1973 240z Hobby Car/SCCA Autocrosser

[mr_han_solo]

Hello everyone,

 

Although I have been posting on here for several months, I wanted to have a lot of pictures and progress on my car before I put up my build thread. I already have a third-gen Camaro that I rebuilt, and a 240z Autocrosser/Track car was next on my list. I started searching for a local car (Alabama) in August of 2013. After several craigslist ads I came upon a listing for a 1973 240z and a 1975 280z parts car for $400. The 1973 wasn't in the best condition, but car wise it was complete. The guy lived over an hour away, so I had to make two separate trips a month apart to get the two cars.

 

 

At least the spare tire area is good right?

 

After I got her home the first thing was to get it running so I could move it around the yard and in and out of the garage once winter came. After lots of struggle, and a PO who didn't know anything about wiring, I got her fired up. Gauges weren't wired right, and no lights at all, but that will be taken care of in the future. Then I had to work on the window hardware so I could actually get the window to roll up. It was during this time that I noticed the drivers side window was broken. Thankfully I had the 280z on hand by this time, and used it's door instead.

 

The next step was to wash her and start the bodywork:

 

Unlike what seems like a majority of S30 loved I liked the 280z taillights over the 240z style. I then began to fabricate the rear to accept the 280z lights. This started with a cardboard stencil cut to shape with holes in to so I would know where to drill and put the studs on the lights themselves. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of test fit and cut with the lights themselves!

 

 

I think I will stop here for the day. Comments, criticisms, and questions are welcomed.

[hwvigo]

Off to a good start, good luck with the build and have fun.

[mr_han_solo]

Now it's time to replace those old rusted out floorpans.

 

It was also during this time that my $50 used eBay spoiler came in:

[mr_han_solo]

After the floor pans were replaced it was time to move onto undercoating them and the inner fenders. I should make note of the following:

 

In a stock 240, (and i'm sure the same goes for a 260 and 280), the wires controlling the tail lamps, defroster, power antenna, fuel pump, and fuel gauge run along the passnger floorboard before going into the inner rear wheel well/B pillar. To change this I took a small hole saw and made a LESS than 1" hole in the front of the side frame. From all of the research I have done making a hole shouldn't be a problem as long as it's small. I ended up running these wires through the hole and into the rear of the car vie the rear wheel well/B pillar. Looks very clean.

 

As I said before, I undercoated the floor pans and the inner wheel fenders. Here is the first coat:

 

Inside if the actual fenders was undercoated as well. Here it is bondoed and hung:

 

Since I was going with a carbed small block chevy, I wanted to trash the evap system. This would clean up the engine bay and the trunk area. Fortunately, I found a diagram for a Europe/UK S30 that showed how the tank lines should be routed without the evap tank installed. Here are some pictures for this portion of the project.

 

Here you can see where the top two vent lines were cut, grinded and welded:

 

This image shows the top vent line on the filler neck. This line exits the car through the existing hole and connects with the remaining vent line on the tank with a T connector. The third end of the T is just left open as a vent. I  made sure that this t-connector vent was higher than the tank itself so I wouldn't have any spillage issues. That said, when I fill it up, I still don't know if I will be able to fill it like normal or fill it until the gas spills out of the vent itself. As I said before I modeled this just after the European system which didn't use an evap tank. I didn't inquire however, if it was still possible to fill the tank up to the gas cap or not. Time will tell.

 

Here is my Holley Blue mounted:

Edited March 3, 2014 by mr_han_solo

[RebekahsZ]

You will definitely have gas spilling out on left turns. Better to find sole thing to plug that hole. If your gas cap is vented, you don't need that line at all. A 3/4" copper cap (for soldering on to cap a water line) that you get at Lowes is a tight squeeze but will fit if you put some soap on it. A better option might be to epoxy a cap on the white plastic tube that usually goes in the filler neck. Just don't drop either one into the tank!!

[mr_han_solo]

You will definitely have gas spilling out on left turns. Better to find sole thing to plug that hole. If your gas cap is vented, you don't need that line at all. A 3/4" copper cap (for soldering on to cap a water line) that you get at Lowes is a tight squeeze but will fit if you put some soap on it. A better option might be to epoxy a cap on the white plastic tube that usually goes in the filler neck. Just don't drop either one into the tank!!

 

Yeah, I may just end up getting a sole/vent thing for that line. However, I plumbed it just like it showed on the UK/Europe diagram, and it didn't show a sole/vent. Wish I would have saved that diagram.

 

Edit: Found it! It was in this thread. Memeber by the name of Morbias talked about that face that UK cars didn't have it and what lines could be plugged.

Edited March 2, 2014 by mr_han_solo

[RebekahsZ]

I don't know why my spell checker changed "something" to sole/vent thing.  Re-read my post with "something" in that spot instead.  BTW-lets try to get together sometime this summer since we are both in the same state ( I know it is 7 hours top to bottom ).

Edited March 2, 2014 by RebekahsZ

[mr_han_solo]

I don't know why my spell checker changed "something" to sole/vent thing.  Re-read my post with "something" in that spot instead.  BTW-lets try to get together sometime this summer since we are both in the same state ( I know it is 7 hours top to bottom ).

 

At yes, it does make better sense now. I thought you were talking about the tank vents you can get for a gas tank itself and fitting it to the hose somehow. I actually live near Gadsden so I'm not too far away from the Huntsville/Decatur/Florence area.

[mr_han_solo]

Next I wanted to put some white face gauges in the car, I looked around and saw that it would be in the $45-$50 range to purchase the white face kits, so I decided to make my own. I still have the .PSD file if anyone wants a copy for their own gauges. I also LED the entire dash. I am pretty happy with the result.

 

[tamo3]

Looks so bright and nice!

Do you have more photo of LED installation?

[mr_han_solo]

Looks so bright and nice!

Do you have more photo of LED installation?

 

Thanks man! No, unfortunately I dont. Honestly, it's pretty simple and straightforward. If your just wanting to replace the LED's you dont even have to take the gauges out of the dash. Just find the wire going to each gauge, (red/black i think) and it will comes to a plastic piece. Pull on this plastic piece, sometimes you have to pull hard, don't worry it wont break. once it pops out press and turn to remove the bulb. Do the opposite to install the led. I got my LED's from ebay. BA9S Xenon White High Powered LED bought them for like $10 and had them shipped from China. They work great, zero problems. The only issue is that they don't dim. I mean they will get dimmer, but not in the sense that conventional bulbs dim. 

 

[mr_han_solo]

I decided to go ahead and put new brakes all around, since this had to be done anyways. After much thought, discussion, and forum posts, I decided to stick with the stock drums and Toyota 4X4 front calipers. I felt like these would give me the most bang for my buck at the current time. This was also the time I decided to throw on some stainless steel brake lines.

 

After the installation the UPS man brought me my new bumper. I then went to work mounting it. Now, it's not exactly the way I think it would usually be mounted. I wanted a bumper that could be removed and put back on very quickly if need be. I went to Lowes and purchased 6 stainless steel carriage bolts and wing nuts. After drilling the corresponding holes in the bumper I did a test mount. It's safe to say that the entire bumper can be unbolted and removed in less that 3 minutes. I haven't put my brake ducts in yet, but I'm expecting that to add a minute or two to the installation and removal times.

 

Here is how she set just before a wipe down and primer:

 

Next time, paint!

[RebekahsZ]

I may rescue my car from the rollbar builder Friday and go to the Autocross in Huntsville on Saturday. Call me anytime 256-366-4685. If you come, I can give you a joy ride around the course.

[mr_han_solo]

Do you autocross with the Tennessee Valley/Huntville SCCA? I have been planning on joining the Birmingham Club (ALSCCA), but Hunstville is just as close. Is your 240 in the XP class? From asking on the Birmingham Board, and reading the ruels, it seems like that is where my car will fall. Do you know if that is a competitive class in the Huntsville division? I know from looking at past results with the ALSCCA it seems like only 3 or 4 cars compete in XP in Birmingham.

[morbias]

To further clarify the fuel vent hose routing; of the two small hoses that come out of the T-connector on the main filler pipe, one connects up to the top of the tank on UK cars and the other vents to atmosphere out the bottom of the car next to where the filler hose exits the body. First though it loops up from the T-connector and is hooked up to where the rear wiring harness runs along the side of the tailgate, then loops downward through the bottom of the car. If you don't do that you will probably have fuel spilling out everywhere

[RebekahsZ]

From what I hear, Huntsville has the better facility. There are only 2-3 cars in the XP category. Don't sweat the competition unless you plan to make a religion of autocross at the expense of family and church. Just come race me! I have only raced at Huntsville. Not going tomorrow. Wanna get the roll bar done. I think you have the airdam mounted wrong. The airdam mounts behind the headlight buckets not in front. Unless you just want it that way.

[mr_han_solo]

To further clarify the fuel vent hose routing; of the two small hoses that come out of the T-connector on the main filler pipe, one connects up to the top of the tank on UK cars and the other vents to atmosphere out the bottom of the car next to where the filler hose exits the body. First though it loops up from the T-connector and is hooked up to where the rear wiring harness runs along the side of the tailgate, then loops downward through the bottom of the car. If you don't do that you will probably have fuel spilling out everywhere

 

This sounds like how mine is mounted. Then again I could be wrong. I've gotta drop the tank again tomorrow so I will double check how everything is routed.

 

 

From what I hear, Huntsville has the better facility. There are only 2-3 cars in the XP category. Don't sweat the competition unless you plan to make a religion of autocross at the expense of family and church. Just come race me! I have only raced at Huntsville. Not going tomorrow. Wanna get the roll bar done. I think you have the airdam mounted wrong. The airdam mounts behind the headlight buckets not in front. Unless you just want it that way.

 

Yeah, I looked a mounting it both ways and that way is easier to get on and off without scratching all of the paint, plus it's less to handle putting it on that way. I found that the urethane scratches a whole lot easier than the headlight buckets.

 

Here comes the paint. Okay, here goes. Since I'm trying to do things "different" on this car I decided to mimic this paint job. http://www.rickwrench.com/index79mas...llarpaint.html

Okay, I know what your going to say, Rustoleum? C'mon man. Well I will be honest, I had my doubts when I started too. I just wanted to see if I could get the results that guy got, except I added a twist. Spray paint. Yep, I did my base with Rustoleum spray paint. Honestly, it came out better than I expected. The color is Satin Italian Olive, and it's $3.77 a can at the local Wal-Mart.The first thing I did was roll/brush on some Evercoat Dura-Build primer that I had left over. Wasn't that bad, and sanded like normal. Found out the hard way that you still have to wear a respirator when brushing it on though, don't even ask me about my headache.

 

Anyways here is it with the base coat:

Does it look splotchy in areas? Yeah, just stick with me though,and remember that this is mainly an autocross and track car.

 

Since I'm putting a SBC in this car I felt it was only appropriate to put a bowtie on the underside of the hood:

At this point the color coat was actually looking better than I expected so I decided to go the extra mile to protect it. I went down to the local auto paint store and bought a bunch of the two stage gloss clear in a can. They have a little button in the bottom that you press to release the hardener. Shot the entire car with these then I sanded with 600, 1000, and 200. Then I hit the entire car with a light hand buff with rubbing compound.

 

Here is how it looked:

Perfect? No, but I didn't expect it to come out half as good as it did. I can't wait to see how it looks once I move to a higher polishing compound/wax with my electric buffer. Also, the good news is that if I ever scratch or chip it, just gotta respray.

[mr_han_solo]

Next is relocating the battery to the rear compartment.



I honestly thought this would be tougher than it was. First I cut the metal out of the current compartment. This was honestly the hardest part, and in the process I knicked my brake line. DOH!

Then I measured and cut a cardboard template.



I then made a sheet metal box with the same dimension of the cardboard box. Hit it with the welder and welded it in. I then filled the seams with caulk for good measure:


Undercoating on the outside and john deere enamel primer and blitz black paint on the inside:


Got 84" of battery cable from Oreilly's and ran it to the front of the car and connected it to the starter. Ran the ground (-) to the inside of the drivers side compartment and bolted it there. Dropped a battery in and everything worked!


Works great, and makes the engine bay look a lot cleaner. Not bad for a days work either.

[RebekahsZ]

Looking great.  Where are you on the motor?  One of my buddies is putting a 350sbc/T350 in a RX7 for the sole purpose of running XP against me at Huntsville.  We hope to be present at the May race.  You gonna be ready?

[mr_han_solo]

Block and heads are going to the machine shop Friday or next Monday. I plan to have the car ready to go by the first week in May. That said, I'm really wanting to get some time just driving and getting used to it as well as working out any kinks. I also want to get some experience with the Solo scene from the spectator standpoint to see how everything works. I'm too afraid of jumping right in and looking like an idiot. I'm shooting for my first solo run in July. That said with the news you just told me, I may have to rush things.