Ugly Cousin

[zrevival]

Long term lurker - occasional commenter of posts finally putting up a project journal

 

Purchased the 2+2 from a well known z collector in Kapiti - 3 years ago complete with outstanding 1977 interior touches

 

Body is 'rough' - chassis is worse, but mechanically excellant

 

Project has moved on a little since then (photo's to come) - but for now enjoy the old school look of the 'school bus'

Kids call the car - the noisy car - ('noizcr'number plate to come)

 

 

[maddos]

Awesome.

You can never have too many mirrors when driving around town

[zrevival]

I think it also came complete with complimentary hawaiian shirt and gold medalian from the factory

[Zedman240®]

Looks like a good project to start with; a complete car! Last zed I put together was only 80% there. Took months to find all the  glass, fuel tank etc.

[zrevival]

OK - 3 years later and a small matter of selling the car - kids whinged the wanted it back - so repurchasing the car we have some progress in a number of different areas

 

* Car has been lowered with king springs

 

* Wet legs have been upgraded with AT fluid - much better

 

* Original cream coloured seats with green trim have been replaced with a seat of cream seats

 

* ZG flares trial fitted to the rear only at this stage

 

* 10.5 x 16 simmons fitted to the rear - needed to go that wide to fill the flares, 9.5 inch wheels still sat within the standard 2+2 guards

 

* 8.5 x 16 simmons fitted to the front

 

* Guards, inspection flaps, cowling panel and head light buckets painted midnight blue

 

* Dash has been fully repaired using the method descriped in classiczcar

 

* Aircon removed

 

* tidied up under bonnet area - painted flat black

 

 

* replaced heater core

 

to do:

 

* fit reg cook head and triple 45 webers

 

* massive amount of body work - and full repaint

 

 

 

 

 

[drifta1600]

OMG those rims are SIK Wanna sell them?

[zrevival]

Thanks for the offer on the rims - it took me 3 seperate sets of rims to get the look i wanted with these. So won't be selling in the near future

 

The simmons rims i ended up with up with were orginally gold in colour - so took them apart and repainted them silver. Pretty happy with the result

 

 

Note - in the photo the rear rims are 9.5" wide and still sit within the 2+2 guards. Got some new outer rims for the 3 peice wheels that were an extra 25mm wider

[modular9]

Nice look . I wont say SIK in big letters and append fully to the front of it but....

 

Can I ask what the offset was for your 9.5 inch simmons so that they sat inside standard 2+2 guards ? I had been thinking 8 inch wide would be enough and got close to ordering if the taxman is nice to me but then I see your pics.

 

Mike

 

Ahh Kapiti coast grew up around those parts.

 

 

[zrevival]

The 9.5" wheels had an offset of +6 from memory - so they weren't very 'deep dished'

[zrevival]

New n42 head to be added to the L26 block, which has been really well flowed 

 

New Stage 4 cam added - as well as cam tower shims

 

Welded cambers means i'll stick with the dished pistons to try and lower the compression.

Should be somewhere around 10.5 compression

 

Head and triple 45 webers should be on the motor this weekend

[Scoota G]

Hey did you get the tower shims from Stewart Wilkins?

[zrevival]

yep - purchased by credit card, posted to NZ within the week

 

All good - and much cheaper than i expected

[zrevival]

Ok - some progess over the past few weeks. Much slower than expected - but getting there.

 

Front guards, headlight buckets, hatches and cowling panel painted in 3M midnight blue.

All bolted back onto the car to see if i liked the colour - which i do.

All will receive a full repaint and final topcoat once full car is repainted

 

Front ZG flares and new spoiler to be added this weekend - weather permitting

 

New 'reg cook' N42 head, with Stage 4 cam bolted on along with triple manifold and headers

Weber 45's still to be added (sitting in garage)

 

Hopefully will get this thing fired up again in the next couple of weeks.

 

Manual gearbox conversion - a ton of bodywork and full repaint still to come

 

 

 

 

[zrevival]

"The Ugly Cousin gets a new home"

 

After much frustration with the 260z project - due to the car being stuck outside and spending a hell of a lot of time overseas for work (in Australia - so that's all good)

 

Btw - who's got the immuculate 240z i saw outside the Moreton Bay Regional Council a few weeks ago?

 

Anyway - we've moved house and finally have the space to get serious about this

 

After a little more stripping back - appears i have a few rust issues. The good thing being that the information supplied on this forum makes this look like a reasonable job to tackle.

 

The doors on this are pretty buggered - but scored another set that are immaculate that have been on storage for the past 15 years, so that will save me a heap of work

 

Looking forward to much more progress on this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chris240]

welcome back after a 9 months gestation !!

the progress should come quick, now you have a nice garage 

 

[zrevival]

Big garage space really helps - just need to start unpacking all the boxes so i can get to the car!

[zrevival]

Can't believe its been almost 2 years since I've posted about this

 

After a ton of work removing rust from the rear including a new slam panel as well as smoothing the rear end - finally feel like i'm on the home stretch.

 

Car is now moving and out of garage - obviously you could argue it still needs a paint job (can't rush these things)

 

Next cab off the rank - It's off to get chassis rails and floors done at the local panel beater

 

[Scoota G]

OMG he's back! Thought we had lost you for a while there. (oh we did) Love the stance of her. Since you've been gone i built one of these with a Cleveland V8 so yea it's been a while.

[luvemfast]

You've changed the wheel colour  :'(

 

Why haven't you removed the sunroof with all the work you've done to it?

[zrevival]

yep - gold wheels were a little too much 1970's for me

 

I know sunroof's are a pet hate for z owners - but for some reason I like it

[gilltech]

Looking good!

BTW I grew up in Wgton, got to know the Kapiti Coast area well.

 

Personally, having owned my only Zed for 28 yrs now, I much prefer my Zed with a sunroof, it's way more fun to drive than others I've driven without one. Much less claustrophobic; ventilation is vastly improved; & cabin benefits from improved lighting especially if the interior is all black as mine is. I'm sick of hearing all the negativity towards them, it's a personal choice.

The only downside that I consider valid is that over time the 70's era clamp-shut mechanism tension can ease off so that the glass panel might pop up at speed, but that can be corrected. So I'm with you zrevival. 

[zrevival]

Ha Scoota

 

Yes - have been following your build threads and saw the 2+2 - nice

 

I just work a little slower than you - trouble is i'm spending far to much time working in Australia.

The good thing about that is I get to see other people's build's, and pick up much needed parts accordingly (thank's to Lurch for the rear strut tower covers - they scrubbed up nicely) - but I just don't get to work on my own car!

 

Looks like we might be picking up a contract in Ballerat in the next few months - so will drop in and see you

 

cheers

 

K

[Scoota G]

For Sure!