Rick's 260z Build Thread

[i2ickei242]

The car is a 1974 Datsun 260z built 03/74, the car was purchased by "Rudy" who was the owner of City Datsun in Downtown Youngstown, Ohio. He purchased the car sometime before 1980 and intended to fix it up for his son to drive. The car was originally the light brown color and also automatic, I have to imagine not many of these cars came from the factory with an automatic transmission, but I could be wrong. The car was found by my uncle who told my dad about it, when my dad went to see it, the car was stripped minus the engine and in full primer. My dad bought it pretty cheap and converted it to a 4 speed manual and had it painted black.

 

My dad had the car until 1990, I was 5 years old and I can remember crying when he sold it to my cousin with 65,xxx miles on it to buy my mom a computer. My cousin then basically stuck the car in his back garage and there it sat until now other then him having a "buddy" repaint it twice (who did a terrible job). He did put a different set of wheels on it and roughly 4000 more miles.

 

I happily purchased the car off of him April 6th for next to nothing and am over anxious to get it as clean and reliable as I can before possibly moving forward with modifications. I would love a lsx engine but I feel like an OEM+ style, while staying period correct suites this car best especially for resale value. Anyway that's the back story and these are the pictures of the progress so far.

 

The day I picked it up.

Here she sleeps next to my 500whp 04 Jetta GLI.

Ripped out carpet and scrubbed and vacuumed out all the mess, put the rear back together.

Air was not circulating through the vents...

My attempt to 3 stage wax and buff the hood back to acceptable condition...fail!

Today I bought a new battery and terminals, but I couldn't bare put new clean parts in the disgusting engine bay. SOO, I decided to clean it!

 

That is all for now, I am deciding whether or not to pull the engine and have it professionally painted or just rattle can it until later on down the road when I have more of the engine work completed so I have less risk of dropping a tool and nicking the paint.

[i2ickei242]

Well I must say I thought there would be at least one comment...Oh well, the show must go on!

 

Did the cleaning and wiped the engine bay down with mineral spirits about 5 times until I thought it was completely clean. Then proceeded to spray it with VHT black caliper paint, I figured it would be sturdy enough to hold up under the circumstances. Also cleaned and sprayed the relays and such with silver Rustoleum hammered finish...they came out decent but I think it cheapens up the engine bay because its clearly spray paint. Valve cover is going VHT krinkle red, engine block will be cleaned and repainted "Datsun Blue", head cleaned and header painted with VHT heat paint. I hope to polish up a few things here and there and rebuild the carburetors to finish it off. Looking for a somewhat cheap polished aluminum radiator even tho the original copper one is in amazing condition. Going to replace valve cover, intake/exhaust manifold, thermostat housing and thermostat gaskets and vacuum lines, coolant/heater hoses. Also got a new starter, alternator, plug wires, plugs, oil/filter, battery and battery cables/terminals.

 

Is there anything else you guys/gals (imaginary people on this board) suggest I do "while I'm at it"?

 

[i2ickei242]

I also found this beauty in a near by pick-n-pull, 02/85 Nissan 300zx turbo with ~110,000 miles on it. I know the rear differential is an upgrade but I'm not exactly sure what the advantage is...it has the same 3.56 gears that my factory automatic differential has in it. I think this one may have the LSD installed since its a "turbo" model but I will have to do some more research because I am sure no one will chime it to tell me yes or no. They also have an early model 300zx non-turbo with a 3.70 rear differential, but if it has no LSD its probably not worth the time spent swapping.

 

Edited April 14, 2012 by i2ickei242