FastFloridian

Got some time on the car today, everything is prepped and ready to pull the motor/transmission. Will be a few weeks before I can get back on it though. Pulling out the shifter I discovered a lot of wiring wire there touching the drive shaft, smh. Good thing I’m re-wiring this thing from scratch. Did a mock pull, hooking up to hoist, found out I need some thinner shackles, couldn’t get chains on. Looked at the frame rails too, only a little rust on one spot, but they are banged up a bit. I think I’ll cut out the rusted section, about 8”-10” or so and get the bull dog rails. I’ll order that after I pull the motor.

I see bad dog has done heavy duty frame rails, and those can fit over OEM, I’m liking that option, any thoughts?

Thanks for the advice. The passenger side rail near the back definitely needs attention. I still haven’t decided what to do, been going back and forth with a repair, or possibly replace all of them. I know Apex sells a set that looks decent, hadn’t put too much thought into trying to make some myself. If I do a full replace I definitely want something beefy.

Test fitted the other fenders and bumper, I’m liking how it’s coming out.

Sounds like the car was meant to be, and you struck gold on the wife. Looking forward to some pictures.

Fenders came in, I’ll get some more pics this weekend. Doing a track day at Sebring on Saturday, getting that driver mod in.

Thanks for sharing. I like the lower front fender brace, and some good ideas under hood and hatch.

Unbolted the driveshaft today, not enough play to get it out, but should come out when pulling the engine trans I guess. Picked up my first welder, going to practice for a few weekends then try and weld these fender braces in.

Rear Quarters are done.

I got some updates from John at ZTrix on my fenders, almost done and looking good 😁

So the Holley digital gauge display is bigger than I was thinking. I should be able to make something that sits in the dash nicely, not sure if it should sink into the dash or poke out. I’m thinking if it sank into the dash it would look pretty good. Eventually the dash will be black once I’m done.

Got a garmin catalyst for Christmas from my wife 😁 I can’t wait to set this up, won’t be used on the 240Z for a while but I’m going to Sebring in January in my Tesla, so I’ll try it out then. Some more Black Friday goodies got here yesterday. Family is sick so can’t really get out to the car, but I might try and do a few things inside like mock up my dash a little, try and find a good place for my gauges and I want to have a clean place to mount the catalyst.

I found a deal online, both calipers for $250, so went ahead and bought them. Not ready to work on the rear yet, but I’ll have time to think about and work on a bracket so I can install it at the same time as everything else on the rear.

I’m thinking ahead/planning the rest of the car and one thing I hadn’t thought about was my parking brake. Going to the Apex rear end and 370Z wheel hubs and disk brakes I’d have to add back in a parking brake. Drum disk brakes on the 370Z are $800 each. I saw these mechanical caliper type from Wilwood online, only $400 for the set, and it looks like all I’d have to do is fab a bracket. Anyone else try these or have another idea for parking brake?

Lots of Black Friday goodies starting to roll in. These rotors and calipers are huge. Calipers are surprisingly light for their size, I can’t wait to get them on, but still a lot of work to do before that.

Got the headers and exhaust off. Header to exhaust bolts were a PIA, but finally got them. Driveshaft is next and then a few small things here and there and I should be ready to pull the engine.

Look forward to see how it comes out. I’ll be tackling this project on my car in a few months, hoping for some good ideas.

Got the rest of my Black Friday shopping done for the Z. I got a twisted wedge top end kit, rpm air gap intake, a steering wheel and quick release hub and some 6-Piston 370Z brakes. All good deals. Money is all spent time to build it.

Ordered my first Black Friday deal, got the Holley sniper 2 and digital dash to make it EFI. Got some sensors too so I can read everything on the dash, AFR, rpm, speed, oil temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure, coolant temp and probably a few other things. Currently only tachometer and oil pressure work. Still need a fuel level sensor, but my fuel cell has the connections for it. Might get brakes and top end kit and maybe stuff to make oil cooler on Friday depending on the deals. Ordered from EFI pro systems, they were super helpful and saved me a few bucs. I was leaning toward a more expensive system and unless I was using a power adder it didn’t really add anything, saved me $800. I heard they have good tech support for install trouble shooting too

Just got an update from John on my bumper, almost done

Electric power steering kit was ready today. They are local, so I just picked it up.

Snuck out to the garage for a few minutes. Didn’t get much done, removed fan and shroud, and just planned out the next few steps. Got a good look how the fuel system was set up, I’m replacing everything, but at least I got a good look at the old set up, pump connections at fuel cell etc.

Got the fenders and cowl off, everything underneath looks pretty good, just a little surface rust. Header bolts were coming off pretty easy, I sprayed them with pb blaster a few times during the week, did the trick. A couple were hex bolts for some reason. Hopefully work on it a little bit tomorrow too, would like to get exhaust and headers off, and maybe the drive shaft. Ordered a few parts too, front strut brace, fender brace, master cylinder brace and a new steering rack from Apex. Hopefully my electric power steering kit will be ready to pick up next week.

I started the tear down last weekend, got the fluids drained, hood and bumper off and got the radiator out. I’m hoping to get the motor ready pull by next weekend and hopefully have the motor out by Thanksgiving.