MikesRealm

First day home after purchase and a bath.

The other side

Head on. I know I know...it's a bit dark.

With those colors one might think it came from Brittain. LOL

Hey look the antenna actually still works, a bit long though, not my taste.

Yepper it's a spare alright..., and in case you forget it will tell ya so! LOL!

I've never actually seen a car tire that is shaped like a motorcycle tire..guess there's a first for everything though.

it looks much better now...I swear!! ..lol ;)

All that smog craps gotta go!...man I can't believe it used to look like this...ugggLY!

Both my babies, the bike I've since givin up for adoption but still miss it time to time.

$ FREE! $ ...I can't remember how I stumbled onto these but I scored these two Zs for free, zip, zero, nada, nothing. This guy is awesome and definately did his good deed for the decade! Thank you!

Just more angles..

Now the inside of course is stripped but I still snagged quite a few parts from it for my Z

This engine I wound up going to a friend along with the other white Z seen in later photos.

Never tried it but supposed to be in running condition, so hopefully still will called into use.

This will replace the dented tank on mine.

Seems ok and no visible dents.

Here's the other Z we got for free and in turn also gave to a friend for free when my dad figured out he didn't have enough time to finish it.

A few scuffs and dents but a pretty sound body.

Well with the exception of the floorboard but a new floorboard came with it if I remember right.

Alot of work needed though as you can see by the lack of interior.

A little rust in the bay that will need attention.

Shot of the hood.

Parts that go with them.

Awesome...this kit's like $300 if purchased!

In back of the garage.

No more white roof. Just polished.

Not bad for $800, some elbow grease, and two cans of green spray paint for the roof.

PCH in Malibu, CA

Shiny newly polished valve cover and removal of unecessary smog crap.

Painted the airbox. Much better.

Amazing what the minor details can do.

Those need to go..lol

This needs to be cleaned up, wouldn't you say ?

Better, no ? lol

This alternator could use a bit of cleaning too

Awe yes, the head gasket...yay..lol

What a PIA, hope I don't have to do this too many times!

Close up of the cylinder walls.

Before and after wire brushing. I think I should've just put a quick clear on instead of painting it black..oh well...next time. What a difference though.

All clean

Ok I know...chevy orange on a datsun might just seem a bit off but in my opinion it's 100x better than rust colored haha

Just did a real quick paint job, obviously as you can tell by my excellent masking prep lol.

Still though...not bad. Starter painted too.

Just another angle in different light.

Alright the metallic red thing was not my best choice but again better than rust!

Starting to look better in here, much cleaner, and a new starter and cleaned up alternator.

A better shot of the alternator. Had I known it would crap out in a few months I wouldn't have bothered lol.

It has begun, auto to manual conversion.

Wont be needing these anymore :)

This was probably the easiest part of the swap, just bolts right in and takes maybe 5 minutes. Love seeing 3 pedals there!

Tranny supported. Getting ready to drop it.

Talk about close I thought I was going to have to remove the header to get the dang tranny out but then I noticed the 2 bolts haha.

Yay! Weight reduction, time for that big heavy converter to come off!

Well..I sure as heck wasn't going to hold it until all the fluid was out lol.

Normally I'd just use the ground to hold the crank still while I removed the flywheel bolts or an air wrench. However past 9PM and jacked up adds complexity to the situation so a little designing was needed.

Good riddens!

The manual requires a different driveshaft so it goes too.

Another shot of the 4sod.

A shot of the 4spd tranny to replace the auto. This was later replaced again with a 5spd ZX tranny.

The hole for the shifter needs to get cut out to accomodate the new transmission.

...and presto...like a glove lol

next day with transmission installed

A view from the rear.

Newly installed seat covers, maybe I wont stick to these haha

Just a shot of my new sterio at night. Nothing too fancy.

Really miss having all 4 wheels matching, my brand new project found on the home page came with matching sets...woohoo! :)

got-z.com This was (keyword there) an awesome forum but not anymore unfortunately.

a gift from secret santa at got-z.com :) You know who you are and thank you!

New shifter installed.

Doh! darn neons anyway...my fault but I thought after starting to go for the 3rd time at the stop sign he was gonna go and I started checking for traffic as I moved up then...bump..doh!

From the top.

Yeah that's not a flare job lol it's a push job hahaha not supposed to be.

From this shot you can see the bumper got shoved into the fender.

Another angle, bumper will have to be replaced, the hood I can fix.

patching the new exhaust mufflers, they make it sound like an old school Ferrari :)

New shotgun style exhaust installed.

My new hellas..

In normal mode.

I believe this was without flash in night mode or I just turned on the brights lol...whatever the case it came out way brightermuch brighter

This is what driving too fast for the conditions and bald rear tires can get you..

Almost caught it 4 times before it finally whipped around too fast for me to react...oh well...that's what I get.

Couldn't get the passenger door open for quite sometime afterwards. You can see the overlap in this photo where the rear quarter meets the door.

Close up.

Later that night installed a new tail light to avoid tickets.

From further back. I also tookl the broken appendage off (aka the bumper which was just hanging on the right side)

My Z key fob.

I still like these wheels and someday I will have a set of tires mounted on my Z with them. This was taken at MSA.

It has begun. Question is will it finish ? lol

This angle shows how creased it is. No pulling that out. It's gotta come off.

Another angle.....didn't need that tow hook anyway

From the inside.

Again from the outside.

Another view of the creases.

Initial sanding down, first phase of the project.

3 peas in a pod, lol 3+ car garages leave me envious at times.

In case you're wondering. That's my dad in the background helping out

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Take a look at the spacing compared to the straight edge in this shot.

A tad different. lol

This is the carcus I cut my replacement quarter panel from.

A few shots of the replacement panel.

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Hope I cut this right..lol

A closer angle.

No turning back now.

Upper frame rail cut at original factory seam.

...and a crap ton of rivets to drill out

more rivets.

mental note, electrical runs through here. I'm glad we didn't accidentally cut through it.

Pretty scary to stop and think that this is your car you just hacked up.

well at least I can sand and repaint the inner wall.

I think all this was a dampner, hard piece of rubber.

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sprayed this with a rust converter/prptector giving it this black color.

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My precut template.

The inner fender well, not needed so we will set this aside.

A bit of sandblasting is required.

Just in case you were wondering this is what you'd see if you took the outer layer off.

Hey look a spot I don't have to clean!

Can't say that for the rest of it. Surface rust galore.

At somepoint it appears this was repaired before.

Thought at first there was something stuck on it.

First round of sand blasting, tank needs refilling with more sand.

A few hours (at least it felt like it) of sand blasting and it is much better as you can clearly see.

Sandblasting has left its mark, there are now ares that look like rats found metal appetizing and took some home lol.

Who says you can't bring cars into the living room.. ha!

A shot once again showing the inside the little hints of rust that are left I'm just going to use some rust converter on.

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Our trusty sand blaster

A fairly close matchup but needs to be a tad closer.

It's like a jig saw puzzle only in this case you get to make your pieces fit.

Showing the other side not in the previous photo, still have some tweaking to do.

Starting to look like a car again :)

Just a shot from the rear showing the 2 halves clamped on.

A little closer

Yet another angle.

Now we're starting to get somewhere.

But this has to get aligned better still.

This also needs to be aligned up better.

A bit closer, sorry for the glare from the flash.

Looking towards the back at the fender well area. More precisely to help get your bearing the camera is positioned about where the lower portion of the right rear wheel.

Close up on the rear looking down from outside.

Really close up, sorry if it's a tad blurry.

one more angle from the right.

Looking at the upper seem area above the quarter window.

Looking toward the rear.

Primered and painted and looking a thousand times better than before. There is still a few areas we need to fabricate some new metal for.

Of course the other side gets the same treatment. Might as well right only plan on seeing this part of the car once hahaha

For those curious or you ever wanted to know how they routed the electrical you can see right here the wires wrapped in protective wrapping.

Makes one wonder what the other 2 holes were for ? I see the electrical going through the bottom one but nothing through the other 2.

Here you can see where we repaired the corners that were eaten by the rust that was formerly there.

Close up,

Another close up shot of the other one.

And tons of sound deadoning/sealant.

Guide tabs I tacked on to help align the rear

Again from underneath.

The rear's now welded in place.

Closer shot

From the right.

Doh! Can you see our error ?

Door still to close will need to adjust it some, but it shuts and doesn't overlap so we're good.

A little closer from more towards the rear and you can see better even without adjustment yet there is again a slight space between the door and the quarter panel.

...and a really close up shot.

Doing good the quarter window fits in ok. Just set it there for now to make sure we're headed in the right direction

Ok some shaving off the front will be needed to gain more space.

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Showing the gap in front I have to work with.

Lol my master piece haha I goofed and had to make a thin L shaped sliver to weld in place and bridge the gap between the old decklid to the new.

We were able to reuse the original lead filler via heatgun and putty knives to help join the two haves,

Underside welded in.

Another angle.

Yet another angle, tried to fit it all in there but this is about as far back as I can get not breaking the laws of phisics.

Sealed with a new coat of under carrage spray on paint.

Starting to look whole again.

And now the smoothing phase begins.

Slight change in elevation along this ridge but not bad considering.

Some more angles.

The top seam smoothed too.

Quick spray paint job on the rear just to see what it looked like in one color.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

Sweet I'm lkin it!

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Now to primer and sand some more.

I was able to get the slight dent out of the hood and then primered the whole thing then sanded again.

Sugar scoops prepped.

Good coating of thick primer.

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More sanding.

Looks like a tiger in this shot lol.

Still sanding ?

Rinsed off.

Removed rear hatch and began masking everything, getting ready for paint.

Inside is going to get it too.

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Hide away panels painted.

Once the inner panels were dry they get layed over so the outsides can get painted along with the rest.

Firewall grill painted.

I can see myself in the shot so I'll stop with this one.

Different angle.

Good here too. Gas cap painted.

Rear hatch painted.

A closer shot.

Floorboards done.

...and the rear half is done now as well.

From the other side.

Now one nice black color.

Now I'm going to shut up for awhile cause you don't need me to tell you what the next few pictures are basically I took photos as I got various parts done.

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Now I'm just waiting for it to dry under the warm glow of the heat lamps.

Now with the regular lights back on.

Now with just daylight and the subtle glow of the lamps still helping cure the paint.

A casualty of war..seems we didn't pay enough attention to one of the drop lights and as you can see it didn't get along with my e-brake handle too well.

No matter, time for some ingenuity. Yeah I know it says shift knob not e-brake but they don't sell e-brake handles at your local automotive store...soo

...I'm going to take this bad boy...

...and MacGyver it on like this.

Just finished putting everything back together, ready to hit the pavement.

I'm really happy with the outcome.

Was alot of work but it paid off :)

...and one more angle to complete the 360.

First time out back on the road with a pit-stop at Starbucks.

Have a loose shifter ? Kragen sells "help" product brass bushings that will fix that slop. Just pres them in with a vise.

Like such.

New short shifter custom made by a friend from the z club. It doesn't look that much shorter here but look at the pictures with it installed. What a difference too you can really feel the change in throw.

You can use tephlon tape to make that worn plastic busing a lot firmer.

Stock shifter.

Custom short shifter.

Newly installed seat covers. Pretty comfy and you wont stick to it on hot days.

This was taken on Angeles Crest hwy with 2 more z buddies, no photo editing short of a slow shutter speed. I think I'm going to take the original and blow it up into a poster. I just think it came out awesome and represents all 3 generations before the break in Z production prior to the release of the new 350 and 370 Z's.

LMAO ...This here tree branch put pressure on my alternator giving just enough tension on the belt to limp to a friends house to repair it correctly. Some background info, this was later the same night we took the "Pit-Stop" photo, came around a corner and hit the last small bear in a line of 3 after veering to avoid the first 2 but couldn't avoid the 3rd. Yes I said bear, that was not a typo, anyway the impact broke my alternator mounting bolt and trees were the only parts around hahaha. Picture in your head this scenario, there are 3 of us in row, me in the 240Z, followed by the 300ZX, followed by the 280ZX, now I hit it first with my lower left front then it somehow spund around the 2nd car and was keel hulled by the 3rd. Still it managed to get up and run away (at least I think cause we couldn't find it).

STeering wheel swap from a wrapped stock one.

To a nice cherry wood one :)

Custom Z shaped key fobs, made by a friend from got-z (you know who you are if you are reading this and thanks!)