Her Majesty the 26th

[26th-Z]

I have been encouraged to start a build thread about my restoration of HLS30U-00026 so here goes.

I started many, many years ago, as most of you know, and got sidelined during the depression in 2008 which lasted for me until 2014 or so.  Although I managed to carry on with my involvement in the Z community over the past decade, the cars have been pretty much sitting in storage and very little work has been done.  Then about a year ago, I got back into it and started sorting through my stuff, creating little projects and slowly stepping back into the restoration.  A month ago, I talked to the guy who is doing all the paint and body work for Steve / Twin Cam Sportscars.  Steve's business / shop is right around the corner from my shop and I have known Steve forever.  You may recall that Twin Cam Sportscars helped with the restoration of Classic Motorsports magazine's Lotus Elan that appeared at Amelia Island.  I started the work on the chassis years ago with another body shop that associated with Twin Cam, "Beautiful Bodies", but he went out of business during the depression.  Now its Kim / After Hours Racing who agreed to take on the partially completed chassis.  And here is where we are today...

[motorman7]

Very cool and thanks for sharing a little bit of history.  Looking forward to watching the restoration.  ?

[240260280]

This is great Chris!

I think you should also put a few of the "in the field" shots to show the progress from your archeological rescue.

[240260280]

For all you 8 track connoisseurs... I saw one of these for sale locally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1efqMyUFUE

 

[26th-Z]

To make this "build thread' complete, I should rewind for a moment and discuss how I got to this point.  Much of this has been posted before, buried in the archives somewhere.

I bought 26th in 1984 from the estate of the original owner.  Rob bought the car new from a local Datsun dealer and I remember when he bought it.  26th was imported in Jacksonville Florida and delivered in May, 1970.  When Rob passed away, his son who is a very close friend asked me if I wanted to buy the car from the estate.  I drove 26th for several years and decided to do this restore after dealing with rust issues on two separate occasions.  She was literally rusting from the inside out and major work was needed.

There is a place in Wachula, Florida that provides a complete rust removal process called reverse electrolysis.  The body shell is immersed in a big tank with electrodes and a sacrificial anode to remove all the iron oxides resulting in bare, rust free, metal.

[26th-Z]

Then the welding started.  What was once rust was just a hole in the metal and 26th got new floors, one new frame rail, dog leg rocker panels, and some other areas.

[26th-Z]

To insure that the interior chassis areas would not start rusting again, etching primer was sprayed inside the body panels with a garden pump sprayer and a long plastic wand.  All the seams had to be sealed.  The complete body had to be wiped down with a metal prep etching wash.  This was all done on a lift.

[Dave WM]

is this the place?

http://www.autorestorationdepot.com/about.html

[26th-Z]

Finally the whole chassis was sprayed in a continuous primer.  I started to place the sound deadening "tar mat" sections, but didn't like the material and that's about the time that the economy fell on it's ear and my income went to hell.

[26th-Z]

Yep, that's the place.  It was called Revivations at the time.

While all this body stuff was going on, I took the engine up to a machine shop in Tampa run by a guy named Tom and his son, Tommy.  A real dirt track racers place, these guys were good machinists.  The engine was cleaned and checked.  The cylinders spec'd to standard bore.  The crank shaft, fly wheel, and front pully were balanced together and Tom told me that I would notice the difference.  The engine was way out of balance.  The connecting rods were weight balanced and the original pistons were reinstalled with new wrist pins.

Now, in spite of what you might think of my stockafied approach to what is correct and what is not, I'm not a huge fan of the "stock" HLS30 / 240Z.  Great starting point, but...  The engine was assembled (new freeze plugs) with a Schneider (mild) can and an Arizona Z adjustable timing sprocket.  The combustion chambers in the head were cc'd and equaled.  A competition front pulley was installed along with a competition oil pump.  The early engines have an odd assortment of head bolt lengths and I was fortunate enough to find them new from Nissan.  I'll bet they are all gone by now.  Blue paint came from Banzai.

[26th-Z]

The engine is going back together without the emission control hardware.  I have an exhaust manifold without the air injection ports and the non-emission intake manifold.  I happen to really like the Hitachi carburetor design, have worked with them during my British car SU days and will use Z-Therapy rebuilds (perhaps slightly modified).  I decided to paint my valve cover wrinkle black as a throw-back to my racing days.

I'll post more pictures of other completed components soon.  I have to start taking pictures!

[kats]

Hi Chris, thanks for sharing your pictures, I am looking forward to seeing your cars assembled. 

What plans do you have for Her Majesty interior trim ? Tan , or black ? 

Kats