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The Restoration of a Monster: our V8 240Z

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Samfa12:
Hey there!

Over the past few weeks and next few months my father, my mother and I have and will be working on restoring our latest toy (bare with me). For the past 8 months we have had our eye on a 73 model 240z that has had a ding and is a dirty pink. This Z has been owned by a family friend for the past 20 years and has had a wonderful life (until said ding occurred). The family friends who were the previous owners (As it is now ours) bought the car with a dead engine, the old straight six had run its course and blown up, figuratively, so they had a choice.. refurbish the engine, or drop a different engine in. So the best decision at the time was to put in a Holden 308 that had been worked and tuned for a jet boat (cam, piston, intake etc) and attach this to a supra 5 speed manual gearbox and the diff out of what looks like a small truck.. then he crashed it. So now we have this beautiful machine, with its lumpy idle and its dirty pink coat of paint (we will be changing it, i promise) and the rarity to match, and we will be restoring her, painting her, and registering her to create the ultimate sleeper/ cruiser and enjoy life in general.

tir33d:
When you get it running you will have to join up with the Bathurst Light Car Club and give it a good squirt. They like V8 z's (or mine anyway).

Sirpent:
Welcome, great story, and it may just be the hair dresser in me or God knows what else (Yes Simon you may launch your barrage at will now) but I like the color.

Cheers

John

Samfa12:
SO!

Last week my parents drove their car down to Wauchope, NSW to pick up the Monster. With nothing but a car trailer and a few pieces of rope they made the journey home to Bathurst at 80km/h averaging 16L per 100k (sometimes 22 up hills) which is a fair difference from the norm (usually averages around 9.5l/100 on the highway - 2010 manual SS). All went well and everything arrived safely with no damage to either car (other than an overworked fuel pump  :P).

Since then my mum has made contact with a gentleman from Richmond, NSW, who is apparently known as the "Z Man" (if you are on this forum then make yourself known) and yesterday travelled there to pick up a bonnet, some badges and some front panels as replacements for the ones that had been damaged prior to us owning it.

I got home yesterday from my 2 week holiday in NZ and this morning my father and I removed the radiator, the front panels and the engine so that we can start getting ready to sand, prime and paint (once the panels are all off). While this is happening we will service the engine and check all of the anchor points.

In the previous photo, the Monster has a big duck-tail wing. We have removed said wing and front splitter in favour of the original panels.

For clarification, when the 308 went in, the previous owner did not cut any part of the body and reused the engine mounts as well as the alternator, this allows us to leave all of the original wiring unchanged and (hopefully) problems will be avoided. A few things that have created a bit of concern are the battery placement, the original spot would be fine, but the engine creates too much heat and destroys the battery after a short drive. the previous owner had the battery way out in front of the radiator though we think that this would impair turn-in and balance and have decided that moving the battery to the cargo area would be best. Does anybody have any thoughts in this? is it common? we know how to do it and in our minds it makes sense though I figure if I ask then we will know for sure.

Here are some photos  ;D

P.S. I'd say we will join the BLCC ffor sure  ;) if can be careful enough not to stack it.

PeterAllen:
As I understand it the car is now out of registration (?). If it's over by more than 3 months you may need to check with the RTA if there are any issues you need to address to get it re-registered. You may have to produce the original engineer's report (V8, etc) when to go to the registry.

There is a lot to be said about buying a finished modified car - my V8 Zed project is just about to celebrate its sixth anniversary and it's not even halfway done. I'm envious.

Re: Battery placement. I know many of the competition Zed relocate it to the boot but i am very very concerned about having sparks anywhere near a fuel tank, e.g. rear collision. There are many V8 conversions in the USA (see HybridZ) but I've never heard about issues with the engine bay temperature and battery performance.

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