As most of you know, I bought Kents '73 GT a while back. She was shipped up back in 2010 and sat sleeping in my garage for most of the time since. The progress that has been made has mostly been done in the last few months. That being said, I'm going to start at the beginning. So here we go;

Here you see the day we met in person. This is at the docks in Long Beach. When I went to pick her up we were escorted by security the entire time (new rules since 9/11). As you can see she was parked next to a race spec Evo 8. When the guard realized I was picking up the other car, he asks me "So, you payed to have that shipped from Australia?"

My response "Yep"

His reply "So.........................was this your first car or something?"

"She has potential" I said. And loaded her up on the trailer for the trip home to San Diego(I love my Armada).

Fast forward to January of this year. I started to pull her apart.

Here we have the drivetrain coming out. The front end was pulled apart as well. You can see my wing man (my 8 year old son Alex) helping move the car around. Just so you know, I'm doing all of this in a single car garage, so usage of space is the key to making progress.

I must apologize for the delay. I had the rather unpleasant misfortune of finding my Pathfinder (Terrano for you in Aus.) stolen a couple days after my last posting. Surprising that a 20 year old truck with 341k miles on it was worth the trouble. It left me in a bind as my job requires me to have a truck.

I filed a police report but knew it was very unlikely I would see my Pathfinder again. So, it gave me a good excuse to get this:

It is a Titan SE crew cab. I've wanted one since they came out. Until now I just could not justify it. This one has the utility bed, factory tow package, power rear window, sunroof, and satellite radio. It sucks that some scumbag decided to take my Pathfinder, but I do love this new truck.

Now, as to my Kenmeri. Because of buying the new truck, I have not been able to do much for a few weeks. But I can answer a couple of questions. The LCA I mentioned is the lower control ARM bolt hole. This is the hole that is .5 inches outboard of the stock c110 holes. I have a rough template of the firewall adapter plate that I need to have cut from steel. I'm going to try to get back at it next week. A few of you have expressed interest in doing the same thing. I'm happy to look into having others made if you guys want.

Brian

Kent, I am already expecting to send one over to you. Are you having any luck in finding a steering rack? I tried getting one from Australia first and only found one that the guy wanted $300 for. You might find it easier to get one from Japan as I did. Believe it or not, the non power one only cost me $60. Something to kick around.

Brian

Impressive. I look forward to following this thread. You are now a "pioneer" with that transplant!

I have a rough template of the firewall adapter plate that I need to have cut from steel. I'm going to try to get back at it next week. A few of you have expressed interest in doing the same thing. I'm happy to look into having others made if you guys want.

Brian

Brian, I would be interested in one of the firewall adapters as well. Also, any contact info for how to source a RHD rack would be helpful. The internet is letting me down on that one.

Chris

I thought I would post up a bit more of the progress. What we have here is my 350z six speed tranny.

Obviously the VH45 never came with a manual tranny. And the common one to use on these type swaps is the Z32 five speed with the Mazworx adapter. I wanted something different. After kicking around a bunch of ideas, I happened to mention my plan to a buddy that works for a high end Nissan tuner here in San Diego. As luck would have it, they were in the process of designing an adapter to bolt this tranny to a multitude of Nissan engines. He was kind enough to loan me a prototype to keep the ball rolling.

The tranny needs to be disassembled so that the bell housing of the front section can be machined off. Once that is done the adapter plate bolts on which then allows the automatic bell housing to bolt to the adapter. This then allows perfect alignment on the motor.

So, at this point the motor and tranny are mated up sitting in the car. Originally I was fairly content with the placement of the motor in the car. It looked like I had a nearly perfect distance of about 1 inch off the firewall. Well, after pulling the steering column out I discovered that the firewall has a few places where it bends out a bit, especially as it nears the tranny tunnel. I decided I needed to move it forward another 3/4 inch or so. Its actually going to help out in more ways than that. With the move forward, the stock oil pan might even clear the crossmember. And the relocated shifter assembly will be almost dead on with the stock location in the center console. I will get a few pics of this up shortly.

So here are the pics I mentioned.

As you can see, the right side cylinder head is only 1/4 inch from the firewall where the column passes through. Its very tight. Now, while we are here, let me show you the plan with the rack and pinion conversion. Here is the stock C110 column as it connects to the firewall.

As we discussed before, the stock column is supported by the steering box with merely a rubber boot at the firewall. With the rack and pinion, the column must be supported at the firewall. Here is what we have to work with.

The plate you see is very thin. Before I actually had it pulled apart, I had considered simply redrilling this plate to accept the S130 steering column. After getting it out, I realized this was not an option. The plate is very thin. It will easily flex if you twist it. No way it could support the lateral forces a steering column would put on it. As I mentioned before, I'm working on an aluminum plate to replace it which will also have correct bolt holes for the Zx column. Here are a few pics of the C110 and S130 columns.

They are almost exactly the same length when measured from the top end to where they pass through the firewall. The mounting points where it connects under the dash are different, as well as where the accessory stalks mount. Surprisingly they have the same diameter and taper points. It looks like the C110 stalks will easily transfer over, with only one issue. The column lock. The ignition switch is in an entirely different spot and therefore the keyway for the steering lock is not even close to being aligned. I'm not entirely sure what it would take to machine a new keyway in, but honestly I'm not convinced its even worth it.

Anyhow, this is where I'm at right now. I hope to get another update to you guys soon.

Also, Chris, I'm keeping an eye out on that steering rack for you. If you happen to find one before I do just let me know. It took me a few months to find mine, but the funny part is that when it did pop up, there were four others available at the same time. Two manual and two powered ones. It seems like a feast or famine situation.

Seems like famine currently. I'll let you know if I get ahold of one. I was thinking about measuring yours and going with a flaming river custom. With the amount of money I spent already, what another grand or two?

Great progress, keep it up!

Chris

Edited July 21, 201212 yr by ctcurnes

Sweet, it's great to see another V8 powered K in the making and as you've put a Nissan V8 in you won't get a heap of abusive messages there is heaps of space in the engine bay for an 8, I had mine put as far back as possible and the front axle line ends up between the 1st and 2nd pair of pistons. With that being an alloy V8 it will end up with better weight distribution than the original 6, the L24 is a heavy motor. Good work, I'm stoked one of Kent's cars is getting an 8!

So this is the latest news. I went back to the machine shop a few weeks back to check on the progress as I hadn't heard from them in a long time. When I originally dropped off my mock up, I mentioned I was in no real rush. Well, apparently they took that a bit too far and never even started on my firewall plate. These guys have been good in the past but this time I was a bit pissed. Anyhow, I decided to make my own new one, and here it is.

So this was made from 3/16 steel plate using a chop saw and a drill press. While it may not be machine shop perfect, I'm proud of it. I went ahead and did a rough fitting of it.

These pictures are of the plate with the S130 ZX steering column. I trimmed off the original mounting ears just so it can be fitted in. I plan to remove the adjustable mount from the C110 column and transfer it over to this one. As you can see in the pics from the engine bay, I need to slightly alter the pass through hole so that the column can be moved down another 1/2 inch or so as its just barely contacting the right cylinder head. Other than that, I'm happy with how its coming together. I'll post up a few more pics after I have polished it up.

So it's been a while, but I have actually made progress. The car is officially on all four wheels again.

I took the s130 steering column and shaved the stock mounting ears off. Then cleaned it and measured the C110 mounting in comparison. The columns are nearly identical in length, and all I had to do was measure from the top end where the wheel mounts.

As you are aware, and as pictured, the GC110 uses a very basic "adjustable" column. It rides in a slotted mount under the dash. The S130 uses a simple bolt in style with ears. The GC110 mount is fully removable, unfortunately the bracket on the column is impossible to remove without severe damage to the original column itself. Even though I'm heavily modifying my car, I want to do as little damage to original parts as I can. This is where another trip to the junk yard comes in. Most Nissans of the era use a mounting style like the ZX, but after a bit of walking around I found an 810 two door. It uses the same mount as the GC110. I cut out the section with the mount and headed home.

And here is the finished (nearly) product. I welded the small section with bracket onto my S130 column and viola, the column rides in nearly the exact same spot as the original. I tested it with the stock steering wheel and it feels factory. I need to drill a couple of small pilot holes to locate and mount the control stalks.

I originally thought the lower pivot points for the control arms were off by .5 inch per side, well, it looks like they are in fact dead on. I was able to bolt the stock GC110 arms into the S130 crossmember and as you can see from the earlier pics the front wheels are just fine. I plan to run camber plates anyhow, so any minor variance will be easy to correct.

So that's were I am at the moment. I pulled out the tranny and the motor will follow in the next few days. Once the motor is on the stand I can refine my motor mounts. And I hope to finally have the car taken to the body shop. I'm still in need of flares and a chin spoiler, but otherwise I have most of the parts stashed.

On a completely separate note, do any of you know if there is a trim item that runs along the top inside line of the front windshield? Basically where the headliner ends. My car seems to be missing this, whatever its called.