KatoKid

Thanks John. Pretty annoyed at myself for not doing so many things like this while the car was at the panel shop but motivation is back!

Before I put the dash in the car the heater box should go in first....I looked at the sorry old dirty rusty heater box and thought there was no way it was going back looking like that....so the next bit is a bit boring but for those who are doing a heater core it may help and its more for myself and the memories of the build so skip this.... or read on if you have a heater hankering. The heater box itself was pretty ugly so it got striped to bits and media blasted then painted as the best way to make it presentable again. The core needed to come out to be checked and re-cored if necessary. Turns out it was in good nick and just got the normal top and tail and soldered back together. The big directional air flap has vinyl glued to some 4mm thick foam on each side to act as a seal and both of these were falling off and just disgusting anyway... so off to Clark rubber for some new foam and vinyl which was then cut to size and glued to both sides of the flap. Each of the foot vent side flaps had 4 mm foam to act as a seal and these had just turned to dust so the same Clark rubber foam was used again to make new seals and I cut long strips of foam to repace the orignal which was glued on to seal all the way around where the side of the heater box seals to the main box. You could probably so without this but it only took a few minutes so why not. The heater core needs some chunky 20mm thick foam to replace the original foam that seals the ends of the core with the box. Last thing was to replace the foam seal on the face vent duct on the front. Doneski!

Update time: Shims arrived and valve clearances completed. Dash wiring completed: All the feeds from the drivers side of the car across to the passenger side where the ECU will be located as well as gauges and1.5mm cable from the ECU controlled fuel pump relay to go to the rear harness and fuel pump. Power for the main 240Z wiring harness and fuse box is taken from the starter. Rather than run power to that point (BMW starter is on the opposite side) Im supplying power to the main harness up behind the dash were the +ve and -ve terminals of the ammeter will be joined as Ive ditched the ammeter all together and wil just run a traditional charge light on the dash. I had the grille chemically striped at the same time as the rocker cover, while its a long time before I will hang this on the car I needed to do something to stop it rusting (even more). I was surprised how rusty the corner pieces were under the paint but once disassembled and glass bead blasted all the pieces cleaned up well and apart from a little reshaping they came up really well. Just need to hit them with some etch primer tomorrow.

Are they the same as R33 GTST? If so ive got a pair you can borrow.

Spiders won't be happy!

Well done Andy, great place to start!

Heat is your friend my friend.

Smithfield for MTB?

Exhaust tip isn't long enough

Interested in the tail lights.......they arent listed on ratespares now though are they complete including sockets and wiring or just lenses? maybe a pic?

GTR axle is the same spline count. No way you should ever cut and rejoin an axle, axles should be shortened and then resplined at one end....and thats the trick with any axle you are shortening....you have to make sure there is a enough meat (diameter) on the shaft where you need to respline. Have a look at the pics on previous page and you can see where they have resplined just the one end. Yep, upgrade to 27 spline 260Z stub axles. Cant recall what the adapters cost.

I bought them alreday shortend by another member on here....cant recall who and havent seen him on here forever! Any engineering shop which can cut splines could do this and shouldnt be too expensive. Used the standard companion flanges and had 20mm thiick adapters machined up and welded on.

Haha...yep just one....the lectrikery stuff is hard enough sober.

Still waiting on valve shims...they finally left today. I use Schmiedmann in Denmark for most of my BMW bits, great service and reasonable freight but they had to order these in which is not unexpected. Valve cover, airbox and Fairlady grille came back from chemical stippers. Grille is pretty good except the corner pieces which will require disassembly and some repairs. Also been working on wiring....set the dash up and pluged everything in.....surprisingly after a bit of mucking around and cleaning some conections it all works, including the combination switch, all lights, wipers, fan, horns, even the windscreen washers! I had previously installed the Speedhut guages http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/12906-240z-speedhut-gauge-install/ but hadnt wired them so finished this and then had to source various power outputs required for the BMW ECU and EWS security system: 12V in Run and Crank 12V in Acc and Run 12V in Acc, Run and Crank 12V in Crank only Sounds easy until I realised there are no outputs from the ignition switch to the car that will provide the 12V in Acc, Run and Crank combination. Like many older cars they drop power to Accessories in the Crank postion to maximise availble power for starting so I ended up joining the Acc and Run output with the Crank output (starter solenoid) and used a diode to isolate the Acc and Run circuit. I wont be using the standard 240Z Crank output (starter solenoid) circuit as the BMW harness has all this built into it so this is just for the "I'm cranking" feed to the ECU.

Nice tankos Lurchos

Talk to Lurch AB, he's a Gippy boy.

For head work try Tony Knight: Knight Engines Sommerton Park

Bugger!! I hate farming anything out.

Got one you can have for nothing but you would need to freight to WhereverTF Whale Beach is!

Ripper, thanks John.

Noice!

So Ive got a JDM Fairlady grille which is grey, can anywone confirm this is the same grey as the tail light surrounds?

Another of those"I should have done this ages ago" jobs......valve clearances. I quickly checked these when I first got the engine running and noted a few out of spec, not far and not noisy but I dont fancy doing this once the engines in the car..... I was a bit worried that there may be some rust on the cams after sitting for so long without running but all was good. BMW wanted $100 + for the tool to compress the buckets to get the shims out so I "invested" a couple of hours in making one from a picture I found on the interwebs. Pretty fidly as its only 5mm wide and needs a 1mm T piece to keep the tool central between the buckets The tool goes under the cam and presses on the edge of both buckets simultaineously with the T piece serving to ensure the tool doesnt slip off the edge. Time to order some shims I guess.....expecting full BMW tax on these babys!

Bloody Westy's going to Westy's...WTF!

Nice job Jeff..... theyre a bastard to do.