TeeJayHoward

Punchy four-banger? It's a freakin' truck engine!

Any chance you could post a picture of the attachment/disc/wire brush thing you used to strip off the paint? I've tried a couple of products, and haven't had much luck so far. Also, does it work well for bondo, or is it strictly a paint remover kinda deal? PS - Lookin' good so far!

Thieves are generally stupid. My Jeep didn't lock at all, but the would-be thieves broke the window to get in anyway. Are you planning on implementing any sort of steering column locking device? Do you have a stereo of any kind? Aftermarket seats? Anything at all that would-be-thieves would take?

Looks like I won't be welding in my apartment parking lot. Instead, I'm going to drive three hours to get to my car, then spend a couple hours working on it, then drive three hours home. It's going to suck. But, it's the only way I know of to do the work myself. Okay, on to my questions. I'm going to be replacing the rocker and dogleg on both drivers and passenger's sides of the car. I know when replacing these pieces on a VW Beetle, you need to make a jig to hold the car straight before you cut the old rocker out. Without it, the chassis twists a little, and you're stuck with something that "just looks off". Is this true of the 240Z as well? Should I strip the Z down to the bare chassis, build a rotisserie, and weld on it? Or would the time spent doing it be worth more than the time spent under the car cursing? I can't find any information on anyone who's ever replaced a rocker before. I was hoping for a couple pictures of the process. Perhaps my Search-Fu is weak?

I'm the exact opposite - I like being able to work on things without moving a bajillion vacuum tubes, hoses, spark plug wires, etc. The only thing I can see in this engine bay that would be difficult to work on is replacing the coil - And he's probably got it slung on that piece of metal under the throttle bodies. Wanna swap out a cam? Cakework. Bad injector? No problem. Need a jump? Battery's probably in the hatch. The only thing I could see being more difficult to do on this car than mine is replacing the exhaust system... But heck, that's ALWAYS a pain!

Orangoutangs Really Aren't kNown for Generating Electricity. O.R.A.N.G.E.

Hrm... 1) Lower deductible on renters insurance. 2) Purchase welder. 3) ??? 4) Profit! (note: I wouldn't really do this!) What kind of places have storage to rent? Most of the u-stor-it type places around here don't have power, so they're out. (And they're small, so fitting the car in is impossible!) I'm kinda worried about driving the car in its current condition, anyway. Where the seatbelt mounts to the floor/dogleg area is one of the problem spots. No doubt in my mind that if I got into an accident, the seatbelt would NOT hold. ...And I doubt my Miata could tow the 240Z...

Whoa... Didn't know they make those. Didn't even think about that! I didn't think of this, either, unfortunately. There's a park next to my parking lot, and kids are all over the place frequently. Looks like I may not be able to do the welding myself...

I need two doglegs and a bit of a floorpan replaced. Maybe a rear quarter, too. (Won't know until I rip off the bondo) I live in an apartment building. One without a garage, without a 220V outlet, without much of anything. How should I go about repairing my vehicle? Should I pay a pro, or buy a 110V welder and do it myself? I've heard a couple of the guys on this forum call the little welders "toys". Will they not do what I need them to? Also, welders + extension cords = bad idea? My parking spot is about 50-75 feet away from my nearest outlet if I do get a 110V.

I'm down for that! Maybe I could get tech9 to fix the body on my '71 for me!

(stolen from z31.com) It's gotta be the cleanest engine bay I've ever seen. Where's the wiring for the headlights? The turn signals? The battery? Heck, where's anything that's not engine? I'd love to find out how to make something like this happen in MY Z! Anyone know whose car this is?

Your local junkyard, or online classifieds/ebay. What parts are you looking for?

Lemme drop a grand or so into my car first - Until I fix the brakes, it's not going anywhere.

It came with an extra E31 head. And no, I didn't buy the interior that bare. Lookie here - My living room's a mess!

Both rear quarters have a lot more bondo than I'd like. One of them has been repaired in the past.

Turns out both doglegs are a little rusty... And the driver's seat was hiding a nice big hole, too.

Engine bits

Rest of the outside pics

Picture time!

Not yet. Give it a year or so Big plans for this 'un. Guy brought the car down tonight instead of tomorrow. Had a chance to look a bit closer at a couple things. I think the previous owner (before the one I bought it from) was a young kid. The door panels are crap, but custom crap. Any area that could fit a speaker has been mutilated in order to do so. The kid did a little dabbling in performance work, apparently - The engine block isn't the L24 I expected, but an L28 instead! On the one hand, I'm excited that I got the higher-performance bottom end. On the other hand... I was kinda looking forward to seeing what a mere 2.4L could do. Now here's the weird bit - The SU carbs are roundtop. The head is an E31. What's with the L28/E31 combo? I understand that the E31 provides a bit better compression ratio than the E88, but isn't it known for detonation? And if the kid could afford an L28, why didn't he pick up the P90A? ...The car even came with an extra E31 and cam. WTF? Tomorrow: Disassembly and inch-by-inch once-over. Hey... Anyone know what year doors will fit on a 12/71 240Z?

Finally sold the 280Z. $750 and it was out of my hair. The next day, what should happen to pop up on CraigsList but a butt-ugly 240Z for a ridiculously low asking price? $500 and she's mine. Battery Tray: A+ Lower Front Fender (Driver's): F Lower Front Fender (Passenger's): A- Dogleg (Driver's): A- Dogleg (Passenger's): F Decklid: B Threshold plate: B Wheel Arches: B Floorpans: B- Framerails: A- Heh. Kinda looks like my first semester college transcript. Brakes are pretty bad, so I'm having it trailer'd to my place tomorrow. Better pics then!

Think a little thing like that would strip a car? Or would it just piss ya off? From what I can see, it will take off a couple layers of paint in a strip about 1/2 inch wide. Seems to me that it'd take months to finish the car at that rate.

Currently using sandpaper, tal-strip, and "paint removal" wheels on a drill to strip the car of paint. It sucks, takes forever, smells bad, is messy, works poorly in hard-to-reach locations, etc. Got me lookin' into other ways of doing things. So, I'm lookin' to sandblast my car, and I'd like to do it myself. I'm hoping to spend $500-600 to do the job, and it needs to include the equipment cost. However, I know next to nothing about sandblasting aside from "don't use sand, use (X,Y,Z)!" and "wear a breathing aparatus!". I know less about the gear that's used. Can someone link to a page that contains everything I need to fully strip the car inside and out? How long will it take to go from a painted chassis to a stripped-and-primed one? Can it be done in one weekend?

Well, damn, it's been a while. No updates, I'm afraid. What's happened since I started this adventure: 1) My internship turned into a full-fledged job. 2) My daily driver took a dump. 3) I'm now putting a very large chunk of my paycheck into my new daily driver - Another 2 seater, RWD, lightweight car. I tried to sell the Z for a little bit, hoping to pick up a different S30, but have had no luck. I'm now of the opinion I should keep it and turn it into a track car for the local SCCA runs. I've spoken with my folks, and they've agreed to let me use their land (3 hours away) to store my car while I work on it (weekends). This means I can strip the car down to nothing, and use it as a learning experience. Welding, fiberglass/carbon fiber, and sandblasting! Should be fun. My car budget's sitting at $100/month. So it'll be a long journey. But hopefully a fruitful one! Heck, the worst that can happen is that I botch the repairwork, and "have" to get an early 240