I'm going 1JZ

Russell

Club Member
What are your plans with the previous repairs? It's solid so leave be, or cut them out and make good?

ATB

Kev



There are far too many to realistically cut out and replace them all at the moment.
I would be working on it forever. They have been there since it was last restored about 20 years ago and are still solid so staying.

There are plenty of other areas that are being cut out that haven’t stood the test of time.

Also got the steel tubing, and other steel we are using to brace everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Tahr

Forum User
There are far too many to realistically cut out and replace them all at the moment.
I would be working on it forever. They have been there since it was last restored about 20 years ago and are still solid so staying.

There are plenty of other areas that are being cut out that haven’t stood the test of time.

Also got the steel tubing, and other steel we are using to brace everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, totally understand your choice and I am following the build with interest.

ATB

Kev
 

Russell

Club Member
Thanks, totally understand your choice and I am following the build with interest.



ATB



Kev



There are a lot of things I would do differently if money was no object but it is.

I have to do it on a shoestring or not at all unfortunately.
It really is a project of calling in favours, the occasional evening and Sunday. I do however have a secret weapon in Iain from Passion Engineering being the Engineering brains behind it.

A few members on here have used him now and will attest to his skills and attention to detail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Russell

Club Member
Having recently worked out how to get the Tacho working I wanted to link that separate thread into my build thread.
I did it separately to prevent this one going off topic too far.

Anyway, here is the link to the Tacho modification. The rest of the work I do on the Tacho will stay on this thread as that will link directly into the engine swap and hopefully be a bit special!

http://zclub.net/forum/showthread.php?t=29016
 

Russell

Club Member
Bit more progress this week, finished chasing rust in the engine bay.
Engine back in, started working out the wiring and started the bracing.

c1a54dde259565ca6e44d3b54130d024.jpg
600a685d0d29fe1019e1aad70c49e8fa.jpg
dcfda82919729ea54a479a93b4f60fd3.jpg
5391673aede5b6ce3991cddf7c662777.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Russell

Club Member
Quick update now Tapatalk is back up and running. We weren’t totally happy with the engine mounts so decided to redesign them now. Much happier with them now. Slowly but surely moving forwards!
c3aae18ef5d063213e0269d7f331bf6e.jpg
0a1e879b61db5178d18ed3b993e3ca35.jpg
131f604e5e12f985e401c46023aa479e.jpg
02f189b8ca4484edf2e5054a534bdc17.jpg
7c02f6e952af89295ecca5438f71d362.jpg
b4efe99dcd0f4fe3116cbd65a778ac54.jpg


The sump was a bit close to the steering rack before so took he opportunity to raise it slightly.

72258fb4949216a2c67a3e1ae1f33314.jpg





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Russell

Club Member
I forgot to put some pictures up of the heater matrix unit.
The heater matrix was bypassed when I got the car so I assumed it was leaking.
The controls were also very stiff.

I could have just put it back in as it was and not used it but it became yet another “while it’s out I might as well do it” jobs that are mounting up!

4106951328c65ba85fec6d72026d8f65.jpg


The matrix did leak so I got Guildford radiators who did Marks to recore it.
Not the cheapest thing ever but at least when it goes back in I won’t have to worry about it leaking!

I only took before photos of the rest so I knew how it all went together.
Here are a few of them, it wasn’t too bad and I will take a picture of how it ended up when I put it back in.
I stripped it, rubbed it down, painted it all, replaced the foam on the flaps so it now seals well and gives a satisfying thud when the levers are moved.
Finally I lubricated all the moving parts and reassembled it.

Before pics:
fbad00cb50ad52e30ad70818ffccc3eb.jpg
f85512672f64b1f282de7a4b493b3546.jpg
3b6e7368982515028bbda458cbdc2df4.jpg
85800610a5a55cb002c6cdb2c31681ef.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Russell

Club Member
Good wood Russell keep it up, keep the pics of progress coming ;)

Derrick :)

Cheers Derrick,

Its surprising how much time I am spending on bits that will never be seen and would "probably" be ok if I left them.

It was meant to be an engine conversion, it is turning into another restoration. As soon as you start poking things, holes appear in a UK car!
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Glad to hear your still making progress, even if its not as fast as you planned!

You won't regret getting to heated recored, mine has been awesome this winter and made the car so much more usable EXTRA:D

Keep up the good work, hopefully you'll be able to find some more time to really get things moving forward.
 

Russell

Club Member
Another small update but still an entire days work!

Two more tubes added and started seam welding as we go.
7ab3d79b48d1a119f93a49806914a839.jpg

fa77cecda5202de52dbf5b4e26e2b303.jpg


Just tacked I’m so far until we are happy with how everything sits.

Down to about 12 million jobs left on it now!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Ian

Club Member
Been following your build but hadn't posted anything so thought I should just add some encouragement as you seem to be doing a good job so far. Still a long way to go but if you keep it up the end result will be so worth it.

I like the reinforcements you are doing, well worth it to stiffen the shell up and makes sure it can put the power down well and that the shell lasts with the extra power. I went with a stockish look to the bay so I had to keep all my reinforcements hidden. The bar running back from the shock towers are a very good addition however the bulkhead is not very strong so make sure you have a decent sized spreader plate there. They work best when connected to a full cage, not sure if you pan to run one or not?
 

Russell

Club Member
Been following your build but hadn't posted anything so thought I should just add some encouragement as you seem to be doing a good job so far. Still a long way to go but if you keep it up the end result will be so worth it.

I like the reinforcements you are doing, well worth it to stiffen the shell up and makes sure it can put the power down well and that the shell lasts with the extra power. I went with a stockish look to the bay so I had to keep all my reinforcements hidden. The bar running back from the shock towers are a very good addition however the bulkhead is not very strong so make sure you have a decent sized spreader plate there. They work best when connected to a full cage, not sure if you pan to run one or not?

My plan is to make the engine bay look as “motorsport” as I can but keep the outside and interior as standard as possible.
That includes all the original gauges, seats etc.
I’m sure that will change as the years go by but looking for a bit of shock factor when the Bonnet is opened on a reasonably standard looking Z.

The bars from the turrets to the bulkhead meet in the two places where there is a front to back support brace under the scuttle panel.
Without a full cage to tie into the back is was about the best we could come up with.

Will also be adding some similar to yours under the wings from the bottom of the doors up to the outriggers.

After that we can replace the chassis rails underneath which is the last main structural repair needed at the moment and think about fabricating the removable front panel that will incorporate the intercooler.

Most of the gauges will be driven by stepper motors and micro-controllers which will also integrate with the ECU to provide fault lights etc. Will also have a small subtle screen in the tacho which will display oil temp when warming up as well as boost and AFR.
I’m a bit of a techie so enjoying designing this part.
Just working out how I want to design the exhaust at the moment. Planning on running an exhaust cutout that gradually opens based on boost pressure that can be adjusted depending on requirements.

It will see the road again one day!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Russell

Club Member
A delivery arrived from China yesterday so I can start playing with the hardware and code to get my speedo working.

It will be driven by stepper motors (still in the post) and the plan is for the mileage to display on an OLED screen with another screen in the trip section. This will cover trip mileage as well as some extra bits of I can fit them on. 0-60 time, engine bay temp, digital mph and anything else I can think of.

If this works, here is the first video of the startup splash screen I made on the main mileage display

[Video]

There is a lot more to be done and I can have a proper play with the code for the stepper motors when that arrives.

The speed signal will be picked up by the electronic speed sensor on the Soarer gearbox and will end up being a lot more accurate than a lot of other speedos as I will be able to take all driveline ratios into account easily in the code.
If I change wheels, diffs etc. I simply update the code and I’m away.
 

Russell

Club Member
While I work on the gadgets at home, Iain is working on adding tubes to the front end.

The main idea of these is to add a bit more structural rigidity.
The second reason is to look awesome under the Bonnet.

The change since last time in this picture is from the turret towards the A-Pillar area.
The tube goes through the existing hole behind the vin plate location, then into the chassis air tube cavity.

a5b3fab7670c2f91354b530e67366f74.jpg


It will then be tied into a vertical tube that will be welded in front of the door hinge and hidden when the wing is refitted. This is fixed to strengthening plates.

025d1aa93eaf5ce4d6792df314ff465a.jpg

3ab59931ae6a4227e603933455492b03.jpg


Similar situation on the tubes at the chassis rails. They are tied into the chassis rails themselves within reinforced plates.

8ae313e8a3b09e737838264c9eb0d2ac.jpg


The turrets themselves are already double skinned and have a lot of structural rigidity so welding straight onto those.

Everything being seam welded as we are going along and cutting a temporary “door” in the air tubes has given us the opportunity to address any nastiness in there as well.

cb82e678ca4699e2c7887293dbfc410a.jpg


Combination of tig welding where it needs to be pretty and mug in non visible areas.
 

Russell

Club Member
Did a bit more work on the speedo programming this evening.
Made a cardboard version for the prototype.

Currently solved the startup splash screen, needle sweep and mileage.

Next is speed from speed sensor and another screen for the trip as well as digital speed display, 0-60 timer, 1/4 mile timer and anything else I can think of (ideas welcome).
This will be controlled by the original trip reset knob in keeping with by brief of keeping it as standard looking as possible (digital displays aside!)

[Video]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Loving your work Russ!! What's going on at the start when it jitters?

Also, I've decided your splash screen should have a blank hex map to follow the car so that it looked like the car is driving off! What do you think?
 

Russell

Club Member
Loving your work Russ!! What's going on at the start when it jitters?

Also, I've decided your splash screen should have a blank hex map to follow the car so that it looked like the car is driving off! What do you think?

That's the first pass at it so will hopefully improve on it.

Startup jitter is the Stepper motor finding its home point or "0" steps. Any suggestion to improve that would be gratefully received.

I was trying to do get the car to drive off and tried a few ways. The scroll feature is built into the library and only scrolls what is on the screen. If I make the image twice as wide with the right hand side being blank, it should in theory work.
However the screen only draws what it can display and completely ignores the chunk of whitespace so as the pixels fall off the left, they immediately appear on the right!

I have another screen on the way (have to be able to change i2c address which you cant on the one I have). It would be cool to have the car "drive" off one screen and across the other as it starts up.
 

Russell

Club Member
Looks like you will need a "homing" micro switch added to your genius work.

I did a quick search and uncovered the link below complete with code - does it help?

https://www.brainy-bits.com/homing-stepper-motor-at-startup/

Looks relatively easy - but then again so does driving an F1 car when you are sat on the sofa! [emoji12]

Good luck!

AK

Im using a Switec motor X27 to be precise which is used in GM cars and relatively cheap and drivable directly from the arduino.

It seems to have a homing switch built into it as step position "0" is always the same place. Even if you pull the power halfway through the sweep, it returns back to the right place.
Not sure if its the way the motor finds "0" or something in the startup sequence causing it. Need to do some research on it I think but want to get the rest of it working first.
 
Top