So I've had this car for a while, but only recently have i had time to do anything to it so i figured I would start another thread for all this car's related work.

 

It's a 1989 JDM na Auto SWB. When I bought it I thought I would take the parts I needed off it for my TT, but the TT works and I don't really need loads of parts for it so I want to keep this car complete and put back on the road.

 

 

It looks like a barn find, but trust me it's not as bad as it looks (hopefully).

If that rust is your rear sill then I'd expect that to be an instant MOT failure!

MOT failure or not, you'd want to get it sorted before you think about bringing the car outside. Waste of time and money otherwise.

If that rust is your rear sill then I'd expect that to be an instant MOT failure!

 

MOT failure or not, you'd want to get it sorted before you think about bringing the car outside. Waste of time and money otherwise.

I know I really need to get it fixed, but it's expensive...

I know I really need to get it fixed, but it's expensive...

 

It is, but anything else you do is just thrown away when the rust gets worse.

You could always give welding a go to save costs, although the repair panels are pricey.

It is, but anything else you do is just thrown away when the rust gets worse.

You could always give welding a go to save costs, although the repair panels are pricey.

It's dry stored so it's not going to get much worse. It will go up to Lee's probably when time and money allows.

Why did you fit those rear shocks Ali, did you not see the springs? Were they stored inside a marine aquarium [emoji1][emoji13]

Genuine serious question here: why don't you just concentrate your time and money on sorting one car out? Instead of trying to do two?

 

I'm sure there are some serious bragging rights involved in a 17 year old ( ? ) having a pair of Z32s, but you're doing everything on the super-cheap and I honestly don't think it's going to work for you...

 

I mean, what available income do you have to lavish on either of these cars? Are your parents paying for everything? Most students I know of are beyond skint!

 

Focus your attentions on the TT and try and make a half-decent car of it, instead of having all these grand ideas about them both being on the road next year. If your sill looks that bad outside now, I reckon it's going to look horrific inside... and, as you said yourself, that's expensive...

 

You're an intelligent kid, that's obvious. So I'd recommend doing the smart thing and just having a single Zed and be happy with that.

If your sills are that bad, then the floor pan is likely to be on its way as will the inner sill box section. To repair the properly is costly - to repair it on the cheap only gives you a turd....Sorry, temp fix. I knew it was 4 letters beginning with a T.

 

2 x Z32 on a paper-round income - you'll make yourself bankrupt!

do one bit at a time take that rear sub off clean and fix it up then do jobs bit by bit after that and work through it but there is no getting away from the fact that to build a really nice z is going to cost a lot of money on the other hand you could build a rat style 300zx thats legal looks a bit crap but does drive but deffo just do one doing 2 it not going happen you have seen what i have just done to mine its cost a bomb trust me shocking costs. just build one

Maybe we should give the youth of today a little more credit.

I know from my experience, that although they challenge what we see as the norm, sometimes they can supprise us older folk.

As for the corrosion? As Si says, it will be a lot worse on the inside compared to what you see now.

I know this from bitter experience, having spent 4 years on the driveway removing heaps of corrosion from both the rear arches and the front areas of the floor pan.

All I would say Alic is, take your time and don't rush in mate.

Hey Alic, you may have seen my link before. (Boring I know) but will be of some use.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/thanks-everyone.15465/

Can somebody tell me if this much rust will fail MOT or is it too vague to tell.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]102267[/ATTACH]

 

This, this is probably why you got it cheap. Not only would that fail an MOT but that is the tip of a very painful iceberg. When these cars were worth less a few years back most would of told you to scrap it, seriously. Next time your working on this car take a wire brush, preferably a soft one on a grinder and hit that sill to remove the under seal. What you will find will be 10xs more than what you see.

To repair that you need to learn some welding and fabrication skills.

 

There's a few sensible warnings on here about your intentions. Put it this way though, if you earned the UK national average wage restoring keeping one z32 on the road will be difficult with the cost of living these days let alone two. Being totally honest most people your age or slightly older are going to struggle to live on that money (esp in your part of the country) let alone have luxury projects. If your serious about this business I think one of them projects needs the boot.

Don't know what your intentions are academic wise but if you love tinkering with cars so much get yourself on an apprenticeship asap. You need deep pockets to keep an average Z32 from falling apart. At least with a few years in the trade you will have enough skills to do a lot of the work yourself properly.

Why did you fit those rear shocks Ali, did you not see the springs? Were they stored inside a marine aquarium [emoji1][emoji13]

Report thing because it didn't have any shocks and I at least wanted it able to drive around the block.

Genuine serious question here: why don't you just concentrate your time and money on sorting one car out? Instead of trying to do two?

 

I'm sure there are some serious bragging rights involved in a 17 year old ( ? ) having a pair of Z32s, but you're doing everything on the super-cheap and I honestly don't think it's going to work for you...

 

I mean, what available income do you have to lavish on either of these cars? Are your parents paying for everything? Most students I know of are beyond skint!

 

Focus your attentions on the TT and try and make a half-decent car of it, instead of having all these grand ideas about them both being on the road next year. If your sill looks that bad outside now, I reckon it's going to look horrific inside... and, as you said yourself, that's expensive...

 

You're an intelligent kid, that's obvious. So I'd recommend doing the smart thing and just having a single Zed and be happy with that.

No money I'd being spent on this car, only elbow grease and I'd say I've spent a fair bit of that. Yeah you're right I can't afford to get both cars on the road next year, but with this one I want to get everything done apart from rust so then when money allows I can bite the bullet et voila drive able

 

If your sills are that bad, then the floor pan is likely to be on its way as will the inner sill box section. To repair the properly is costly - to repair it on the cheap only gives you a turd....Sorry, temp fix. I knew it was 4 letters beginning with a T.

 

2 x Z32 on a paper-round income - you'll make yourself bankrupt!

Thanks for the info, will cut into it when I get time, but for now it's happily sitting not hurting anyone. As stated, this zed has zero money being put into it, and neither of the cars need to be on the road, so if they are broken that's the way they'll stay.

do one bit at a time take that rear sub off clean and fix it up then do jobs bit by bit after that and work through it but there is no getting away from the fact that to build a really nice z is going to cost a lot of money on the other hand you could build a rat style 300zx thats legal looks a bit crap but does drive but deffo just do one doing 2 it not going happen you have seen what i have just done to mine its cost a bomb trust me shocking costs. just build one

This Z is not going to be built really nice. It's just going to be built to an OK condition, and ideally this will be the cheaper to insure of the two so this will be the Z I get to toodle around with.

Maybe we should give the youth of today a little more credit.

I know from my experience, that although they challenge what we see as the norm, sometimes they can supprise us older folk.

As for the corrosion? As Si says, it will be a lot worse on the inside compared to what you see now.

I know this from bitter experience, having spent 4 years on the driveway removing heaps of corrosion from both the rear arches and the front areas of the floor pan.

All I would say Alic is, take your time and don't rush in mate.

This, this is probably why you got it cheap. Not only would that fail an MOT but that is the tip of a very painful iceberg. When these cars were worth less a few years back most would of told you to scrap it, seriously. Next time your working on this car take a wire brush, preferably a soft one on a grinder and hit that sill to remove the under seal. What you will find will be 10xs more than what you see.

To repair that you need to learn some welding and fabrication skills.

 

There's a few sensible warnings on here about your intentions. Put it this way though, if you earned the UK national average wage restoring keeping one z32 on the road will be difficult with the cost of living these days let alone two. Being totally honest most people your age or slightly older are going to struggle to live on that money (esp in your part of the country) let alone have luxury projects. If your serious about this business I think one of them projects needs the boot.

 

Thanks for your comments, Jeff and Lee told me it's not disastrous and other than the rust, this car is pretty much done. It does me no harm sitting there and I enjoy doing the odd job when I get the opportunity. Sure it was cheap, I wouldn't have bought it otherwise but I've seen plenty turds go for more, I think it was rather a good deal to be honest, it isn't that bad.

Don't know what your intentions are academic wise but if you love tinkering with cars so much get yourself on an apprenticeship asap. You need deep pockets to keep an average Z32 from falling apart. At least with a few years in the trade you will have enough skills to do a lot of the work yourself properly.

 

Got a couple offers at uni so far, won't have time for an apprenticeship and I'm going into software engineering so it wouldnt really make sense. Thanks for the thought though.

So I didn't start it last time, so when I tried this time... Nothing.

First off battery was dead so I put a beefy battery in it and it would crank, but it wouldn't fire, not even a splitter, so I kept trying, putting it in limp mode and flushing it to make sure it wasn't flooded etc but didn't get very far, it would cough but never catch.

 

So by process of elimination, I had fuel pump and pressure and fuel was getting in cylinders so it must be spark or timing. So I've had problems with the Ptu before I took that off with difficulty and cleaned the connectors and low and behold she splutters into life :)

 

Story time over, took her for a quick spin (literally) with no brakes but she runs alright, gives me confidence for the future.

Quick photoshoot:

Tatty but she's not far off now.

Lee says the smoke is likely just all steam.

Edited December 20, 20168 yr by Alic

Looks a bit odd without front spats, you should seriously consider removing those rear ones :tt2:.

I spy some front spats in that sigpic of yours :biggrin:

I have some spare front ones, swap for your rears....doh !!

I have some spare front ones, swap for your rears....doh !!

 

I have some skirts that will probably go on so I won't need the fronts.

But nice try ;)

Driver door card was removed to fit the seatbelt but the bolts are all chewed up. I had to remove the ball-bearing inside the seatbelt that was jamming it. And yes it still locks, not sure of its purpose.

 

I know this is from 6 months ago, but this is the first time I've read this thread. I bet it's got the wrong side seat belt in it so the reel is upside down and locks up. I accidentally put the rear belts in the wrong way round on my black zed and they were jammed pretty much solid. Swapped them over and all was good. As far as I can tell, the idea is to lock the belt if the car rolls, stopping you from hitting your head on... well, everything :tt2: I would swap the right belt in before you do drive it properly

I know this is from 6 months ago, but this is the first time I've read this thread. I bet it's got the wrong side seat belt in it so the reel is upside down and locks up. I accidentally put the rear belts in the wrong way round on my black zed and they were jammed pretty much solid. Swapped them over and all was good. As far as I can tell, the idea is to lock the belt if the car rolls, stopping you from hitting your head on... well, everything :tt2: I would swap the right belt in before you do drive it properly

 

Alright thanks I've got a spare seatbelt so I'll try that. But in my mind it would be less of a headache without the orientation lock

Alright thanks I've got a spare seatbelt so I'll try that. But in my mind it would be less of a headache without the orientation lock

So you would rather be rolling in a car where you're not rigidly attached to the seat so your head can bounce up and down off the roof?!?

So you would rather be rolling in a car where you're not rigidly attached to the seat so your head can bounce up and down off the roof?!?

 

I would hope in the event of a roll that it would already have engaged, and not randomly turn on going up a steep hill.

I would hope in the event of a roll that it would already have engaged, and not randomly turn on going up a steep hill.

Err what? If I'm right in what I said, then you've removed what makes it engage in that scenario!!