Leaderboard

Just found another reference to hot-start from the 1981 280ZX Turbo review. Surprised I didn't catch these before, I've borwsed through most f the articles. This one is with the cooling fan. From May 1981. Note that they didn't report actually hearing the fan run. "we found that cold starting and driveability were very good but the the engine wasn't overly eager to start following a hot soak, and ran tentatively for several seconds before clearing out. An auxiliary cooling fan actuated by coolant temperature and positioned to blow cool air over the fuel rails is supposed to minimize the problem, but it obviously isn't a cure-all for every hot-soak condition."

Long weekend of prep work is finally over. Got around to knocking out the bushings from the rear control arm, which a ball joint press made decently-quick (though not easy: I broke a ratchet when the impact wrench was going too slow) work of. I'm considering myself fortunate that these were the only original bushings I needed to remove. After being inspired by Hardway, I took the wire wheel to the rear strut assembly, which cleaned up pretty well. Then bagged the front and stuffed some foam in the back of the rear hub and masked it off so I could media blast it without -- hopefully! -- getting any of that crud in the inner works. A few hours later, I looked like this, but I was finally done with blasting and wouldn't have to go through this again for a while. Parts were cleaned with acetone and hung up so I could spray with a bit of rust-converting paint, which is where things went sideways. I have a non-glorious history of finding ways to make a stupid mistake on my projects. Previous highlights include cutting holes on the wrong side of a subwoofer box and tapping the wrong sides of hard-to-reach wires under a dashboard. Anyway, it was getting late in the day and I was tired, but determined to get the paint on, so I grabbed the can. Rustoleum, by the way, has some similar art on some of their cans. So you can guess where this is going. Yup, I shot everything except for the struts with engine paint. So, Sunday, I did it all again. My pile of parts, ready for blasting. But at least I'm really, really done with that now. I've got the right paint on there now (better believe I checked that can multiple times) and will be shooting a couple coats each of Eastwood extreme chassis black primer and satin over the next few days.

Enjoy the ride!