Hi fellow Zclub members

[darren-b]

Hi all.

Although I’m fairly new to posting on here, I’ve been on the zed scene for 7years now.

I bought my first zed a 2004 350z GT in 2007



& over the years modified it to suit my requirements
Suspension, Meister-R coilovers, fully adjustable arms, ARB's, Drop Linkks, Brakes, uprated disc's & pads, POWER! Vortech V3 SC with supporting mods, Exedy stage 2 clutch & flywheel, Miltek SS exhaust,

I then sold the car in 2013 & lasted two days until I bought another

2011 370z GT


modified it to suit my POWER addiction with a GTM stage 1.5 SC & supporting mods, Stillen exhaust

But now I've decided to go back to basics with a 1971 240z, :drive1

I have always loved the 240's. I've bought the car as a project to restore it back to it's original glory.





It took me quite some time to find this car, I wanted a good base car to start with, one with most of the original parts & no major floor or chassis rust (which is nigh on impossible)

So the car is a late 1971 240z with the 1972 spec.

The good points:
It's an almost unmolested 240z
1 owner from new
Has spent it's life in California
virtually rust free
Nearly everything works
It has AC
It has the 5-speed Manual
All new brakes & lines
All the interior trim & vinyl is in good condition, even under the carpets
Engine is good
Gearbox & diff is good

The bad points:
It's had a yank style blow over, & is sun damaged
Theres a small patch of rust on the passenger floor
Window washer doesn't work
It has the L28 engine from a 280z
Steering rack/track rod end is knocking
Bonnet has a bit of damage
rear quarter has a bit of damage
chrome bumpers have a few dents
small scrape on cill
The seats have been re-covered in black (not-white)
exhaust hanger broken
The wheels!

The plan is to get the steering sorted, washers, lights re-wired & converted to UK spec, get the car MOT'd & registered. Then drive the car for a bit before the weather goes to find any underlying issues.

Then it's going to be a complete strip back to metal full restoration of the entire car.

Loaded on the transporter






On my way home selfie


Back home after a 700mile round trip






Interior


Engine bay


Light cill damage



Bonnet damage, only aesthetic, so not to bothered


rear quarter damage


Had to see if I could bring the paint up to be a bit more presentable.


Just need to do the rest of it now



So the plan for the car is to get the washer pump replaced, replace the split boot & re-grease the steering rack (hope thats all thats making the noise) sort the lights out for the UK. Then get the car MOT’d & registered.

Give the car a quick cut back with the DA on the sun bleached paint to hopefully make it a little bit more presentable.

Hopefully then I’ll be able to drive the car for a few months to find out whats what with it. Then over the winter I hope to strip the car completely, & fully restore including a complete re-wire ready for Summer 2015 (or maybe 2016…….)

 

[jaydeescuba]

Nice honest looking starting point. Looking forward to the updates, plenty of pics, and seeing the job done. Hope it all goes well man

 

[richiep]

Nice. As above, look forward to seeing how this develops.

One correction though - I would certainly not list having an L28 as a bad point! I think you'll find a considerable number of UK 240Zs have L28s (probably more than don't tbh!). They give you a lot more bang for your buck than an L24 can deliver. They don't rev as freely, but are more torque-y and are comparatively easier to get bigger power from. Just get rid of the California emissions **** on the carbs and you'll be sweet!

 

[Wyn]

Sure looks a good one by them pics

Esp them rimz

 

[darren-b]

Thanks for the heads up richie, I put it as a bad point as I wanted a car as close to the original spec as possible. I'll look into what the removal involves when it comes to the re-build,

 

[sams-z350]

Just curious, did your black 350Z have the LMGT4 wheels fitted to it? I've been chasing a decent set of these for ages, so much so that I'm thinking of buying the 350Z that have a decent set of these fitted. Drastic I know, but I love these wheels.

 

[Rob Gaskin]

Darren, that looks a good base as you said and you appear to do things properly so it'll end up being a 'cracker'. Are you keeping it LHD?

The bonnet and rear arch 'filler' issues suggest that there might be some rust lurking so be prepared for it when you strip it down.

What is that piece of metal on the radiator panel holding - air con stuff?

Good luck, keep us posted.

Your 350 and 370 not quick enough for you then

 

[martinmac]

Thats a great looking car mate. Nice to see you getting active on here.

 

[darren-b]

Just curious, did your black 350Z have the LMGT4 wheels fitted to it? I've been chasing a decent set of these for ages, so much so that I'm thinking of buying the 350Z that have a decent set of these fitted. Drastic I know, but I love these wheels.

I bought the Wheels brand new after a year or so of owning the car, then sold them to a fellow member/friend on the 350-uk site. In my opinion the LMGT4's are simply the best looking wheels on a Z33.

 

[darren-b]

Darren, that looks a good base as you said and you appear to do things properly so it'll end up being a 'cracker'. Are you keeping it LHD?

The bonnet and rear arch 'filler' issues suggest that there might be some rust lurking so be prepared for it when you strip it down.

What is that piece of metal on the radiator panel holding - air con stuff?

Good luck, keep us posted.

Your 350 and 370 not quick enough for you then

The bonnet damage has happened during shipping, I saw the pictures of the car when it was collected from the previous owner & the damage wasn't there. I've spent a couple of hours tonight rubbing the two areas down, priming & a quick blow over with the closet orange I could find. Simply to seal the exposed metal as it will be a good few months before I'll be attending to the paint. The bonnet is just slightly bent but the metal underneath is corrosion free.
On the rear quarter I dug out the two small bits of filler to find a slight crease in the panel. No signs of corrosion & just to make sure I removed the paint on the inner arch to find the imprint of the crease. So I'm guessing that some =thing has perhaps fallen/hit the wing in the past.

The piece of metal on the rad is Going! It's holding the air-con rad in place. I don't know why whoever fitted it couldn't just fabricate a proper bracket for it, they have even used 2" wood screws through the wheel arch to secure the P-clips for the pipes

 

[darren-b]

Thats a great looking car mate. Nice to see you getting active on here.

Thanks Martin,

Hope you have been driving yours now since we got it running again

 

[martinmac]

Yes mate. Just need a bit of time at home to enjoy it now. The love has returned.

 

[darren-b]

Well quick update, had a couple of hours on the car this evening so tackled the left side starting with the broken exhaust hanger



drilled out the broken studs & pop riveted it back onto the chassis in a sandwich of etch primer


Then welded the ****** as I didn't think the rivets would hold out very long


Ground off the slag


quick seal with some primer


Then a top coat of underseal


Re- attached the exhaust hanger


Just a quick temporary fix to get it through the MOT, will be taking it all off again when I fully strip the car



Next on the agender was the split steering rack gator, got a pair of new ones (205 GTI as I found on a thread here)


removed the track-rod


slid the new one on & re-attached the track rod, then filled with grease. I love the grease nipples on all the joints. Why doesn't every car come with these???


Then I decided to start on the UK light conversion. So removed the old sealed beam light




Old one is on the right, new on the left has sidelight bulb fitting & H4 high & dipped beam.
Jiggled around with the wiring, took the power from the side marker & plumbed it into the sidelight, then took the power from the indicator & plumbed it into the side marker to make it an indicator.


Next thing I knew it was dark & I was ready for a rest.

Hopefully I'll get the right hand side done tomorrow :teeth:

 

[Rob Gaskin]

Good man, a positive start!

 

[Lexx]

Looks good Darren.
You've got me thinking now!...

 

[Dale]

You've got me thinking now!...

Go on, you know you want to.

 

[Lexx]

Wife would kill me if I parked another Zed on the drive!
I'll finish the work on the 300zx first and then see where I stand. Really want to do an LS1 install on a 260z now...

 

[darren-b]

Well I took the car for it's MOT today & had a great result, the car passed with only one advisory in which I had discovered on the journey there, the front left shock is a little tired,

So Once I got home I had a couple of hours to myself to play with the car.

After driving the car properly on the road today I discovered a couple of issues that I hadn't identified when I tested the car on a little industrial estate before I bought it.

a: the front left shock is a little tired, no problem will just change out the pair of fronts, probably all 4 tbh

b: the clutch is slipping a little when under full load in 4th,

So had a look under the car when on the ramp & discovered that there was a little oil weeping from the bell housing, done a sniff check to discover that it was engine oil over gearbox oil. so immediately put it down to the real oil seal on the crank shaft. After a quick google search I was relieved that the seal could be changed without stripping down the engine, but nearly removing the flywheel 7 extracting the weak & replacing.

So I went about doing that this afternoon. Got the car over the pit & within 30 mins had the gear box out

Prop shaft & gear knob removed

Then removed the gearbox

No where near as heavy as a 350 or 370 box

But completely smothered in oil

Discovered that the clutch was fairly new

but again covered in oil

Had some fun removing the flywheel. The bolts were tighter than the crank pulley bolt so I had to improvise with a steel plate bolted to the fly & some wood to stop the engine rocking on its mounts after the impact air gun not even tickling the bolts

After finally removing the flywheel I found that the rear oil seal wasn't the cause of my slipping clutch. The seal was dry but it was the sump that was leaking oil onto the the clutch assembly

Backing plate

So went about removing the sump

There's something about a straight six

Sump removed

Then a quick clean

Flywheel de-greased & cleaned

Clutch disc cleaned & de-greased

Plate cleaned & de-greased

Then the flywheel re-installed

Clutch cleaned & ready to go back in

Clutch back in & re-aligned, take not of the sophisticated alignment control with the use of a grinder blade

Then I got the gearbox back in & it was time to go for a couple of beers.

Will get the car back together tomorrow & hopefully take it up the road to see if I've solved the clutch slipping issue

 

[AliK]

Nice work!!!



Ali K

 

[Rob Gaskin]

Good work, a productive day - I bet those beers tasted good after that!

I notice that you have a 'pit' which helps. I've changed my box about 5 times and had to do it on the drive (yesterday I would have got soaked). Also I think a 4 speed box will be lighter than a 5. But these older Zs cars are so much easier to work on than the newer ones (apart from rust areas).

Hope that friction plate really is oil-free now. I know you wanted to get the job done but it may have been worth replacing the gearbox rear oilseal (prop), they often leak.

Well done with the MoT.

Think you are using something like predictive or fast text because some of your words are a little strange .