Restoration of "One-eighty-seven"

[drpchuynh]

Hello everyone!  It's been about a year since I purchased #187 from John H. of New York on BAT.  Here's the link to the auction. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1969-datsun-240z/ There are many detailed photos of the car on there with a brief description of its history and condition.  I was able to enjoy her in her raw state before beginning the restoration. She was a bit hard to start but ran good once she reached optimal temperature. The clutch was slipping a bit and finding the gears heading up the hill to my house was a struggle. With that said, it was time to begin the restoration.

My mechanic is no other than Rod S. at Mike's Z Shop in Whittier, CA. Rod has been working on Z cars for over 30 years and races his 260z in the ChampCar Endurance Series. https://champcar.org/  Perhaps some of you have raced with him or against him. Either way, he is an awesome guy, and I trust #187 to him. 

My immediate goal is to get the mechanical sorted out so she can get back on the road. Once that happens, I'll take her down to see Rich (motorman7), and perhaps with some luck, he'll be willing and able to take on the restoration project. My long term goal for her is a high quality refresh that I would have no reservations taking to a car show. I don't think she belongs locked up in a garage. So it’s pointless to perform a Concours restoration. She will run, and run often, maybe even as a daily driver.

Here are some recent photos of the mechanical restorations. The engine and transmission were pulled in January of this year. The carbs were sent to Z Therapy and the combo and hazard switches were sent to Dave Irwin for a facelift.  Both received outstanding care, and at a very reasonable price to boot! The plan is to bolt everything back on and bring her back to life in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I can contain my excitement and remember to grab and post a video of the first restart after the rebuild.  Stay tuned!

One interesting note from our current findings was the existing mechanical wear and tear, or lack there of. Although there is no way to substantiate the mileage of the car (roughly 64,000 on the odometer), Rod said the internals of the engine looks to be 64K miles vs 164K or 264K, as there were very little wear, almost new.  Nevertheless, she is good as new, and better now with the “brass seats” replaced with steel ones. Not sure what all that means other than that it can now better handle today’s 91 octane fuel.

Please excuse the 2 early pictures of the engine/transmission coming out of the engine bay and disassembly of the engine. Rod is old-school and still had a flip phone when this project started. He didn’t know how to send pictures and so he printed them out for me. He has since upgraded his phone and now sends me more vivid pictures. 

He rebuilt the transmission himself. The head and block were sent out for machining. The oil pan and valve cover were bead-blasted and tumbled.  The pan was repainted but it was important for me to maintain the glossy, not shinny, aluminum sheen of the valve cover. I am not a fan of the painted or mirror-polished look. I think he did a good job. All the bolts, screws, washers, etc., that came off the engine and transmission were polished and replated. The results speak for themselves. He figured it is best to do this now so Rich won’t have to redo them again.

I will do my best to update everyone as we move along. That’s all for now.

Edited June 10, 2018 by drpchuynh

[grannyknot]

Well done, you have pulled in some good people to help you get the car back on it's feet. Looking forward to more pics!

[siteunseen]

Very nice!

I remember when I first bought mine I couldn't back out of my driveway from the slipping clutch.  Came on the forum and found out how to adjust the slave cylinder. 

[motorman7]

Looks Awesome!  Gotta love that weldment on the oil pan, very unique to the early Z's.

[Jaymanbikes]

Awesome car and looking forward to more pics as you move along.  Not trying to hi jack but wondering where you purchased the blue paint used on the block?  I purchased the can in this pic from California Datsun.  I attempted to capture my motor in the same pic but the paint is hard to see.  The color appears to be the same as yours.  My question for some of you guys, isn't this shade of blue darker than factory?  

[motorman7]

I think it is all in the lighting.  The pics below are the same block, just with different light.  Also, in the third pic, you can see that the original bracket color matches the block color.   I have also sprayed Les Canaday's paint next to the California Datsun color and there is no detectable difference.  Pics of the block under sunlight are even lighter.

Edited May 14, 2018 by motorman7

[drpchuynh]

Thank you everyone! I'm looking forward to bring you more updates.

 

On 5/12/2018 at 9:57 AM, motorman7 said:

Looks Awesome!  Gotta love that weldment on the oil pan, very unique to the early Z's.

It's good that you mentioned that.  I thought it was bad patch job at some point in the past.  Haha

3 hours ago, Jaymanbikes said:

Awesome car and looking forward to more pics as you move along.  Not trying to hi jack but wondering where you purchased the blue paint used on the block?  I purchased the can in this pic from California Datsun.  I attempted to capture my motor in the same pic but the paint is hard to see.  The color appears to be the same as yours.  My question for some of you guys, isn't this shade of blue darker than factory? 

Motorman7 is right. The blue is much lighter in color. I believe it's because of the fluorescent lighting in the garage.  I'm no physicist, but I recall that the color that you see is the color that is emitted off the surface. Perhaps fluorescent lights emit a darker blue band. Whereas when you use a flash, you get a more complete blue spectrum that hits the surface and bounces back to you. Don't quote me on that though.  I'm just glad it looks better than 1/4" of oily grim. Haha

[siteunseen]

On 5/14/2018 at 7:17 AM, Jaymanbikes said:

Awesome car and looking forward to more pics as you move along.  Not trying to hi jack but wondering where you purchased the blue paint used on the block?  I purchased the can in this pic from California Datsun.  I attempted to capture my motor in the same pic but the paint is hard to see.  The color appears to be the same as yours.  My question for some of you guys, isn't this shade of blue darker than factory?  

I found a 70's Chrysler block paint from Dupli-Color matches my original color better.  For each his on, 6 of one half dozen of the other...

1972 OE color...

2016 Chrysler color...

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by siteunseen

[drpchuynh]

Rod did a dry fit of the carbs that came back from Z Therapy. It's amazing that you can hand a rusty, heavily oxidized SU carb setup, fuel rails, heat shield, etc., and they send you back this! Bruce, if you're on this forum, I just want to commend you and your team at Z Therapy for an amazing service and outstanding transaction! This picture doesn't do it justice. It looks better in person. 

Edited May 20, 2018 by drpchuynh

[siteunseen]

Those look great!

@Bruce Palmer has been very helpful to me, they know what's going on. 

[drpchuynh]

In keeping with the details, Rod wanted to salvage the air injection tubes with the exhaust manifold to get it plated. Unfortunately separating them without damage was a hurdle he couldn't overcome. So in his own words:  

"I wasn't able to get the air injection tubes out of the exhaust manifold so I just sent the whole manifold out to get plated. Then I removed the plating from the manifold. I think it came out great. Talk to you later."

Addition by subtraction! Genius! 

As it was explained to me, these air injection tubes are more problematic than they are worth. So he'll decide in the near future whether to crimp/cap them off. Prior to tearing the engine down, the car ran good with them. Either way, the engine will retain its original look, the tubes may or may not be functional. 

Edited May 31, 2018 by drpchuynh
Grammatical error

[motorman7]

13 hours ago, drpchuynh said:

"I wasn't able to get the air injection tubes out of the exhaust manifold so I just sent the whole manifold out to get plated. Then I removed the plating from the manifold. I think it came out great. Talk to you later."

Addition by subtraction! Genius! 

Yes, that was Genius!  I am very impressed.

Not that it matters, but I would recommend that you keep the entire system in tact and keep the air injectors on and the smog system operational.  I still have this on my '70 and it runs wonderfully, never any problems.  Unless you plan on racing the car, I would leave them on.   Also, I think it adds to the value of the car.

For what it's worth, I have always felt that if the owner had no problem removing the smog system from a car, what else has been modified or changed.  It's just the beginning.  When looking for a Z that I would purchase personally, I always look for the smog system.  If it's gone, I'm gone.