240ZBUILTBYME

Very nice! that's how id like mine to look! Agree with the photos, its like a spaghetti bowl in there...

Yes had a little break, which was needed. My zx is down at the moment, all the injectors failed so i need to replace them, i have the new injectors just need the time to install, plus i want to replate the fuel rail and a few bits in the engine bay to tidy things up.

Haha its been a while but yes the dream is still alive. albeit a more expensive dream by the day...

few exciting updates The body shop contacted me and asked if I wanted to bring all the smaller parts in and they could get a headstart on a few things when they had gaps to fill. So I dropped the bonnet, rear hatch, front fenders, cowl panel and headlight buckets off to them. One of their panel beaters is a hardcore datsun fan so he couldn't help himself but make a start immediately. Certainly works in my favour! Pretty happy to see some sort of progress! I ended up ordering the spare wheel tub and lower front valance from resurrected classics, my tub had many non factory holes and the lower valance panels all came back a dogs breakfast from the blasters. My body shop advised that if there are decent reproductions it will be more cost effective to buy them instead of them fixing my mangle panels. Also ended up taking a gamble on resurrected classics new stainless yellow zinc plated bolt kit. I'm pretty impressed with how comprehensive it is, basically every fastener besides the suspension bolts. Everything was very well labelled, only downside i see is you are paying for some fasteners you dont need as they include 260z & 280z fasteners. Now to compare them to stock versions.... Also ordered the resurrected classic doors, mine were cooked and these will save me a tonne of money!

Its been a while gents. I hope you're all well and been driving those cars of yours. Speaking to the panel shop they are looking at Q3 to get the car in, I need to get my arse in gear and start sorting the bits they'll eventually need to fit up panels, hood/hatch/door hinges, bolts for fenders etc and not to mention the few panels I haven't already bought. So I pulled the trigger and bought the KFVJDM rear quarters, it hurt a lot to see the total price shipped, i also got slugged with import duties, however its the first time i have been stung and I've brought in thousands of dollars worth of parts so my number had to come up eventually. arrived all safe with no visible damage besides some scratches to that funky green paint. I have to say they don't use much foam or bubble wrap to protect the panels if at all. If you remember my rear hatch is pretty beat up so I thought Id get their lower rear hatch panel as well, at first glance it looks a bit off in places but hopefully it works well.

I can only imagine the feeling! congrats Dave! man this build is going so quickly!

Glad to see you back at it mate, love marveling at your posts. keep it up!

I always planned to go initially with the HJG46Ws I have but I'm unsure if they will keep up with the stroker. I totally understand what you're saying! The reason I'm not phased about spending money on the engine/driveline is that I have the 280zx as a fall back. So if I dont end up using the components on the 240z they will be able to go straight into the 280zx, 3.1 engine, gearbox, carbs everything driveline related.

Do you know which units he runs? there seems to be oer weber type which uses weber components and an oer type that uses oer components

which oer units did you run? 45mm? I just looked up the pricing, it is tempting

I have looked at those and they seem great value. issue is more the expertise to run and service them in Perth would be non existent. My Z guy has never worked with anything but webers so id rather stick with what he knows. I was keen to run mikunis but the price of them and lack of expertise in perth made me rule them out. I don't want to have to pay for my mechanic to learn all about mikunis lol

Initially I was going to run the original 4 screw hitachi SU's to start with and upgrade later to triples, but these popped up and im tempted to just go straight triples

Ill be running a 3.0 to 3.1L so I think 45's are appropriate from what ive read

So Im planning to pick up this set of triple weber 45 dcoe 152 3 progression hole, does anyone have any thoughts on this model of webers? I have not done much research on webers but I have seen some negativity around these. Wondering if I should be going for the 152G 4 progression hole model instead? These were bought new in 2021 and only been lightly used, basically brand new.

Yeah I still see importing a car from the US as a bigger risk than going with the devil i know.

I see that as the far more riskier option than using my chassis. unless the chassis shell is blasted and in epoxy you wont be able to tell whether there is rust. secondly you gents drive on the wrong side of the road! by the time you convert the currency its roughly the same cost for the shop to do it

@Mark Maras @Patcon thanks for your opinions guys, appreciate the honesty and its reassuring you somewhat agree with my decision. I will wait and see where I stand financially and motivation wise before I decide to outsource the paint side, I like the idea of having them do the paint prep and then we come in and finish the actual painting. yep they have come to see the car, figure has 5 numbers, and was around what i was expecting Yeah I understand why some would abandon this chassis, and if a clean chassis came up i would certainly take it. but that's not going to happen, not where I am, unfinished projects are as rare as rocking horse $^!#. And at this point I think all chassis' deserve to be saved.

So I've been doing a lot of thinking and soul searching in regards to this project. I've contemplated giving up on this car so many times I've lost count, but I just cant bring myself to do it, I'm in too deep at this point and the passion to finish it is still too strong. But I've had to be honest with myself with what I can achieve at this point of my life with my current skillset. I have two beautiful kids that are by far the most important thing in my life. At the moment because of the kids I'm extremely time poor, I think once they are both in fulltime school I'll be able to throw some hours at this car, that is probably 2-3 years away still. So I'm now contemplating having the metalwork done by a professional shop, and maybe me and my dad painting the car once the rust repair is complete, or just bite the bullet and have the shop paint it. I've had some quotes and its an extraordinary sum of money. But at this point of my life I have the money but not the time. I feel like I've been working on this car for ages (cause I have) and feel like I've achieved nothing (cause I haven't). If I continue to stubbornly try and complete the rust repairs on my own I'll still be posting about this project when I'm 50.... So I've put the car on the waiting list of a reputable restoration shop here in Perth, currently their waitlist is over a year, so I think I will still have an opportunity to do some work. It kills me to make this decision as I always wanted to do it myself and I've spent so much buying tools and equipment to do it, but I feel its the only way i can move forward meaningfully at this time I got the car back from the blaster a few months ago but have only just got time to go back and take some photos. I felt nauseous for a few weeks post getting the car back. Here are some pics of the rust that was hiding under the paint....Although the car looks great in all one color there are certainly more holes now.... First the roof, check out the LHS drip rail, yikes RHD rear quarter LHS internal roof structure The bottom of the tool compartment has rust all along the bottom join Not much left of the floor pans I thought my rear hatch was in good nick, crazy what paint can hide.... looks worse in person trust me, all bashed and buckled Knew this LHS chassis rail was bad but it now has 70% more holes now fenders looked really good before but alas I was tricked yet again Bonnet actually came out amazing besides damage to the front corner oh the humanity.... rear section had some nasty suprises cowl and firewall holes got bigger and lastly the cowl cover came out nice despite some small rust holes

So i have outlined the whole plate, it does extend underneath and is on both sides

not the best photo but you can see it pretty clearly

I'm quite sure this is a stock reinforcement plate, I have them on my car, ill see if i can find a photo

yeah I was planning on giving it a go, was just reading up on testing a harness seems straight forward but you obviously need to know where each wire terminates on both ends, so would make sense to do it while all the tape is off

My z guy Martin is giving me the hurry up to get my dash harness to him so he can install my gauges, I wanted to do an overhaul on all the terminals and plugs, so I first created a nail board and splayed out the harness. I then started studying the wiring diagram which to be honest at first look overwhelmed me, but once you have the harness splayed out and diagram in front of you it gets clearer. Then I marked out all the harness intersections on the board and began labelling each terminal using the wiring diagram to help me identify terminals or plugs that weren't connected to anything when i removed it from the car. Next I plan to strip the tape off the harness putting small bands of temporary tape to hold its shape and intersections, then Ill inspect and repair the wires, once I'm happy with the wires i will start depinning, replacing pins and plugs. before retaping I'm going to see if i can get it continuity tested or if i can do it myself.

@cgsheen1 Thanks so much for your knowledge mate! Ill check out the FSM and see whether there's anything in there

So I'm starting the process of restoring my dash harness, trying to identify some of the terminals that weren't connected to anything or don't match anything in the wiring diagram. I'm hoping there's some wiring gurus that can help. I've been using the 71 early diagram as I believe that's what my car is. I hope this isn't too confusing....