Stock Car Mafia's '78 280z LS2 Build

[Stock Car Mafia]

Nascar is starting!  Time for me to start growing the mullet...

 

I decided to fix the gas tank mount in the car.  I welded the tabs flush with the frame and everything looked level.  After I was finished (many weeks ago) I notice the front of the tank sat lower by about an inch than the rear.  It just didn't look right.  I ended up cutting off the rear tabs and lowering them by about 3/4" to get the tank parallel with the car.  

 

Since I had the cage out, it was time to grind the outer welds.  3 or so hours later it was done while watching the Daytona 500 .  I was able to throw down some paint as well so I will have to post up pictures later.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

 

 

 

[Stock Car Mafia]

I am going to bring the transmission and the driveshaft in to a shop tomorrow for them to look at it.  They are thinking it could possibly be the output bushing but hell, they will have to tools to find out more than I ever will.  I just keep staring at it in my garage.  

Edited January 19, 2017 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

Got the call from the tranny shop.  It turns out that the slip yoke in fact is not a true fit for the T56 out of my car.  He did say he found a couple output shafts from a 4L60-E and those fit in perfectly.  The splines on the yoke were a few thousandths off, so he took the time to work with a dye grinder and sander to get the slip yoke to go on.

 

I will be contacting the manufacturer after I get the bill for this and see if they will be willing to offer anything for me.  I won't say much now as we are all human, but things like this can be quite frustrating.  Hell, I am just happy to make progress and move forward!

[Stock Car Mafia]

Didn't have too much time last night but with getting the transmission and drive shaft back I wanted to get the new clutch components put on the motor.  I took the time to clean up the mating surfaces of the block and tranny.  

 

 

With a 12" clutch, I had to press (hammer) in the dowel pins to align the pressure plate.  I ordered a set of GM flywheel bolts so all I had to do was torque down in a 1-4-6-2-5-3 sequence and torque in three phases: 15-37-74 ft/lbs.

 

 

I used the alignment tool to set the clutch disc.  Don't forget to clean the flywheel and pressure plate really well with break cleaner to remove any machining grease from the surfaces.

 

 

 

The pressure plate is guided on with the three pins and red loctite was added to the 6 bolts.  They are torqued in the same sequence above and in 3 torque phases as well:  20-40-52 ft/lb.

 

 

I don't know why this broke off but the top dowel snapped off when adding the plate.  The other two helped align the plate, so I don't think I am risking too much by still running it with a broke dowel.  Of course the broken piece was removed to prevent further damage

 

 

Next was getting the slave cylinder ready for install.  I am using the Russell clutch adapter fittings from Summit (RUS-640281).  They come as a pair but I only used one.  I can sell the other one to anyone who is interested.

 

 

The clutch line adapter was easy to remove by knocking out the small pin that keeps the adapter in place.  I removed the OEM o-ring as well and used the one supplied with the Russell fitting as I am not sure how similar the two are.

 

 

 

A 12 mm wrench takes care of the bleed line adapter.  

 

 

I purchased a 36" remote speedbleeder from Tick Performance and the adapter and crush washer were supplied.

 

 

The clutch line was bought from Summit and is Russell brand (RUS-655090).

 

 

I took the lines back off to install the slave.  I added a bit of blue loctite on the bolts just to be safe and used the proper German method for torque:  gutentite.  

 

 

For anyone that may be wondering I bought this flywheel holder tool off of Ebay (Screamingchickenauto) for 25 bucks.  I was going to weld up a tool of my own prior to getting this but finding time to source out some teeth and to fabricate it....I said screw it and just shipped this to my door.  Came in real handy and the bolts are supplied.  

 

 

The starter shield was bolted up and then the starter was torqued to 37 ft/lb.

 

 

The last step was mating the tranny to the motor.  Honest to god this was not very fun at all by myself.  I've done it before but even making sure the clutch disc was centered made this tough to align both pieces properly.  The last inch is always the hardest

 

Edited January 19, 2017 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I was able to pull the brake MC and booster out last night.  I think the MC was leaking out a little and ate away at the booster.  I would assume the booster is still good for the 1" Wilwood MC swap so I will just throw some fresh paint down after I clean it up.

 

 

 

I was gone all weekend so I had about an hour to pull this stuff off.  The weather has been gorgeous up here in MN!  We should see around 60 today.

 

I've been laying in bed a lot thinking about the car as of late.  I am seriously debating taking the suspension off and going through to sandblast, paint, adding the new bushings and get my coilover on the darn thing...I just need to start ripping it apart.

[Stock Car Mafia]

Continental ExtremeContact DW's are on order through Discount Tire.  They are 275/40/17 all the way around.  I am dropping the wheels off today and they can get them put on when the shipment comes in.  I just simply don't want to sit around waiting for the G2's to come out.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

Got a friendly call from Chequered Flag Joe tonight and talked for a while on the shortened axles and companion flanges.  There are no others that have called with interest about the 39 spline companion flanges and stub's.  He's got a shipment coming in for the 27 splines flanges so that is the route I will go now.  I will have to keep my eyes for anyone looking to sell their 39 spline combo down the road. 

Edited March 10, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

Going to pick up the wheels and tires today.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna plastidip the wheels and I think this will contrast the lighter blue color better.  I am totally putting the wheels on for shits and giggles  

 

I got the rebuild brake booster yesterday as well.  I'll be cleaning up the MC adapter plate and possibly painting these items before putting them back on the car.  Man the engine bay is so empty right now it is extremely tempting to paint that too just to make it look presentable.  But hell I'm kind of digging the old school look at the moment!

[bramagedained]

 Man the engine bay is so empty right now it is extremely tempting to paint that too just to make it look presentable.  But hell I'm kind of digging the old school look at the moment!

 

I debated the same thing since I have the motor/trans out right now.  I decided to just leave it.

 

[Stock Car Mafia]

I don't recall how good your original paint looked in the engine bay but if it is anything like the exterior, you have nothing to worry about!

[Stock Car Mafia]

I had a couple hours on Saturday to work on the booster and MC.  I ended up taking my booster in for a replacement at O'Reilly's.  The stock MC had leaked on it and I didn't want to chance needing to take this apart again.  

 

 

As most people have done, you need to elongate the holes to match the diameter of the stock brake booster.

 

 

After that was done, I was going to swap out the bottom ports so I could reuse my stock Brake lines.  It turns out that my MC was not stock and it was something I didn't catch initially.  These fittings are supposedly out of stock but I did find them and they are on the way (Nissan #46038-B5012).

 

I taped everything off and used engine enamel for paint.  Semi Gloss.  Let's hope this MC doesn't leak!  With time I will get the plunger set correctly and mounted back on the car.

 

Edited March 14, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I sat down for an hour last night and got the 3 smaller gauges torn apart.  The faceplates are quite easy to get off.  The clock glass is glued in place.  I took a washcloth and taped on it in a circle with a screwdriver.  It only broke a tiny bit of the plastic/glass off.  

 

 

As for the other 2 gauges, there are 6 little plastic tabs that were melted over the back of the faceplate to keep it intact.  I took my carbide bit with the dye grinder and ground off 3 of the 6 tabs that I could reach.  The rest were easily broken by hand and taken apart.  

 

 

 

 

The next options are deciding how to mount these damn things.  I know some have slide the gauges in from the front, while retaining the front OEM peice from the back.  The does a great job of keeping the gauge flush and uniform for all three.  

 

 

 

I on the other hand really like the look of the gauges being recessed in the dash a little bit.  The backside of the OEM faceplates are angled which would make this more of a challenge.  I turned them so they would be angled towards the driver but they don't sit really nice against the backs of these.  It would take some solid mounting to prevent these from vibrating around or moving.  But I definitely want to come up with a solution to make this work.  

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if these would be set back too far for visibility, but I am going to keep brainstorming on this and I'd like to try something new.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

Discount Tire didn't have the wheels until Monday but had them done around noon.  After work I picked them up and man, are they meaty!  I coulnd't help myself and went ahead and gave them a coat of plastidip.  As I'm leaving the car blue, I think the black wheels will compliment the car through contrast.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These suckers are WIDE!  I will tell you if I wasn't motivated yet, just seeing one tire on the car was enough!

 

I also starte the process of disassembling the front suspension.  This was pretty straight forward and I didn't take too many pictures as my hands were greasy as shit.  I will note that my 4 phillips screws that hold the dust plate on were a pain in the ass and seized.  I almost stripped one so I loosened them all up by grabbing them lightly with a pliers.  I will look at replacing these with some stainless bolts.  Heat and rust penetrant weren't enought to loosen these.

 

The outside bearing on the hub seems fine.  I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on how to check the rear bearing.  There were 2 shiny rings on the inner hub that I would assume are caused by wear.  The bearing feels fine however.  

 

I bought a cheap tool from Harbor Freight to clamp the springs and remove the top assembly.  Both fronts are apart but I didn't have a big enough cresent wrench to remove the gland nuts.  

 

 

[Stock Car Mafia]

Tonight I was able to ge home and start ripping at the rear suspension.  I unbolted the rear brake lines, removed the retaining clip, removed cotter pin from emergency brake, removed retaining clip, and pulled it out.  I'm a little burnt from the process tonight so I won't go in to too much detail on the removal. 

 

The dreaded project of the night were the damn spindle pins.  I really didn't think I would get it all apart and get to this spot tonight but I was in overdrive tonight.  

 

 

 

the spindle pin removal tool that I purchased from 383 240z worked GREAT! I started with the passenger side.  I forgot this tends to be the bad side for most cars but it didn't cross my mind at the time.  The locking bolts came out of both really easy.  Keep in mind I've been spraying penetrating oil on and off for a couple months.  I used the tool on both ends to work the pin back and forth a couple mm's first.  Torching and hammering each time.  I left the spindle pin nut on one end so I could tell if the pin was moving and not stripping the threads.  I did this about 2 times and then just gave 'er hell.  It was a darn good arm workout to get it out but 15-20 mins later I had it!

 

 

 

The driver side was cake and took literally 5 minutes to get out.  It was as clean as a whistle too.  I WILL NOT be putting these back in however.  I started reading about the fastenal bolts replacement and probably will be going this route, without the use of a locking pin as others have.  

 

 

Now I'm left with a pile of metal.  Next goals:

 

1.  Get struts sectioned and welded up.

2. Remove old bushings, ball joints, and tie rods.

3. Send parts off to powdercoater.  Still considering colors for this.  Black or a medium gray to change it up.

4.  Install new bushing and reassemble.

5.  Possibly tear in to the R200 CLSD and check tolerances and install the new clutch discs.  

6.  Depending on the Joe's axles, these could possibly go in too, and would call for new stub axle nuts.  Might as well replace the bearings and seals while I am at it.  

Edited January 19, 2017 by Stock Car Mafia

[bramagedained]

I have the two bolts+nylock nuts to replace the pins.  They came with my rear end swap, but, were too long to use with the T3 control arms.

[Stock Car Mafia]

Just a little update, I was able to remove the stock shocks and grind off the stock perches last night.  I'll wait to add any photos until I have the full coilover setup sectioned and welded.  I am finding little tid bits of helpful input along the way.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

I got all 4 corners shortened/sectioned before I had to leave Saturday morning. It was quite the easy task but just took some time.

 

Monday night I should be able to grind down the welds and get the spring perches on.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I was gone all weekend for a concert but got time Monday night to finish the project as I had the day off to recover  I don't think I mentioned before but the kit did come from Ground Control.  

 

I cut off the stock spring perches.  This was as simple as cutting around the section right above where it is welded on.  It took some time to grind down the welds to prep them for cutting.  

 

 

Once I got them close to smooth I finished them with a flap disk.

 

 

I didn't take pictures of my measurements with the news shocks.  You need to drop the shock in and almost tighten the gland nut.  Using a sharpie, mark the shock where it is flush with the gland nut.  Then lift the shock up so it sits flush and tight in the top of the gland nut and make another mark.  This is your measurement for how much to remove from the strut.  I removed 36-37 mm from the front and 80-81 mm from the rear.  

 

I found a large pipe cutter from Menards to do the cutting.  I have a circular saw, but I wanted a nice flush cut so I could weld them straight without a gap.  Tip #1:  Make you section cut on a portion of the tube you have not grinded on.  The grind spots made the tube uneven and the cutter wanted to put threads in the pipe and not stay symmetrical.  This lead to several broken blades as well.  I made my cut at 7 inches for the front and 9 inches in the rear.

 

 

I next cleaned out the burrs on the inside of the strut and chamfered the outside edges of the sections that will mate and be welded together.  I then made sure that my sectioning was the right amount by putting the shock back in and tightening the gland nut.  Everything checked out on my end!

 

 

 

The tubes are roughly 3/16" thick so this "exceeds" the welding capabilities of my MIG.  Angling the edges of the pipes and also using the "pull" or "drag" welding technique will give you more penetration for the thick walled tubing.  I used a pieces of angle iron and a couple c-clamps to hold the sections flush and straight.  Redneck ingenuity at its best!  

 

 

They were tack welded in 6 spots and then reassembled to triple check my measurements.  I then welded in 1/6th sections and alternating the sides I welded on to prevent too much distortion.  There was a lot of heat being thrown at them!  

 

 

 

 

The rears were done in the same fashion.  Last night I took the time to grind down all the sectioning welds to make room for the new spring perch and threaded part of the coilovers.  

 

 

The perches were tacked on at 6" in the front and 8" in the rear.  The setup I have has 10" springs.  

 

 

I measured about 6 spots around the tube for where they would be welded on.  This is where the bottom part of the perch should be welded.  I needed something to hold the perch level so I made a circular piece of cardboard and this did the trick.

 

 

I used the same pulling method for welding these thick plates on.

 

 

Last year I read about tacking and notching the threaded collar to prevent it from spinning when the ride height is adjusted.  I put the tack on the backside of every tube so they would be out of site, out of mind.  

 

 

And just for the pleasure of seeing the "complete" part of the project, I had to install the springs for looks.  I definitely dig this!

 

 

 

I will focus the rest of my time now removing old bushing and getting my front struts cut for the camber plates that will be installed as well.  After my suspension parts are taken apart, I will be bringing these to my brother so he can sandblast and possibly prime them.  I haven't decided if I will get the parts powdercoated yet.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

Bramagedained had a set of the rear LCA bolts that he wasn't going to use so I bought and received them yesterday.  They fit so now I just need the nylock nuts!  

 

I had the pleasure of burning out the old bushing in the suspension parts last night.  All of them are gone and I can see there is a steel collar in the LCA front and back.  Looking at the bushing kit I am assuming I need to cut these out and I won't be running an outer steel collar anymore with the Energy Suspension kit?

 

Also, I am looking for suggestions on the right path to take for coating the front and rear wheel wells.  Since the suspension parts will look "new" after they are painted this part will stick out.  I don't want to do this half ass but I am assuming the best process would be to sandblast, prime, seamseal, and then recoat with X paint/bedliner.  I DON'T want this car rotting out down the road so I will continue reading.  I would really like to try the lizard skin on the inside of the car down the road as well.