Hi all, fairly new here but i've just recently put a deposit on my 3rd 300zx so i thought i should introduce myself. Before i get into what i've just bought i'll tell you all a little bit about my brief history with Z's. Beware though, LOTS of images. So my first Z was an 89 2+2 n/a auto with a manual conversion. When i got it, it looked like this.... It had a faulty knock sensor, was leaking oil from a few places, 2 dud injectors, 1 dud coilpack, 2 exhaust leaks, a bad home job repair on the o2 sensor and coilpack wiring, bad home job wiring on the stereo, stuffed center bearing, clutch was put in on an unmachined flywheel... there was loads of bad home jobs in that car. Ontop of that, the first time i had it on a hoist i found it had been crashed once... So this happened And then its first few outings.... And then it was after this that i decided that it would be a good idea to swap it for a Twin Turbo Mk3 Supra. Although it was a great car i regretted it about a month after i sold the Z. The supra was easy to drive, it was nice however it wasn't fun unless you were flat out in a straight line. It didn't handle like the Z, it didn't excite me like the Z, it didnt make the right sounds, it just didnt have the personality of the Z. So i sold it... I mulled around for a while wondering what to buy and then a friend needed bailing out, and guess what i happen to find in the back of his shed? This.... However it hadn't looked that pretty in some time. He works in a panel shop and not longer after he bought it he decided he would respray the parts of the paint that had blistered and restore it a little... However he primered it all up and well... it stayed like that. He lost interest and it sat for a year before i came along. The parts bolted to it made it worth it in my eyes, even though the car was in rough shape i felt at the time it was worth saving, so i bought it and took it home with me. Heres what it looked like when i got it home. First thing i did was ditch the front bumper and infil panel as they were broken and didnt fit, they needed to be zip tied on and looked tacky with all the zip tie repairs. I wennt with a stock bumper and infil panel because they were cheap and fit properly. I then serviced the engine and gearbox, replaced a few bushings, fixxed about 4 botched stereo installs, bypassed the knock sensor as it was faulty, installed an electronic boost controller and put in some new seatbelts. However a change in my life circumstances meant that i no longer had the space to keep an unregistered project of this type, so i decided to sell it. I got stuffed around by quite a few people regarding the sale of this car, multiple deposists taken and forfieted, one guy even paid me to deliver it on a trailer to his house and then decided to buy a computer instead just as we were signing the paperwork. After multiple failed sales i decided to part it (next weekend is when its getting parted, fun times ahead...). Not long after the descision to part it, I found a tidy little n/a 2+2 auto for a good price, went to see and drive it and put a deposit down on it. Here it is... The plan is pretty simple; take the manual conversion from the Twin turbo, put it in the silver Z. Take the turbo brakes and swap them out onto the silver Z, swap the coilovers and spoiler (which i am getting moulds made so it can be copied as ive had a few people ask me about buying it) and anything else i can swap onto the Silver Z as an upgrade, the rest of the Twin turbo will be parted and sold. When i do the manual conversion i also plan on swapping out the flywheel for a lightweight flywheel (12lbs) and a heavy duty organic clutch. I also plan on installing a Z1 solid shifter brace, one piece clutch line and a one piece tailshaft (would it be cheaper to have one made locally or pay the price from CZP/Z1 to ship one over?). I would also like to take the time to delete the EGR whilst im there. Plans for the silver Z in the near future include a JDM rear bar and Twin Z diffuser, 2k Jspec front bar or a Bomex bar or a Twin Z Type 2 front bar (Cant decide), a leather Z innovations seat kit, new paint (either midnight purple or pearl white), retrim tweed in black suede and other basic Z stuff. Cheers for looking.
Nice wing on that burgandy one - spied it off when it was for sale though. Rest of it's a total heap though, parting it probably the best thing.
Its actually got a pretty strong engine and drivetrain. It looks pretty beat up but it could be saved. I was planning to keep it long term and build it up slowly but my lease for my shed is up in 2 months, the lease for my apartment is up in 4 months, I've been told neither will be renewed. So i can't keep it. It has plenty of good parts, plenty of bad parts. Either way, its a parts car now, its donating some pretty important parts to my new car, the rest goes into offsetting what i paid for the silver one.
Seems i just tend to love cars that are known problem childs... it seems i love things that don't love me back... I also have an FC Rx7 & I was looking at buying an SW20 MR2 as a daily.... But i'd say i've caught the Zed bug for sure
Your definitely certifiable like all us multi zed owners. welcome to nutzville. You seem to know these cars very well, and can handle a spanner. What is your background? Nice write up BTW.
Cheers. As far as my background goes that depends on what you mean, how i got into doing what i do with cars or a history of my cars? Either way i'll detail both. Again beware... LOTS of pictures. So im 21 going on 22, I've lived alone since i was 15. I've been messing around with computers since i was old enough to hold a screwdriver. I've always had an interest in computers and cars. But i started learning computers by taking them apart and seeing how they worked, cleaned them and put it back together. By the time i was 12 i had built several computers for friends, family and such. I guess this technical mindset just transferred over to cars. So i bought my first car a few years ago, It was a 1994 Mazda 323 Astina with 275xxx on it. Was alright for $1300, had aircon, power windows and drove quite well for a car with that many K's. When it needed fixing i asked around in my circle of friends and one of my friends dads was a mechanic, he got me started, clutch master and slave to begin with, and then packing wheel bearings (ugh worst job), brake caliper rebuilds and such, I guess i just progresssed from there learning how to do stuff as the car needed it as i was happy to spend my time and effort to do it rather than pay a ridiculous amount to a mechanic who i now know usually cut corners and don't do it right. I then owned 3 more 323 astina's after that one. First i bought 2, one was a red one with rear quarter damage and bent control arms but it had a perfect interior, engine was replaced with a reco'd engine and it had a bunch of aftermarket parts on it, the other was a white one that had a rough life but the gearbox was perfect, the panels were straight and in desperate need of buffing as the clear was intact but had dulled so horribly you would have mistaken it for a matte paint job. I used the red car as a donor for the white one, brought the paint back to life, installed stiffer shocks and springs, enkei wheels, blacked out a few things, basically brought it back to life replacing old stuff with performance parts. I spent maybe 3 weeks building the car after i had everything i needed. Heres some shots. I had this for about 6 months before my next 323 came along. It was one i was eyeing off before i built my first white one, however it was taken off the market, but the guy called me out of the blue and said he was selling it again and asked if i was interested. So i sold my panda 323 to my friend who had an accident in the wet a few weeks prior and bought this one... it had a few things that made it special, the sunroof being one (very uncommon) and the V6 engine being the other, and lastly it was almost mint condition, except for a few small cosmetic things. So over the course of my ownership i swapped the v6 out for the bigger v6 found in the 2nd generation Mx6 (except i used the 225hp jdm variant), added coilovers, adjustable arms, braces, bigger brakes, all the fun bits. However I ended up selling it to buy my first nissan (of course being a young guy it had to be a turbo silvia didnt it?). It had a forged CA18DET in it, the bloke who i bought it off paid a friend to do the build for him and rushed his friend, so his friend built the engine and put it back in the car but didnt bother wiring it up or putting the turbo oil feed on or anything like that. So i had a freshly built engine with little work required to get it up and on the road. It was pretty tidy for the most part however after driving it for a while i didn't like it... it just didnt appeal to me, sure it had a fun ammount of power and was a solid car but it didnt excite me, it didnt inspire me, i just had very little connection to it, so i swapped it for my first truly amazing car which i still have and i'm truly in love with it. So without further ado here is my 1990 FC RX7 Series 5 Savanna I spent a great deal of money modifying this car over the space of about a year and then i was racing it out on lakeside and i hit an ibis, without realizing it had jarred the radiator enough to have a leak i wasn't aware something was wrong until my temperature started hiking quickly and before i could get it back into pit lanes i cooked the motor. However I have rebuilt the engine since and i actually put the engine back in the chassis for the first time in a year about 3 weeks ago now. Still needs a few little things before it can see the roads again but it will be back soon enough. Heres a few quick snaps of what it looked like not long before it went into storage for a while. After the RX7 was unable to be driven for a while i bought my first Z. So yeah thats pretty much my background A nice twin turbo slicktop in white or black would be good. However i'm currently financially invested elsewhere, so that will have to wait.
Epic story man. Sounds like you're knee deep into it like many of us here. What do you do for crust? Vehicle mods tend to cost a pretty penny. Then again there is always money when needed for our love affairs
I'm not that deep for another couple of weeks when i get back into it i guess. Actually at the moment i'm jobless, I do a little mechanical work for friends and family to help cover the bills. My primary profession is I.T. (hardware engineer). Thats just a fancy title for building and repairing PC's and networks i guess as thats all i end up employed to do. I'll be moving from the sunshine coast into brisbane as soon as my leases are up so i should find it easier to find work then, For now my savings will have to make do. Mods definitely do tend to cost a pretty penny... I always seem to find money for it though, usually by sacrificing any sort of social life for a little while.
Haha well at least you have your car priorities in order I guess. Which part of the coast you from? I used to live in buderim before moving back to brissy. Sorta miss the coastal scene. Only in short bursts though haha.
Caloundra dude, but i've lived all over. Kawana, Buddina, Buderim, Bli Bli, Maroochydore, Nambour, Sunshine Beach, Tewantin, Coolum, Yandina, Maleny... Know the coast like the back of my hand.
Read that and instantly thought of that song. 'ive been everywhere man" Some nice areas around the sunny. Brissy will be a new animal for you once living there though. Anyways, best of luck with the build(s).
Ahhh! Yet another endlessly verbose offering from The Ant. How do you manage to impart so much in-depth information & meaning into so few words?:rofl::br:
