My new 240z project

Since it ran tonight , I thought it was time to share my new project with the world.

It's a 1970 240z. I sort of inherited it from my uncle since he had no interest in finishing it. It's sat in it's current state in his garage since 1985. Race car project that never got finished.

New fuel lines and a jug of fuel next to the car got it running tonight, and it runs well.

The car has the Jim Cook racing rear fender flares, some sort of reproduction fiberglass fenders (with terrible fit) on the front, and that questionable hood scoop. Apparently it also has cut springs, but it certainly looks pretty high to me. The floors and rockers have been replaced and the car is surprisingly rust free.

I still need to do a lot of stuff, and the list is smaller if I just say getting the engine to run is something I no longer need to do.

The list of stuff to do: - Body work and paint... - Get rust out of fuel tank and run lines the rest of the way back to it - See if the brakes work and repair where necessary - Same for the clutch - New u joints - Wheel bearings - Wheels and tires appropriate for large rear flares - Replace the suspension in it's entirety. Shocks, springs, bushings, etc... - Change the rest of the fluids (did an oil change before attempting to start) - Install the kirkey seat from my old miata as seats that were in the car were destroyed by mice. - etc...

I see a rat... . . . . . . . rod, or at least a version of what would fit that description in another 30 years :)

Either way, that's hot...

Cool!

Those wide fenders would look great filled with some dishy, old-school JDM wheels.

Love those rear box flares. Are they metal?
You need to widen the front to match.

Cool project!

J

Sooo... what powers it?

Looks like a really cool project!

It's powered by a stock-ish engine. It does have a nice looking header, though.

Luke wrote: Cool! Those wide fenders would look great filled with some dishy, old-school JDM wheels.

Oh my lord, yes it would.

What a great project.

The brakes and clutch hydraulics work after lots of bleeding (both me and the car) and rebuilding of things! I still need to replace the rear brake shoes as one of them is held together by duct tape so I could put the drums back on.

Also, it seems the floors and rockers were replaced using fiberglass and lots of rivets. While not apparent from inside the car, from below it's painfully obvious this was not done correctly. It does appear to be relatively "structural" and I'm not too afraid to drive the car like this, but it's another thing added to the must fix list. At least the replacement floor pans weren't cut up at all so I can probably re-use them. I also need to measure and correct the "squareness" of the car. The goofy floors/rockers explain why I can't get either door to line up properly.

Oh yeah, the garage isn't near as much of a mess now as it was in those pics. And my friend put his shirt back on.

Those rear flares are awesome!

look like a great base to start with

sweeet, get it up and running good , and keep it a rat(ish) car for a while

Since it still needs a BUNCH of bodywork I'll probably roll around rattle-can flat black for a while. Or at least one solid color of primer. Maybe a red or blue tinted primer.

Flat blue would look the balls on that. http://www.europeancarweb.com/features/0607_ec_heico_volvo_s40/photo_01.html

well, got the tank back in it last night and fired it up hoping to at least be able to cruise to the end of the driveway. NOPE. Oil full of water now. Looks like it's time for a headgasket or something.

Ugh, I'll dig this post up from the past instead of starting a new one.

Well, my free project is turning out to be more of a basketcase than I could have ever imagined. Every mechanical bit I dive into is either broken or half-assed hacked together. I took the head off to address that coolant-oil issue and found a number of head bolts that weren't even finger tight. The fuel pump was missing a bolt, the water pump was repaired with JB weld or some sort of early 80's equivalent, EVERYTHING is berkeleyed. Looks like my free z's one redeeming quality (the supposedly newly rebuilt motor) is just the same as the rest of the car; thrown together from a bunch of parts someone had lying around. The cylinder walls look like they have 200k miles on them.

Oh, and to top it all off the front end of the car is tweaked about 1/2" to one side. All of the bodywork has been shimmed to hide the bend. I can't get the doors to line up correctly either so the whole tub is probably tweaked a little. The frame rails have patched welded in everywhere. berkeley

Every single thing that's been redone on this car is done wrong.

Sorry the pics are gone from the original post. My web server's been cleaned out since 08.

skruffy wrote: Ugh, I'll dig this post up from the past instead of starting a new one. Well, my free project is turning out to be more of a basketcase than I could have ever imagined. Every mechanical bit I dive into is either broken or half-assed hacked together. I took the head off to address that coolant-oil issue and found a number of head bolts that weren't even finger tight. The fuel pump was missing a bolt, the water pump was repaired with JB weld or some sort of early 80's equivalent, EVERYTHING is berkeleyed. Looks like my free z's one redeeming quality (the supposedly newly rebuilt motor) is just the same as the rest of the car; thrown together from a bunch of parts someone had lying around. The cylinder walls look like they have 200k miles on them. Oh, and to top it all off the front end of the car is tweaked about 1/2" to one side. All of the bodywork has been shimmed to hide the bend. I can't get the doors to line up correctly either so the whole tub is probably tweaked a little. The frame rails have patched welded in everywhere. berkeley Every single thing that's been redone on this car is done wrong.

I take it this wasn't an April Fool's post.

Nope

Yep your berkeleyed. It sounds like a basket case that if you ever did get running and driving would give you problems forever. I'd suggest finding another car and use that one for parts.

If this is the car I'm thinking about it has some radical body work on it. You could graft it onto another body.

Sometimes it's hard to let a car go. I just had that issue with my 510 race car. I put it into a tirewall that was protecting a Jersey wall. I knocked over 2 sections of the Jersey wall. At first the damage looked mostly cosmetic and bent bolt on parts but the deeper I looked the more unibody damage I found. It broke my heart to put it out to pasture but it would never be right. So I got another tub, transfered the go fast parts and now I have another race car.

Either that or ebay your ass off and make some money.