DreamZproject 240Z #365 build

[gav240z]

That's pretty bad! Ashley at Moorabbin Auto Spares was selling a couple off.

[C.A.R.]

[RAP260]

4 hours ago, gav240z said:

That's pretty bad!

Yea, I'm starting to wonder if the young fella wasn't spinning me a bit of a yarn, regarding the effort he'd put in. Window washers, now the fuel tank.

Hopefully not too many more surprises. 

[cracker]

On 7/20/2018 at 10:38 AM, Lurch said:

Don't forget to fill the tube with light oil or straight engine coolant.

Haven't heard this before. Why?

[Enzo]

Aids in heat transference to keep the shock cooler .

[Brabham]

Would one of those fuel tank restoration businesses be able to restore a tank like that? Or how would the POR15 kit go on that?

 

Cheers

[C.A.R.]

Pressure wash it out to remove the loose crud, then fill is full of Molasses and let it soak for a couple of weeks.

[luvemfast]

What does soaking molasses in it do to help? 

[C.A.R.]

38 minutes ago, luvemfast said:

What does soaking molasses in it do to help? 

It eats the rust: https://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/17277-derusting-with-molasses/

[C.A.R.]

Updates?

[DreamZproject]

I think Lock is keen to let people know what he's been doing...

Inspect 240Z for RWC requirements. Remove Left  rear strut assemblys, fill with light oil & retighten gland nut correctly. Adjust LH front wheel bearing. Remove LH front indicator assembly and repair cracks in lense. Tighten steering shaft coupling bolt. Remove rear number plate light and replace both bulbs (one had blown).
Remove Right rear strut assembly, fill with light oil & tighten gland nut correctly. Measure rear brake drums - both on maximum tolerence. Remove Left front headlight as it was loose, clean up bolt threds and mounting holes and reinstall headlight. Replace oilpressure switch with good s/hand unit. Trace Oil pressure wire in loom, re-terminate & check OP gauge works. Drop fuel tank and inspect - tank very rusty. Procure new tank. Adjust fuel gauge sender to work correctly.
Remove gearbox from vehicle, find incorrect clutch slave cylinder, clutch fork, T/O bearing carrier and bearing fitted. Procure correct S/Clylinder, fork & bearing carrier. Find incorrect bolts fitted to clutch pressure plate. Procure correct bolts. Find gearbox mounting holes to be streached and damaged, Drill out and Heli-coil, procure bolts with correct thread pitch.
Remove clutch pressure plate & clan off excess anti-seize. Refit with correct bolts. Refit gearbox and adjust clutch. Check diff oil level and drain excess out. Find incorrect parts fitted to steering shaft in engine bay - procure replacement items.
Paint strip bottom of replacemant fuel tank. Knock out dent in bottom of tank. Etch prime annd respray bottom of tank.
Install fuel tank. Change steering column bush orientation to correct factory setting. Make and fit bungs over extra holes in front indicators. Remove broken grill and assess for repair.
Reinstall exhaust with new band clamps on secondarys, Re-align muffler and make new muffler mounting drop bracket. Adjust handbrake to 5 clicks. Wire up thermo fan. Fill fuel tank with 20ltrs of fresh Premium unleaded. Start and run engine.
Fabricate Alum. mounting brackets to mount radiator thermo fan.
Remove RH door from vehicle, then remove hinges from body. Press out old pins and measure bushes for machining to correct thickness. Remove window tint of RH door glass. Reassemble RH door hings with new pins and bushes, then reinstall door back onto vehicle.
Remove LH door from vehicle, then remove hinges from body. Press out old pins and measure bushes for machining to correct thickness. Remove window tint of LH door glass. Reassemble LH door hings with new pins and bushes, then reinstall door back onto vehicle. Perform nut and bolt check on vehicle - find that a lof of the fastners were loose or not tight enough.
Remove RH rear flare off vehicle. Remove seam sealer from RH rear arch join. Panel beat arch join then fully weld join together. Linish welds. Paint with KBS Rust seal.
Remove LH rear flare off vehicle. Remove seam sealer from LH rear arch join. Panel beat arch join then fully weld join together. Linish welds. Paint with KBS Rust seal.
Drop off Z to have RW Check performed.
And then the RW mechanics had a go as well...

[DreamZproject]

Oh yeah, and I also got Lock to install my genuine Z JDM fender mirrors

 

I gave it a decent crack today as well. 

I gave the whole car a decent wash for the first time, and then spent about 3 hours grinding the window tint off the rear hatch (awful job!)

Ready for the my first hill run tomorrow :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

 

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by DreamZproject

[gav240z]

5 hours ago, DreamZproject said:

And then the RW mechanics had a go as well...

What does that mean?

[C.A.R.]

When Robbie got his Z on permit and started driving it, the poor shift quality of the old 71A flange drive gearbox became apparent.
As he has been driving his 240Z quite regularly, this gearbox issue was detracting from this whole experience.
The monkey motion shifter mechanism isn't great after 50+ years, so the best fix is to fit a 71C gearbox from an S13/14.

The 71C box has a tall 0.75 5th gear ratio, so this allows a shorter final drive ratio to be used - 4.44 is perfect as at 100kph the engine is still only doing around 3000rpm in 5th.

So Robbie & I started forming a plan to convert his Z.

The WRX STI 4.44 ratio diff was easy enough for Robbie to procure, but finding a decent S13/14 box locally was a bit of a challenge...
That was until another member of this forum who was planning the same conversion had bought from Nissan a NEW S14 gearbox,
however he was offered good $ for his early 240Z so he sold it - leaving him with this new S14 gearbox...
When I found all this out, I told Robbie to go buy it - which he did!
This gave us the major parts for the conversion. All I had to do was find a L series bell-housing & tail shaft...

With an L series bell-housing obtained, I had it hydra-jet blasted and then sent off for machining so it could be swapped onto the S14 box.
Likewise I procured a tail-shaft - this was sent off to be rebuilt & shortened.

Once I had workshop availability, Robbie dropped the Z off - along with the diff & box - so we could perform the conversion.

The new Nissan S14 'box!


The WRX diff stub axles are 27 spline which means that the 24 spline 240Z stubs cant be fitted.
Thankfully Kameari make new stub axles just for this conversion, so they were duly fitted.



The pinion flange was swapped over along with the mustache bar mounting studs in the diff cover as the WRX studs are longer.



The WRX diff was installed and that was when I noticed it:



Blast! Why it wasn't done previously I don't know, but obviously this needs to be rectified now.
Out came the diff again & I went off to hunt for the required parts.

I managed to find the later model curved transverse link & a good 2nd hand diff mount, but I didn't have a mustache bar.



I had another customers mustache bar in the shop so I thought I could copy the bend & bend the original one to the same profile - my
little shop press protested but I managed to bend the correct offset profile into the early mustache bar - success!

Next was the diff strap mounting points on the body-shell - some new nuts and I extended the mounting pads:

N

Not my neatest work, but it'll do the job & it looked fine once I'd painted it.

The bell-housings were swapped over, along with the original fork & TO bearing & carrier into the 71C box.



Next the gearbox cross-member was modified & painted, as the 71C box mounts further back in the tunnel:



And then we installed the 71C box into the Z:

P

Perfect.

The shortened tail-shaft was installed with new bolts, and all the fluids were topped up ready for a test drive!



I also cut & shut the gear-stick as the thread on the 71C stick is 10mm compared to 8mm for an early box - just so the original knob could be used:



And that's that job done!
It drives SO much nicer now with the modern box and it's much more entertaining to drive with the shorter diff ratio.

Robbie - you are going to love it!