My 240sx to 350sx restoration/conversion build thread

[420sxWETDREAMS]

Dam......That is some really good (MONK SHOW) anal type cleaning. Almost a compulsive disorder type....but really...really good! You my friend have motivated quite a few heads here to Do-the-Do! Besides beauty on the outside and take pride in your ride and keep the inside fly.

[chitown_240sx]

Hi, I wanted to know the name of the primer you used in the trunk. I'm working on my first rebuild and does the paint have to be stripped beofre applied?

[Fidel_Cashflo]

I already spoke to him about it, its called Duplicolor Undercoat... Im ordering 3 or 4 cans to do my car with it, but Im going to do some prep work on all the surface rust spots.

[OM3GA]

Damn this is a clean a** project omg your like me lol "Youll never see it but ill know its there" hahaha

[PhillyDaKid-S13]

Damn fine job your doin there, man. got a couple questions for you....

How do those 350z seats fit in the car? were they hard to mount? im thinkin about getting a pair of those, seeing how great they look....

where'd you get the dry ice from?

when you start the actual VQ swap, what do you plan on doing regarding the NATS system, BCM, intake manifold being too close to the firewall, and Variable cam timing, as those are the main problems with the swap?

oh, and of course you gotta tell me what part of philly ur from....lol

[skazat]

Great job so far. I cant wait to see how its going to end up. so you said you had a change of plans instead of going with the VQ what are you throwing in there? Anything your drawing inspiration from? if so Id love to see it.

[lucky03602]

not only are you doing a great job on your car, your also giving out alot of good ideas.

i was considering re-doing my trunk in my hatch because its beat up, and the only part of my interior thats ugly.

which spray on undercoat did you use, and did you sand down any of the metal before spraying rust bullet/ can undercoat at all?

also thanks for the little hints as to make carpet/seats clean! cant wait to try it out.

[gregfarz78]

Damn fine job your doin there, man. got a couple questions for you....

How do those 350z seats fit in the car? were they hard to mount? im thinkin about getting a pair of those, seeing how great they look....

where'd you get the dry ice from?

when you start the actual VQ swap, what do you plan on doing regarding the NATS system, BCM, intake manifold being too close to the firewall, and Variable cam timing, as those are the main problems with the swap?

oh, and of course you gotta tell me what part of philly ur from....lol

The seats look like they belong in the car, they around mounted yet though b/c the project is sorta on hold for now. We're in the process of selling our house and moving into a new house so I need to work on fixing that up first before I continue on the car. I'm still going back and forth on the VQ if I want to keep it or go big and do LSx swap, I might just build the VQ b/c I already have it but the wiring still scares me hopefully someone else will figure it out before its time for me to wire it up. I'm moving right around king of prussia area.

[PhillyDaKid-S13]

MAN....i WISH i could move out to king of prussia. Oh wells....my place in east falls is fine for me. I have a garage, cant ask for more than that, lol. I actually was partaking in another thread on here concerning the vq wiring. as I was saying, so far the biggest concerns with it is the NATS, which is nissans proprietary security system. on top of that theres something else called the BCM which also has to do with the security system. Then theres the whole variable timing issue. what ive read that people have done is used the wiring harness from the pre '02 maximas, which use the VQ30de, and does not have variable timing/wired security. Ive also read that theyve used VQ30 heads on the VQ35 as well to get around the wiring probelm, as its wiring harness is more well known. still dping research tho....

[gregfarz78]

I was reading on zilvia that someone found a way around the NATS and security issue, I need to look into that more b/c if thats the case I'm going to stick with the VQ. The maxima ecu isn't a good option IMO you lose use of vvt

[PhillyDaKid-S13]

right, so ive heard. i posted in another thread on nico that greddy has a plug and play unit called the vmanage for the 350/g35 that controls and adjusts variable timing, although I have yet to hear from anyone that uses it....but this possibly could be a viable option. a guy on here named irax is supposedly working on motor mounts that hes gonna mass produce, hopefully taking care of that firewall issue. need to get a hold of that guy....im just trying to do as much research as I can, cause im DEFINITELY going the vq route.

[Karateboy88]

Tonight laid down a layer of raamaudio ensolite its a closed cell foam to help absorb some more road noise





and the carpet roughly fitted still needs some trimming around the edges

I've never worked with ensolite or any sound deadening material so bear with me.

The black padding is the ensolite and what is the silver foil?

Can I ask why you chose RAAM? Do you know any higher end/lower end but reputable choices?

When it comes to ensolite, better sound deadening = higher quality?

[gregfarz78]

I choose RAAMAT b/c the price was good and quality was ranked high compared to dynamat. The silver foil is the sound deadener that helps to eliminate the rattles and vibrations in the body, the black mat is the ensolite which is a closed cell foam to help to absorb road noise to give it that luxury car feel.

[Loki]

Gahdamn that's a clean looking coupe. Keep up the good work! I am quite jealous.

[MICRoS13]

Hey i was very interested in the products you use to like restore the trunk & rear underseats cause i'm going to start to restore my trunk and since my rear is gutted i thought i'll do that to. so can you give me a list of materials you used please?

[GreGS15]

wow you are really doing great work, keep it up.

I can only hope to have my pooh brown interior as clean as yours, once I switch over to all black.

subscribed.

[ag240]

Damn.... subscribed bro!

[sldewyz]

lookin real good man. also a sound deadining noob. 2 ?'s1) whats the prep on the floor to get it ready like what did you clean it with?2) im assuming its got a one side stick like tape? correct me if im wrong

other then that it looks amazing. i want to do this this week cuz my interiors all out cuz of my cage bein put in but i gots no moneyz

[CINCYS13]

man your my idol i recently got my car and i loved what you did so much i copied it ]]
Modified by CINCYS13 at 8:11 PM 6/13/2009

[BackIntoAnS13]

Wow, yours looks good too man! How did you go about taking off the crap foam that is underneath the carpet? I just stripped mine out the other day when i had time and boy is there alot of that crap stuck on the floor pan. Does dry ice take off all that gunk too?? It looks/seems like it does, i thought ppl only used it to take off the sound deadening material but if it works for that crap too looks like im buying dry ice tomorrow
Modified by wantaRHD180sx at 2:02 AM 6/14/2009

[CINCYS13]

honestly I havnt done anything its just really clean. the only spots on the floor was some of the insulation that was connected to the carpet but it pulls off pretty easy but thanks a lot..

[gregfarz78]

Looks great man! I'm glad I inspired others lol

Sorry for no updates lately project is temporarily on hold for now, I'm in the middle of a move so need to take care of some house projects first but the good news is my new garage is HUGE

[eidk]

I like where this is going.

Slow n steady, but a great job none the less.

Keep up the great work

[MICRoS13]

Okay What materials did you use to clean up that trunk and paint and was it antirust material or something?

[CINCYS13]

BTW SORRY FOR THE THREAD JACK I WAS JUST TRYING TO SHOW YOU WHAT I HAD DONE....

Since I live in Ohio I have a plastic windshield scrapper for the snow so I used that paint thinner a hammer and a crowbar/chisel. the paint thinner helped soften up the sound deadening a lil I think and worked its way between the deadening and the metal. After I got most of everything up that way i had a 3m scuff pad laying around so I grabbed that and sanded the trunk and the spots that were left. Then I went out and bought 2 cans of duplicolor truck bed liner. I did a base coat pretty much the first day it was solid but very thin and could scratch but it used a whole can. On the second day after work I put on a second and final coat and put it on thicker in areas that were more likely to have sharp objects come in contact like in the tire well is really thick. but the good thing about this is you always can go spray some more on if it does happen to scrape off and as long as your good with spray painting you should easily be able to blend it.

[BackIntoAnS13]

Well Gregfarz78 just inspired me too. I just recently got back into a 240 after wrecking my Z and im doing a whole interior redo but never even thought about taking it as far as Gregs but his came out so nice that i plan on taking EVERYTHING out also. Just got done taking out the sound deadening today. Tomorrow im off to buy some paint thinner and get all that crap cleaned.

[Mochapanda]

Gad Dayum, this is epic :O!

[240sxFTW]

You just inspired me to redo my trunk. Thanks ill be using your tips to redo it all.

[CINCYS13]

well as soon as you get back on your feet you better start another build progress log because i want some more inexpensive ideas lol

[MICRoS13]

Thanks finally i can start doing this