Me:
Adam, born 1983, interests include movies, cars, computers and video games.

 

Personal Information:

Married to my beautiful wife Pauline in 2013, our first child Sebastian was born in 2014 and our second child Alessia was born in 2018.

 

Current Job Employment:

Working as a Retail Team Leader (RTL) for Repco Auto Parts, currently stationed at the Roxburgh Park store since 2016.

 

300ZX Experience:

Z32 enthusiast and novice mechanic since 2006.

Model:
12/89 Japanese Domestic Model (series I) None turbo 2+2 Automatic. chassis #GZ32-003944

Build Description:
Complete 2000 model retrofit and OEM+ restoration

Mileage:
Purchased with 97,220km and when I began this build project, the car had reached 190,483km

Body Colour:
OEM Metallic Silver (Paint Code: #673). resprayed in 2012 in same Metallic Silver.

 

Bodykit:
Complete OEM 2000 model body styling retrofit.

 

Engine Type:

OEM 3.0 Litre V6 2960 cc (Code: VG30DE) original engine.

 

Transmission Type:
Purchased with 4 Speed Automatic (Code #re4r01a). Replaced in 2007 and then replaced again in 2017

 

Interior Colour:

Purchased with original Grey Tweed (Code #G), retrofitted with OEM Blue Velour (series II) interior 2012.

Arrival modifications:
NOS Sticker on interior rear view mirror, otherwise bone stock fresh import from Japan.

Bad parts on arrival:
Cracked front bumper bar, plenty of minor scratches and marks on OEM body paint work, badly rusted battery tray, damaged drivers seat side bolster, missing OEM scissor jack and tool kit, no OEM stereo installed and the dashboard had the common lifted demister vent damage

Date of purchase:
September 2006

 

Build Project Start Date:

January 2012 to November 2021

Build Budget:
For Parts the budget was unlimited from 2007-2012 (estimated spend was around $60k-$70k)

 

For paint/bodywork the budget was strictly $5k no more.

 

Between 2012 to 2021 the budget for the build had diminished to almost nothing, with only essential repairs and general maintenance allowed to be spent on the car.

 

 

 

My 300ZX’s Story:

The 300zx was been a car that I fell in love with back in 1997 after playing the original Gran Turismo video game on my PlayStation gaming console as a young 14 year old, with the car’s stunning futuristic aerodynamic body styling being the biggest factor of why I love the 1990 Nissan 300ZX Z32 model.

 

 

In 2006 after several years of looking, I finally found an affordable 1989 Nissan 300ZX Z32 to buy in a none turbo 2+2 automatic configuration which had recently been imported into Australia that same year from Japan. I purchased the car for $7550, and it was the biggest day in my life up to that point and I remember having the biggest smile on my face the whole trip home as I was thrilled to finally own my very own Nissan 300ZX.

 

 

Over the next 5 years of ownership, I learned a great deal about the ins and outs regarding the Nissan 300ZX and the community that supports it. I attended many community events including tech days and several victorian based car cruises to places like the Great Ocean Road and the Goldfields to name a few. Over those 5 years I  have also had the pleasure of meeting a great many amazing and passionate Z32 owners who like me love this car for what it is, a great and unquie japanese sports car. I am glad to have meet them and they will always be life friends to me.

 

 

When I purchased my nissan 300ZX, I quickly developed a desire to not just restore my 300zx over time but I also wanted to upgrade it to that of the latest 300ZX model Nissan had ever produced, that being the 2000 Version R 300ZX model sold only in Japan, and are an uncommon sight to see here in Australia and still to this day. 

 

 

 

To complish my goal I spent 10's of thousands of dollars sourcing and collecting brand new, rare and optional OEM 300ZX Z32 parts from the United States and Japan over the span of 4 years in an attempt to create the world’s first fully optional Nissan 300ZX that could have ever existed.

 

 

In 2012 I had to begin the build phase of the project ahead of sechdule as my partner and I were in the process of organising our wedding day and honeymoon events that following year and so in order for me to help out with paying for some parts of the wedding, I stopped my part sourcing efforts and began the complex task of planning out the dismantling and reassembling phase of the project.

 

It took me 12 months of hard work to strip down my car and then reassemble it using all of the new and used parts that I had been sourcing over the last 4 years to make it as close to a 2000 special edition model as I could. I was extremely proud of the amazing work my Dad and I had accomplished with the build and I brought the car to its first official outing on the 2012 GOR cruise and the response from the community was very positive and lots of intrigue.

 

 

After 2012, my new and improved daily driver was driven as much as possible, almost everyday. The car collected over 100,000 kms after 10 years of driving and though the car was basically finished, I still managed to find more and more rare and optional parts as the years past by and depending on finances new additions to the car we installed but the car remained as is for last 11 years or so.

 

My 300ZX’s Big Accident 2021:

 

My 300ZX's Big Crash 2021 (Part 1) #shorts #300zx

 

My 300ZX's Big Crash 2021 (Part 1) #shorts #300zx

 

Rebuild Project Start Date:

November 2021 - ongoing

 

Rebuild Budget:

Insurance payout was $8k after the accident, but the budget has since blown out to an additional $2k with more finances required to complete the rebuild.

 

Rebuild Project Plans:

Obliviously the main goal of the rebuild is to get the car back to a drivable state and repair the damage, so the car will look like it did before the accident occured. I also feel this is a golden opportunity for me to continue finishing off my original build project that I never really finished back in late 2012.

WATER PUMP, COOLING FAN & THREMOTSTAT SECTION UPDATE (PART 2)

So I alot has happened with the path that I'm now going to take with regards to my choice of my cooling fan setup on the Z. I also began the restoration process on a used set of coolant inlet and outlet pipes as part of my spare replacement service part stragey plans which will allow me to replace an old worn out part with a restore part during service intervals when required to in the future.

WATER PUMP CLUTCH FAN UDATE (PART 2)

In last months blog post I layed out my new clutch cooling fan upgrade path using the GKTech high performance cooling fan option which I was hoping would increasing the amount of air flow coming into the front of the engine and lower engine temps when compared to that the OEM cooling fan setup.

After making that post a very knowledge Z owner on the aus300zx forums who knows way more about VG30 engine performance then I do, made a very important post for me detailing out the issue I would have with using this new performance fan setup. He quoted to me that he found that the GKTech fan would be less efficient at pulling air through the front of the car then that of the OEM fan and according to him its about 14% less efficient.

Quote

 

For what it's worth I would stick with the OEM fan. I've had the chance to test both with an anenometer and did not find any evidence that the GK tech fan outflows the factory fan. Speaking in round numbers, based on what I observed, the factory fan outflows the GK tech fan by about 14% at idle. When you look at your side by side picture this shouldn't be surprising at all.

I'm not bashing GK tech and it's probably worth noting that nowhere in their marketing material do GK tech claim that their fan outflows a VG fan at all. I think people just see the 60% improvement on SR fans, and 40% on RB fans, and assume that it's the same for VG when the manufacturer has never actually made that claim.

 

With this new information from someone who is very trustworthy within the Australian 300zx community, I was convinced that I needed to revert my plans on the cooling fan setup change and go back to my original OEM fan which though has a couple of very minor scuffs on it from the accident is in almost brand new condition.

With no need for the GKTech fan anymore, I promptly posted the item up on ebay to try and recoupe the money I had spent on it back in 2022 and it has already sold to its new owner in Peru of all places. All in all I am very happy with this decision as I definitely fell for the promised performance figures on GKTech's website about the airflow increase of the fan without noticing the claim did not mention any increase on the VG30 engine and if it wasn't for the post made by the member above, I would have found myself with possible overheating issues using the GKTeck fan on my Z in the future.

COOLANT INLET AND OUTLET PIPES RESTORATION (PART 1)

One of the very early project plans I had envisioned for the rebuild project was for me to do a major 100k km service on the front of the engine as I figured it would be worth doing the service now while the front of the car is dismantled during the bodywork repair phase of the rebuild. Unfortunately after 2 years of working on this rebuild project, I have now decided to put the major service on hold and get my Z back on the road as soon as possible. At the time of the accident I was just about to hit the 290k km mark so a minor service will be done of course but the major 100k service will now happen after my car hits the big 300k km on the odometer.

Anyways while I've been part hunting yahoo auctions for rare hard to find Z parts over the course of December 2023, I came accross a person selling a cheap set of coolant inlet and outlet pipes which I've been interested in toying with the idea of having a spare set of these coolant pipes which I could restore and replace during the 100k service instead of cleaning up my original coolant pipes taking up extra time I could save by doing the restoration work now ahead of the service.

So I purchased the pair of coolant pipes and after being in storage for a couple of months, I began the restoration process this month on both parts even though I wont be installing them as part of the rebuild project just yet, I still wanted to cataloge them and clean them up for going back into storage ahead of when they will be installed onto the Z.

I removed both of the coolant temp senders from the inlet pipe first and then submerged both pipes into a container of evaporust for about a week or so to remove all of the rust buildup that was present inside the pipes.

Before

After

I still need to remove all of the old gasket material on the mating surfaces of the pipes and then clean up the surface of the alluminum to complete the restoration work on these parts but for now its a start at least.

A lot of updates Adam. What are you going  to do with your life when it's all finished.

After 4 months of continual progress on the rebuild project, May was unfortunately not as productive due to a few reasons. One being that I needed to spend alot of time writing up Aprils massive progress report which ended up taking me 2 full weekends of hard work to complete. I then went on a holiday for 1 week in Honalulu in Hawaii with my Dad, where I got to relax and see some amazing sights and visit places I have always wanted to go to.

Still I did make some progress in that I discovered how bad my first attempt at painting went from last months efforts and I also finally got my hands on some new parts for the project which is bringing me closer and closer to getting my Z back on the road.

FRONT BUMPER BAR & REO BAR MAY UPDATE

Unfortunately after last months huge achievement of painting my first part which was the front bumper bar's upper support bracket in a gloss black chassis paint, it would seem that the paint that I sprayed on didn't turn out the way I was hoping it would and I am now uncertain as to which direction to go in with regards to fixing all of the issues with the paint coating on the bracket at this point in time.

FRONT BUMPER BAR UPPER BRACKET (P/N: 62298-30P00) RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2)

As you all know from last months progress report, the upper support bracket was painted in 3 coats of a gloss black spray on chassis paint made by Raptor which looked amazing initially and I was very happy with the fresh new glossy look the bracket now had. To help give the paint the best chance to cure as much as possible, I left the part untouched for about 2 weeks or so which is way more time then the can's instructions indicated with a cure time of only overnight.

Once the 2 weeks of cure time was over, I wanted to begin test fitting the upper bracket onto the support bar so I could see the final look of the 2 parts bolted together. I used a threaded stud on the support bar which I believe is an alignment point for the 2 parts as the bare miniumum I could do to complete the test fit.

To protect the paint as much as possible, I placed a suitable sized fiber washer around the base of the stud and then installed the nut inplace down as tightly as I would expect the nut to be to secure the bracket inplace.

After the successful test fitting of the upper support bracket, I removed the nut without issue but when it came to removing the fiber washer I had put in place to protect the paint, I had found that the washer was now stuck down onto the bracket. After some prying using my fingers the washer did eventually came off but what it did was take a bunch of paint along with it.

My assumptions are that for some reason either the chassis paint has not dried fully even after 3 weeks of cure time and or the paint hasn't properly bonded to the metal surface of the bracket which is more likely then the paint hasnt dried, which is still very disappointing considering all of the effort I put into to making sure that the part was cleaned and prepped to give it the best chance of adhesion as possible but it looks like thats not that case.

With my June 30th deadline fast approaching me, I dont know if I have the time to strip down and restart the painting process for this part as I am really eager to get my Z back on the road after June 30th. So I may just leave it as it is now and maybe in the future when I've found the best paint products for the jobs I'm doing and I've mastered the art of spray painting parts in the future, I may return to finish this part off for good.

RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW AND AUX FAN MAY UPDATE

Like the front bumper bar section unfortunately we have some bad news that has also transpired for the radiator, trans cooler & aux fan section and as you probably would have guessed it, the bad news relates to the how the paint coating has worsened over the last 3 weeks on my original spare set of na radiator mounts.

NA RADIATOR MOUNT'S (P/N: 21543-30P00) RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2)

Both of the radiator mounts were spray last month with 3 coats of chassis paint and I was very happy with how the paint finished turned out as I tried to give them a slightly thicker 3 coat which smoothed out the finished compared to the previous parts I had painted before them.

To allow the chassis paint to cure as much as possible, both mounts where left suspended in my garaged for about 3 weeks which I thought would be enough time for the paint to cure.

Unfortunately for me after those 3 weeks of cure time, while working in my garage I accidently knocked the hanging stand suspending the mounts dislodging one of them from the wire that was holding it in place causing it to fall onto the concrete fall in the garage from about chest height.

I knew this wasn't going to be a good thing for the paint coating but a small part of me was hopeful that maybe the "chip proof" paint coating would have held up from that fall unlike what has happened with the the front bumper bars upper bracket and its coating issues. 

But I of course was wrong and the fall had caused some minor damage to the paint coating including scuff marks and paint chipping which was annoying to see after only 3 weeks of the part being freshly painted but I was intending to spray 1 more final coat of chassis paint to fix up all of the issues that I had noticed and wanted to fix this weekend.

So to prevent further damage to either of the radiator mounts, I removed them from the hanging stand and placed both of the mounts onto my workbench to rest ontop of a microfiber drying towel which I thought would be a safe place to put them for a couple days until the weekend.

When the weekend finally came around and I went to move the mounts from their resting place, I discovered that they both had stuck onto the microfiber towel and after some gentle pulling they came off but the areas where the paint had stuck to the microfibes of the towel had left a spotted effect of paint removal on the coating.

It was a very disappointing thing to see the apparantely durable paint coating be so susceptible to scuffing and paint chips after only 3 weeks of cure time and it was clear to me that I would need to rethink my paint choices going forward. It turns out the manufacture of the chassis paint recommends the use of an engine enamel primer to be sprayed on first before the chassis paint to get the best results even though it doesnt say that on the spray cans instructions so going forward I will need to use this method if I choose to use this chassis paint again in the future.

PARTS ACQUIRED DURING THE MONTH OF MAY

Finally after 2 months of no new parts coming in for the project, May has seen a number of big purchases for the project. I had a big parts order from Nissan Japan arrive at the very end of the month which contained alot of the rememaining fasteners and parts needed for putting the car back together. I also purchased a few used parts from yahoo auctions which I have been trying to find that are missing from my Z atm and I also got to purchase avery rare OEM 300ZX optional decal from a local Z owner here in Australia.

Front Bumper Bar Spacer (P/N: 62090-30P00)

First up we have a brand new item out of my big parts order from Nissan Japan, the front reinforcement bar or reo bar foam spacer part that mounts to the center top of the reo bar and helps to create a slight gap between the front bumper bar and the reo bar. My original spacer and even a spare I picked up on one of my Z parts hunt a few years ago both show signs of slight damage and breakages in the foam and so when I asked my contact in Japan if these were still available from Nissan and they said yes, I decided to just buy a new replacement unit.

2000 Model Black Z Road Wheel Center Cap Set (P/N: 40342-VP100)

During the time I was organising the parts order from Nissan Japan, I was lucky enough to find a used set of 2000 model black Z wheel center caps on yahoo auctions which I know are now discontinued from Nissan.

Unlike the very common OEM alluminum silver center caps, these black veriants were only available on the 1998-2000 models as an optional extra when new buyers chose to go with the optional set rare OEM polished 16inch factory wheels or possibly when they were purchasing the Version R model where I believe these OEM polished wheels were standard.

Though I had brought a brand new set of these black center caps back in 2009, I have been on the look out for a replacement set to have as spares due to the fact that I have unfortunately lost 2 of the original center caps I purchase and that is because they fell out of the center cap holes on my poorly modified TT USDM wheels I've been running on for almost 9 years now.

Optional Rear Window 300ZX Decal (P/N: J0310-42P00)

The biggest purchase I made this month is for this very rare and discontinued optional rear window 300ZX Decal which I previously had only seen in photos and never in person up to this point. Using the photos I had collected over the years I initially assumed that this part was a plastic panel like the alita 1/4 window shades and it would somehow sit in place on the top section of the rear window.

But to my surprise it turns out that this part is actually a decal that is stuck up onto the rear window glass and I just so happened to find a Z owner in Melbourne who had a spare one that he was willing to sell me. Unfortunately I had to purchase it as part of the sell of a complete rear hatch glass which had the decal attached to it.

As happy as I was to finally have one of these rare parts in my collection, it was not going to be an easy install for me to attach this onto my Z. The decal I purchased was in pretty average condition and my first thought was to find a method of removing the decal from the glass without damaging it and then stick it to my rear hatch glass. Unfortunately after some researching on the matter I dont believe its possible to transfer the decal from one glass to another without it being damaged or it wont be have the adhesion to be attached to the glass again.

So my backup plan was to have my original rear hatch glass removed and then have the spare rear glass with the attached decal installed onto my rear hatch to complete the transfer in a way. But due to the poor condition that  the decal is in, I was worried that once I had installed the new rear glass I may experience visibity issues with the decal inplace and I can tell that eventually the overall poor condition of the decal is going to annoy me enough to most likely make me want to remove it in the future anyways.

So my new plan is to try and have the decal replicated by a busniess who can design and manufacture all kinds of window decals. I'm hopeful I can get a one to one copy of this decal that I can then freshly install onto my original rear hatch glass and would be the safest and easiest way to have this decal installed onto my 300ZX.

So here we are, now 6 months into 2024 and my car is still not back on the road and at the rate that I'm going it could be another 6 months or more before its complete. Because of this fact, I have decided that its time to put aside all of the crazy modifications I had planned for this rebuild and solely focus on putting this car back together again.

So going forward I will be checking off each of the sections of the car that I will need to be able to fully reassemble the car back together again like it was before the accident and to try and make things as easy as possible for me, I will be photographing and cataloguing each individual part from each section of the car so I can make sure I have everything single part needed before I attempt to begin reassembling process of the car in a few months time.

By the end of this month, I have checked over at least half of the required section I need to complete and this is important because any missing parts I will need I will be purchasing from CZP in my final order for this rebuild in the next month or so and then its full steam ahead with the reassembly of the car. I am hoping that the car will be all back together again within the next 3 - 4 months from now.

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@adamzx Instagram: instagram.com/adamzx_z32

OEM CARBON CANISTER RESTORATION PROJECT (PART 4)

Starting off this months updates is the carbon canister restoration project which is still not finished yet as I am still currently preparing the canister's mounting bracket for its eventual paint coating which I had to put on hold after last months painting debacle with the Raptor branded chassis paint not bonding to several parts like the radiator mounts etc.

Still I was able to get one small task done for the carbon canister's restoration project, which I have been unable to do until now, that task being to cut to length the 3 new replacement silicone vacuum hoses that connect to the 3 hose ports on the top of the canister.

These new upgrade silicone vacuum hoses which I purchased back in February, should make for a much longer lasting hose replacement when compared to the original rubber hoses which began to slightly deteriorate on me as I removed them off of the hose ports on the canister.

I also cut to length a 4th silicone hose piece that goes with the canister's lower hose port which connects to a special plastic joining hose piece to complete the hose upgrades for the carbon canister.

RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW AND AUX FAN UPDATE (PART 4)

Next we have the cooling system section which is one of the most important mechanical sections I needed to check over to make sure I have everything needed to put the radiator, aux fan, overflow bottle and all of the systems hardware back onto the car correctly as much as possible.

AUXILIARY FAN RESTORATION, REASSEMBLY & EARLY VS LATE MODEL COMPARISON 
(P/N: 21580-51P00)

One of the few discoveries I made early on in the rebuild project which I had never noticed before, was the fact that there is a later model variant of the auxiliary fan which appears to have a redesigned plastic housing which provides additional shielding to protect the plastic motor fan from debris that could damage it while driving.

So in March of 2022, I purchased a used unit off of eBay from a wrecking yard here in Australia, which I disassembled down to its basic components so I could hopefully try and restore it back to as new condition as possible.

The plan for the restoration process on the later model auxiliary fan was going include a deep clean off all of the individual components and hardware using some simple green concentrate cleaner and then some bug and tar remover chemicals to remove years of dirt and grime buildup and staining on the plastic housing before a coating of Megiaur's ultimate protectant was applied to renew the plastic as much as possible.

I also wanted to try and restore the gold cadmium plate finish on the top of the fan motor casing and to do that I was intending to spray paint the top of the motor casing in a gold metallic paint coating.

The cleaning process on the aux fan's plastic housing and related hardware came out looking great but I was never able to find the time to paint the top of the fan motor casing and with my goals for the project shifting to getting the car back on the road now a priority, I have decided to postpone the painting process of this restoration for now and instead just reassemble the aux fan back together in its current condition.

Once the newly restored auxiliary fan had been fully assembled back together again, I took a few comparison photos comparing my original early model unit (89-92) to that of the new later model version (92-00) just so everyone can see the differences.

Z1 UPPER RADIATOR SILICONE HOSE PROBLEMS (P/N: N/A)

Because I am reverting back to an OEM style of radiator which uses a plastic top and bottom tank design instead of the aluminum type that was on the PWR radiator. I now need to make sure I use the correct hose clamps to suit the change in material that the radiator hose ports are made of, so I don't have a situation where I end up crushing the hose port end on the top tank of the radiator like I did back in 2007.

Years ago I purchased a set of later model radiator hose clamps for the upper and lower radiator hoses which changed from a standard OEM double ring and screw hose clamp design to that of a spring type hose clamp design which I believe Nissan did as a way to prevent the above issue of crushing the hose port on the radiator from happening in the future for 300ZX buyers on later models.

Unfortunately using these new spring type clamps has created a new issue that I wasn't expecting to have and that is that for some reason I have been able to test fit one of these new spring type hose clamps onto my Z1 upper silicone radiator hose which I have been running on my Z for over a decade now. I first noticed the issue way back in 2015 during my last 100k service interval where I was forced to have to revert back to the use of a standard worm drive hose clamps just so I would be able to finish putting the car back together and I have been wanting to solve the issue ever since then.

So I began my investigation into the issue by comparing the hose diameters between the z1 upper radiator hose and my new Z1 lower silicone radiator hose which I purchased in 2022 to replace the previous setup I had been running on my Z which was one of the Z1 lower radiator hard pipe hose kit.

First I measured the diameter of the lower radiator hose which I found out to be about 40mm in diameter. When I test fitted the hose clamp onto the end of the lower radiator hose which connects to the bottom tank hose port on the radiator, the new spring style hose clamp was able to fit over the hose without any issues that I could see.

Whereas when I measured the diameter of the upper hose, I got a larger hose diameter of 45mm which is at the maximum limit that the new OEM spring style hose clamps are able to expand out to.

So why is the upper hose have a larger diameter then that of the lower hose because as far as I know they both should have the exact same hose size diameter. Well I think I now know why.

As you can see from the above photo, the Z1 upper hose I installed back in 2012 is flaring out quiet a bit at the end where it is hitting up again the top tank part of the radiator. I'm certain this is the reason that the hose has somehow enlarged itself overtime due to regular heat cycles as I drove the car daily for the next 12+ years.

Obliviously if I'm going to use this Z1 upper hose going forward, I'm going to need to purchase a larger sized diameter spring type hose clamp to allow me to clamp the hose down correctly and not have any issues with leaking coolant in the future. But I could also replace the hose with a new one which should allow me to use the current set of OEM hose clamps I have here already but again another issue arises where I discovered that most of the big 300zx parts suppliers online at the moment that I frequently use, only offer the twin turbo upper radiator hose for buyers to purchase which as you all know looks different to that of the NA upper hose normally found on a 300ZX NA engine and the only supplier I have found that sells a NA specific silicone upper hose is Z1 Motorsports.

I know that the TT silicone upper hoses on the market can fit onto an NA radiator setup, however my biggest issue with a TT hose is that to me it would look out of place on my car being that it is a factory NA engine setup where you would expect it to have an NA upper radiator hose installed and though I am happy to install TT parts onto my Z for the most part, this is one I just can't see myself accepting long term so I have a decision on what course of action to take over the next few months to finally solve this issue once and for all.
 

BATTERY AND BATTERY MOUNTING UPDATE (PART 2)

A small update for the battery and battery mounting section for this month as I have put all painting restoration work on the spare set of battery hold-downs on permanent hold for the time being. 

BATTERY HOLD-DOWN GROMMET UPGRADES (Champion P/N: BH002)

Now several years ago I came across a very bizarre situation with corrosion forming on one of the battery mounting rod's much like how corrosion forms around battery terminals which as you will see ate away almost all the way through rod leaving me with this.

After doing some simple investigation using a multimeter, I found that for some reason a completed circuit was present between the 2 battery mounting rods and along the battery hold-down which I believe caused the corrosion to form. But neither of these parts were connected to any kind of electrical wiring circuit and can I only guess this is part of the chassis's grounding circuit as the battery rod's do make contact with the battery tray which is mounted to the chassis frame. 

So to try and prevent this circuit from forming in the future and possibly causing more corrosion to form on the either of the two battery rod's. I have installed 2 small rubber grommet's in place where the holes for the battery rods pass through and my hope is that these grommet's should break the metal to metal contact that had been forming the grounding circuit I had detected on the multimeter.

Once I have reassembled the car back together again I will make sure to do a test with this new battery hold-down setup, to see if the circuit is still present or not.

FRONT COMBINATION LAMP SECTION UPGRADES

During the initial teardown phase of the rebuild project back in 2022, I discovered that both of my original 2000 model front indicator assemblies had suffered some damaged to the plastic housings during the accident and so I purchased a pair of replacement 2000 model indicator assemblies early on in the rebuild. On top of the new indicator's, I was also able to purchase a set of new LED indicator globes to replace the original halogen globes as a way of modernising the indicator assemblies as much as I can.

LED FRONT INDICATOR GLOBE UPGRADES (NARVA P/N: 18272BL)

One of the few exterior lighting upgrades that I haven't been able to do on my Z so far, is to upgrade the factory halogen indicator globes with LED versions. The reason for this is because installing an LED globe into the indicator's wiring circuit on the 300ZX would cause a rapid flashing issue with the indicator globes due to a lower then expected resistance value that the flasher unit expects to see which in turn dictates when the flasher should  turn the indicator globes on and off.

This issue can be overcome with the addition of load resisters into the circuit or a replacement flasher relay that is designed to suit LED globes. But recently I have learned about a new style of LED globes that incorporate a canbus module inside the globe housing which will produce the correct resistance value the flasher relay will expect and stop the rapid flashing issue mentioned above.

So after some research I was able to find a suitable canbus style LED globe to replace my original halogen globes with for both of the front and rear indicator's and can be plugged and played into the Z without any modifications needed. Also when compared to the original halogen globe, the new LED globe is almost identical in size so there shouldn't be any issues installing these new globes into either of the front indicator assemblies and or the rear tail light assemblies.

INTAKE DUCTING MOUNTING BRACKET RESTORATION (PART 3)

The restoration on the intake ducting section has been slow to say the least. I was all ready to paint the mounting brackets last month but I had to put those plans on hold until I got all of the KBS paint supplies I needed in order to paint the brackets with a durable long lasting paint coating.

Besides the unpainted mounting brackets, I have everything required to install this section onto the car as it should be from the factory.
 

PARTS ACQUIRED DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE

For this months parts acquisition, I received a very special and as far as I can tell, rare OEM part which ended up coming from all the way in Europe of all places. The path to discovered of this part is a story in itself and I am so excited that have acquired this part for the project.

NISSAN SUNNY OEM POWER STEERING COOLER PURCHASE

Wow what a journey it was for me to first discover the existence of this cooler using part numbers and fiches online. To finding an actual online store that allowed me to able to actually purchase the cooler from and then to finally receive the part several weeks later. I am over the moon with having this cooler which will be a perfect replacement for my original rusty 300zx power steering cooler which you all know I found out last month had 2 - 3 pin holes in a couple of the piping of the cooler making the unit unusable.

Anyways let me go over the process it took for me to first find out that this cooler even existed in the first place as it took me a bit of detective work of using corresponding part numbers from Nissan part fiche websites to find the evidence I needed to know the cooler existed.

Starting off with the power steering coolers special rubber mounts that I purchased brand new from Nissan Japan in my latest parts order from last month. 

These mounts are the only parts still available to purchase for the 300zx power steering cooler setup as of 2024 and once I had the mounts in my hands, I was curious to see if any there were any other Nissan cars out there that may have used these same rubber mounts for a similar or unrelated setup.

So after punching the part number for the mounts into google (49733-60Y00) I came across a few cars that do in fact use these mounts and that's when I saw this on a 1990-1992 Nissan Sunny SB13 JDM model.

Looks pretty close to the 300zx Illustration of the cooler don't you think?

So I put the Nissan Sunny Power Steering Cooler Part Number (49721-60Y00) into google and that's when i saw this photo from a Nissan wreckers in Europe going for only €8 ($15 AUD) lol.

Needless to say I was very excited at this point in time but I didn't even know if this Nissan Autoparts store even had one of these coolers in stock and not to mention would they be able to ship it from where ever they were in Europe to me here in Australia. So I emailed them with those specific questions and the next day I got a response and that response was Yes to both. I couldn't help myself and I blindly purchased the item from the store and in total I paid $76 AUD including taxes and freight which is way cheaper then the $400+ I paid for the 300ZX cooler back in 2022.

A day or so later I got an email from them, which I had to google translate sayING that the part had been shipped off TO ME but I had no tracking number and no ETA given, so at this point I was just hoping I didn't just get scammed and hopefully the part will actually turn up in about a month or so.

But I didn't need to wait too long as a packaged arrived to me several weeks after the email and when I saw the cooler in such a good condition I knew I had found the golden egg I was looking for to complete this mini power steering cooler project.

So another month has gone by and I am happy to report that i have been able been making a heap of progress on finishing off as many of the remaining sections I need to complete to be able to be put back together again. First I completed my work on the air filter system making sure I have every part needed to install that system back on the car. Next was finishing off the washer reservoir system and upgrading the rubber hosing while I was at. And to finish off this months blog I had to find some missing components for my new fog light assemblies which I also made some LED upgrades to which I am really excited to see all lite up once the car is back together.

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AIR CLEANER SYTSTEM JULY UPDATE

Starting off this months updates is the air filter housing and the air ducting system which I am happy to report is now all accounted for and ready to be assembled back onto the car. New reusable air panel filters, a brand new mass air flow sensor and new hose clamps were all part of the new upgrades I have made to the OEM air filter system which I have been wanting to get finished and installed on the car for almost a year now.

K&N PANEL AIR FILTER INSTALLATION (K&N P/N: 33-2036)

As I'm reverting back to a factory style air filter housing setup, I also wanted to upgrade as much as possible the OEM paper air filters while I was at it. So a pair of K&N panel filters were purchased and installed into the air filter housing.

AIR FILTER HOUSING ASSEMBLY (NISSAN P/N: 16500-40P00)

With the new air filters in place, I slotted the new later model top cover of the air filter housing into position and then bolted it down to seal the housing back together.

MASS AIR FLOW SENSOR INSTALLATION (NISSAN P/N: 22680-30P00)

To finish off the assembly process I installed the brand new none branded mass air flow sensor, which I picked up off of eBay. I am hoping this new MAF sensor which is not a OEM sensor, will perform just as well as a OEM sensor would but if I do find any issues with this new sensor while installed, I will swap it out for my repaired OEM MAF sensor which I will be keeping as a backup just incase.

All that is left to do now is to checked over the rest of the piping setup for the air filter system. All of the plastic and rubber hoses where thoroughly cleaned and coated to protect them from the elements. On top of the newly restored hoses, I also replaced as many of the old OEM double ring hose clamps with new Tridon stainless steel hose clamps which have a smoove band design to prevent marking or damaging the hoses in the future.

With all of that said and done this section is officially ready to be installed back onto the car.

FOG LIGHTS JULY UPDATE

Next we have an update on what is going on with my new replacement set of fog light assemblies which will involve me having to assemble both of the fog lights assemblies from scratch myself as I made the mistake of purchasing each halve of the fog light assemblies separately. I will also have to find additional parts I am missing for the fog lights out of the remains of my original and used set of old fog light assemblies.

FOG LIGHT PARTS HUNTING (NISSAN P/N: 26320-30P00 & 26391-30P00)

Even though I had purchased both of the 2 front lens and the 2 rear housings for each fog light assemblies, I was still missing a pair of special rubber seals that goes between each halve of the fog lights as well as several mounting fasteners which I need to be able to mount the 2 halves of the assemblies together. Unfortunately from my research the special rubber seals I desperately needed appear to be discontinued from Nissan and the only option I have left is to try and find a pair of them out of what is left of the 3 spare used fog lights I have collected over the years.

So I began by dismantling what was left of my accident damaged fog light assembles and as you can see there wasn't much of the assemblies left to really do anything with them.

I then turned my attention to pulling apart the 2 spare used USDM fog light assemblies I received as bonus parts from my purchase of the USDM reo bar back in 2021 and even though both of those fog lights were damaged and unusable from a practical standpoint, they were perfect for helping me find what I was looking for.

Even my original fog light assembly from when I brought my Z back in 2006 was able to provide me with a spare H3 globe to add to the kitty of parts I was able to collect during the dismantling process. 

All In all I was able to find 3 usable rubber seals (one had a tear in it though) and more then enough mounting fasteners as well as 2 undamaged H3 globes meaning I could continue with the assembly process if I wanted to.

Unfortunately before I went any further with the assembly process, I decided to look into upgrading the fog light globes with LED versions as I am always interested in upgrading the lighting on my car when ever I can and after some quick researching online, I have decided to go ahead with my planned LED upgrades for the fog light assemblies and I'll talk more about that next month.

WINDSCREEN WASHER SYSTEM JULY UPDATES

Another section that i was able to tick off the list of completed sections this month was for the windscreen washer system which I was able to collect all of the required parts to be able to assemble the system back onto the car.

I managed to find most of my spare washer system parts which I stripped down and put through a cleaning cycling in my ultrasonic cleaning machine making them as good as new again.

BEFORE

AFTER

SILICONE HOSE LINE UPGRADES (SAAS P/N: SSVH34MM)

After the cleaning process was completed on all of the spare parts, I then went about upgrading some of the water hose lines for the washer system using the same silicone hoses I used for the carbon canisters upgraded hoses, just because I know I have plenty of spare silicone hoses left over, so why not use what I have.

I first cut to length the pair of short length hoses that connect to each of the front washer nozzles.

I then cut to length the longer hoses that connects the LH washer nozzle to the RH washer nozzle and then connected all 3 hoses together.

I was hoping to cut to length the hose that goes from the plastic y piece shown above which connects the washer nozzles to the washer pump on the reservoir but I was unable to remove it from my car in its current condition and I'll have to wait until after the car is back on the road before I can make a replacement hose for it.

PARTS ACQUIRED DURING THE MONTH OF JULY

A late addition to add to this months part acquisitions which I only decided to purchase on the second last day of the month but I am excited to see how this new aftermarket part will help to improve my car's look overall in the future.

STEDI H3 CONVERSION LED GLOBES FOR MY NEW FOG LIGHTS (STEDI P/N: LEDCONV-H3-SOLID)

Much like the Narva LED globe upgrades I did on the front indicator assemblies last month, I thought I would do the same upgrade on the fog light assemblies and so I will be replacing the factory halogen H3 fog light globes with a new set of Stedi H3 conversion LED globes which have a raw lumens count of 1,100lm along with a 5700K true white light colour output which I am very interested to see in action when I get my car all back together again.

Initially I was worried about the possibility of clearance issues with the LED globes fitting inside the fog light assemblies due to the fact that these new LED globes were obliviously much longer then the standard H3 globes are in size. But after a couple of quick measurements I did using the dimensions listed on the Stedi website, I was confident that the globes would fit without any issues.

During my test fit of the Stedi LED globes into the fog light assembly, I discovered that because of the alluminum casing at the end of the LED globe, the retaining clip that normnally would lock and hold the globe in place was unable to able to fully lock down into its seated position and instead I was only able to get the retaining clip to go about 2/3 of the way and there is no way to get the retaining clip to go into a fully locked position with this LED globe inplace.

However even with this situation, I found that both the globe and that retaining clip which are now wedged together, appear to be locked into place and I have found signs no movement or dislodging of the globe with the retaining clip in this position shown above. So I'm going to roll with this setup and see how things go I guess. 

All that is left to do now is purchase an special adaptor connector from online stores like CZP or Z1 motorsports, which will allow me to connect the new LED H3 globes into the factory wiring connector inside the fog light assembly.

You could cut the bullet connector off the end of the loom and put a spade one on and then whenever you buy bulbs in the future, its easier. I did that on one of my Zeds.

On 10/08/2024 at 16:36, TheRealNips said:

You could cut the bullet connector off the end of the loom and put a spade one on and then whenever you buy bulbs in the future, its easier. I did that on one of my Zeds.

Yes I did consider this modification initially but as I prefer to not modify the existing OEM wiring if I can help it I decided to go with the adaptor route from CZP which I've now ordered will allow me to make the new led globe install all plug and play going forward.

But thank you for the suggestion it's simple and effective.

Finally I am nearing the end of this rebuild project and the progress I have made and the parts I have purchased and received this month have put me on track to hopefully have my Z back together again and driving in the next few months time. This month I also completed the modifications for the Koyo aftermarket radiator and 2000 model Version R factory side skirts as well as preparing my Stillen SMZ nose panel and several other parts that I've been stripping down for the last few months for their final restoration paint process to be done next month.

RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW AND AUX FAN UPDATE (PART 5)

For this month's 5th update on the cooling system developments, I finally got onto modifying my Koyo aftermarket radiator to allow for the installation of the OEM 300ZX NA radiator fan shroud to be possible. While I was at it I also swapped over the basic drain cock that came on the Koyo radiator with the 300ZX specific version I purchased several months ago to complete the modifications to the Koyo radiator.

Koyo NA Radiator Modifications

One of the last remaining tasked left to do for the cooling system, was to modify the Koyo radiator to include all of the mounting point along the outer aluminum frame of the radiator to allow for me to be able to install the factory NA 300ZX fan shroud onto the Koyo radiator.

We started by first marking out the locations of each of the 4 mounting holes using both my original NA radiator and my new fan shroud as reference guides using a marker and a punch.

Once we were happy with all of the locations of the markings we had made for each of the mounting points, my Dad began the process of drilling out each mounting holes.

Once all of the holes had be drilled out, I then did a test fit of the OEM fan shroud onto the Koyo radiator using a full set of new factory mounting fasteners I purchased to complete the installation.

As you can see everything lines up perfectly and I am very happy with the results.

OEM 300ZX Drain Cock Replacement (Nissan P/N: 21440-01E00)

Another item that I wanted to add to the Koyo radiator which I felt was necessary, was to replace the basic  drain cock that came on the Koyo radiator with the one off of the 300zx radiator as it included a drain hose feature which would make draining the coolant from the radiator alot less messy in the future.

Before

After

The installation was straight forward and I am very happy with the replacement drain cock on the koyo radiator.

BATTERY AND BATTERY MOUNTING UPDATE (PART 3)

Another small update for the battery section which is now 100% complete with all of parts required now accounted for.   

Battery Rod Hold-Down Replacement & Comparison (Nissan P/N: 24425-89907)

If you all remember back in June, I posted about a strange occurrence where one of my battery's hold-down rods had mysteristly formed corrosion on a small section at the bottom end of the rod.

Well I am grateful I finally decided to replace it with a brand new one as you can see not only is there a large amount of metal missing from the rod but it also appears to have weakened the metal to the point where the lower hook on the end of the rod is now bent out of shape.

I will be very interested to see if anything happens to this new battery rod going forward especially since I'll be adding to the battery hold-down part the new rubber insulator grommets to hopefully prevent a electrical circuit from  occurring and causing corrosion to form on the metal.

NOSE PANEL UPDATE (PART 5)

Moving onto the nose panel & bonnet section now, where I am trying to tie up a few loose ends that I have yet to tackle for the nose panel which has been basically untouched since my Dad had painted it back in October last year. 
First there is a mounting bracket for the nose panel which needs to be stripped down and prepared for some new paint as well as some work on the nose panel itself removing unnecessary wire mesh from the underside of the panel and I also masked off the areas where the cutouts for the louvers are which will also be getting a touch of paint applied to the exposed wire mesh to finish off the final look that I'm going for with the nose panel.

Nose Panel Bracket Paint Stripping Process (Nissan OEM P/N: 62340-30P00)

Funny enough out of all of the paint stripping work I've been doing over the last 6 months or so, I forgot to remember to strip down the metal support bracket that attaches to the front lower section of the nose panel which holds a rubber seal in place to help with installing and mounting the nose panel into position on the core support and up against the front bumper bar without damaging the paintwork on both panels.

Now over the years I've collected several of these metal brackets with 4 sets along coming from all of the used nose panels I purchased during the early stages of the rebuild project.

Nose panel bracket collection showcase.

As you can see pretty much all of brackets I have here, have all seen better days which is no surprise as Nissan only applied a single coat of paint onto these brackets and after 30 years of being subjected to the environment the protective coating has deteriorated and allowed rust to form under the paint. So after carefully inspecting all of the spare brackets I have, I picked the best condition one out of the bunch and got to work mounting the bracket up into my new vacuum stand bench vice and after a little bit of work with the wire wheel and impact drill I was making some progress.

After a few days more of work using my impact drill and my new 250watt bench grinder, I was very happy to see the bracket stripped down and ready for a few coats of KBS rust seal and chassis topcoat paint.

Stillen SMZ Nose Panel Modifications & Paint Prepping (Stillen P/N: 108820)

With the mounting bracket now sorted, I turned my attention to something I have been wanting to do ever since I got my hands on my very rare Stillen SMZ nose panel which is to remove as much of the useless chicken wire mesh the previous owner had installed onto the underside of the panel. For a long time now I have felt that the wire mesh covering the center section of the underside of the nose panel to be unnecessary and covers up some of the rare features this SMZ nose panel has for its history, so I have decided to cut out as much of the wire mesh as I could from the center section of the nose panel and hopefully revealing more of what is hidden underneath.

Taking a closer look, you can see that the wire mesh has been glued down onto the panel and sectioned off where the cutouts for the 3 louvers on each side of the panel are located.

Using a small side cutting tool, I began snipping away the edges of the wire mesh material along the outer perimeter as close to the adhesive material as possible. After a short amount of time I had cut out all of the loose wire mesh material that wasn't bonded to any glue traces on the outer edges or in the center of the panel.

As one last step I decided to try and pry off the glue blob that was still present in the center of the panel and to my surprise the blob of glue came off without causing any damage to the fiberglass material on the underside of the nose panel.

Finally after months of waiting I can finally reveal to you all with actual clear photo evidence this time around that this nose panel I purchased from Japan is an original fiberglass Stillen SMZ nose panel with the included Stillen business card present and a hand written Stillen part number now clearly visible for you all to see and I am very happy that I decided to do this job.

Now the last item to work on was to begin preparing the topside of the nose panel so that I could apply some paint over the exposed wire mesh sections located between each of the 3 cutouts for the louvers on either ends of the topside of the nose panel. The plan is to apply some gloss black KBS chassis topcoat to the wire mesh so it will look more natural then it current does with the wire mesh currently painted in a silver body colour which doesn't look right to me at all. 

So I pulled out some painters masking tape and began applying layers of tape over the painted areas of the panel I don't want to get the gloss black chassis paint on.

After about half and hour or so of work, the panel was all masked up on both ends ready for the next big step. But I will admit it wasn't the easiest job to do and trying to mask up the areas deep down in each of the cutouts for the louvers was a pain to get the tape in there let alone having the tape stick down where I wanted with no real easy access which was frustrating and time consuming. I just hope I've masked up enough to prevent any of the gloss black chassis paint from making its way onto the silver body painted areas of the nose panel.

2000 MODEL VERSION R SIDE SKIRTS RETORATION PROCESS UPDATE (PART 2)

After a year of sitting in storage at my Dad's place, its finally time to continue with the restoration process on my pair of factory 2000 model version r side skirts which were removed and painted mid last year. For this update my Dad and I will be going over the steps we needed to take in order to reattach all of the side skirts factory mounting hardware that unfortunately came off during the removal process.

With both of the side skirts placed upside down on a table, I began sorting out and mocked up the location for each of the 22 mounting tabs which are stamped with either L or R for left and right and number from 1 to 11 which made sorting out the mounting tabs very straight froward.

Next we needed to prepare the polyurethane underside of both side skirts where each of the 22 mounting tabs were located, using a Dremel and wire wheel as well as a chisel we scuffed up the surface of the polyurethane material before cleaning the entire area down to prevent contamination of the surface during the bonding process.

Then the mating surfaces for each of the 22 mounting tabs were also scuffed up as well, all in an effort to help with bonding the mounts to the side skirts and prevent the chance of the mounts detaching again in the future.

With all of the grinding work completed, it was time to apply some adhesive to finally bond the mounting tabs to the side skirts and I decided to go with a Sikaflex 527 bonding glue which I have known for years now is a really strong bonding agent for this type of situation and would be ideal for this time of application. 

Working on one mounting tab at a time, we slowly worked our way along each of the side skirts applying a sufficient amount of glue to the mating surfaces of each of the 22 mounting tabs which were then placed into their correct positions on the underside of each side skirt and pressed firmly until the glue had set in place. The process was quiet effective and with all of the mounts now back in place, I will be putting both of the side skirts back into storage to allow the glue to fully dry for as long as possible.

Next step is to mount both of the side skirts back onto the car which I hope wont be too difficult to do but I'm not sure if the factory mounting setup I added to the car back in 2012 will hold the skirts fully or if more glue will be required.