chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 (edited) After much thought on whether or not I wanted to create a full thread of my first 240z build I have decided that it would be worth it in the long run and nice to look back to. I will have about a year to catch up with then I will continue to update as the build goes on. Backstory: I bought this Miata when I was a senior in high school. I wanted to see if I was truly passionate about cars and if I enjoyed working on them/driving them. This car was a blessing and a curse, I quickly found out that I loved cars and all of my money would be taken by them. Fast forward and I had supercharged it with all the basic Miata mods. The car was extremely fun, but it was not a car that I saw myself keeping for the long run and I had this long list of parts/mods I wanted to do to it. I had always wanted a few cars but they were just out of my price range; 240z, s2000 and a few old muscle cars. I thought about it and decided that if I was going to pour tons of money and time into a car I wanted it to be a car I wanted to keep and loved the looks of, not just enjoyed the drive. Once I had made this decision I was a sophomore in college and began the long search for a Z. I spent about 9 months of searching everyday for a s30, primarily looking at 240zs. Edited September 24, 2019 by chopkins12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 (edited) 10/13/2018 - I finally found my 240z. I had been searching for a shell with the least rust as possible and a few modifications or aftermarket parts as I had planned on doing a resto-mod type build. As I am from a north eastern state doing this was much more difficult than I had expected. I ended up finding a pretty clean chassis in Atlanta Georgia and decided to make the trip down there one weekend while I was at school. We ended up doing the 36 hour round trip in less than 2 days and it totally drained me. Anyways here is the car, a series 1.5 for anyone that is interested in that (vertical defrost and a few other series 1 bits but not the c pillar 240z or hatch vents). It had a few things that caught my eye. First it had the start of a few body modifications that I like the look of. The rear bumper was deleted, which I had planned on doing anyways. Second, I was told the car was in primer and was ready to be painted (more on that later). Lastly, the car had a few nice parts: an l28, dual webber carbs, and some newer eibach springs. There were a few things that I saw when I got there that I did not know/ did not know were so bad. I had known that the car was previously a V8 swap car but did not know that the engine bay and the fender had giant holes cut in them to route a side exit exhaust. The hatch panel was rusted out pretty bad and the car was missing more parts than I had thought. Nevertheless I brought the car home and began the build. Edited September 24, 2019 by chopkins12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 11/25/2018 - Here are some more pictures of the cage that was in the car when I got it, will be cutting it out and getting rid of the cage. Car will never see track time and I would hit my head on the side of the cage with the current setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 12/16/2018 - I was able to pickup a parts 240z today. I traded someone local to me a junk quad I had laying around and a razor scooter for a complete 240z. The car does not run and has a ton of rust but it has a ton of good parts and still some good metal sections. I definitely won that trade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 12/23/2018 - I ended up removing all of the parts and putting them into storage and cutting out the rear quarter, roof, and a few other small bits and pieces. I sold a few various parts and pieces but kept the majority of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 01/05/2019 - Was able to pick up some JDM taillights online for a good deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 01/19/2019 - Pulled the l24 out of the parts car and stripped it down to bare block and head and traded it for a l28et. I would say I certainly won that trade, guy is moving and did not want the engine but was mailing the l24 out to rebello to get built for his race car. Unfortunately had to trek through a blizzard to go pickup the engine, was an interesting drive with the trailer on the way home, photo taken just before it started. Luckily my forester kills in the snow. L28et will go in the car eventually. Current plan is bigger turbo, intercooler, megasquirt, with intake manifold and fueling mods. Need to find a 5 speed and r200 now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 02/09/2019 - Finished up a few fixes on the rear spoiler/rear bumper shave and the car is heading to the body shop to get painted. As much as I would love to paint the car myself I know that I could not get the same result as a paint guy locally could do. This is a part of the car that I think it is worth to spend the extra money to have done by someone else. I am so excited to see the outcome, I think the car is in good hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 04/06/2019 - Headed to the paint shop this weekend to spray the interior of the car with lizard skin. Also pulled the suspension and undercoated the car a little with the lizard skin to help a little more with the sound deadening and heat protection. I think this stuff looks so much better than the sheet stuff and we will see how it performs. Also acts as heat and sound in one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 05/29/2019 - Scrapped the parts 240z this weekend, as you can see almost the entire car was used for something. Also sold my first miata this weekend to help fund the paint for the car, happy and sad to see it go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 06/04/2019 - Made it 4 days without a miata, ended up buying another one and made the trip to pick it up. $800 with a roll bar. Planning on selling the roll bar for $400 and will have a running driving miata for $400. Can’t beat that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 06/07/2019 - Headed to the shop to take a look at how the car was going, got the engine bay holes patched up. Making some progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 06/24/2019 - Busy past weekend, head to the shop to check out the progress and decided to strip the primer just to make sure that there was not too much body filler under the primer. Found some pretty bad news, car has a decent amount of filler on it. We decided that it would be safe to just strip all the primer and filler off of the car and start back with bare metal. Found that the body had very little rust besides the portions that I knew about previously. We also found that there was a repair on the rear quarter before, we assume it was done in the 80s or 90s due to the style of repair, we will work on fixing some of the bent metal to try and use the least amount of filler as possible. Lower rear quarter had some pinholes that also will be fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 07/07/2019 - Received a photo from my body work guy of him fixing up some of the issues with the rear quarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 07/21/2019 - Just got the notification from my body guy that the car is in its first coat of primer. So excited!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 08/18/2019 - FIRST COAT OF COLOR HAS BEEN SPRAYED!!! Such an exciting day, got to go see the color and I am so excited. Ended up deciding to paint the car 113 after finding it was the original color on the car. We had thought the car was orange due to the engine bay but after checking under the dash we found where there was orange overspray on the 113. I have owned a few green cars and it is an ongoing joke between my family and friends that I only buy strange green cars so I knew it was only right and damn am I glad I made the decision. The green is so nice and has such a deep color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 08/31/2019 - Just got the notification that the rest of the body has been painted green and has been clear coated. Headed to the shop to check it out and I was blown away. Car has not been wet sanded or buffed yet and it looks amazing. Very glad I made the decision to have someone else paint the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopkins12 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 09/14/2019 - Was home from school to do a few things and decided to stop by and see how the progress had been going. Most of the car has been wet sanded and buffed and it looks amazing. Can see myself through the paint. Car will need a little more buffing and polishing then the last few trim pieces will be painted gunmetal and I will be bringing the car home. Now would be a good time to talk about what body modifications I ended up doing. Car has a shaved Rain rail/Drip rail, shaved side markers, shaved rear bumper and attachment points, custom molded rear 3 piece spoiler that turns the body line into the spoiler, type 1 front air dam, and shaved door trim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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