Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[inline6]

One of the last parts I needed to disassemble, clean, strip and repaint was the steering column.  

    

Taping up so I can glass bead blast without getting beads inside:

    

Odd white (I think) paint blotch.  I removed the plastic bushings, which were glued into place on the steering column bracket:

    

Springs are for the handbrake cables.  Epoxy priming session here is nearly everything that is left that I have yet to paint black:

    

Gas tank - sand blasted - glass bead blasted and epoxy primed.

    

 

Tomorrow, I will paint these and some other parts black.  

 

[inline6]

I got delayed with painting the next batch of parts black because I forgot that the gas tank needed a bit of filler work.  Where I left off with the tank, I had used the pin welder to pull low spots.  When done with that, I blasted the exterior of the tank with black diamond (lightly) to remove the black paint the radiator repair shop had refinished the tank with.  Then I glass bead blasted the exterior of the tank to smooth finish.  I epoxy primed the tank a few days ago, and planned to paint black about 8 hours later, but again, forgot about needing to do the filler work.

    

 

I was held up from connecting the engine to the transmission because the flywheel needed resurfacing and while removing the pressure plate alignment dowels, they got destroyed.  So, I had to order new ones.  I was able to get the machining done this past week (along with having the rear drums turned).  Some very shallow rust pits remain, but taking it down further doesn't look to be called for to me.  I chose to go with an Exedy clutch kit.

    

    

  

 

PP and clutch that I am replacing were manufactured by "Atsugi":
 

    

    

 

I should be able to install the engine and transmission this weekend.  

 

[davewormald]

Is the Exedy clutch kit this one? The page doesn't give much detail. I'm confident that this one on eBay is the correct one because the part numbers match yours. I need to order the same thing for my 04/71 car. I'm willing to pay the extra $20 to make sure I get the correct one, but won't if I don't have to!

[Yarb]

Did you check Amazon?

[davewormald]

22 minutes ago, Yarb said:

Did you check Amazon?

I'm in Canada, so I tried amazon.ca, without success. Amazon.com returns a dizzying array of products. You can add a filter for the Make/Model/Year of your car, and it returns lots of products, but when you click on any of them, you're told it isn't a fit for your vehicle. Fabulous! The hassle of getting things to Canada means you want to be certain when you order something. The recent exception was an order of 9 body parts from KFVintage. They arrived a week after I ordered them and the shipping charge was quite reasonable. I figured if @inline6 has the Exedy part number, that would be the safest bet, since (based on VINs) our cars are the same variants.

[SteveJ]

1 hour ago, davewormald said:

Is the Exedy clutch kit this one? The page doesn't give much detail. I'm confident that this one on eBay is the correct one because the part numbers match yours. I need to order the same thing for my 04/71 car. I'm willing to pay the extra $20 to make sure I get the correct one, but won't if I don't have to!

It matches what Rockauto lists.

[davewormald]

7 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

It matches what Rockauto lists.

Perfect, thanks Steve! I hadn't checked Rock Auto for some reason. Rock Auto's exchange rate makes it cheaper than buying directly from Exedy! I'll stop contaminating this nice build thread with my parts questions now!

 

[inline6]

On 10/13/2023 at 2:56 PM, davewormald said:

I'll stop contaminating this nice build thread with my parts questions now!

No problem - 06029 is indeed the part number I ordered... and from RockAuto at that: 

[inline6]

Another batch of parts are now gloss black:

    

    

 

    

    

 

  

 

The difference between one and two coats is substantial.  One coat just isn't sufficient.  

I didn't quite mix enough paint, so I had a couple of thin areas on a couple parts.  I let them dry for an hour or so while I ate dinner and then mixed up some more and reshot the steering rack, transmission mount and the hand brake handle assembly.  

These Suspension Techniques springs come in a blue powder coat.  I scuffed them with red and then green Scotch Brite pads before shooting them with black.  Also, while I painted the original suspension "vertical hangers" black already, they will not be installed.  Instead, I will be using these which came with the Suspension Techniques rear anti-roll bar kit.  These were black powder coated, and I did the same scuffing before painting them with this gloss black. 

I continue to use 10% (by weight) of flattening agent with each batch of black that I mix up.  I will let these dry overnight and tomorrow, hope to get the engine and transmission together and installed in the car.

 

 

[inline6]

I ran into another issue with getting the engine and transmission in the car last week.  None of the clutch throw out bearing collars in my possession were the one I need for this 240z clutch kit.  So, I ordered a new one and I am waiting for that to arrive.  

So, yesterday, I switched over to suspension assembly.  I bought the new Yellow Koni's for this car (see the linked thread below).  The instructions... do not have any words.  Manufacturers save on writing and translating when they do this, but I don't like it.  It is not clear to me, in some pictures, what they are communicating.

    

 

I was surprised to see that the "gland" nuts supplied with the Koni's do not have flats on the sides - they only have two holes in them.  I have never encountered gland nuts like this before.  I wasn't considering this, and got stuck with having to spend a good bit of time making a tool to deal with these.  Essentially, I had to take a thick washer, drill corresponding holes in it, run bolts through the holes, weld those in place and then attach 1 x 1 bar to opposite sides of the washer.

    

    

 

I started with the rear struts.  Each one calls for 50 ml of non-freezing liquid.  I used a 50/50 mix of distilled water and antifreeze.  I think this helps with heat transfer from the Koni insert to the outer strut tube.  I used two layers of masking tape around the shaft as a precaution to keep from scratching the strut shaft with the tool.  After installation of the gland nut, the distance between the top of the strut and bottom edge of gland nut were just under the 1-4 mm specification.

    

 

Switching over to the front struts, I ran into the issue that others have in the following thread.  The insides of my front struts are clean and show no signs of any rust.  However the gland nuts would only engage for essentially one turn of thread engagement.  In the links below, you can get more context if you wish.  I have contacted Motorsport Auto by email and asked about receiving modified gland nuts to fix my issue, as they did for Jim Arnett - @jfa.series1:
 

 

 

So, a spacer/shim I think will be needed to assemble the differential is on national backorder with no ETA.  No progress can be made on the differential.  I am waiting for a throw out bearing collar to arrive.  No progress can be made with putting the engine and transmission in the car.  I am waiting to see if Motorsport auto can send me modified gland nuts.  No progress can be made with assembly of the front struts, but I can continue with the rear struts.  

Today, I will pivot to the steering rack.  Perhaps I can make progress there, and with further assembly of the rear struts.

[Patcon]

Have you considered contacting a shop that rebuilds differentials and see if you can source the shims through them?

[inline6]

I have not.  Thanks for the suggestion.  I will see what I can find out from places that are nearby.