Yup. I've been suckered into starting a Z project. I thoroughly blame Sideways for planting the seed in my mind saying that a Z would make a great car that's easy and cheap to work on. His constant nagging combined with my original love for the early S30 body led me to do something silly. I scoped out some Zs, and ended up with this guy right here.



Looks great, doesn't it? Runs great, too. Well... sort of. When I first picked up the car, it enjoyed being powerless in first gear and bogging randomly. It also enjoyed taking about five or six tries to start and idling low and rough. Thankfully, a visit to the local Sideways Shop diagnosed some of the nasty. Cracked intake hose was screwing up the air metering. So the hose gets patched with tape, and then the engine decides to not run right at all. AFR was screwed, so Starion fiddled with it and got it running again. He also fixed up the clip for the cold start, and found the injector clips were probably boned too.

But those fixes alone made the engine run properly on all cylinders and not bog. And oh yeah, start the first time. So of course, being victorious, it had to be test driven. I let Sideways do it first, and when he went by and shifted, there was a fireball out the back. I was next up, so we had Starion film it while I drove by. Oh man. The power is like night and day from when I originally bought it. It feels soooo much better now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO_EcCPjaaE

Now, the car also had a habit of making a loud BANG on shifts. Differential carrier bushing, like the rest of the bushings on the car, was boned. I'll get a new one soon, one a wee bit stronger than the stockers.

The body also rolls like crazy, but that's to be expected of suspension right outta the 70s. All in due time. First, a fully running vehicle that doesn't have a jumping diff.

So let's get on with the showing of the nasty pics!

First we have the passenger floor panel. Obviously, the previous owner ignored his laptop and proceeded to blow the manifold.



Then we have the interior wiring. Why do all the cars I buy have to have a rat's nest of wires? Why can't people wire things properly instead of taking useless shortcuts? Oh well, more fun times for me. I'm gonna have to rip apart the dash anyway. After all, the speedometer doesn't work.



And then we have the AWESOME paint job. It's so SIIIIICK.

(Trunk Sill Area)
(Trunk Lid)
(Passenger Lower Rear Quarter)
(Area Under Gas Cap)
(Passenger Front Fender)
(Driver's Side)

So yeah, deeeelicious. I've got some work cut out for this thing. Fun as hell to drive though, and good to see that most of the parts are $300 or less. Including motors and transmissions.

And so, the pros, the cons, and my goals for the build.

Pros
(Relatively) cheap to begin with
Parts are cheap
Engine runs very well
5-speed manual that works (but is angry with me)
Good seats, seatbelts
Great exhaust

Cons
Needs some engine parts (AFR, injector clips, hoses)
Weatherstripping needs replacement
Rusty body parts need replacement
Suspension needs replacement
Brakes need replacement (eventually)
Needs a steering wheel
Needs to be repainted
Speedometer is broken

Goals
250 WHP
Reliable
Restored and converted to 240Z bumpers/tail
Repainted like this, with アズサ県警察峠隊 on the side

If anyone is in the area and wants to check it out, lemme know. Otherwise, ask your questions, make comments, and keep watching this thread for progress!

Wow, grats man! Your dad was cool with this? What happens to the contour? I'm down to check it out once school settles down.

He still has the Contour. Can't get rid of the Touge Taxi man. The Z will be his fun weekend car when its fully restored and repaired.

What Ayako said. The Z isn't reliable enough yet to be a daily, so the Contour stays. My dad... doesn't know about this Z yet. He was okay with me having a Z in general, but I need to let my bank account recover before I can come right out and say I have one. I'm currently in financial pain, so.

N1, congrats on picking up that Z.

When do you plan on being out of financial woes, and have it up and running? Or is just going to be a go with the flow deal?

Ugh, financial woes, say no more lol.

I say we start some DONations so n1 can earn some money back....
that and he wont get spanked to hell..


lol with the JDM pig paint job
imo id keep it white all the way,
you'd better slap on some ZG fenders

Honestly, I normally wouldn't accept donations... but right now I'm hurting bad, so if y'all are feeling generous lemme know...

ZG fenders are going on eventually, along with some of these:



However, I won't be doing the ZG nose. I was never a fan of it. I dunno, I just prefer the plain-jane Z nose better.

EDIT: Demon_Lord, the car is driveable now, and I'm fixing things as I go along. Hopefully I'll be back in normal financial status in a month or two, and then can start really attacking things.

This post has been edited by Nomake Wan on Apr 19 2009, 09:10 PM

You sir have my sympathy. I haven't even met the peice of shit and I already know he's a pushy son of a b*tch.


Congrats and good luck on your ride. Good color choice too. Not too sure about your paint scheme choice, but it's neat and kudo's for some level of originality. A lot cooler then dark blue. lol

Honestly, I love white on a Z. It's my favorite color. I'm still tossing up whether to do the police scheme or just repaint it properly into the same white color. I like them both, but you don't see a lot of the police ones around.

Thanks for the well-wishes, I'll do the best I can to get it back to spec.

At the very least, it looks good from a distance now, so you shouldn't need to repaint it until you are ready.

Congrats on the project.

oh great...another one


but i love them so much, i can't help it, they so awesome


congrats man, looks like it will be a very fun project, my friend had a S30 too, funniest car ever to drive

I also have this issue on my evo... maybe replacing the bushings on the diff carrier could also be my answer

What does your car run power-wise as standard?....

also, who is Azusa??

First off...is it just me, or is /idw/ turning into WME with all the z projects we keep getting??

Secondly, if it sounds good, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD keep that ghetto-ass sound system on that shit.

This post has been edited by Midnight Drifter on Apr 20 2009, 05:00 AM

No. It's two big speakers hooked into a... mono... '78... tape deck...

DUAL MONO POWAA!

Naw, it's going. I'll see if I can put a new head unit into my dad's Contour and then put his old head unit into the Z. Might keep the speakers, might not. We'll see, we'll see.

Drifter: Meh. It'll work. You can't really expect a '78 car to be rust-free no matter where you buy it, unless it's owned by someone who babied it or restored it themselves. And those go for biiiiiig monies. I can handle a little restoration, I think.

What the hell was I thinking when I said that. I knew it was driveable, because I read the first post... in realality I ment when were you going to be doing things to it, but it came out that way.

Rust free and Garden state don't belong in the same sentence.

The white will grow on you. If you still see it as an option, that's what you'll end up going with, trust me.

Sounds awesome there, Don. I have to ask though, what does the Japanese say in your post?

Also, what's with the BMW driver-esque Bluetooth? Don't tell me you're becoming a cock!

This post has been edited by MattW on Apr 20 2009, 07:10 AM

You never see the policia scheme lol. I say ignore the body and get the maitenence goodies then performance goodies! Then make it pretty. I think youd enjoy having a car you can beat up around the edges a bit ant not worry about EVERYWHERE you take the thing. Looking forward to seeing that thing in person again, lets hurry up and take care of your diff mount

It's illegal to talk on the phone and drive.

How easy is it going to be to get 250 whp out of that car? I'm not sure what it has stock, but with that much whp you'd be looking at 280-290 at the crank.

He plans to go turbo at some point, so should not be too difficult.

Finally, someone asks what it says here instead of over IM. It reads:

"Azusa Area Police Touge Division"

As for the bluetooth, it's exactly what BmwNeoType said. It's illegal to hold a cell phone and drive, so I prefer to have it. Besides, I wear headset at work, so after having it on for a little bit I just forget it's there.

Deez: Again Bmw beats me to the punch. Eventually there'll be an L28ET motor going in, so 250 to the wheels should be attainable without getting too insane.

Sideways: That was the plan all along. Fix the mechanicals, make it fun to drive, then take care of the pretty. The only difference is I might end up doing the body fixing before the turbo swap, as the engine will be out of the car at that point anyway.

Diff mount and other engine bits will be fixed as soon as I'm not totally in debt.