SUNNY Z Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 (edited) Made it to the shop the other night. Got a piece of 2"x1/8"x3' took some measurements, bent it in my vise with a hammer, made a lower radiator support. (not done yet) Fit is good. Uses the front tow hook mounts, which are ghandi. Also welded a strap between the front exhaust pipes so they're always indexed correctly. And VHT high-temp painted them. Le flat black Also ordered tires, fender flares, front air dam, and other misc junk Edited March 30, 2012 by SUNNY Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 Spent another evening down at the shop last night. Finished painting the rear strut tubes, got the correct spacing for the front brakes, and got the front strut tubes primed. Little word to the wise: a good friend of mine told me to do this: so the collars don't rotate when you are adjusting the ride height. Smart! also, since my tokico's are smaller than the strut tube, the fronts wouldn't center correctly with the stock datsun gland nuts. SO, I cut the locating ring off the ones that came with the shocks, and tacked in on the datsun gland nuts. Worked great! I also completely finished the radiator support, and found some hoses that will work. No pics yet, but soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 While you have it apart think about how you would make some droop limiter straps. You are a good welder so this should be no problem for you. The 4x4 sites on line sell strap material so you can get various lengths pre-made. You just need to make a little plate that sandwiches between the stock insulator and the top of the tower. Put a tab on it that drops down with a hole in it that you could bolt the top of the strap to. Bolt the bottom of the strap to the swaybar link bolt. Wait to order strap until you can measure for proper length after your build is done. Purpose of droop strap is that without it your spring, adjustable seats, top seat and spacers, and sometimes the bearings drop down and get a little disorganized. Your little keyway in the adjustable seat may get out of index. May not wind up being an issue,just be careful as you lower a coilover equipped car off jacks. Sometimes you have to jack car back up, straighten the spring up with your hand then let it down again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 (edited) Radiator and fan are fully mounted and wired up. Bought a bunch of weather stripping and sealed the fan to the radiator, and the radiator to the body. Cold air intake is in and assembled. Brakes are apart for paint, then they go back together and I assemble the struts. Ordered T3 weld in camber plates, bump steer spacers, and adjustable TC rods. Fuel tank SUPPOSEDLY shipped today...... ... I've been hearing that for 3 weeks now though. Glad I'm not at a stand still. Also, my front bumper, flares, and tires got here. Picked up the driveshaft yesterday. Gonna get the tires mounted tomorrow after class, and hopefully start measuring etc. for the flares. Its coming together slowly but surely. Its not much of a big boy Edited April 4, 2012 by SUNNY Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Time to start hacking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Think hard about moving your front fender opening forward as much as possible. Wide tires and lowering cause tires to rub the front of the fender and airdam. Also, johnc's recommended additional caster makes front fender/airdam rub even worse. Lots of stuff on forum about guys having trouble with front of fender - be smart and take care of it before you drill for your flares. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Think hard about moving your front fender opening forward as much as possible. Wide tires and lowering cause tires to rub the front of the fender and airdam. Also, johnc's recommended additional caster makes front fender/airdam rub even worse. Lots of stuff on forum about guys having trouble with front of fender - be smart and take care of it before you drill for your flares. Yeah i've been doing a lot of reading about placement, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) Fuel Tank, camber plates, TC rods, and bump steer spacers will be here tuesday. In the meantime, I was able to get one rear strut in, and get a mock up of the flares. I also finished the vent tubing under the dash. I used a 2.5" shop-vac hose that I bought at Menard's for like $20. Turned out its almost exactly the right size. I also got the air dam mounted Thats all for tonight! Edited April 9, 2012 by SUNNY Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno74Z Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) Looking good! I haven't tackled the dash yet but there is a lot of stuff jammed under there. Are you using the original car wire harness? The harness is close to 40 years old and in areas the insulation is hard and brittle but mostly in the engine compartment. I'm not worried about the engine harness as that is relatively new wire that I redid. But all the other stuff such as the horn, lights, starter alt. etc. As I said old and brittle. They all have to carry loads again and splicing in new wire on top of old is not very wise. What size rims/tires are you using on the front and rear? Danno74Z Edited April 9, 2012 by Danno74Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 My car harness was in pretty good shape. All the stuff that was in the engine bay was well protected, and I actually removed 90% of it. All the wires in the dash are new. I agree, way too much stuff in there. It doesn't help that I have my PCM behind the glove box taking up precious real estate. Rims are Rota RB-R's - 17x9.5 -19 IIRC - All around - yes its going to be interesting fitting the fronts. Tires are Yokahama S Drives - 275-40-17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno74Z Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 I think I'm going with a Vintage Air Compact system. I really would like AC (I'm old) and having that Antique AC/Heater OEM system and trying to retro it to the LS1 is a road I don't want to travel. Big meats on that Z of yours - now I know why you need the flairs! I'm home today working on fixing the main valve to the sprinkler system. I'm in a hole 6' deep, boy talk about being creepy down there. Danno74Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) well I got the rears cut, but not welded. Here's how I measured. Looked around on here, and found that I wanted to cut between 3 and 4". I settled on 3.5. So I made marks at the top of the fender (where the cut would be the deepest) and mounted the flares 1" higher than what I wanted to cut. I then marked it an inch all the way around, and tapered the edges. Then I cut the outer layer of sheet metal, and cut it again lower so I could access the inner layer to cut it. Here is the passenger rear at full tuck. All the stuff will be here tomorrow! Going to be a big day, have an O-chem test wednesday though.... school is taking the back seat to the 280 at this point.... Edited April 10, 2012 by SUNNY Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 That is going to be beautiful. I love the color of your car with those RBRs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Look who came to the party! Hopefully will have this lady running by this evening! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Looks great. Think about changing that pre-filter before the fuel pump to a shut-off type filter; I wish I had done that. I am having a little sputter on right hand turns at a low fuel level, even though I installed a "sump" in my tank. So far, the sputter just lets me know it is time to go get more $4.07 gas. Please consider changing your Avatar ASAP. Those cheap allow wheels are killing me, and your RBRs are simply awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Looks great. Think about changing that pre-filter before the fuel pump to a shut-off type filter; I wish I had done that. I am having a little sputter on right hand turns at a low fuel level, even though I installed a "sump" in my tank. So far, the sputter just lets me know it is time to go get more $4.07 gas. Please consider changing your Avatar ASAP. Those cheap allow wheels are killing me, and your RBRs are simply awesome. yeah I agree on the filter. It was already at the shop and installed before i had that notion the way it is now, it'll take some mods to put one in. I think you mean my signature - and yes, I know, those wheels are hideous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Got the fenders and spare tire hole welded up today. Heres the piece i cut out for the spare tire, and welded in and then I used seam sealer on all of it and then stitch welded and seam sealed the fenders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Front fenders / air dam are trimmed this is ride height-ish. maybe a bit low Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted April 15, 2012 Author Share Posted April 15, 2012 Well i got a good amount done today. Camber plates front and rear Got my fuel tank installed ONLY TO FIND IT HAD A FECKING HOLE IN IT so someone will be getting a phone call on monday. no excuse for that as much as i paid for it and as long as i waited. That's pretty much it. There's a monster thread in suspension and chassis about the camber plate install for those who are interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 That looks great. Your finishing on the camber plates is amazing. Don't get discouraged. You are doing great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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