V-Fib

Here it is in all of it's glory the repaired wiper cowl and the front right firewall/fender. Before: After: Before: After:

Been away for some time, poor health prevented me from working on the car at all. At this time the firewall, the right fender and wiper cowl have had rust repairs completed with fresh metal welded in. The dog-legs are partially done with only the rear valence left to replace. Photos to come tomorrow.

Love how it hugs the road in the corners - very nice to watch.

There are plenty of 280z's in decent condition for half that price. I would watch and wait. They aren't going anywhere. Plus people tend to sell at lower prices around and after the holidays.

Good to know, I think that would be a more cost effective solution as well because a set of forged JE pistons for the VG30DETT is in the realm of $1000 which is going to be less expensive then having them cut a piston to custom specifications.

No photographs showing up for me...

All things considered it's a fairly solid shell for a 240z. How about something original like a 4B11T with a custom tubular front subframe to retain all the AWD wizardry. That'll be extravagant.

Mad props to Seattlejester who came down to my neck of the woods and gave me hands-on welding advice and my welder friend Shan who helped patch up my rusty frame rail. Since then I've been spending a lot of time behind the mask welding in patch panels, the pictures speak for themselves. Had the frame rail patched by a welder due to me not trusting myself with that crucial of a piece yet. The rest is my handy-work... In other news the Skyline R32 GT-R front and R33 rear calipers have been disassembled and sent off to the blasting and powder coating shop. The hardware is being mailed off to a plating shop. The Techno Toy Tuning suspension components arrived in the mail the other day... no photos here haven't bothered to unbox them. Ziploc baggies galore... Roll bar is in the mail, as well pictures once it's welded up.

Donor car. Post a wanted ad in the classifieds or browse craigslist.

rturbo covered most of it - I'll chime in and give you my opinion. You're never going to get 100% of the rust. Splitting the seams and lap welds to eliminate the rust is excessive. Wire wheel the surface scale if the portion has no pinholes or frank rust-out treat it with a product of choice (I use phosphoric acid) then epoxy prime it and seam seal it so it cannot get any moisture or air trapped in it and continue the chemical reaction. The inside of panels that have mild surface rust that you will not reach I would spray with cavity wax which is a petroleum based product, it will saturate/penetrate the metal and repel moisture vital for the oxidation. Only spray this after you have finished welding near the area - otherwise you will have weld contamination. If you Google it 3M makes a nice products called Rust Fighter. Eastwood also makes a rust encapsulator product for spraying inside cavities and frame rails. The patches you weld in will also flash rust from the inside unless coated it. I use a weldable zinc or copper rich weld through primer. Regular paint will burn and smoulder contaminating your welds. My tirade.

Most impressive metalwork, don't know if you have prior experience or not but impressive nonetheless.

Very impressive build, not sure how I missed it. Sad to see the L series is being retired. I have to know what wing you're using on this?

Could you share the contact information for the blaster? That would be cool. Also as always your build is an inspiration to keep going - although I'm nowhere near done. lol

Thank you! Me personally I don't see what the big aversion towards the sunroof is. I don't mind the way it looks and I'm not planning on running an AC unit so it'll provide some circulation in the summer heat. From what I understand patching the hole will cause your roof to warp, so if you decide to do away with it finding a donor roof skin with no sunroof is probably the best way to go. A seam splitter tool and a rotary tool make quick work of the spot welds.

Hey just realized that you're from Seattle! Welcome aboard. Very slick build - looks like you're clipping along at a pretty steady pace. Tuned in for the progress.

Excellent! Thank you very much for clearing up some of my concerns. Wanted to make sure I address all these issues before I start making any move on parts and consulting a builder.

As my car is slowly coming together I am working on buying all the parts necessary to build my motor and making preemptive plans on a motor build. I have read a few posts on using the LZ22S pistons in the L28 and even members using it as a template for a turbo 3.0 L. Nobody elaborates on the details of their internals. Leaving me with some questions on going this route... The L28 rods (130.2 mm) + LD28 crank (83 mm) + LZ22S pistons combination. Which would yield a healthy 2960 cc displacement bump with a mere 1 mm overbore to the motor. I don't feel the need to bore the block to 89 mm, it'll give me some extra meat to work with. Furthermore using the LZ22S piston as a guide to create a custom forged piston with a 87 mm bore, 35 mm pin height and 9.33 cc dish volume will net a static compression ratio of 7.4-7.5:1. Which would be adequate compression for a turbocharged application. Eliminating the 4 valve reliefs cut into the piston dish would likely reduce it's volume by ~2-3 cc raising compression into the 7.5-7.6:1 range which is not at all problematic. (Correct me if I'm wrong) As I look at the stock piston for '81 720 that I have in my hands - my doubts and/or questions are: 1. The LZ22S is built for a non-turbo application hence the position/thickness of the ring-lands... would using the same ring land thickness and diameter in a custom turbo application be problematic and cause ring land failure? 2. Would I have to pin down camshaft specs (determine valve lift) prior to ordering a custom piston to see if it will require valve reliefs to be cut? Or if the deck and head of the motor have not been milled is the -1.17 mm deck height of the piston provide enough clearance for the valves? I have done my fair share of data mining and am a little lost. Hopefully this is not a rehash. Thanks guys. -V

+1 Don't see what the big deal is.

I've been doing some mental mas******ion in regards to the engine plans, after reading up on the various combinations I have looked into the L28 rods (130.2 mm) + LD28 crank (83 mm) + LZ22S pistons combination. Which would yield a healthy 2960 cc displacement bump with a mere 1 mm overbore to the motor. I don't feel the need to bore the block to 89 mm, it'll give me some extra meat to work with. The tentative plan is to use the LZ22S piston as a guide to create a custom forged piston with a 87 mm bore, 35 mm pin height and 9.33 cc dish volume. This will net a static compression ratio of 7.4-7.5:1. My P90 is reconditioned with stock Nissan parts, thus the valve springs, retainers and guides will need to be replaced. A port, polish and a custom cam profile will also be in order. Turbo choice, I am looking at the GT3582R... Like I said so far just a pipe dream - I'll cross this bridge when I get to it. Simply planning ahead thus any thoughts/guidance from those of you running boosted L28s or anyone who has done a turbo stroker is appreciated.

Congratulations on the nice find. Very clean body indeed - especially for a Washington car. We don't salt our roads but the amount of rainfall takes its toll. The previous owners must have garaged.

Picked up a few goodies for the build in the last week. After perseverating over what motor to go with I finally decided on doing an all out 3.0L stroked turbo build. If I'm $15K in - whats another $15-20. So I scored an LD28 crankshaft and (probably one of the few non-warped) custom intakes. Body work is moving at a painstaking pace. The underside has finally been stripped of undercoating over the course of the summer. The severely rusted areas have been cut, sanded and treated with phosphoric acid in preparation for welding in the patches. Using a panel/seam separator tool (a very wise $25 investment) I opened up my windshield wiper cowl and began cleaning up the rust there. After all this time and money invested I would hate for my S30 to rust from the inside out. The front cowl was mostly superficial however the heater/AC induction vent was harboring some significant rust at the seams and along the firewall that was not visible from outside the cowl. Out came the reciprocating saw and wire wheel. Still far from finished but looking better already. The drivers side was fairly mint, the passengers side must have failed to drain for a long time thus harboring more rust. Time for some for some phosphoric acid. The Skyline R33 rear end is coming apart, I'm getting new bearings in soon along with dismantling the brakes and sending them off for a rebuild. Once the car is painted I am ordering up a complete T3 R200 swap kit and the car will be back to rolling around the shop. However given the current flow of things this probably wont happen until summer.

Did you buy this car from Oliver of Z Specialties?

Any plans to get inside the windshield wiper cowl? Don't know how much rust you have hiding there - just pulled mine apart and it was full of rust around the heater vent. Just my ¢2.

Interested in buying one of these from you. Sent an email.

Not a big fan of stanced cars usually but this looks really clean/well executed!