Guest Blackzenki82 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 so yeah, this is it, first attempt at building a Z car, my way. to but a good taste in your mouths about how i build my cars, here's the photo highlights of the last decades line up... 1995 240SX SE, NA KA24DE 1996 240SX SE S13 SR20DET 1991 R32 GTR w/R34 GTR Vspec II RB26DETT 1996 240SX SE S14 SR20DET, lost to a wall still got shiney plastic!!! 1995 240SX base, S13 SR20DET (worst chapter of my car life) The wife and I's daily.. OKAY, so now that you all know i don't build garbage, on to current affairs.... first initial post will be a copy and paste from a local drift forum, at least up to my last update, after which, I'll be posting here directly... ONWARD!!! I'm actually excited to work on a car again, big things with this one, post up like a mail box and watch this **** blow the **** up. 6mo goal: BMW Apline White, engine bay as well. Black ZG fender flares Black duck bill spoiler Black hood Front splitter/lip fender mirrors coils for slammage wheels S14 SR20DET not necessarily in that order. a lot of good things already going with this car, 95% of the rust has been addressed already, the interior is complete and 8.5/10 condition, this should be a pretty fun build. not to mention, it's a daily driver and runs awesome as is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- oh, and this car will see drift time as well, just no CFRC or walled up mini tracks. gonna roll a fat one, and detail the interior, it's 100% complete, i'll take pics when done. if i love the interior as dirty as it is, you guys are gonna flip out about how nice it is... car's going in for paint/body in two weeks, running a few ideas in my head as far as color... OEM Yellow OEM Orange (like the 240z my dad had when i was kid, sitting behind the wheel making motor sounds) BMW Apline White or that new Audi S4 white blacks too played out... either way, i gotta roll this thing up and get started on this car now that i finally got it home... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- alrighty, well, here's the car in all it's "glory". I didn't wash it, just scrubbed the **** out of the interior, and threw some meguiars on it, and ran a quick vac over it... If any of you guys REALLY know about old cars, pay attention to the body lines, the rust repairs, the minimal rust left to be addressed. look how the doors line up.... this is a SOLID, and straight car. floor pans, front frame rails, lower cowl panel, rear lower rockers/gas tank area, solid straight fenders have all been replaced, it also has around 50% of all the weather stripping replaced, overall a pretty solid foundation for a decent build i would think. jesus loves it. few shots of the interior, remember, this is EXACTLY how i got the car... only thing I've done is a ***** 3 step detail, nahmeen? grocery shopping made amazing. don't want too much back sweat... So yeah, that's pretty much it for now... I'm sure you all noticed it's an auto car, i don't give a ****, it revs like a GSXR, it has a shift kit, and 6 slugs with only 10K throw the car down the road pretty quick.... that, and i have an inside line on a 100% complete parts car. next up? paint/body/front lip/flares/duckbill, cosmetics for right now, at least to get it presentable.... mechanically it's sound as a pound. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i made some progress towards getting the car ready for paint and body. I scored a SWEET deal on some parts from a local Z shop, on the low low... and he's got 4 more parts cars and is breaking me off decent on anything i want... no Zed tax. one thing i picked up was this front air dam... over all i think it looks great, i mean, it's used, but ****, it's in great shape, mounted up SUPER easy... it's urethane, so it sags a bit in the middle, but that's fine, it's sure to see pleanty of cones, and parking space dividers from DD'ing it. don't know if anyone noticed, but i picked up a MINT 77 vented hood from a 280Z, they're pretty large, and are actually fully functional... i kind of want some custom fabbed replacement louvers instead of those plastic ones.... DCW? oh yeah, here's the engine bay shot. not sure if i posted one, but it's not much to write home about.... 10K engine, 4K trans, 500m twin SU carbs. Fires up and runs like dream, has a shift kit, medium cam, 6-2-1 long tube header, 2.5" exhaust and a decent muffler, and would prob romp a stock 5spd IHE KA car... other than that, it's pretty weak. from another parts car, i sourced a vintage Dino wheel, and hub, since i don't like momo, i threw my Nardi in there... looked in the back corner, and what did i see? OEM 1972 rear window louvers in mint condition (paints fucked, but metal is perfect)... here it is shown without, and with... just picture it flat black... kinda don't know if i want to run it yet, but it's easily removable/installable within 10 seconds, so some days, some days not. who knows it was $25... when i go back to tomorrow, i'm going to trade my redneck wheels for these 2pc 14" western wheels... should look a lot better till i get my permanent wheels that will fill the ZG flares... that and my current wheels are 14" so those brand new tires and be swapped to the meshies... saves money... other than that, just gotta go back and source a few more parts to get it ready for paint and body... then i'll be sourcing a complete 5spd swap from one of the cars. shop owner says he'll throw me one of his custom geared SCCA 5spd trannys for $200, like whoa. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i think i'm gonna stick with BMW Alpine White.... simple ass single stage, most of my money is going to be tied up in body work, and paint prep, let alone the actual paint, that's the cheap part! so i made a bit of progress today... first time ever adjusting solid lifters... simple yet tedious to get puuuuurfect... that, and well, i decided it was time to get rid of that resonator in my exhaust, and boy am i glad i did, no pics, but inside the 2 1/4 resonator, the actual baffle was like 1 1/4 diameter, and did this weird snake thing inside... like if you looked in one end, you couldn't even see out the other end, nor if you put a flash light on it could you see ANY light through the other side... WTF? so, after that, **** got crazy at the shop, my buddy (co owner of J&K Machine shop) gave me a single in, dual out stainless magnaflow muffler, and so i ended up fabbing my own exhaust... i cut down some truck exhaust tips, welded em on the muffler, and redid my entire header back exhaust... yes, i fab stuff from time to time... josh painted it for me, was a "present" i was just going to leave it rough stainless... and he painted inside the tips.... here it is, fully mounted... i'll get better pics in the day light, but it looks bad ass... daylight photo's of the exhaust. other than setting the valves, and fabbing my own exhaust, i changed out all the spark plugs... what a difference the total package made, the car is NOTICEABLY faster, mor response, more oompff off the line... thanks J&K for access to the shop, and it's eqiupment... they well also be doing all my race head work on my SR that i'll be dropping it... decking, port, polish, multi angle valve job, and some other sekrit sawce... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- man, ****.... i hope i don't have to do brakes on a ******* Z any time soon.... fresh turned rotors and new pads, car stops like a school bus, but is better than it was before... pain in the ******* ass!!! hubs are bolted to the rotors, so you have to break it down to the ******* spindle, unbolt the hub from the rotor, then repeat, not to mention, the pins in the front dual piston calipers made me want to fist my **** hole..... tomorrow, the rears.... 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Guest Blackzenki82 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 alrighty guys... everything just changed... mind. blown. so i picked up two more Z's today, one a 1975, the other a 100% compete 1977 5spd parts car. the 75 is a 90% rust free car, anywhere, like, what the ****, where's the rust bro? AND comes with a few gnarly parts... Ceramic coated MSA 6-1 long tube header MSD elec distributor MSD blaster coil NGK wires built p88 head built block new NOS OEM radiator all new lines, hoses wires Triple Weber 40 DCOE carb kit 90% RUST FREE CHASSIS!!!!! original uncracked dash what a apears to be a built/rebuilt 5spd trans working AC!!!! who know's what else!? in the trunk is a pile of NOS parts, still in boxes, including an upgraded P90 head, with fully polished valve cover, and the HIGHLY coveted N42 head that's still wrapped in machine shop plastic in a 15 year old machine shop box, looks like it was just serviced. Not to mention numerous other resto parts, including 15 year old paint haha. someone put some SERIOUS money in this engine, and although it has a layer of dirt/dust from sitting since 08, the engine is fresh painted blue, the head, a bright aluminum, polished valve cover, and powder coated triple weber carbs that go for almost $1700 for the kit. the parts car, well, it's that. a parts car. it's a 77, original 5spd, complete L28 engine that looks as if you throw some fresh gas in it, a new batter, it'd crank right up... some decent rust, but panels/glass/interior pieces are near mint... here's the photo's... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- got one of em home... parts car is still in town, might not be bringing it home.. after turning some serious wrenches tomorrow, it shall be a good day when i get the new one to fire up after sitting for a year and a half... --------------------------------------------------------------------- getting ready for tear down... getting interior pulled out... holy grail of Z cars... unckracked original dash, people pay $1K+ for these. random **** from the trunk... coveted N42 head (pretty much race ready from factory), and a good street/strip head, the P90A, and a freshly polished valve cover, +1.5 for great extra parts... while getting the AC/heat working, i forgot the fuel lines leaked from 3986573 places, and the car peed a lot on the driveway... motor shots... "it may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts kid" i wanted to swap out valve covers, and use the polished one, was awesome surprised at the cleanliness of the motor/head... minty... ooooooooold school... as a testament to the freshness of everything on this motor, check out the plugs and wires, besides the dirt from sitting for so long, they look like they were put on/in yesterday... welcome to my office... rear hatch area cleaned up, see the built in tool boxes/weed storage areas? sickness... time to order new carpet sets now i got all the old **** yanked out and thrown away..... old "fuel rail" with adj FPR, and Z32 fuel filter that leaked from 9345873495783 places (mostly where all the clamps are)... we swapped out all the lines on the rail, and the 23949872 leaking hoses from the gas tank forward... this is OLD technology, i love it. my buddy josh, owner of J&K Machine shop came over and lent a hand... tire swap (due to dryrot/flat), and I'll be doing some testing with burnouts/drifting in my neighborhood... going to get it all buttoned up over the next couple weeks, and take it to the dyno for full tuning... choppin' up the game. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- right. so, i figured I'd get her ready to drive now that she's running (or was), changed out dryrotted/flat tires, did a long burnout and took her for a spin... got about a mile before she started bogging and finally cut off, close enough to coast back into my driveway. further inspection found that the fuel tank was fouled up... tomorrow it's going to butler radiator for servicing. so, while i was on the topic of gas and ****, i figured I'd break down the carbs a bit, and service some parts, individual carb fuel filters, jets, etc etc. pulling it apart... soaking in seafoam in a S13 fuse box lid, then blown out with compressed air... front shot... did some research, that's a $600 header.... all buttoned up, new fuel lines/rail, filter, waiting on a rustless gas tank. this is so much more fun than working on ANOTHER S14... so simple, awesome designs/engineering, and just all around SUPER easy to work on, you only need like 5 tools... this thing's gonna be a blast with a new tank full of 93, maybe a separate fuel cell in the spare tire well for C16, looks like i can fit another 5-9 gallons in it. bye bye white car, herro organization... and btw, if it wasn't for Abe, y'all could keep Miami. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 days since my last update, no one gives a **** anyways LOL... SO, dash works in progress... none of the lights worked in the 75 dash (current focus car for build), because the bulb to socket contacts are just ******* old, and i didn't like the condition of the dash (uncracked, but still "sunburnt").. so i pulled it out, treated the sunburned dash, and ordered 10x 5 SMD LED bulbs in red for the gauges/AC panel/glovebox... stock lighting is this pale green, and VERY dim... so i figured the red LED's should prove bright enough, and not impair night driving at all.... if it's still not bright enough for my tastes, the i'll be fitting a full barrage of Autometer gauges to replaces the stockers (AM's pretty much bolt right in!!) anyways, here's the dash... Z guys would flip **** to have this dash, they go for around $1,000 in this condition... holy ****, what a mess!!! still a lot better than the parts cars dash! ALSO, i decided to get into my carbs to figure out what jetting i had in there, to match up to the motor with proper jets (if needed), come to find out after research, these Weber carbs, like everything else, are also hopped up... work station.... inlet side... 30mm choke, 45 aux venturis.. outlet side, deff needs some cleaning/refreshing... i also didn't like the size of the 330 Nardi Deep corn, nor the way it looked in the car (remember, no power steering in these cars guys)... so i traded it out for this 360mm nardi unit.... now currently running this vintage Dino wheel till the new nardi comes in... i didn't really like the redneck/halfassed push start in the yellow car.... so i ordered a Pivot unit from the motherland to replace it... can anyone read japanese? all the instructions are in jap. here's the third Z by the way... the rusted out parts car... still a ZILLION things i can use off it, so at $400 it was a good buy... be sourcing a LOT of **** out of this car, high pressure AC system (vs low pressure system in the 75), intior bits, head light buckets, fender etc etc etc... also might be picking up this cartech triple carb turbo manifold... not a very efficient design, but it's hyper rare, and i can run low boost to the L28E... all other parts would be OEM 280ZX turbo parts (manifold, turbo elbow/outlet etc etc etc), I'd have to fab my own piping, FMIC/MMIC etc etc... but it would make for a bad ass period correct turbo kit that the OG jap guys ran back in the day. will be finding out about the Cartech later today if it's mine or not... pretty much it for now!!! 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559240z Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 (edited) Nice R32 man , the z looks like a good foundation to start on. Edited October 24, 2011 by 559240z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitz17 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Looks like you got something good going on. Looks great so far! Can't wait to see the finished product. White Z's with flares are definitely money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboHLS30 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Hey, this is Shane, glad to see you made it over here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mal_tiempo Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 (edited) Same car, same town. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!! lol looks like you've got a lot of good things happening already. Did you grab that orange 280 off Main and 8th near a funeral home? I'm jealous if so, I know the owner and he might have just given it to me . Good luck on your next move(s)! Edited October 26, 2011 by mal_tiempo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 tuff z Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Welcome to Hybridz. Nice [past] builds and your z looks promising and I look forward to see it in final guise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank280zx Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Looking good man seems like a good base to start from, as for the n42 being race ready from the factory... Not really .. not even close! They are used allot in racing but the cars back in the day used P31 heads with bigger valves due to the higher compression. An N42 needs to be welded in the chambers and machined down agian .. further the ports need work .. Anyhow there is no datsun head USDM available that is "race ready" Read the forum also on the cartech piece, you might want to look for an HKS box, i run one on my dads car and it is allot better then the Lug style box you put your eye on. There is loads of info on here! so enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blackzenki82 Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 thanks guys for all the support... as far as the N42 goes, i'm just going off what i'm told... after more research, it looks like all heads are around the same, unless you're going for a full race head, for average street/daily use, most wouldn't see a difference. still somewhat new to these cars, but i'm learning. not much progress of late, been kind of hung up on the gas tank repair, which the shop just told me was unsalvageable. It appears as if i'll be shopping for cells now, but that's cool, been wanting to run -6 AN lines throughout the fuel system anyways, this just gives me the excuse to pull the trigger on the set up. one thing popped up, i traded out my Nardi 330 deep corn, for a Nardi 360 classic in wood, looks MUCH nicer and period in the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mal_tiempo Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 Dude, there's a place around this area that does custom fuel tanks and they have the template for our cars. It might be another option for you to consider, I know it's on the list if I ever go the FI route, maybe they could tweak it for a carbureted car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blackzenki82 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 i'm staying carb'd, but I'll prob just order a 10gal alum fuel cell, and cut and fit in the back. seems to be a cheaper/better alternative that making one custom to fit in the wheel well opening. But lo, there is SOME progess to be made. my LED's came in from Hong Kong so i can finally get working on my dash... feels good to be making progress... push button start is now installed (was going to put it in yellow car, but i felt it should go with the uncracked dash in my 75 orange car... oh, and i finally got the new to me Nardi 360 classic woodgrain installed, much better than the 330 deep corn, not having PS with a small wheel SUCKS, and the Nardi Classic looks a lot more period in the car... just a random cool shot of me and my buddies on the way to Bronson Speedway, yellow car is a BLAST on the high banks of that short track!!! so that's pretty much it for now, till i order the carpet kit, and fit my bride seat in the car... I'm going to swap over the AC system from the 77 parts car to the triple weber car (AC lines are HP hard lines, not the low pressure lines of the 75, might make for a more functional AC system with new ducting, and sealing foam. other than that, i just have to get the fuel cell fitted, lines ran, and order the carpet/vinyl kit to complete the interior. also, as a treat, i pulled the spart plugs, looks like the F54 L28 is fully built with billet pistons... WOOOOOT! i want to pull the oil pan off to see what crank i have in there, might be a pleasant surprise!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mal_tiempo Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Boyd's Welding has a template for a tank that fits in the stock location and uses the stock mounting straps, but the shape of the 280 tank is a bit different. Ah well, just an idea. Nice find on the pistons though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blackzenki82 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 (edited) Sent An hour ago Hi, Please follow the proper sentence structure rules, which require you to use your shift key to capitalize letters as stated in rule #5. Always try to use proper punctuation, spelling and capitalization. Capital letter / proper punctuation rule must be followed, as per SuperDan. http://forums.hybrid...tion=boardrules Please comply! Thank You HBZ Admin i'll keep trying. seriously, is this forum REALLY like this? oops, forgot caps, there again on this sentence too! For real though, I understand the need/want for proper grammar, punctuation and the like, but I didn't think I was all that far off? So I tend to forget to use my shift key to capitalize letters at the beginning of my sentences, is that really that big a deal here? I'm pretty sure every post I've made here is clearly "legible" to it's fullest extent, not at all hampered by the lack of a capital letter. Will I get banned for not using the shift key, not dotting my I's, and not crossing my T's on this forum?? (Two question marks not a good thing?) EDIT: I just noticed there's a "warn status" bar on this forum, and i got "warned" for not using the shift key? Seriously? moving on.... AC swap from the 77 to the 75 is a no go (i have about 534 new cuts in my hands to prove it hahah), the condenser box is much too large, so it looks as if I'll have to redo some of the existing stuff, to bring it back to a fully functional state (new foam, seals, ducting etc etc). So at this point, pretty much all I'm waiting on before tear down, is to see if the 240Z vinyl will work over the added hump in the tunnel of the 75, then I can go ahead and order the vinyl/carpet kit. Then pull it all back out, including the engine/trans, and start getting the shell prepped for paint and body. Edited November 7, 2011 by RB26powered74zcar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 i'll keep trying. Not here on this forum you won't.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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