SoCalJack

Yeah, I had never pulled a motor/trans before, but I pulled them both out together. It was pretty easy actually...

I dont know about you guys, but mine smells like a skunk.... im not kidding. Its bad. Its getting better since Ive stripped the car, but the smell is still lingering...? Oh well, I still love it!!!

Looking good! I cheated; I paid someone to do mine.....

Aww that poor car. Someone needs to buy it and put it out of its misery by 1. fixing it, or 2. burning it.

I love the second one. The car just looks so freaking shiny. Very nice

Yep this is what I look like when I drive....I cant help it, I learned to drive on the SoCal speedways I didnt know that there was a Z stamped into the cross member. Very cool

I got the car back from the welders shop the other day! I am super exited. The guy that did the work was awesome! Gave me a super good price on everything and even did some free stuff for me. Very nice. I got: New floor pans, frame rails, a new battery box in the trunk, and he fixed the inner fender where the old battery used to be.

Strotter put it perfectly. Your signature says it all. I am in the process of doing a swap myself on a low budget. It sucks because I get impatient sometimes and just want it to be done. But I think the key to low budget is patience and time. If you have plenty of those youll be fine.

I traded bikes with a buddy of mine for a pass through Deals Gap (318 curves in 11 miles = absolute heaven) . He has an 06 GSXR 750 that was in the process of becoming a track bike, hence the lack of plastics. I have an 07 DRZ400SM. http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=2890047&albumId=1737436 The pictures explain it pretty well.... Not a lot of damage, just a hurt ego. Picked up the bike and we kept riding. Poor guy felt so bad. Paid me in cash the next day to fix it. Still a good friend, I would let him ride it again any day. This demonstrates exactly why I bought this bike. It is indestructible!

Excellent. That was just the information I was looking for. Thank you

Yeah thats what I was originally thinking, but there are some spots that are really pitted. Thats why I was thinking the hammerite would hide some of the imperfections due to rust....

I am getting ready to paint the rear interior of my car. I was thinking of going with either hammerite or just regular paint. There are some areas with rust, but the areas that were underneath the sound deadener are nice shiny new metal. I think that if I go with paint the rust spots will look bad, but I heard that the hammerite will not correctly adhere to the bare metal. Any suggestions.....? **edit** I am not going to be putting carpet back in the car, so I want the paint to look decent, though not necessarily perfect. I think that the only thing carpet is good for is getting dirty and wet. Here is a pic right after we took out the sound deadener, you can see the nice pretty untouched metal and everywhere else is rusty nastyness:

Thank you to guys that recommended dry ice. It worked like a champ. With a chisel and some goo gone I was getting pieces up about the size of a quarter. It took me about an hour to get out a 1sqft piece. After a couple of guys suggested dry ice, I thought I would try it. I did the whole trunk with about a pound and a half in about 20 minutes. Worked awesome. Thank you to all that suggested it.

When we pulled the engine and transmission out of my car we used the engine mounts. This was the first engine that I pulled from a car, and it went really well except for the mess we made.

Well thank you guys for your input. I think I decided with satin black (thanks to Kenshinx and Vintage!!!) Paint the bay and the mundane stuff satin black and have the stuff that I want to stick out red or gloss black. Thanks again for the ideas, its much appreciated.

For the past few days Ive been trying to chisel out the black insulation/sound deadener. Its a pain in the ass. The best method Ive come up (with the tools available) with is soak it with goo gone and use a hammer and chisel. I can see where its bubbling up in certain spots. I want to take all of it off just to make sure. Game plan: take off all of the sound deadener. Fix rust. Paint and re install freshly painted interior panels.

I like the way those look (and the price), much better than the ramhorns I was thinking of getting.

HotRod-Z, I like that a lot... Hopefully mine will turn out half as good as that

Yeah thats kind of what I was thinking too. I thought about painting it red too.... just to have it really stand out when you open the hood. But I think I would rather the bay be a darker/neutral color so that the engine stands out more.

Hey guys! I want to preface this build thread by saying that this is my first car build. Im pretty much done with building my supermoto, and this is my new project. I dont have too much experience working on cars other than maintenance (theyre a bit more complicated than single cylinder carburated motorcycle). So if it looks like Im doing something really weird or wrong, TELL ME! I love comments, criticisms, and suggestions. Im sure you guys know a lot more about this stuff than I do. Well, it all began earlier this year, Jan 2009. When i bought myself an 81 280ZX. It ran for 100 miles and now it doesnt. It was weird. It ran pretty well, but then one day I went to start it and it was shaking really bad and smoking like crazy and the brakes didnt work. I didnt know what was going on. I had a few of my mechanic buddys look at it, and we came to the conclusion that it needed a massive overhaul. So I called around about having someone rebuild the motor, and I was look up prices for parts. I asked around for ideas and most said get an L28ET. But I think that dealing with an EFI and a turbo would be way over my capacity. So I decided that after the money and time I put into rebuilding this motor I could have a simpler engine with more horsepower. An sbc 350 with a T5. Perfect. Chevy small blocks are super cheap, easy to work and has easy HP gains while maintaining reliability. So while she's been sitting in the garage out of commission, Ive been gutting the interior and repairing rusty floor pans Yesterday, 03/29/09, a friend of mine came over with an engine hoist and we took on the task of removing the engine and transmission. Oh man. We are both motorcyclists, but atleast hes a certified MMI mechanic. Neither of us had pulled a car engine before. But it actually went really well. No catastrophic failures or explosions Pulling some misc stuff off My friend Jake trying to attach the cherry picker WOOT! You can see me peeking around the corner Thats me, pretending I am not super nervous that the engine is so high off the ground The result So this is where I am at now. I dont have as much time to work on it as I would like. Between a 45 hour work week and being full time college student, I barely have time to sleep. But every chance I get to work on the car I am all over it. I love working on it. And while I am at school, I lurk around on this site all day trying to get any kind of information I can. I am selling the motor, tranny and EFI stuff. I would like to sell it as a whole, but if it doesnt sell an a few weeks I will part it out Any comments or suggestions would be awesome. Hopefully, I will update this every week or so.

Ha safety pink! I may be a lady, but I am no girly girl. No pink for me.

Hey guys. I been having a hard time deciding what color to paint my engine bay. The car is an 280ZX with black exterior, and the interior is becoming black and red. I cannot decide between: flat black gloss black undercoating gunmetal (dark grey) I want something that will be somewhat easy to keep clean, and will look good. Any ideas? This is right after we took the engine out:

No I havent tried Zbarn again. I dont really need any Z parts yet. The interior is in pretty good shape, and since Im swapping motors/trannys I really dont need any of those parts either. If I can find time between two jobs and school Im going to get that motor and tranny out, so if anyone wants anything from a stock 81 280ZX NA shoot me a PM. When I actually get the stuff out I will post a classified too.

Thanks for the input guys. Ive been researching and asking lots of questions. So I am coming up with some what of a game plan. Luckily I got my job back at the motorcycle shop, and I asked one of the techs about a motor. Hes got 3 350 sbc's sitting in his garage! Sweet. So he is going to be helping me out. Hes a chevy man, but had a 77(I think) 280Z back in the day. Needless to say I am very excited. Thanks again for your input. Ill be starting a member project thread soon...