1990 Twin Turbo to NA. Long Story + Warning!

Alright time to start my rebuild thread.
There is a lot of writing in here and some pics down the bottom.
Its been almost 3 months since my problems started and now the night before I go for my roadworthy I think its time to report on everything that?s happened.
A lot of you guys would have seen posts by me about the absolutely sh!t situation I got placed in but for those who haven?t, here goes.

Short history for all those who don?t know me, my names Ash im 18, live in Geelong on the weekends and Ballarat during the week for uni. My zed obsession started when I was around 14-15 absolutely loved them from the first time I saw them. My 3 best mates all loved jap cars too so worked out great. I was the zed man, my mate jimmy was supras, another rich was boats (soarers) and finally Brandon was skylines.

Sadly im a poor kid so the zed dream wasn?t realistic at 17, so I brought an EL falcon, let my best mate jimmy drive it and he wrote it off a week before I got my licence, luckily insurance payed out and I could actually afford a zed brought a 90 na auto aus delivered in gun metal, loved the car to bits and spend everyday playing around with stuff on it, then go offered a spot living in Ballarat for uni to become a paramedic and obviously took that, long story short, zed was too expensive had to sell it :?( brought a 89 prelude to do up for $400 but couldn?t get it going, then brought the trustworthy civic which has done well for the last 6 months.


Got given a $4000 scholarship from centrelink for having to move away from uni and another $4000 from the uni for another scholarship. After spending 2 grand on school I decided the only way left too spend the rest was on another zed.

Now here comes the crap part.

Been on the forums for almost a year now just stalking never posting, always furthering my zed knowledge but not owning one in the time never had a reason to post anything. Around 3 months ago ?Anton? was selling his gunmetal grey zed, it was so cheap that it was unbelievable, sounded like the best buy ever. Car was a manual na 1990 grey slicktop (some of you may remember it). As I lived in Vic and he was in Perth I had to buy the car without looking at it, just taking his word for it along with pictures. I know how unbelievably crazy it was but after seeing in the last year how much of a community this forum is I decided he was a genuinely good guy who was honestly selling a great car.

I was going to Perth to see my brother but was unable to see the car as Anton needed to leave to go for a job induction. Car was sold to me under the impression that EVERYTHING had been fixed up too roadworthy condition except for a wheel alignment and that there was documentation too prove this. Like an idiot I believed him. Car was brought for $5000, plus it cost me $550 to get it trucked over to Melbourne where I picked it up.

Everything sounded fine with the car, was told good paint job, new rims, average interior, working engine, been to the mechanic and only thing it needed was the alignment. Anton did tell me that the car had been in a slight accident to the front passenger guard, but the guard had been replaced and shock replaced just to be safe, I accepted this as he told me it was all perfect now and wouldn?t of noticed it had ever been hit. Yes im completely stupid for not clicking and just making sure it hadn?t been written off or anything like that but as I said reading the forum so long made me completely trusting in him and he genuinely sounded legit.

Got a phone call from the transport company saying the car would be in Melbourne the next day so I jumped on the phone and rang vicroads to get an unregistered vehicle permit, was halfway through the process when the lady on the phone said to me ?you do realise this car has been written off don?t you and will need extensive testing and checks to be aloud back on the road? pretty much felt like I was going to pass out I was in that much shock and that devastated.

I rang Anton, obviously I was not happy at all. His response was ?oh yeah I probably should have told you that? Really Anton? You probably should have told me that? I think it probably should have been the first line on your for sale add!

Unluckily for me, that was just the start of my problems. Got the permit and picked the car up the next day, checked over the car and the engine making sure everything looked fine and drove off? Got 10 minutes down the road, in the right lane of a 3 lane highway, heard a massive bang, though WTF was that? then realised I had steam pouring out of my engine, it was literally like someone was spraying a fire extinguisher over my bonnet and onto my windscreen, could not seen anything but had a fair idea of where the cars were around me, took a chance and swerved off to the left into the emergency lane. Waited a few minutes for the engine for the car to cool down and for my heart to stop racing. Popped the hood and saw the car had leaked a massive puddle of water but there was no trace of where it came from.

To cut this story short as its getting massively long, had to wait 2 hours for a mate to bring me water to refill the car, took a further 3 hours to make a 1 hour drive as had to stop every 5 mins to refill with water. Got it too the zed shed in Geelong were Bryan and all the guys were waiting for me, found a crack in the top of the radiator which had been attempted to be fixed by silicon over it but as soon as the pressure had built up it shot off. We had a quick look over the car that night, finding the crack in the radiator, a blown head gasket AND extensive rust throughout the chassis. Words could not describe how completely shattered I was. I had spent every cent to my name getting this car over here and expecting to just take it to get a roadworthy the next day. I don?t know if it?s the same in other states but in Victoria a written off car must pass a Vehicle Inspection Verification Test (VIV) which is carried out by an independent engineer to asses the car, all things included, they will literally rip your car to pieces and measure your chassis dimensions to the mm.

Many sleepless nights and more hours than you could poke a stick at later, we had pulled the engine apart inspected everything and with Bryans (Brytek) expertise engine was fixed (spending a lot of money that I didn?t have)

Rust was going to be cut out and new plates welded on however prior to us doing this we where told about the VIV test and how impossible it would be. Had the car checked out by a few people and it was deemed impossible to pass the test. Considering it costs around 500 to have it done I was in no position to take any chances.

For a long week I thought about my options, I could part the car out, probably make my money back but I think everyone knows how hard it is to fully part the car out and make money off it. Plus with the amount of cars being parted out this year I went the other option and that was purchasing a shell and doing an entire swap.

Because of the damage and how angry I was I wanted to take the car back to anton and demand a refund, however being on the other side of Australia was not going to happen, probably lucky for both parties. Anton agreed to pay some money back on the car, although in the end only got $350 out of him?

Had quite a lot of people with shells and I thank them all for their help. Finally decided to buy Mikey?s shell (redzedmikey). A few of the guys I know have had dealings with Mikey before and I was told about his strong passion for zeds and the condition that he keeps his stuff in and the quality of it, so it was without a doubt that I got the shell. The car was Aztec red 1990 manual Targa twin turbo zed.

Car was delivered mid august and we started pulling it apart instantly, as Bryan had around 7 other cars to fix it did take awhile to get stuff going. A week or 2 later everything was off the red zed and we started pulling everything out of the grey zed.

While pulling stuff off the grey zed we found basically all the bolts under the car where done up hand tight :| as if it had just been slapped together the day before, also by this time the paint on the hatch and front bumper had all peeled off, after im assuming anton had resprayed the car only days before the sale.

I knew it was going to be a massive job but I honestly had no idea how much effort was involved, id helped out with swapping engines and transmissions and all that before but swapping every single little thing was just crazy especially because I was only there on Friday and sat to work on it.

Left the rear sub frame from the twin turbo on the zed but everything else was converted to na. For all those guys on p plates out there thinking if would be cooler and cheaper to swap the tt to an na, DO NOT DO IT!

As of last night the car is going again and to everyone?s relief there is only a couple of slight problems with it

I guess one of the main points from this story is that people from the forum are not always trustworthy as I?ve quite clearly found out. Anton hasn?t been on here for a month? Always check to see if a cars been written off, never take the sellers word for things and most importantly get the car checked out before you buy it!

Im extremely happy with the car now, although my bank account isn?t. As if its not bad enough being a poor uni student I think I?ve set a new low with having no money.

Also I would like to take this chance to express my greatest thanks to Bryan (Brytek), owner of the zed shed down in Geelong, I would without a doubt refer him to anyone out there, he is a master at what he does, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to fixing cars. I have been spending pretty much every weekend there for the last 9 months and learnt so much about zeds and cars in general, funny to think 9 months ago I knew, brake, accelerator and clutch? that?s it lol. The days upon days that he and I have spent without sleep working away on my car is crazy and none of this would have happened without him. Words could never amount to my gratitude for him and all the help he has given me. Also to all the other guys at the shop they know who they are

For all of you who have made it this far reading, here are some pics;


:br::br::br::br:



the zed when it arrived



the red zed after we pulled the exhaust, tailshaft, tranny and engine out.



twin turbo engine out of the red zed



all parts needed taken out of the grey zed ready to swap into the red zed


what a zed looks like with no suspension



everything stripped out of the grey zed



frustration



evreything back into the red zed, would never advise this swap getting done



my small exhaust



the interior i have in the red one at the moment untill i redo it in black leather



the finished result





future plans are to get everything running smoothly, redo interior and the respray in either a dark purple or have a play around with a black and red mix as im getting used to the bonnet and hatch being grey

anyways thanks for reading guys
cheers

 

hey mate, read your whole post and i am glad there are people here like you that can take that from people in stride and keep going with their original plans.

When i bought my Z last year it had some damage to the front bumper and was told that it was a 400 dollar fix. After repairing it all and getting it back together, i went to register it. It ended up being a write off and the person i bought it off had moved away (he was actually my next door neighbour) and i havent seen him since.

Since then i have straightened the body and little things to get it passed the pits and now it is registered. But a few thousand later still doesnt help that there are people out there who will rip us 17-18 year olds off for a quick buck.

 

Mate you are a bloodey inspiration... i'm simply appauled at the guy that sold it to ya... words cannot describe...

i've had similar problems with the complete and utter muppet i bought my Z off (see my build thread for pics of state of mine) must be a thing with grey ones huh!


i know i might seem odd here, but i like the red interior lol

 

what a pig.
glad to see you got it to where it is today. nice job

 

RedZed1 Lives!!!! Awesome to see. Good onya for hanging in there through tough times.

 

Good work but I'm not keen on that bonnet.

 

Well that was an amazing read, I've been around for a while and it's just so disappointing that one human being thinks it's ok to do something like this to another, It just astounds me that riff raff like this bloke go thru thier lives ripping people off without suffering the consequences. I guess you can only hope for karma and that this low life gets what he deserves.

I guess the real positive here is that you've uncovered some new skills and as they say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Well done for sticking with it, most would've cut thier losses and walked away, I wish you all the best mate and hope you get her finished to a standard you deserve.
Dave.

 

Is it just me or are your tyres reeeally small?

 

the grey bonnet wasnt really a choice lol had to put it on as the red one wouldnt sit properly.
Yeah the wheels are smaller, told they were an alright size ratio for the slicktop... But ill have to change them over soon.
Roadworthy is 8am in the morning and we cant get the wipers working swapped to another wiper motor and still nothing. Looking into it further now

 

No faith Asheden was easy to fix wiper, Was just wiper amp all good now. just another late night here as always lol

 

You really need to get some stress balls or one of those little zen sand gardens in a box or something, if you has something other than the windscreen and roof to take your stress out on your financial problems would be $400 smaller, anyway, if you send me some pictures of it's current state I may still be interested.

Nice work getting it all sorted out though, I'm not surprised Mikey helped out, he knows exactly what you are going though, though with a much more expensive Zed. Stick with it, it seems the worst is over.

 

Ashhh and Brytech (and Mikey) - thanks for saving Mikey's original chariot. Good to see that it will live on.
Oh, and Ashhh, all those long hours pulling two Zeds apart will have given you invaluable experience and knowledge every time you work on your new car!

 

Does this have anything to do with this post ?

http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=301969

Was there a bit "what goes around, comes around" going on ? :br:


This seems a little more in "context" now.

 

No that post was between anton and I.. and was sorted without issue My dealings with anton were fine i myself cant complain with antons service, with what he sold me arrived in good nick he was paid and he and i were both happy..

Had no idea who ash was buying his car from untill after my dealing with anton was over..

 

HEHE no worries don't want to start a story where there isn't one.

 

cool

 

Hmm...i bought an oil filter adaptor from Anton a few months ago and it turns out the bloody thing is the wrong size :/
Wouldn't recommend buying from him myself...

 

roadworthy

well the time came thismorning for the roadworthy, seeing as though i finished working on the car at 3:30am and bed at 4am and the roady was at 8am was in no mood for it.

arrived there and as soon as i got in the guys shed he did not look impressed.
4 hours of inspecting the car later i failed pritty much every section

points were
-exhaust too loud. wasnt expecting that to pass... lol
-centre breaklight didnt light up
-bonnet arm not connected in engine bay
-bonnet to hard to open and close
-battery not held in place
-washer jets not working
-wiper blades
-no sun visors
-hand break needs adjusting
-wheels needed to be 16" stock rims for some reason
-tyre rating on front rims were wrong for the car
-heater not working
-no demister
-shocks at front unusable
-engine number is not clearly visable

what a list!
when the car was ready for me to pickup at 12 went straight to the zed shed in geelong to fix everything. in 9 hours we;

-made a new center break light
-made a spot for the bonnet arm to sit (had to disconnect with the new ASI radiator)
-fixed the opening and closing of the bonnet
-fitted sun visors
-found some stuff to hold the battery in
-swapped front shocks to my spare ones
-borrowed some stockies from a mate and fitted them
-reconnected heater (much blood shed from my fingers)
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY;
-filled a coke bottle with degreaser and lit it on fire
-made a flame thrower out of fuel hose, coke bottle and an air compresser
-got my car tuned


tomorrow morning will include,
-fitting a silencer to exhaust
-new washer jets and wipers
-adjusting handbreak

going for roady again tomorrow around lunch time,
hopefully it passes this time

 

Sounds sweet man, good luck with it.

 

Good luck.