"I Make My Car Payments to Parts Stores," or "Why I Can Never Have Nice Things."

It's probably not good for buying psychology to make a build thread for a car before you go and look at it.

Oh well.

I'm hoping to pick up a 1981 280ZX in the next week or so. It's an N/A, 5speed, 114k miles, looks like minimal rust (lol not). Paint is, well...multiple colors, but at least it runs and drives. The price is probably going to be $1300 (ended up being $900), which seems pretty average. Not a steal, not a ripoff.

The idea is basically to have two daily drivers:

First, the car I actually have. A 1990 Volvo 760 Turbo. ($900)

Its a decent car. Currently straight-piped by mother nature. For some reason, despite having a number of problems with it, I don't actually hate it. It's moved me to 3 different houses. It'll be my primary daily while I get the Datsun more roadworthy.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll keep y'all up to speed as things progress.

Sweet!  You'll like the zx... And be lusting for a turbo soon.  Welcome!

The fun with hoopties is their either nearly free to run or a car payment on a new Versa would be cheaper. Best way to do it is have 2 or more.

 Turbo Volvo powered Z? Might be fun. 

Well, I got it.

Interior parts and the front fenders in the back.

In keeping with the title, I've made my payments to Amazon, Advance Auto, and Rock Auto to get this thing on the road

• New Clutch (on hold): Current one does not disengage all the way. The master and slave are new (according to PO), so I'm going to look at the pedal and see if the adjuster is off. My guess is that the PO (kind of a sketchy guy with a sketchy "shop") didn't bleed the system properly. But a new Exedy is $100, so I might do that.
• Brakes: Pedal hits the floor. Haven't even looked yet where/if its leaking, but I've got pads and rotors on the way.
• Fluids: Engine oil/filter on the way. Redline MT90 on the way for the trans. Power steering fluid is gone, so I'll be figuring out where its leaking from and putting some ATF in.
• Shifter bushing: mine feels all but non-existent. Flops around like crazy. I've been seeing different styles though, so I'm going to pull it apart before I order.

A lot of what's left is elbow grease. I need to bleed the brakes and likely the clutch, or at least adjust the clutch pedal. I've got to put the body panels back on, and put the interior together, and see what else there is. I'll get some better pictures once the body panels are on.

GoLucky said:

 Turbo Volvo powered Z? Might be fun. 

I've pondered what you're pondering. The 6 cylinder sound is pretty good though...

mikeatrpi said:

Sweet!  You'll like the zx... And be lusting for a turbo soon.  Welcome!

Yeah, I can see that lust coming. The L28 feels great...for now...and for an N/A...

I got a chance to get the Z up on jack stands. That in itself was an interesting process. EVERYTHING WAS CRUSHING. I'm talking right now to a company about getting new floor pans and frame rails for this car. I also just noticed that the car has the remains of two New York inspection stickers...that makes a little more sense than a NC car. 

Rust is clearly going to be the #1 issue on this car. I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about that. Obviously, it would be nice if I didn't have to deal with this rot, but on the other hand, saving a car from rust is...well, really saving it.

Anyway, time for more pictures. Bear with me, I'm using a very old digital camera which is marginally better than my phone.

I dig this red interior.

Now for the ugly.

There's  a similar hole on the other side of the car.

Oof.

Eesh

Awww E36 M3.

This I don't mind as much.

Sheet metal. Who cares.

That's the most severe rust. Most of the fasteners and lines seem okay.

Okay, so after I got it on stands and pulled the wheels off, I was greeted by this:

Yeah. There are no pads. None. They're gone. I was also replacing the brake hose on this side. It was finger tight. I have a sneaking suspicion where my leak was coming from.

I'm going to see if I can make this caliper work, but I anticipate the bleeder busting off.

The brake fluid was super low, so I anticipate having to bleed the MC. I've never done one like this, but the dual chamber seems like it might make it easier, no?

And most importantly:

Well, I'm back on GRM with a new old beater. I got rid of the old Volvo years ago, and replaced it as my daily with a '13 Focus ST. It was an incredible car, lots of fun, and I put 70k miles on it without a problem. It suffered an untimely demise at 148k miles when I got rearended and pushed into the trailer hitch of the truck in front of me.

Went through the radiator, A/C condenser, and intercooler. Ended up being totalled, so I took my payout and bought this:

1988 F-150, 5 speed 4x4 302.

It's totally rust free, but it has its fair share of problems needing attention. The steering is loose, so I'll be doing inner and outer tie rod ends this weekend. It's also got some drivability issues, but they're not very consistent so I'm not sure how I'll diagnose--it'll cut out under load under acceleration, maybe once or twice in the morning, then be fine. 

Also,

• The fuel gauge, temp gauge, and oil pressure gauge don't work, and the tach is inaccurate
• I want to try to have A/C in it by next summer
• To be honest, the oil pressure (read on aftermarket mechanical gauge) is not where I'd want it. It doesn't go below 15psi, so I'm not terribly worried about eminent failure, but it doesn't really get above 25-30psi while cruising. This is making me think engine thoughts.

I'm hoping to pick up a Fiesta ST this week, so the truck will have certified project status. In additionto and related to fixing the things above, here are my plans:

• 351 Windsor swap. Want a mild built, looking for low 300s for power and torque.
• If that ends up being too much for the tired old M5OD Mazda 5 speed, I'm going to try to find a ZF5 to swap in.
• Offroad is the one automotive niche I've never really done anything with, so I want do get it on some trails. Also want to see about building a camping rig with a topper and maybe some kind of awning.

Bummer on the ST, but welcome back.

I always thought a good 'ol truck would be a fun secondary vehicle to have.

And best of luck with the Fiesta.

What happened to the ZX?

Getting serious Silverstreak Autobot vibes here.

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

Username checks out lol

That was a bad idea from the start. It was a New York car with more rust than I could feasibly handle. Ended up selling it to someone shortly after I got it.

So my truck was getting about 8mpg, so I figured I'd check the fuel pressure. I was looking to see if it would bleed down too fast, indicating a stuck open fuel injector, but what actually happened was it ran at about 80 psi, then when I shut it off it dropped almost immediately down to about 10 psi. So I'm thinking fuel pressure regulator, but I know that the high pressure fuel pump has a check valve, so I'm not exactly sure, it might be that valve. To me, a bad fuel pressure regulator would just be stuck closed, causing the high fuel pressure, but it wouldn't open up and cause it to bleed down so fast. Though I will say unplugging the vacuum from the regulator didn't affect fuel pressure, which the service manual says means the regulator is bad. Any thoughts? Definitely not a problem I've seen before.

Regulator.

That relief in the pump is about 70-80psi,the pump is getting a workout.

Vacuum to the regulator lowers the fuel pressure 1:1 with vacuum, most Fords are 42psi with vacuum removed dropping to about 28-30 at idle.

In reply to Miracle_Max :

I was going to say......since it's "only" a ZX, part it out and find a better version.

I'm a fan of the ole truck, a vintage-style camper top and a strong roof rack would be great for hitting the trails and camping out here in the mountains and would look totally badass. I didn't know about the plan for the FiST, that will be a hoot!