But a project is never done 😉
I just realized I never posted pics of the car all back together and back on the road. So here come a massive pic dump.
I finished the complete project in just over 12 months and got the car back on the road and registered in October 2021, just before hibernation. Since then I managed to drive 1000miles with no real issues.
Even though the progress was slower during summer and holiday season, I’m super happy to report that I’ve driven the first 5km to test everything. The carbs need a bit of tweaking, the brakes need a proper bleeding and some other minor stuff. But I’m super happy of where it’s at. Exactly 1 year and 23 days after I started disassembling the car. 1 year and 23 days to do a complete nut&bolt resto myself (except body work). Every part, nut and bolt on this car was either cleaned, painted, coated, renewed, changed, modified,…
So here are a few pics of the last months in chronological order:
Another motivation milestone: the engine is in. Just the engine, no ancillaries, no gearbox, no…
Just needed to see it in there. Stay tuned for the June recap soon…
So as the shell is back home, the reassembly can finally begin. This whole process will take loads of time, as I’m stillgoing by the motto: No part will be mounted back up without touching it to make it better, newer, cleaner,…
Just out of tradition I started with the most random part possible. The first thing I saw on the shelve was the fuel filler neck, so back in it went.
Next thing were brake hard lines and some elements in the engine bay
Gave the car it’s identity back with some of it’s badges
Mounted the aftermarket JDM/EU taillights to see how they turn out
Started fiddling with the interior sound deadening
Mounted the fuel tank
More interior work
Started the reassembly of the doors
I still don’t have a “plan” on how I’m going to proceed the reassembly until it’s all back together. Right now it’s a matter on what parts catches my eye, what is half way logical to mount first, and what is pleasing me that day to see mounted back on the car.
Wiring looms are 90% back in, horns are back in, pedals and master cylinders are back in…
Well with all these pandemic things going on, it wasn’t that easy to get the shell back home to the shed. I wasn’t allowed to go to belgium to pick it up myself, so I had it delivered by a transport company.
So I could finally see it with my own eyes, the color I never saw in person before. I decided to go with safari gold just by looking at pictures of it! But I have to say, I really don’t regret it. The color is awesome, looks so different with different lighting conditions. And it has to be one of the most 70’s colors from the 240Z color chart!
Back home in good company
At a future date I will make a post abouth all the metal work that was needed. All I can say is that the guys (or should I say wizards) at SLG classiccars absolutely killed it. Their skills are beyond belief.
Here is the car after 1 month of metal work and panel beating
And here it is in it’s actual state 😀
The list of parts and assemblies to freshen up seems endless!
Front suspension back together
Fuel tank looks good now too:
And I decided to have some wiring fun! Over 30 hours went into my adapted and modified harness. Or shoud I say harnesses, as there are 4. I used the original harness and modified it to have relays for lights, starter,… I rewired everything related to ignition. Adpated for the use of JDM/Euro spec tail lights, got rid of the way to complicated stock hazards wiring,… In the end I drew a new wiring diagram for future diagnose,…
In the beginning there was chaos:
But in the End I’m really satisfied with my job. Crossing fingers everything will work as intended 😉
As the dash is out, I disassembled all the gauges, cleaned the up, polished the glas. Mediablasted an painted the housings, reassembled everything except for the tach. A Speedhut electronic tach with gps speedo will take the OEM units space.
Next on the list the window scraper rubbers which were all brittle and disgusting. As I didn’t want to buy the expensive chrome trim with the attached rubber scrapers I decided to give it a try and just replace the stock scrapers on my existing trim
Another upgrade over stock is a Subaru STI LSD differential with a 3.9 final drive. So I bought the diff, bought some conversion axles from datsunrestomods and refreshed the diff. New gaskets, new hardware,…
Looks good now
Reassembled the rear suspension and brakes
Started my home made zinc plating again
Reassembled the wiper motor after cleaning everything
Fuel filler neck has a second life too
The shell was transported to a specialized media blasting company to remove all the layers of old paint, bondo, under sealing,… Nothing better than bare metal to start building a “new” car.
After I went to see and inspect it, the naked shell was then transported shortly after back to the resto shop where they instantly put in epoxy primer to prevent any oxidation while the works have to be done. All in all we found a few bad repair jobs, some minor rust spots,… Nothing major and nothing shocking. The guys at the resto shop are quite satisfied with what they have to work with.
To change a bit from blasting and painting I started to fab some cupro brake lines and fuel lines from scratch. I reused things like the T-piece, the pressure valve,…
And sometimes you need to find new motivation. To do so I just assemble some parts and enjoy myself.
While the shell is out, there is plenty of space to start organizing and refurbishing parts. Some parts went of to powdercoating, other stuff will be sandblasted and painted/coated by myself. But where to start? It isn’t easy when you have all the elements on the shelves, floor, hanging from the roof,… So I picked the most random part I could think of. The interior blower fan.
After the start was made I wrote a list of elements that needed to be refurbished, what parts needed to be ordered, what parts I wanted to have a makeover. So now, everytime I go to the garage I just choose a task and get work done. As there is so much different things to chose from, I can match the work to my mood 😉
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