SpawN's 240Z Resto/Mod project.

[SpawN]

Hey guys, I haven't been active much at all on here but I have been ghosting the forum for around the last 4 years and reading up while I was looking for my Z.

 

Ok, so where to begin.

 

I have always loved the Z cars and have yearned to own one for a long time. After buying a new house with what basically is a small warehouse for a shed I decided the time had come to get said vehicle! So the search began, 3 years of me being a fussy bastard and ghosting 12 or so different Aussie car forums netted me a number of a "phantom Z seller".

 

 

This phantom Z seller (Isaac Smith) was suppose to only come out near summer and sell Z cars?! After a phone call that lasted a good hour and a half I had found myself a Z! Isaac had a straight matching numbers 1971 240 that he was willing to let go. Isaac helped me get it from his house to Port Melbourne where I was to pick it up.

 

 

The wait was excruciating, I hadn't felt excitement like that since early childhood Christmas. It was only a week...... anyways!? I jumped on the plane and had the worst flight of my life (L plate pilot!!), landed and headed for the port. When the truck pulled up with Z in check I was a little taken aback. The car looked bad.

 

 

 

Looking inside the car made me feel worse; most of the interior was sitting in the cargo area along with alot of other parts. Trying to get it off the back of the truck was a little difficult. There was no loading bays or areas that could be used to get the car off! To add to that the battery was flat and there was a leak in the fuel tank and where the car was sitting on the trailer had allowed the tank to almost completely empty! shiver! After getting a jump start from the wharfies I drove around looking for a fuel station hoping to not A. see a cop and B. run out of fuel.

 

 

Once the initial shock wore off and I stood back and had a good look at it for what it was, a fairly cheap matching numbers 1971 Z car, I felt a little better. I had a fairly long wait to get onto the boat and this helped me see that the car wasn't all that bad. Most all the parts were there and there appeared to be very little rust (this may come back to bite me yet).

 

 

3 things in my life have never faltered, my love for my fiance, my love of everything mechanical (Z's!!) and my love of siberian huskies.

 

My sibe: Kiara, "Kortierra Obsidian Dream"

 

As such I named my car after my last black and white sibe, Kiara. The Z will eventually be black and white but not in the normal way most people paint Z's. My fiance believes I already spend more time with the car than her so she has name it "The rusty mistress". As you can see here her body language tells the story of what she thought when I pulled up!

 

[SpawN]

After getting home and have a massive sleep to get over the shockingly bad "Ocean view recliner" I had to sleep in; I set to work on getting things apart.

 

 

I slept through the day when I got home and then my mate bought his ra28 celica around. The celica will be some what of a sister car I suppose. Once they were both in the shed the night flew and before I knew it the sun was starting to peak its head over the horizon!!

 

 

Things were alittle bit hasty and I didn't label some things so I reckon there will be some trouble getting some things back together!

[SpawN]

Ripped into the slam panel.

 

It had been bogged up and there was metal welded underneath it?!

 

 

After having a go with a flap disk I changed to a 3mm disk, this was some dam thick and hard bog. Turns out the entire panel you see above was actually a davinci sculpture!!

 

 

Once the massive amount of bog had been removed I could see it have been botch repaired, it had to come off. Once the welded in panel had been removed it made it bleedingly obvious that the whole slam panel had to come off. I had grave fears for the rest of the panel below and the rear quarter panels.

 

 

Looks like ill be getting a slam panel from some where and getting some panels fabbed up to replace that section.

 

Little movie of me doing a dodgey engine removal with a sissor jack .

 

 

More to come.

[SpawN]

Took the engine and front suspension out of the ra, same way as with the Z but with a crane to lift the front Much easier!

 

**Note the water on the floor, had to wash out the coolant that came out of the radiator that had no drain plug and was sikaflexed together!?!

 

Also mounted up the fender mirrors to gauge what they look like. Going to take a bit of getting used to but I really like them! Still have to figure out how to get the mirror glass out of the cup so I can get them powder coated black.

 

 

Seeing as I work 9 days out of every 14, 300km away from home I have mixed all my media into a little movie.

 

Video of everything up until yesterday.

 

 

I know the footage is very amateur and the clip isn't very well put together but I have to do some thing after 12 hours where the only 3 things to do are gym, the hole in the wall (pub) or sleep!