Z Project Starts

[jtiet87]

FINALLY!!!! my Z project starts!!!! I bought all the exterior cosmetics; and getting the body worked on. My 280z is teal right now but im repainting it to midnight blue/metallic blue whatever. While my z's body is being worked on, my friend and I are going to rebuild the engine for turbo. WOOT FINALLLY and I would like to thank evildky for his help in educating me lol. WISH ME LUCK

[evildky]

awesome, be sure to post some pic's

[jtiet87]

I finished taking out the motor yesterday night, and oh man was it a ***** lol. Since I am a newbie at taking out motors and motors itself it took me about 12 hours i think total to take out the motor. For today i'm taking it to my friends house and removing the head then the block goes off to the machine shop woot! I'll have pictures posted up soon hopefully.. lol

[evildky]

lol, as far as pulling motors go the S30 has to be one of the easiest, I can pull the motor from my S30 in about half an hour, seriously, I guess practice pays, I actually timied myself on pulling the trans, I did it in 23 miutes, the swaybar and exhaust really slow that process down

[NSR_s30]

Can't wait to see progress on the project.

[jtiet87]

THE INTERIOR OF MY CAR





THE EXTERIOR OF MY CAR BEFORE ENGINE REMOVAL









THE EXTERIOR AFTER ENGINE REMOVAL

the lifted front without the engine

I'm going to do the 240 front conversion so might as well take it out while the tools are out

hood was kind of crooked when we put it back on lol

The Engine Bay





Yep thats all the pictures I have of my car for now. I wish i could've took pictures of the motor when it was out but we were in a rush. The engine is at the machine shop right now so hopefully when i get it back i could take more pictures.
Modified by jtiet87 at 2:45 PM 12/18/2007

[jtiet87]

Oh and i got a question about the brakes.. whats the cheapest way to convert the back drum wheels to disc?

[evildky]

280zx calipers with rwd maxima brackets and calipers, the brackets are getting hard to find, there is a guy that sells alminium brackets on ebay for about a hundred bucks

[le_ryan]

looks like fun, so your Just rebuilding the motor ?

[jtiet87]

Right now the motor is at the machine shop to get clean. When i get the motor back my friend and i are going to rebuild it. My uncle is going to do the bodywork and paint for me so that saves me a lot of money lol. After the motor/transmission and bodywork is done, it will probably take me a while to then start on the suspension, interior, and other nic nacs.

[NSR_s30]

Awesome progress so far man.

[jtiet87]

Whew, I received my transmission off a 81- 83zx a couple of days ago, i'm happya bout that, just hopefully it'll be in working condition if not i'll just have to rebuild it. Anyways happy holidays to everyone and hopefully everyones christmas was good hahaha

[nsrZ32]

Looking good so far!

[silviabill]

looks like a good clean car to start with. A little TLC and it'll be a really sweet ride.

[jtiet87]

Since now the holidays have been over for about 2 weeks, I've been working non-stop since then. My goal for this month was 2k, but unfortunately stingy tippers out there didn't help me with my goal lol(i'm a server). Today I went to get some wires, shrink tubes or whatever you call it to get ready to re-wire the whole car and do a wire tuck, when the motor comes back home. The machine shop guy updated me on the motor, it should be out in about a week or two. Can't wait to get my hands on it!

Oh and if anyone knows or is selling a painless 18-circuit universal wiring harness or any other brand please get back to me. I'm looking to spend 100 - 175 on one thanks

[arabadam]

looks like you got a good project car. cant wait to see some updated photos.

[hitbychance]

hey man nice project, can you let me know how you fix the cracked dash, i have one crack in mine id like to fix while its in the garage for the winter

[evildky]

hey man nice project, can you let me know how you fix the cracked dash, i have one crack in mine id like to fix while its in the garage for the winter

you can buy a cap, full or half, they cost $40-$80 IIRC, of you can have your profesionally restored, this costs about $650 last I heard, and last but not least buy a new one, NOS or good used dash;'s can bring upwards of $800

and there was someone making a fabirglass replica shell dash for about $600

[jtiet87]

MOTORS COMING BACK REAL SOON, hopefully in a week.. jeez been waiting for my baby since december. I'll take pictures of it once it comes back.. cant wait WOOT

[Pharaohabq]

you get your motor back yet?

[jtiet87]

lol how long has it mean 3 months? hahha well 5 months total for this project. Unfortunately my head ran into some rust problems so they had to weld and fix the head. I saw my block at the machine shop on the stand, and oh man it looked sexy. I would post pictures of it but i forgot to bring a camera . I will try to post some pictures of my shell tomorrow. So far... I sand blasted my engine bay to get rid of all the rust yesterday and it took me around 5 hours. hahah and i still wasn't finished getting rid of all the dang rust. Today I worked on a bit more but ran into a pretty bad rust on the headlight bucket(drivers side). At the end of this week hopefully the engine bay will be ready for paint. I would paint the whole care but my uncle(painter) is leaving at the end of this week so he cant paint the whole thing. So far its going great, it was at a pause at a time but it finally started moving again. I repeat i'll post pictures tomorrow if I remember too, and I just want to thank my uncle and friends for helping me with this project. wooot

[jtiet87]

I tried reducing the image size but it seems that it wont stay small, but here it is.(Driver Side Light Bucket Rust)

(280z Stuff Lying Around In The Garage)

(Front Of The Car)

(Rear of the car)

(Junk In The Trunk)

(Turbo Manifold I Bead Blasted & Power Coated)

(Battery Bay)

(drivers side engine bay)

[Pharaohabq]

Yikes! that doesn't exactly look like "Light" rust. you should really treat that, and coat it with Por15. or you're just asking for a real nightmare. Other than that it looks pretty sweet. I found a site

http://www.datsunrestore.com/catalog.html

These guys have ALL sorts of aftermarket and NOS / OEM restoration parts availiable, if you're missing or want to replace anything.

Phar

[jtiet87]

So my painter came over yesterday night and started painting the engine bay in my garage. Woot it'll be done tomorrow so i'll post up pictures asap

[Pharaohabq]

nice, I can't wait... I just got the engine on my 280Z started yesterday. looks like the main problem is bad injector plugs. Phar

[jtiet87]

i wish i could start my motor for my 280z =( lol, but to bad its still at the machine shop. oh well.. good luck. Anyways here are my pictures of my newly painted engine bay.



The fixed rust my uncle did =D

[evildky]

BLING BLING! i do like that color, looks great

[reggiegsd]

When you have your exhaust built, make sure they run it to the side of the transmission so it can come out without dropping the exhaust. Experience, experience.

[thomasz]

Good luck to you, guy. Try to complete it.

[NSR_s30]

Paint looks awesome!