|
Owning a 1970s Datsun 240, 260, or 280 Z of any sort has been a 20 year long dream. I'm beyond proud to say I own this tired beast and very happy I get to share this with AI. So this is my 1974 Datsun 260Z long term project to race car. Hopefully it's timeline is less than a FrozenPhil. It's rust is actually not too bad on the Sockington scale. Being a determined bastard I'm sure Ultimateforce will have a dozen cars green by the time I am done with this one. In a way all of the GOONy AI personalities are responsible for this project. DJCommie, Moocow, PoisonPie, and a host of others I'm forgetting. I've lived through you guys for some time - time to start doing my own. Feel free to ask questions and make suggestions and I'll use this thread to ask for AI help when and where it's needed.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 04:26 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 03:14 |
|
|
I just wanted to say, best of luck. It has also been my dream to restore a classic Z car, but until I own a garage it is going continue being a dream. I look forward to living vicariously through you.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 04:31 |
|
|
pictures of the floors! goonspeed brother, hope yours isn't as rusty as mine.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 06:06 |
|
|
Living the dream, looking forward to pictures of exactly what you have ahead of you
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 08:49 |
|
|
Hey 260 Z buddy  If its gonna be a race car, what are your engine plans?
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 11:14 |
|
|
A Z-thread!  In on this for the long haul.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 11:16 |
|
|
Omgz posted:pictures of the floors! goonspeed brother, hope yours isn't as rusty as mine. The window busted out on the drivers side sitting through years of WI winters did not do it any favors. The frame rail on that side sounds like it's in good shape and looks salvageable via the drivers side 'floor'. Note - the 260Z was a design change for the Z in that the frame rails were made of a heavier gauge metal and extended further back along the chassis. mutt2jeff posted:Hey 260 Z buddy I'd like to be able to build an engine capable of seeing 7200-7800 RPM reliably. This will require triple webers and a dozen other trick parts. Time will tell. More pictures will be posted this weekend.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 12:13 |
|
|
Yay, so many Z car projects in AI lately, and they've always been one the best looking cars to me. 
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 13:47 |
|
|
Does anyone from the land of anti-clockwise flushing toilets (Australia) know what the hard specs are for their 260Z's that resulted in the bump in power?quote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun_260Z In the U.S., federal emissions regulations forced a reduction in ignition timing and compression ratio, resulting in a lower power output (140 hp) for the 260Z's despite the additional displacement, whereas in other countries the power output increased to 165 bhp (123 kW; 167 PS).
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 15:22 |
|
|
Here's a suggestion: Clean it up, flip it, and buy an already build z race car. http://www.racingjunk.com/Improved-...INNING-CAR.html
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 15:35 |
|
|
Octopus Magic posted:Here's a suggestion: Clean it up, flip it, and buy an already build z race car. Where the hell is in the AI in that? This is a project to keep me off the PC at night since it's my job to be chained to one all day. Benefits of long term project are: learning something new and personal satisfaction that I can say _I_ did it.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 15:41 |
|
|
triple webers you say?
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 19:45 |
|
|
Omgz posted:triple webers you say? Good loving luck jetting that poo poo.
|
| # ? May 11, 2012 20:43 |
|
|
Omgz posted:triple webers you say? Ugh don't tease. I'm a long way off from having the $ to take those off you. So I worked on the car from 8:30 - 10:30PM tonight.     Spare well looks to be in good shape. Car was originally poo poo brown: 304 Gold Metallic? 517 Biege? (color blind)   I was told to buy mouse traps. Before I even started tonight I had one sprint away from the car. I could see a lot of crap in the vents so I took off the vent and map light assembly. Hello mouse house.  Drivers side floor so far...    Tomorrow I bust out the shop vac and continue to investigate the drivers floor. I am leaving the passenger side as is for now because it's very solid. Time and dry ice will tell though.
|
| # ? May 12, 2012 06:20 |
|
|
That bumper sticker seems almost prophetic, watch out.
|
| # ? May 12, 2012 06:49 |
|
|
I hope you got that car for free because  That said, godspeed. I had a '73 for a few years that was a total basket case. I sold it to some wide-eyed kid who had big plans for it (just as I did). I saw it recently on craigslist-- it was the most dejected, defeated ad I've ever read. 
|
| # ? May 12, 2012 20:48 |
|
|
Hantavirus, HANTAVIRUS!
|
| # ? May 12, 2012 21:01 |
|
|
How nice of you to provide a new home for the eventual thousands of mice and their associated diseases. Such a heartwarming thread. 
|
| # ? May 12, 2012 21:45 |
|
|
Hahaha, wow... And how much budget are you working with?
|
| # ? May 13, 2012 00:00 |
|
|
I have to give you respect for doing this. As much as I love seeing old, tired cars getting revived, even I would send this car to the scrap yard. But then again I would have scrapped Kev's camper van too and we've all seen what he's been able to do with that. I'm very much looking forward to seeing where this goes.
|
| # ? May 13, 2012 00:25 |
|
|
So what's your plan for the body? Cut and weld it all up? Donor cars? It seems you need a lot of metal man.
|
| # ? May 13, 2012 03:33 |
|
|
I don't plan to have this car running in 3 months... more like 3+ years. I've loads of help from friends and family when I need it. It looks worse than it is. All that paint peeling up really makes it look like bad news (3 coats of paint by the looks of it). It won't be winning any contests on looks any time soon that's for sure. Then again parking a car for prizes never appealed to me. I also have access to a blasting cabinet for smaller pieces and parts and a welder with 30 years of experience who has his own Z. I need tires because of my limited space in the garage. This will make moving around the work much easier. So far two will hold air. Need two more. Took out the: carpet center console safety belt anchors vac'd all the mouse turds up that I could find. I have a 4 speed, dual webers, and drivers window already made available to me when I need them. It pays to know Z car owners who I've helped with dozens of finds and parts of the last 10 years. Bulk Vanderhuge posted:Hantavirus, HANTAVIRUS! Thanks for the warning. Probably too late already. Lowclock posted:How nice of you to provide a new home for the eventual thousands of mice and their associated diseases. Such a heartwarming thread. Only one keeps bailing out and heading for the back of the garage when I get around to the rear of the car. I was forewarned about it and bought traps. He's taken the same path two times now to get away from the car so I've put traps in his path. Either way it's a garage and it's detached from the house. BoostCreep posted:I have to give you respect for doing this. As much as I love seeing old, tired cars getting revived, even I would send this car to the scrap yard. But then again I would have scrapped Kev's camper van too and we've all seen what he's been able to do with that. I'm very much looking forward to seeing where this goes. Thanks - this car is nowhere near scrap yard status. Will know more once all of the interior is out (including dash) I've seen worse Z's brought back than this. As you can see in a thousand other Z threads on ClassicZ and HybridZ new floors and frame rails are not uncommon.  ^ not my floor but probably will be. Hollis Brown posted:So what's your plan for the body? Cut and weld it all up? Donor cars? It seems you need a lot of metal man. The floor pans are nothing as are the doglegs and rocker panels. The rest of the rust on the car is surface rust. extreme_accordion fucked around with this message at May 13, 2012 around 04:52 |
| # ? May 13, 2012 04:24 |
|
|
Did little more than take off interior trim pieces, door cards, and seat belts. Drivers side seat belt may come out tonight. One mouse down... fifty million to go.
|
| # ? May 14, 2012 14:58 |
|
|
Just troll any California/Southwestern US Craigslist and buy a shell, jesus. You're making a poo poo brown $20,000 shell with the labor and time you could spend doing things like making it run or corner or race. Its a moronic waste of time when you can get dry clean shells for $3000 and spend $1500 getting it to you. Learning to do bodywork/welding/rust repair is fine, but you'll be buried in Harbor Freight angle grinders for the next 5 years until you reach my recommendation. Cars are a spectacular waste of time and money, and maybe fixing a lost cause has some appeal I don't see (20+ car owner here), but I just can't even begin to get into a project with such a poor start when a great start is a fraction of the time and cost, letting you do the actual fun stuff rather than get rodent viruu and rust in your eyes for the next decade until dragging it off to the scrapyard. Restoration floorpans/serious metalwork is for cars with sentimental value. Now if you have a welding robot or free shop time, that might work. I gave up on an actual rare car (my second 1959 NSU Prinz) because it had enough rust to require serious metalwork to get up the the nice California condition the rest of the car was in. DJ Commie fucked around with this message at May 14, 2012 around 15:21 |
| # ? May 14, 2012 15:16 |
|
|
DJ Commie posted:Just troll any California/Southwestern US Craigslist and buy a shell, jesus. You're making a poo poo brown $20,000 shell with the labor and time you could spend doing things like making it run or corner or race. Its a moronic waste of time when you can get dry clean shells for $3000 and spend $1500 getting it to you. Learning to do bodywork/welding/rust repair is fine, but you'll be buried in Harbor Freight angle grinders for the next 5 years until you reach my recommendation. You can buy prebuilt up SCCA Z cars for less than 8-9 grand all day long with a trailer, multiple slicks/rains, spare engine/transmissions, etc that will have no rust, be clean, reliable (for the most part) and on top of it all, SAFE. Can you imagine hitting a barrier at 80 mph with this car without it turning into a giant orange dust bowl? I can't.
|
| # ? May 14, 2012 15:41 |
|
|
Holy poo poo the Spergy hate in this thread, god drat, especially from guys from outside of the rust belt. Perspective, people. The car in the OP really isn't that bad at all. The OP seems to know what he's looking at here and is obviously willing to invest the energy and resources to make it right again, so I don't see what the big deal is. Go get 'em man. Edit : The situations are not really comparable. | | v v
ACEofsnett fucked around with this message at May 14, 2012 around 16:08 |
| # ? May 14, 2012 16:02 |
|
|
ACEofsnett posted:Holy poo poo the Spergy hate in this thread, god drat, especially from guys from outside of the rust belt. Perspective, people. No, I'm definitely in the rust belt, shelved a car, bought a car from Florida, drove it back, because I didn't want to have a rust problem.
|
| # ? May 14, 2012 16:06 |
|
|
ACEofsnett posted:Holy poo poo the Spergy hate in this thread, god drat, especially from guys from outside of the rust belt. Perspective, people. Perspective is what makes people think Arizona/Nevada/California/NM are on the moon, out of reach for the budget minded car fanboy to find a proper restoration candidate. Given the restoration costs, it'd be easier to just buy your dream car, and though I can agree 100% about spending time to learn rather than pocketbook racing/motoring, but perspective keeps budgets going forward. I'm always embroiled in endless projects, but now I'm learning to choose how I do thing to move it forward.
|
| # ? May 14, 2012 17:06 |
|
|
That car looks hardly rusty at all :newenglandbanjos:
|
| # ? May 14, 2012 17:32 |
|
|
Octopus Magic posted:You can buy prebuilt up SCCA Z cars for less than 8-9 grand all day long with a trailer, multiple slicks/rains, spare engine/transmissions, etc that will have no rust, be clean, reliable (for the most part) and on top of it all, SAFE. This. A million times this. I built my Evo IX MR from a street car to a race car and never in my wildest dreams would I do that again, especially since I could have done it at 1/5th the cost by buying used. If you are seriously planning on racing this in any serious league you are being incredibly reckless to everyone else out the track racing a chassis in that bad of shape. Also, "pocketbook racing" as if racing isn't how fast you want to spend.
|
| # ? May 15, 2012 16:57 |
|
|
I found myself trying to justify what I'm doing to the few of you who are quoted as being 'spergs' (time and again). I appreciate the sperg. I get it - you want to save me time, effort, and money. I appreciate that immensely but it's just not in my cards now or at any time. I have to start somewhere and I don't have 3 to 12k I can just shell out or I would have already bought a tube frame 280Z. What I have here is: 1) Rust belt - WI $300 car 2) It is not as bad as a few lovely pictures make it look. Yet. 3) Still working with it. 4) If it's a parts car, it's a parts car. But I will make that determination with persons having more knowledge than I at my disposal helping me along the way: Master mechanic and restoration expert with 35 years of experience racing, towing wrecks (salvage/recovery), and safety (life boat/helo-medic/fire fighter in Scotland). Has restored 3 Z's and races 2. One of them sat in a barn in primer with no floors to speak of for 30 years. Master welder - 30 years of experience and 4 project cars including 1 Datsun 240Z race car. I really don't know how to explain this other than this is a learning process project. It is likely to take years. I'm fine with the canvas I have selected and it is my chosen starting point. extreme_accordion fucked around with this message at May 15, 2012 around 17:50 |
| # ? May 15, 2012 17:38 |
|
|
Looking forward to progress updates! I'm close to painting my 280zx and it has a drivetrain just waiting for it. Once it's there I will probably be looking at an S30 and putting in an RB26DETT. And seriously the rust isn't that bad.
|
| # ? May 22, 2012 19:10 |
|
|
Cronus posted:And seriously the rust isn't that bad. I've found more and it's still not bad. It's expected. A little disheartening, but expected. How does a guy go about getting garage tires? Salvage yard? Out back of my local Firestone?
|
| # ? May 23, 2012 16:20 |
|
|
DJ Commie posted:Perspective is what makes people think Arizona/Nevada/California/NM are on the moon, out of reach for the budget minded car fanboy to find a proper restoration candidate. Given the restoration costs, it'd be easier to just buy your dream car, and though I can agree 100% about spending time to learn rather than pocketbook racing/motoring, but perspective keeps budgets going forward. I'm always embroiled in endless projects, but now I'm learning to choose how I do thing to move it forward. Well, to put my comments in perspective, I Have done this twice, once with a 65 Chevy II out of Vegas, Nevada and a 65 Impala wagon out of Silver springs. I can tell you that it is possible to bring a southwest / California car back to the rust belt, but it is financially daunting. While I don't mind (and in fact enjoy) flying out and driving back 36+ hours, it's not for everyone. When you live in a state that has real winters, it is often more satisfying and worthwhile to rescue a car that would otherwise be going to the scrap heap, as it has an intimacy to it that can't easily be replicated. extreme_accordion posted:I've found more and it's still not bad. It's expected. A little disheartening, but expected. The rust, again, is not that bad. My daily driver has the entire lower passenger's side of the cab missing, but is an 80,000 mile mechanically sound vehicle. To answer your question, most junkyards will sell you lightly used tires for $20-$25 each. Or I suppose you could steal them from a tire shop dumpster, that's your call.
ACEofsnett fucked around with this message at May 23, 2012 around 20:03 |
| # ? May 23, 2012 19:59 |
|
|
To quote my local Firestone owner, "I don't think in 10 years I've had to pay for tire recycling. I stopped locking the gate after I kept having to pay for locks." I do suppose the yard tires would be a good idea in the long run. Will have to check with the local LKQ.
|
| # ? May 23, 2012 21:15 |
|
|
Holy poo poo, you bought THAT one? I kept seeing that while snooping around on craigslist. I posted in the other Z-thread, but I just picked up a pretty solid '72 240z that I'm just kind-of tinkering with. Too poor to do much else with it. I'm just outside of Waukesha/New Berlin btw, southeastern WI.
|
| # ? May 23, 2012 21:38 |
|
|
T-Square posted:Holy poo poo, you bought THAT one? I kept seeing that while snooping around on craigslist. Janesville here. Yeah I got it drat cheap too because of the floors etc. It's funny how terrible the pictures make it look - all the rust on the upper parts of the body are surface rust. Then it has the typical old WI car rust. Few dents and dings but they are coming out OK by just pushing on them so far. Looks like 3 or 4 coats of paint over the years.
|
| # ? May 24, 2012 16:23 |
|
|
Slow and steady progress. From rat infested rust trap... ...to just rust trap. This shot reminds me of Fred from Cars, "Lightning McQueen knows my name!"
|
| # ? May 30, 2012 14:33 |
|
|
Fenders are now off. Took a small hammer drill to get the bolts to back out.
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2012 16:45 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 03:14 |
|
|
Octopus Magic posted:You can buy prebuilt up SCCA Z cars for less than 8-9 grand all day long with a trailer, multiple slicks/rains, spare engine/transmissions, etc that will have no rust, be clean, reliable (for the most part) and on top of it all, SAFE. You can? I know what I'm saving for now. How much would it take to get it back to barely legal street status? I'd *LOVE* to have a prepped Z as a fun car.
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2012 17:16 |
|
