zlowpoke's 76 RB25 S30

[zlowpoke]

Hello all, I thought I would start a thread here after looking around the forum for a bit. Guess I'll start out with a little intro, I'm Evan, a 24yr old full time college student, studying Healthcare Technology Management, I have two years left . I also work full time at a Big Box Home Improvement store to help pay for my addiction, enough about me. The Z

 

The previous owner had purchased the car in Arizona and trailed it up here, but had run out of funding for the project. This is where I stepped in. I was going to give everyone the long drawn out story with all the details, with a month to month play by play, but Ill just let the pictures do all the talking and get everyone caught up to present day over a few posts, if you have any questions feel free to ask.  

 

Day 1

 

 

 

 

 

The engine had a blown headgasket and a slight knock

 

Nothing inside the car was salvageable, the dash was like a artist rendition of the Grand Canyon, the original seats missing replaced by some 90's Eagle Talon seats. The wiring was cut and spliced every which way.  

 

 

The shell was rust free and inlcuded a LD28 crank and all the fixings for a Stroker build. Through it up on ebay and paid for the car, parts car, and some other goodies.

 

The donor... 78 5 speed w/unknown mileage. This was a daily driver summer and winter, and the corrosion at taken its toll.

 

 

 

The project car had sunroof added at some point, well that had to go

 

I had a roof from a 49 Chevy pickup with about the right angle that was to rough to save around the window frame so I stole the center and it matched the crown of the Datsun pretty close

 

 

Finished in place, and I couldnt stand how it looked, it sounded like an oil can.

 

So I ripped the roof of the donor car and began the long process of transplanting just the skin

 

I hadnt yet realized how much work I had got my self into

 

 

Started to cut the roof off the project car and came across this historic relic behind the head liner

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Fix, the lower core support from hell

 

 

thats the limit for this post, to be continued...

[zlowpoke]

next fix,

 

 

 

 

 

 

The support was welded back in with interior reinforcements that were spotted welded into place

 

[zlowpoke]

Patched some areas which had previous been attacked by drill bits and slide hammers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zlowpoke]

The rust free chassis turns out to be not so rust free, after grinding away pounds of bondo from the driver door, the devilish rot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[datzenmike]

Looks good.

 

Never run fram filters. Just about anything is better. WIX, NAPA gold are good.

[zlowpoke]

Next mission, stripping the undercoating off the car looking for more rot, and fix that awful trans tunnel

 

This is going to take awhile

 

 

During all the scraping I began to notice something wasn't right about the chassis. the rail on the driver side was up about 3/4 of an inch. So I started poking my nose around.....

 

 

So off came the rails, front to rear

 

 

 

What I found was horrific,

 

 

 

Left to Right difference

 

[zlowpoke]

Looks good.

 

Never run fram filters. Just about anything is better. WIX, NAPA gold are good.

Thanks!

 

Agreed, never have never will, the above picture was from pickup day

[zlowpoke]

Progress was slowly made on this issue, I seem to have lost the photos for a short time frame. Non the less, I built a rolling table from 10inch I beam, square as I could get it with this tools I have a my disposal. The Z was placed on this table much like a frame machine in a collision center. I used a 1/4'' wall square tube as my tower and pulled the car until it was straight. I have a pair of tram gauges from chief automotive, their about 25 years old but were never used expect for display in the office. The tram allowed me to map the center line of the car every 6 inches. Once straight I released the car measured again to double check then I began addressing the bent rails.

 

This is a tram gauge

This is a shot from before pulling the car, if you notice the center points zig zag left to right

 

After pulling I made a pair on front frame rails

 

 

The rails under the car were pounded flat and reinforced with some .250 thick angle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Great progress on your built wish I had the time and skill to that maybe one day when the kids get older.

[Leche]

Very nice work on the car, looks like you are well ahead on your project.  It will turn out great :thumbup:

[zlowpoke]

Suspension this time,

 

Front control arms

 

 

 

 

 

Rear Suspension