Jay's RB25 240z

Jay.

Club Member
Thanks for that Jay.
I would probably stay away from a UK car as I think the odds of finding a good one i.e. straight, unbutchered, and not rusting(somwhere) are few and far between.
Your way is good if you're prepared to do/wait for the coversion,at least you know the car is solid which is a good base to start from.
Just this moment come across a site called JDM-EXPO.com very interesting stuff indeed,a Japanese company dealing in classic stuff specifically,it's more of these sites I need to find.
Cheers mate

The good thing about buying from the UK is at least you can go check the car out yourself.

I was lucky with the car I bought,, it was actually in better condition than I had expected.

A quick horror story as it's just happened to my mate.

A friend has just finished importing his 240z and unfortunately it's been a bit of a nightmare. He had lots of inspection photos, videos and discussions with the owner - including a 40 page build thread and website - so he felt comfortable thinking the car would be a good egg. Since receiving it, he's had to have welding, body work, interior work, wiring and will need an engine rebuild .. That's the scary thing about buying a car from the Internet


Another alternative is to look at a Japanese auction purchase.. They undergo a pretty serious inspection before being put up for auction so you can get a good one with relative safety.. Lots of importers out there that can do the hard work in getting it over here and there's a good chance it'll be RHD too. One of the guys on here owns a Jdm Import company
 

Robbie J

Club Member
The good thing about buying from the UK is at least you can go check the car out yourself.

I was lucky with the car I bought,, it was actually in better condition than I had expected.

A quick horror story as it's just happened to my mate.

A friend has just finished importing his 240z and unfortunately it's been a bit of a nightmare. He had lots of inspection photos, videos and discussions with the owner - including a 40 page build thread and website - so he felt comfortable thinking the car would be a good egg. Since receiving it, he's had to have welding, body work, interior work, wiring and will need an engine rebuild .. That's the scary thing about buying a car from the Internet


Another alternative is to look at a Japanese auction purchase.. They undergo a pretty serious inspection before being put up for auction so you can get a good one with relative safety.. Lots of importers out there that can do the hard work in getting it over here and there's a good chance it'll be RHD too. One of the guys on here owns a Jdm Import company
all the Japanese cars are very expensive and the s30 body is rare at the auctions from me looking at them for 2 months
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Another alternative is to look at a Japanese auction purchase.. They undergo a pretty serious inspection before being put up for auction so you can get a good one with relative safety.. Lots of importers out there that can do the hard work in getting it over here and there's a good chance it'll be RHD too. One of the guys on here owns a Jdm Import company

Here's an example of a car that was bought at one of the big Japanese auctions by a so-called 'specialist importer' in the UK. They described it as being in fantastic condition...

fTk6gn.jpg


...and that was just the tip of that particular iceberg.
 

datsfun

Club Member
Here's an example of a car that was bought at one of the big Japanese auctions by a so-called 'specialist importer' in the UK. They described it as being in fantastic condition...

fTk6gn.jpg


...and that was just the tip of that particular iceberg.

Did said car have something to do with the numbers 4>3>2?
 

Jay.

Club Member
Finally got around to starting the install of some new coilovers

Went with some BC Racing 'BR' Coilovers as I'm just after something that I can firm up when I'm driving it and then soften when I go on road trips. I'm not planning on tracking the car so I didn't want to spend too much on the setup.

They arrived 16 hours after I ordered them.. Very satisfied! These were manufactured in October 2018

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I've not got much to compare them to, only other coilovers I've handled have been similar budget coilovers on my previous Mx5, but these do feel and look great quality. Fingers crossed they live up to that.

I drove the Datsun down to my parents place in order to use Dad's lift ~ had a really good drive down and the weather was really good considering it was mid December!

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Drove Dad's TVR back and left the Datsun on the lift. My brother and Dad really helped here as I was back in Oxfordshire so they cracked on with getting the car ready. Dad gave it a quick wash and it came out looking awesome

UHJQL0s.jpg


Unfortunately we could not get the spindle pin out and therefore the strut would not be separated from the control arm.. We gave it a pretty good go but decided to leave it for now and we removed the whole arm instead. We had a bit of a time restraint, my Dad has a friend who works as a TIG specialist and he agreed to weld the coilovers for me if I could get the struts to him the next day.



With the struts off (two fronts off and two rears including the control arm assembly) it was time to cut the struts as directed by the instructions - 45mm above the knuckle.

4 struts cut and the old cheapo s13 coilovers are no longer on the car! They actually didn't look in too bad condition.

5QwuaUl.jpg


Had a quick test fit and the rear hubs fouled against the BC coilover tube ~ a quick chat to some other people who have fitted these and this seems common. Some BC coilovers come pre-notched and others don't... Not sure why mine aren't, but we went ahead and notched the back coilovers so they could fit flush.

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Hopefully there's no dramas with the welding tomorrow!
 

Ian

Club Member
Nice job, its bound to be an improvement over that cheap looking setup you were running.
 

Jay.

Club Member
Nice job, its bound to be an improvement over that cheap looking setup you were running.

Fingers crossed! If not then I'm not sure what else to do. Bushes looked surprisingly good (these were changed 4 years ago).

The welding went really well - managed to get a good weld on all 4 of them.

aK8Kdlh.jpg


IoRWaYT.jpg


I got these fitted and lowered to the ground - they're sitting really high at the moment but I'll fettle with that later.

IlYAxeY.jpg


FMxnn3P.jpg


mCNTHu9.jpg

As the suspension etc was off I've decided to take the calipers off and give them a refresh/rebuild with some new seals and will paint them. I was hoping to just go for Black but my Dad has a can of Gold VHT paint which oddly is tempting me - I've put this off for now in hopes I see sense soon

Pbbb6Y1.jpg
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Fingers crossed! If not then I'm not sure what else to do. Bushes looked surprisingly good (these were changed 4 years ago).

The welding went really well - managed to get a good weld on all 4 of them.

aK8Kdlh.jpg


IoRWaYT.jpg


I got these fitted and lowered to the ground - they're sitting really high at the moment but I'll fettle with that later.

IlYAxeY.jpg


FMxnn3P.jpg


mCNTHu9.jpg

As the suspension etc was off I've decided to take the calipers off and give them a refresh/rebuild with some new seals and will paint them. I was hoping to just go for Black but my Dad has a can of Gold VHT paint which oddly is tempting me - I've put this off for now in hopes I see sense soon

Pbbb6Y1.jpg

Glad to see you've got them fitted now.

Ooohh Gold, DO it!!! Would look nice on yours and is erm similar to zinc plated....
 

Jay.

Club Member
I've bought a can of black instead - if they were worth showing off then I'd consider gold but it's not really worth it as the calipers are so small!
 

Jay.

Club Member
Good decision. Gold is never good, IMO.

I quite like the colour as an accent on Blue cars but I just don't think it'd suit the Z.

Sadly I have very little free time now, I'm pretty much on a full work roster for at least half this year with only the odd weekend off - I was hoping to get the car back into a drivable state so at least I could take it out, but I didn't manage to find a day to get the brakes back on :(
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Gold would have worked ;) Presume they're the hillux 4 pots? How dod you find them?

Shame you haven't got much time to use it however it'll still be there when you get back to it....
 

Jay.

Club Member
Gold would have worked ;) Presume they're the hillux 4 pots? How dod you find them?

Shame you haven't got much time to use it however it'll still be there when you get back to it....

I'm tempted to spray one Gold - I assume it'd be fairly straightforward to go to Black afterwards if I don't like it

Yeah I have the Toyota 4pots - they're really good, decent stopping and nice pedal feel. My brother has a set of 6pot Wilwoods laying around which I thought about making a bracket to fit but they're honestly not really required!
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Go on, just do it ;) (either just paint over or strip back down and repaint)

Glad to hear it, they seen to get the job done well for people on road cars. Seems very hard to beat for the money....
 

Jay.

Club Member
Finally got the suspension back on, replacing various bits, and refreshed the brakes too... Most of you (except Woody) will be happy to hear I did decide to go black with the calipers!

First drive has totally transformed the car and it's really pleasant to drive. Hasn't been aligned yet so I only took it for short spin around the forest but what a joy!
 

Jay.

Club Member
Massively behind on updates, enjoyed a good summer of using it and didn't really get many jobs ticked off.

The suspension is such a huge change and I'm over the moon - it makes driving the car so much more enjoyable and I've been happy sitting in it for hundreds of miles at a time!

I'll get some pictures/progress updates soon!


Hi there, what wheels are they? they look absolutely fantastic!

17" Rota RB's :) I change my mind on them almost daily, but they're certainly nice enough for now
 
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