Dadson Racing: 2010 Revival

[peter t]

so good man.

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

We were at the PI Nats in 07 and had a great time even won the bottle of coolant for the greatest distance traveled, we raised a few eyebrows for entering a dedicated track car in concourse but also got a lot of support for doing it, our attitude is if we're prepared to travel across the country for a car event then we should embrace that event totally and enter everything we possibly can.

 

 

There has been a huge amount of time effort and  $$  oops sorry I meant  $$$$  go into this rebuild and Whittie and I feel gutted that we won't be able to present Whittie's new Zed to you at PI because we really only have one opportunity to present the car in concourse condition before it becomes battle scared from track competition but as they say in the classics....That's The Way The Mercedes Bendz.

 

This decision has taken a lot of pressure off so we can now finish he car properly without feeling rushed, we were quietly confident of placing in the concourse but of course now we will never know but we will take lots of pics and attempt to get the car featured in a mag or two before it hits the track in anger.

 

I'd like to wish the NDSOC committee all success with the PI meet and assure you we will be there in spirit and look forward to seeing lots of pics of the event.

 

Dad

[luvemfast]

The disappointment we express, is also in support of your own disappointment.

Good luck with the rest of the build.

[Grandad]

Hi All

The car left home again today to have the twin master cylinder setup installed including a bias adjuster, new custom brake lines manufactured fitted and system bled, should be back next week.

 

 

While I was out I called in to see Will and collect the rear light plastics that he magically restored after I destroyed them by stupidly using paint stripper on them (I'm way old enough to know better)   we were going to replace them but when we couldn't find any others that were better we had to go with these and you simply can't tell that there was ever anything wrong with them.  Will really is a master tradesman.

 

For anyone interested in numbers Will has now put a total of 1,231 hours into the Zed fortunately his charge out rate is very reasonable.

 

 

 

The Buick arrived in Will's workshop about 18 months before the Zed and it really was a basket case, it's had a body off chassis rebuild it's now finished and good to go off to it's owner, if you think Will put a lot of time into the Zed the Buick soaked up 3,000 man hours and like the Zed is brand new again.

 

 

 

 

[Zedman240®]

I thought you were going the original gun metal / grey for the light trims..

 

That Buick looks amazing; for sure its a wedding car.

[Whittie]

That was the plan - same with the bumpers

 

But after a screw up in my communication skills, the bumpers got painted blue and actually look brilliant, so I've gone with the blue tail light panel as well to make it all match

 

I think it looks brilliant and in a couple weeks I'll mount it up to find out what it looks like on the car

[Grandad]

Well that happened faster than I was expecting the brakes system and new lines are all in bled and good to go and a new clutch line to match.

 

 

 

Challenge now is to find a rubber boot to seal off the hole left in the firewall where push rod connects the pedal to the master cylinders need to keep noise fumes and excess heat out of the cabin.

 

[Riceburner]

Nice and neat. Be interested to hear your feedback on the difference between the old boosted setup and this, once you driven it.

[Grandad]

Hi Gareth. J. and All

 

We are expecting better feel and balance from the twin set up but also expect extra muscle input, we will let you know our impression and reaction to the system after a few events.

 

We're currently experiencing a frustrating period where we seam to be taking one step forward and two steps back I guess it comes with reassembling a Zed jigsaw puzzle but given we have accepted that attending the PI Nats was an over ambitious target we are now focussed on getting the reassembly right.

 

I have had all the under body bolt on components zinc plated and painted but they have failed the scratch test miserably and will be sand blasted clean at our first track event so I have removed them all and will have them powder coated so next time we bolt them up will hopefully be the last.

 

As you know a large part of Whitties focus in this rebuild is weight reduction, he has had the side and rear glass remade and shaped in 3mm perspex, today I fitted a rear quarter window into its frame but first I weighed the glass window with its old rubber and then the perspex window with a new rubber and the weight saving is 282g which is over half a kilo saving in the rear quarters alone so it will be interesting to measure the rest as we fit it.

 

Cheers Dad

 

 

New V Old

 

 

New set in frame ready for installation to the car

[Grandad]

Well progress is slow but at least it's progress.

 

The original supports that hold the door window glass were severely rusted so rather than try to repair them we went looking for replacements which raised some challenges because being a late 260 these parts were upgrades and not compatible with earlier cars also by the end of the 260 model run the 2+2 significantly outsold the coupe so we found locating coupe window supports somewhat challenging but heard that 2+2 supports could be modified to fit, Dim came to our rescue (thanks mate) with a 2+2 set which only required a little shortening and some new holes.

Dad

 

Original Coupe top 2+2 bottom

 

 

Modified 2+2 top original Coupe bottom

 

 

Modified supports good to go

 

 

 

Finally got all the paint and undercoat off the underbody componants ready for powder coating and delivered them to the powder coater today sadly the plastic tail light surrounds were rejected so will have to be painted were also having the grill done in expectation of it withstanding track conditions better than paint, time will tell 

[luvemfast]

The attention to detail on this track car is unbeleivable.

Annnnddd...... I'm so disapointed that it won't make an appearance at the Nationals!  :'(

[Grandad]

Hi luvemfast

 

We too are disappointed about missing the Nationals but it can't be helped we will most likely attend the PI Historics next year because we want to see what improvement there is on our previous lap times.

 

Attention to detail is not difficult but worth it with the window frames for instance there was some rust in them which if left untreated would only get worse probably quite quickly but after a good long soak in acid then zinc plating hopefully we won't have to revisit them for another 40 years.

 

Got a surprise call from the powder coater this morning seems he had an urgent black job to do so included most of our stuff as well so now I can bolt it up again for the final time.

 

Dad

 

[Whittie]

I agree with Luvemfast

 

Faark that looks good! 

 

So glad the door locks are powder coated this time - the paint chipped off far to easily last time, only looked good for 10 minutes.

 

**EDIT**

 

However, is that the standard gearbox mount that I see in the bottom left? Where is the modified one for the Silvia box?

 

Might have an AS NEW gearbox mount for sale

[Grandad]

That would be this little lovely, well hidden, think I'll clean it up and get some of the dags off it before it's powder coated.

 

Looks like we have a concourse condition stock gearbox mount for sale.

 

Dad

 

[garvice]

Think you guys need to remake that gearbox mount. Looks rubbish compared to the rest of the car. Not hard to make a custom one that looks like it was meant be to be there.

 

Here is one I made with some 2mm sheet. When I did this I only had a jigsaw and grinder to cut the metal. Easy enough to make up. You would just bend the side sections back and cut the top and bottom sheets to match. From memory I used some 30mm pipe and turned down the bushing to suit.

 

 

Bit more info here if you're interested

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/98380-transmission-mount-for-260z-rb26-300zx/page__p__923033#entry923033

[Grandad]

Hi garvice

 

I can't help but agree with your comments, thanks for the link to your mount which is undoubtedly far superior to ours, if we had considered this 18 months ago when the car was on the rotisserie I think we would have done a similar mod to yours but sadly the car is now way too far advanced to do your mod and we really just want to get it going and back on the track.  We will use the mount we have for now but in time will remake it and use yours as a guide as the transmission needs to sit a little lower to bring the drive line perfectly into line.

 

Thanks for your input it's appreciated.

 

Dad

[Whittie]

Uh-oh...

 

Meet Banjo and Kippa

 

 

:'(

 

[garvice]

I thought you would have been looking for more then 2hp out of your engine.

[KatoKid]

oh no......this cant be good. Z money all gone now.

 

You need a third, have one for sale, free freight to WA for all aus Z car members.

[peter t]

Now we know why his Dad is doing all the work on the car. Whittie is too busy feeding horses. ;D

[Whittie]

To be honest, Dad works on it cause it's in his driveway and I'm 30 minutes away.

 

30 minutes can do crazy things to a man.....

[MaygZ]

Now we know why his Dad is doing all the work on the car. Whittie is too busy feeding horses. ;D

 

And they eat fresh $100 notes!

[Grandad]

Uh-oh...

 

Meet Banjo and Kippa

 

 

 

A bit off topic but The Boy Needs therapy

 

[Grandad]

At last I've taken two steps forward and none back, the underside of the car is almost done just need to fit the diff and trim the new mount, install the fuel pump, filter and rear stabilizer then that should be it done and it can come off the jack stands and go back on it's wheels.

 

Finally some bling   We were going to make stainless tank straps but it all got a bit too hard so the old ones went off to the chrome platers.

 

Dad

 

 

 

[Riceburner]

Wow, looking awesome guys 

 

BTW think the front diff crossmember is on the wrong way?