1970 240z Project (Very slow, money is tight)

[Perfect240z]

It was at tdc. It would hold only 40psi not 100psi like I thought it was supposed to.. Unless it can't?

[Perfect240z]

Well it's been about a week since I posted something. Last friday I went out and bought my new(ish) 1983zx close ratio transmission. As soon as I got home I went to pulling the motor out, It took only a few minutes since I've been preparing to pull the motor out. After I pulled the motor I put my car on rollers to roll the Z around the garage. I have carpet in my garage so it doesn't roll around as easy, but It won't just roll if I bump into it so its a blessing in disguise.

 

I Started chipping away at the passenger side floor to get that old deadener off. found a nice crack in the floor behind where the seat goes. Also whoever had this car before me in NM thought it was a cool idea to get self tapping screws and drill them through the floor to hold down this little thin carpet holder so water did get to the metal. But for what it was its only going to need some sanding to get that rust off and then add some POR-15, or maybe I'll paint first then add the POR-15...I don't know which. I'll tackle the floor under the passenger seat sometime this weekend, Its really oily for some odd reason and the old soft cushy fiber is on it like really tall mold lol.

 

Found a really cool place in Livermore that sells 2 twill carbon fiber for 35 bucks a yard. Im planning on making a carbon fiber hood just for fun to see how it looks and to get some weight off the car. It wont be permanent but it will look interesting or ricey lol. I might be coming on a cool new steering wheel soon, just waiting on if its going to work out or not. Pics to come if it does. Anyways its dinner time, so here's the pics I took tonight. I'll be putting a pic of an idea what I might want to paint the car. It'll be the bright orange from a 911 gt3 rs with the lettering of 240z in black on the bottom of the doors. Let me know what you guys think!

Edited August 26, 2011 by Alex731

[grretc]

let me know if you want to sell the valve cover with oil cap! or even the whole motor..

[Perfect240z]

Well even if I had the money to buy an rb I'm going to keep the motor for when I want to put the car back to stock If I ever think of selling. It would be a whole car kind of deal.

[luseboy]

Just found this thread. I'm from Marin and I just bought my motor yesterday. Currently saving up for a shell to start my own project, Which will also hopefully be an early 240. Anyways, I found it cool that someone else in the bay area was building one. I will be doing the same pretty soon, just gotta pull my motor apart and get a shell and then I will start my build thread. Hey maybe when we both finish our cars, we can go for a drive! I probably have another 8 months till I will have a driveable Z. Haha I don't even have any Z right now.

[Perfect240z]

Just found this thread. I'm from Marin and I just bought my motor yesterday. Currently saving up for a shell to start my own project, Which will also hopefully be an early 240. Anyways, I found it cool that someone else in the bay area was building one. I will be doing the same pretty soon, just gotta pull my motor apart and get a shell and then I will start my build thread. Hey maybe when we both finish our cars, we can go for a drive! I probably have another 8 months till I will have a driveable Z. Haha I don't even have any Z right now.

Sweet! Yeah mine was kind of drivable when I got it. Wouldn't go passed 35-40 mph and wouldn't go into 5th. I don't know how long it will take me to do the build. But I want to drive it soon! Lol I just finished the last of getting all the sound deadener up front, I'm going to tackle the back this weekend so I could start sanding the paint off and repairing some holes in the floor. I was lucky to get one that isn't bad at all, a couple issues here and there with the body. What motor are you putting in? I'm doing a stroker motor. I'm most likely going to buy the head already assembled buy the shop, I'm going to try and put the block together myself to try and keep the price on the lower end but I am a ways out on getting the motor. I am trying to find the block though so I don't have to worry about it. Pm me when you get your build going. I actually go to the Marin area somewhat often to see my wife's cousins. What area are you in?

[Pharaohabq]

Car came from NM eh? It doesn't look bad. It's got WAY less rust than my early 240Z. mine needs new wheel arches inner/outter. dents pulled etc.

[Perfect240z]

Car came from NM eh? It doesn't look bad. It's got WAY less rust than my early 240Z. mine needs new wheel arches inner/outter. dents pulled etc.

 

is yours a 70 as well?

[Perfect240z]

So its been awhile since I posted on my thread. Heres whats up, I have finally started stripping the paint off the car. Its going slowly even with the aircraft stripper. After taking off the fenders and lower front signals/lip I unfortunately found out that the car was hit on the driver side at some point. The last owner even went ahead and tried to cover it with bondo. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow, the damage doesn't look like it will affect the cars performance, but I am going to have to get one of the those reverse hammer things to get dents out. Lots of bolts broke off, so i'll have to drill out some of those holes and retap them.

 

On the plus side I have my N42 head that was purchased from Gollum(Thank You!) the head was worked on by a shop called The Z Dr. which went out of business a little while ago, and I got my f54 block which is going to need A LOT! of tlc. I did get it for 40 dollars. If i find another block in the mean time that is in working condition, I'll totally pick that up and sell this block. Well I'll take some pics tomorrow and post them, tonight has come to an end. Have a good night guys!

[Perfect240z]

Well I finally got a police officer to come to my house and verify the Vin number. Just have to turn in the paper work and it's all set. I was planning on doing a 3.0l stroker motor because of this issue of the DMV verifying the Vin. It would have been period correct and powerful. But now that i don't have to take the car in, this opens up some more options for me now. I think I'll be heading the rb route so I'll have reliability, my power factor, and I don't have to keep adjusting carbs. Then when I become rich and famous in something I'll do the stroker motor to keep my car period correct.

[rturbo 930]

If you do go that route, I hope you keep the numbers matching L24 on the side.

[Perfect240z]

If you do go that route, I hope you keep the numbers matching L24 on the side.

Oh hell yeah I'd keep it. Thing is that the block is a e31, but the head is an e88, it should be an e31 for my car, so I'll have to find one and rebuild it. I'm keeping everything I can that is salvageable, just have to find a place to store it all.

[Perfect240z]

It's official! I recieved my Cali plates yesterday. So stoked its finally mine!

[Perfect240z]

Well today was finally a warm sunny day, its been too cold to work on the car in the garage, I know that some of you out there are in colder parts of the US, but it has been a lot colder here this year then previously. Well I decided to take advantage and start stripping the paint from the loose panels on the car. I got 3 pieces completely done, the rest are just waiting. Now that Im finished with my vin verification I have more options available to me. The whole mess with the vin verification was when the previous owner took the car to get it verified since the car was from new mexico, anyways when he took the car in, the dmv looked under the hood and saw a emissions sticker for the L28 from where the hood came from. What I've put together, since the car was in an accident, one of the previous owners switched out the hood probably from a 280z.

 

I also took a short video tonight, here's the link. If anyone has ideas let me know. Im planning on trying to make some carbon fiber pieces for the car(Hood, blinker, and maybe once I get good at it the fenders) who knows maybe i'll start selling the pieces if anyone wants some maybe I'll be able to do that for you guys. I'll make a thread about it when I start doing it, next week I hope to order all the stuff to start making some fiber glass moldings of some small stuff I have laying around. Pictures will be uploaded tomorrow, here's the video from today.

 

[rturbo 930]

Man that accident damage sucks! Is the frame still straight? From what I remember, it should be pretty easy to get at all the spot welds for that piece, so I'd drill out all the spot welds, and get that same piece off a car that's been rear ended/parted out, and weld it back like factory.

[Perfect240z]

Man that accident damage sucks! Is the frame still straight? From what I remember, it should be pretty easy to get at all the spot welds for that piece, so I'd drill out all the spot welds, and get that same piece off a car that's been rear ended/parted out, and weld it back like factory.

 

 

Thats what I was thinking, Ill have to find that part, from when I can tell everything else is straight, so Im not worried about that. I didn't know if I wanted to do it myself or have someone do it for me since I don't have the tools for it and neer have welded before, but I was thinking I should learn at some point lol. Don't want to mess up my car though lol

[Perfect240z]

Alas reality kicked in last night for me. I really wanted to do an Rb swap, and I expected to have my car night drive for the longest time, but as they say here on Hybridz, make sure you know how much the cost is before you do it. Good thing I didn't even try and purchase anything yet. I counted up about 10k in parts, not including the body work im doing myself. So Im going back to my original plan of getting the stock motor to run right, getting some nice carbs and so forth. I basically have everything to get my car to work so thats the route im going till as we all say "win the lottery". Getting hyped up is no fun either lol, I've managed to find another F54 block with crank, flywheel, oil pan and water cover for 100 bucks. Sounds good to me! Needs to be rebuilt, but I might be able to spend a little bit of money to get it to put out some decent power since I don't have any power goals as of yet. Thanks Hybrid Z for having the best info!

[Perfect240z]

Well today I took advantage of a nice day today, took out the windows, the wiring harness, pedals, and windshield. Also off the left overs in the engine bay, everything is almost taken off so i can start stripping the paint off of the car.

 

Today I also went and picked up another short block an L28 F54 block with the full rotating assembly, pulley, timing chain, and gear, water pump, and even though it had a turbo oil pan, i was given a n/a oil pan with it. All of it for 100 bucks, pretty good deal I think! I had purchased an f54 block for 40 bucks awhile back and I picked it up at a machine shop that a friend had stored their. The block was cleaned 3 years ago, and was stored outside. The block is rusty everywhere, and I was told it would be a good working block, as long as I put some work into it. I didn't really trust it, so I was looking for another block this whole time. Now that I have that and my N42 head I picked up from Gollum on here, im going to have an awesome motor at some point. Im going to get the motor back up to stock form to just run the car when she's done, but after that I can do my 3.0L stroker set up a few years down the line. I might be able to do a cam and valves plus springs since Thats what i can afford piece by piece. Anyways here's some pics I took of the car tonight and of the Yellow rusty 40 dollar F54 block, and the, 100 dollar entire short block.

 

More things to come!!!

[Perfect240z]

Anyone have any suggestions for a build that ca save me some money but be fun till I "win the lottery" lol I heard I can do L24 rods to make higher compression, but I think I have to get flat top pistons for this block correct; since Im not going turbo. I know I probably will spend that little extra on getting my triple carbs though, I need new carbs anyways, might as well get what I want to use. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Perfect240z]

Engine bay is almost stripped down, Started the fuel and brake line removal last night, it got too dark and I couldn't fit myself full in the transmission tunnel to real the rest of the screws. So most of the lines are loose. Everything is coming together and fast for stripping the paint and fixing a little body work before priming.