KillerZombie Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) So i fell in love with Z cars when i first saw the silver one with white stripes on the cover of modified magazine about a year ago. ever since then iv been researching what it would take to build an RB powered z car. So after a year of researching every night(you can never do to much homework)i went out and bought an early 260z. Which is the 240 chassis but with slightly different components than the 240.It was $2,500 for the 260z and since this is my first complete rebuild i decided to buy another rolling 280z parts car $300(for when i skrew something up or just plain need a part). I drove it around for a week then had to order a fuel pump...another week went by and had to replace a starter, then the battery, then had to do the starter relay, then had total light system failure! it came down to old wiring needing to be changed and needing a new combo switch(still haven't found a 260 combo switch..any help?). Then finally 2 months later complete engine failure with a clutch slave bearing rattle. So it just seemed like time to start the rebuild and swap. Now im starting with suspension and will be doing body work while i wait for parts in the mail. Jacked up the front end: Instantly felt MAJOR play from the ball joint and tie rod end, for each had no bushings what so ever. In fact all the rubber (that was still left) was biodegrading at the touch. now since im in here its a good time to bring this stuff back to life and give it some chassis black! I used a torch to get the bushings out of the control arms. I found it was best to just point the torch at one spot on the bushing for about a min. Then take pliers to pull the sleeve and a wooden dowel to push the burnt bushing out. now the first one i did i lit it up and let it burn. I Then found it was better to basically char it to powder then push it out while the metal was still very hot so there isnt any goo left inside. it still needs a little bit of sand paper clean up but not as mush as letting it burn out slowly and just turn to goo. fyi use a respirator. here is a pic of the control arms right after being wire brushed. id like you guys to see what it looks like befor the rust converter because im amazed with this stuff. I put some eastwood rust converter on them along with the brush guard and a few other pieces. pic on that tomorrow. THE SHOPPING LIST: Complete poly bushing set from black dragon (the summit one was wrong for the 260z). 2 oem strut rod bushings from moog(dont do rear rod bushings in poly!!!) Ball joints from Moog wheel bearing grease+white lithium cotter pins KYB shocks front and rear Strut time. loosen the main strut nut before removing the 3 nuts on the strut tower. and hold the spring on both sides with something. I did the first one with just one clamp holding the spring not thinking that it would just bend it into a c shape..that was a scary moment. !springs=bombs be careful! From there the gland nut gets removed and new cartridge installed, very easy to do. Cleaned out the top strut bearing and re-lubed with wheel bearing grease. will be assembled shortly once i rent a spring compressor from napa in doing this i found out why my car dives right under hard braking. the left brake line is clogged, with rust i imagine. it also has rips in the rubber so a complete braking over haul is on its way. The 240sx calipers, and 280zx 15/16 master, and 280z booster from my parts car, are all on my bench The polys just arrived im starting with the steering coupler. now im sure many people can tell you that its a F#<%in B!#<^ to take apart and even more to get the 2 dang bolts back in! The 2 bolts that hold the shaft to the steering coupling are blocked by the u-joint connection so its a lot of wiggling and not so kind persuasion to get them in or out. My fix: flip the dang things and put lower profile locking nuts on them. the bolts are to long even with the lower profile nut so it just took 2 seconds of grinding and now i can easily take it apart in the future. i used the old nut as my guide and it keeps the threads nice in case of drunkenness. i ran out of time but ill get back to the polys tomorrow As for the hood i had started work on fixing the rust issues and dents i plan on repainting the car black so i stripped the whole hood to metal. Always clean between steps...Steps taken: 1)guide coat 2) body hammers 3,4,5)All metal filler 6)bondo to feather the edges..thats the right way to use it people! 7) rust converter..even with bare "rust free" metal there is flash rust that you cannot see so do the steps to get a lasting paint job. 8)sand smooth and sprayed a 2 part epoxy black primer now i had trouble getting the cheep spray gun to spray even. so there is such thing as going too cheep on a primer gun. ill have to sand out my runs and respray. im very happy with how tough the primer turned out though. ill get back to it soon when im looking for stuff to do. for now though i have polys Now while im changing brake lines i might as well do fuel lines. im going with a 3/8 hard line and -6AN braided line with a fuel cell and bosch 044 set up. Now i get a lot of questions on why not a surge tank or using the original tank with a baffle and sump mod. Here is my answer: To go that rout on a car this old is risky without first cleaning and sealing the tank. which professionally done is $250-$300 and trust me you dont want to do it yourself. Then if you do a sump kit it is around $45 plus a bit of luck on not having any pin holes after you weld the sucker up. or if you go the surge tank its the $250 plus 2 fuel pumps $300 and the tank $45. i bought my Aluminum 15 gal baffled fuel cell with a sump and sender for $212 plus quick filler pvc hose and lic plate filler $120 . Im not trying to bash the other 2 methods, im just on a budget and it saved me $150 to do the fuel cell plus its SCCA legal now. ON ITS WAY: Diff seals-moog bosch pump-72.9 psi Fuel filters-earls 40micron 75psi Fuel line 3/8 summit 20ftbrake line 3/8 summit 20ftbraided line -6AN summit fittings summit,jegs,earls grommets fuel cell summit quick fill cell attachment-rci and a few other goodies One box showed up, many more to come Edited April 5, 2012 by KillerZombie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerZombie Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Just noticed how huge the pictures are. ill try to figure out how to shrink them down for you guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 There are no pics of your Z either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Just noticed how huge the pictures are. ill try to figure out how to shrink them down for you guys Please do it quickly before your ability to edit your post expires. I will have to remove them. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/98611-posting-pictures-please-read/ thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5thgenluder Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I use picresize.com. Looking good. Lots of fun progress. I'm doing suspension this spring as well. Keep the updates coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerZombie Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Another box of goodies After i got off work i spent my evening going through my front suspension components. I started checking for damage and cleaning them up for paint. This is after the converter. It hardens into a blackish purple coating that can be sanded smooth then sprayed over. The brush guard needs another coat since it had thicker rust. It should look good soon though. Going through the suspension pieces i noticed that one of the strut-rods was bent at the top(middle). So grabbed one off my 280 parts car to switch it out. Getting the junked 280z is like having a salvage yard out back, i love it! Invested in some electric tools today that made cleaning metal child's play! Before: After: It started to get to late to run the tools so i called it a night. I have the next couple of days off so look out for more post soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KillerZombie Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 While swapping strut cartridges i came to one that seamed to be welded in, it was so tight. I was just about to get the drill, to put a hole in the bottom so i could punch the cartridge out. Then i noticed that the right front strut was bent (same side that had the bent strut rod). The mount was also impregnated and imposable to put back on the car. So in 8 days i should have some new ones.(the 280z ones are even worse) I grabbed a strut from the 280z and stripped it down and cleaned both of them up. I use industrial strength simple grean. Its bio degratable and very very strong. I do 25% simple g and 75% water for most things. If its really grimy ill do a 50-50 split. Just be careful with soaking stuff in a strong mix. I soaked some hardware over night one time and by morning it had eaten of the finish. Today i got a lot of painting done. It was mid 80's and 8% humidity in sunny San Diego making the paint dry so fast that i got about 8 coats done today. the new master too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook&skylined Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Great start to the project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedge Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Great keep up the good work ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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