MusPuppis Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 Howdy folks. Its taken 7 years to get to this point but my Z is finally back in my posession and its finally getting the treatment its so long deserved. Z's have been my thing since I was 16 and got my 240. '72 240 Fairlady Z to be exact. (RHD = yay). At 16 though I had no idea what the hell I was doing and just wasnt in a position to deal with the car. No garage, no tools, limited finances, ******* neighbors, lack of knowledge.. The whole deal. Classic mistake getting in over my head. So, I had to get rid of the 240. I gave it to a friend for free since he said he would restore it and get it on the road.. He never did. He put it in storage but otherwise never touched it. It sat there for about 5 years until about a week ago, after literally 2 years of dropping hints and outright nagging, he gave it back to me. I towed her to my new place, washed off the dust and started stripping her down. Thankfully, though I was defeated in my attempts with the Z (my first car ever actually) I didnt give up on cars.. I'm a hell of alot more experienced than I was (still learning though..) and in alot better position to deal with the car now. I now have a garage, a metric ***-ton of tools/equipment and a alot more knowledge and patience. Sadly my finances are as piss-poor as they were when I first got the car but with the garage to store the car and no need to rely on the Z as my only form of transportation I can take about as much time as I want to. I'm going to be restoring the car from more or less the frame up. The floor pans have to be cut out and replaced (they hardly even exist anymore, lol) but other than that the rust on the car is no more than surface annoyance. A grinder and some PoR15 should take care of it easily enough. Just the normal deal really. Assess/Repair/Replace/Rebuild. When the body, frame and interior are totally squared away I'll be concentrating on the engine:twisted:. I think I'll be going with a Chevy 350SB and matching 5-speed manual (I cant abide an automatic). Nothing crazy though really. Ideally I want to put around 280-300hp to the wheels which should be attainable with a good 350 + H/C/I. I'm not looking for a monster or anything but when I hit the gas I want to make good and sure I know it. I also want to make sure a fair portion of the poeple around me have no chance in hell of keeping up. I'm not 100% certain on exactly what I'll be doing with the engine and transmission though. I'm not familiar with Chevy engines and trannys. Have alot of experience playing around with Mustangs and I swapped a lightly built 5.0HO into my '94 F-150 but I wouldnt even know how to tell a good 350SB from a mediocre one. Research will have to be done. I was gonna pick up the JTR V8 conversion manual soon, should make life a hell of alot easier. Its nice to have directions, lol. Anyone here used it before? How did ya like it? Anyway, sorry for the long winded rambling post but I want to introduce myself and my little project to the folks that care to read it. And in closing, I leave a few pics. (The car is complete, I just took the pics after I'd been tearing it down for about a day and a half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003z Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 welcome! Is that dash in as good shape as it looks? Also, since you know fords, why not a ford V-8? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Crema240z Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 Get JTR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ON3GO Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 man i want a fairlady Z ... good luck and awesome story behind this car and you! mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 If you're going chevy let me be the first to suggest a vortec 350. It already has a roller cam and good flowing heads and you should be able to get one for say five hundred dollars maybe cheaper. Rebuild it, throw in a cam and a little head work for the lift and you can get around 400hp pretty easily. If finances permit, stroke it but either way, for your expectations, you will be more than pleased....and it will definitely whip some tail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusPuppis Posted October 8, 2005 Author Share Posted October 8, 2005 welcome! Is that dash in as good shape as it looks? Also, since you know fords, why not a ford V-8? The dash isnt. From the lip down its perfect, if a tad faded with age. Above the lip its cracked all to hell. I dont really know what to do about it. I think I'll take it to a local auto upholsterer and get an estimate on them recovering it, if that can be done. If not I'll probably have to live with the cracks - I dont see much hope of finding a RHD dash in good shape just laying around, lol. I decided against a Ford V8 since it really seems theres alot more knowledge and available information/parts relating to the Chevys. It also gives me a good excuse to learn my way around the Chevy motors. If you're going chevy let me be the first to suggest a vortec 350 What year/models were these available in? I know they come in some of Chevy's 90's model trucks, but were any available before that? man i want a fairlady Z I love having it. I got so lucky finding it its idiotic. I didnt even know what a Fairlady was.. I just saw a Z and it happened to be RHD.. Wasnt till after I bought it I figured out exactly what it was and what it meant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbk240z Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 How lucky you are to have a rhd Z. Don't let it get away this time. As for the dash, I remember seeing an ad in an issue of hotrod or carcraft, anyway there was a company that would recover those plastic/vinyl dashes from the '78 to '87 GM Abody dashes with factory appearance. I'm sure with some research on the net you can find more info. I would love to have a lhd Z in decent shape, I'm a little jealous you have a rhd. j/k Anyway godd luck on your Z! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ON3GO Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 Check with Vince (Vintage Tech Z) he might be able to help ya out on a dash for your rhd z. mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love-my-V8-280Z Posted October 9, 2005 Share Posted October 9, 2005 Muspuppis, Just make sure you keep all the parts you remove, take a lot of pics and video, I was were you are at about 6 years ago. You will know the day you are no longer tearing down and starting to build back up! I today was looking at my old video to see where the radiator over flow tank went... Take it slow and know that you will get tired of it, let it sit, the desire to work it on it comes and goes... I gutted my 280Z.. now I have the inside almost done, a LT1/T56 installed and I have been working on the cooling/heater.... So close to being able to start it back up! Seemed like I would never make it.. I've checked on getting the dash recovered.. Out of my price range.. $800.00. Almost the same price as buying a new one. So I have been reading and looking and the dash caps look plenty good. I just ordered on last night as well as all new gauges. $470 for the gauges and $110 total for the dash cap.. I just spent the day taking apart the old dash and gauges and doing alot of cleaning.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusPuppis Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 Yup. Everything I've removed has been put up, sorted into sections. One shelf for the interior, one shelf for large stuff (Seats/dash/etc) one shelf for engine bay stuff and so on. I have a massive amount of brown paper bags I'm using to store small parts and hardware as well. All labeled with what they contain. I fully expect to totally forget where everything goes - but for some reason I get a sick sort of pleasure staring at my car for 45 minutes trying to figure out where this or that went. I know what ya mean about taking breaks to. I swapped a 5.0HO into my 94. F-150 as well as rebuilt my 4r70 tranny (raging peice of crap that it is). That project was a damn pain having never done anything like it before. I had to just sit back several times and leave it alone for a day, or a week or more at a time, lol. Anyway, I hope to make some good progress today on tear down. I dont have an engine hoist so I have to wait to borrow one to get the engine out, but I plan on pulling the transmission, the fuel lines, brake lines, headliner (I forgot about the damn thing..) and seeing what its gonna take to get the glass out. Ive never dealt with glass before so I have no earth idea how it comes out.. should be fun and hopefully I wont break anything. I am so completely out of garage space.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ajm422 Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 I inherited a 72 Fairlady from my ZCar-phile father (at 17, so I know what you're talking about), and I also plan on restoring and customizing it. It's in about the same shape as yours is in those pictures - no floor pans, spot rust, bad dashy, etc. I'm looking at an LS motor, with 911 turbo flares, possibly a 240SX IRS swap, big wheels/tires, the works. Though this project will be more long-term than short-term (hopefully running and restored at the end of Summer '07), it will no-doubt be fun and rewarding. Let me know on your progress both with the V8 and restoration. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj paul Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 zeddfindings is your friend for the floors, and baddog parts is your friend for the floor rails. i used the stock rails i got from zeddfindings and put the bad dog ones over them to tie them in better to the front.have you seen the rails in the engine bay? are they ok? if they arent thats cool its not that hard to replace. check out my site if you want to see the stuff replaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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