monkeymagic86 Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Sorry for the huge pics, don't know how to get them to show smaller As promised, I’ll start a thread about my 240Z 1st post might be somewhat longer, just trying to squeeze my ownership in one post. So about 4 months ago a longtime dream came true. I often wrote on this blog "one day I will...". I do fantasize about a S30 for at least 10-15 years now. And then came the day, I got myself a Datsun 240Z. It was imported from the US to Europe in 2011. It is a 1973 model, and I love it! On the second try I managed to pass technical inspections and got the car registered. As soon as I owned the car, I did a tune up (spark plugs and wires; distributor cap, finger, points and condensator; ignition coil and ballast; fuel pump) and got the carb setted again. I was so happy and proud that I took it directly to cars and coffee on the same weekend. I love driving this car. I tried to drive it as much as possible to find as much weak points as possible. So I knew what to change, modify, make better this winter. On November 1st came the last drive before the winter and the works I decided to do some major interior refreshening and a complete suspension overhaul. After several hours i finally removed all that shit from the interior. Floors, tunnel and boot. So here are a couple more pics of my interior restoration. Removed all the sound deadening mats, mechanically treated the rust, chemically treated the surface against all rust with 'Kovermi', primered and painted with 'Brantho Korrux'. Axle disassembly So, while I'm waiting a few days for the interior paint to dry completely before applying the second layer I used some spare time to disassemble the car a bit more. So I hung up the engine in the bay and removed the complete front axle including the engine subframe,... Plans for these parts: clean up, rust treatment, repaint them. Buying coilovers, welding up the struts, new bushings, lower inner camber bushes. Then remount everything to the car. Oh and btw I had the same plan for the rear axle So after removing the front axle, what could possibly be the next step? Of course, removing the rear axle, at least parts of it. So here is the rear suspension out. Had quite an OMG moment when I undid the rear drive shaft from the stub axle on the passenger side. The big nut which holds the stub axle (a wheel,...) in place just fell on the floor once I unbolted the drive shaft. And it had the threaded portion of the stub axle in it. So it was broken for quite some time. Lucky me the drive shaft didn't came lose or the car did not loose a wheel. Oh, and one of the previous owners had to be McGyver. This is a quite special interpretation of a drop link. An all-thread with a welded nut on one side, 4 different bushes and for the best part no space between. So the droplink and therefore the rear swaybar couldn't work at all The interior fresh-up continues, so after the interior paint was finally completely dry, took over a week. I was finally ready to build up the interior layer by layer. First thing was sound deadening. It came on a roll of roughly 2m by 50cm wide. So I started cutting it to bits and shapes which would fit the floorboards, trunk, tunnel easily... Next layer was some more sound insulation and some new vinyl from MSA. The insulation consists of an nonwoven sort of wool/jute. The exact english term is escaping me here. But yeah, it's made for vintage cars, so it should be perfect for the Datto. It's kept in place by spray glue. Oh and I rebuilt the drivers side door with a brand spanking new NOS door card It even came with new clips. Nothing complicated here, just some unmounting an remounting of different bits. But the difference is huge! Then I got the first batch of parts for the Datsun back from mediablasting and powdercoating. Awesome how fresh 40+ years old parts can look! Gives you quite some motivation to continue to work on the car. Put my front axle/steering/crossmember back together. Love the shiny new parts! And as the parts were all out and apart I changed all 8 wheel bearings, PU bushes and camber, complete new rear brakes, fabbed some coilovers, ... Rear suspension ready to go back in I found a little rust bubble in the passenger side wheel well where the engine crossmember attaches. So I decided to scrub both wheel wells back to bare metal and cure them. 2 small rust spots on the drivers side and another one on the passenger side were welded. Then I applied some rust converter on the complete area, primered and painted it with Brantho Korrux, applied some transparent undercoating and sprayed some waxoil in the front frame. Sometimes it's in the details. I'm always a bit concerned of the interiors of my cars. I just want to feel nice and happy while driving. But there was the radio issue. The car had a non working modern headunit wich was just thrown into the bin. But that left me with a big hole in the dash. Could see wires hanging,... no good! So I was lucky to source an old 240Z radio. Didn't care if it was working or not, as I just wanted something to fill that hole. So bought it from ebay for a whopping 105€. It was only a few days after I discovered I hadn't read the details enough, so I found myself with a 260Z radio, wich as you know doesn't fit the 240Z. So put that one on the shelf and was back with the hole in the dash again. So I decided to fab a block off plate out of some black plastic sheet. Done and installed I thought it was looking a bit dull. But I still had some diomond pattern vinyl from refreshening the interior. And quickly after the block off was complete. I like the result. The pic doesn't do it justice! And it's plenty enough until I find a factory radio one day. blu260z, mother240, shaun240 and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blu260z Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 (edited) I love this build already and its only 1 post!!!! Monkeymagic the 240 is coming along great picture size is fine nothing better than just scrolling down and having all the pictures there with no need to zoom. Edited February 15, 2016 by blu260z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionysus Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Great work, love the colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators gav240z Posted February 15, 2016 Administrators Share Posted February 15, 2016 FYI: I have a radio to suit a 72+ HLS30 North American market car. http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/14298-oem-240z-head-unit-72-north-american-model-fm-radio/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xa1973 Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Very Nice...Its good to see another 240 being saved with a quality rebuild and not just a throw together Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeymagic86 Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 I love this build already and its only 1 post!!!! Monkeymagic the 240 is coming along great picture size is fine nothing better than just scrolling down and having all the pictures there with no need to zoom. Thanks, so I'll continue posting large pics Great work, love the colour. Thanks, I love it to, but also hate it. Why? Because it's non original Nissan. It's a Mercedes blue. From factory this Datsun came in silver. But nevertheless, it looks awesome in blue and was a really good paintjob (doors off, fenders off, glass out,...). Not rushed like you see so often these days. FYI: I have a radio to suit a 72+ HLS30 North American market car. http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/14298-oem-240z-head-unit-72-north-american-model-fm-radio/ Thank you sirm, but that's not the model I'm looking for Very Nice...Its good to see another 240 being saved with a quality rebuild and not just a throw together And again, thank you. And yes I'm trying to do as much as I can on my own. Any mechanic would just see another job, but when doing it by yourself, the car gets the dedication it needs. Even though my quality could probably be even better, but I don't want to have a non driveable museum piece afterwards. Wanted a 240Z for so long, so I try to do everything right while working on it and enjoy it as much as possible while driving it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PB260Z Posted February 18, 2016 Moderators Share Posted February 18, 2016 Gidday You just beat the satifaction of doing the jobs yourself. I am really looking forward to seeing this car progress - keep the updates coming Cheers PB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeymagic86 Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 After 3+ monts of grinding, painting, wrenching and modding, my car is back on it's wheels an back on the ground. Just added the BRE style lip this week. The only other exterior mods are the freshly painted wheels and a slight lowering. Kinda want to keep is vintage and period correct(-ish) looking. Super happy with the result. Only thing I would like to change is replacing my 73 bumpers with earlier examples or with bumpers from harringtons. But even without the lack of money for some new bumpers, I couldn't decide if I would like the version with or without the rubberstrips. As it's still snowing outside here in western europe, all I can offer is a crappy cell phone pic of the car still in the shelter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PB260Z Posted February 20, 2016 Moderators Share Posted February 20, 2016 Looks awesome, the black wheels really set off the paint. Cheers PB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeymagic86 Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 Thx, here is another pic of the car. Taken yesterday after cleaning it. What elso can you do when it's still winter outside Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theremm Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Looking awesome what wheel and tyre specs are those? Also where did you purchase that BRE style lip? I have been looking to get one recently Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeymagic86 Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 Looking awesome what wheel and tyre specs are those? Also where did you purchase that BRE style lip? I have been looking to get one recently Thx, the BRE lip comes from FRP automotive. They are a company based in United Kingdom. https://www.facebook.com/frpautomotive Wheel specs are 7x14 offset -9 and 5mm spacers (just for the looks, not for the clearance) Tires are 195-65-14 Yokohama A-Drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CroS13 Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 awesome looking car mate! I love the colour and the suspension parts are looking killerRudi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Inspirational Build - Like the front Air Dam looks mean, cool to see something a little different as well. Looking Low and Mean like a Good Z should. Cheers AK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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