite the same luck with the Zs. Slowly getting better and better though.

Progress updates: got the fuel pump assembled and installed in the tank. The inside is so clean that I've opted not to bother with a coating since the last attempt failed spectacularly and I'm more concerned about the tank or pump gunking up if it's poorly done. Will probably still do a coat of POR15 down the road just to clean it up and protect it from more corrosion on the outside from small rocks and other damage. $$$ spending updates: I bought some parts! Not fun parts though, just stuff I've really needed to actually get it going. I've been overthinking the whole thing and the scope creep was getting overwhelming considering my current mental state. Especially since having my grandma pass away, I've been motivated to work as a distraction, but anything involving power was becoming increasingly expensive and a headache to think about preventative measures to avoid breaking things. I have the most important engine specific parts to go turbo for whenever I want, but for now I've committed to staying NA and not bothering with power upgrades or engine work of any kind. Since I don't have the option of just working overtime to make more, I've decided to just get the thing moving in a way that won't risk breaking anything so I can enjoy it sooner and without the risk of it being out of commission for another long while if I need to upgrade expensive parts that might break. Once it's running and is a comfortable place car to drive, I'll be slowly working from the back forward, starting with CV axles. More updates to come as soon as my parts arrive

Looks fantastic

Sweet deal! And in my favorite color. My first recommendation as someone who's had a project way too long... don't make it your own just by chasing power haha. Get that thing running well and then "upgrade" or refresh things you find along the way in small pieces. I enjoyed driving even my old rust bucket of a 76 that wouldn't rev past 4k more than I enjoy my daily. Excited to see more updates. Welcome to the forums

If you're looking for other mount ideas you can check my thread too. The recent few pages have how I mocked up 1x1 tubing. I'm sure there are sturdier ways to get the right fit, but I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

Nice to see all the progress! Pretty exciting that you have it on the road. If things go well, I might just take mine to Utah this summer, and even if I don't we'll have to meet up for a quick ride!

Thanks! Added pics. They're at slightly below stock height, but a similar angle front to rear. Driver side trans tunnel looks more banged up than in person due to lighting I think. It was bashed in slightly for whatever racing seat the last owner had intended to use. Maybe when I'm swapping to 5 speed I'll even it out slightly, but I'm not terribly concerned since it'll be covered eventually unless space underneath becomes an issue down the road.

Spent a bit of time this weekend cleaning up some poor work I'd done on the seat rails. I was working in poor light and pretty tired when I first "finished" them and didn't clean them properly and couldn't see some pieces of the welds. Wire wheeled a lot of spots where some surface rust had devolped in the shape of my finger prints and over welds. I spent a long time cleaning them, then I sprayed them with etching primer to seal. The welds are still not great considering I rarely weld anything, but a bit of grinding to clean up the worst offenders for bad looking welds and some test hits with a mallet to make sure they're holding strong gives me comfort they'll at least be functional for now and if they really bother me down the road it's always possible to redo. Whatever seam sealer was used over the redone floors was either not very good, or the seems weren't cleaned as well as they should have been before it was applied. I wire wheeled some seam sealer off and sprayed those areas with heavy surface rust as well. Still not sure how I want to seal them. Will post some pics soon. Currently debating if I want to bother with turbo stuff, or just put a 2.5" exhaust to the stock exhaust manifold and focus on everything but power. For the time being the next step will be installing the fuel hardlines and getting the tank in.

@seattlejester, update your thread! The car sold, we were just talking about it in December.

I'll be running the fitech 340lph that came with the kit. I think the Bosch 044 is 320lph? 300? Details get foggy on parts that aren't specific to the S30 since, as a hobbyist, this is the only car I've worked on to this extent. Yes, stock fuel sending unit. I did a bit of measuring and eyeballing to make sure that where I placed the pump wouldn't interfere with the OEM floater. I bought a new one that isn't 280z specific since the old one was very worn out and rusty, so it doesn't actually have the third wire for the low fuel light that the 280z had. Doesn't much matter since I still have Speedhut fuel gauge from when I was running the F body tank in the other shell.

What was the solution you found for the rubbing issue? Even if you figured it out, it's nice to have certain problems that can come up for others archived in case someone else has the same issue.

Had a small burst of motivation today since some plans got cancelled and I took the time to finally swap the oil pump and spindle to the ones I need to run the turbo distributor for MS3X. Got the engine set at TDC on the compression stroke, but I think the spindle might be one gear/spline offset clockwise. Will retry tomorrow in better light by using vise grips to hold it in place since I did most of my work in the dark today. I have a nice carport, but no garage and poor lighting along with early sunsets in the Pacific Northwest make for difficult time working the way I'd like. I have a decent LED work light, but I think my next paycheck I'll be buying the strongest work lights I can get on a budget.

It's not impossible, but currently Utah isn't a great place to teach. Varies greatly district to district though. More likely I'd switch to a middle school job closer to Seattle where I'd have more evenings off. I did my student teaching with middle school and loved it. The combination of band camp, football, basketball, extra rehearsals, split concerts due to how many groups we have that already double my concert load compared to other music teachers, and spring trips/tours all start to wear you down. Middle school job and getting my master's degree would be a lot of personal time gained and a huge bump in pay.

Also, currently reflecting that I have more than $300 dollars into just the fuel tank right now haha. I need to drop that part of the thread title.