Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Good idea, could alway just spray it for a while too...

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

I already checked into that. I'd need some lower profile air cleaner, or there's not really room for a 1/2" plate kit.

Right now there's 3/4" between the air cleaner and the hood. That's a totally legit measurement using play dough.

What is has for an air filter now, which only fits because of it's small diameter which goes into the bump in the hood. At least the 70's intake manifold is a single plane.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psehbvtjom.jpg

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Welp. Now I've gone and done it.

I pulled the console and dash to prep for the painless kit, now I have a case of "while I'm in there".

The car originally had A/C, so I'm going to pull the coil which is dead weight.

While laying across the rocker to unhook stuff to pull the dash I got curious and peeled up the off-brand dynamat which the floor is lined with.

It turns out the rust spot is bigger than I thought, it's still not major and will just be one piece of flat sheetmetal to patch.

While looking at that I noticed that the trans tunnel is coated with a tar like stuff, which I assumed to be OEM sound deadening/insulation. Some of which is dried like plastic and breaks off, the rest comes off like tar.

Should I just peel all of this shit out?

I have to remove a lot of the interior to strip the OEM wiring to put in the new stuff anyway. I could always buy new stuff later if the noise/heat bothers me.

Should I just get the full whack of autometer gauges now since I have the dash out and I'm starting from scratch with the wiring anyway?

At a minimum that's replacing the 3 factory ones with Oil Pressure/Fuel Level/Water Temp. The 2-5/8" ones are very close to OEM size and will fit in the stock location.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

I've decided to just work on the car for 2-4 hours a day while the sun is still bright in the garage.

That sort of schedule also stops me from getting overly frustrated/tired of working on the car.

Dash out of the car:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psgfdmrt1r.jpg

What I meant about comitted:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psub6aaddy.jpg

I found more than a couple spots of questionable wiring like this:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...pso68af9q8.jpg

...that actually ran to the starter.

Dash on the new workbench so I can work on it where stuff is warm. Most of the hard part of re-wiring the car is here, getting the painless stuff connected to the stock combo switches for lights/wipers.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psbhib9ysy.jpg

New stuff came in the mail today, now just to send in for the $100 rebate:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psfgdu9yg3.jpg

I think the instructions were written by an old guy. I can't see someone who grew up with the internet thinking that the font for all of the "Note:" sections was a good idea:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...pskfn0bhrv.jpg

I pulled the evap coil out too. These were dealer installed options, it's a 240z part showing the mix and match of parts on the 260z:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psopr5ub61.jpg

It's not very heavy, but, is something else I don't need in the car so it goes. I decided last night that anything not required is going. Pulling insulation/sound deadening, but, leaving the panels as based on the ones I took out, they can't weight more than 20lbs total.

I have the harness pulled out of the car except for rear of the seats which runs the rear lights. It runs into the passenger side quarter and it seemed like a good place to stop before I have to start pulling interior panels off.

I left myself a couple feet of the stock harness from the front lights which I'll put a weatherpack connector on and tie to the painless stuff.

The dash harness is still there, but, is coming out. I decided to put in new gauges while I have it out.

I left a pigtail for the wipers for now, as I don't know how much of a hassle that could otherwise turn into. I don't expect it to be a problem to take things apart to get to the motor itself, but, it is still a 42 year old car. The same logic was behind leaving a length going to the front lights.

I'm ordering gauges when I'm done with this post. I'm also tacking a new shifter on to that order. I don't like how the one that is in there doesn't lock you out of neutral, so you can go right past Drive/3rd into Neutral. So, I'm buying a ratchet shifter. It will fit better in the car, too. The space between the dash and where the shifter needs to be is limited and the current one is so close in Park that you can't get your hand all the way around it which has been semi annoying since I bought the car.

I'm going to order wheels in the next couple of days. My plan is to have the wiring done, and the interior back in the car by mid-feb.

That will leave me spring break to hack up the body for flares and pull the motor/trans. I can't do that until I have wheels+tires and new springs for the front(to set ride height, etc). I can't get new springs until I know if I need to change to smaller coils to clear the wheels+tires. I can't pull the motor until all of that is done so the car is at the right weight.

At that point I'll decide if I swap in a motor. There should be enough time between spring break and the end of salt on the roads to pull it off. It is amazingly well documented online.

Tomorrow I'm pulling the bumpers/bumper shock absorbers. Supposedly they weigh a bit over 100lbs total. They'll get replaced with fiberglass replicas of the smaller 240z bumpers.

If I had the cash, there's a guy in NY making carbon fiber dashes and consoles which combined weigh like 5lbs. The factory dash is probably like 30.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Making awesome progress! Wish I had that kind of time!

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Silver electric tape, fancy

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

The wires also pulled out of the crimp connector inside the tape when I went to pull it out from the firewall.

When stuff goes back together, everything is getting soldered.

Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Fuel level gauges are on the way. I did tack on a ratchet shifter, too.

For the fuel gauge there was basically two options.

First, buy the fuel gauge that is set for an older Ford which is semi close to the ohm value that the Datsun sender uses. The mismatch can be bandaided with some trial and error with resistors/pots. I'd still be at the mercy of the error now in the 40 year old sender.

Second, just buy a fuel level gauge calibrated to a GM sensor, which pretty much everything aftermarket uses and then figure out the rest later.

I went for the second option, which means I will absolutely have to cut up the car for a fuel cell. It's something that would have to happen before the car got boosted anyway as you simply cannot pull fuel fast enough from the stock tank to feed that.

I still need to dig more on what is practical for a fuel cell, there's cheap aluminum ones and cheap plastic ones(summit/jegs brands, RCI, etc). Which while not Certified by anyone can't be any worse than the factory steel tank. NHRA rules look super easy to comply with.

While I forgot to order one, I'll be putting in the NHRA required battery cutoff while I'm re-wiring the car. The battery is pretty obviously no longer in front and the rules require one regardless of your et/trap when relocated.

The more of this "extra" stuff I add, the less likely a motor swap becomes. I originally planned on doing it next winter anyway. The only way I could have pulled it off this year is if "the plan" went exactly as planned.

This whole re-wiring project wasn't originally accounted for, nor the one of adding a fuel cell.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Of this whole thing, the part I was the most worried about was pulling out the plastic interior panels. But, they all came out without issue.

I had 3-4 hours into this today after school, just to remove the rear chassis harness.

Driver's side:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps4cljko5j.jpg

Passenger Side:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psdozhzrqd.jpg

I now have everything out that is coming out, with the exception of the antenna cable.

The car will no longer have a radio. I put ~5000 miles on the car between the end of June and storage and maybe used the radio for 2 hours.

The rocking speaker, it didn't even have stereo:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psazefafcq.jpg

While weight reduction isn't really the goal, I've taken out about 25lbs more than is going back in with the painless kit.

My plan for the re-wire is to hook everything up how I think it should go without cutting any of the wires on the painless harness.

Then hook a battery charger to the system(no battery) and run through the functions to make sure everything is correct with the factory switches.

Once that tests out, I will shorten stuff and add connectors for if it ever needs to be removed.



It looks like the weather is going to hold out for another day so the garage will be easier to keep warm. My next task is going to be drain and drop out the gas tank and pull out the factory fuel lines.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

More chipping away at this.

Since the last post I stripped the dash harness out which I forgot to take pictures of, it was another few lbs of wire.

I left myself pigtails for the factory wire into the factory plugs for the combination switches for the blinker/headlights/wipers.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...pss8kzfo6c.jpg

I did the same with the wires/plug for the ignition and found another surprise.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...pst8kltr45.jpg

That was under more duct tape. It's the same wire that was duct taped in another spot, which is the wire that ran to the solenoid on the starter. I'm sure these two janky connections didn't help with my hot start issue.

My order from Amazon came with a pleasant surprise.

I had ordered the cheap version of the B&M Pro Ratchet shifter, however, they shipped me the nicer one.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psp0ubwfsq.jpg

On amazon they're ~$80 different in price, list price is $100 different.


I've been working since Saturday on mounting the new gauges. It takes way more time than expected, but, only doing it for 3-4 hours at a time makes it much more enjoyable.

The brackets work and are solid, but, they're ugly so no picture of the back side.

This is from roughly where the seating position is inside the car. The speedo/tach still need their brackets, they're just friction fit into place.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psmuo533z7.jpg

At first, I was struggling with a good way to get them positioned correctly. The OEM gauges have just a slightly bigger housing. They way those are mounted is the back of the dash is angled slightly and they are basically spring loaded pushing against that to angle towards the driver.

I noticed that the bezels of the OEM gauges are just slightly smaller than the bezel of the Autometer ones.

So I took them apart, with a hammer and screwdriver. I could maybe been more delicate, but, meh. I then epoxied these into place in the dash, pressed against the angled flats to give me the proper angle.

This made locating the gauges super easy. They're centered and at the same angle to the driver as stock and it looks super clean.

As a minor nitpick, they must be from different production runs as the stencil that says "Auto Meter" and "Pro Comp" is ever so slightly different on the fuel level vs the oil pressure and water temp.

I also figured out what to do for turn signal and indicator lights.

Originally I had scavenged the OEM ones from the dash harness.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps7u7l010n.jpg

I was going to be clever and make a box and use some fiberoptic to pass the light out of the dash. I've seen some pretty clever use of this by buying the right size to fit inside a pop-rivet to give you a bezel and finished look.

However, I found these on DigiKey.

https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...739-ND/3153072

https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...731-ND/3153069

Green and blue panel mount LEDs with a diffused 3MM LED and a bezel. They can be wired right into 12v and have leads coming off of them I can easily add to the relevant circuits on the Painless harness. They were kind of spendy for LEDs ad $12 and $10 each.

I'm now done with school at 1:30 every day so hopefully I can finish with brackets and start laying out the wiring for the new harness.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

I got my LEDs from digikey today and they should work out perfect.

I'm going to need to buy some resistors for the blue one as it is way too bright, which I thought might be the case going in.

It's not a big deal, I'm going to be ordering some more stuff from Digikey anyway.

The green ones should be the perfect brightness as turn signal indicators.

I ordered wheels yesterday. 17x8.5 -10 front and 17x9.5 -20 rear which fit perfectly in the "ZG" flares that I will end up with.

It will look just like this:

http://i.imgur.com/gBW2ebl.jpg?1

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Awesome progress!

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Another update.

I needed to get something done today.

So, I got the LEDs in the dash.

Size of the LEDs:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psjogmq0s7.jpg

Mounted:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psclcw7xbg.jpg

Turn signals lit up, the light level is perfect. They're clearly visible with all the lights in the room, and, not too bright when it's completely dark with all the lights off.

I had to hook them up to a battery to see what it looked like.

Even with the camera flash on:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psaf7vro6p.jpg

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Are those your turn signals and high beam?

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Yeah.

It was annoying not having them as they were a part of the OEM Tach/Speedo.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

I now have 6 pages of notes on which wires connect to which Datsun thing.

It was cheap enough that I ordered a 2W 10K Ohm pot from amazon which is shipping along with a distribution block that I'm going to use to split off the ground/power for all the gauges. They should both be here tomorrow.

My goal is to have the car wired to the point that I can start it and check light functions by Sunday night. I'm not cutting wires or permanently attaching them, yet. I'm still planning on just using wire nuts at all the connections to test.

Once everything checks out, I'll take it all apart, fish the wires through the body and cut to length/solder all the connections.

My wheels and tires came in yesterday and today I threw them on the car.

It looks weird but they are both 17's:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psfuhu9kca.jpg

255/40 Front and 275/40 Rear.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psdh2hpj65.jpg

Old vs New(front):
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psseczzbin.jpg

I didn't take a picture of the old tires vs the 275s in the rear.
Stockers on the front:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps7wdscn2y.jpg

New:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psxl2cqrtw.jpg

They don't actually stick out much, but, they do hit the front of the opening without being turned much. This gets cut out when flares go on:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psifm5pn6e.jpg

That's due to both the new tires being a slightly bigger overall diameter and a change to the scrub radius because of the negative offset. -10mm vs +6mm

The rear sticks out quite a bit more than the front:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psbcintjd1.jpg

Farther away showing both:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psjzb1sab8.jpg

Ignore the positive camber. It's adjustable to -2° or so at the upright before I would have to weld in camber plates. When I put the suspension back together I just bolted it up without checking where it was or even making sure it was even side to side. I'll probably pick up a set of adjustable control arms so that I can adjust toe, which is currently fixed.

The rear is actual coilovers and I can adjust ride height. I don't actually plan on lowering it much, if at all. Much lower and the exhaust would hit all speed bumps instead of just some of them. Function>Form.

I need to get under it and actually check, but, the fronts do clear the stock diameter springs, which was a concern of mine. It's by very little, the tire doesn't rub, but, I can't fit my finger between the tire and the spring either.

I can go the cheap route of buying a set of Chevette(lol.) springs and just cutting down to the correct length if the tires stay clear of them. Thy are like $40 a pair, so even if it doesn't work out when things are loaded when cornering it's not a big loss. Otherwise I might try some small(5mm or so) spacers up front.

The more labor and/or expensive option is to either convert the front to coilovers or buy a drop in set. Drop in is ~$900 and to convert is ~$600 in parts and a full weekend of labor.

Either way, I'm not messing with the fender flares or front suspension/brakes at all until the wiring is done.

On another note, poking around the RHDJapan website where I will probably get the flares from they sell front fenders, hood, rear hatch, doors, and rear quarters all in FRP. They also sell acrylic windows to go with all that if for some reason I decide on full BECAUSERACECAR and need it as light as possible. Those along with the carbon fiber console/dash/door panels the guy in NY makes I could have a lightweight car that still looks like a full body/full interior.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

New wheels look good, nice progress on the wiring, that cant be fun.

That thing is monster truck high though, or at least looks like it with those new wheels.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

What tires did you get?

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

It will get lowered maybe an inch. I want to be able to easily clear speed bumps and such. The exhaust routing becomes a problem lower than that as there is just no where in the tunnel to route it where the trans sits, which is the lowest point would be.


Aaron- Continental Extreme Contact DW.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

Nice, I had DWS on my 330i and I liked them although they didn't like some of the rougher auto-x courses.

Re: My "new" car/project.
 

DWS is an all-season and DW is a summer. I'll see how they work out, mostly they were cheap, decently reviewed and came in the sizes I wanted.

The other options for something in a 275 on a 17 inch wheel and 255 in a 17 were significantly more expensive.


I started the wiring project today. Right not it looks like a rats nest of wiring held together with wire nuts.

The tail/brake/rear turn/reverse lights all check out.

The ignition checks out by multimeter, and by passing a switched 12v, which is how the turn signals were tested.

I ran into an issue with my notes, though. The front right turn signal is exactly what it should be, same with the running light that shares the same spot.

However, for some reason I didn't track down the correct wires for either side marker or either light of the combo for the front left. According to the wiring diagram from the factory service manual it should have worked.

But, I've been working on this since about 11AM and had enough.

Hopefully with a clean start in the morning I'll find I just missed something simple. I'm guessing the ground for that side is in the bundle I cut out.

I'm still hoping to fire it up by tomorrow night, which I'm sure the neighbors will love since it has no exhaust right now.