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Ambitious but rubbish in Brisbane


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After 5 years of lurking these forums and doing the equivalent of nothing on my Z, I've decided to make an account. Skip to the very end if you want a "too long; didn't read" summary.

A bit about me

I'm a 20 year old student located south of Brisbane that lucked into buying a 1971 240z (HS-00654) 7 years ago as a joint project with my father. I study full-time and work part-time at the auto retail store that will fit floor mats for free; having a classic project car was the logical choice to achieving financial ruin.

As much as I'd like to say otherwise, I'm not very experienced mechanically; I can service a car, do some engine work and know a bit of the theory but certainly haven't done a full restoration. Have really only dug deeper into the technical side of this in the last few years. 

I raced karts for about 5 years before outside factors forced me to stop. I go to the occasional autocross event, but my work schedule means I miss most weekend events. I've visited a few neat places over the years - Nismo Omori, Star Road, Daikokufuto, the Nurburgring and Summernats and have kept pretty up-to-date with most things JDM. I've got a bunch of other interests including Japanese pop-culture, literature and sewing.

I've previously designed stickers and t-shirts for a few online vendors, mostly via vector art.

As for the display name - I had no better ideas and settled on a terrible play on words. Sorry.

The Z

Sadly don't have many pictures of my Z, so I'll write a bit about it while I chase them up. The previous owner (name eludes me) was from Victoria and looking to prep the car for Targa Tasmania, however, stuff happened and I ended up with a shipping container full of Z bits in my front yard. HS-00654 was battered but not beyond salvageable, with minimal rust in the usual spots bar the floors pans. My father and I chose to go down the full rotisserie restoration path, getting the body tidied up and prepped for paint by a local body specialist. Sourced fibreglass panels through Otomoto for weight reduction - aiming for a sub 1 tonne Z.

The car came with two engines - an L24 and an L28. We decided to rebuild the 2.8, settling with an N/A F54/N42 combo, 11:1ish compression. Intention is to go EFI with 45mm ITBs running through a Haltech Elite 750 (lack of knock sensor input is making me consider alternatives). Not really aiming for big power numbers, more a solid engine with excellent response. An LCR engine is the dream, but until then I'm pretty content with what I've got.

Suspension, brakes, interior trim and all of those fun bits were sorted out as well, however, family events put the project on hold for the last 5 years. Sadly my father has moved back to working on his own project, so I'm treading unknown ground now.

I finish my degree next year and am pushing myself to get this Z on the road; this car has become symbolic of a lot of things to me. The ultimate vision is to have a responsive, tight drivers car that can hang with modern sports cars around a circuit, whilst still being street-able.

I will likely make a few posts in the sales page  - if you want a full set of "D" hubcaps in good condition or have an overwhelming desire to race a go-kart amongst other things, send me a message. 

Future plans are as follows:

- Get the Z painted

- Get ITB kit that's actually decent

- Finalise brake conversion

- Finish exhaust system

- Re-upholster / refinish interior (seats + dash)

- Get some decent rims and rubber

- Not cut the guards

- Put everything together and not crash it immediately

The end?

That post went on for way too long; sorry guys. If you actually read all of that you deserve some sort of a medal. The Z community has always stood out as something pretty incredible and I'd love to be a more active member of it.

tl;dr: 20 y/o in Brisbane with Z project, will make a build thread, ambitious but rubbish

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Welcome, sounds like an achievable goal and a sound plan to get there. The rotisserie approach is the only way to go really if you want a rust-free shell to start with. A sub-tonne weight is also achievable but more difficult to attain if you put a cage in it. Good luck with the project!   Mike

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Here are some pictures of her - not much to look at right now as the car is entirely nude. I have the original compliance plate and a manufacturer ID plate, however, I'm pretty certain the ID plate itself is a reproduction as it has HLS30-00654 rather than the HS30-00654 stamped onto the firewall (also is in comparatively brilliant condition).

I'll get some more fresh, clear pictures when I get home from work!

20171004_171802.jpg

20171004_171552.jpg

20171004_171634.jpg

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Nice looking car from the pictures.

Sub 1000kg for a road car will be ambitious. My race Zed was 980kg ready to race without me in it and it went on a fairly strict diet so the driver didn't have to. I could have got the car down to maybe 970kg by going a fibreglass hatch, and another couple of kg in wiring, but then it was that ever diminishing return for more effort.

Sub 1100kg would be doable for liveable street car and will still give spritely performance from the L28. 

If you want to go to a bit bigger in capacity I have a set of the longer "stroker" rods and can get details of the pistons that were in my car. Final capacity will depend on how big an overbore you want to go. The old Mitsubishi pistons i had in my race motor are no longer available but a set of equivalent pistons made to suit wasn't too bad in price.

And which branch of te free car mat fitting store do you work in, I wish to have you stare blankly at me as the computer says no when i try to get an oil filter or other service parts for my old euro shitter :) :)

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Cheers for the warm welcome guys!

@PZG302 I'm located down south of Brisbane in the Redlands - have worked at most stores in South Brisbane though. Our computers are a special sort of useless - go in and ask for an air filter for a flat head Ford or headlights for a mid 2000s Rodeo if you want to sit around for 15 minutes before being told they don't exist. Or the classic radiator coolant for a Beetle.

Actually met a fellow with a 280ZX out at Wynumn about 2 months ago + a younger guy with a 260Z in Viccy Point. Always perks my attention when someone mentions old Nissan sports cars or Zs.

A stroked L series is definitely something I'll look at in future; but I have to get this car finished first! 

@peter t Redlands as mentioned just above! 

On a side note: I'm looking to get the shell painted as soon as I've done the underbody deadener for the 240 but wasn't sure what forum would best fit Brisbane painter suggestions?

Had a preferred painter down my way but they've been less than positive to deal with thus far.

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On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 4:38 PM, peter t said:

Great stuff. what part of Vages are you on mate?

 

Sorry that just didn't come out right.   

 

Edited by peter t
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11 hours ago, NickF said:

I thought standard 240 weighed in at about 1070Kg?

 

I've seen that figure thrown about a bit - likely relating to the extremely early build numbers with thinner sheet metal. Might be completely wrong though. Would have to ask someone like Gav for more info. If mine weighed 1070kg dry I'll be under the 1000kg dry mark relatively easily.

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Early 240z's would not be drastically lighter than later ones or even 260z 2 seaters for that matter. Yes later body shells would weigh a bit more due to air con being fitted and perhaps more accessories etc.. and more structural rigidity in the frame rails and rear strut towers etc.. but I doubt it's a huge difference.

It all depends what cars you're comparing too. A 280z with big bumpers and fuel injection or a home market late s31 with electric windows, mirrors etc.. and slim bumpers but fuel injected.

Where I suspect the lighter "240" shells idea comes from is confusion around the Z432-R shells and some of the works rally shells getting the same treatment in terms of thinner panels but strong in terms of frame / support sections etc.. some of these cars had HS30 and HLS30 prefixes where as the PS30-SB was the Z432-R of course. 

Mostof these cars were not generally available to Joe public and many of them got binned and are simply not around anymore anyway.

For AU market cars I'd be very surprised if an early 240z weighed much less than a 73 240z.

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Some wiki sites list the weight of a S30 240 at 1040kg, but going from personal experience on my race car where a fair bit of light weighting was done, I got down to 980kg just off the track with around 30 litres of fuel, getting a road car that is still livable sub 1000kg will be a challenge.

The weight reduction in mine was all sound deadening removed, all rubber seals removed, all side and rear glass replaced with polycarbonate in either 3mm or 1.8mm. Fibreglass bonnet, guards acid dipped. All inetrior trim stripped out and dash gutted to hold the original instruments as per the rules and a very simple switch panel for the car. Passenger seat replaced with kart seat, as per the rules at the time. Most of the unnecessary wiring removed. Rear bar removed, front replaced by fibreglass bar. Driver seat was lightweight racing bucket. All HVAC systems bar the ducting to the front screen removed. Only one windscreen wiper was retained. All the switch gear and steering column trim was removed and replaced with simple toggle switches for lights, blinkers and wipers.

The brakes were lighter than standard using Wilwood 4 pot calipers up front and volvo 2 pot calipers on the bum with no handbrake and all associated brackets and cables removed.

Additions to weight were the cage, still a simple cage, and fire extinguisher.

The only other bit of weight that could have been removed was the rear hatch swapped for a 'glass one.

In the mid to late '90's there would have been one or two other cars that would have been lighter than mine, but only by 10-20kg. There was one car that was very light, but the structural integrity of the car was compromised to do that, I would not have liked to have had a crash in that particular car.

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Inderstating.

My car was weighed as part of engineering approval and came out at 1080kg with ~ 20 litres of fuel:

  • M3 engine and gearbox were just a few kg heavier than L series/71b
  • Bigger R33 GTS-T and R31 rears.
  • R200 in place of R180

All factory sound deadening removed and replaced by Builders Choice sound deadening in the cabin but road car so no cage.

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