Cleaned out the garage, found my old Datsun

Hello everyone! I've been a lurking member here for awhile now, generally reading (and thoroughly enjoying) your projects. This is a great board with alot of friendly, talented people - I'm glad to be here.

Much like getting started on my project, I've dragged out making this thread for too long. It's actually on the road now but since the official "restart" on this thing happened last July (2015) I'm going to start you off there.

The car is a 1974 Datsun 260Z, with 60,000 original miles on it. I'm the second owner, the first one is an old friend of my Dad's.

[URL=http://s1027.photobucket.com/user/jpearce1010/media/IMG_20150609_203734043_zpsag69yeaa.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://s1027.photobucket.com/user/jpearce1010/media/IMG_20160710_170440349_zpscg2fmvv1.jpg.html][/URL]

I guess before I go too crazy lets see if I'm actually posting the pictures right.

Jay

Ok, they are visible anyway. URL address is still visible somewhat though, what is the preferred method for posting pictures here?

Love the Z-car!

When you write a post, there's a little camera icon above the text field. Click on it, and paste the photo's URL into the field in the pop-up. Click "OK" at the bottom of the pop-up and your photo should be properly displayed.

Photobucket tacks on all that extra, I trim off everything but the {img}photobucketstuff{/img}

and enter that directly without using the camera icon

Hey, you have a set of round tops on the 2.6, that's awesome. Love the turbine wheels too (Western?)

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the help on the pictures, I will try both methods.

Crankwalk, thanks! I am a fan of your Z and what you've been doing with it. The wheels are not Westerns (although I'd have probably guessed the same), they are Appliance brand. They were installed on the car when it was delivered so I guess that makes em kinda stock?

The picture above was taken at the gas station a few weeks ago. It was a pretty big day actually, that was the first gas stop for me in my Z in over 10 years!

So to give some backstory (for those who care to read it), my car was purchased new by one of my Dad's buddies back in their senior year of high school. My dad actually drove it on occasion back then. At some point around 1983 the car had rotten floor pans and what have you, was barely running, bald tires etc..., so it was stashed in a barn with the intention to fix it up someday.

Fast forward to 1998 (my senior year), the PO (Bob) had come over to visit my Dad and I ended up meeting him and talking cars for quite awhile. A few days later he called and told my dad he'd like to give me the Z as a project if I was interested! There was NO time wasted dragging it home.

I spent the next two years having rotten metal replaced, installing round top SU's, replacing the usual stuff, and learning to paint on it. I really didn't have the money to do a thorough job though, and I learned that old cars that are mostly original tend to come home broken frequently. I had it on the road for just one summer and managed to put about 1500 or so miles on it. Then I put it away and headed off to college. My plan was to give it a better mechanical going over after graduation.

Ten years later I had built a house, gotten married, had some kids, etc, and the car was still sitting. I finally got caught up (and I am definitely using the term loosely), and felt it was time to get back on my old car. This was last summer. Now the good news is I did put alot of focus into building and outfitting my garage, which proved to be very helpful for this project.

Love your wheels(see my build thread for why)

Not sure what brand mine are, are yours stamped somewhere?

Very nice, would love to park mine next to a stock one to see just how different it would be

Excellent!

Awesome!

patgizz wrote: Love your wheels(see my build thread for why) Not sure what brand mine are, are yours stamped somewhere? Very nice, would love to park mine next to a stock one to see just how different it would be

Thanks! I have been watching your thread, I'll bet your Z is a blast on the strip! To the best of my knowledge the wheels are not stamped, I have the original center caps that have the Appliance "A" stamped in them. Bob confirmed that's what they were, he said he bought the car with those wheels through the dealership. From what he remembered you could order those or Aluminum slots in lieu of the stock ones.

So here's where I started last July. The plan was simple; clean the fuel system - at least the carbs and fuel pump and get it running from a jerry can.

After the cleaning had commenced, I figured I'd check the valve lash before I kicked it over. When I did I saw this

That was above cylinder #6. The oil bar was loose and ready to fall out, and had enough free play to touch the cam lobe. I wasnt feeling as confident about firing it up right away, so I decided to check the plugs just to see what they looked like. Again, cylinder 6 was marching to its own beat, the plug was almost fouled. I shined a light in there and saw a bunch of metallic crud on the piston top.

Exhibit A

At this point I remembered that I had run a compression test on this car back when I got and the results were not great. They ranged from 80-115 psi with cylinder 6 winning the prize for having the least compression.

One thing led to another and then this happened;

Take off and nuke the site from orbit...only way to be sure.

I am enjoying following along.

If that car is as nice as it looks in pictures, you should thank your Dad's friend for keeping it that way. It may be some work to fix it up, but what a ride when it's done. Just look out for that slippery slope Nohome brought up. I'm on it now myself.

Wow, such a nice looking car!

This was kind of the point of the project where things got real. I originally intended to get it running again in a relatively inexpensive fashion and hope it worked alright for the rest of the summer.

You can see I abandoned all that in about 10 minutes. The reason why was that I realized that in the 18 years I've owned this car I've only put 2000 miles on it. I knew the engine was never apart, and the gaskets and seals were now 40 years old. I knew it was down on compression, and that the reality was if I just repaired the minimum and tried to use it there would be one problem after another. A full on refresh would make things work the way I want them too. At least I hoped.

So after removing everything but the manifolds it was off to the machine shop for the mechanical equivalent of a spa day. I asked my engine guy to true it all up and make it right again. I also told him I planned to drive it. Alot.

The rebuild did not go quickly, but I wasn't really in a hurry as the weather wasnt going to be decent for months anyway.

Build pictures;

And here she is back home

The engine rebuild was basically a stockish kind of build, the bores are .040" over (.030" was required at minimum to clean them up), moly rings, .010"/.010" crank grind, all new valve train, stainless valves in the stock sizes, hardened seats, block/head milling as required, compcams 252 degree cam, new oil pump, water pump, timing set, etc.

The one problem I had at this point was that the engine was too pretty to put back in here

JoeTR6 wrote: If that car is as nice as it looks in pictures, you should thank your Dad's friend for keeping it that way. It may be some work to fix it up, but what a ride when it's done. Just look out for that slippery slope Nohome brought up. I'm on it now myself.

It is a bit nicer in person I think, but Im biased.

I have thanked him, and I believe he's probably pretty happy with the work that's been done so far. I'm really looking forward to letting him drive it again!

He did take good care of it, but it had gotten pretty rough anyway. Datsuns really like to rust. It took quite a bit to get it looking like this, it's not perfect by any means but certainly nice enough. There is more I'd like to do in the way of cosmetics but for now I want to drive it.

Woody wrote: Wow, such a nice looking car!

Thanks!!

Well, before I reinstalled the freshened engine I figured it was an opportune time to replumb, clean, paint a little and what have you. I also had a bunch of smaller type repairs and whatnot to take care of and I decided I should probably handle all of that while I have the engine out.

AND since I was going to be monkeying around under the car I might as well use the lift. To get her over there I used the dollies my wife bought me for christmas a few years ago (can you believe she actually supports my car addiction ).

Here we go!

and we're there.

It was harder than you'd think to push the car over the bump between the lift posts. I ended up pushing it with the quad (sadly no pics - I was working alone).

This is how it looked for roughly 4 months.

Without a solid plan of attack, but knowing I had to replace parts all over this thing I began removing stuff (slippery slope??

I got after the driveshaft first, then trans, fuel tank, and rear. The fuel lines needed replacing and they are REALLY buried on these old S30's.

The driveshaft flange (you can't get there from here) I forgot how awkward the bolts are to get a wrench on - they look so easy.

moving along

Trans is out

Anyone can remove a screw with a screwdriver, that's why I use pliers!

Tank's out (I avoided cleaning this for months).

Skank

Yup, this too.

And this......because it was a balmy 10 degrees in the shop the when I was doing all this last February.

Thanks for looking!

Have those cars exploded in value yet? Because I think those cars are about to explode in value.

Damn, that thing is good looking.

That car does not have a bad angle on it.

Thanks Woody! I appreciate it.

The prices do seem to be climbing on these from what I see. Don't think I'd want to let this old girl go though!

I feel like the slippery slope has already been slipped on awhile ago, but it's like a waterslide so nobody cares. Whee!!!

Woody wrote: Have those cars exploded in value yet? Because I think those cars are about to explode in value. Damn, that thing is good looking.

Yeah they are definitely going up for the S30 cars. They keep putting them on these Best 10 Japanese cars and Most collectible lists and I feel like every year they get higher and higher. I fully support that.

Great thread. I have a '75 280z in my garage for about 15 years. It needs some refreshing and a power steering conversion before I can drive it again but I still admire the styling every time I walk by it.