New Seats... well new Seat...

So I have been working on a project to change the seats in the Z. The car came with ugly brown vinyl and tweed seats... luckily thanks to one of my students who spotted a Z in a local junkyard I was able to find a cheap upgrade.

The junkyard Z had white leather seats, and luckily in great condition. They had some spotting and stains, but I was going to dye them black so it didn't matter. My dad helped me go to the junkyard and pull them and the project began. I decided to go with Rustoleum vinyl and leather dye in a gloss black. It is available at autozone and the ratings online were as good as the more expensive professional stuff.

I had some issues dying the seats... not sure if it was a bad spray can, or the temp but on my last coat of dye something went wrong. So I cleaned the seats again and after some work finally got a good finish on them. They ended up looking like new! I should of painted the brackets on the seats as well, but I figure when I finally put carpet in the car I will take the seats out again and I can do it then. I was in a hurry to get the seats in the car so I could wait for more painting.
I got one short delay... which of course happens on each Z project... one of the screws on the bracket would not come out from the original seat. I have tried everything and nothing... I don't want to risk stripping the screw more, so I might have my shop try to torch it out, or maybe just buy one of those screw removing tools

Anyhow... for more pics click HERE. the black interior conversion has taken one big step forward. No more ripped up ugly seats!

Sunday with the Z and Novali

So today I finally got the new AFM boot set up into the car. I must say that it looks good... but I am iffy on whether or not it is going to work correctly. When I first put it in she ran ROUGH... sputtered and stalled out. So I tweaked it, made sure the connections were all tight and then tried it again. She sputtered just a little... I reved her high and then she smoothed out! I like the look of the new boot (the old one was crusty, taped together and even new didn't look as cool as this polished aluminum pipe, black couplers and chrome clamps.

So I figured lets go for a quick drive around the block which is one of my favorite Sunday activities.  Well en route out of the driveway she died and would not start again. Hum... I then realized that my gas gauge was on E. I normally keep her fairly low for autocross but never thought I left her get that low. I got more gas later and get her started and ran her around the block and she ran strong. Problem is... with a 35 year old gas tank, letting her run out of gas is not good... So I better snag a new fuel filter now as well.
Anyhow I had planned on Sunday to hit the junkyard. I wanted to get one more thing for me, and a couple guys on my forum asked for a few more parts. I decided to skip the trip because it was really hot and lost time in the morning when the Z died on me. Well Heather had told Novali that maybe she could go with me and she really wanted to go. So I could not turn that down and off we went. She helped pull the AFM, the steering wheel and combo switch from the car as well as some other misc plastic interior items I might need.

I snagged a quick little video of her hard at work! It is a proud day having my daughter wrench with me. She knows of screw drivers from Handy Manny, but now she knows about a ratchet and sockets. I wonder if she will remember for next time.

Well anyhow... the fusible link upgrade will have to wait until later. I did paint the relay bracket and cover to the shunt. So it at least looks a lot nicer, I need to get a multimeter so I can test wires before I start digging in. Here is a pic of the parts cleaned up and painted.

At least the engine bay is looking better... I still have to start getting more performance out of her. Performance cost money and right now I am just enjoying the Datsun the way she is... but soon... hopefully soon we will get her running faster!

Heat Wave of 2010

Well I am in the middle of two projects on the Z... but in this heat I can't work outside long enough to get knee deep into my projects. But here are some updates on where I am with my work.

AFM Boot - my Air Fuel Meter boot has some tears in it. It was taped up and I think this is causing some of my lack of power. I think air is leaking around it. Well an OEM replacement is about 60 bucks and I can't find a good used one. My 1975 was the only year of my type of boot before they switched in 76 to a more eco friendly model with an EGR. So I decided to upgrade the part and get a smoother flowing pipe instead of a flexible crush bent rubber tube. I order some silcone couplers, claps and a universal mandrel bent pipe. I just need to get the pipe cut to length now and I should be done. I am wondering if I should do a CAI (Cold Air Intake) upgrade while I am at it... but thats is another $45... so I will wait.

Fusible Links - I had to re-wrire one of my fusible links when I get the car. Most people upgrade their fusible links to a Maxi fuse set up. Well my links are working fine now but I figured this would be an easy upgrade to do to the car, clean up the engine bay a little and get one more item off the list of things to do to the Z. Well not that easy i guess... the write ups for the job are either on 240Zs (70-74) or on the later 280Z models (77-78) which all have different wiring. I thought it would be similar enough that I could figure it out... well not so much. Most of the people who do the upgrade do it when either their links fail and they have to re-wire the whole thing anyways, or when they upgrade to a new alternator and can remove the external voltage regulator. So since all of mine is fine right now... I might have to wait on this project.

SOOOO... what is next for the Z? I think this weekend I can finish the AFM boot install. I painted the Fusible link bracket so I will spruce that up a little and put it back together. I can take my baby for a cruise and then she has to go back to the trans shop since it is leaking a little again.

Anyhow... new pics coming soon of the upgrades once I finish them.

Anniversary AutoCross

August 1st was my first wedding anniversary. Luckily I am married to a great woman who loves me and understand my love of cars and racing and of course my love of the Z.

It was the 6th event in the South Bend Region, SCCA Solo Series. I am currently in the lead of the STR Class and this would be my first season win. Luckily for this event no other STR cars showed so I easily won my class. So I inched a little closer to an end of the year trophy.

The event was a lot of fun and on top of my class win I ranked 27th out of the 40 cars total at the event. Not bad for a car that I have yet to do any performance modifications on. Heather and Novali came and watched this event and I am glad that Novali takes a little interest in cars. She does love going for rides in the Z and last time I took her for a spin she told me, "I love going fast!"

Father's Day with my Dad and the Z

I love working on cars... and so does my dad. Not sure if it would of been his number one choice of fun bonding but we did some work for the Z... not on the Z, but for the Z. What does that mean you might ask... we went to a junkyard and got parts from another Z, that will eventually go on my Z. 

 On Sunday, in between World Cup matches we went to a local auto salvage place where they have a Z with tons of parts I wanted. The main item was some leather seats, which are currently white and in great shape. I hope to turn them into black leather seats and get rid of my ugly brown vinyl and tweed seats in my Z right now. I also scored a ton of other parts. Engine inspection light, glove box door, shift boot clips, extra screws, AFM boot, HVAC ducts, and the best item was a second set of the full taillight panel. I want to paint that black. So now I can paint this second set, get it done and ready and easily just swap them out. Then I sell that set. 

It was a good day... I scored the entire list of parts for just $75 which is about what one seat goes for on my forum. So can't beat this deal on a lot of stuff! 

Thanks to my pop for getting sweaty with me out there and working on cars like we did with my old Camaro when I was just 15 years old... We ended the outing with some KFC and watched the Brazil game. Happy Fathers Day!

Datsun Cologne

For a limited time I have been wearing Datsun Cologne to work... you might ask, what is that and where do I get some?

Well it is only for a limited time (hopefully) but here is why I am wearing it to work. My parents are here visiting from Bolivia, and when they visit I loan them my Altima so they can roll around in style (and so they don't have to rent a car for 6 weeks).

Until this year my back up car was a respectable red 2002 Nissan SpecV that didn't produce any funny smells. Well this year my back up car (back up car = race car) is the Z. As I noted before the Z burns oil, and also leaks a little exhaust, and also has some gaps in the taillights that help the leaked smelly exhaust get into the car...

So that means on long drives in the Z, when I get out I am wearing my Datsun Cologne. I might try to market it at Macy's but I doubt I will be able to throw in a free handbag with $60 purchase so it might never catch on.

First Autocross!

It's Go time. Start Your Engines...


The weekend of June 4-6, 2010 was the Great Lakes Division (GLD) Solo Series Event #1 sponsored by the South Bend Region SCCA (my car club). I work timing and scoring for the club this year so I get to help with all the fun tech stuff for the events. It does mean I have to arrive early and leave late, but I like being involved.

So the first two races of the year I had to borrow a car from other members. The first race I ran in a 1986 Mazda RX-7 which is similar set up to the Z. Then the second race a fellow Z driver let me co-drive a 1990 Nissan 300zx Twin Turbo... that thing was a beast and a lot of fun to try and drive.

Well for this event I was able to get the car ready. It is a two day event that counts for points for our regional trophies and for the divisional series event. It drew cars from all over the midwest so it was a strong field of competitors. The first day we had a lot of rain, and the second day was sunny.

The Z was fun to drive! I have a lot of learning how to balance and handle a rear wheel drive car, and the Z needs more work to be competitive... but for not I am just glad I was able to race my Z. I registered here in STR Class and hope to try and keep her in that class. If not I might move to an SP class but we will see in the future. Here are my results:

Saturday
STR - 1st of 1 car
Overall Pax - 66th of 86

Sunday
STR - 2nd of 2 cars
Overall Pax - 88th of 91 (ouch)

Weekend
STR - 1st of 2
Index - 69th of 97

So overall I did alright, I had fun and I got a trophy both days for my class. I got some fun pictures. More Pics Here: First Autocross