Torby's 240Z Project

[Torby]

Hi guys! :classic:

Thought I'd make a thread about my Z project, as there's finally some progress.

A couple of years ago, I bought this almost complete Z.

(Se my introduction post here: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread40142.html)

The previous owner, who imported this car from the US got tired of welding, and sold it to me for cheap. It came with all the parts in boxes, as well as a lot of new parts like complete poly bushes, rebuild parts etc.

My original plan was to do a full nut and bolt restoration, but then we had a serious rainstorm, and my workshop was flooded.

This was the road outside our house.

To be honest, 20 cm (8 inches) of mud and water flooding the workshop pretty much killed my motivation, and the project was halted for a year, while I was gathering some parts.

A year later, I figured I had bitten more than I could chew, and found a new Z.

It was in good condition (or so I thought), but the engine bay was in need of a bit of paint.

New plan - remove the engine, simplify the engine bay, give it a bit of paint, and rebuild the engine from the other Z.

Removed the AC (28kg worth of junk) and then the engine.

Then it became pretty obvious that the engine bay was in need of more work than just a bit of paint.

Several hours of grinding, and out comes the truth - the car has been crashed, and the previous repair work is dodgy at best.

More to come in the next post...:classic:

Edited July 20, 2012 by Torby

[Torby]

Ok, a bit of good news in between all the sad news - shiny new parts for the engine rebuild:

45mm Mikunis on an original Datsun Competition manifold :classic:

JE pistons (10,5:1), Eagle rods.

Rebello stroker crank, hot street cam + bearings, gaskets, bolts etc.

Then, fast forward a few months and it's time to get the front end sorted.

Luckily, I have a good friend who's certified for bodywork and paint, so I got him to help me out. We measured up the front end, and found that it was crooked from the previous crash. More than half an inch to the side, actually.

The crooked front, combined with all the dodgy repair work done previously, we figured it would be easier to replace the whole front end. So we chopped off the front from the first Z, and started working.

Lots of hours were spent trial fitting, adjusting, measuring and more adjusting.

And this is how the car stands today, all rust removed from the front end and replaced with fresh metal. The front is now straight down to +/- 1mm, which I believe to be well within factory specs from 1971. Now I'm just waiting to have the front end sandblasted before we can start doing tin work, and hopefully very soon - paint.

Further plans are to modify and improve as I go along. Hopefully, I will manage to rebuild the engine this winter, and have the car back on the road next spring. I will try to modernize a little bit, like replacing the alternator for a new one with internal voltage regulator, new fuse box and stuff like that.

Thanks for looking, I will try to keep this thread updated as I go along. :classic:

Edited July 20, 2012 by Torby

[d240zx2]

What a project! Good luck, and do keep us posted...

[Steve Parmley]

Fantastic work and dedication! I wish there were fewer "It wasn't as clean as represented" stories for those enthusiasts having to ship overseas.

[240260280z]

I love the precision! Excellent skills!

[Topz]

Nice to see some Norwegians here, keep up the good work.

Where are you located, i might stop by some day...

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I think many of these Z were wrecked and were never mentioned to the new owners. I found out the same thing, but I do not think the wreck was that severe, as I have no misalignment issues that I can tell, but you did the right thing and properly fixed the whole car. Good man!

[Torby]

Thanks for your kind comments, guys! :classic:

I would like to note that all this work is done in my garage, but would never have been possible without the good help from my friend, who does this for a living..

The previous owner of the car was very honest about the state of the car, which he knew very little about. He never investigated it either, but what can you do, when dents in the frame rails are completely covered in body filler and paint..?

I did investigate the history of the car, and there were 3 owners in the country before I bought it, but I couldn't find out much about previous restoration work. My guess is that the repair work was done in the US, but I can't be certain. No offence, though! :classic:

A couple of more pictures of the repairs we did.

This piece had to be complete replaced, as it was rusted from the inside. The rust had eaten all the way through the 3mm metal, and just the outer 1.1mm skin was left. Both layers of metal were completely replaced with fresh parts made to fit.

I removed the battery tray, and welded the holes that were left. The holes in the firewall from the A/C were also welded shut. I plan to re-route the wiring in the engine bay, to keep it as clean as possible, but chose to keep the hole in the firewall, in case I change my mind. It could easily be plugged later if necessary. I removed the OEM wiring clamps, though, to force myself into finding a solution for rewiring.

This picture was also in my previous post, but I would like to comment that this part was spot welded, as well as fully seam welded on the inside, to preserve the strength of the chassis. The welds will be cleaned up and smoothed with tin, to keep the cosmetics side of things done properly as well.

Terje: I live about 25 km north of Hamar. Feel free to stop by for coffee! :classic:

Again, thanks for the kind comments, I will probably be asking for a lot of advice later, when I get the body work out of the way.

Edited July 20, 2012 by Torby

[Diseazd]

You're very lucky to have a friend who really knows body geometry. Many people restore cars with unknown accident history only to find their beautiful Z goes through a set of tires every 1500 miles. My 71 restoration was out 1/4 inch and we replaced the driver side clip. I would have never known it if my body man didn't also run a frame shop. Really nice job Torby. Keep the pics coming.

Edited July 21, 2012 by Diseazd

[Torby]

Thanks for the kind comments. I had a look at your pictures, and wow! What a collection of Z's! :eek:

Hope you don't mind a few more pictures. Anyway, had the front end sandblasted now. My daily driver isn't suited for towing heavy loads, but luckily a good friend came to the rescue with a proper truck. I was able to borrow the car trailer from another friend, so we loaded the Z up, and headed off. Note the prototype state-of-the-art front suspension setup we made..

The blasting only took about an hour, and the price was fair - however the guy didn't reach all the areas I wanted to have blasted, so that meant a few hours grinding and spot-blasting when we got back.

Next up was applying the special primer and then tin work (don't know if this is called tin over in the US).

All the welds were covered, to ensure pores and small holes in the welds are sealed.

I tried a bit of tin work myself, and it's not as easy as it looks, so I left most of it to the pro. Sanding and grinding, however, I can manage..

A fair amount of time was spent removing remains of old seam sealer, rubber on the cable clips etc, to ensure we got all areas covered in primer. Due to the rough finish from blasting, everything was rubbed down with 120 grit dry after smoothing out the tin work.

Next was 3 layers of epoxy primer, which also etches into the metal to (hopefully) keep the rust from returning.

Now the primer is left to dry, before we can start applying filler, more primer and finally paint. Hopefully it will be all painted by the end of the week! :classic:

Thanks for looking, more later! :classic:

Edited July 25, 2012 by Torby

[Topz]

Great work Torby , hope to see this car one the road one day ;-)

[Diseazd]

This is a great thread.........keep us updated. You're doing it right.....NICE WORK!