Not been on here for ages, since Tapatalk doesn't work anymore I have lost may main form of access.

Anyway -

Tons done, workshop up and running nicely, have a 2 post ramp in there as well!

Workshop has paid for itself in fixing the family XC90 as well as replacing the turbo on my golf R that took a trip down the exhaust when I overtook someone!

Is there an easy way to get pics on here without hosting them somewhere and linking to them at which point I end up getting bored and move on?

 

You can just click Upload a File at the bottom right of your comment and stick them straight into the thread

 

Here are a few pics of the workshop as we were sorting it out and the last couple as we were fitting the ramp.
The floor needs painting again now as it’s had a lot of abuse.

 

Been tidying up the inside a bit. Although pretty solid there were a few hidden rusty bits that needed patching up.
In terms of the “where do you stop” question that I keep asking myself this is it on the inside.
Wire wheeled the floors and bulkhead area really well. Welded up any holes so it’s solid, drowned it in Kurust and painted it all with hammerite.

 

Started putting some of the heating and ventilation bits back in.
I restored it all a few years ago and with a quick wipe down all still looks great.
Now I can work out where the ECU will live and the best way to run the wiring which I need to crack on with.

 

Looks great.
What's the dimensions of the workshop? Looks about 18' wide and maybe 30' long?

 

Love the use of the child slave labour

 

Not actually measured it.
Feels a lot smaller now the ramp is in there and can only fit a couple of cars in realistically along with the kids toys (quad, buggy and scale caterham)

 

Not measured it? Don't you realise that size matters?!

 

Started joining the Soarer and Datsun looms this evening.
Worked out where the fusebox will live and drilled the hole for the engine loom to enter the car.



Everything will fit where the battery used to be and the wiring will be pretty neat and well hidden.

Having stripped out the alternator wiring along with the fusable links and other redundant wiring in the original loom I have taken some available high amp feeds from the soarer fuse box that used to power the body fuse box and connected them to the Datsun fuse box feed, ignition switch and light switch feeds so the car will have power again.



Slowly making progress but a lot more to do!

 

Its a 260Z 2+2 so pretty late and has a volt meter. Before I lopped the wires off that go into the multiplugs they were fed from the fusable links which had practically disintegrated into bare wires which in turn were connected directly to the positive post on the starter.

This seems to match the majority of the wiring diagrams I could find.

Now they are attached to proper fuses in the soarer fuse box with matching gauge wire.

 

Nice work!

 

Spent a long evening working through the relevant engine loom to body looms, following the pin out diagrams I have, labelling the relevant inputs and outputs, cutting out un needed wires.

this made a fair bit of mess but I have ended up with everything I need to interstate it into the car as close to how it was in the soarer as possible.
With a bit of luck doing it this way make diagnosis a lot easier if and when there are problems.


I think I will aim to put the dash temporarily back in next so I can work out where the control boxes for my speedo and tach will live along with AFR.
I will also be able to work out the most efficient routing of the looms under the dash etc.

Then I can triple check each wire before I join it into the Datsun wiring to minimise the risk of letting out the magic smoke when I connect a battery for the first time.

 

The power cables do go into these type of connectors on my loom. They are incorporated into the ends of the multi plugs. Small bullet type connections in the middle and beefier spade types on the ends for the main power cables.

 

Ongoing wiring work when I can find an hour or two.

main power feeds to the Datsun fuse box are done, the next thing I tackled was all of the ignition switched feeds I need. Rather than try to use the Datsun fuse box I decided to use the Soarers original wiring for the heater.
The signal will be on the ignition live rather than the original heater switch.
This gives me a 50A ignition circuit which I have connected to a generic fuse box.
So far I have connected the Injector power to it and will build out with the final ignition switched requirements of the ECU.
It will ultimately live in the passenger side kick panel, sunk as far as I can into this hole.

My idea is to 3D print a new passenger kick panel incorporating a bracket for the fusebox allowing space to run the wires in and out.



In theory if the engine was bolted together and I dunked the fuel pump in a bucked of petrol it would start.

The problem with only having an hour here and there to work on it is I end up having to familiarise myself with what goes where and how it’s powered each time which takes at least 45 mins!

I have been using a small fused battery charger to test the relays are doing the right things rather than a battery as I think that gives me the smallest chance of letting out the magic smoke if I make a mistake!