STR Champion and Top Ten Overall

Well the final results for the South Bend Region SCCA Autocross season got posted. I already knew, but it is now official that I won my class. This year the Datsun ran in Street Tire R (STR) and even though I won mostly because I ran the most races I am still excited to win and I hope the trophies this year are cool. Last year class champs got garage tire racks from the Tire Rack ($100+ value). I could use a set for the second set of wheels for the Z...

I also now have the final results of the overall points leaders for the entire club (200+). This year I ranked in 7th place overall! We get points for attending meetings, write blog articles, winning races, and for holding leadership positions within the club. This year I was chair of two Street Survival Schools, co-chair of timing and scoring for autocross events and on the autocross leadership team (plan events, set up, etc.). The prize for being a top twenty member is usually a polo shirt or a jacket. I can always use more car gear!

The awards banquet is on January 15th... when I have family in town. So not sure yet, but I think I might take my dad and brother Andres if they want to go. If not, I will miss it and get my trophies later. Just excited to be ranked and to have won my class.

Now on the downside... went to move the Datsun tonight and she wouldn't start for me... sounds like a bad starter or solenoid... so I need to track down that part ASAP. I need to move her and make room in the garage, in the winter we keep the Jetta inside for Heather.

Worried Parent

I took the Z this week into Tough Guy Industries to get the gas tank removed, restored and replaced. It is a common problem on the Zs, and more especially on a 35 year old car that sat in storage for years. You never know if the tank was dirty inside, rusting, or if it is keeping pressure well still.

Whenever the Z is in a shop... I am like a worried parent wondering when the shop will call, what if its a bad news and I have a huge bill, or worse if the call is saying that the car is no good. I lose sleep, I am searching online for new gas tanks in case I need to buy one, and looking at other Zs in case mine is junk and I need to buy a new car.

After a day of waiting I got a call from them... they said the tank had been removed and restored before. The inside of the tank had a new lining, so they cleaned it for me again, and put it back in. Saves me money, and while she was in there they were able to pull off my bumper shock towers for me, so the rear end of the Z is looking good (you have to remove the exhaust and gas tank to get the bumper shocks out).

Now the down side is that this saving me money, but I have not found the issue with why the Z is lacking power... so the work continues on trying to get her faster! At least I can worry about one less item... 

First Publication!

Well it isn't the cover of Motortrend... or a feature about the fastest Z at SCCA nationals... but the Z made her first publications. The student newspaper where I work did an interview with me. Of course my hobbies came up and with it, the Z.

So this week the IUSB Preface has a nice little article about me and a picture of Me and My Z. the article is not on their website yet, but when it is I will link it here for you all to check out.

Full Article: Preface

I was touched that a student wanted to do a profile of me, and glad they showed more than just my work side of life and include my family, hobbies and other items.

All grown up... First Car Show!

The local drive in malt shop on Sundays does a classic car night. I have driven by a few times and wanted to check out the cars. Well then I thought, wait... I should take the Z!

So this past Sunday the Z made her debut at Bonnie Doons. Heather and I got there a little late, so we had to park in the overflow lot. With is alright, I didn't even detail the Z yet. She had a few people walk by and check her out.
We enjoyed the show and of course here in South Bend it means lots of Studabakers. There were a few cool custom hot rods, some classic restores and a few more modern rides and unfortunately even a couple riced up cars as well. The ricey cars make the Z mad cause they ruin the rep of Japanese rides.

So this weekend was a good car weekend. Hermen and I had a Team PLP reunion and did the brakes on the Jetta. We learned about crazy German engineering and it took nearly as long to learn how to use the fancy brake tool I bought. Ha.

Seats... yep two of them!

So I finally got the bolt out for the seat. I bought a stuck bolt remover... broke it... so I just took the reciprocating saw out and cut the backside of the bracket off. So I got the seats in, took her for a cruise and snapped a picture since the lighting was good outside.

Now I really can't wait to get the rest of the interior conversion to all black interior done.

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!