a cold suspension

Didn't have the opportunity to work on Sunday so I took a day off from work. Gotta keep the momentum.
Damn it was cold in the shed today! Was wearing 5 layers of clothing to keep me warm. I had to keep moving and working tho' cuz otherwise I would not have survived :)
So the guy we're renting the shed from hadn't installed the lighting fixture yet. Damn, how much work can mounting two screws and a cable + plug be. So I decided to do it myself. Fortunately I had an old vacuum cleaner lying around of which I could use the cable. Et voilá, 35W of cool translucent light!

After some more tidying up, it was time to put my Midlock 1300 spring compressors to the test. Some advise to use vice grips to prevent the compressors from 'walking', or even 3 spring compressors. Since it was my first time using these Midlocks, I tried the vice grips, only to find out that it isn't necessary, with Midlocks at least. Can't speak of the cheap spring compressors, but my Midlocks are rock solid. It did take quite a few alternating turns but in the end it worked out really well. When you remove the centre lock nut, jam a screwdriver between two bolts to keep 'em from turning.

I tried to remove the gland nut by clamping it in the bench vice but I didn't have a long enough bar to make it budge. So I moved on to the front sus instead. Had to stay warm!
The nuts and bolts looked absolutely awful and promised lots of hard work. And again I wasn't disappointed. Fortunately nothing broke off, nor did the front fall from the jacks :) I only got to removing the front anti-sway/stabiliser bar and both tension compression rods cuz I had to be back home on time to do the cooking and pick up my little girl.

A pity but on the other hand, after 5hrs in the cold I was longing for some warmth!

The last couple of days I've been talking to John from Baddog parts about the availability of some parts listed on his site. Looks like I'll be the owner of some good,straight door panels ($35 ea.) and a good steering rack ($60) soon. I was planning to make the frame rails myself, but in the end it'll be less hassle if I'd buy John's frame rails. Waiting for the final quote and then I'll place the order.

With the engine out of the way, the chassis sits a lot higher and there's more light, making inspection a lot easier. The front frame rails are completely gone :/ Gotta do some serious reconstruction and welding work. Darn, if I would have to do this again, I'd buy an empty chassis from Az or Ca!

squeaky work bench blues

So I liked the rack / bench so much that I bought a second one :) This time this one is used as a rack though cuz there's no place, nor the need for more bench. I do need more storage space tho'.
This morning I decided to go to the office a bit later and assemble the rack first. Coming weekend I won't be able to work on the Z because of certain obligations :/ So I first rearranged the previously assembled benches and bolted them together. It's become a real sturdy mofo now. But better still, the two gearboxes fit perfectly underneath! So I wouldn't wanna call it work bench blues :)

Oh, and some more light would be great too. But that'll be arranged coming week. Now, if only I had more time to work on the Zetto...

year of the dragon

Happy Chinese new year! :) 2012 is gonna be my year. It's the 4th year of the dragon since my birth so I should make maximum use of it :)

So to start off the year "properly" i bought myself a new fuel tank sending unit :) $55 + $6 shipping.

lift out

Sooo, today I finally got to lifting out the engine. I was glad the gearbox had been removed previously cuz with these slings it'd have been pretty hard to tilt the engine-tranny combo. With only the engine it was easy. I was a bit scared tho' that the hoist wouldn't be able to hold the weight.

Next thing to do was tidying up the work space. Lots of empty boxes and parts lying around.
I then started assembling the storage rack. When I found out that the rack consisted of two parts (upper and lower) which were standing at perfect working height, I decided to use them as work benches instead cuz they're pretty sturdy. According to the specs, each shelf can hold 265kg. The only thing I need to do is replace the thin MDF panels with some 20 mm ply wood or something similar, and bolt the racks together. Man, a work bench of this size costs at least 5x what I've paid for the rack (€30 :)
One of the racks can serve as my sheet metal bending brake bench. Assembling the racks/benches took a bit longer than expected. But I was happy with the result (the find actually).

I briefly thought about moving on to cutting out the floors. But after a short assessment, I figured it'd be better to have the floor panels with me before starting cutting. So this activity's postponed till next week.
So I decided to remove the fuel tank instead. Just a matter of unbolting the two j-bolts that secure the tank straps, and disconnecting the fuel lines (3 vent lines, 1 filler line, 1 feed and 1 return line). However, almost 40yrs worth of rust didn't make it a simple matter. But lots of rust eater did help somewhat, and of course a sharp knife to cut the flex lines (except for the filler tube) cuz it was no use trying to loosen the clamps properly. I was glad with my 2nd 60cm scissor jack to support the tank cuz otherwise it would have been a bit tougher.
The tank looks absolutely awful on the outside. Lots of dirt and rust flakes but fortunately no holes - I think. The underside has a few dents which will be addressed when I'll cut the hole for the fuel pump unit.
After removing the fuel sending unit (fuel level sensor) I could shine a light and peep into the tank.

I've removed most of the dirt and rust from the tank but I'm planning to give it a good and proper sanding job to even out the surface before I'll have it chemically treated. And then I can start the fuel pump mod.

nuts 'n bolts

Was busy browsing 2000+ 240Z-tagged items on ebay and ended up buying a set of new halfshaft bolts for about $55 (incl. $7 shipping :) At Nissan Courtesy Parts the bolts alone are listed for a bit more than $5 ea. and they're not even in stock, so this ain't too bad. I'd need a set of fresh bolts sooner or later anyway cuz mine don't look too trustworthy nor pretty.

bloody Sunday

This should have been the best day of the week. However, this morning I got into a quarrel with my wife, et voilá, I ended up babysitting my little girl instead. Now, every day with my little girl is a good day, but I've been longing for this day in the shed more. Ah well, such is life.
To whom it may concern: never start a project like this when you're married with child(ren)!

warehouse

It's been a busy week collecting, moving, unpacking the boxes and assembling some of the stuff. It started to look like a warehouse so in order to keep the peace at home, I had to move the stuff to the shed.
My little girl loves the tool cart. It's the perfect height for her to play air hostess :)
I finally found foam blanks that I could use to make my own tool organisers. Man, I had to search real hard and be very creative in my search strings to find something useful in Holland. Damn, online shopping out here is still in its infancy :/ If you type 'tool foam' you'll find a dozen useful hits in the US. Eventually I ended up buying two sheets of 2m x 1m of 5mm and 10mm thickness from a local soundshop. Stuff is meant for other purposes but I must say that it does make a good tool organiser :) Have been cutting for 2 nights and there's still a lot to be done. Damn, maybe I should submit a drawing to foamfittools and have it laser cut :)
Looking forward to Sunday when I'll be removing the engine!

el cheapo

Didn't receive the slings and stuff I'd ordered a few days ago so the engine is still in. But I had a great day anyway. It was good exercise struggling with rusted parts again :) That's when you find out about cheap tools, what you already knew when you bought them, that they're just that: cheap. Trying to remove clevis pins and lock plates, some of these "tools" got bent just looking at them.
Ah well, the handbrake (emergency brake) assy finally came out after a few hours of struggling. Damn, if I'd have to do this project all over again, I'd buy a car lift first. Struggling with stuck parts lying on your back is no fun. Eye protection definitely is a must!
Unfortunately I'll have to replace the handbrake cable. But there's no way that I'm gonna shell out $280 on the reproduction from the Z-store.

Handbrake options
There is an aftermarket cable for the 280Z (RAYBESTOS Part # BC92952, WAGNER Part # BC122537) which requires minor modding (changing the cable ends). Raybestos cable $57.79 + 6.11 shipping to FL from Rockauto.com.
Overall length supposedly is 74.25", which is about the same as that of my Z's cable.

Then there's the universal Lokar emergency brake cables. Nice, but expensive (~$115) and it would require more modding than other Nissan cable options.

Another option worth considering is converting to the 240SX/Z32 style handbrake cables.

$5 from ebay :)	Z32 vs 240Z equaliser (balance bar)

What you need to do is replace the Z-style equaliser with one from a 240SX or 300ZX. Then you can use the two separate brake cables which are more widely available. The 240SX and Z32 cables are a bit different from each other though (see below).
The ZX cables are also a bit longer than the S30 cable, which is why people doing this mod, cross the cables, ie. mount LH cable to RH mounting bracket and RH cable to LH bracket.
The mod is quite simple:
- cut off the cable from the ZX equaliser
- drill out the hole to 6mm
- insert a new bolt long enough (~80mm) to replace bolt #20 (77mm) in illustration below
- in the case of 240SX cables, devise a way to fit the cable to the brackets immediately after the equaliser.
240SX cables are bolted up vertically (see illustration below) rather than horizontally (in longitudinal direction) as is the case with Z32 cables. S30 cables are clamped to the bracket through a U-shaped lock plate. Because of the way Z32 cables are mounted, they can be mounted to the S30 bracket as well.

S30 style handbrake	Z32 style handbrake	'91-'94 240SX (US) style handbrake

I was lucky enough to find a 300ZX front cable incl. the equaliser on ebay for $5 + $10 shipping (to Florida :) But considering the cost of two 300ZX cables (~$115 ea.) versus the cost of the 280Z cable, I've decided to try the 280Z cable first.

With that and the tools I've bought, the remainder of my year-end bonus has been spent. Looking forward to all the boxes I'll be receiving this week :)

hoist away

Left work early today to fix the roof of the shed (barn). Managed to seal the major cracks and holes easily. Despite the cracks, rain had hardly entered.
Having finished that, I had some time left to assemble the engine hoist. The instructions were next to useless but fortunately it wasn't too difficult to figure out. For some reason there were two sets of nuts and bolts so they might come in handy at some point.
I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough space in front of the car to place the hoist but fortunately that was a groundless fear. So while i was at it, I removed the hood (bonnet if you will) as well. It's mounted with just 4 bolts (2 on each side). Of course I made sure that the hood lock was supported (hanging) by the hoist, thus making it a one man job. The manual says to mark the positions of the bonnet hinge plates but since the whole body will be stripped and repainted I didn't bother.
After the hood was out of the way, I positioned the hoist such that I finally could determine the length of the slings, which I still had to order; 2 pieces of 2m should do.
Just ordered those and some other stuff so with a little luck I'll be able to remove the engine this weekend. Then I can finally start the body work. Looking forward to that!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my rear disc brake conversion package from Modern motorsports finally has arrived!