Nismopunch's '71 Z buildup

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:36 am

Thanks Schassisowner & Doc! I haven't gotten a chance to start drilling out spot welds and taking what I need from the clip due to to weather lately

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:01 am

So its been raining and gloomy...what do you do on a friday night when you are stuck inside? Install stuff!

Nice new 3-row from MSA

Doing quick test fitting of dual fans, needed some trimming over by lower rad outlet but ended up fitting snug. Making some brackets will be interesting. Wired up a temp sensor in line with the lower hose with a super nifty high tech oem nissan relay to turn the fans on. No lame switch to add inside and automatic operation

I drove around town and put some freeway speedway miles down lol, temp holds well and fan was not needed unless purposely idled for a long period of time. Will have to see how well it does in dead summer.

Car made it outside for a few quick trips before the rain...and before tear down to replace battery tray/passenger rail

Still much to be done...and looking at the front I really need to strip down the grill and surrounding area...still has overspray from POs fail layer over layer over layer paint job.

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:22 am

Looking good :tu:

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:58 pm

Ahh it's been a while since I updated this thread. Still haven't done the tear down due to various cool events and my most recent Utah road trip. I have just been enjoying the car in it's rough state.

For the Utah road trip I ordered some K&N filters for the triples...you know driving through the desert and playing in the Salt Flats should probably have some sort of filtration...

Now that I have some filters...time to head out on this road trip to Utah with friends!

On hwy 80 for the entire trip

First fill up

Back on 80..

Hmmm...kind of all looks the same

"Where do you live sir?" "I live on BATTLE MOUNTAIN."

Same same...

Continued..

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:20 pm

Continued from previous post..

OOoooo a tunnel!

Probably most interesting thing on 80 so far...

Almost to Wendover

Sitting at Montego Bay parking lot with hood cracked open

Zed hanging out with friends

Off to the salt flats!

You can see I covered up some holes with tape...somewhat useless but it made me feel better

Back on the road to Utah

Final destination....the great JDM LEGENDS!!!!

In all it was a great trip to go on with with my friends. Unfortunately (probably lucky) my wife flew out to join us on the 2nd day of the trip, so she missed out on the glory of hwy 80 on the way there. I'm thankful I also got to meet some very cool people. Eric from JNC and his friend Jan. It was pretty cool to be there to see Eric pickup his Hako. Also of course the men behind JDM Legends, Eric & Ryan. All of you guys made the trip that much more awesome!

According to my Zed, we traveled 1,685 miles in the four day trip. I was honestly skeptical that I might not make it back or at least have some trouble during the trip. However the zed drove the entire trip without any mechanical troubles. I even averaged 25mpg for most of the trip...with the exception of around Utah my carbs disagreed with the elevation and ended up around 19mpg in the area.

I have a new respect for my Zed that I can't really explain without sounding cheesy haha. Listening to the awesome sound of the carbs the entire trip and hearing Eric's awesome stroked L helped make up my mind to stay with the L series. In all a great success and a ton of fun!

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:56 am

Had an awesome time :tu:

circuitlife86 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:32 am

I'm glad you guys made it home safe, sounds like a pretty epic trip! It was awesome to have you guys come by the shop and meet up, it's always great to connect with like-minded people... I wish you guys we're local

We'll be seeing you again in California soon enough....

-Eric

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:30 pm

Thanks for the kind words Eric! It was definitely pretty epic to be able to drive our JNCs out to see you guys. Haha I could say the same thing about wishing you guys were local too!

Looking forward to the next time we can all meet up again.

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:44 am

Had some free time a few weeks ago to do this...

Oooo some clean metal hiding in there

Starting to give it a crease to bring the inner metal to meet the outer.

Mmm closer

Yep welding skills are low, but grinded down bumps so you will never know haha

ericbauer · **Posted:** Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:34 pm

Man.... I've got to learn how to weld...

-e

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:53 pm

Anyone who says welding is easy either has 1000 welding hours put away or is a natural...and I am neither haha. It's fun practice, just annoying running out of gas and running back to get more

Side note..my HG is blown, but only weeping to the exterior of the block. Gathering parts now..but stuck waiting on ARP head studs...commmonnnnnn fedex! Going to also tear down soon and inspect stuff to see what else I need.

ericbauer · **Posted:** Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:08 pm

Good luck buddy!
Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:14 am

Pulled off the head yesterday night...and this happened.

All the head bolts seemed to be at a different torque...and this one just literally snapped at the first tug. I drilled and tapped it, because spending hours with an extractor just didnt yield any results. I wish i took a pic before I started drilling into it lol. Had more bad luck and couldn't even continue because the head gasket I got was all mangled even though it was well packaged...probably damaged from distributor to seller I assume. Will have to see if this will hold once I get another one. Will post pics of finished drill/tap later, having issues with uploading to picasa for some reason.

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:08 pm

All I know this car has to go to JCCS.

ericbauer · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:19 am

Time to go to junk yard and pull a L28 bottom end out of a 280ZX and slap your head and carbs on it?
Yes? yes?

-e

Stevester · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:40 am

Nice car.

Thanks for the pictoral tutorial on cutting back/welding the fender for flares! The welds don't really need to look that good since they are covered by the flares. Better to have good strong ugly welds than nice looking weak ones...

Finally, I just saw the part about the K&Nk filters. Keep an eye on the brackets that hold the tops on. I had a set of those filters on my Celica and the brackets kept breaking at the welds on the bottoms. I had my neighbor try to weld it back on but it just broke again around the weld edges. I eventually gave up and bought the rectangular style filters with the four external clips. It might not happen since you have an I6 which is supposed to have less viabration than an I4 (my Celica had the 20R) but I thought I would just mention it.

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 12:54 pm

Eric - Finding a 280zx F54 has been a hard task for me lately...I use to see them in the yards a lot and now dry when I am actually looking. Ughhh this car will most likely not be going to JCCS asdkl;askdl;asdk;alsdkasd :evil:

Stevester - Thanks for the kind words! I'll keep an eye on that bracket, so far its survived two long road trips and seems to be ok as of now. If that broke too I dunno what to say at this point haha

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:08 pm

Really?

Maybe come down with Ivan, but stop by the Sun Valley jyards?
I too remember seeing them often, but then again I haven't been to a jyard in like a year...

280z L28 would work too... doesn't HAVE to be F54 unless you're doing some crazy big turbo setup or boreing out to its maximum...

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:26 pm

Nismopunch wrote:

Ughhh this car will most likely not be going to JCCS asdkl;askdl;asdk;alsdkasd :evil:

Dont like the sound of this

Nismopunch · **Posted:** Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:44 am

ericbauer wrote:

280z L28 would work too... doesn't HAVE to be F54 unless you're doing some crazy big turbo setup or boreing out to its maximum...

Yeah I know...but I want one if I can get my hands on one

Still would get N42, which ever pops up first at this point...so far a few no call backs from craigs. I am still going to JCCS, just probably in my IS...ughhhhhhh not cool at all.

Norcal510 wrote:

Dont like the sound of this

Yep neither do I. No word back about getting another head gasket...have to call today and follow up again

Nismopunch's '71 Z buildup

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