Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[inline6]

12 hours ago, dutchzcarguy said:

You mean... the new Hitachi nozzles.. 😉 

Ah - yes.

 

[inline6]

I have started rebuilding the seats.  These were reupholstered once before.  I have come to realize that this sheet of canvas material on top of the dry rotted straps is not original.  

    

      

 

I took many pictures as I was taking the seat apart so I would have documentation to refer to when it came time to reupholster them.  I suspect that the center strap was folded around the front of the seat frame when the seat was reupholstered.  Perhaps they tried to put some tension back in the "stretched out" strap.  None of the other straps in the seat were installed that way.  I believe I have made a mistake in reproducing this and will revisit to make the center strap not roll around the frame like this.

    

  

The straps have some cloth tape at their front ends.  It doesn't seem to serve any purpose to me.  
 

Seat frames and backs were "sand" blasted, epoxy primed, and finished in gloss black.  Hardware was re-plated.  I bought a re-strapping kit, but decided to go with "Pirelli" strapping instead.  I don't know if it is better quality, but it looks more original and feels like higher quality to me.  The amount of effort it takes to stretch it feels noticeably more to me.

    

 

I bought a kit of stainless steel tubular rivets to secure the straps to the clips.  Harbor freight sells a nice hole punch tool that I used to make holes in the strap material and the replacement canvas I bought.  I installed the replacement canvas just for kicks to make mimic the factory cloth tape.  Probably shouldn't have bothered.  Assembly of the rivets consisted of pushing the one with the post through the materials and putting the other half of the rivet onto that post.  Then I set the rivet with post into the round die and used a hammer and included setting tool to smash the two halves together.  

    

 

I experimented with lengths of strap to get tension where I felt it should be.  For each piece, I landed at overall length of 17", and then folded over the ends so that the fully assembled strap was at ~ 14 and 1/4".  To install them to the seat frame, I had to stretch the strap and drop the hooks in the holes.  I estimate that I had to stretch the straps about 1 inch to install them onto the frame. 

    

 

  

 

I think my next step is to put the cover over the cushion material.  I will do some online research before I attempt that part.

 

Edited September 11 by inline6

[inline6]

Carolina Driveline received my driveshaft on Wednesday.  They have shortened and balanced it for $120 plus shipping and are shipping it back to me today.  That is impressive turnaround time.

[Patcon]

I'm so glad they were able to help. They're nice people

[inline6]

The driveshaft was delivered to me by FedEx today.  During attempted installation, I found that I had to remove some of the original shield.  I did this manually with a hacksaw, removing a linear inch of the shield.  I measured and ran a piece of tape around the shield to mark where to cut.  The remainder of the shield is of a slightly smaller diameter than the shield that is pressed into the tail section of the 240SX transmission.  So, it slides within that shield, but with a small air gap.

 

Assuming they removed 2 inches as I specified, I am kind of surprised at how tight the fit is.  With the driveshaft installed, the front portion of the shaft (with the spines) is deeply seated inside the transmission.  I will add a pic, but essentially, another 1/2 removed from the shaft would have been better.  I don't understand why all the references I have found online for shortening the stock driveshaft for 240SX transmission conversion don't seem to match my situation.  I confirmed I had the short (early) driveshaft. But instead of shortening by 2 inches (what I found others have done and as I asked for), I think 2.5 inches would be better.  

With the driveshaft in the car, I moved on to installing the Z-Story exhaust.  The header was already installed, of course.  So, I unboxed the rest of the parts and put them on the car. 

    

 

    

    

    

  

 

I found the fitment to be very good.   There is one spot where the exhaust comes within 1/4 inch of the transmission case.  However, clearance seems to be enough everywhere - I do not think there will be any rubbing.

I also filled the transmission with Redline 75W90 GL4.  There is a small list of things that have to be done before I can start the engine.

Edited Sunday at 12:35 AM by inline6

[inline6]

I think today is "start up day".  I have a rather short list of items to complete before I turn the key and see what happens:

• Add coolant
• Complete electrical hook up of the Pertronix unit at the coil
• Install fuel hose on the fuel return line of the fuel rail
• Repair oil pressure sender wire/connector
• Remove oil pump and prime engine with oil (using drill and custom made shaft to drive oil pump)
• Add SAE 20 oil to the carburetors
• Check torque on cam sprocket bolt
• Check torque on crankshaft pully bolt
• Heat engine oil in the pan
• Install valve cover
• Add two more gallons of fuel

Edited Sunday at 05:47 PM by inline6

[Captain Obvious]

4 hours ago, inline6 said:

I think today is "start up day".  

Cool!!! 

I'm not sure I would add coolant until I was sure the engine ran. You can run it dry for a short time (fifteen seconds) just to make sure things work. At this stage, I would also consider the carb oil to be optional. But since it's so easy to put in and take out, it's no big deal.

I would add "double and triple check that the cam timing is correct". before I spun the starter.

And when you do turn the starter to prime the engine oil... I would make sure oil comes out of all of your spray bar holes.

And if you're energetic, I'd run a compression test after the oil was primed and before I put the plugs in. Just to rule out surprises.

After all the detail leading to this point, not much risk of any issue, but fingers crossed here just because it's a big day!!   

[emccallum]

I use distilled water for start up, then drain and add coolant later when I fix the o e hose clamp I forgot to tighten.

[siteunseen]

I opened the rad lower drain and put a hoe's pipe in the the top of the radiator.

I didn't have my carb linkage stops in the right orientation and as soon as I cranked it shot up to about 3 grand and I shot my pants.

You'll have less stress as you're more methodical than me. Good results await you!

[inline6]

Thanks for the advice.  Unfortunately, I put coolant in before seeing it... And, I found out that the water pump (one of the few parts that I did not replace) was weeping coolant.  GEEEZ!

Thankfully, I have another water pump from a spare engine that seems like it doesn't have many miles on it.  So, I had to drain the coolant and replace the water pump with that one, which set me back time-wise.  I am taking a break now for dinner.  But, I may try to start it after.  

• Add coolant
• Complete electrical hook up of the Pertronix unit at the coil
• Install fuel hose on the fuel return line of the fuel rail
• Repair oil pressure sender wire/connector
• Remove oil pump and prime engine with oil (using drill and custom made shaft to drive oil pump)
• Add SAE 20 oil to the carburetors
• Check torque on cam sprocket bolt
• Check torque on crankshaft pully bolt
• Heat engine oil in the pan
• Install valve cover
• Add two more gallons of fuel

Only a few things left...

 

[emccallum]

4 hours ago, siteunseen said:

I opened the rad lower drain and put a hoe's pipe in the the top of the radiator.

I didn't have my carb linkage stops in the right orientation and as soon as I cranked it shot up to about 3 grand and I shot my pants.

You'll have less stress as you're more methodical than me. Good results await you!

I will one up you. Rebuilt my first z back in the early 80's and took for its first run, out of the driveway, and the pedal gets stuck on the floormat! Headed to the four lane and I decided to push in the clutch, revs went to redline for a few seconds before I could shut it down! Didnt seem to hurt it and it ran hard for years after that. If you want 'em fast, break 'em in fast!

[Captain Obvious]

4 hours ago, siteunseen said:

I didn't have my carb linkage stops in the right orientation and as soon as I cranked it shot up to about 3 grand and I shot my pants.

12 minutes ago, emccallum said:

the pedal gets stuck on the floormat! Headed to the four lane and I decided to push in the clutch, revs went to redline for a few seconds before I could shut it down!

Hahaha!!! Those are great stories!!

My recent new motor fire-up was completely uneventful. I feel totally boring.    

No, wait... I do have something!!! It was about day three after the fire-up, and I was picking up a noise. Something weird, but certainly unpleasant in the top end. But I don't want to clutter up someone else's thread with tales of my stupidity.