Summer Time

Well today the weather hit 80 degrees... in mid-April... Crazy! I finally got the right brake parts in and my shop slapped her back together. So I picked her up after work and we went for a cruise. Ran some errands, stopped at the post office to get a package, and drove around the neighborhood.

It is spring time and the flowers are blooming, the dandelions are poppin' up and I got the lawn mower out. That means soon it will be time to wash the Z in the drive way. Well I am deciding on what wheels to get for her (I am selling two other sets of rims from the Spec so I can afford these). What do you think of these babies?

It will be the first major purchase for the Z... but the tires on her have bad flat spots from sitting in storage for so long and I want something bigger for the street. I will end up making the wheels on her now the autocross wheels.

Still trying to get her to stop burning oil... looks like the head needs to be rebuilt. I have never even pulled a head off so I doubt I want to tackle the project. I can get a rebuilt head for only a couple hundred bucks so maybe I go that route and just worry about doing the installation myself. Hum...

Taking a Brake

So right now she is waiting on brake parts... so she is taking a "brake". So please no emails about my grammar getting worse. Ha.

Both rear wheel cylinders on the car leak, I tracked down some cheap parts. Not doing anything performance, because down the road I would like to do a disc brake conversion. So no need in spending extra money right now. In the future... disc brakes, SS brake lines, etc. For now, lets just get her back on the road.

I am shopping around for someone that can rebuild the head, or at least replace the valve guides and seals. I think that is the problem based on all the different things I have read and the shops that have looked at it. The scary thing is, you can't know the extent of the issues until you get it apart... I do know that the cylinders compression tested fine so it should just be a little head work and she will be rolling.

It was fun on Friday I took Novali for a spin in the Z. She found it funny that half of the interior was out of it and lying on the garage floor. She also liked that the car wasn't a lot taller than she is... ha.

Well hopefully soon she is road ready... and more importantly ready for to Autocross. Season kicks off on April 25th.

First Photoshoot

Well Friday night I got the first good pictures of the car. Soon I will get some interior photos together (once I get all the missing parts and wiring fixed). The exterior for the most part is in good shape. The bumpers and front spoiler need some work that I will tackle sooner than later, but the rest is in good shape. She sure does turn heads everywhere I go! After the pictures Heather and I went for a cruise on a curvy road... when I got her up to speed she started smoking a little and this time you could really smell it in the car. So I know I have an exhaust leak up front somewhere... one more thing on the list to fix... 

Luckily just the other day I drove by a muffler shop that had an early 70s Z (a 240z) sitting in their lot. So gonna run the Z over there to see about fixing the exhaust. Plus maybe I can find someone here in town with more Z experience.

Link to pictures: http://www.centellas.org/sam/teamplp/datsunz/pics/2010march-1stphotos/ 

Take Your Z to Work Day

TGIF. 

Decided today I would drive the Z to work. Maybe tonight after work I can take D out to dinner in the Z. We could kick it old school and go to Bonnie Doons and have a car hop serve us in the car. Make the Z remember her glory days. The problem is there are no cup holders for the milkshakes... So this week I have been working on the interior and figuring out all the wiring. It wasn't in as bad of shape as I thought... well that is the current diagnosis. I got all the harnesses plugged in, matched wires and the shift boot that was just laying in the car is now properly installed and has a nice MOMO shift knob installed that my wife got me for the SpecV.

I had fun this week doing all the research on the wiring inside the car. The car was originally an automatic so there are some wires in there that just don't go to anything anymore that the previous owners just left hanging. Plus in 1975 was the first year they had all the smog restrictions so I have wire harnesses for some EPA stuff that has since been removed from the car. The hard wiring project will be trying to figure out how to wire a radio into there... all the wires were cut so it will be a frustrating afternoon sitting there testing wire to wire to see what drives which speaker, power, etc. 

Until then, it is cruisin' in the Z with no tunes.

First Cruise in the Z

Well I got her out of the shop yesterday afternoon and we went for a cruise. Well, ran some errands, but I had the window rolled down and would of had the radio cranked up if it had one. Details details... 

First round of repairs got her road worthy. Basically a tune up, she got new spark plugs and a new injector (#1). We fixed one trans leak from the main seal to the output shaft. Next on the list is doing the brakes, I have never worked on drum brakes so we will see how it goes. 

So we took a cruise... I drove from the shop home, then to the BMV to get her registered and order my new title (yeah!). It took a lot of driving around to find the BMV... man IN makes everything difficult but I enjoyed the extra drive time. In between trips I snapped a couple pics of the Z... 

So good story... after the BMV I had to run to ACE. Sunday I dropped off my Z keys at ACE because I was in the hurry. Heather was going to pick them up for me. Well they gave my keys to someone else! Luckily they tracked down who they gave the keys to and got them for me... Whew it was the only set that came with the car! Unfortunately the keys were not cut well and didn't work. So I went down there to get them fixed... 10 key blanks later I finally got one ignition copy made that kinda worked, two ignition keys that sorta worked, and two new door keys. Hope not every project on the Z will be this hard! 

I finally made it home, it was dark already and luckily all the exterior lights work on her (side markers, headlights, brights, turn signals, dash lights, etc.). I took Heather out for her first cruise in the Z. We drove around the neighborhood, by the Frank Lloyd Wright house, and I put the peddle down a little. Felt good.

Back from the Doctor

Well she was in the shop for a few days. They found a laundry list of things I need to do... first order of business was finding why she was running rich and burning oil. Well Injector #1 was not functioning properly. I tracked down a part over the weekend, and we got that in as well as all new spark plugs. The cylinders all had good compression and with some adjustments to the idle she is running pretty well. 

The mechanical to do list right now... Replace both rear brake cylinders Air Flow Meter Boot and lots of other hoses are cracked and worn Leaking trans oil from the shifter assembly (very slow leak) New exhaust... I think from header back (at least new gaskets) Front suspension is fairly tight, but needs updates... 

Besides that she runs and drives great. The exterior of the car looks very nice, but the interior is missing a lot of parts. She doesn't have carpet, missing dash pieces, and the center console has seen better days. Some of the positives though are that the dash has no cracks and the windows and chrome trim are all in good shape. The seat belts are a little iffy so I need to get those replaced soon. Got her from the shop this afternoon and heading out to get her registered, keys made, and just enjoy driving her around!

Restoration Road - Step 1

So the first order of business was to get the car to the shop to get properly checked out. Well the car wouldn't start without needing to be jumped, so I figured, lets fix that first. Took the battery out (rusty bolts made the job 10 times harder than it needed to be) and got it tested. Battery as I suspected was bad, so I bought a new one and while I was at it got new battery cables (both). While under the hood I noticed a wire on my fusible link was being held together by one wire, so I made a new jumper wire for that as well. She turned right on, and I drove her to the shop. As I type she is at the shop getting checked out... it is nice getting her in a shop on a hoist to get a thorough check out. Wish her luck in there!