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stevef1972z

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Blog Entries posted by stevef1972z

  1. New Rad is IN!

    · stevef1972z · 03/27/2010 06:56 PM

    Put in the new three core radiator I picked up from ebay. Nice fit, nice part, and I drove the car hard an never saw the temp gauge move past center, this is totally different for my car! New hoses and new thermostat, and had already replaced water pump last fall. It is nice not to have to watch the gauge as much as the road!

  2. 2010 Parts and Plan

    · stevef1972z · 01/23/2010 10:20 PM

    I have the new Champion three core alu. Rad to go into the car, along with the hoses. I think the old rad was done in fro 170,000 miles, flsushing worked for a while but began to heat up again. I used my Christmas money to get the rad and a brand new set of Z rotors for the front. They had been for sale here, but I got them on Ebay for half the price. I have new pads coming into the store today and will pick them up this evening.
    Now I need some decent weather. Need to take down the Christmas lights off the roof before I get to play in the cold garage. I did get a Battery Tender, its plugged in and holds the batter fine. Cant wait for warmer weather!
  3. One propane canister, two scrappers, two four inch grinding wheels, three 4 inch abrasive wheels for the grinder, two abrasive wheels for the drill, three drill grinding stones conical (for those hard to reach places), 10 cut off wheels for air cut off tool, one hammer for the air nibbler (great tool), 3 cans brake clean, 30 inch sheet metal press, 8 sheet metal screws to hold in place (removed and hole welded), one 4x4ft sheet of 18ga, 1 and 1/3 spool of welding wire, assorted hand tools, two bottles of advil and a lot of sweat.
    Add in the time and you see why the shops charge so much for this job. I think if you total it all up I came out lower than having it all done, minus the time part, as I fabbed up everything myself versus buying replacements or farming the work out. If I had it to do over, I would have stripped the car down to a shell and worked it over, it was a lot of overhead work on my back on a creeper in a one car garage. This is a lot more work than hanging quarter panels or rockers. I am proud of the work, but at the same time I am really glad the major work is now done.
    I know a lot more about how these cars are made now! I am no joking about the help from the board without it I would have had a real mess on my hands!!!
    __________________
  4. Finally finished the Floors and Frame Rails all the way up to the T/C Boxes that were completely gone. Lots and lots of work, but the car is much more solid now.
    Drove it for a week and all it did was run scary hot. Waterpump, thermostat, overflow kit, full flush, and we will see if it helps. Pulled all the AC off the car and that helps a little as well. Will see how it goes after the thermostat housing comes in the mail.

  5. More on Floors

    · stevef1972z · 06/13/2009 10:05 PM

    Been very busy with other things, the Z has a layer of dust on it from sitting neglected. I got a 4x4 ft piece of 18ga sheet metal and bent the needed pieces today. I am not real happy with what I have come up with for replacing the section missing between the TC mount and the Bad Dog frame rail. With everything missing from the rust it is making it tough. I placed everything today and secured it with sheetmetal screws to pull it tight. I had some more trimming and hammering to fit contours, but not bad. I have to go back down in the morning and get the metal reground to start the welding of the floorboards and the frame rail. So far it is going well, should be on the road this time next week if it all works out.
    I really hope so it has been a long time since I have driven it.

  6. Update on floor and frame

    · stevef1972z · 04/23/2009 01:28 AM

    Not much happening. We were out for a while as we had a wedding in Ft. Lauderdale last weekend and one this weekend as well. I am working on the templates and hope to have them to the metal bender this weekend early Satuday before the wedding. The bent metal will be added to the Bad Dog rails and welded into place for the T/C support. I will try and be nice enough to take some photos. Didnt get to work on the templates tonight, Monster in Law came over and bought dinner, so I had to visit. Will finish the templates Thurs or Friday evening.
  7. Well the Bad Dog rails arrived late this afternoon and I picked up the freshly bent floor pans from the shop on the way home Friday.
    I got to work with the new air nibbler. If you dont have this tool and do some light body work and metal modification get one! I powered up the compressor and went to work. I got the passenger side floor cut. The rust was worse than I expected. Went further and left the metal thinner than I thought it would.
    After today, I am seriously wondering if this car is worth the effort to fix correctly. Looks like the rust monster has won. Up to the torison control rod mounting point is rusted away completely. After getting it out, the metal between the frame rail and the inner fender is a disaster as well. Looks like more cutting and welding. If I had known it to be this bad, I would not have bought the car, and would have got a MG or something else again. Even my Mustang, having spent its entire life in Illinois was more solid than this.
    OK, time to relax, clean up and get some rest before going at it again, I guess if I cut enough away I can just sell the running gear!

  8. Progress!

    · stevef1972z · 03/17/2009 02:31 AM

    Ordered the frame rails from baddog tonight, should have them by the end of the week. The weather is pretty sweet too, so I should be able to start making some progress and be back on the road again real soon. Floorboards are bent up and the nibbler is ready to take out the rust. Cant wait to get back on the road!

  9. The Plan, Part Deux

    · stevef1972z · 03/04/2009 11:05 PM

    OK, I bought the car to drive and enjoy and not have to do as much work as I had with my Z28 street strip car. That didnt happen.
    New plan for the car:
    Fix the floors and the frame.
    Redo suspension: new springs new struts new ball joints new steering boots update sway bar and mounts and redo the rear ujoints.
    Engine will need a rebuild. Not confident in doing the engine, I have never rebuilt an overhead cam head, so I will most likely look for a replacement long block and swap them out. The original will be wrapped and stored since the numbers match.
    Goal
    Nice driving and looking S30 with the ability to hold up its head at an autocross as a stockish 35 year old car. Some modern updates but not many and drive and enjoy.
    So for the guys that have been down this path, what updgrades/changes have you made or are you considering?

  10. The Z and Me

    · stevef1972z · 02/09/2009 02:45 AM

    I decided it would be nice to put something together to track the life of this car. I have had a lot of different cars over the years from MGs to Lifted 4x4s. I sold my 1979 Z28 T-top Camaro with 435hp 445lbt/ft after I got a little bored with going in a straight line. I started looking around and found my Z.
    Its a 72 numbers matching car that I am 3rd owner from what I can tell so far. I should have found this site before I bought the car and I would have know more of what to look for.
    4th of July weekend I picked the car up and took off with a toolbox, extra oil, water, tape, fuses and thought I had it covered. 17 miles later it started to overheat. Pulled over let it cool down and added about a half a gallon to the radiator. Its full of build up so I didnt think too much about it. After getting down to 150ish I thought I would try again. Made it 7 more miles before it blew the head gasket in a plume of white smoke. I limped it to the next exit let it cool for an hour and then limped it to a gas station to get a tow truck. Had it drug home.
    I made the driver pull past my house and drop the Z at the top of the hill. Paid him went to the house, opened the garage door and jumped into the Z and coasted it in the door. It didnt get towed into the drive, a moral victory!
    I dug through the car and the box of stuff that came with it and found a few manuals. The long weekend was over, my wife was at a conference for the week, so I came home every night, put in a couple hours on it each night. It was only a total of 6 hours worth of work but it took me about 4 nights.
    Once I got it running and through several milkshake oil changes I took it out where it promptly stopped running only three blocks from home. Had to hook it to the Jeep and drag it back.
    Tell you more later, it gets better!
  11. As I type all of this the car is sitting in the garage, up on ramps. After reading a lot of posts here and asking some questions that had been asked before (its hard for a new person to search the postings because they dont have the vocabulary for the car yet) I went down to check the passenger side floorboard and the floor support.
    You guessed it, rust. Big time. There really is no support rail and it is rusted right up to the Torsion Rod mounting point on the frame. Dug in and figured out what had happened. The floor is super solid on the inside. The PO put in a new floor, above the old one! Its a fabbed floor, but a darn good fit and solid as a rock, just not stock and no drain holes, stamping etc. He eaither bent it himself or had someone else do it.
    I dont know what to do about it yet. Cut out BOTH floors? Cut out the rusted section of the original floor and order a replacement floor pan and support cut the pan to fit the bad section weld it in and then weld the floor support and the front piece up to the suspension mount? Maybe cut out the original floor pan and then add the floor support and then do the next piece up to the suspension point.
    I dont know yet, ordered a air nibbler to help with the cut out portion to cut back to good metal on the original pan to see what I have.
    Any ideas? What would you do?

  12. Slow Progress

    · stevef1972z · 02/23/2009 04:19 AM

    Progress is slooooowwww right now. Its been cold here in the St. Louis Metro area and my garage is not heated, unless I am down there with the kerosene heater on. Tools are coming together, got my new air nibbler from Ebay in late this week. I plan to use it to help cut out the floorboards to prep for replacement. Need a set of flanging pliers, you know the ones that make the lip on the edge of sheetmetal, dont know where to find one yet.
    Also got the welder back in house with a new spool of wire so it is ready to go. All I need now is the pan and the support and then the upper piece of frame support that goes by the tc mount.
    Progress, but slow. Read all the steering wheel refurbishing posts looks like I might do that since I have one laying around.
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