A musician's therapist (The $300 Z)

[Zetsaz]

@Jboogsthethug, send me a picture of your mounts, either on pm or on a reply here. Need more ideas. Definitely don't feel like I need a huge amount of room, I'd just prefer to save a tiny bit of head room. Aside from my hair skimming the top, the whole setup is actually really comfortable for me. Distance to steering wheel, shifter position, leg angles, and the door top is perfect height and distance to comfortable rest my elbow on and still keep my left hand on the wheel haha

[Jboogsthethug]

So I've just put 2 1"x2" square bars going across where the stock bars are. SO far I've jsut tacked them in place, but I've realized I need to cut them out and redo it. I will probably lay them flat and weld them in for the lowest possible clearance, then weld nuts in place and just drop the seat on.

 

[Jboogsthethug]

this guy has a similar system if you scroll down to the bottom and look at his pics, it's hard to see but you can se ehe has 1x1 squares welded to the bottom with holes in them.

Overall a great thread jus tto read through too!

 

These are the actual seat mounts I bought, they were 20 for both pairs when I got them so they've gone up a bit in price:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Universal-Side-Mount-L-Brackets-Red-Pairs-for-Two-Bucket-Race-Seats-/122807180314?hash=item1c97e0dc1a

 

I'll send a pic when I finish install!

 

Edited July 6, 2018 by Jboogsthethug

[Zetsaz]

3 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

So I've just put 2 1"x2" square bars going across where the stock bars are. SO far I've jsut tacked them in place, but I've realized I need to cut them out and redo it. I will probably lay them flat and weld them in for the lowest possible clearance, then weld nuts in place and just drop the seat on.

 

This definitely seems like the easiest way to do it. Might just do this with some extenders between the rails to support a bit of the weight of the seats and bend the tabs on the end of the original rails. Only reason the bolts are at an angle is so the supports carry the weight of the seat and not the area they're bolted on. 

 

Those universal brackets mounted to the same area would probably be easy to bolt in to the stock location to be able to swap between seats if I ever decide to do that in the future

[Zetsaz]

Got the front suspension done. Rear is also about ready to bolt short of a modified drop mount for the finned cover and brake hoses since the old ones were dry and a couple were near impossible to pull. 

 

 

This week I'll be pulling the engine and at least bolting it in, and seat mounts. Once that's done it's just a matter of bleeding brakes, and stuff all the interior and wiring into the new shell at a minimum so I can finish working in it in Washington. Getting close! On with the project. New shell won't be Flintstones powered either, I'll power this thing to Washington myself if I have to

 

 

 

 

[seattlejester]

Oh, exciting >.<

[jpndave]

Nice work Omar! Things are really looking good. 

[Zetsaz]

Long day. Front lower mount of the diff wasn't bolting in. Dropped everything and realized that the passenger side bolts weren't even starting. Bought a tap and die set that I had needed anyway and chased the threads. Finally bolted up the rear, then bolted in the rear control arms and coilovers along with brakes. Only thing left is the sway bar and brake hoses which should be done tomorrow.

 

After lots of debating (which I do a lot of with pretty much every decision on this car) and using @seattlejester as a sounding board for the millionth time this month I decided to get the T3 drop mounts and dog bone to fit the finned cover. I could have run the smooth cover, or just cut the brace of the stock drop mounts and sourced the old makeshift braces a user here had made a while back, but I figured if it's something I'll be upgrading later, I might as well get it now. I was concerned that it wouldn't fit with the stock mustache bar since that's not really a weak point and I have better things to do than spend an extra $300 on bling. Wasn't fitting at first and I was feeling disappointed.... until I realized I had left the nuts on the mustache bar loose to line up the bolts up front. Serious facepalm moment. It just barely touches, tight fit, but it'll work.

 

Buttoning up the rear suspension and brake lines tomorrow, pictures to come. We're going places people! (Not literally... but places none the less)

[Zetsaz]

Major milestone today. All suspension components, all bushings, and all brake parts are now bolted in. Tested the emergency brake and it seems to be working great! All brake lines are in and new hoses on all 4 corners along with new hard lines on all 4 corners. Will double check that the ends are properly tightened and bleed the brakes this weekend. Pulling engine and transmission out tomorrow.

 

Enjoy this picture for now, it's very satisfying. I'll wipe down some of the grease from the parts I had roughly repainted next time I'm under there for fuel lines. 

 

[jpndave]

Nice Omar!

[Jboogsthethug]

nice man!! It's coming together!!!

 

[seattlejester]

Looks good!

[Zetsaz]

Post is much later than anticipated but the car is finally in Washington! I didn't get the chance to make seat rails with how long it took to strip out the electronics and interior from the other car, but I was able to at least bolt in the engine and transmission so I wouldn't be carrying them in a truck. Was very tempted to take the car on a full dolly, but the cost was on the virge of ridiculous so I settled for a dolly and disconnected the driveshaft. At least I know my rear end will hold together now that it's been put together haha. 

Some Pics of the car before and on arrival. Don't mind the mismatched silver on the fenders. I took some rustoleum and did a quick spray of them so the mismatching wouldn't drive me completely crazy. It's unforunately the only thing that didn't come with the shell along with seat rails. 

 

 

In other news, my girlfriend has been looking for a roadster for a long time. The prices on some were out of budget and others were just so rusted they weren't even worth looking at. She ended up finding a very nice example from a true roadster enthusiast near Snohomish. Aside from needing to be put together (there seems to be commom theme here....) the car is in great shape and has a new remachined 1600 engine with all new parts ready to be put together. Came with tons of extra goodies, I'm almost more excited to help her put it together than I am to do the work on my own car. I'm so indecisive sometimes I don't know how to move forward with things, especially anything engine related. Anyway, until it's moving my carport was the only place for it, sadly that meant potentially losing the only working space I have for my daily unil one or the other is moving... that is until I found out I could fit the whole thing sideways and still park my car behind it. Thank goodness the last owner included the tired dollies. 

 

 

 

That's it for now. Haven't gotten much work done since getting back due to some setup for work a long with some very long days running a high school band camp for my job. Next up is either an upgraded or just personally rebuilt brake master cylinder since I discovered mine was leaking really bad the morning I left. It messed up some of the not totally cured paint on the engine bay  After that will be seat rails, then wiring, then engine decisions.... which I'm not particuarly good at, so it might be a while haha. 

Edited August 21, 2018 by Zetsaz

[Zetsaz]

No huge updates just yet since the start of the school year is always excessively busy, but I've made some small progress.

 

Finished making seat rails, they're not super pretty, but I think my welds are decent considering it's the first time I've really welded anything for the car. Hoping take the seat tops off so I can test fit them and make sure that I get a reasonable angle front to back. Hopefully tomorow or thursday I'll have the rails welded into the car! Special thanks to @seattlejester for helping me figure out the best way to make something that'll work with the original seats.

 

Once that's done I'll start taping things off and maybe in a week or two I'll spray in the insulation. Very exciting stuff!

 

Pictures to come as I finish things up. 

[Jboogsthethug]

8 hours ago, Zetsaz said:

No huge updates just yet since the start of the school year is always excessively busy, but I've made some small progress.

 

Finished making seat rails, they're not super pretty, but I think my welds are decent considering it's the first time I've really welded anything for the car. Hoping take the seat tops off so I can test fit them and make sure that I get a reasonable angle front to back. Hopefully tomorow or thursday I'll have the rails welded into the car! Special thanks to @seattlejester for helping me figure out the best way to make something that'll work with the original seats.

 

Once that's done I'll start taping things off and maybe in a week or two I'll spray in the insulation. Very exciting stuff!

 

Pictures to come as I finish things up. 

6

nice man! You're pushing past me in the timeline ha, looking forward to the pics! I'm interested to see what you came up with. Also, aren't;t you like over 6' tall? You look pretty tall in the photos you've posted, how did you get the seats to work out on the original mounts without hitting your head?

[Zetsaz]

2 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

nice man! You're pushing past me in the timeline ha, looking forward to the pics! I'm interested to see what you came up with. Also, aren't;t you like over 6' tall? You look pretty tall in the photos you've posted, how did you get the seats to work out on the original mounts without hitting your head?

 

I'm actually JUST shy of 6'. I'm fairly thin, so it makes me look a bit taller than 6' sometimes. I don't have the stock mounts actually, but I fit fine in them in the old rusted shell, but even after adjustment my hair would always skim the ceiling which was annoying. In bad positioning my head would touch just a bit. I'm only trying to get an inch or two lower out of the mounts so I'm totally comfortable while driving. I actually really like the height for everything else, just my hair always touching was annoying. If I ever modify them for different seats I'll have even more room since most aftermarket mounts are lower profile and the seat bottoms often are too. 

[Jboogsthethug]

1 hour ago, Zetsaz said:

 

I'm actually JUST shy of 6'. I'm fairly thin, so it makes me look a bit taller than 6' sometimes. I don't have the stock mounts actually, but I fit fine in them in the old rusted shell, but even after adjustment my hair would always skim the ceiling which was annoying. In bad positioning my head would touch just a bit. I'm only trying to get an inch or two lower out of the mounts so I'm totally comfortable while driving. I actually really like the height for everything else, just my hair always touching was annoying. If I ever modify them for different seats I'll have even more room since most aftermarket mounts are lower profile and the seat bottoms often are too. 

I am 6' exactly and I've had the same problem. I am tryign to make it so I'll fit in the car and still be able to pass racing specs but I'm supposed to be able to have 2" between my helmet and a roll cage with a helmet on so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to make that happen. I worry about going too low because it becomes very hard to see what the duece I'm even doing when I'm so low ha. pain in the butt! I like the stock height too, but I know if I ever rolled it my head is hitting everything the roof hits ha.

 

[jpndave]

Nice progress on the project!

 

As far as room in these cars, my experience ~6' similar to Omar, is that they are quite roomy. For that era from Japan they were definitely made for a US sized market. It's one of the few cars I've owned that I don't just run the sliders all the way back. Seating is reclined but it's a sports car and should be.

[jpndave]

Helmet to bar clearance I can see being an issue. Setting the bar back far enough would help but the low roofline could make that tight. I haven't tracked my car and the bar is still coming so my experience is from all the years prior to teardown.

[Jboogsthethug]

I realized I read the SCCA's rules incorrectly. In the SCCA's Appendix C.A.2: 

Quote

The top of the roll bar shall not be below the top of the driver’s helmet when the driver is in normal driving position, and shall not be more than 6 inches behind the driver. Exception: For Modified Category Specials (Section 18.4), the bar must extend at least 2.0” (50.8 mm) above the driver’s helmet in the normal seated position and a head restraint keeping the driver’s head from going under or behind the roll bar is required. It is strongly suggested that all roll bars extend at least 3.0” (76.2 mm) above the driver’s helmet. In case of two-driver cars, both drivers must be within the roll bar height requirement, however only one (1) driver must be within 6.0” (152.4 mm) of the roll bar. In a closed car or an open car with a removable OE hardtop which is equipped with a roll bar/cage, it must be as close as possible to the interior top of the car

In the modified category specials you need it to be 2" above your helmet with something there to make sure your head doesn't go back behind the bar in a rollover, but in general application they basically want to make sure the bar is as close to the body as possible so nothing (arms, fingers, etc.) can get stuck between the bar and cage. That does make it easier ha. It clarifies this further in Appendix C.I:
 

Quote

Braces and portions of the main hoop subject to contact by the driver’s or passenger’s helmet, as seated normally and restrained by seat belt and harness, must be padded with a non-resilient material such as Ethafoam® or Ensolite® or other similar material with a minimum thickness of 1/2" (0.50", 12.7 mm).

Making it clear that you are able to have the bar low enough to contact your helmet, but if it is it needs the foam. Sorry for the earlier misinformation about needing 2" between the head and roll cage.