Project Theseus

[zedfoot]

Welcome to all the attention. I'm amazed at how much more aware the young folk are now than even two years ago. Last weekend a young fellow stopped by wearing a T shirt with a 280ZX on it. He has never owned a Z, but that is his dream car. His GF gave him the shirt and was super supportive of his passion.

[Noll]

Thanks peeps! Super exciting to be driving and enjoying it finally.

Went to another car show this past weekend - ended up being a turnout of 3-400 cars. I barely took any pics unfortunately, but it was a good time. The Z got a ton of attention too which was awesome, people loved to talk about it and for me to explain the work that went into it. They had a videographer at the show too who grabbed a fair bit of footage and pics of my car which was super cool, if/when that vid comes out I'll post it up here.




On the way home I noticed that the car had developed a very slight misfire (only noticeable at idle at red lights, one cylinder misses every few seconds if that) - this was right near the end of the drive after about 160km of highway driving, so I'm wondering if it was just fuel boiling issues or similar as I don't yet have a heatshield below the carbs.

Pulled the plugs today to check, and am pretty happy. Was hard to get a good in-focus pic, but all are tan, with no signs of oil blow-by, flooding, running super lean, etc. I've put 700km on the car since the rebuild at this point, so seems like a decent indicator that all is well. Considering I rebuilt everything myself with basic tools and the help of youtube/forums, and the bottom-end is totally unknown, I am pleased.

[vvise]

all road legal as of this afternoon! Went and got poutine to celebrate .



someone at the garage messed up pulling off the dealer plate and somehow broke a small chunk out of the right taillight surround, but they were able to find the piece so i've since glued it back in good as new. Stuff happens, could be worse.

Turn signals weren't really playing ball on the way home so need to pull the switch apart in the next day or two and clean/refresh everything. That, raise the rear ~15mm, and adjust the wiper arms, and that's about it for things that need to change right now.

congratulations !!!

[Danielz]

HI Noll.... once again, totally awesome job! Stand tall and proud my man!

[Noll]

Took the Z to its first ever couple of meets/shows today (probably one of the last times this year stuff was running). Car got a lot of interest which was cool, spent a lot of time chatting to people about it.

She's still working perfectly mechanically, only issue I had was the wipers deciding not to work while going down the freeway and sudden rain started, which was an interesting experience. Had my head out the window to be able to see lol. That'll be first on the priority list to fix, I'm not likely to drive this in the rain much but I want to make sure I can safely do so if desired/needed.

Overall, put 150+ km on the car without a hitch and had a great time!

[Noll]

Went for the first shakedown run today, happily no issues to report at all. I did nearly do a dumb by leaving the headlights on while I got a burger, but after a few attempts it fired the starter instead of just clicking and fired back up. Will probably want a bigger battery eventually, this one is probably too small for the car but it's what I had lying around.

Gas gauge works, which is nice; put 30L into the tank and ended up right at half on the gauge. Car is loud and rattly as you'd expect, but rides really nicely all things considered. Temp gauge never even got up to half, settled in steady at about 1/3 sweep.

[Noll]

Thanks guys! Indeed I am, it's been a long road and I'm still a bit amazed myself that the car is on the road haha. From something that I was told (fairly enough) wasn't worth saving and to find another shell, to where it is now. Now to drive the wheels off and enjoy, it, and tinker/improve as I go (EFI/turbo is still the plan eventually)

Colin - Thanks for the link! My switch is slightly different, but I was able to pull it apart no problem and get it fixed (pic below). So much better than before.

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Worked on the little stuff that needed fixing today.

Wipers weren't wiping, pulled them off and realized the splined mounting surface was gunked up with pot metal from previous slippage. Cleaned them out with a knife, added some loctite to the nut, and tightened both arms up a fair bit.






Next up, turn signals. Pulled the switch apart, cleaned the contacts, and bent the center pivot slightly. Back in action. While I was at it I blasted all the linkage stuff with carb cleaner then some dry graphite lubricant - it is so much freer and smoother now, and returns to center properly.




Lastly, dialed the rear coilovers up 10mm. Should solve the rubbing issue on the left corner when going over bumps.

[colinc]

HI Noll. OMG - you have got to be so happy! I've been following your build - checking every day - and am happy for you! You have done an awesome job and have every right to be so proud of your efforts and work! Definitely a job well done. Enjoy!!

Ditto. What an amazing accomplishment.

FYI - I have had to screw around with my turn signal switch off and on over the last few years. Here is a helpful link for the repair

https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress....signal-repair/

[Danielz]

HI Noll. OMG - you have got to be so happy! I've been following your build - checking every day - and am happy for you! You have done an awesome job and have every right to be so proud of your efforts and work! Definitely a job well done. Enjoy!!

[Noll]

All road legal as of this afternoon! Went and got poutine to celebrate .



Someone at the garage messed up pulling off the dealer plate and somehow broke a small chunk out of the right taillight surround, but they were able to find the piece so I've since glued it back in good as new. Stuff happens, could be worse.

Turn signals weren't really playing ball on the way home so need to pull the switch apart in the next day or two and clean/refresh everything. That, raise the rear ~15mm, and adjust the wiper arms, and that's about it for things that need to change right now.

[Noll]

Well, she's at the garage waiting to get the toe set and a safety inspection done . I need to raise the rear 10-15mm as it was rubbing under right turns, but no other issues to report.

[Noll]

Final day of getting stuff done today; bunch of misc. (pass. door lock, adjust carbs, loctite license plate bolts, and suchlike), as well as the last big job - make the 260z window regulator that I have work in the 240z door. No luck sourcing a 240z regulator on short notice, so door modification it is.


It went pretty well IMO, could have gone to more effort to clean the welds, but not worth it for this specific door and a door card would hide it anyway.








All painted and all door bits assembled. Door winder works a treat now.






And with that, it's done. Well obviously not "done done", a project car is never done and there are of course things I want to modify/improve/change/add as time goes on, but it is 100% ready to go get a safety inspection tomorrow and hit the road. 4.5 years and I don't even want to think about how many thousands of hours and it is done.

[Noll]

Great work Noll. I agree with vvise that the mismatched paint scheme looks cool. I say clear coat it and call it a day. I know you came up with a fix for the headlights but if you want to try a different headlight switch I have a couple sitting around from my early 260z. You are welcome to them N/C.

Thanks! Oh yeah, the paint (or lack thereof) is sticking around for a while for sure, it's a fun look. That would be super appreciated, It's all working as-is but I'll definitely take you up on the switches whenever I'm in your area next.

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On the final stretch now.

New wiper blades, had to get a bit creative with the mounting situation as I couldn't find anything that had an adapter to the bayonet-style arms or the plastic bit that was still on them but I made it work lol:




hatch trim panel on too after it got some paint:




And got the brakes fully bled and working great!. There were a couple leaks I had to deal with (thankfully solved by cranking the heck out of the fittings to make them seat nicely), but overall it went pretty smoothly.

Had bought a cheap vacuum pump recently, and used that to get fluid to all 4 corners without having to get someone to pump forever given that the lines were completely empty. Worked a treat, would highly recommend.

Got fluid to all 4 corners, then bled the master (thanks Wilwood for including bleeder screws on the MC itself, made it way easier than bench-bleeding), then back to the wheels. Did the final bleed conventionally with the help of a family member although honestly the vacuum bleeder did such a good job that there wasn't any more air coming out I could see.




So yeah, it runs, drives, stops, and the clutch works now! Tomorrow I'll try to get the driver's door all assembled, and whatever other misc. I may need to do, then if time allows it'll go off to get a safety inspection done on tuesday. Got the headlights aligned tonight after dusk too, then drove the car into the garage under its own power which was a nice feeling.

[colinc]

im kinda really into the current color randomness. looks awesome.

Great work Noll. I agree with vvise that the mismatched paint scheme looks cool. I say clear coat it and call it a day. I know you came up with a fix for the headlights but if you want to try a different headlight switch I have a couple sitting around from my early 260z. You are welcome to them N/C.

[Noll]

Thanks peeps! Fan clutch could very well be seized, but hey, would rather it was stuck on than with the fan not spinning.

I am happily surprised with how nicely it's running; I think it's running a bit lean at idle but that's an easy fix. Haven't checked or changed timing at all yet either, but doesn't seem like i need to mess with it.

And yeah, I am really happy with how the exhaust I made turned out, sounds pretty great IMO. I have just ordered some ear plugs for when I do longer drives though haha.


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Bunch of misc. jobs today; topped up the coolant now it circulated and got the air out, cleaned out and vacuumed the interior, got the broken bolts out of the chrome door frame for the driver's side ready for when it goes in, and spent a bunch of time troubleshooting the headlight issue.

Turned out there are/were two problems - #1 the headlight relay setup I got for cheap off amazon was miswired from factory and I never noticed (one circuit went from 12v from the headlight harness to 12v from the battery instead of to ground like it should), and secondly there's something up with the car's wiring and it wasn't doing anything when the headlight switch was set to low beams.

Try as I might I couldn't figure out was wrong with the headlight switch (even took it apart, all looked as it should inside), so I decided to just tee a wire off of one of the front marker lights as they're on in both lo and hi positions, and use that to actuate the low-beam relay. Worked a charm, and I now have fully working headlights.




All running lights are working nicely too