Your First Zcar - Tell Us About It

[gav240z]

Hey everyone,

Just thought this would be a good conversion point for many of us, since alot of us have owned or own our first Zcar.

 

Tell us about your first Zcar or even your first car for that matter. What was it, what happened to it and what work (if any) did you do to it.

 

I'll go first .

 

My first car was a 1973 Red Datsun 240z. It was very original but a had rust under the battery tray. At the time we didn't have a garage so I couldn't fix it and put it in storage. I bought another white 1975 Datsun 260z 2+2 just before I got my license and it was good fun hooning around with mates in the back. It went hard too with the old L28.

 

I got sick of the 2+2 after realising it was a lemon in terms of bodgy body work and decided I'd sell it and fix up the 240z since the garage was now ready. I started pulling it down to a shell, the 2+2 was written off while delivery pizza's (never do that ever again - not my fault either) and I used some spare cash from insurance to buy a cheap run about (Toyota Corolla). Unfortunately for me the Corolla was vandalised to the extent of nearly $2000 worth of damage and being a broke student there goes all my savings toward body work on the 240z.

 

Fixed up the corolla sold it off cheap, bought my current 1972 240z and unfortunately sold the 73 240z shell to a mate for too cheap . I was happy though as I got my 240z. Still have it now of course .

[JP240z]

well,

my first car was some rust-bucket datsun.

nah, I got my 240 a couple of years ago when i was 16, it was completely rust free.... no jokes.

It had had heaps of engine money spent by the previous owner who was a panel beater.

I spent 2 years slowly restoring the interior and other parts with my mum, until at the start of this year, I got to the point where the only unreplaced or serviced part was the diff, everyother part was basically brand new.

I spent a fair bit on my sound system, as any 18yr old should, and drive her as a daily driver.

I have now come to the realisation though, that a classic car with tripple carbs  for an 18 yr old probly isnt suitable, and I'm going to sell her if I get the right offer.

[mikedoeslife]

I haven't been lucky enough yet to own one, but the first time I'd been in a 260Z was back in 2000, when a fellow TAFE student used to pick me up on his way to school.  It was an auto, and frankly bloody gutless - my very beaten up '84 VK Calais left it for dead at any light - but that's the difference 10 years makes I guess!  Anyway, I loved it.  I didn't know a single thing about them at that time - I was barely into Japanese cars, let alone classics - and I have to admit it definitely was not love at first sight.  I thought it was pretty sweet, but not my cup of tea.  It was in great condition, but for whatever reason, my tastes at that time didn't really gel with the S30. 

 

A few years later, and my tastes had matured quite a bit.  I'd started liking Japanese cars more in general, and I'd developed a definite interest in the old S30.  In that time, my friend had given his 260Z off to his dad, and bought another 260Z with an RB20DET in it, some nice 17inch BBS rims, and a beautiful interior. 

 

His name's Will, a young Canadian guy living here in Melbourne.  Haven't seen him in years, he moved to the other side of Melbourne and we just fell out of touch, haha.  Some of you might know him though!

[sco_aus]

I had a non turbo Cordia, enough said.  A friend of my brothers had a really clean 240 and he let me drive it.  I fell in love and wanted one.  As I was starting to come in to the import scene I also had a thing for R33s.  Anyway, I ended up buying a 2000 Pulsar SSS and had it for a few years.  I realised that if I got a zed, I could have my cake and eat it and bought this 260Z and drove it around with the L28 for a while.

As luck would have it, I got to go over seas and make a massive amount of money in just a few months, so when I got back, it was on like donkey kong and the RB was in sight.

The pulsar was stolen at the start of the year and now I have a Landcruiser Troopcarrier.

[modular9]

Great thread idea. Prepare for a long story about a boy and his unnatural love of a zed called Christine ( no pics as this is a family forum )

 

I had a black Falcon v8 coupe ( just like mad max's without the blower/gas tanks and side exhausts - lot of japanese tourists have a pic of my old car in their photo albums !! ) that ran like a train. It was, body wise, seeing the end of days after 9 years of daily driver ownership. I had to make the hard decision so I hopped onto ebay . I put in classic car and a sweet 260z came up alongside the mg's etc. It rekindled my love affair with zeds looking at the pics on ebay . I bid a ridiculously low bid on it ( about half of what they seem to go for ) just for laughs. Well I won!! The 260z was 780 km away ( yes i bought it sight unseen ) so i got on a plane and turned up at Maitland outside Newcastle .

 

There she was. Low long lean and red. She saw me... I saw her. Emotions were high. I ( ***censored for young readers*** ) . I drove it without a problem 780 km back to QLD.  This was 3 days before the June floods in Maitland. I tried to call the old bloke i bought it off to see how he fared. I dont think it was good as he was very close to the river.I didnt manage to get through. The only good thing was when i reregistered the 260z the remaining 200 odd dollars on the nsw rego went back to the previous owner. I feel I was lucky to get the zed and hence her name ( stephen king fans will know what i mean. )

 

Sold the black coupe ( her name was Daisy ) for a profit on ebay and have started to plow the profit back into the zed.

 

My name is Mike and I am a new zed-aholic.

[sco_aus]

hehe cool story

[XRQTR]

Well I've been hanging around here for quite some time, some of you I have met and others am still to meet.

 

I've known Sulio for a few years now, from the cafeteria vending machine days to be exact ( ask Sulio LOL). Anyway a few years ago he goes out and buys a Zed, hadn't seen him for a while but when I did he was raving on about this car and how I should go out and get one myself, just like that go and get one to make him happy LOL. I told him how many years ago at Carlins auctions in the city I was looking at a sky blue one that was pretty decent kinda nick with a factory fitted wind back sunroof but didn't get it coz I wanted "something newer" LOL.

 

Mind you before Sulio had gotten his Zed, well before, I actually owned a 240K coupe, this car was a pretty sweet ride, BMW lagoon green color, retrimmed (homestyle) velour seats, auto, 12"subwoofer in the shelf and a cheap head unit as well as a honed and basic rebuild L24 with a minor head shave. The car went pretty well for what it was and it surprised alot of people, not the quickest off the line but once it went it went well. Alas I ended up giving to my borther coz I owed him some money and he sold it to some 16 yr old kid for about $750 I think it was, kid got a bargain with how much had been spent on it, shit happens I guess LOL.

 

Now fast forward to the 26th of last month, I was having a look online as I often did for something that might be worth having a look at, mind you I have had a look at a few that might have been "worth a look", dissapointed with pretty much all of them. So here I am having a look when low and behold I see a picture containing a triple carb set up with filters as red as the car itself, a bit dirty but screaming for attention. I have a look at the time and it's just gone passed 9pm, I thought I don't like calling people after 9 unless they know I am, but then I thought "if I don't someone else will".

 

So I jumped on the phone and got an answer, seemed like a nice enough bloke and when I asked him where the car was located it was only 25 minutes away from where I was, we set a time to meet the following evening.

 

Well the next day came and pretty much went and I wasn't really expecting much from the car to be honest, I almost couldn't make it out but managed to in the end, so I made my way to the place for a look. When I got their I noticed the car was nowhere to be seen and he told me it was in the shed so we hopped in his 4bi and drove out to the shed (he was on 25 acres) to have a look.

 

When we got to the shed I hopped out of his pickup, still not really expecting much to be honest, and he went to the shed door and pulled it back, well it kinda looked better than I thought. Anyway I thought, lets have a close up, went in started to look around it, looking for the obvious rust spotswhich were non existant, I was stunned to say the least. Well their is some rust underneath that has eaten right through but its about 5 square centimetres in size so very easy fix and the sills had been repaired at the same time it had been resprayed, not quite concourse but a good job all the same. As well their are a couple of holes in the tyre well which is easy enough to fix so wasn't too fussed, the rails are near perfect apart from a couple of minor dings and the floor is pretty good except for the bit of rust and some bashing but will soon fix that too.

 

The engine is an L28 which is basically stock from what I was told but the carbies are being wasted I think on this set up so the plan is to do some minor head work and throw a nice cam in. The electronic ignition was retained which was a good thing I suppose, although I'm sure you will tell me if it's not LOL, 5 speed and not sure what diff. Haven't as yet driven it really apart from onto the back of my truck to and from a couple of shops, one of which is where she'll be resting while I get her ready for a roadie and reg. Did the leads ,plugs,rotor as well as a new GT40 coil today, seems to run a little better but I think the cap is split as it seems to be grounding and I can hear atick from around the dizzy, but we'll look at that tomorrow sometime. Also a question on the distributor caps, are there any better than the others or are they pretty much all the same?? I ask as sometimes the fit isn't quite up to spec and they don't quite run right with these caps.

 

Went and picked up the last of the spare bits and pieces he had lying around the place this afternoon and will sort through it all tomorrow, whatever I don't need I will post here in the for sale section.

 

Plans are the basics I suppose, flares, big wheels, as I said some minor engine mods and tidy it up really. It's actually a lot cleaner than I expected to be honest so shouldn't take much although knowing me I will at some point strip it and rebuild the bloody thing hahaha

 

Don't have any pics at the moment apart from the ones from the ad so I might put them up for the time being, as well I have added a pic of what it should look like with any luck in a few weeks LOL, just need to find those wheels.

 

[Toecutter]

Ah excellent to hear you've hooked into it. Pretty good find, especially with the tripple Mikuni 44's! A lot of the S30's I look at these days are getting pretty bad in the rust department as far as whats left out there so I reckon you got in at a good time as the prices have been creeping over the last couple of years. I was surprised to see that even the seats in the car have no tears and the dash no cracks! yes very good find.

 

You gotta get your pics up in the gallery section and maybe start a thread on the car in the Members Project(s) Journal section of the forums!?

Futher to the conversation we had re wheels I think the ones you have on the red car pictured are Enkei wheels, not sure if they still make em??

Get it regged for the Apollo Bay Cruise the first week of August!

 

[XRQTR]

Ye that weekend is the plan at the minute, have you got all the details up yet??

 

Oh ye and I forgot to mention, it has an electric glass sunroof you can just make it out in the pic LOL, I know what alot of you are saying but it's not a pop up so it can stay for now LOL.

[Toecutter]

Ye that weekend is the plan at the minute, have you got all the details up yet??

 

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1458.0.html

[modular9]

XRQTR: looks mighty fine. funny how a lot of zeds are turning up in sheds somewhere.

 

Envious of your triple setup 

 

The enkis look a little like roh chicanes i think anyway. ROH chicanes were the wheel I was thinking about. myself.

[XRQTR]

Ye just had a look at the Chicane actually and no it's not the same, the ones on the car in the pic look kind of like simmons V4/V5 wheels, another nice one though if the budget extended would be the Simmons OM wheel.

 

Still some time till I need them so I may even go for the superlites for now as they are cheap enough and will suffice till a decision is made. Might head down to Steves wheels  tomorrow though as they usually have a lot of good second hand stock so might find something their to suit both taste and budget LOL.

[gav240z]

I think those wheels are Speed Star Racing SSR. http://www.brandonyu.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=13744

 

Maybe just wider and deeper offset.

[modular9]

Gav240z - thanks for the link. wasted/researched the site for about an hour.

[XRQTR]

Ye had a look at the SSR site and nothing like them that I could find, to be honest they look very much like an 80's BBS racing wheel, but hopefully find out soon enough.

[Scando]

I've been a datsun nut ever since I had my L's.  My first car was an R30 skyline.  Since then I've owned another R30, Sunny, Bluebird, and 180B SSS.

 

Around the time I started uni I wanted a project car to build a weekend/club car.  I loved Zeds but the price was out of my range.  In the end I bought a 180B SSS and over time stripped the whole car back to bare metal and had it in primer ready for panel beating.  In the meantime I had picked up a part time job and managed to save some money for the bodywork and  an engine conversion.  While looking for possible engines I came accross an add in the trading post for an unregistered L28 turbo 240Z.  I didn't have quite enough for the $7.5K price tag but figured the owner might be negotiable so I went and had a look at it.

 

When I saw the car I was disappointed.  The crappy green paint job looked terrible and there were a few rust spots that needed serious attention.  I was still kind of interested so the owner organised a day registration so he could take me for a run in it.  Heading from his house he was getting it on boost a bit but it wasn't doing much and I was once again disappointed, then we hit the highway...........Going onto the highway he opened it up through 2nd and 3rd and I'd never felt anything like it!  I'd been in modified WRX's, Skyline's, Gti-R's, etc but nothing compared to the acceleration of this thing.  I had to have it!  The best thing was that suspension and brakes had also been taken care of so it was going to be a much cheaper option than doing it all on the SSS.

 

I purchased the car for $6.5K and used it for a couple of track days and I was hooked.  Thanks to some friends I managed to get a CAMS approved roll cage in very cheap and what was supposed to be a quick and dodgey patch up and paint job, actually turned out pretty damn good!  Over 12 months or so with A LOT of help from my dad we did all the necessary bits and pieces to get it ready to race and this is how the car had turned out.

 

 

I'm now running it in its first season of racing in Targa B class.  It's a class setup for road cars with pretty much unlimited modifications on DOT approved tyres.  Other than some reliability issues the car has been going well and we're currently 2nd in the series.  As with most peoples Zeds it's far from finished and there's plenty more to be done when I can save the money.

[XRQTR]

ok don't know what they're called yet but found a pic at Stuckeys website, I should have gone to them first LOL, check it out here.......

 

http://www.stuckey.com.au/wheels_details.aspx

[zedevan]

they are SSR reverse mesh, atleast thats what sprinter ppl seem to refer to them as, their are alot of others that look close, but none of htem has as nice a center where the bolts come in, however i'd assume new they are the same price as any jap forged rim, and second hand they are probably pretty rare in the size to fill the flares

 

i'd look through one of the import magazines and get the numbers for some places that will import volk wheels and they should be able to get them, or try the guy in perth who can get watanabes as i belive watanabes are also made by speed star racing?

 

http://www.gruppe-s.com/SSR/SSRFullReverse.htm

US$482.84 each for 16x8.5...

 

 

beautiful car scando, is it an efi turbo using parts from a 280zx or a carby setup?

[Scando]

beautiful car scando, is it an efi turbo using parts from a 280zx or a carby setup?

 

Thanks

 

It's a 280ZX efi turbo setup.  Should have another engine built with a P90 head, F54 block and forged pistons before the next round 

[XRQTR]

Well I just spoke to the guys at Stuckeys and the wheels are a Compomotive and come in at just over $1000................each   

 

Hey zedevan, who is this guy in Perth, do you have any contact details for them??

 

 

edit: just got a number for a guy in Melbourne and spoke to him a few minutes ago, he is going to find out some details and get back to me later this arvo, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

[sco_aus]

How did this go from your first zed car, to wheels?

[Toecutter]

Nice car Scando, always interesting to hear about the first ride in a Z experience especially if your lucky enough to find an L28 turbo for the right dollars. Ah the guys in the states must have a ball visiting junkyards to pull apart L28ET's. And if kill the motor just go and pull another one.

 

How did this go from your first zed car, to wheels?

 

I think it followed from XRQTR's story and wheel query. Anyhow we should continue the SSR discussion and further info in the wheels section for ease of reference.

 

 

[Scando]

Too right, I wish we got L28 turbos over here.  We never get any of the cool Japanese stuff in Australia

 

The L28 turbos must be starting to get a bit hard to come by in the US.  I recently got quoted $2,500 for a complete L28ET engine.  I suppose a fair bit of that would be shipping though.

 

Anyway I'm getting off the topic of the thread so I'd best stop.