240z Resto

Makesy

Club Member
I half forgot about this bumper I picked up ages ago. I scored this as an eBay purchase right down the road from a supplier I used to visit frequently. Not sure how the guy ended up with just a bumper....there was still a bit of rotten chassis attached to it too.

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Someone had attempted to spray the chrome black, so I got to work with aluminium foil, Wd40 and elbow grease removing it. I also had to saw through some of the seized bolts to remove the lights and brackets.

After an hour it was starting to look a bit better. I've left it to soak in wd40 overnight to pick up tomorrow.

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Makesy

Club Member
More progress!

Indicators

I got handy with a hot glue gun and filled the holes in the indicators before using short woodscrews to hold everything together.

Job well jobbed!

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Wipers

Wipers are now fitted and wired up, but the stock motor really is pathetic, and the sprayers do little more than dribble. Disappointing, but it's all hooked up anyway. I've used some loose rivnuts to hold the wipers in place for now until I find a better solution that doesn't cost me a kidney!

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Reverse lights

Now all hooked up - the old switch still works!

Number plates

Stuck on and good to go!

At this point the Z was now road legal and insured, so a little drive was in order....

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First pic on the open road! Driving it is so exilerating, and with no sound-deadening or windows (presently!), and being so low down, you really feel everything on the road!

When I got back I changed the gearbox oil - one of the most horrible jobs I've experienced thus far, but the car shifts much smoother now.



Whilst out, I did notice a metal scraping noise from the rear wheels and after seeking some advice, figured this was a bearing issue.

However, tonight I had a play around with the drums...firstly the dust shield was bent awkwardly, catching the outside of the drum.

Nothing my least favourite screwdriver couldn't fix!

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Put everything back together and the drums. Still appeared to be catching once per revolution. I swapped them out for some others I had true'd up some time ago and everything runs much, much smoother!

I also noticed that I hadn't tightened up my lugs enough so hastily gave them a good torquing!

Found that one of the drop links was loose so gave that some attention too.

I'll still arrange for the bearing to be done at the appropriate juncture seeing as I've set about buying most of the kit.

Really pleased to be up and running now. Plenty of work still to do, though motivation is at an all time high!

Thanks all for your support so far!
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Makesy

Club Member
As touched on in a few other posts......I had a rather scary moment at the petrol station where my sender let go, sending torrents of petrol onto the forecourt.

I pulled the sender to find that the seal had folded in on itself during installation, explaining the major leak (you can see the white line in the picture where it had slipped)

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The seal itself was in good nick. I've refitted it and added some red rubber grease to help it seat better. I also sanded back the Renu coating down to bare metal in that area to try and best smoothen the mating surfaces.

I poured 5l into the tank and tipped it upside down as a test and it held just fine.

I'll try to brim it using Jerry cans in the comfort of my own home before venturing to a station any time soon!
 

MCBladeRun

Club Member
Hey Makesy, just read your build, I'm in the middle of fitting my carbs after polishing and fear I'm heading into something similar to your efi issues. Hope you're still at it.

Martin
 

Makesy

Club Member
Hey Makesy, just read your build, I'm in the middle of fitting my carbs after polishing and fear I'm heading into something similar to your efi issues. Hope you're still at it.

Martin

Hi Martin,

I've totally neglected this thread and need to get back to it! Life got in the way and I've not done much on my car for a while.

I'm tempted to start stripping it this year and do a proper job of a resto.

To avoid where I ended up, just go back to basics - Fuel, Air, Spark, Compression and work from there. Plenty of helpful people on here can advise you on the more "involved" bits after that :)
 

Makesy

Club Member
Ok it’s been far to long since I provided any sort of update.



Quick summary:

I bought another 240Z which I’ll start a separate thread for.

I planned on selling the red 240Z, as having 2 is just greedy, right? (also it was part of the agreement with my wife to be :))

My intention was to get car #2 ready for our wedding, but that isn’t looking feasible for a number of reasons, so….

I’ve decided to pick up the pace on car #1 and get it in good working order.

I’m also using it to prototype some of the bits for car #2



A quick list of all the updates, in a vague timeline

Following a scare at the petrol station which resulted in half a tank on the forecourt, I’ve replaced the buckled O-ring and ensured the jubilee clips around the filler neck are on tightly. I have since filled it up to 1/2 tank with no issues

I replaced the clutch slave as this had died. I tried to bleed the old one but the bleed screw sheered off! When doing this job I thought it was an opportune time to change the clutch master too. I’ve had a lot of fun getting the clutch to engage properly, and have been experimenting with differing lengths of rod from the slave cylinder to the fork. After a lot of trial an error, the clutch is in a much better place.

I decided to change some of the bushes, which ended up being most of them! Steering rack, all the front (except one tension rod bush which was replaced with rubber) and most of the rear bushes were done. I’ve left the diff mount bushes as they looked a pain to reach, and the spindle pin ones for obvious reasons.
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At this point I also decided to check the shocks. ALL of them had died! I used this opportunity to replace them all, clean up the cups which were full of many years of crud (I wasn’t aware they had drain holes in until I poked through all the crap which had hardened over time!) and respray them. I also cleaned all of the strut bellows and springs and re greased the strut bearings too.

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I changed the tie rods, and ball joints as on inspection the old ones seemed to grind

I changed the rear brake hoses (as a precaution more than anything).

I bought some fuel and brake line clips from ebay, and mounted them with rivnuts at relevant spots. The lines are much more sturdy now. I’ve shaped them a little more so they don’t hang as low down as they had done previously, and I’m much more comfortable with their positioning.

I’ve carved up some door seals I had lying around from a Vauxhall combo to trial fit on the doors. Not too promising but better than the old ones which had deteriorated completely

Fitted gearstick bushes (I didn’t have any)

Greased the throttle linkage mechanism – my pedal doesn’t stick now!

I built a separate harness section to accommodate the popular relay conversion mod for the headlights

Fitted a removable battery isolator switch as well as a proper battery hold-down bracket

I’ve relocated the washer bottle to its natural habitat (under the inspection panel)

I’ve fitted the wiper arms and, in the absence of the proper retaining nuts (which are eye-wateringly expensive), I’ve created my own using sleeve nuts, spaced out with washers. They look pretty good

A bit of wiring re-routing to neaten up the engine bay

I've fitted silly exhaust extensions, largely because of exhaust fumes being pulled into the cabin. This was surprisingly effective!

I greased the wiper linkage which was dry as a bone. It runs A LOT smoother now, and got tested out on a brief run earlier where it rained

I didn’t like the old lap belts that came with my car, so I’ve replaced these with Securon 3 point belts with reels. With the help of a friend, we welded in plates to the shock towers along with a captive nut to lower the angle of the belts so they don’t cut into your neck (there’s quite a high mounting point on the car which causes this issue).


Other things to do…



Interior still needs work. I have some composite sheet I might use to make kick plate covers. I’m thinking to bond some perforated PU leather to the inner roof as the current tan coloured liner looks awful and doesn’t match the rest of the car.

ECU needs mounting properly

I’d like to reinstate the heater, but I need to get the whole system out of the car first

I have a knock from the diff area which I think is caused by a dead mount. I’m in the process of teaching myself how to weld, and building a version of the commonly used RT mount to try and stop the nose lifting up on acceleration.

Considering fitting LED headlight units however since the relay upgrade, the lights are significantly brighter and I prefer the look of the “traditional” sealed beams

I’d like to fit a basic Bluetooth radio and speakers, but haven’t decided on the best solution yet

I have a set of MX5 leather seats which I’m tempted to fit, as my current seats are worn and not very nice

Running lights, rear lights and instrument cluster lights don’t turn on with the headlights. I disconnected my front runners a while ago which might be causing the issue.

And anything else I've forgotten!
 

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