78 RB26 260Z

[EF Ian]

How the car is sitting, metalwork, welding and painting should begin on Monday, slower than I'd like, but what can I do:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Repainted the new shafts as I wasn't happy with the paint on them, also painted the cv's in a funky blue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bought some nice wheel nuts, they have to be open as I've got extended wheel studs all round. I had bought some cheap chrome ones but not all of them threaded on nicely and they galled badly on the wheels. These ones are very light (only 26 grams each) look great and the top of the seats spin freely from the main body so that they don't damage the wheel and allow equal torqueing all round:

 

 

 

 

 

 

New clutch master cylinder as my original one had seen better days, works fine but was quite corroded at the back:

 

 

 

Battery cable cut to the correct lenths, battery mounted power shut off switch, some more random wiring and a steering wheel cover to keep my new wheel clean:

 

 

 

 

Rebuilt my steering rack today and mounted it on the crossmember:

 

 

 

 

 

Got the engine built back up:

 

 

 

 

Started rebuilding my hub/suspension/control arm:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Couldn't resist trying a coilover in it:

 

 

 

[EF Ian]

I fitted my battery today, could have been neater if I'd used ring terminals at the battery, but I wanted the negative terminal kill switch and at the postive side I wanted to be able to have a cover over the exposed live parts;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need to try and find a smaller positive terminal cover.

 

 

 

 

 

Fitted my fan:

 

 

 

Fitted new bearings to my hubs and pressed in the ARP studs, the painted them and mounted my brake discs:

 

[EF Ian]

Finished off building my driveshafts today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fitted my hubs followed by my brakes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather happy with how its all looking, can't wait to get them fitted.

 

[EF Ian]

Started to fix/repair/strengthen the front end today.

 

3mm plate should add a fair amount of strength to the chassis:

 

 

 

 

 

Once both sides are done and the few small holes from rust damage have been replaced with new metal the camber plates should be getting welded in along with the strut brace brackets and finish off welding up some unused holes. Should be on a fair bit by tomorrow night, hoping to have it ready for paint on Thursday and after that It will be off to get my stainless steel brake lines fitted and the adjustable prop valve installed.

[EF Ian]

 

My remaining tyres finally turned up on Friday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got the welding almost finished today, welded up any remaining unused holes, just the camber plates left to do tomorrow:

 

 

 

 

Added a strengthening bar to the front:

 

 

 

[EF Ian]

Got the welding finished today:

 

 

 

 

Started by aligning, marking and cutting out the holes for the camber plates, then welding the camber plates in:

Top:

 

 

 

And Bottom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then ground the edges smooth so it looks like it came that way from the factory:

 

 

 

 

And added the brackets for my strut brace:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Added a plate to strengthen the anti-roll bar mounting position:

 

 

 

And moved my washer bottle slightly, not far from where it was but it should look better like this:

 

 

 

  

[EF Ian]

New brake pads arrived yesterday so I fitted them to the wilwoods today, as from what I've heard that pads that come with the wilwoods stop you ok, but are a bit noisy and not great cold. I use Hawk HP+ in my Civic and they are great (apart from the dust) so thought I'd give them a go on the Z.

 

 

 

 

Got a good coat of primer on today, quick rubdown and she will be ready for paint

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EF Ian]

Bay got sprayed on Tuesday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EF Ian]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2013 by EF Ian

[EF Ian]

Suspension is on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EF Ian]

Most parts are back in the bay now apart from the engine, that will go in once brake lines are done. Body panels back on and properly aligned, airdam mounted and diffuser plate made.

 

 

 

Airdam is to be painted blue but I thinks it also looks quite cool in black so I'm considering keeping it black.

 

If you look behind the airdam you can see a big gap between the airdam and the radiator panel, this is bad for airflow and creates a lot of turbulence. To sort this out and improve airflow to the radiator and eventually also the intercooler I got an aluminium plate made up, this will be painted satin black. I think it improves the looks aswell as the airflow.

 

 

 

 

[1 tuff z]

Feckin gargeous [trying to phonetically type my cousins Galway accent]!

[nullbound]

Great work and great progress!  Subscribed.

[Nelsonian]

Absolutely love this build!!

[EF Ian]

Thanks guys

 

 

 

 

I'm still having trouble deciding to go blue or stay black with the airdam, what do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news, this car is definitely going RB, because I've just bought a fully forged RB26 with lots of Tomei goodies.        Engine will be good for over 700HP, but I'll never run that much, hoping to have a 450HP map and a second high boost map at the flick of a switch to change to something like 550hp. I'll be limited to just over 600hp by my fuel pump anyway.

[RebekahsZ]

Beautiful car. Whatever color you do with your air dam, make it a color that you can repaint easily. Air dams get smacked on things. I left mine un painted (dirty black color right out of the box) because I smack it every time I load onto my trailer and my tie down straps rub on it.

[EF Ian]

Thanks, Gone blue in the end but I'm going to put some 3M clear film over it and see if that helps protect the paint a bit longer.

[EF Ian]

Only photos I have of the brake lines at the moment, I will try and get bigger ones. They are looking good I think, it was definitely the right choice to use polished stainless hardlines, they look so much better than copper or cunifer ones.

 

 

[EF Ian]

Due some updates, most of the work is done: diff mount, cv shafts and conversion flanges, billet stub axles, rear brakes, prop valve, suspension, brake lines and engine are all fitted.

 

 

 

Not so good photos, when I get better ones I'll put them up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still got some wiring to do, fusible links to be changed for modern fuses, fan to be wired in, airdam and bumper to be fitted , rear strut brace altered to fit, fuel lines to connect up and that's about it.

 

Should also have turbos (HKS GT-SS) and gearbox sorted now too.

[Nelsonian]

Your car looks fantastic in that blue. What size Rotas are you running in the front? I like the stiffening bar you added in the front and am wondering if the Rota group buy 17"x9" would fit with it.