DJZ's 280ZX

[DJZ]

Got a bit done during the weekend, got one more hole in the engine bay to weld up then I can start grinding them back. I'm trying to get it ready for painting the engine bay by the end of next weekend.

The RB block has been bored, I dropped the rest of the bits off the other day for them to assemble it.

I got an R31 front sway bar and radius rods, they look like they are going to work okay, the radius rods might be a little on the short side, it's a bit hard to tell with the front control arms. Hopefully they will be finished this week so I can get it rolling again.

I pulled out the front cross member, I had the axle stands under it so I thought I'd use another handy tool from my work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliXOxM2Hjw

So I need to pull the steering rack off the crossmember, give it a good clean and a little bit of paint and jam it back in.

I've found some new seats that I'm bidding on on Trademe, hopefully they'll look okay in it. I've some GTR front brake rotors on the way too.

[DJZ]

Not much progress this weekend, nothing infact.

Bought a lightweight flywheel, hasn't turned up yet, haven't decided what to do about a clutch yet. Also won the auction for the FD RX7 seats I was bidding on so I should get them later this week or next week.

I've been looking at gauges and trying to figure out what to do, what I really want is one of the Japanese after market 300k/10,000rpm clusters but they are out of production and impossible to find these days. Also with the RB25 gearbox they have an electronic speedo sensor so I'd have to swap by the sounds of it either to an R32 GTR speedo drive or to a Navara sensor I think.




So I'll probably look at replacing the gauges from some ones I've found on http://www.speedhut.com they are some pretty cool ones and also do GPS speedos so you don't need to have them connected to a sensor at all!

The problem that I've got is the holes in the standard Z cluster are quite large






So the gauges sit kind of funny in there, but it doesn't look too bad.


In other news I bought this this morning, these pics are a few years old and it is in a million pieces now.

[DJZ]

Picked up the new car today, this is what it looks like at present:




These are the wheels that are on it, can't find much info on them but they are made by Pismo? They are 14's.



Came with these ugly 280ZX wheels too, will get some tyres for them just to roll the cars around on



Got my new flywheel for the RB Z too, also some R32 GTR front brake rotors




This is what the engine bay looks like currently:


Took the crossmember out and gave it a clean, painted the radius rod mounts too

[85_Z31]

Looking good !

the new car looks pretty tidy aye its good !

[Flauski]

Saw that on trademe, would have been worth it just to part out. Tempted but South island cost too muchy muchy to transporty.

Cant WAIT to see this thing going.

You better come to Akaroa. Then you can buy me a beer for making me broke

[DJZ]

Yeah, I got it for a pretty reasonable price I think for the condition that it's in, I got the original motor and auto trans for it too.

I'll come to Akaroa if one of my three projects is in going condition hah, this thing is going into storage till the Z is done and the Skyline is either sold or I get the motivation to finish it.

Your car is looking really good Tony, it's coming together pretty fast.

[DJZ]

Got a little bit more done:



Also got these bits, ARP heat stud kit, HKS oil cooler kit and some FD RX7 seats




Should be getting my motor back either tomorrow or early next week.

[DJZ]

Put a donk on it









Motor would be back together this weekend except for the fact that one of the valve spring seats is missing, not sure whether the guys that did the machine work have still got it or what. Hopefully I haven't doubled up on one of the valves, might pull them out again tomorrow to see.

[DJZ]

Found the missing spring seat, I had doubled one of them up. Went to Cockrams today and ordered an oil filter stud, $35 is a bit of a rip but better than dicking around trying to find a second hand one.

Installed the head today after I finished putting it back together then installed the cams. Started fitting the oil pump but it appears that I've misplaced the bolts for it, I'll try and find them tonight but I might just have to buy some new ones.

Tried the turbo on the manifold with the rocker covers on, it's pretty close but I think it should clear, not too sure how the turbo water lines are supposed to run, the thread on the adaptors that came with them is too big to screw into the block, I'll have to track down some that work.

[brocky41]

That looks like its getting pretty serious dude - good work