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1974 260z RB20DET track car build- from rust to racing PIC HEAVY


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I purchased a turd I mean car about a year ago, and started tearing it down what was left of it. The car was rough, the passenger floor board was more rust than metal and had taken the frame rail rail with it. Luckily I bought the turd, I mean car with nothing on it, no engine trans, brakes, wheels, or body panels. So besides wiring there wasn’t much to remove. The photos show the floor and rail removed and the car before paint. Trying to find the photos of the car at purchase. Much worse.

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Next after some body work, I started on the suspension. I chose bc coilovers with swift coils, 4 runner brakes in the front and used milk fabs brackets to mount s15 mustang rear brakes on the rear, it allows my factory e brake too. It looks good too. I went with replica te37 wheels in 16. This was a mistake I found out, originally I went w the size that would allow my brakes to fit, I should have gone to 17” though. This is because tire choice is very limited. For ex right now I have lion sport 3 on there. The bc coilovers were great but  my car being a 75 had a mix of parts from 74-75. A good example would be the rear struts being the smaller diameter tube of 74 but the bc coilovers were the larger diameter. I ended up making some shims, welding them in, and then sliding the coilovers over the strut with the shim welded on. This worked perfectly so far. 
 

I went with cx racing tensioners and lower control arms. I’m unsure if this was a mistake yet, but looking at their oil pan, it may have been lol. 
 

I used apex engineering rear control arms. 

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I wanted to go black, but one of my daughters won a bet and picked blue, she picked good though and it’s grown on me. Body isn’t super straight, black may have been worse. I painted the car in two stages, front and rear. The rear came out great. I have a disease that locks my back up in a lot of pain, it conveniently happened during me painting the front half, so it looks like 2 different people painted it with, let’s just say varying degrees of experience lol

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The engine and trans go in and I start wiring it up, I used a wiring specialties engine harness, made my own chassis harness and tach adapter for the RB20DET ecu. My interior looks like a bowl of spaghetti and it’s slow, but it’s going. The rb20 came from a random craigslist ad, I got it for a steal. It is missing small things, and the P.O. or the PPO had some suspicious additions. (He had what looked like bic pen springs as the coil on plug spring) fun to troubleshoot though.

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After getting the engine in with cx engine and trans mounts. I started to troubleshoot why my engine wasn’t starting. Finding the random springs in the coils, a gas in the injectors, and the timing belt being off by 1 tooth I finally got it started, although rough at the start, it has been sitting for over 2 yrs to my knowledge. Maybe more. After running some sea foam and injector cleaner the engine started sounding much more healthy and reflecting its leak down and compression tests. 

I made it to the dmv last Friday and registered it as well, after the driveshaft gets here this week supposedly. I’ll be driving it officially. 
 

and after a good shakedown and tying up the ends, laguna seca next month and auto x to come.

 

I plan on updating as I add more mods. I want to front half the car next and a roll bar.

 

and I planned on keeping the rb pretty close to stock while I got all the kinks out before I started going faster. I know that this will likely put me in a higher class in auto x with a motor swap, but it is what it is. 

This will be my first time in organized events and it’s a bit nerve wracking, figuring out what is allowed and what isn’t. I finally said forget it, and built the car how I wanted. I figured that after I season or so I can make modifications to better suit what I want to do with the car. I’ll try to keep my experiences in here. That way if anyone else is in the same boat, they can read this and see how I dealt with whatever issue. 
 

 

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I can identify with having to touch every aspect of a car. Looks like it's coming along nicely.

 

I just bought a CA 75 280Z, it's not in my hands yet. It has 250K miles. I may need to look into coilovers, the kit you used is a weld-in to the stock (modded) tube? Any pics of that work? I've made my own coilovers using Bicknell components and VW sleeves for my X1/9, so I'm not averse to fabrication.

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I looked last night for the older photos, hoping to see photos of the coilovers being fitted with the ring shim. I didn’t take any! But I do have some of the aftermath and can explain how I did it, it would open up more suspensions options, but you’d have to do your own geometry to figure out where it needs to be. Later on tonight I’ll do a quick drawing and show the pics of the strut base where it was welded. It should be pretty easy, I had access to a machine shop, so I had the rings made to fit perfect. That will be the main issue when retrofitting coilovers on of a diff size diameter.

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Has anyone had experience with Godzilla raceworks? I ordered a driveshaft and yoke from them in a custom size, and it’s been 2 months! 
 

I spoke to him last Thursday and was told he had it in his hands and was fed ex-ing it on Monday and to expect tracking soon. It’s Tuesday of the next week, no tracking, no driveshaft, and no email…

 

what gives? Anyone work with them before?

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They're generally pretty respected in the community. I've never heard of them not delivering, so I wouldn't be too worried about it not getting there eventually. Probably worth another call or email though. 

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