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Karl's 240z Project :)

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:14 am
by Karljsw
Hi Guys,

Well as some of you may know I've recently acquired a nice little 240z!!!

The car is set-up for a supercharged 350 Chevy, with Willwoods up front, and skyline 2 pots at the rear. I believe it has a 280zx braker booster as well as a Willwood brake bias valve. It has a bolt in half cage with side intrusion bars, with loops for a 5 point harness. The whole chassis has been reinforced and undercoated so quite a lot of work has already been done.

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It has a few oddities like the 260z dash and a weird cylinder underneath the seat

Its also in a million pieces, so I can still call it a build :)

Anyway I'll get a few more pics up tomorrow of what we have done so far, mostly disassembly and doing some touch ups/ replacing bolts.

Cheers
Karl

Update 4/07/14

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:15 am
by Karljsw
So here is a pic of what the front looks like now. I've sprayed the reinforcing bars matt black as the engine bay had too much orange going on. All new nuts, washers and bolts as I wasn't a fan of the allen key bolts that were holding the bars on.

Dad and I broke out the welder and attached the brackets that the fender sits on. The welds aren't picture perfect but they hold and I'm happy with them for a first go at welding on the car :)

Found some foam to go on top of the mounts to hold it in the right place and stop it rubbing and making noises.

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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:15 am
by BRONZEE
Watching with interest. Always fantastic to see another one being prepared to go back on the tarmac. :D

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:01 pm
by nzeder
If you are going to run a manual you will want to replace the large 280zx booster with a more suitable 260z booster that will allow the installation of the standard clutch cylinder - the 280zx booster covers the stock location if I recall.

If you need a 260z booster I have one that is in good condition.

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:32 pm
by badhabit
So what are plans? V8 back in? Nissan V8!?!
Bought my Z in a million pieces, just adds to the journey!!

Update 18/07/14

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 12:11 am
by Karljsw
About time for an update. Have been doing lots of little jobs and trying to decide plans of when and what to do.

So my plan is to use the Chevy V8 out of my other car and the new gearbox that came with the 240z (i believe its a th700r4), stick it all back in and drive it.

I'll be sticking with an automatic gearbox for now as I'm curious to see if I like the V8 in the car and can't justify doing the work for a manual conversion if I dont like the V8, plus Mum says I should get it on the road first. :)

So I've been spending quite a lot of time on trademe, ebay and Yahoo japan auctions looking for some tail lights as the car didn't have any. I found a pair of Us spec ones in japan a week ago and they arrived today.
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I have some pretty good lens in the garage so I wasn't bothered about the crack. I used a guy called Jesse Streeter (http://jessestreeter.com/) to import them to me as most yahoo auction sellers wont send internationally. Pretty much cost me $10 + Postage for Jesse to send them to me and they arrived in 3 days which I was pretty stoked about.

I've also decided to have a go at repairing the dash after reading a DIY forum post on Aus Z car forum. Its got 5 or 6 nice sized cracks in it and the frame was a bit rusty and as I was pulling most of the bits off it for a clean and polish I thought what the heck.

Dash top and the cracks
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Dash Frame Primed
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Dash Frame in Matt Black
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Still a work in progress but thanks to the sunny weather I've been able to get a bit of painting done.

Lots of little cleaning and touch up jobs have been done, Dad's taken on the responsibility of painting and refitting the front lights and also is in charge of refitting the dash components, Apparently he knows where every screw goes.... we'll see in a week or two :lol:

We are attacking the front first and working backwards so hopefully this weekend the lights will be put back together and both fenders and the front panels will be bolted on and gaps sorted out.

Cheers
Karl

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 9:39 am
by us2
This might help with the dash Karl. It's probably similar to Aus Z Car.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/inte ... tures.html

Re: Update 18/07/14

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:16 pm
by Andy
Karljsw wrote: I used a guy called Jesse Streeter (http://jessestreeter.com/) to import them to me as most yahoo auction sellers wont send internationally. Pretty much cost me $10 + Postage for Jesse to send them to me and they arrived in 3 days which I was pretty stoked about.
Hey Karl good progress, looks like we better run a Drag strip meet next year to try her out against a few wheesy old sixes!

Thanks for the info above, aren't forums great. Also for those that dont know about it NZ Post runs a "Youshop" service from the UK and USA so you can purchase off non NZ friendly sites using a UK/US address. Works fine, freight prices are a little high but sometimes lower than the seller and if the seller offers free local freight, it can be a winner.

Update 20/08/14

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:59 pm
by Karljsw
Hello about time for a small update, progress has been slow but it is moving :)

The Dash 'restoration' is now complete and it is sitting patiently on the pool table waiting to be fitted.

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I'll get a picture of the top when its installed, looks pretty good.

You can just see where the cracks were but I'm happy with it and it didn't cost more than $80 :)

I finally sprayed the inside of the bonnet with primer and finished sanding the edges

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And it installed on the car

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I also attempted to straighten the grille as there were a couple of bent bits and got the welder out to fix the bottom mount which had snapped off.

So drilled out all the rivets, unscrewed the rods (which are incredibly fragile especially when the person who sprayed the car covered the threads with 6-8 layers of paint....), sanded off the clear and loose bits of paint, gave it a coat of matte black like the front reinforcing, new rivets and back on she goes!!

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I'll get a better photo when the weather improves, the matte black helps break up the sea of burnt orange on the front of the car :)

Dad and I have also started on the front section of wiring loom, removing and replacing broken cables and connects and removing bits that are no longer used for the v8. Its spread over the pool table at the moment and we are just waiting on some connectors and the proper crimping tool.

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And last night we started on the brake lines which were snaking all over the inside of the cabin. So far we have removed 3 sections that were unnecessary and in the process of getting the lines from the master cylinders bend to roughly the correct angles for a template to get nice shiny new ones.

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And then these arrived from the US today.

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My tail light seals and new turn signal lens.. Ones got a nice 2-3cm crack in it so will be going back and i'll have to wait another month for a new one to come back...

O well plenty of other stuff to keep me busy :lol:

Cheers
Karl

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:46 pm
by BRONZEE
Coming along nicely. 8) What colour is that, paint?

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:26 am
by Karljsw
I'm not too sure what the paint code/ colour is. On the trademe ad it was listed as tiger gold. But on the tin of paint I have for it the name is red metallic orange?

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 11:44 am
by Andy
Would have been called Bronze Wine back in the 70's

Tiger gold

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:31 pm
by nustad
Pretty sure Tiger Gold is a Holden colour from the late 90's early 2000's. In previous photos in the sun your car does look like that colour. Not so much in the garage......

I am pretty sure your car used to be tangerine orange in the early 90's. I saw it at pukekohe when it had a supercharged chev in it. I will have a paper photo somewhere........

Update 16/09/14

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:28 pm
by Karljsw
Hi

Another small update as things have been rather slow.

Put the hatch on to give me a boost

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Still needs panel and paint but the car now looks a lot more finished even without any glass installed :)

If any one has a hatch lock mechanism I'm in need of one as the one I have is rusted completely.

Have 2 orders coming in with parts to complete the build so hopefully in a week or two I will have 99% of the parts I need and it will just be a case of finding the time to put it all back together.

Also managed to put the dash in yesterday to help mock up some brackets that I need to fabricate for the centre console and dash.

Here are some pics of the dash top after I restored it. I know its the wrong dash for a 240z but I can't afford to purchase the correct one at the moment so this will do for now. Makes the car a bit more unique as well haha

Before:

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After:

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Cheers
Karl

8/01/15

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:28 pm
by Karljsw
Hello

Engines in :)

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Karl