MCBladeRun
Club Member
Here lies the small beginnings of one novice restorer's dream to restore his car and have fun in the process. I will admit early that this whole project entirely is a brand new venture for myself having no experience whatsoever apart from upgrading the horn and changing the head unit for a 6 CD changer on my ford fiesta I used to own. I am an electrician by trade, hence why you'll see mostly electrical / electronic additions to the car. I will also be trying to do most of the work myself, except for say, spray painting for example.
Purchased from our very own in-house provocateur SacCyclone in August 2019
Largely the car still looks like this. It is a 1972 240z (built Dec 1971) with an engine from a 280z, and at the time of writing an assumed 5 speed manual gearbox from a 280zx. Saccy has done some repairs and replacements such as changing the differential as the PO evidently blew up the diff. I bought the car as a running model and thankfully, it survived the journey to me. I have driven it only 3 times since I've had it!
So, as I understand it, those are SU carbs with stock air intake, no emission control system installed (that I know of and; being from Cali, you'd expect something in that department). 2.8 Litres of unadulterated excitement.
This is the car when it was delivered to me in Bristol via a low-loader from the port of Southampton. Bonnet was swapped in the states before shipment as this one is less damaged etc. Literally reversed it into the garage and I had to rush back to work that day.
The way I wish to restore my car is by doing all of the upgrades and partially rewiring the loom along the way. Next would be to blow it apart and either dip it, or media blast it, get any sheet metal repaired professionally and get it sprayed professionally. While that is being done, get the engine, gearbox and differential overhauled and/or upgraded (largely undecided on what to do here - perhaps time will tell and other members' experience may persuade me). Lastly, put it all back together with a fresh loom.
I've already started doing small repairs/maintenance to the car. To go into detail I've:
-Popped the dash wrap on top of my existing dash (not glued anything yet)
-Removed the indicator stalk for the first time and gave the mechanism some maintenance
(I've had to remove it again and it is sat to my right as I am typing)
-Adjusted the horn mechanism (literally pried it closer to the steering wheel and cleaned the contact points)
I can confirm both my horns work (really loud)
-Replaced my choke cable + lever (still needs attention at the carb end)
-Removed the aftermarket stereo system and all 7 pairs of speaker wire (yes 7 pairs, thank you PO)
-Modified the rear light clusters to separate the brake and indicator wires (really easy to do)
-Mix & matched with a 2nd set of rear clusters for better parts and have an additional 5/21W lamp holder for a reverse / indicator lamp (I will go into details with pictures at a later stage)
-Replaced the cam cover gasket on the engine as it was leaking (only one bolt was tight, rest was loose)
-Had my radiator re-cored
-While the rad was out, replaced the water pump and pulley with items from Saccy
- adjusted my rear wheel drum brake pads.
If my indicator stalk had stayed working, I would have taken the car out for the 4th time to test the brakes for tightness.
My first time:
https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/1st-time-driving-my-z.26551/
rear clusters bulb:
https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/s30-rear-light-cluster.26901/
working on the rear light clusters:
https://zclub.net/community/index.p...o-your-z-this-week.22263/page-116#post-308110
The rad recore:
https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/radiator-recore-costs.27124/#post-309500
Current plan is to get that indicator mechanism fixed as, I can see there is a bit of metal spot welded on top of the contact points and I think its definitely not helping the situation. I am going to replace the flasher relay as well, because I believe that it slowly failed when i tried it last. Saying that though, it is entirely possible that the new LED lamp isn't giving enough wattage through the flasher relay to enable it to function.
I've already ordered a new flasher relay which works electronically instead of via a bi-metallic strip.
You can see the 4 contact pads all have a various amount of build up, current plan is to sand with 600 grit paper to get them down. This doesn't solve the problem however, as the high current from the parking/brake circuits are flowing through still and will just cause it to happen again. To alleviate this, I plan to change all of my bulbs to LED type and also do the relay upgrade to the headlight part of the wiring harness.
Speaking of, the next project is to create said relay upgrade from scratch as, I think i'm more than capable of building one myself and parts are readily available.
I have purchased and I am patiently waiting for the following upgrades to the car;
-Electric power steering
-Upgraded 80 Amp alternator
-Twin 12" electric fans + shroud
-New eibach progressive lowering springs, Koni adjustable shocks, Poly bushing kit for the suspension.
- Stainless Steel bolt kit for the entire car.
My future plans for the car after this are the following:
- Central locking
- Cobra alarm system (or equivalent)
- Battery cut off switch
- Electric fuel pump and fuel pump cut off switch
- Electric Water pump
- Wiper motor upgrade
- Aftermarket Air Conditioning system
- Stereo speaker system
-Electric power windows
- Heated seats
At the time of writing I have no plans for engine modification / swap or other. I plan to get the car resprayed in its original silver and I was looking at getting the arch flares but, my flares are in such a good condition that it would be a shame to cut them up.
I apologise now for anyone reading through my badly formatted post but, I think I've been apologising for not starting a build thread a lot longer.
Purchased from our very own in-house provocateur SacCyclone in August 2019
Largely the car still looks like this. It is a 1972 240z (built Dec 1971) with an engine from a 280z, and at the time of writing an assumed 5 speed manual gearbox from a 280zx. Saccy has done some repairs and replacements such as changing the differential as the PO evidently blew up the diff. I bought the car as a running model and thankfully, it survived the journey to me. I have driven it only 3 times since I've had it!
So, as I understand it, those are SU carbs with stock air intake, no emission control system installed (that I know of and; being from Cali, you'd expect something in that department). 2.8 Litres of unadulterated excitement.
This is the car when it was delivered to me in Bristol via a low-loader from the port of Southampton. Bonnet was swapped in the states before shipment as this one is less damaged etc. Literally reversed it into the garage and I had to rush back to work that day.
The way I wish to restore my car is by doing all of the upgrades and partially rewiring the loom along the way. Next would be to blow it apart and either dip it, or media blast it, get any sheet metal repaired professionally and get it sprayed professionally. While that is being done, get the engine, gearbox and differential overhauled and/or upgraded (largely undecided on what to do here - perhaps time will tell and other members' experience may persuade me). Lastly, put it all back together with a fresh loom.
I've already started doing small repairs/maintenance to the car. To go into detail I've:
-Popped the dash wrap on top of my existing dash (not glued anything yet)
-Removed the indicator stalk for the first time and gave the mechanism some maintenance
(I've had to remove it again and it is sat to my right as I am typing)
-Adjusted the horn mechanism (literally pried it closer to the steering wheel and cleaned the contact points)
I can confirm both my horns work (really loud)
-Replaced my choke cable + lever (still needs attention at the carb end)
-Removed the aftermarket stereo system and all 7 pairs of speaker wire (yes 7 pairs, thank you PO)
-Modified the rear light clusters to separate the brake and indicator wires (really easy to do)
-Mix & matched with a 2nd set of rear clusters for better parts and have an additional 5/21W lamp holder for a reverse / indicator lamp (I will go into details with pictures at a later stage)
-Replaced the cam cover gasket on the engine as it was leaking (only one bolt was tight, rest was loose)
-Had my radiator re-cored
-While the rad was out, replaced the water pump and pulley with items from Saccy
- adjusted my rear wheel drum brake pads.
If my indicator stalk had stayed working, I would have taken the car out for the 4th time to test the brakes for tightness.
My first time:
https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/1st-time-driving-my-z.26551/
rear clusters bulb:
https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/s30-rear-light-cluster.26901/
working on the rear light clusters:
https://zclub.net/community/index.p...o-your-z-this-week.22263/page-116#post-308110
The rad recore:
https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/radiator-recore-costs.27124/#post-309500
Current plan is to get that indicator mechanism fixed as, I can see there is a bit of metal spot welded on top of the contact points and I think its definitely not helping the situation. I am going to replace the flasher relay as well, because I believe that it slowly failed when i tried it last. Saying that though, it is entirely possible that the new LED lamp isn't giving enough wattage through the flasher relay to enable it to function.
I've already ordered a new flasher relay which works electronically instead of via a bi-metallic strip.
You can see the 4 contact pads all have a various amount of build up, current plan is to sand with 600 grit paper to get them down. This doesn't solve the problem however, as the high current from the parking/brake circuits are flowing through still and will just cause it to happen again. To alleviate this, I plan to change all of my bulbs to LED type and also do the relay upgrade to the headlight part of the wiring harness.
Speaking of, the next project is to create said relay upgrade from scratch as, I think i'm more than capable of building one myself and parts are readily available.
I have purchased and I am patiently waiting for the following upgrades to the car;
-Electric power steering
-Upgraded 80 Amp alternator
-Twin 12" electric fans + shroud
-New eibach progressive lowering springs, Koni adjustable shocks, Poly bushing kit for the suspension.
- Stainless Steel bolt kit for the entire car.
My future plans for the car after this are the following:
- Central locking
- Cobra alarm system (or equivalent)
- Battery cut off switch
- Electric fuel pump and fuel pump cut off switch
- Electric Water pump
- Wiper motor upgrade
- Aftermarket Air Conditioning system
- Stereo speaker system
-Electric power windows
- Heated seats
At the time of writing I have no plans for engine modification / swap or other. I plan to get the car resprayed in its original silver and I was looking at getting the arch flares but, my flares are in such a good condition that it would be a shame to cut them up.
I apologise now for anyone reading through my badly formatted post but, I think I've been apologising for not starting a build thread a lot longer.