Restoration of HLS30-12070

[CW240Z72]

Huge milestone was accomplished on the Z. We had the entire shell and all components dustless blasted. 

We were very happy with the final results of this. No new problems were unearthed behind the respray. Shell was immediately followed up with a DTM (direct to metal) primer to prevent contamination from handling the raw steel. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by CW240Z72

[240ZBUILTBYME]

I get so jealous seeing how little rust some peoples cars have....🥺

congrats, nice find 

[Patcon]

Nice solid car!

Looks like it has a little damage on the left rear wheel arch and the rear corner. Beware, those rear corners are paper thin!

[CW240Z72]

On 11/7/2020 at 8:14 AM, Patcon said:

Nice solid car!

Looks like it has a little damage on the left rear wheel arch and the rear corner. Beware, those rear corners are paper thin!

Good eye. Yes, the LHR wheel well lip has a little bit of body damage at one point in the Z's life. Fortunately a bit of stud gun/ hammer dolly work was all that we needed to make it right (pics to follow). 

[CW240Z72]

At this point the car was torn down just about all the way. I was itching to start the rebuilding/reassembly process. Taking a break from the body work, I grabbed the R180 rear end and began the refresh for it. 

 

 

 

[CW240Z72]

After a thorough cleaning and some fresh paint, the assembly was built back up with new seals, bearings, and contact pattern verified. At this point the remaining hardware not installed on the diff was sent off to be zinc plated. Once that returns it will get the final button up and torqued to spec. We are working with the goal of a 100% original appearing restoration (as possible). I know Nissan most likely built these assemblies up and painted the entire unit black, but I couldn't get myself to do that. A little raw aluminum and zinc hardware will look nicely when it's all back together. 

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by CW240Z72

[CW240Z72]

Engine came back from the machine shop ready for reassembly. 

Short block was torn down, cleaned, inspected, and rebuilt with new bearings, pistons, rings and seals. Head was also torn down and thoroughly cleaned, and checked for any damage. After that, a valve job and decking the surfaces was done to complete the machine work. 

Engine and head came back separate so I could paint the block in the correct shade of blue and reassemble it at my own pace. The long block was completed with a new timing set and an OEM set of head bolts and washers. 

 

[CW240Z72]

With the long block out of the way, and waiting on hardware to come back from the plating shop and bigger parts off to get powder coated, I turned back to rebuilding the smaller assemblies on hand. 

Next up was the rack and pinion. I ordered up new bushings, rack bellows, tie rod ends. The FSM has an easy to follow guide for rebuilding these. Tore the assembly all the way down, media blasted the housing, and used a generous amount of grease on the gear system. 

 

[rturbo 930]

What a fantastic car to start with. I doubt there's many original cars left in that condition. 

You might try this process to remove the yellowing from the plastics, such as your expansion tank, since you've got the early plastic one. Not sure what differences there might be in the plastic you have to work with versus what was used in the video. 

 

[Captain Obvious]

Very pretty work.

So what timing kit did you buy? I can see the ITM on the tensioner, but the curved (slack side) guide looks like the one for the 280, not the 240.

I have also heard (somebody's post-purchase feedback) somewhere that there were some minor fitment issues with the front cover hitting one of the guides. Too much material on some spot and it hit the timing cover. I think it was ITM, but I don't remember for sure.

[CW240Z72]

12 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Very pretty work.

So what timing kit did you buy? I can see the ITM on the tensioner, but the curved (slack side) guide looks like the one for the 280, not the 240.

I have also heard (somebody's post-purchase feedback) somewhere that there were some minor fitment issues with the front cover hitting one of the guides. Too much material on some spot and it hit the timing cover. I think it was ITM, but I don't remember for sure.

Complete timing set from ITM. This is the fourth ITM timing set I've installed, have not ran across a fitment issue yet, but good eye. I'll compare it to the original one pulled out again as a sanity check. 

[CW240Z72]

12 hours ago, rturbo 930 said:

What a fantastic car to start with. I doubt there's many original cars left in that condition. 

You might try this process to remove the yellowing from the plastics, such as your expansion tank, since you've got the early plastic one. Not sure what differences there might be in the plastic you have to work with versus what was used in the video. 

 

Very cool! I have looked into a few ways to achieve this with various chemicals. I found another how to video of a guy doing this to a washer bottle. When I get to that point in the build I'll report back on how successful this DIY process is for me.