Hello fellow Z owners, I joined the ranks last year and have been reading and watching the forum ever since, I actually think I joined the day after purchasing my first Z and now I have three in the family, Sadly only one is on the road, something I hope to rectify soon! I wish I could be coming to Zfest with you all, I certainly wont be missing the next one, I just cant afford it this time About me I work as a PHP developer making ecommerce websites, I have a passion for technology and love SciFi. My favourite car growing up was the Lamborghini Countach, I couldnt take my eyes off the images when I saw it for the first time, it seemed like something from the future. Naturally when I first saw the 300zx I thought to myself, I will own one of those one day! So with the ex-wife long gone, and the kids all left the nest about 12 months ago, I bit the bullet and bought my first 300zx. I had a serious love affair with that car that I am sure only other Z owners will understand. washing it twice a week and looking for any excuse for what i termed automotive therapy, getting the roof off at every opportunity and playing duff duff music like a teenager Naturally I was heartbroken when I had a bingle so I picked up a cheap daily Z (manual this time) because riding the bike everywhere was getting tiresome and as much as it probably looks ok, it is a pig in comparison but I wont get into that here (pics in the garage) My Project To restore an Aus spec NA At 2+2 I was determined to repair my original Z and I picked up a perl white Auspec 2+2 cheap to use as parts, however after seeing what was missing from the car (most of the interior) and given I got almost a full second interior with my second Z I decided to restore her It had some serious electrical issues and the battery was almost dead flat from sitting for about 18 months. I hit it with the battery charger to see if it had any life left and after a few hrs it seemed to be holding charge. Even the radio was working and powered by a kenwood amp didnt sound too bad at all but no dash lights and it wouldnt start Next few days seen the battery holding charge ok and whenever I would open the door the brake lights would flash for about a minute which made me think it was an alarm install gone wrong. Sure enough it turned out to be a mongoose alarm system with no remote, once that was removed the dash lights came back, the engine turned over and seemed to run quite well, in fact it purrs like a kitten...lol This project will be a steep learning curve for me as I know very little about cars, I used to rebuild bikes in the early 90s but theres much more junk in a car...lol. So I guess this build thread will be a little about documenting my progress and a lot about me asking for advice and even help with different parts of the build... My skills are in IT so I will be looking to beg, borrow and barter my way through this process I am not looking to pimp my ride with a bunch of bling, I just want a nice classy daily that I can be proud of. I have a definite idea of want and will be trying to do what I can on a budget. This wont be any show pony, I will be happy with something tidy and reliable, but hey, down the track, who knows My first challenge is getting the stock wheels off, they have locking nuts and did not come with the corresponding key socket, once I do I will have a set of stock wheels for sale Also there were no nuts, bolts or screws that came with the car so the bits of interior I do have is only just sitting in place, however i did order a pack of 10 M10 x 30 for the seats on ebay for $8 so at least I wont be using my shins to stop me from falling ass up when moving her around the yard. So any advice from any of you will be greatly received and appreciated When I first found her The interior, or should I say lack of... At home and welcomed into the family, come up OK with a bath and given the wiper was broken decided to do the wiper delete as well (not sure what the legal issues will be with that in QLD? I will post some more pics later of the interior in the car and also a list of parts I am chasing, eg drivers door interior or perhaps even a complete door as this one is slightly bent Also need some advice on mirrors, being Aus-spec it looks like they dont have the controls to fold back in which case these F430 mirrors look really nice Cheers FireHorse
tail lights Hi Blissfully Yeah, its actually just a sticker. I had a spare set of tail lights so went about swapping them out (I thought I might sell them with the stickers on so the new owner would have the choice) but the sticky black sh1t had them locked in firm and rather than stuff around I just peeled the stickers off except the center sticker that covers the 300zx, eventually it will come off but its still on there for now For some reason I dont like any writing on a car, not even any badges, I think cars look much nicer completely debadged, they look smoother and sleeker somehow. I am even wrestling with the idea of replacing the nose panel as it has that big Z emblazened on it, but I must admit, its growing on me. I dont think its a stock one either as its a bit bigger and has a small line through the middle of the Z I also have to keep reminding myself I have champagne taste on a beer budget...lol Cheers FireHorse
managed to slowly collect the missing pieces of interior and fit them. Looks a little odd but have a replacement original tweed console on the way. The plan is to do the fabric paint on all the tweed in black Did a test fit of a bomex (i think) front bar With the OEM bar fitted after doing a fibreglass repair on the crack. The bar is currently curing after the second round of fibreglassing for the drivers side indicator support currently working through a wiring issue for the parkers and low beam has decided to not work... jobs for during the week. A long way to go yet but at least its getting close to being able to be registered
Well done, your getting there and that " Z" badge on your nose panel isn't an original or at least not from a Z32 . Wiper deletes aren't an issue as far as i know. Ad you can get some JDM side mirrors and if your handy with electrics wire them in or get an auto sparkie too do it.
mirrors I checked the motors in the mirrors and they seemed to work OK (a little slow, but working) So I went down to the local glazier and got new mirror glass cut for $30, looks like new, very happy
Seatbelts So I am going through the final checks for RWC and notice the seatbelt wont clip into the holder I had a jspec seat installed and wired up and the clip on the seat is too small (Klippan brand i think) I have a spare jspec drivers seatbelt so was going to swap them over but the bracket that holds the spindle to the pillar is quite different to the door mount brackets. Whats the best thing to do here? Do I look for the auspec clips for the seat, presuming they are a bolt on affair of course? if so I need 2 if anyone has any Or is it possible to dismantle the spindle and reuse the auspec brackets on the jspec seatbelts? if so I need a passenger jspec seatbelt cheers FireHorse
Still a bit lost on the seatbelt front so it looks like I will have to retrofit the jspec ones into the B pillar mounting, should work... The drivers front guard was damaged when I got the car but it came with a white guard that was quite straight. I priced some paint to color match (code KH6) and it seemed quite expensive due to the pearl so I found something quite close called Torquay Sand (DSH47) and gave the guard 3 coats Did the skirts as well but run out of paint, needs another couple of coats was poking around underneath the car examining the exhaust and noticed this, dont know why I didnt see it before, needless to say I got quite excited...lol not sure what I need to complete it so I can use it but I would say its only the tounge, ball and a couple of big bolts. Not sure how to fit the skirts, more research needed. Going for RWC next week so hopefully get to drive this soon
If you purposely painted your guard a different colour because KH6 was too expensive, then you're gonna get a shock when it comes time to run it.
lol true the replacement guard was a pure white so anything closer was going to be better, at least until I can source a replacement guard the right colour. Actually didnt like the Torquay Sand, was a little too yellow, you can actually see it in the pics, so I went over it with a couple of light coats of Alpine White (DSC01) and its a much closer fit. Will do for now... (will upload some pics later) So, the good news, it passed rwc (despite having HIDs) and I managed to scrape together the rego by maxing out my cc. So took it for a drive, sounds nice, handles nice but it wont shift into 3rd... Trans oil seems OK but I will check it properly on the weekend. Might be looking at a replacement gearbox...ack! Picking up some seatbelts from a forum member tomorrow so hopefully thats sorted, discovered some interesting things about our seatbelts... will post details and pics in a few days, might help someone else stuck in a similar position time for some ale and origin me thinks
more pics ok so here is the before and after on the guards, its close but the light isnt the best another angle, it seems to match the bonnet quite well but not the door Still a lot of body work to be done yet which is why I am leaving the paint till last, this touchup work is only temporary until I can afford the good stuff This panel behind the passenger side is the worst bit, trying to find someone that can knock this out This is the reason for the skirts Both doors are scratched as well the drivers is a little worse So recently I picked up another Zed with a blown motor that the motor from my wreck will end up in. The body is quite tidy so this will be getting all the nice suspension from my wreck as well. Am hoping this will look really nice when I am finished Now to rip the gearbox out of my wreck... anyone keen to lend a hand?...lol thanks for looking FireHorse
Hi David, Yea, they are both Auspec NA AT The wreck is a Jspec NA AT which has a control near the T-bar that switches the transmission into power mode (3 settings) that the Auspec models dont have, not sure if that is going to pose a problem yet...
I have an Auspec so it doesn't have that switch, but was interested in adding that to make my Auto less lazy. I bought a Japspec T-bar from a forum member. Never fitted it (like most of the stuff I buy) but after getting my car back from the mechanic I noticed the auto was really misbehaving. Turned out to be the TPS had been bumped (I think Crispy noticed the reading on one of my NikoZ screen shots) so I started adjusting the TPS through a range of 0.2 to 0.5v until I found the best setting for me and my Zed and my 22 year old TPS. 0.34v works best for us. I do need to buy a new OEM TPS as soon as I get around to doing it. Your problem with not selecting 3rd could be that the TPS voltage is too high for what your old tps and car needs. The 3 position switch must change the resistance value slightly which would achieve the same as physically adjusting the TPS on the go or maybe it affects the line pressure to the auto.
