Back in black (and silver): the rodstoration of #248...

[dat240zg]

I have posted pics of the process in several of the different segments of the site, but never in one place. The car is closing in on being done with only tuning and some loose ends to tie up.

 

To recap, I bought the car from an elderly couple down in Texas who had posted the car on Zcar.com. Price was $1500 for the shell and "a bunch of parts".

 

When my wife and I got there, what we found was the remains of an early Z and a whole porch fulll of brand new, 30 year old parts. Evidently, the son of the couple had purchased the car and all of the parts with the intent of rodding the car and then just dissappeared.... No joke!

 

Pic of the car as we found it:

 

 

Included in the parts was a brand new, never opened Banks twin turbo v8 kit, a complete brand new scarab mounting and suspension kit and lots of NOS datsun parts that are no longer available. It was one of those types of once in a lifetime stories....

 

I ended up selling the Twin Turbo V-8 kit to Banks for their museum!

 

The car was in such rough shape that I used a pressure washer on it to get out years of junk:

 

 

Once we saw what the car looked like, we got busy stripping the body for paint and restoration. A couple of problem areas quickly jumped out:

 

 

Stripped and ready to roll:

 

 

 

Shell went to R&R Street Rods for stripping and from there, on to The Hack Shack for prep and paint. The drivers side front corner was tweaked pretty badly and ended up requiring a corner transplant:

 

 

Quarter panel was also cut out and replaced with new metal:

 

 

While Gary and crew were at it, they installed TTT camber plates, filled seams, took out the old lead and re-leaded the joints, filled the firewall, installed Baddog frame rail connectors, smoothed the side marker lights and welded the headlight buckets to the fenders. The also installed a somewhat custom roll cage - started out as a jegster kit, but got changed up. The remaining rust was taken car of and the car prepped for paint!

 

 

 

 

A few of us had been tossing around the idea of a two tone paint job and this was what I finally decided on: Porsche Twin Turbo Charcoal (everybody knows that it'll make the car faster on the top and a Mercedes titanium on the bottom. I think that it turned out pretty nice.

 

 

 

 

While Gary was working on the body, I had all of the suspension parts blasted and then powdercoated for a nice clean finish. Gary sent the shell home for me to mount the suspension and steering components.

 

For suspension, I went with MML coilovers, tokico struts and suspension tech swaybars. For brakes, the car has the big(er) toyota brakes in the front, and the 240sx disc setup in the rear - someday, the goal is to upgrade both the front and the rear brakes further. Wheels are 17 x 8 MB Motorsports on 2 piece adapters.

 

While I had the car, I went ahead and put FatMat throughout the entire car including firewall and roof.

 

Reassembly:

 

Once the body work was done, we got started on reassembling the car. I installed a Painless wiring harness (for me, anything but painless) and the engine wiring was handled by a Speartech harness. All wiring was run through the body, so there is only one place where wires are exposed. Keeps it clean. I trimmed the wiper valence area during body work so that the LT1 computer could be mounted inside the valence.

 

 

 

Getting ready to drop in the LT1:

 

 

 

 

From there, it's been a matter of working to get all of the parts back in. While I had the chance I went through and installed a NOS Motorsports brake line kit and have had nothing but problems since. Not trying to trash anyone, but just be aware - new condition doesn't by anymeans indicate good fit/design.

 

On to the interior:

 

The dash was trashed from being left exposed in the Texas sun, so off to Just Dashes to be rebuilt.

 

Now reinstalled:

 

 

While they were rebuilding the dash, I had them insert holes for tweaters on the top of the dash:

 

 

I'm really pleased with the quality of work that these guys did. They changed up the size of the instrument openings to exactly fit the gauges and did very good work.

 

Behind the dash is a Hot Rod A/C system. When I got the system, I sent them the Datsun cable controls and they modded the system to work with the Datsun controls - the result is that it looks stock (other than the knob).

 

 

I just finished today wiring up the sound system and power antenna. Pretty happy to report that there were no flames and no smoke.

 

Seats are out of an '07 Miata, but they are too tall and had to be mounted too low. The end result is that I look like Dilbert driving the car.

 

Some random pics:

 

Glove box gauge panel:

 

Integrated turn signals:

 

Outside:

 

First Wash:

 

 

Zee ya!

 

 

One thing that is very true is this: I couldn't have gotten the car to this point without the help of people here on Hybridz. Dale, Bart, Sommers, Guy, Jody and many others have answered way too many annoying questions.

 

Also, the largest credit goes to my wife, who put up with and even encouraged the build.

 

I'll have a few more pics in the coming days as we wrap the car up. Thanks for looking!

 

Bryan