1974 260z: A return to style

[74zzz]

So I have been using this site for years without giving any insight to my own rig and my love of the s30 z. I'll need to to do a fair bit of catch up to present day so will do this and then roll on from there:)

 

I come from a car family, my father was a tinkerer and had Fjs, a few big healys, a mk 2 3.8 jag however my older brother introduced me to datsuns when he bought a stock standard auto 1600 when i was 12. we striped it down cut the trans tunnel and converted to manual and wacked in an l20 with a cam and SUs.  he'd often take me out to his mates parents acreage where we would thrash the hell out of it and drive it back home again. I loved the hack nature of this car and how fun and simple a datsun can be. He has moved on from datsuns having owned a phase 2 xw gt and is now for some strange reason driving a tubbed 700hp xw ute, a 500hp 289 stroker xp falcon rat ute and as his wife has deemed the most bogan car of all.... is currently building a nugget gold xy wagon with a pro charger and the most ridiculous bonnet bulged i have ever seen......

 

Anyway, the 260, I wanted a 240z but after seeing the state of some of the cars for sale  for the price i could afford on uni wages i passed over what could have been an amazing early 240z before considering a 2 seat 260.....i hated the back lights but looked around and the conversion seemed easy enough........then after about 18mths i found a red 260z that seemed to be built for purpose and had what looked like good bones and go fast bits. Being young, it looked good and therefore I had to have it and let go of any concern for its under-skin condition. It was built by the owner for hillclimbs and sprints came with a warm triple webered l28 a clutch r200 lsd, hilux brake conversion, tidy yet totally ugly interior, "strut" braces, semi modified suspension and most importantly a Racing harness! I handed over a decent some of money back then, it was comfortably over 10 grand which i wasnt happy with but who cares it came with a folder full of reciepts and it looked and sounded awesome! What should have made me reconsider the purchase was the fact the seller took me for a a test drive and managed to get it airborne twice at 90km/h before handing over control to me.

 

Fast forward a month or two later, it was running rough and needed a tune, out went the cam in favour of a billet one and some more headwork and top end rebuild....... looks like the valves had bounced of the pistons a few times judging by the marks in the pistons...... the mechanic handed it back to me saying it is as good as i can get it.....the Webers arnt right.....i'd suggest start again he told me.......Jesus! webers.......i dont have 2500 to spend!.... it still put down 170hp so that was enough for me!

 

The car pretty much remained unchanged until early 2014....... covering only 5000 kms since 2006 as i moth balled it for 4 years while living OS........

 

When it rolled out of the garage in 2014..... it didnt roll...... brakes had sized up, mice had chewed wring and eaten all the carpet and bitten though the oil gauge line which began to leak when i fired it up. Feeling guilty i decided to start spending some money getting it to when it should be......... so i began collecting parts......

 

So far i have

spare l28 and f54/n42-for boring

280z seats from jasons blue race car

240z immaculate door panels with cards

Nos chrome bezels for arm rests

kameari hi vol oil pump

240z repro rear lights

240z rear light panels Cheers Adam!

nos windscreen wipers

nos 280z console/shiftboot

ati super damper

New 45 dcoes (the ones that came with the car were from a rt charger and were worth a decent wack of cash and were never going to run on my car)

AZC flywheel

Begun podercoating bits and pieces of the underside

Braided brake lines

Nos rear brake cylinders and solid lines redone

Rebuilt and refinished hilux calipers

Aluminium radiator

Rechromed front rear bumpers

 

To come soon:

 

15x8 rkrs

forged bottom end

skyline rear disc conversion

MCA blue coilovers

MAYBE some t3 or shiny adjustable suspension gear from old mate on here:)

Rebush the entire car as they are all shagged

 

So far a lot of what i have done has been cosmetic and fixing up and redoing things that were done using cheap parts and random screws bolts etc.....which is to be expected considering when the guy had it they weren't worth much and corners were definitely cut............ the paint has held up pretty well and as he wrecked 3 cars to make one it got the best panels and bits from all......the shell looks to be straight from my inspections with only slight hints of rust present in the doors.

 

So now i'm caught up i look forward to jumping into and documenting the build as slow as it may be!

 

below are a few pics from many years ago you can see the interior it came with.....

 

and a short vid-

 

 

[74zzz]

Alright, one of the things that have been bugging me is the thermofans and ewp controller.........the kit cost the previous owner $650 looking at reciepts yet the thing is hopeless and doesnt seem to respond at all when asked to run cooler temps. additionally as i have a alloy radiator to install i am thinking of going back to original fan and cooling.............has anyone had any good experiences with EWPs? My battery runs flat in the blink of an eye and i just think it is an added extra that is unnecessary? im just wanting to do up a parts list as to what is needed to get it back to the way it should be........already have 2 new l28 pumps......its pretty straight forward isnt it?

Edited September 17, 2015 by 74zzz

[74zzz]

My radio showed up today and im stoked....this is in immaculate original condition still with original spare fuse taped to the back. Even though i have never used the current cd player i didnt want to cut into the nos console to refit and wanted the interior as it was in 74. All working functions lights and Ariel switch and for not even a third of the price they are charging on us ebay....... interior nearly complete......

[gav240z]

Good score on that radio.

[74zzz]

yeah now the issue is rewiring, when it comes to electronics im a little special....are the connectors easy to come by?

[gav240z]

I'm not sure but the first place that comes to mind to try is JayCar hopefully they have those style of connectors.

[74zzz]

ahhh just assumed they would have been discontinued........makes sense, i guess they would have been pretty common to all cars of that era

[gav240z]

Just to clarify I don't know if they have them, but I would hope they do.

[74zzz]

this weekends job was rebuilding the hilux calipers. was going to take them to a specialist thought id have a crack first. I replaced the rear cylinders last year and redid the hard lines so thought this would be maybe a 2 hours process. 

 

Im concerned 2 of the pistons have seized as there is no compression even when using clamps to push them down.....they were in a bad way and pretty corroded with the seals completely shot... not having an air compressor has made getting them out a little difficult.....any tricks?

 

On the plus side the console is all done....was surprised it took so long i didnt think the bits and pieces would be so tricky to find. rewiring the radio and it all goes back in and is a massive improvement over the crappy upholstered one.

 

Also begun suspension part collecting yesterday picking up some of daves rear control arms......and will probably get him to make up some of his falcon castor arms (if he's keen) next purchase will be the mca blues and front control arms

[gav240z]

That console! I want to see it installed though .

 

Those brakes look a bit "how ya going alright". I think without compressor air it's pretty hard to get them out. I recall taking mine to some brake shops in Ireland (for my rx-7) and asking if they could help me get them out. Nobody wanted to touch them, I think they were all afraid of having someone come back to them after touching brakes. Not sure if you would get the same response over here?

 

Someone once said to use a grease gun to pump the pistons out, but I would worry about contaminants, so I don't recommend this myself.

 

Might be best to take it to a specialist brake place though?

[74zzz]

yep might have to...the sealing rings literally snaped in 2 when i was taking them off.....im assuming they will have to hone them if their seized? wondering with 200 bucks for the rebuild kits, blasting, getting new lines made up and putting them all back together  i should just shell out for a willwood setup.....seems crazy to spend 100s on hilux calipers.......if i can get a kit from Aus i might do it

[Cozza]

You could try connecting the calipers to the car and pumping the pistons out using the brake pedal

The trick is to push all the pistons out as far as possible without any one of them actually popping out. You could try a block of wood the correct thickness to act as the rotor if you don't already have the brake rotors.

At a guess sounds like you might need new pistons but the caliper will probably clean up ok.

 

Good luck with it.

Mick

[74zzz]

Got the CALIPERS back in 4hrs rebuilt and water blasted. Was a little scary how little brakes I had after going for a blast round the block with the sparkly ones bolted back on. I now don't come to an intersection white knuckled and praying it pulls up

[PB260Z]

I now don't come to an intersection white knuckled and praying it pulls up

And that is what it is all about.

 

Great result.

Edited October 18, 2015 by PB260Z

[EJ101]

My radio showed up today and im stoked....this is in immaculate original condition still with original spare fuse taped to the back. Even though i have never used the current cd player i didnt want to cut into the nos console to refit and wanted the interior as it was in 74. All working functions lights and Ariel switch and for not even a third of the price they are charging on us ebay....... interior nearly complete......

was this an ebay purchase or one you had restored?

[74zzz]

was this an ebay purchase or one you had restored?

No grabbed it from US ebay......after seeing the rusted shells and broken ones needing restoring and replating i wasnt willing to spend the time when there is so much other mechanical work to do and the restored or Nos ones can reach over 1500 landed.....literally not a mark on it and the shell is in amazing condition for age......was a purchase i wasnt expecting to make but like many z owners i troll the sites and if there is something that i need/want for a good price i cant pass up a bargain haha got the bloke to send me a vid of it working and was a great to deal with. 

[74zzz]

So the 260 was supposed going to the shop for the new 45s to be installed and tuned today. Went to start it up and its turning over spluttering and then nothing.......so i can be a little more efficient with problem solving i'd like to get some views on diagnosis....... im thinking either bad spark plugs, coil or blocked fuel lines or pump........anything else i should check? compression?