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'72 Shakotan Z RB20DET


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Edit: As of late winter 2011/2012...

 

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Here's my story of a rusty car with a bleak future...

 

It all began in December of last year when I was looking for a fun car to play with on weekends, while still retaining my truck as a daily. I wanted a car that was already running, and simply needed some coilovers, rolled fenders, and cool wheels. I bought a car which had none of those, and a great deal more rust than I ever wanted to see on one car. I blew it on that checklist, but at the same time I bought a car a hundred times more fun than anything I had in mind...

 

Here's how she came the day I brought her home to the shop with simple intentions of a motor swap, suspension, and wheels. How foolish of me...

 

FrontEnd.jpg

 

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The previous owner had kindly left everything disassembled in a barn for me, so it was nice and rusty...

 

RustyCam.jpg

 

Interior.jpg

 

I promptly got it inside to start working on it in January, and this next series of pictures is sort of an onslaught of the kind of damage I inflicted on this unsuspecting pop-can of a car...

 

Frame looked like shit, so I started cutting bits of it off to reveal the awesomeness of previous owners...

 

FramePatch.jpg

 

Floors also looked fucked thanks to other people, so those fucked off too...

 

TrannyTunnel.jpg

 

DriverSideHole.jpg

 

PassengerHole.jpg

 

Battery tray looked like a bag of mashed weens, so I cut it out and welded in some new stuff...

 

BatteryTray.jpg

 

Gutted 'er to get rid of all the sound deadening in favour of a fresh coat of POR15 once everything's patched and some new material to keep the interior fresh to death...

 

Gutted.jpg

 

SoundDeadeningz.jpg

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First post continued...

 

Look at me go. Weeeee...

 

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Decided on an RB20 for reliability, and the thought of 8K RPM's was enticing...

 

Turbo.jpg

 

Bought some McKinney mounts to put the bitch in place...

 

EngineMount.jpg

 

TrannyMount.jpg

 

Bought some other fun stuff for the sake of spending money, and not taking this build seriously enough to care about budgeting...

 

SteeringWheel.jpg

 

GasPedal.jpg

 

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Pair of matching Sparcos which were a similar style to the stock seats, so I was stoked...

 

Seat.jpg

 

Parts to let me run S13 coils on all 4 corners for maximum low low...

 

StrutsandPuller.jpg

 

Suspension.jpg

 

Coilovers.jpg

 

Here's some headlight covers, and my awesome car babes that help me get shit done...

 

CarBabes.jpg

 

HeadlightCovers.jpg

 

Stripping stuff in preparation for cleaning and paint...

 

FrontClip.jpg

 

CaliperVice.jpg

 

CaliperPaint.jpg

 

Bought poly replacement bushings for every single factory bushing on the car...

 

Bushings.jpg

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That's about all the pictures I have, but believe me, progress has been steady. I work on it when I feel like it, and am trying to keep it as lighthearted and as fun a build as I possibly can. I find that if I stress on things it just makes me frustrated. As far as future plans go, I'd just like to build it properly the first time and be able to enjoy it for as long as I need to. Here's the vision: shaved bay with a sensible wire tuck, low low on wide-ass 14'' Watanabes, and simply enjoyable.

 

This will be updated as I go, so hopefully someone out there gets a kick out of it. Maybe not, who knows...

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damn, +1 for great first thread with lots of good pics.

welcome to ratsun, ill be keepin an eye on this thread.

cant wait to see some video of that datsun with a RB.

 

Thanks, man! Can't say it's going to be a quick build, but you can be damn sure I'll see the thing out. After all, it's my first real in-depth build at the ripe age of 19.

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Awesome project. I like the attitude of not taking things too seriously. Keep up the steady work. With this much work ahead of you, you'll need to stay on track or run the risk of losing the whole thing to frustration.

 

 

2eDeYe' date='25 April 2011 - 07:55 PM' timestamp='1303786538' post='465772']

Welcome, great thread. Nice car (except the rust) diggin the plans :cool:

 

 

Looking gReat, rb series 280z, I hope it works out and don't mind the rust you doing fine cleaning It out

 

 

Welcome, this is a great first post.

 

 

am excite. need more. PLEASE.

 

Cheers, guys. Always nice to receive a warm welcome!

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great thread rb20 280z nice combo from the sounds of it. That is a 5 spd trans right?

 

Notice you are from Ontario is that Ontario, Canada or Ontario, California?

 

Thank-you. Yep! That's a 5-speed tranny, and it's actually a 240z, haha! And, that would be Ontario, Canada.

 

All I have to say is WOW nice intro man. Keep on point and dont let life get in your way.

 

Thanks, man! I try to not to get too involved in that whole 'life' thing anyways.

 

Nice! This will be fun to see come together. Looks like you have a well equipped space to work on it too

 

Cheers! Yeah, I sort of lucked out with the shop space that I have available to me. Fully enclosed, heated space, with a full lift set-up, and enough room to comfortably work on about 8 cars at a time. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

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Not a huge update, but I got a package in the mail this afternoon and turned out that my swaybars had finally arrived. These in conjunction with the S13 coils, and poly bushings should make for one stiff little car.

 

SwayBars.jpg

 

Also seriously considering doing a fuel cell in the hatch for the sake of cleanliness and ditching the forty year old gas tank. Suggestions on going that route, anyone?

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Hey be careful using por-15 on anything that will be exposed to sun light its very very uv sensitive they make an additive that will help but with out it the paint will turn green and not prevent rust ( its main purpose ) just a little heads up looking great though

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Hey be careful using por-15 on anything that will be exposed to sun light its very very uv sensitive they make an additive that will help but with out it the paint will turn green and not prevent rust ( its main purpose ) just a little heads up looking great though

 

That's very good to know, thank-you! I only did the rockers because I've got skirts to go on anyways, as far as everything else goes it'll be entirely covered once the car is actually back together.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got a couple things done over the passed few weeks, but had some issues with the local law enforcement concerning my daily. So, once that was all over with I got a little bit of work done on the Datsun this weekend. I cut the front fenders and rear quarters out and fit my fender flares for good. Also got a good chunk of my drivers side floor patched up real proper, so overall it was a pretty productive couple days.

 

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Here's a couple photos not Datsun related, but of our daily pigs since we had 'em all out today. Neil's 350hp 1.8T...

 

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Drew's Holset-powered E30 sedan. The turbo's good for a gajillion hp, but the bottom end's only good 'til about 600...

 

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And, lastly my daily shit bucket of a Chevy...

 

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I promise to have some real progress on the Datsun very shortly, just have to slug through the monotonous shit work.

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Went back up this evening to bang out a little more work, and test fit some shit. First up was the shifter - sold to me with a promise that it works with an RB20 trans. Obviously it didn't fit as the stryker arm bottomed out in the gear box because it's made to fit an SR tranny. Should be simple enough to CNC a piece of aluminum to bridge the gap and stop it from bottoming out.

 

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Also got a boost controller from a friend for free. Thing only operates on 10 pounds and up, so I might as well safely enjoy a few extra horses.

 

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Had a good bit of rotten metal around my dead pedal, so I drilled out the spot welds and started cleaning up that whole side of flooring, even though it'll get cut up for the new rails underneath.

 

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Here's a bit of patchwork from the other night. I find all of this a little monotonous, and I'll be super relieved to be able to paint it all and put the interior back in.

 

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Left 'er sittin' like this for the night, but I'll have at it again tomorrow.

 

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Very nice build! I'm about to do the same stuff with the POR. Did you take the fender liners down to bare metal before you put it on there, or did you just scrape off the undercoating?

 

I ended up taking my interior down to bare metal with a wire wheel to POR it, but am unsure about the other parts.

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Very nice build! I'm about to do the same stuff with the POR. Did you take the fender liners down to bare metal before you put it on there, or did you just scrape off the undercoating?

 

I ended up taking my interior down to bare metal with a wire wheel to POR it, but am unsure about the other parts.

 

Thanks!

 

I took off the undercoating in the fender wells where I could, but that stuff makes a real mess with a wire wheel. I stabbed the shit out of it with a screwdriver to make sure it was solid before I took to coating the bits that weren't raw. I am doing the same thing to my interior once I've got it all patched back together, right down to the metal and starting from scratch.

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