240Z BRE Replica Build-Continued

[motorman7]

On 9/28/2023 at 2:57 AM, grannyknot said:

Will be looking forward to your report when you get the pads bedded in, I've heard that kit gives remarkable braking.

Yes, They even include directions on how to 'bed in' the brakes.  Very thorough.

[motorman7]

I ordered the Skillard speaker supports and installed the Kenwood 5 1/4" speakers on each side in the rear hatch of the the car.  I attached 16GA wire (overkill) to the speakers and routed them to the front for future attachment.  Also installed the battery, picked that up from Costco, Model #34.  The posts are in the correct orientation with this model although the battery is a bit on the short side. 

Finished the exhaust and muffler installation. That was fairly straight forward with the off the shelf Motorsport assembly which I also have on my yellow Z.

Received the AC kit from Vintage Air, so started the install on that.  Installed the Condenser and Dryer using existing holes.  Trying to be minimally invasive here and not drill any new holes when possible.  Not sure what they were for, but there were two nice 5mm holes with nut plates at the top forward part of the radiator support frame that I used for the top support of the Condenser.  Amazingly  hole spacing on the radiator support frame matched the holes on the Condenser so I used those for a nice solid top mount.  I custom fabbed a bracket on the lower end for base support .  The angle looks steep in the pics because of the perspective, but I am guessing it is about 7 degrees from being parallel with the radiator, so should be fine for air flow.  I installed the Dryer using the holes that are typically for the ID plate.  I haven't come accross the plate in the stash of parts yet, so I will leave it here for now as it makes for a clean hose routing.   The bulkhead fittings for the water lines fit nicely in the original rubber for the heater hoses, so for now I will keep it this way. 

The next project will be to install the evaporator in the interior. Will show pics of that once I get that going.  Special thanks to this thread for doing the pioneering work on the AC install.  I am using this as reverence.

 

 

[motorman7]

I was provided a light weight (about 1 pound) mock-up of the AC Evaporator with the kit to use for fabricating the support brackets.  This is much easier to manage than the actual 15-20 pound REAL Evaporator unit. I fabricated the 3 brackets to support the unit as shown below.  I installed the bulkhead connectors for the heater lines in the engine bay and adapter the hoses.  I will do the interior heater lines next.  I temporarily attached the right angle heater fittings on the interior just to see how they would look.  Also did a quick verification putting the mock-up back in to make sure there was no interference with the heater lines . 

I marked a preliminary position for the AC lines with a cut-out from the bulkhead connector kit, but decided to go horizontal instead of the vertical shown here.  Horizontal gives a little more foot room for the passenger and also keeps things fairly clean inside the engine bay.

I grabbed an old smog pump bracket and found that it works very well in supporting the compressor. The bracket also lines the compressor pulley up perfectly with the crank pulley.  I cleaned and painted it.  You can see how things line up in the picture below, very nice.  I will drill out the bracket to accomodate the larger bolt shown below, which is a bit beefier and happens to be the correct length.  I will use an expandable arm similar to what is supporting the alternator for an upper support that will also provide a little adjustability.  

As I get farther along with this, I must say that I am actually starting to like this set-up.  It is very clean under the dash and so far has not been difficult to install.  (Hopefully I am not speaking too soon here). The AC Evaporator vent openings are all controlled electronically and seem fairly simple in their operation.  If things continue to go smoothly, I may put this on more cars in the future.

Pics below.

[Patcon]

Did you mention in a previous post what system that is?

[motorman7]

On 10/9/2023 at 8:33 PM, Patcon said:

Did you mention in a previous post what system that is?

It's the same one that is installed in the other thread.  It's the VintageAir Gen II mini. The thing that I am really liking about it is the compact size and the electronic vent operation.  No more rickety sliding levers and cables to install and adjust. I have not addressed the control panel yet, but will do my best to have it look like the original when I get to that point. 

[motorman7]

Lots of progress this week.  I installed the Evaporator unit using the brackets I fabbed with the mock-up.  I fabbed and installed the heater hoses, installed the heater hose control module (electronic, yeah!) and almost all of the AC hoses.  AC hoses were pretty easy to make using the hose pliers, very straight forward.  I am very happy with the AC compressor mount on the Smog Pump bracket.  I drilled out the bracket slightly to accomodate the larger bolt. It mounts firmly in place using the larger bolt.  I will add an alternator tensioner to the top of the unit to complete the support and provide adjustment.

I was short a few parts (AC hose clamps), probably because of the bulkhead addition so I ordered the few parts that were needed.  Also, I did not like the right angle set-up for the AC lines at the bulkhead so ordered one more straight fitting.  Will complete the installation when those parts arrive.  Here are pics.

[motorman7]

More progress this weekend.  I got the final parts for the AC from VintageAir on Thursday and completed the mechanical installation of the AC system.  All hoses were fitted with thier respective o-rings, lubed, and then given the final torque.  Installation of the complete system was much simpler than I had expected.  I like the final routing to the Evaporator box.  It's a little different than the other AC thread installation, but looks very clean.

I adapted the AC switches and slides to the stock Z Temp control panel.  I first tried making a single bracket to support two of the switches and ended up making a single bracket for each switch.  It was a bit easier this way as the mounting features on the panel are not in the same plane (there is about a .10" offset). The heater slide is secured with the cooling switch bracket as it does not have any mounting features.  The Cooling switch and control switch are both secured to their respective brackets with #6 screw and nuts.  Pics are below.  I test mounted everything to a spare panel before finally transfereing over to the final panel.  I will finish up the panel with the knobs, decals and silver touch up pen a  little later.

While the dash was out, we got the clock re-furbed with a quartz mechanism at Zclocks.com.  I have used these on several of my restorations and have one in my White Z.  These keep incredibly accurate time.  Much better than the stock units, also more reliable.  Pics are below

Next steps will be to finish the AC electrical connections (looks fairly straight forward as most connections are poke-a-yoke) and then put the dash back in.

[motorman7]

One more item.  I wanted to see if I could use the stock rotary fan speed switch instead of the VintageAir rotary switch,  so I rung each switch out with a meter and found that the Vintage air has a tab that gets power whenever the fan is switched to Low, Medium or High.  The stock Z switch does not have this function.  The Vintage air tab that powers up when turned on routes to cooling control switch and area selector switch.  Also, the resitance through each switch is different.  The VintageAir resistance to each Low, Medium and High is about 20 Ohms while the Z fan speed switch is around 100 Ohms.  So, I had to go with the VintageAir switch.

[motorman7]

Haven't posted in while but got a lot done.  I installed the dash and hooked up the ducts from the VintageAir system.  This was pretty easy.  Vintage air sends two diameters of tubing with their kit.  The smaller diameter hose is for the defrost ducts.  Amazingly, the small diameter hose fits perfectly on to the stock defroster vents.  A small S shaped section does the trick for the defrost attachment.  The Outside vents are also pretty straight forward.  I installed the larger ducting in the dash and left the hose long in the middle.  After installing the dash, I trimmed the hose and connected it to the Evaporator unit two outside ports.  The center port on the vintage air system is for the 'floor', however, I will fab something so that it can come out of the center panel.  The lower switch in the front control panel gives you 4 options: Off, Vents, Floor and Vents+Floor.  All electronically controlled.  Very nice.  So, AC mechanical system is now completely installed including a belt for the AC compressor.  I will connect the final electrical when i install the panel.  We will charge the system at a shop on a later date.

 Installed a fused switch for the fuel pump.  This is right in front on the dash for easy access and operates nicely.

Got the rear interior panels mostly installed.  Panels were from a different car, so most of the holes lined up (versus purchased panels where half the holes do not line up).

Installed a new removable steering wheel.  This is actually pretty sweet and makes getting in and out of the car a bit easier with the flat bottom.

Installed an offset stick for the 5 speed transmission.  The straight stick will not work when connecting to the 5 speed.  Both sticks shown in Neutral position.  Final install pics are with offset shifter ,shown below.

We started the engine up and she sounds great and very smooth.  The clutch system bled nicely and operates well.  Fluid was put in the transmission as well.  Once I get the brakes ironed out she will be ready for a cruise around the block.  My initial bleed did not go too well.  I could not bleed the forward bowl on the Willwood master cylinder from the forward bleed port, so will have to investigate that. 

Center console has a hole forward of the choke lever.  I will be installing a USB port in this position.

Latest pics are below

Edited November 17, 2023 by motorman7

[motorman7]

I figured out the issue with the brakes.  The post that sticks out of the Brake Booster was pushing into the master cylinder about half an inch on installation.  Once I shortened the post so that it was not pushing into the master cylinder on installation, everything worked fine.  Both reservoirs bled well as did all four disc brake bleed valves.  I used my trusty Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder on all of the bleed valves.  Brakes are nice and firm and work well.

With the brakes complete, I took the car for a spirited drive around the neighborhood running it through alll 5 gears.  It runs very strong as it has the 280Z motor, a milled cam, high compression and a 3.94:1(?) rear end among other things.  The motor was built by the same shop that does Adam Corolla's motors.

I finished the heater panel installation (mostly- no radio or light bezel).  I fabbed a small bracket that clips to the center vent and has an oval opening for the vent duct.  See pictures below.  The vent duct connects to the center opening on the evaporator and was connected on installation.  The final electrical connections were finished and the panel put in place.  I switched the ignition to ACC and checked out the operation of the fan and vents.  The fan appears to put out more air than the stock unit, especially in the defrost mode.  The only thing that takes getting used to is when switching from defrost, to vent, to room/center air there is a couple second delay as the actuators or the system open and close the valves.  Unlike the stock manual cable system that operates immediately.  Overall, I am very happy with the system and found it fairly simple to retro-fit into the Z. 

I finished up the panel install and cleaned up the wiring a bit.  Also added the parking brake light upgrade kit, that was a prettty easy install.  Also installed the window mounted mirrors which I think look pretty sporty.  The install of the mirrors is prettty easy with the correct rivets.

I am now color sanding and buffing out the paint which really makes the car look awesome.  I am hoping to install the decals by the middle to end of next week in time for a car club grand opening car show here in Boise on December 16th.  I know the manager and he said that he would set me up with a nice spot for the car.

https://www.toyboxcarclub.com/

Pics of progress are below.

Also, I will be 3D modeling the mirror mount and the choke center plate as the mirror mount is broken and the choke plate is missing.  My neighbor has several types of 3D printers and said that he would print these for me.  Assuming they turn out well, I may make several copies just in case they are needed.

[SpeedRoo]

When you do your 3D prints make sure to use filament that will withstand the temperatures inside a hot car and also not react with the UV from the sun.

Roo

[motorman7]

42 minutes ago, SpeedRoo said:

When you do your 3D prints make sure to use filament that will withstand the temperatures inside a hot car and also not react with the UV from the sun.

Roo

Thanks, I will talk with the print guy about this.  Here is what the files look like.  I went custom on the choke panel for now as it was easier.  May modify that one later if i dont like this one.