*New* Z project!

[Oddmanout84]

I'm not worried about the door panels, its more the rear panels in the hatch area. I'm not missing a screw, its just a matter of angling/bending the panel so I can pull it out.

 

I gave my car its face back, just not the eyes.

[Oddmanout84]

Steering rack and swaybar reinstalled, front of the car back up in the air, blah blah... kinda boring stuff, and nothing of note that would make for exciting pictures. Getting the sway bar links (with new urethane bushings) to fit onto the control arm was an exercise in frustration, as it was on the rear ones. Those long bolts just aren't long enough, so as before I rigged up a stupidly complex array of wooden blocks and jacks to compress them so I could fit the locknuts on the ends. There's probably an easier way but... I also reset the alignment back to what it was, good thing I took pictures of the threads (in relation to the inner portion of the rack) before taking the rack apart! I was way off on my initial adjustments before I looked at the pics.

 

I've removed the headlights from their buckets as well. As the be expected, the portion facing the tire was covered in a lovely layer of surface rust. More annoying; the rust extended to the bolts holding the assembly apart, so it was quite some work to get them out (turning phillips heads into standards with a dremel). That and readying the splashpan for painting is what I'm into now.

 

Oh, and I guess this is picture worthy;

 

Its not entirely done, but 99% of that sticky black tar sound deadening is gone. I spent many hours chipping away at it with a hammer and putty knife. Found even more rust hiding underneath.... But its not terrible, mostly just surface. Soon I'll finish this and recoat the interior once the rust is taken care of.

 

The stock ignition relay has also been replaced. The newer Nissan unit looks much more durable, and better yet, it was still a simple R&R job!

 

New Ign Relay;

Compare that to the pictures of my original relay. Much better.

 

More updates to come, soon.

[Pharaohabq]

Well, if you're interrested in welding stuff you could do what I did. I took a class at the community college here just to learn how. then I went to home depot and bought a lincoln 135 (largest 110V welder) As part of the class they had you do your own projects so I got to work on my own project. (at the time it was a rock crawler bumper) but they taught me a lot of tricks for how to weld, n really you didn't have to do any studying. it's far from brain surgery, n I was probably smarter than 3/4 of the class. it's a lot different taking a class for fun, than to learn a carreer.

 

Anyway, from there I've learned how to put what I learned to use and to expand on that through these and other forums. You'll find on here proper methods for welding in body panels, or even replacing floorboards or just patching holes. if you don't know something, just ask, people are generally happy to help. I would recommend taking a class. most community colleges are cheap or free on the "trades" programs anyway.

 

Don't use Por-15 on it if you're going to try to weld it later. Por-15 I've found is near impossible to remove, that's tough stuff. it's why I'm using it as a first layer for my undercoating. When you weld, you need clean bare metal. Yes an angle grinder w/ a wire brush is your friend. You can have someone do your welding for you too. it's usually pretty cheap, esp if you have a friend w/ a welder. if you were in abq, I'd weld it for you.

 

Anyhow, You're doing a great job! nice cleanup in the interior. Are you going to paint the interior too?

 

Phar

[Oddmanout84]

Well, if you're interrested in welding stuff you could do what I did. I took a class at the community college here just to learn how. then I went to home depot and bought a lincoln 135 (largest 110V welder) As part of the class they had you do your own projects so I got to work on my own project. (at the time it was a rock crawler bumper) but they taught me a lot of tricks for how to weld, n really you didn't have to do any studying. it's far from brain surgery, n I was probably smarter than 3/4 of the class. it's a lot different taking a class for fun, than to learn a carreer.

 

Anyway, from there I've learned how to put what I learned to use and to expand on that through these and other forums. You'll find on here proper methods for welding in body panels, or even replacing floorboards or just patching holes. if you don't know something, just ask, people are generally happy to help. I would recommend taking a class. most community colleges are cheap or free on the "trades" programs anyway.

 

Don't use Por-15 on it if you're going to try to weld it later. Por-15 I've found is near impossible to remove, that's tough stuff. it's why I'm using it as a first layer for my undercoating. When you weld, you need clean bare metal. Yes an angle grinder w/ a wire brush is your friend. You can have someone do your welding for you too. it's usually pretty cheap, esp if you have a friend w/ a welder. if you were in abq, I'd weld it for you.

 

Anyhow, You're doing a great job! nice cleanup in the interior. Are you going to paint the interior too?

 

Phar

 

Oh yeah. I've welded a few small things before, but that was years ago in school. I forget exactly what it was though. Some silly tech ed project. I have no doubt in my mind that I can learn to weld well enough in a short amount of time, the only thing that's stopping me is that I don't have the money to drop on a welder. My uncle and an auto shop that I used to work at both have welders, and I'll probably be using theirs once the car is street legal again. Right now though I need a temporary fix, as both locations I will need to drive a decent distance to. I'd rather take the Z to my uncles, honestly, because he's been working on cars his whole life and is very ingenuitive when it comes to fabricating parts. I trust him more than any other mechanic, and I'm sure he could teach me a whole lot more. That and I could spend the night, and my aunt is a good cook! lol.

 

Yes, the interior is going to be painted. Out with the brown, in with the black. That krylon plastic/vinyl paint has worked awesome so far in converting a lot of my interior trim pieces from the stock brown color, so it should work well for the rest. Not only was black a good personal choice, but also any stains that won't come off the brown are completely covered up. I'll be using 3M rubber undercoating on the floors for now, as I don't have POR-15 on hand and as you said I don't want to try to remove the stuff when I get to welding later. Whenever I get the floor patched, down the road I think I'll be putting in some sound deadening mats. Otherwise the car is going to sound really "tinny" when going down the road.

 

I also really hope I don't have to get a new latch mechanism for the passenger side door. It will not latch closed anymore. I tried moving the striker on the body frame outboard, but that's not the issue. Something inside the actual mechanism is allowing the latch to come undone with even a light pull.

[Pharaohabq]

Hmm door latch. sounds like the latch itself isn't closing all the way. Usually there's 2 catches on those latches, so that you can have your door stay closed even if it's not fully latched. Probably someone sprayed oil or wd-40 in there a while back, and it's now gummed up, if you take off your door panel and unbolt the mechanism, pull it, and you can spray it out with brake cleaner, wipe it down and graphite it. you'll see exactly how it works when it's out, it's really pretty simple, but amazing how well it keeps the door shut. Anyway, once you clean it and make sure it works okay, re-install and you should be good. Worst case you'll have to make another trip to Ebay or somewhere to find a latch...

 

So you're using Black paint to color your interior huh? I went and spent a lot of $ buying interior parts off Ebay that were all black to convert my interior from white to black. the white was too dingy and sunbleached tan and grey in a lot of places. , I probably could use paint on some areas, if I'd thought more about it, paint may have ben a good idea. but aren't you afraid of cracking? I suppose it depends on how thick.

 

Yeah, just cover the holes for now, then when you're ready go for the welding. it's good your uncle has a shop, that'll make it a lot easier. Look for the thread on sound deadening materials, there's a lot out there. but you really should get those holes welded up before you start putting anything down. you don't want to end up with any musty smells. MSA and a few other places sell floor pans, but depending on how bad it is, you might get away with just some sheet metal patches. Don't forget to seal the underside after it's welded.

 

Phar

[Oddmanout84]

Probably someone sprayed oil or wd-40 in there a while back, and it's now gummed up, if you take off your door panel and unbolt the mechanism, pull it, and you can spray it out with brake cleaner, wipe it down and graphite it.

 

Me? Spray out the latch mechanism with WD-40 to see if I could fix it? Noooo...

 

Oops. Yeah, I did that. And come to think of it, the more times I've done that it has gotten worse than when i first bought the Z. The mechanism IS turning all the way though, the problem is when its in the "closed" position, whatever "catch" that's inside will not keep it in that position if any pressure is applied. I've tested this multiple times with a thick screwdriver. Hopefully its gummed up from the oil as you say, and not too worn. That's interesting though about the graphite. I always thought the dark residue in there was weargrease. I'll have to remember this for when I clean it out and reinstall it.

 

The interior plastic paint I'm using should NOT chip though, if the labels on the cans are accurate. I've used two products for this, Krylon Kolorbond and Duplicolor Vinyl/Fabric spray paint (from Autozone). Both are supposed to not coat their targets exactly like regular paint, but actually DYE the plastic, so the color becomes part of the plastic. Pretty cool. The Duplicolor was used on my seats, and it did an excellent job of turning the vinyl trim black, and as much as I've messed with it, the color will not rub or flake off. As for the inner fabric portion of the seat, it worked terribly. The color went straight to the bottom inner portion of the fabric but failed to dye the fuzzy upper area. Perhaps its because I tried to use light gray for that area, though, which made the final color a milky brown. I might as well test the black on that area now, because the seats are going bye-bye sometime in the near future anyway.

 

Here is an example of the difference

And here's the original color on the flipside. This panel was sun-bleached, spotted, and stained before I painted it.

This new coating does NOT feel like its going to chip.

 

And I can definitely get away with just welding in patches on the floorboards. The only reason I've seen fiberglass as a feasible temporary fix is that the rust holes I've cut out are only about the size of a silver dollar, at their worst. From what I've seen on other Z's, I lucked out big time in comparison (even if it still sucks for me).

 

I also got my proportioning valve in the mail today! Yay! I can finally hook my brakes up and bleed them!

 

But wait. Aw crap... I looked at the caps for the master cylinder and realized something.

 

They're wired. And I'm guessing there's a switch inside each of those plastic probes that detects my fluid level. The problem? It looks like there's still some residual "brake-fluid-turned-grease" coagulated inside. Something tells me that might interfere with operation... ugh... I also have to hope that my current master cylinder (still bathing in a bucket of DOT3) is going to hold up. The seals looked good, but only time will tell if I should have just ordered a new one.

[Daeron]

If you are talking about small holes, just glass them for now. you need to cut out to a good, clean square of unrusted metal when it is time to weld in a patch anyhow.. why not simply, cut out the entire fiberglassed patch when that time comes?

 

The fiberglass floor repair is commiting yourself (or a future owner, beware of Karma) to fixing it later at an increased amount of difficulty. In all honestly, if its properly prepared and you don't wait TOO long) it isn't that much more difficulty.

 

Is it a "bad" thing to do, most certainly.. but if your talking short term "keep my @#$% car dry!!" repair, just go ahead and do that. Just, cut a slightly larger patch out when its metal time.

 

 

I took a passenger door that was ALWAYS tricky to open and shut (I honestly thought it was frame damage on the car) and fixed it BEAUTIFUL on my car SIX YEARS AGO by dribbling a little bit of 10W-30 onto the latch mechanism that I definitely hit a bajillion times with PB Blaster, WD40, lithium grease, etc to no avail. I would have SWORN that I had tried motor oil as well, but as soon as I had opened and shut it four or five times, the motor oil fixed it so that it sounded new. It STILL sounds and works that well.

 

I would try blasting it out with brake cleaner while you used a screwdriver to move the catch through its range of motion. After that, hit it with motor oil , cycle the catch a couple times with a screwdriver again, and try closing the door.

[Oddmanout84]

If you are talking about small holes, just glass them for now. you need to cut out to a good, clean square of unrusted metal when it is time to weld in a patch anyhow.. why not simply, cut out the entire fiberglassed patch when that time comes?

 

The fiberglass floor repair is commiting yourself (or a future owner, beware of Karma) to fixing it later at an increased amount of difficulty. In all honestly, if its properly prepared and you don't wait TOO long) it isn't that much more difficulty.

 

Is it a "bad" thing to do, most certainly.. but if your talking short term "keep my @#$% car dry!!" repair, just go ahead and do that. Just, cut a slightly larger patch out when its metal time.

 

Oh yeah. this would be a VERY temporary fix. I'd be surprised if it lasted more than 6 months. As for the car.... I've put more time, sweat, blood (and money) into this project than any other I've previously done. I can't see myself shortchanging it, or selling it in the near future. If I could have it my way, I will be passing this car down to my future son/daughter (whichever I'm cursed with) in the future. My current "better half" has promised me that she'll never try to force me to sell either the Z or the Harley, but we'll see.

 

I am hitting all the rust I find with converter, so it will be for all intensive purposes GONE, though I could be wrong. Hopefully I won't have to remove a terribly larger amount of metal when I patch these areas with welds.

[Pharaohabq]

...

 

I would try blasting it out with brake cleaner while you used a screwdriver to move the catch through its range of motion. After that, hit it with motor oil , cycle the catch a couple times with a screwdriver again, and try closing the door.

 

Daeron's got a great idea there w/ the brake cleaner. that stuff is awesome for cleaning out oily crap in workings, or anywhere else you have oil and don't want it. I would go back to the graphite rather than oil again unless you want the dust in there to solidify again. I've degreased an entire engine with that stuff. only precautions I'd warn you of, is 1 it's flamable, duh!, and 2 it's messy, spatters everywhere.. so expect to be cleaning up. Let us know if that works. it might keep me from having to pull the latches on my Z

 

Phar

[jknc90]

only precautions I'd warn you of, is 1 it's flamable, duh!, and 2 it's messy, spatters everywhere.. so expect to be cleaning up.

 

It also doesn't feel very good when it splashes back into your eye...yea, that wasn't fun lol.

[Oddmanout84]

It also doesn't feel very good when it splashes back into your eye...yea, that wasn't fun lol.

 

Oh yeah, lol.... Been there, done that. Although I can say I enjoyed jet fuel and diesel in my eye much less. Another annoying side effect that I've noticed brake cleaner having is that not only does it eat through greasy nastiness well, but it also strips rubberized undercoatings. I only say this is annoying because I had just laid down a coat of it on my wheel wells a day or two prior to me trying to use brake cleaner on a nearby component. The resulting overspray ate through the undercoat like nothing.

[Pharaohabq]

Oh yeah, lol.... Been there, done that. Although I can say I enjoyed jet fuel and diesel in my eye much less. ...

 

... The resulting overspray ate through the undercoat like nothing.

 

Yeah I think we all must have had that in our eyes. Sucks too cuz usually you've got greasy hands when you're using it. "Where's the F**k'in Clean rags!!!" yeah... been there.

 

So that's interresting about the undercoating, is that stock coating it ate through or some aftermarket. I'll be needing to do some stripping of my undercoating, n this might be good for degreasing underneath at the same time

 

Phar

[Oddmanout84]

Yeah I think we all must have had that in our eyes. Sucks too cuz usually you've got greasy hands when you're using it. "Where's the F**k'in Clean rags!!!" yeah... been there.

 

So that's interresting about the undercoating, is that stock coating it ate through or some aftermarket. I'll be needing to do some stripping of my undercoating, n this might be good for degreasing underneath at the same time

 

Phar

 

The stock UC seemed fine, and I know I used brake cleaner to wash up the rear areas so I could apply the aftermarket (duplicolor, NAPA, 3M). Maybe the new stuff didn't have enough time to cure, but I would think 2 days was plenty.

[Nuke]

It also doesn't feel very good when it splashes back into your eye...yea, that wasn't fun lol.

 

Don't let it get on your paint

[Oddmanout84]

Oh yeah, but right now I don't have much paint on the car that I care about (besides the suspension!). Once again, brake cleaner proved it was one of my best friends for this project. After a quick jet to the door mechanism INSTANTLY freed it up and made it operate like new again. I can't believe I didn't try that first...

 

If I could marry the brake cleaner, I would.

[Oddmanout84]

So today I went about happily bleeding my clutch and brake system. But I'm totally lying about the happily part. What a pain in the ass it's been. Without a partner to help out, I've been doing everything myself with a one man vacuum bleeder. The clutch should be good now, but I'll see when I start grinding gears if its good or not. The brakes still need to be bled, the system is still empty but I did reinstall the master cylinder and hook up my lines.

 

I hate to say it, but Modern Motorsports has me bent around the axle lately (no pun intended). Not only was their "complete direct replacement, no modifications needed" proportioning valve kit a bust (two incorrect NPT-to-SAE fittings supplied), but I also found a few minutes ago that the E-brake cables don't fit the rear calipers. Now, I know about the trick for switching the cables by crossing them over each other. Did that, the cables are still way too long!! Damn it!! And they're dangerously close to the half-shafts. I guess this second problem isn't really MM's fault though, it my car that's the problem. Everything else in that kit is perfect. Its just really annoying after checking length, switching them, then checking length again to find that they're still too long that has me really annoyed.

 

I'm going to try crossing them over again. Maybe it'll work. If it does, I may be able to take the car for a test drive tomorrow (up and down the driveway, its nowhere near street legal yet).

[Oddmanout84]

Now I feel really burned up. I had to cross my E-brake cables over 4 times to get the desired length... and they still look a little bit long! But the great thing isn't that. After I was finished I went to install the braided brake lines I got from MM with the rear disc kit. This is what I found.

 

Passenger side

Wow, that looks great. Even has a provision for the clevis pin to keep it in place.

 

Driver side

WTF is this? Not only is it different than the other side, but its also completely and utterly wrong. The adapter is threaded on the outside. The flares are incorrect. Why??!

 

So once again, thanks MM. You've taken another few years off my lifespan and edged me closer to having an aneurysm than anything in recent memory. Not one purchase, but twice in a row. I can liken your products to a bowl of cheerios. Cheerios are great, I love them and they're good. But if there's one pea sized lump of crap in my bowl of cheerios, I don't want to eat them anymore.

 

You pooped in my cheerios.

[Oddmanout84]

I got an email back from Modern about my concerns. Their customer service is great (when they're there), and now that I know the reason for the delay, its understandable. Still though, even the notes they pointed to about the rear disc installation still don't address the issues with the lines/fittings included with the kit. According to the notes, you also (in addition to the calipers) need to acquire "a 20 inch long metric male to metric male fitted Japanese hardline" for the driver's side. Uhh... I don't see this helping at all with my previous issues. There's already a nice line installed there. From examining the fittings on the new braided steel line, I'm almost absolutely positive that the problem can be solved with a -3 AN to Metric 10x1.0 female adapter w/ reverse flare. So I ordered a couple from Summit today (FINALLY found them!). If I've learned anything from this experience, its that there are a LOT more ways to measure a pipe fitting other than SAE and M. And that its damn hard to find anything but SAE fittings locally without special ordering.

 

So, nothing much else new today. The clutch still works, much to my delight. Also nice to find out that I didn't screw up the bleeding by doing it all myself.

[Pete Sprenger]

A few years ago I typed up an illustrated how to article/web page for Ross at Modern Motorsports on how to do his brake conversion. I found that everything fit together perfectly as long as I followed his directions. I had to ask a ton of questions in the process, so perhaps my web site may be of help to you. It is still up on my web page and I am currently working on a how to article/web page on how to convert to the Modern Motorsports aluminum hub.

 

Here is a copy of my web page I found (since my old computer died and took all the information with it, I can't find my original page or figure out how to log into Yahoo to access it that way).

 

http://www2.zhome.com:81/ZCMnL/tech/Calipers/zbrakeupgrade.htm

 

 

(Yes, Ross, if you are reading this, I am still working on the write up for the hubs despite a digital camera failure and loosing my pictures twice, which means disassembly to get them again, and a computer dieing which caused me to loose the pictures yet again and all the write up I did. The really frustrating part is that it is all saved on an external hard drive, which my new computer always tells me "access denied" when I try to acess it).

[Pete Sprenger]

Yes! I found my web site. Here is the page that has the full write up about both the front and rear brake upgrade.

 

http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/boulevard/6117/datsun240z.html

 

Now if I can just figure out how to log in so I can update other parts of my site...