240z SCCA vintage race car, restoration

[AydinZ71]

Haha! Thanks John!

 

Unfortunately, I still have to use the 280zx front calipers  Darn EP rules, but since the rears were always drums to begin with, the rules are a little more forgiving. Thanks again for the write-up!

 

I actually bought the Skillard AL front dam because it came with an integrated splitter. After unboxing I discovered the front opening was larger (extends lower) than the type-1 air dams on the market. We can't reduce the size of the front rad opening, but I certainly would not want to make it bigger. I decided against hacking it apart, so Its now for sale

 

With the chassis modifications I have, I didn't want to risk another misalignment so I just made it myself out of 6061 AL. Two sheets of 0.04" for the dam, and 0.08" for the top flange. I still need to design-in a way to quickly remove it (probably quik-latches) and an adjustable splitter. I'm just waiting on bodywork to finish so I can throw the front suspension on. and find a reasonable ride-height. I am pulling the car in-and-out of the garage like a wheelbarrow at the moment, and it is more convenient than wheeling it out without brakes. Filler dust gets everywhere, so reassembling the car has been put on hold. I have two front fenders and the drivers door left. 

 

 

[JMortensen]

nm. Didn't see p22.

Edited March 1, 2023 by JMortensen

[jhm]

22 hours ago, AydinZ71 said:

Unfortunately, I still have to use the 280zx front calipers  Darn EP rules,

 

Where did you happen to find those front ZX calipers, if you don't mind my asking?  Maybe I just happened to be looking during a supply shortage??  I ended up with 4 piston Wilwoods that have been working well for my setup.

[AydinZ71]

2 hours ago, jhm said:

 

Where did you happen to find those front ZX calipers, if you don't mind my asking?  Maybe I just happened to be looking during a supply shortage??  I ended up with 4 piston Wilwoods that have been working well for my setup.

I got them from a local mechanic friend of mine who repairs and builds s130’s and some S30’s here locally. He buys a junker two three times a year and parts them out for his clients. 
 

So like most right decisions in life, it may be best to be patient. I may need to pump the brakes on my brakes… we are allowed alt. Front brakes with a 2% weight penalty. When I called willwood they told me to check the most recent GCR and sure enough, they allow alternate material non-oem calipers and rotors up front now. That opens up things considerably. I may need to wait and weight the car to see how close to 2150 I am (soaking wet with driver). My fat ass is around 190, so that’s not an easy task. If I happen to already be overweight, I may need to add little or no ballast and end up with sweet 4-pot lightweight willwoods and a decent diameter rotor up front. Then I can upsize the rears to match. 
 

honestly, it’s been raining here so much I was just trying to open-up another work path while I am unable to progress the bodywork. Hate to lose momentum. 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by AydinZ71

[JMortensen]

That's great news. Not the overweight part.

[AydinZ71]

On 3/1/2023 at 4:20 PM, JMortensen said:

That's great news. Not the overweight part.

treadmill time 🤓

 

got the front flares on today. Can continue bodywork along passenger fender 

[AydinZ71]

Took the kids out to the track. I gotta say, I’m really jealous of the track’s ya’ll have on the east coast. Still, was a great day out at historic Willow springs. 
 

event was VARA

[AydinZ71]

Update: air dam is unfinished (hence, flimsy) but the quick-disconnect mounting is complete so I can finish the fenders and seal them. Also finished by fuel, return, and brake lines in the tunnel.

 

 

passenger side bodywork is done, moving over to drivers side door and fender. 

[AydinZ71]

Bodywork on passenger side is all done. Panels are sealed and primered, waiting for final block sanding. 
 

also made brackets for the front bumper to pop on/off with Quik-latches. 

[manninen]

That airdam reminds me callaway corvette. 

[AydinZ71]

Thanks! Does kind of look like that! It is unfinished at this time, since I just wanted to get the mounting points (and qiuk-lateches) figured out. Its just a .04" sheet of 6061AL. It will get reinforcement once the wheels are back on the car, and I can contemplate ride height. 

[AydinZ71]

Bodywork almost done! I’m never doing this again 😂 Hopefully around a month from paint. 

 

Took some weights for curiosities sake. The fenders are within a few ounces of one another. The door weight includes the hinges (drivers side). The passenger side door is just under 14lbs now. 
 

Can’t run fiberglass doors in EP, otherwise John Washington’s 9lb fiberglass doors would have been awesome! 
 

Probably could have saved ~15lbs total by going with fiberglass fenders, but with all the custom metal work it was

much easier for Me to complete in steel. 

[clarkspeed]

"I'm never doing this again".  Ha Ha!

[JMortensen]

13 hours ago, clarkspeed said:

"I'm never doing this again".  Ha Ha!

We've all felt that feeling.

[Ben280]

Narrator: "He then did it several more times"

 

Looking great Aydin!!

[AydinZ71]

Thanks guys! Yeah, all that skim coating and block sanding… gawd damn, must have been hundreds of hours now. “Take it down to bare metal!” They said hahahah 

 

appreciate all your support  

 

got the cowl cover epoxied, primed, and underside is black. I was going to paint the top side flat black in the style of my friends A-10 (Indiana air national guard), but Greg told me “it will look like shit”. To be fair, I only listen to his aesthetic opinion 1/3 the time, but I was already on the fence with this one.  
 

Painted my front and rear polycarb black mask. 
 

masking video was me soliciting Greg’s opinion on the extent of the black mask. 

Edited May 26, 2023 by AydinZ71

[Ben280]

The windshield is a super nice touch! Was that a pre-cut piece, or did you have to do the trim?

[AydinZ71]

Thanks man! I wish! Both the windshield and the hatch glass, I traced and cut until it worked-out. The windshield is a bit butchered. I had to fabricate hold-down flanges for either end so the screws didn’t cause too much visual distortion on the “glass”. Top and bottom screws didn’t have enough pressure to cause divets, but the passenger/drivers sides did. 
 

I did learn a few things: use a quality plexiglass - specific Bosch blade. The actual jigsaw didn’t appear to matter, but the blade was crucial. Measure a billion times and cut a tiny amount at a time. I over-cut the front, but by the time I got to the hatch I got the hang of it. You can use a block and 80-grit to make minor adjustments on the ends. 
 

I used this expensive purple painters tape from 3M (I’ll look it up if you need it) which made it easy to mask the curves for the black anti-glare mask. Used a caliper to mark w/ a sharpie a set distance from the edge, then connected the dots with the masking tape. 

 

I used single stage 2-component urethane for the mask. I was nervous that any other paint could fail under UV. Base/clear probably works but I was nervous that the base would be exposed through the glass and would miss-out in the UV protection afforded by the clear 🤷🏽‍♂️ Probably overly conservative. 

 

 

 many thanks to Clark and the HZ family for the pointers they gave a year ago. 
 

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by AydinZ71

[AydinZ71]

OK. Need to clean and organize the garage so I can build a spray booth with plastic sheeting. Pulled the 4spd from the L24 that was in her when I purchased her. Got some fun bits under the bell housing. Anyone recognize this clutch? Appears to be a muiltiple-disk centerforce. No idea why you would need this with an L24 but can’t complain. The flywheel also appears to be non-stock. Tried scratching it with a piece of 6061, no dice. I’m guessing it’s steel, but it’s spotless. Seems rather thick for a lightweight unit 🤷🏽‍♂️

[JMortensen]

It's not multiple disk. Looks like your typical CF pressure plate with a standard disk rather than their dual friction disk which has pucks on one side. I remember you talking about double or triple disk button clutches, but FWIW, I've seen quite a few Center Force pressure plate failures online where the weights fail, and had a friend with the dual friction that chewed into the flywheel and tore up the thrust bearings in his CA18DET engine. Avoid.