Why are there so many project cars for sale that have been recently completed or are almost complete? You see them in the classifieds: For sale, no expenses spared! Engine not run in yet. Recently painted. Will not disappoint. Have receipts totalling $58,000. Selling for $33,000 ono. First to see will buy! Harry from Gumtree I won’t even start on the incomplete projects that swap hands until some nut enthusiast decides to actually throw the money and time at the rusted metal and seized engine. They don’t surprise me. Usually bought on a whim and with good intentions until reality …
Autumn 2019
This season I was detirmined to get the car finally back on its wheels. I always feel like I’m working slowly – and I am – but the results are worth it and I can’t see anything changing. This will take me a long time to complete but I am enjoying every hour in the garage. A large piece of the puzzle was the new shocks from Koni made availavble by MSA. The timing was perfect and I took advatage of the pre-order as soon as I could. The fit and finish is fantastic but obviously it’ll be a while …
It’s On Wheels
I’ve waited a long time to say that, “It’s on wheels”. Five years and two months to be exact. I’ve come a long way and there’s some way to go yet but oh, what a satisfying milestone to see the car on wheels and steering around. It has injected a lot of enthusiasm in the project; even the wife is starting to appreciate the car with it’s quintessential ’70’s shade of mustard showing off the beautiful sleek design. Here’s a small reminder of the car as I bought it. And a few after I stripped it. And just a short …
Suspension Detail
Immensely satisfying to be finally assembling components instead of cleaning decades of grease off them. This is what I was picturing all those years ago when I set out to restore a car. The reality is not far from the fantasy in this case. A smile grows to a grin each time the roller door winds up. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum now that I’m on a roll. Get it?
Steering Rack Rebuild
Like a lot of things with this build, it takes me a long time to complete components but in the end I’m happy with the results and I feel it’s heading in the right direction. I first picked up the steering rack in July 2018. It has sat in one corner or another since early 2014. Months later it started to resemble a steering rack. I had a small issue with the pinion bushing which frustrated me to no end but all things considered it assembled well and operates very smoothly. The OEM rubber bushings for these racks are NLA …
Rear Drum Brakes
When I took on this project in 2014 I pictured myself assembling factory new parts in a lab like environment and everything worked just as it did in 1970. Reality rarely meets fantasy; it takes time and effort to achieve fantasies. Some of the brake hardware has been purchased over 2 years ago and the rest has just sat around waiting for its restoration. The biggest time waster is finding myself short of a nut or something trivial that needs to be plated which has a month turnaround. Even simple things like painting parts properly has to be executed with …
KONI Sport Adjustable Struts
The timing could not have been better! Just as I started to work on my suspension I received an email from MSA announcing the new KONI Sport Adjustable Gas Struts for standard strut assemblies of the S30 chassis (and later Z’s as well). MSA will be the sole distributor for these inserts; an indication that they were a driving force behind the product coming to market. They are a completely new product designed to fit the ’70-’83 Z strut assemblies. The cartridge inserts are a twin-tube low pressure gas-charged design and are externally rebound adjustable. They’re capable of close to …
Summer 2019
Spring Break is Over! This has been the longest break I’ve taken from the car. A whole 6 months! While I know breaks like this severely delay the completion of the project, they are necessary, healthy, and sometimes unavoidable. How can you resist that little adorable face!? Her birth coincided with the start of my break and you can see why. Discussion over. As the year ticked over I made my way up the coast to meet with a dear friend for the first time. We had been in contact for a few years talking cars and finally got to …
Stepping Up From Rattlecans
Painting is effing hard! To do it right anyway. I’ve rattle canned my fair share and I can shake a can with the best of ’em. This time I thought I would invest in a spray gun and all the gear that goes along with it to get a hard wearing and lasting finish on the suspension gear. Upfront costs equate to paying someone else to do it but it’s an investment in my skills and it’ll pay for itself the second time I use it. The diff, axles, and fuel tank are all in need of a similar durable …
I’m Back… For a While
Starting to get back into it this week. I’ve disappeared into the garage each night and I don’t hear much complaining from my wife. I think she’s glad ‘that smelly thing on the couch’ is gone… I needed something simple to get started since I’ve been away for so long. The steering coupler and shaft seemed like a good place to begin so I knocked that out quickly and was on to the filthy rack next. I’m repeatedly reminded at how serviceable all of this old stuff is and the rack was no exception. Strip it, clean, inspect, new paint, …