PZG302

If you need another block Zac I have a N42/N42 combo taking up room that I will never use, so for $400 it's all yours. I also have a set of rods suitable for what you want that came out of my race motor, replaced with a set I bought off Jason when I did my rebuild and a piston sample to get the same made that was in my race motor that Zedevan bought. I also have a bare N42 head that hasn't been touched so can be added to the bank you have, make a fair offer and it's yours. I also have a few other odds and ends lying around like lash pads and rockers from the race kit that are now just taking up room now I will be using a SR tractor motor to go racing. I would go with what Jake said, use the "stroker" rods to give you a better rod/stroke ratio so it revs harder and be prepared to spend. My last rebuild was around $8k to put together with new pistons, block checked. cleaned and honed as it was already mm overbore, the head just needed new springs, valves were good, new rockers and lash pads were used as insurance. The head was already done so just needed to be cleaned, checked and a touch taken off the face to ensure it was true. This motor produced 195rwhp and 212ftlb of torque on the dyno it was tuned on. It was set up as truck motor with a very flat torque curve and pulled better than a 14 year old school boy. To get a good motor built, I would allow $1k per pot. This will give you a great street motor that if maintained properly will last for quite a few years and provide a heap of fun.

What an ordinary resto.... The panel gaps are shocking and the front guard looks like a 5 year old has been let loose with a hammer Good to see isn't actually restored, just "restored"

Anyone from here having a play in the QR 300 on the 3-4th May? I will be, but not in a Zed. I will be in something without a roof and red. And even better it's someone elses'

For my Charger I took out the easy route..... For what i wanted I wasn't skilled to do it and was/still am time poor and no real resources at home to do a restoration. So coming up to 13 years later, I have had the car sit at various stages of disrepair at home for a few years and it has been sitting in a workshop as a fill in job for the last 4 years or so. Still not sure of the time it will take to finish, but just needs paint and putting together and the motor built when a cam turns up for regrinding. So far the bill is up around $60k for a full bare shell sandblasted restoration by a high quality shop and about $15k to finish off. I haven't done any work of note on the car as I have left it to the experts, but I have made all the decisions in terms of spec's for engine, suspension, wheels and so on sourcing most of the parts to be used myself and of course what i wanted the car to look like and the feel of the car. It will be presented in a R/T scheme, but not be a R/T replica, done in black with black bonnet patches and stripes, all the six pack and hemi decals but with a couple of pentastars to replace the R/T badges on the front guards and some inspiration from Leo Gheoghan's factory car for the rear end.. Would I do a car like this again? No. This car is a one off for me as I have always wanted ne show quality restoration done. Would I restore another car? yes, but not to the same standard. I am basically doing this with the S14 race car as it will be the only way I can afford to get the car onto the track. i am still paying for things to be done for me, but mainly fabrcation work I can't do myself, or getting parts. The other major expense will be the motor as I will be paying someone to build it and wire up the injection harness and get it running and tuned. Better they do all the work than a whole bunch of people doing it. The order I am doing the S14 is basically: 1. Got a shell 2. Find bits 3. Get cage built in shell 4. Prep shell - take all sound deadening out and off, strip underside of as much crap as possible for weight reduction. Paint underside and engine bay in rust seal paint. 5. Part assemble shell - fuel tank back in, hard lines for fuel and brakes, think about wiring harness for all but engine and where to locate stuff like battery. 6. Put suspension back in 7. Build motor and check gearbox, source and refurbish diff. 8. Paint Shell 9. Install drive train 10. Install windows 11. Get sign off from scrutineer for pre race check and log book issue 12. Test 13. Sticker up 14. Race it like I stole it...... In any restoration get ready for tears and tantrums, from you and the other half, budget blow outs and work to be redone due to stuff ups, changes in direction and bits being lost or better bits found and used. Don't set a fixed time to do the work, I have told the workshop doing the Charger I want it ready by Friday, which one I have left up to them.... Be prepared to walk away for a while when you get sick of it and just let it sit for a few weeks or a few months as needed. Don't let it get in the way of more important stuff like family. That's about all I can contribute.

Another option is to do what was done on my old race car to drop the static height, which was to cut the bottom spring seat and re-weld it to the strut. We still used the standard length dampers and springs, just tie wired the springs in so they didn't fall out of the perches. Probably better suited to a circuit car than a road car, but another option that may be suitable fir some.

Yeah, modern painting, more runs than "Blue Poles"

The KBS is also stubborn to get off skin, looks like my hands will be a nice shade of dirty white for most of the week. I was hoping on having the car running in September, but I may have my current contract finish up in May, so if I can't find work quickly, I might have to put a hols on the car until I find another long term contract.

Richard, I've got a few single chord ebay types if you're interested. I will probably go to a spoiler in the bird bath style for the S14 as that should work better and be cheaper with the limitations of the rules I have to work with rather than a wing, which looking at the costs of a proper designed wing that will work and be withing the rules is scary expensive.

Well, an estimated 25 odd hours of grinding and the shell was clean on the outside of any sound deadener, well about 98% of it anyways, there is always some you can't get to..... I'm sure the neighbours loved the last few weekends when the grinder and drill were going constantly for 6 or so hours and then a few afternoons here and there for a couple of hours. Anyway the underside and engine bay is now white. I have replaced the sound deadening and the paint under the car and in the engine bay with KBS Rust Seal in off white. The before after gurneying the shell clean and wiping down with prepsol it was time to start painting. I used brushes to paint on as I am doing this in suburbia, and I also don't have a compressor or the suitable facilities to spray paint. This stuff is suitable for brushing on, and the finish is pretty good if you have some patience and plenty of brushes to throw away. I am not after a standard of finish suitable for show cars, a 20 foot paint job is god enough for what I want on the underside, in the wheel wells and the engine bay for it to do its job, which is basically to protect the body from the shit and crap that will be thrown up by tyres and and other cars on the track. It can be hosed down and will look just as good as when it went on. Then engine bay after two coats. Coverage is pretty good over the black where all I did was scuff the paint with some 320 paper to key the surface for the KBS to stick to it. The underside. I left a bit out as it is up behind the fuel tank and won't get hit with crap, the original paint was in as good condition as when it left the factory. Rear wheel well all nice and white. And finally, the fron wheel well, again all nice and white. I was looking at doing the interior and cage in the KBS as well, but with the finsh that is possible and the style of paint, I will get the inside and cage sprayed in conventional automotive paint and just do the floor in the KBS where the finish isn't as important as being a hard wearing surface is, no girly carpet for me in this car.... Now just waiting on some others to get the bits needed for the rear suspension and the front suspension arms. All will be adjustable and rose jointed, thanks to the great aftermarket support for the S chassis, very cheap too when compared to other cars. I will also end up with GTR alloy rear uprights and the rear cradle braced and strengthened before bolted in with solid bushes. I also picked up a S15 SR20 complete with gear box for a great price, the only bits that didn't come with the deal was the starter motor and engine harness, which isn't needed anyway and the starters are cheap enough and plentiful second hand to grab one when I need it. The 6 speed box is sold already, so some dollars will be coming back to the build. I now have plenty of bits to choose from for the engine build and starting to get a small bank of spare parts building up.

I have the older cars and house and contents with Shannons and have made a couple of claims, once rearended and two windscreen claims, all painless and easy to deal with. Had my last ute with NRMA, had a no fault claim and assumed that choice of repairer meant choice of repairer, well it sort of does as long as your repairer can match their quote, any extra and it's from your pocket, and this for a claim from the other company. After a run in with them many years ago I though I would give them another try, but I would now not insure a skate board with them. For classic car insurance also try Lumley, Ryno and if they are still around VGL.

This is still up for sale if anyone wants a great track seat.

Got one in Brisvegas, but would have to check what block, pretty sure its a 42.

Guzuntite Lurch

Give Peterrx5 a pm, perfect for what he is after if he can't find wheels in the right pcd fir his beasty.

Well a bit of progress for the weekend. Saturday I picked up a new seat and side mounts, a OMP HTE XL, made for fat people like me and I fit in it very well. Also picked up a window net kit made for the Porsche Cup cars, it is a very elegant solution that doesn't need any welding to the cage, plus a couple of tow straps to use rather than the old type solid tow hooks. Also looks like I have a reliable source of tyres for the new car as I ended up spending about an hour and half at the race shop talking to a couple of Porsche GT3 cup racers, and the Pirelli fronts they use are the same size I used on the Zed, so hopefully in the next couple of months I will start to have a stream of tyres lobbing at my place. At the price I pay I can afford to use a set a meeting and then throw them away, so very happy about that. I also stopped in at Option 1 to see how Paul was going with his S15 and we are at about the same stage in our builds. I got some good ideas for how to mount the seat looking at the various cars in the shop and it also looks like my rear cradle will be modified and the alloy uprights plus all the suspension, bar coil overs, will be ready in the next month or so. Today, I would say the neighbours weren't all that happy with me. Four hours with the grinder and 5 flapper wheels later the underside of the shell looks like this..... That'a all I could get off the bottom with the car in that position using the grinder. I have about another 4-6 hours work to finish off the bits the grinder couldn't get and to finish the wheels wells off and the engine bay. I should be picking up the rust coat paint this week so as soon as the underside and engine bay is done, that will be painted and then it will be time to move onto the inside. I do miss the old cars of the '70's, the two Zeds and the 180B SSS I did this to previously were bitumen coated so a heat gun and scraper was all that was needed and the stuff fell off in big chunks that were put into a bucket. The S14 has what looks like bog under the stoneguard paint and it varies in thickness from a few mm to around 10mm in places. The garage is covered in dust and will stay that way until I'm finished the underside and before painting.

16" tyres can be difficult to find. You could also try Option 1 here in Brisbane for Achilles semi slicks, not as quick as Yoki's but good reports for them generally.

What size toyos? St George tyres in Sydney also sell over ebay at comparable prices to Taleb tyres. I bought my last lot of 888's for the hairdresser car from them and no problems. Just search R888 in ebay and they should pop up first, goto their store and you should find the size your after if chasing 15's.

Yep, done that. Most will come back off when I run the wire wheel/sand paper over the cage to get rid of the surface rust before I paint it with the KBS. Next photos should show it all shiny and then white.

Spent an hour or so today getting the car up onto the rotisserie, so all systems are go. I will be starting the stripping of the underside and wheel wells next weekend, and if it goes as well as expected will also make a start on the engine bay. When finished it will be very white So here it is in it's new home for a couple of months. It better not hail with the ute having to live outside for a while. The doors will be coming off before the great strip off. And also some more detailed photos of the cage.....

The suede wheel with gloves will be better on the track. All my track cars have had a suede wheel. Not so good for the road where the oil in your hands will trash the suede over about 12 months. On the hairdresser car I swap between the standard leather momo and my suede racing wheel fir trackdays. Takes all of 2 minutes to do to swap bosses.

Well. looks like January is the time of year to get stuff done.... I picked up a cheap Chinese rotisserie today and put it together this evening after finishing work. Tomorrow I will be putting the shell onto the rotisserie and then I can start stripping the underside and wheel well of all the sound deadening to match the interior. Well the interior will need the cold gal spray paint taken off, but will be no problems with a stripping disc and wire wheel. When I get paid my outstanding invoices from November and December it will let me pay myself enough to get 4 litres of KBS stop rust in off white and the associated cleaner and prep wash plus a heap of stripping discs with a few more wire brushes and go to town. I am planning on using the off white for the interior, cage, underside and engine bay. When ready I will have to find someone to throw a coat or two of white over the hanging panels and roof and rear quarters. I will then look at putting green diamonds on in a reverse of the old Zed, but this will also depend on how the sign writing goes. My company logo is a bastard due to the overall length of it and fitting on the side of a car.

Might be worth taking the buggered one to a bike shop or similar to see if they could make one up.

I would say opportunistic thieves who stole the trailer, as the car was in the enclosed trailer. Unfortunately, I would have to say that the chances of recovering the car would be slim :'(

He did say if there was anything I needed to let him know. After the motor was loaded and we were chatting, I was almost convinced to take him into town to his storage shed to get more bits. The 40 degree temperature stopped that though..... Definitely will be annoying him again for some little bits and bobs in the next few months. And re the Z32's, yes he did admit to the sickness.

I would say there aren't too many Martins in Kyogle with a shed load of Nissan bits, so then yes...... I hope your not going to tell me horror stories, I found him to be great to deal with and a nice bloke, very different from some others who drive around in S13's and 14's.....