Spyder Z 15's long term Project Zweet 72

[Spyder Z 15]

Well I bought 2 ’72 240z’s yesterday. We’ll start with my favorite one.

The 1st one I bought is a ’72 240Z rolling shell. No motor in the car. Interior has been taken apart. No seats, no door panels, no window and ¼ window glass. This is a true project car.

But the good news is, the owner also included a completely disassembled L28 N47 motor. When I say completely, there is no doubt. The only 2 pieces that are together still are the pistons and rods, and I have to take apart those to clean the rods. Transmission is intact and still in the car. Bad part is most of the stuff was left outside for an unknown amount of time and there is surface rust on engine parts so a lot of stuff needs to be cleaned.

The turbo is an old school rebuilt Rajay turbo that spins freely with no shaft play at all. Needs to be cleaned exteriorwise, but that’s all I think for now.

Now the other good stuff I have is custom ross pistons, new bearings, new valves for the head, and some other misc new parts to rebuild the engine to better than new status. I hope to at least get 300hp out of this car minimum. Now picture this. A 240Z in stock form is 2400lbs. I guess with the L28 and turbo goods maybe 2600lbs tops. So I figure that with that there is 1hp for every 8lbs. Now this is if I only hit 300rwhp.

Now this project will take a very very very long time. At minimum 1 year. I will repaint the car and get it lookin’ good inside and out. I have my mind set on the color – Infiniti Twilight Blue BW5.

Sorry no full car shots because it’s in my garage and I don’t feel like wheeling it out. So only important stuff. Let’s just say that I haven’t found much rust yet. Car is amazingly straight with only 1 dent that I can see so far except the roof which has been pressed in in a couple of areas. Hopefully I can pop out most of it and have a body shop take care of the rest.

My 1st step is going to be cleaning out the whole car and see if there is any rust on the floorboards. And if there is how bad is it. Then I will box everything from inside the car and get all the motor stuff layed out on my workbench to see what I have.

Enough words. PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emblem

My block. Needs to be dipped badly. Honed too or maybe bored depending on how bad it is and if the pistons are for an overbored block.

This is the 1st 6-7 boxes of stuff I have. I have 3 more + the head in the trunk of my accord.

Tee-hee. This make me all giddy inside.

And of course you have to represent under the hood.

These are purdy.

This is the worst rust I found so far. I’m told they have a replacement panel for it though and I need to find who sells it. Hooray

Something’s missing. I’m told that’s a motorsport auto sway bar right there. I need to measure to see if it's the correct width or not.

I call this my race prepped interior. Now tell me. Can you find nemo?

Can someone PM me with a possible how-to to fix my warped Xenon front. It was sitting in a weird position inside the car for like 10 years.

And lastly this is my other ’72 240Z I purchased today. It came with a SR20det in it. It’ll do. I want these JDM fender mirrors, ZG flares, and the RS Watanabe deep dish 16’s that this car has. Once my big car gets painted this one will be painted to match.

[Spyder Z 15]

Once again I really hate uncaring previous owners. Especially one’s who are so called “Z enthusiasts.” Does a “Z enthusiast” leave a Z taken apart outside and not even under a tarp for 10+ years. Does a “Z Enthusiast” do that? I’ve had my personal cars parked outside 99% of the time, but they are put together. They have side windows. They have the molding around the windshield and hatch window. They have the door locks attached. They do not have a god damn trout farm in the trunk of the car. Can you tell I’m a little perturbed? So onto the pictures.

If anyone remembers the clown fish in the car from the 1st set of pictures I think it was trying to jump out of this. When you make a fish attempt suicide you know it’s bad.

My 1st scoop of this wonderful nectar. Anyone think if I drink it I’ll get a buzz?

Obviously the paint is lifting. But surprisingly the rust is minimal. No rust has eaten through the metal entirely hence my personal lagoon. So far this is mainly surface rust, but some is a little deep. I’m going to try to get it all out and paint it with engine paint then apply some liquid sound deadening.

And lastly here’s all the ♥♥♥♥ I’ve taken out and thrown away from the rear of the car. Note to Z owners. Please do not screw a false floor directly to the metal. Everyone will hate you.

[Spyder Z 15]

Update 4/4/07

Let me start off by saying I appologize for lack of pics of this update, but my wife needed the camera for her college speech project. Next update should have pics though.

 

I got a chance to work on the car again last night. It was late so I didn't get to do all of what I wanted to do because I didn't want to wake up the neighbors with power tools.

 

Stripped more paint out of the wheel well with paint stripper and a scraper. Lots of surface rust after all. Shocker right? Decided I'm going to pick up my heat gun from my dad's house and remove the factory sound deadening myself to get a clean slate. I also took out all the insulation in the rear quarters and the tool cubbys where the previous owner had some pioneer 6x9s. I will line the car with some audio sound deadening material instead. I already have 2 gallons of liquid sound deadening and I will buy some dynamat style deadening across the whole car since I'm taking it apart anyway.

 

So I moved on to something else I could do with out power tools. I started pulling the carpet and other misc trash from the passengerside floorboard. I really wish this guy would've at least still had the side windows installed. Oh and why is the carpet held down by screws drilled directly into the metal. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!? So I pull up the carpet and padding underneath and I found a bunch of surface rust and so far only 1 spot where it rust through and that might have been from me jabbing to get some of the factory deadening off. So I need to get the heat gun and my shop vac and get all that stuff off too to see how bad it is underneath it all to see if I can just do a patch or if I need to replace the full floor which I really don't want to do.

 

Oh and is it bad that I keep sneezing black stuff out whenever I work on the car?

[Spyder Z 15]

Update 4/16/07

Well I just go back from vacation and now it’s back to the grind. I haven’t really done anything, but try to reorganize my garage. I ended up with much more space, but after further thought afterwards I need to actually relocate my work bench and all parts to in front of the car. That way I don’t have to move so much stuff around when I work in the car.

Oh and I did make my 1st initial purchase for the car. I did however buy the starter pack of por-15 that includes small portions of all 3 products and the how to rebuild your Nissan OHC engine book. Also check at the bottom of the page for a rant.

I did take some pictures though of some misc stuff I do have.

Here is my t-3 to t-4 adapter with wastegate flange built in. Hooray. Now I don’t need to figure out where I’m going to place the wastegate. FYI- I have 2 of these flanges and my turbo does not have a built in wastegate.

My old turbonetics wastegate. I need to get this thing cleaned up.

Here’s my Supra TT i/c that I am 80% likely to not use.

Here’s the old L28 N/A exhaust manifold that had a weird add on for the turbo where the turbo sits really high instead of low. :why:

Here’s a manifold I have that I’m going to sell because it’s for a carburetor style turbo

Here’s what I’m working on with the passenger floor board. I need to vacuum it real bad. It looks worse than it is because of all the trash and dirt. I did get my heat gun back from my dad so I can strip off the factory sound deadening.

Anyone know what steering wheel brand this is. It’s actually in really good shape for being outside so long.

Pic of my Crager wheels.

Oh and fine. Here’s pics of my damn car. Babies.

And here she is all nestled back into her cave.

*And now the rant*

FYI to any Z owners. If you take your car apart into a million pieces for a long period of time, REGISTER THE CAR AS A NON OPERATIONAL VEHICLE. I went to the DMV with all my paperwork to get a new title because the guy said it’s packed away in a box because he just moved. I believed him. I found out that he never registered it as a non-op and never registered it period since 1995. So now I have to beg and plead with the DMV to get some of the fees waived. So far the fees alone total $415. Oh and there’s a lienholder too. Even though I specifically asked this dude if there was a lienholder and he said no. Grrr. I already called the lienholder company and am mailing out the paperwork for them to fill out today and I don’t forsee any problems with them filling it out. Once I get them to send me back the completed form I will go back to the DMV and try to get some of the fees waived.

[Spyder Z 15]

9/27/07

Mini-update

I'm starting to rebuild a stock 280zx turbo I got off of someone from another forum. I've only got the turbine housing off so far and did 1 long dip in carb cleaner. Got 98% of the dirt off and the other 2% will take some work with a piece of a rag and a toothpick. I should've taken a before pic cause this thing has 300k miles on it.