240ZBUILTBYME

Lol I did think of the no power steering + smaller wheel issue, but thought I could just work on my guns but I do really like the oem steering wheel, just never been able to find one locally when I’ve been looking over the years. But I found one here in perth! Secured it today! Much cheaper than the jdm comp wheels. Just needs a bit of TLC

Cheers Jeff I am a fan of the black spokes but see what I end up doing with the interior of my car before I make the call. Ryan

My car never came with a oem steering wheel, so I was considering the jdm comp steering wheels from MSA. But after a poor review of them by Peter T and my z man here in perth I decided to see if I could find a stock one. Looked online and most are around the 300 to 500 USD dollar mark . Quite pricey....especially with shipping. asked my z man if he had any available and he did! It’s rough, but it’s mine! And it’s a much more reasonable price than ones from the states. A little resto and it should come up nice!

Thanks Pete, good to know before you invest 500 bucks.... i don’t have an original wheel, so will try and source one locally

Has anybody bought one of these before? Just wondering what they're like in terms of quality and feel. OEM steering wheels cost a fortune nowadays. Thought these would be a nice OEMish alternative plus feel better in the hand than the skinny OEM one and probably be cheaper or the same price. https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/classic08d07d Ryan

Congratulations rudi! Will be a while till the next YouTube video I’m guessing? Haha its an amazing experience mate and she will be your greatest project yet! (Your car was already pretty great) just survive the first 4 months then it gets easier everyday after that. I hope She is a good eater/sleeper we will be in the same boat, my second is due end of November.... ryan

Ah gotcha, I’ve always been partial to a bit of home brew...

It would certainly be nice to be able to afford an MZR car! Yeah exactly like singer, love the passion they put into the cars

Sweet I'm gonna try this! I'll do up a video tutorial. Soak in all three?! or just one of the above?

Ah ok so staged resto, fair enough mate, at least that way you get to keep enjoying it! So do your frame rails need change out or they ok? If I come across anything I’ll let you know

Anyone need some inspiration? This is the exact quality and style of restoration I’m aiming for. I don’t think it will be quite up to MZR standard but you have to aim high!

Hahahaha I have read enough of those posts too Pete lol I did try and get them out and mushroomed one side. I knew they’d be rusted in. Going to bring to a shop and press them out. Really like the little tool I think z car depot sell to get them out, but for 80USD will just pay someone to press them out lol

Cheers Jeff! I thought as much, glad I didn’t hit them with a hard faced hammer.... ryan

Hi Gerson do you plan on making rear lower valance sections? I recently purchased a heap of your panels and was very impressed.

Ok interesting so did you go polys just for the steering links/rack? So Andy you went oems throughout as well? Ryan

Wow, very interesting, I thought you definitely would have had poly bushings to handle all that m3 power! Ive personally never had poly bushings on my road cars. I hear they can be noisy if not greased up. Would be interesting to know whether most cars are running oems or poly, I just took it for granted everyone installed polyurethane. Ryan

Don’t quote me but I believe they are the same as all the sites list the panels to suit 69-78 models. What about your inner rockers, are they ok? Peel back the vinyl between your door sill and the floor pan, should be a panel with holes in it. Get a torch in their and check it out. Ryan

Nice project man, defs manual conversion! How serious of a resto are you going to do? Are you going back to bare metal and full respray? Or are you doing just exterior and engine bay? Have you checked the rest of the problem spots on the car? Doglegs, rear arches, rear slam panel, floor pans etc your engine will be done way before the bodywork lol You can get front guard repair sections from MSA aka the z store, they are tabco panels from my research, you can get the panels direct from tabco but good luck with that, their customer service is terrible. Can you do your own body work or willing to try? Getting someone to do it properly costs a fortune. You can get battery tray replacement panels, the tray itself from MSA if yours is too far gone, and the wheel well section underneath but I forget who sells them and whether it’s for both LHD & RHD. You can get outer sill replacement panels from MSA as well (tabco again) or go KFvintagejdm, KF is a newish supplier but I ordered panels from them and they’re very high quality (haven’t fitted mine yet though) if your chassis rails are gone, zedd findings does replacements, MSA also stocks them but add their mark up to it. Apparently these require further modifications and aren’t completely oem. What will kill the pocket is the shipping costs. Especially if you order from three different vendors. May be worth just getting majority from MSA. Good luck Ryan

I haven’t read anything yet a regarding oem rear/front lower control bushes. The only ones I have read that people recommend oem over polyurethane bushings are: - one side of the the tension rods bushings so your tension rods don’t snap - the moustache bar bushing to reduce NVH - engine mounts to reduce NVH Obviously if you value performance over lower levels of NVH then you would go urethane. Anybody able to verify the above as truth, as I am only repeating what I have read so far on the interwebs...

I’ve started a spreadsheet (coz I’m that kinda guy...) with parts needed, jobs to do and total costs, but I’ve just been chucking in the brands/suppliers I’m leaning towards so far. But Probably a good idea to add more options and comments as you say. Cheers for the hot tip! What kit did you use?

cool I thought as much!

Hi all I was trying to find a definitive bushing kit thread but couldn't seem to find anything using the search bar Is there an accepted best on ground for Polyurethane Bushing Kits? Or is it a case of same same for all the majors? I am obviously a loooooooooooong way off needing a bushing kit but thought Id start my research. Im currently looking at the: T3 PROTHANE kit costs $165 USD Z car depot Energy Bushing Kit $218 USD Energy suspension kit seems to be very popular in the US of A. Anybody had any Australian experience with either kit or recommend the kit they used? Ryan

And they’re here! Well mostly, outer sills didn’t arrive...

Hi all just thought I would take the time to share my first parts purchase for Sheena! So excited! so purchased these rust replacement panels from KFvintageJDM based on a few people speaking highly of the quality on this forum and other forums. And they were not wrong! Initial impressions is that these are indeed high quality panels. But I will let the photos do the talking... now my car is not at my place so I was unable to make a direct comparison. But I will when I go there next week and post photos. Oh no white powder found AndBir! Damn! pablo the frenchie was not as excited as I was... so I purchased floors, chassis rails, front inner rocker reinforcements, seat mounts, toe and rear boards and outer sills (still waiting on them to arrive, for some reason the two pieces were split up at some point....just arrived in nsw today apparently) inner rocker reinforcements look good, fairly oem looking to me (not an expert), I haven’t actually seen mine yet so may not need these but will see, I think I will... there looks to be extra material for trimming and fitting LHS toe board fitment looks reasonable. As with any replacement panel work will need to be done to make it fit. (So I’ve read ) I’m not sure if the flange on the rear and front of the floor pans are extra material to be trimmed, see when fitment comes. Edit: oem floor pans are flange lapped and spot welded Rhs rear boards. To me these looked hand formed not a complete press like the floors. Center bead is pressed. Rhs rear braces don’t fit well, however I wasn’t sure on the exact placement/position it’s supposed to be in. LHS seems to be better. Modifications required. Tbh rear braces on my car are so deformed and rusted I don’t know what the fitment is supposed to look like. Seat mounts look good, fit well and have the extra bracing skin as well. I don’t know yet whether I need these or whether I can reuse mine, my floors are particularly terrible so I just ordered and can sell them on if I don’t end up using them. front seat rails on both sides are ok but not sure about the gap in the corner on the outer sides. Was there a gap in the corner from factory? Maybe someone experienced can comment? chassis rails look nice! The ends look hand made and not pressed so there is variation, LHS doesn’t fit as well as RHS. But nothing that can’t be fixed. view of the underside of the floor pan. Very oem finish in my opinion, compared to other floor pans on the market. Yet to be seen how it fits though. Overall very impressed with these panels. There is evidence that a lot of handforming is done as there seems to be a variance between panels and some welding is visible. But honestly I’m not too fussed. I found kfvintagejdm to have very good customer service. Total shipping (including outer sills which haven’t arrived was $532 USD. Total landed cost in AUD was $2637. Took under two weeks to arrive. 4 days to get from Colombia to Australia and 8 days to get from nsw to perth.....go figure... Packaging could be improved with a wrap over each floor pan but nothing was damaged so is it really necessary? All other items were wrapped in brown paper and plastic wrapped. Obviously paint gets scratched in transit but paint will be removed before priming anyway. I will update this post when my sills arrive hopefully in the next week.