16 Year Olds RB25 240z

[jchoi]

Hello everyone, my name is Johnny and I recently bought my first 240z and car at the same time. The body had now rust like the P/O said but the wiring harness was slaughtered and the car wouldn't even turn over. Here are some pictures of when I went to purchase the car.

 

This was the state of the wiring as received with the car

 

More to come on the fuel system and brake lines and body work.

-Johnny

 

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[charliekwin]

Welcome!

Walnut Creek: my home town!

[Hardway]

Congrats Johnny and welcome to the club.  Wow!  Slaughtered is definitely the right word for that wiring harness.  I assume your plans to are to replace all of it at this since there is no telling what is what anymore?  We look forward to your updates!

[gwri8]

Welcome Johnny!  I see a lot of detective work in your future......

[RS02]

Welcome another 16 years old! I'm restoring a 71 240z with a L28!


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[Captain Obvious]

Welcome to the club, but wow.......  That thing has been hacked, jacked, and molested!!

You either better be really really good with electrical troubleshooting yourself, or you better find someone else who is. I suspect that thing is going to take a lot of effort to get into a running safe state of reliability. I think you should be happy that it wouldn't start. I'd be worried about simply connecting the battery up without something catching fire.

Buy a decent meter and learn how to use it!! And you're going to love the car once you get stuff sorted out!

Edited July 11, 2017 by Captain Obvious

[Mark Maras]

@jchoi What year is your 240? I have some usable wiring harnesses from a late 71.

 

[jchoi]

Thanks for all the support@charliekwin@Hardway@gwri8@RS02@Captain Obvious@Mark Maras.

The car used to have a L28ET swapped in it. For the most part I have been working on things that didn't cost much money like striping old parts and cleaning and checking for rust.


The floor pans are in pretty great shape with little rust. After getting comfortable with the car I started to strip stuff from the engine. I knew I was going to pull it so decided to make that job as easy as possible in the future.


I didn't record any of the engine being pulled but it was pretty straight forward.

Floor pans are being coated with POR 15 right now and a fuel cell and new fuel line is being installed.
-Johnny

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[Zed Head]

I thought the car already had an RB25 installed.  You might rethink the RB part.  It's an exotic engine from an exotic land and costs exotic money to get it done and maintained.  Lots of extra work just for "RB".  No offense to any RB guys that have already done it.  It's a challenge, but not a good one for someone who doesn't have a load of cash to spend on it.

[jchoi]

I thought the car already had an RB25 installed.  You might rethink the RB part.  It's an exotic engine from an exotic land and costs exotic money to get it done and maintained.  Lots of extra work just for "RB".  No offense to any RB guys that have already done it.  It's a challenge, but not a good one for someone who doesn't have a load of cash to spend on it.

Hey, sorry about the misleading title. I didn't mean to make this seem like a finished build. I have been tinkering with the idea of not going RB25 but a good family friend swapped his 240sx with a RB25 and so he is kind of my mentor or teacher. I have most of my funds already set and a great paying job for a 16 year old. I also have a side business of making and selling surfboards. This build for me is more to keep my hands entertained and to tinker. I am planning on using this build to help me get into an engineering school and so I want it to stand out. Hopefully most of the work and fabrication will be done at home.
-Johnny

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[jchoi]

Back to the updates, I finished the floor pans and the fuel system. The brake lines are coming in next Wednesday with some stuff from Eastwood like paints and sealers



I also started on the engine bay. The P/O decided to give the car a shitty spray paint job. Now it's my turn to make it nice. Any ideas on color? I was going to go royal blue and do a gunmetal grey exterior.


-Johnny

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[Zed Head]

40 minutes ago, jchoi said:

This build for me is more to keep my hands entertained and to tinker. I am planning on using this build to help me get into an engineering school and so I want it to stand out. Hopefully most of the work and fabrication will be done at home.
-Johnny

That makes sense then.  Good luck.

On that note - just curious - but if you reach in to the car and push forward, backward, or sideways on your fuel cell, will it move?  The two strap system looks like it could use a bit more engineering.  And, safety-wise, the tank is inside the cabin of the car, which is generally a bad thing.  Leaks, hoses torn loose (they're exposed on the outside), and accidents can all expose everyone inside to raw gasoline.  

Sorry to pick, but it is what it is.