FuFu'Z 240Z Project! 56K warning... too slow.

[GV260]

Luv the rims and all the other work. It will be worth all the effort and $$ when it is done and back on the road. Incidentally what is the build number?

[fufu]

Luv the rims and all the other work. It will be worth all the effort and $$ when it is done and back on the road. Incidentally what is the build number?

 

Unfortunately I don't remember off the top of my head. I'll check it next time I'm up there. But I'm guessing from memory its about the 1100~ mark. Definitely won't be an early one as I don't have hatch vents on mine and It's also a 9/71.

[Zedman240®]

Build number is 1178..

Another little update:

Cured the blower motor issue and the wipers. Blower motor was my fault; plug that I thought was need to be connected wasn't supposed to be, and the wipers I traced to a dodgy switch. I think it was a dry joint on the switch itself so I re-solded it and it seems fine. I was about to install the distributor and found out you bought the wrong coil! Its a ballast resistor type whereas you need the full 12V coil from a 280ZX or even a early 90's Nissan Pulsar. If you can get one soon Fu, that would be great.

[fufu]

Build number is 1178..

Another little update:

Cured the blower motor issue and the wipers. Blower motor was my fault; plug that I thought was need to be connected wasn't supposed to be, and the wipers I traced to a dodgy switch. I think it was a dry joint on the switch itself so I re-solded it and it seems fine. I was about to install the distributor and found out you bought the wrong coil! Its a ballast resistor type whereas you need the full 12V coil from a 280ZX or even a early 90's Nissan Pulsar. If you can get one soon Fu, that would be great.

 

Top job Dimitri.

 

I'll try to source a 280zx coil this week. I have the distributor cap at home somewhere and will be finding that as well. Hopefully I'll have all your requested parts by the end of the week.

[Zedman240®]

Hey Fu, Don't worry about a cap, found one that was virtually new in my collection. Installed the dizzy and hey presto, it works fine! Oh, the reason the car died the last time we had it going was it ran out of fuel! Anyways, got the timing set and it starts first click. Found 2 small details with the dash, volt/fuel gauge doesn't light up neither does the high beam indicator. That's no big deal. If you can still find a coil, that would be great. I'll be doing more during the week and on the w/end.

[fufu]

Hey Fu, Don't worry about a cap, found one that was virtually new in my collection. Installed the dizzy and hey presto, it works fine! Oh, the reason the car died the last time we had it going was it ran out of fuel! Anyways, got the timing set and it starts first click. Found 2 small details with the dash, volt/fuel gauge doesn't light up neither does the high beam indicator. That's no big deal. If you can still find a coil, that would be great. I'll be doing more during the week and on the w/end.

 

Very interesting. Prior to giving it to the previous guy (forum rules, can't flame) i filled it up with a good 30 litres of fuel. Must have been the Fuel is evaporating from somewhere, old fuel lid gasket not sealing properly maybe. I'm heading to the zshop on Friday to pick up a coil and a sump gasket. Did you need anything else? I'll be sure to bring a jerry can of some good stuff and the coil this weekend. I can help you this weekend on those bulb issues. My arms are thin so it should be easier for me to dip in and pull the bulb wires out.

[aidannn]

any updates?

 

i follow this car on jdmst aswell. would love to see those wats mounted

[fufu]

any updates?

 

i follow this car on jdmst aswell. would love to see those wats mounted

 

Hi,

 

With the way things are going I will have an update within the next week or two.

 

Stay tuned. 

 

Fu

[fufu]

I think an update is long overdue. First of, I'd like to give a big thanks to Dimitri for taking on the task in helping me complete my project. Without this genius, I would have been lost on many issues with this project.

 

*Update*

 

A few weeks ago, I had my car towed from Dimitri's to it's next place of temporary residence. A friends panel beater. Not the same panel beater, as it initially was at, for its rust repair and paint. This new panel beater is a friend who I've known for some time but didn't know what occupation he did until i asked him. Sad but true. But he was very willing to take on the task of the flare modification. He is also a mechanic so he'll be doing a few things which I'll list down the bottom.

 

So let's get to the photos. Here are a few photos of my car on stands getting ready for it's liposuction.

 

 

 

 

 

*House Keeping*

 

A few months back I said I'd weigh my watanabe rims and get some photos of the results. However at the time, my mechanical scale was not very trustworthy. Since then I've bought a new digital scale and thought I'd post up the results.

 

Here they are:

 

Fronts 16x8.5 weighing in at 8.2kgs

 

 

Rears 16x9.5 weighing in at 8.5kgs

 

 

*Update Continue*

 

So some goodies arrived for the zed. Unfortunately it was incomplete and there was a mixup with the second pair. In the process of rectifying the order.

 

 

*drools* I thought It was a good time to finally purchase the tyres. If i had bought them back in 2007, I don't think they would have been useable at this stage. Good thing I held off.

 

Moving along...

 

My friends been pretty quick lately. Expects the car to be out of the shop within the next 1-2 weeks. I've had other cars there before and his pretty true to his estimates. He expects to finish the liposuction within the next day or two. The rest will be spent on a long overdue major service which includes the following:

 

- Replace sump gasket

- Replace water pump

- Replace oil filter

- Replace fuel filter

- Replace air filter

- Replace spark plugs

- Replace fuel sender

- Coolant flush

- Oil Change

- Degrease Diff

- Diff Oil Change

 

I might as well get a quick detail since it's at the panel beaters. There are a few scratches that have gone through the paint durring the process of fixing this poor gal. I'll see if it can be touched up as well.

 

I know majority of the items listed is easy to do but for some reason he was insistant on touching this fairlady. I may have given him the Zed bug as his been messaging me lately wanting to get his hands on a Z.

 

That pretty much completes the update. Should be receiving the girl back soon. Stay tuned.

[Zeddophile]

Are you planning on racing the car Fu?  Just wondering why you went for 'R' tyres, as personally for a road tyre I think there are better choices for a number of reasons. 

 

If you had bought the tyres in 2007, they'd likely be ok if you kept them in the dark and one or two other things I can't remember at the moment (covered up and off the ground I think)... They might lose half a second or so from age, but most people won't really notice the difference on the track (to much variance on driver line/braking etc on any given lap), and for road use they'd still be perfect (well, for 'R' tyres anyway).  Just thought I'd mention it in case you end up needing to store the car for a while, to keep the tyres in better shape you can pull them off the car and store them in the dark and covered up...

[fufu]

Are you planning on racing the car Fu?  Just wondering why you went for 'R' tyres, as personally for a road tyre I think there are better choices for a number of reasons. 

 

If you had bought the tyres in 2007, they'd likely be ok if you kept them in the dark and one or two other things I can't remember at the moment (covered up and off the ground I think)... They might lose half a second or so from age, but most people won't really notice the difference on the track (to much variance on driver line/braking etc on any given lap), and for road use they'd still be perfect (well, for 'R' tyres anyway).  Just thought I'd mention it in case you end up needing to store the car for a while, to keep the tyres in better shape you can pull them off the car and store them in the dark and covered up...

 

Yes, I was planning on tracking the car when the time comes. I know a friend who bought tyres back in 07 which he hasn't used and they seem a lot more dry then these tyres. The tyres on the zed at the moment are about 5 years old and have no grip at all. They are very dry, hard and pretty much skids everywhere, even on tarmac. Though i wouldn't trust the belts inside as they've probably been warped now since the car wasn't put on jacks. Also driving them would probably lead to the warped belts collapsing and pretty much giving a blowout.

 

I've seen a few people glad wrap their tyres if they don't use them. Mainly because of indoor storage and the use of air-conditioning  or dehumidifying the environment could affect them.

 

There is quite a range of tyres out there but because this is a fun car. I thought I'd just go all out and regret it later on.

[Zeddophile]

Cool.  Should be good fun!  I'd suggest though, that you hang on to that other set of wheels you have on the car there if you have room, as you may decide to use them for race wheels after a while.  (Mainly when the R888s get down a bit, and start to be really noisy and dart all over the place!)  That way you can have the Rotas on with road tyres for day to day, and quickly chuck the other wheels on at the track...

 

Of course, if you're not going to drive it that regularly anyway, you'll probably be able to put up with worn R's on the road!

[fufu]

How about another update?

So today I had quite a busy morning. Running around organising parts to get delivered to my friend Ben who is currently working on the car.

After organising all the items I set out to get the tyres installed and after that, did a bit of shopping for some fluids for the fairlady.

Upon arriving at Ben's workshop, he gave me the news... yes the flares were done, as expected, and it was time to get to work on the other bits. He had already started on the engine oil flush and needed the other parts to continue his work throughout the week.

 

Now onto the wheels...

 

Tyres all fitted and wheels balanced.

 

 

Before installation.

 

 

After installation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and I thought this last image was a very... common sight of a zed...

 

 

... being stuck on a hoist and all.

 

My opinion of the the setup so far, is I love the rims. The rear stance needs to be addressed.

 

On to some bad news. It looks like my rear left caliper is leaking. As these are the 85 maxima which weren't available in Australia. I'm going to have to go around to a few old school brake joints and see if they can replace the seal with a similar one. Other option is to change to 280zx rear caliper set... which will cost a bit. Not sure what path I'll take. Going to get quotes this week. 

*sigh*

 

[RB30X]

Wow, that looks amazing mate. Did the guy trim the wheel arches to fit the flares? And what size rubber and rims were they? Sure looks very Wangan Midnight.

 

[fufu]

Wow, that looks amazing mate. Did the guy trim the wheel arches to fit the flares? And what size rubber and rims were they? Sure looks very Wangan Midnight.

 

The flares were installed first. The wheel arches were cut afterwards. It would be better to do it in this order as you can estimate where you wish to cut. We used Austin Hokes guide as reference to cutting. It will allow me to have some play with suspension and stance afterwards. Right now it looks more like a 4x4 with it's current stance.

 

The rims are 16x8.5 running 225/50/16 and 16x9.5 running 245/45/16.

[Zedman240®]

So it was the caliper piston seal that has been leaking... Thought it was the banjo fitting.. A good brake place that I know of is next to Moorabbin airport. He can usually locate hard to get seals for brake parts "Better Brakes" in Cheltenham (Kerry). Has helped me out plenty of times!

[fufu]

I did a bit of research on this particular caliper. It shares the same rebuild kit from maxima 85-92. Since Australia got the maxima in the 1990's. I think I'll try and source that for now.

 

Thanks Dimitri for the contact. Will definately give them a try.

 

 

[fufu]

HI ALL!!!

 

I hope your all doing well and your other halfs (zeds) are also doing just as well.

 

A little update on my project. Due to tax returns i've gotten the panel beater to fix up a few things with my car which will take a bit while longer. This includes repairing a few scratches that the zed has taken from its movement.

 

All the servicing is now complete apart from the brakes. I decided it was the time to replace the whole rear disc conversion and go with 280zx parts as they are more readily available here in Australia. So I've been sourcing bits here and there and hopefully it should be braking properly this week.

 

Now to a goody that arrived. I received this on Friday 30th July 2010.

 

 

Okay... this front bar is the is the one being sold on ebay by the rotary/mazda guy. I thought due to the huge assumption of this product and no one physically buying a proper version that I may as well be the guinea pig and try it out. Now the product looks top stuff. However I'll let you guys know early next week about the fitting and how it matches up with the car and how it compares with the old one, though my original one is a little dented and bent.

 

Reasons for purchasing this... well I know the price for straightening and rechroming would have set me back a little bit more then this. Not to mention that the quality of work on straightening and rechroming is dependant on the business you go to and usually they will play the "you get your moneys worth" card. So I thought I'd risk it and get this product.

 

The front bar is the revised edition with mounting points welded to the bar. A bit disappointed it didn't come with nuts as well to replace the old ones. Other disatisfying points... one of the number plate bars isn't quite straight but nothing a slight bending won't fix. But other then that its perfectly straight and the chrome has no dips (sign of the bar being straight).

 

Not quite sure if I'm liking the pure chrome look or if i should add those plastic strips. I'll most likely go to clark rubber and see what i can find and double-sided tape it to get a similar effect. No point dremeling this nice chrome.

 

That's all for now. Not expecting the car back for another 2 to 3 weeks. In the mean time I'll be looking to endeavour into suspension mods, to spend the rest of this tax return. Suspension mods as I'm not to overly happy about it's current stance. Looks like a 4WD zed... way to tall. 

 

P.S. if anyone needs more photos of the front bar, just send me a PM.

[Six_Shooter]

I received this on Friday 30th Aug 2010.

 

How did you manage that?

[MaygZ]

That will be a Monday for the rest of us!

[RB30X]

Yeah I'd be keen to see how it fits etc. I've been looking at getting one too.

cheers

[datozed]

Hi all , I believe the front bumper bars to be of good quality and are a top mob to deal with ...I was the guinea pig 2 years ago and at that time they dropped the price from $399 to $299 and that's when i told you all to get one ....And have no problems with mine at all and was very happy with its quality 

[fufu]

How did you manage that?

 

That will be a Monday for the rest of us!

 

My apologies

 

30th of July 2010.

[fufu]

Hi all , I believe the front bumper bars to be of good quality and are a top mob to deal with ...I was the guinea pig 2 years ago and at that time they dropped the price from $399 to $299 and that's when i told you all to get one ....And have no problems with mine at all and was very happy with its quality 

 

2 years ago... wow and theres been so many posts created about this product and no one really responded about the actual product. Can I ask, did you get the updated version with the mounting points? As i know the early version, didn't have mounting points. From what the dates of the other posts... it seems that the mounting post would have been added some time last year.

 

 

[datozed]

Just  checked the date on my receipt  bought the bumper in 2009 oopppss   ( bought the front spoiler that's sitting in the shed 2 years ago ) . At the time of purchase front bar was available with or without mounting brackets . Was asked to put up pics back then but I'm not that clever lol...Will put up pics of quick shift kit when I can work out how to do it hopefully soon ..