240ZBUILTBYME 1971 240z HS-001063 Project Georgia

[240ZBUILTBYME]

Hi all

Really looking forward to starting this project and getting all of your input and advice along the way! Im new to this forum, Ive spent lots of time lurking though! I have been posting on the australian forum but traffic is quite low on there so hoping to get quicker input on here. I did also consider hybridz but I think my resto will be more in line with classiczcars as Im not transplanting a V10 into mine...

Names Ryan, I am the long time owner of a 1971 240z here in Perth Western Australia. Vin is HS30-001063

I have owned the car for 10 years. When I bought the car it was in rough condition, tried to get it running to enjoy for a while but the previous owner had neglected it too much. So I decided not to waste money or time and wait for a ground up resto. Then it took me 8 years to find a decent space to start the resto (my dads new shed). 

I started the tear down in late 2018 but then had my son so it went on the back burner for another 1.5 years. Now I am almost finished the tear down and excited to get some real work done. Unfortunately I have another baby due in November! Damn! Lol 

I have also started a YouTube channel to document the restoration. At the moment they’re pretty boring dismantle videos but I plan to make them better quality and more exciting in the future. 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHZhre0vm7sL2Kl7hUQFVkg

About the car:

History unknown, bought it from a very energetic guy who pretty much ran it into the ground, was completely neglected and unmaintained. I knew I wanted to do a full restomod however, so this was not an issue for me.

Car has a L20 engine and may be an originally automatic gearbox, hence the L20 swap and that the gear lever barely lines up with the hole in the trans tunnel. L20 will be thrown in the bin.

Car is green originally and has had a terrible quality respray. 

Car had a relatively minor front end collsion, bent sugar scoop/front bumper support and some light repairs to radiator support

Basically everything on the car needs replacing/restoration, nothing is reusable in a sense I can just rebolt it on the restored car.

Plans for the car:

Due to the car not having the original engine I see no point in going back to stock original. may as well create the car I want, so many things will not be stock

- Color change, unsure as to color just yet, was leaning toward white but recently I have been liking safari gold

- L28 stroked out

- Triple Weber set up but thinking of keeping SU's initially to save some $$$

- BC Coilovers, techno toy tuning 3 point strut brace in front and 3 point apex engineering strut brace in rear

- Initially all suspension components will be restored and reused to save $$$ (however I havent ruled out installing some pretty techno toy tuning/ apex engineering components at a later date)

- Brake upgrade to front and disc upgrade to rear. not going big brakes as I dont like big rims on the 240z

- Custom interior - I am an upholsterer by trade and am going to be doing the interior myself and upgrading some it. Think Alcantara and leather 

- wheels are undecided but something of the period, watanabes/rotas etc 

- Fender Mirrors for that classic japanese sports car look

- Majority of the chrome will be painted in a satin black, I am not a chrome fan unfortunately.... (I know this will upset many of you)

- Exterior besides the lack of chrome will be very stock, no flares etc, thinking about maybe doing a BRE style lower lip air dam thingy

Here are some photos just before I started stripping it

[240ZBUILTBYME]

 

[jfa.series1]

Hey Ryan,

Welcome to the group officially now that you have emerged from lurker status! That looks like a great project and it will be fun to see your progress. Your Dad's new shop looks to be well worth the wait. Sweet video, I wish I had some of your talent in this area - we'll all be watching for your future episodes. Your plan for the car is impressive and I think you'll find some like-minded 920 Safari Gold bigots (like me) on this site. A few years ago I sold a restored steering wheel to a chap in Perth. He commented it is the most isolated city in the world!

Regards,

Jim

[240ZBUILTBYME]

Hi Jim

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! Its really so exciting to be starting this build. Yes the shop is nice and spacious but im running out of room with all the parts coming off the car! It needs some upgrades though, no electricity atm, and want to give the place a good clean out! I swear my dads a hoarder. 

Yes Perth is extremely isolated! Not many z's left over here at all, I could count on two hands how many times Ive seen one on the road. Makes them more expensive and parts harder to find. But luckily we have you guys in US to buy parts from. Just have to get a mortgage to pay for the shipping costs!

look forward to using all the knowledge and expertise from my fellow members 

[240ZBUILTBYME]

So thought I would share how rusty this car is. Perth is a fairly sunny and dry place but we get quite wet winters. This old girl has obviously been left out for a few of them...

Basically everything is rusted where it normally is on this car:

• Outer sills and dog legs
• rear wheel arches
• front frame rails
• floors pans and chassis rails are terrible 
• rear hatch slam panel
• rear valance/beaver panel
• bit in the radiator support
• front nose area where the headlight buckets bolt to

Some rust that it has where you dont often see is:

• cowl area and firewall including the double skin reinforcement area above the steering column mount
• roof frame and roof skin
• A pillars at the bottom of the rain rail skin/panel 

If anyone has any personal experience in rust repairing the cowl, roof and A pillars please let me know as these are the areas Im a bit unsure of... the normal areas dont scare me but these do!

I uploaded about 40 photos onto the aussie forum and it took me about 4 hours, so Im not doing it again lol sorry...if you would like to check out the rust photos head to https://www.viczcar.com/forums/topic/19913-240zbuiltbyme-project-sheena/ 

 

[240ZBUILTBYME]

so far my plan goes like this (please let me know your thoughts and any advice you can give me!):

1. Build a Chassis jig, using  this is to make sure the car is straight and level before I brace it and also so that when i come to replace floors, chassis rails, frame rails etc the car stays square and the bolt holes line up. using these plans from ConVerTT  https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/61482-240z-gets-jiggy/
2. Brace chassis while its on the Jig
3. Build rotisserie
4. Off to restoration shop for stripping and epoxy primer. I was considering using something like easyphos instead of epoxy as I dont know how long its going to take me to complete the rust repairs and bodywork and I have read that its not good to have the car sitting in epoxy. Resto shop guy advised easyphos only lasts about 6 months then rust starts up again. He advised car is ok to sit in epoxy as long as it is in an enclosed shed and covered to protect from any moisture in the air. Your Thoughts?
5. Am thinking its best for the Resto shop to complete repairs on roof, pillars and cowl sections due to complexity of the structures. I think i need to do a roof reskin as to properly repair and rustproof the roof substructure the skin has to come off, chances of reusing the same skin? I would think slim to none, let me know if you know anyone who has reused a roof skin with good results! So I bought a donor roof with a clean skin, my roof structure will need to be repaired. thoughts anyone?
6. Receive the car back from resto shop with repaired cowl and roof and begin long journey to repair all remaining rust.

Which would be:

• Floors and chassis rails from KFvintageJDM. Possibly will need to replace seat mounts, need to see what condition they are in after unpicking them.
• Frame rails from MSA
• Outer Sills from  kfvintagejdm
• Front Sill Reinforcement pieces from kfvintagejdm
• Inner and outer rear wheel arches from MSA
• Rear slam panel from kfvintagejdm
• Rear Valance Panel from auto panel solutions
• Remove Tool compartment skins, patch rust and reinstall 
• Patch Tyre well 
• Remove battery tray and do custom bolt in solution
• Remove radiator support with intention to repair and reuse (has anyone successfully done this?), failing that new piece from fourways engineering ($1800 before shipping!!! will be trying to avoid) or auto panel solutions
• Complete new LHS door from all muscle parts (Aussie site)
• reskin RHS door after proper rust proofing of the shell
• patch front fenders with MSA front fender patch

[240ZBUILTBYME]

 

[Patcon]

I would think you could find better sources for all the metal your are looking at from MSA

I would go epoxy. It's tough and I have never heard of issues. stored inside or not

[240ZBUILTBYME]

2 minutes ago, Patcon said:

I would think you could find better sources for all the metal your are looking at from MSA

I would go epoxy. It's tough and I have never heard of issues. stored inside or not

I was under the understanding that MSA's panels are from zedd findings and Tabco. I tried going direct through tabco but their customer service is non existent. several emails sent, no replies, called them, they said they'd get back to me and never did. 

Where would you recommend Pat?

Yes going to go Epoxy I think.  

[Patcon]

I would go through zed findings or tabco. If you are having trouble with Tabco, maybe somebody on the forum would ship them to you. MSA normaly marks the panels up pretty good. Other better places to spend money than there

[240ZBUILTBYME]

3 minutes ago, Patcon said:

I would go through zed findings or tabco. If you are having trouble with Tabco, maybe somebody on the forum would ship them to you. MSA normaly marks the panels up pretty good. Other better places to spend money than there

Definitely aware there is a mark up on them, however when you ship all the items together from one vendor I would make that money back on savings from the shipping. Its not cheap to send multiple bulky packages from canada, US to the otherside of the world! I get what you're saying though.

[Patcon]

I understand,  I have bought a number of datsun items out of Australia