Mike's 240K to GTR Replica Build Part I

Restores, Revamps and Repairs
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waidez
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Location: Auckland

Post by waidez » Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:21 pm

Beautiful car. Will you be taking it to the Club track day at Taupo in Feb?

mikec(nz)
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Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:46 pm

As Mike (NZEDER) pointed out the addition of the flares really changes the nature of the rear guards, and changes the car so it looks a lot more sporty.

I sourced the flares, spoilers and grill from a company called http://www.restored.jp/englishtop.htm via the Australian company Ottomoto referred to earlier.

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Now this was the most disappointing part, generally any Japanese aftermarket parts are of top quality and fit like a glove. My Mission Carbon Fibre bonnet on the ZX is a great example. But these parts fit like Dotcom at a National Party Election launch.

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The guards did not follow the lines, the rear spoiler caught when the boot was shut and was missing the holes along the front. The kit came with standard pop rivets for fitment and the front grill was basically 20-30mm too narrow. Now Chad has some great fibre-glassing skills (though his mechanical skills are lacking) but even he could not get the flares to fit right.

After his modifications and completely replacing the mesh and support the grill came out OK and the front spoiler fit OK.

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I would suggest that if you are doing this build look for a different supplier or do what Leighton (who has the black 240k that was featured in NZ Performance car) did and make them out of metal.

Then the car went off to the panel beaters (local guy in Birch Ave Tauranga). There was a couple of tiny bits of rust that we had taken out and some of the bog had to be removed (well it fell out), but basically the car was sound.

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He also tidied up the guards and the inside of the wheel archers.

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We did not want to do a full respray so we limited it to the area inside where Dale had modified the floor to make the seat fit and the sides of the car.

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Then when the paint was dry it went to the signwriters http://truecolours.biz/. Now this was a mission. As we wanted to do the gold pinstriping look of the Image car and no-one does pin striping anymore, we had to use gold vinyl.

Now the guys at true colours understand my attention to detail and the process involved measuring the model car, pouring over pictures on the web, marking it up in tape, then doing it with cheap vinyl, then changing it all then finally doing it in gold.

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You will see shortly that the result is amazing. There are some really tricky bits to it but the good ol� interweb came up with some helpful pics and also a general layout. But all credit to Stew and Hinton who preserved to get it looking just right (and there was a great deal of swearing going on as well).

At the same time we fitted the spare bumpers that Don had kindly provided with the car. His bumpers were painted white, but we sent the spares ones up to http://www.chromeplaters.co.nz/ who also did a great job in panel beating them and rechroming them. We fitted the new indicator lens, Chad straightened the bumper brackets and the car was nearly finished.

A few badges were fitted (we still have the side fuel cover ones arriving from Japan this week, thanks Yossy) and it is up getting a wheel alignment, tacho is not working and there is couple of other minor issues.

But a good friend Gary got out his mother car care products and gave it the once over and then it was out into the sun for a quick couple of cell phone snaps.
Last edited by mikec(nz) on Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mikec(nz)
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Posts: 189
Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:50 pm

Beautiful car. Will you be taking it to the Club track day at Taupo in Feb?
Probably not, I really want to get my trophy back that I lost last year due to a gearbox drama (I mean skilful driving by my fellow competitors) and I don't think the 240K will be able to do the times necessary, so probably will be taking the 300ZX.

The 240K will be at the icebreaker for the weekend of the 13th - 14th of September at Hampton Downs and I will get it up to Nizfest in November.

mikec(nz)
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Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:04 pm


Greensheep
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Post by Greensheep » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:35 pm

Wow :D That is going to turn some heads, fantastic job, Wow
It's always a good day when you drive a Z

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nustad
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Location: Auckland

Post by nustad » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:51 pm

Wow :D great vision to bring it life it that way. I'm a fan!
72 240z plus bits

lostsoul
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Post by lostsoul » Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:36 pm

How did it go at the weekend ?

mikec(nz)
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Posts: 189
Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:11 pm

She ran pretty well, weather was a bit sh%$. We did have a bit of shuddering under braking which I think is a alignment issue and it was losing a bit of fuel pressure at the end of the straight, which we think is due to the standard lines leading from the tank to the fuel pump. So will fix those.

Here's some pics

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There was a lot of positive attention and I got interviewed by the TV station and the car was videoed but don't think it made it to broadcast.

Best lap was 1:25
Last edited by mikec(nz) on Sat Nov 15, 2014 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Karljsw
Posts: 208
Location: Auckland

Post by Karljsw » Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:42 pm

That is a beautiful car!!

Very nicely done

lostsoul
Posts: 17

Post by lostsoul » Fri Sep 26, 2014 3:11 pm

Saw a quick snippet of it on "speed week" this morning ... had you describing the car.

mikec(nz)
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Posts: 189
Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Fri Sep 26, 2014 6:17 pm

Yeah looked great, obviously like the car more than me, I ended up on the editing floor. :)

here the Skyspeed video

clicky

There more video including in car on my you tube page.

BRONZEE
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Posts: 7200
Location: Auckland

Post by BRONZEE » Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:02 am

mikec(nz) wrote:Yeah looked great, obviously like the car more than me, I ended up on the editing floor. :)
Can still hear you though. :P

Nice bit of footage.
Next - Z Club events:
= Check out events page here or our Z Club NZ Facebook page.

mikec(nz)
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Posts: 189
Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:36 am

heres a video of our dyno session last week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm0or-Dt1-s
Last edited by mikec(nz) on Sat Nov 15, 2014 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DATZED
Posts: 17
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by DATZED » Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:30 pm

That's one helluva 240K...GT 8)

My second car back in 1981 was a 240K coupe. I was all of 19yrs old!(Damn showing my age :lol: )

mikec(nz)
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Posts: 189
Location: Tauranga, New Zealand

Post by mikec(nz) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 11:32 pm

Well the Ken Meri has seen a bit of racing and with that comes a bit of wear and tear (or in laymans terms breaking stuff)

Seems that we might have strained the old diff. I had put a new Quaife LSD in it but left the original crown and pinion. Well last race of the day. We were doing handicap standing start. I got beaten off the line by a dirty of Capri, but then the race was red flagged so we started all over again. MIght have given it a bit more power of the line doing the launch as it made horrible noise and I quickly pulled over and it was making more horrible noises. Thought I had snapped a wheel stubb again, but no that was not it.

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Yup those bits should be somewhere else

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Hmmm that looks a but munted

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Well even I know that dont look right

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So we fitted the crown and pinion out of a Subaru R180 diff (quite a rare version out of 300hp Imprezza I think) - its a 4.44 ratio and much stronger. We had to make a thin spacer plate and use the larger bolts, but other than that pretty much a straight swap. The good news was that the Quaife LSD was sweet. But they have a lifetime guarantee supposedly so must be pretty strong.

So all good and off to the track again.

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