DJ_Party_Favor

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

OIL COOLER & RELATED PARTS UPDATE (PART 2) With the excitement and thrill in beginning the restoration process on the UKDM oil cooler last month, I had to continue my efforts this month to restore not just the oil cooler itself but to also restore the oil coolers mounting bracket and the oil cooler's related hardline assembly piece which connects to the cooler on the lower front cross member and helps route fluid to the cooler from around the condenser. UKDM OIL COOLER RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2) In last months blog post of the oil cooler, I had submerged the unit fully into a container which contained a solution of simple green all purpose concentrated cleaner diluted at a ratio of 1 part cleaner to 1 part water. The cooler was left to soak in this solution for about 2 weeks or so before I pulled it out of the solution to see how well the cleaner has done to remove all of the buildup of road grime and salt that was present all over the surface of the cooler. Unfortunately the soaking in the simple green solution did not help remove much of anything off of the cooler and instead more or so dulled the alluminum which was a little disappointing to see. As a test of how well cleaning the alluminum would be on an area no one would see, I hit the underside of the base of the cooler using a brass wire wheel attachment to clean up the metal and also remove years and years of dried on salt and corrision. It took some time but most of the corrision and salt is now gone but as alluminum is a softer metal it has left the surface of the cooler with scratches and marks which is not ideal on the rest of the cooler, its ok for this area as it will be hidden when the cooler is mounting in place ontop of the mounting bracket. With the cleaning process not going how I had planned it at this point, I felt it was worth changing my focus to fixing another huge issue with this oil cooler which was to repair as many of the bent / damaged fins on the face of the cooler as I could. To do this I basically used a small metal pick to try and wedge between the bent fins and then attempt to gently pry the fins back into their original position. All I can say is that this is a very time consuming job to do and though I was able to fix some of the bent fins back into place, alot of them were so badly bent out of shape that they either broke off the mounts they were attached too or they broke off completely. Anyways after about an hour or so of work, here is how the repair process is going on the bent fins and i reckon its not too bad and though it will never be brand new looking again, its a start. For next month's update, i'll be looking into alternative cleaning products to use to help me hopefully actually clean the alluminum surfaces of the cooler and get the cooler looking as brand new again as possible and Ill also finish off repairing all of the remaining bent fins as much as I can to complete the restoration work. UKDM OIL COOLER MOUNTING BRACKET RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2) Last month I was in the process of trying to strip down the old factory paint from the surface of the mounting bracket using a soda blasting method which didn't end up working too well for me because my air compressor was not setup correctly for blasting. What I ended up doing this month was give the bracket a long hot soaking in my costic degreasing solution which did manage to soften most of the remaining paint from the surface of the metal. The mounting bracket was then soaked in evaporust as you would expect to remove as much of the rust off of the surface as possible. Once the rust was all gone, I then hit the surface with a wire wheel attachment, to clean up the rest of the metal surface so that I can now paint the bracket in an epoxy chassis paint. OIL COOLER HARDLINE ASSEMBLY RESTORATION (PART 1) The final part related to the oil cooler setup that I needed to restore, was the oil coolers hardline assembly which mounts onto the front cross member next to the oil cooler and wraps around the lower left corner of the condenser. The purpose of this hardline piece is to help route engine oil coming from the engine and around the condenser to the oil cooler and then back again. I'll be using this same setup for my new trans cooler setup but instead of the fluid travelling to the side of the engine it will flow towards the front of the engine and connect to the existing trans cooler hardlines to complete the new trans cooler setup for my transmission. I gave the hardline piping assembly a thorougher cleaning to begin the restoration with some simple green hoping the staining on the metal would be removed but as you would of guessed it wasnt going to be that simple for me. Due to the complex shape that the pipe assembly has, I decided the best way to strip down the metal surface of the piping assembly was by sand blasting it which I hoped would be a simpler way to get into all of the tight areas of the piping assembly. Though the sand blasting method did work well to strip down the piping assembly, it didnt get into ever nook and cranny which was due to the way I had to mount the part to a wire basket to be able to hold the part while I was blasting it. Still it was a great and fast method to strip the metal down. To prep the metal surface further so it can be ready for paint, I will be using a wire wheel attachment and going over the metal as much as possible but due to the complex shape of the piping, I found it difficult to be able to hit every surface at ever angle possible. But I did manage to get alot of the metal cleaned up after about an hour of work. I will continue with the wire wheel prepping using a dremal going forward which should allow me to get into the harder to reach areas which I couldnt get before using the big impact drill.

RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW AND AUX FAN UPDATE (PART 2) Another section of the rebuild which has seen a couple of minor updates to mention this month was with a couple of radiator related parts which included the lower radiator hose bracket and a pair of spare radiator mounts which were both in need of restoration. OEM LOWER RADIATOR HOSE BRACKET UPDATE (PART 2) Starting off with a small update on the lower radiator hose bracket which just needed a quick once over with the wire wheel to get the metal surface prepped for paint. Before After NA RADIATOR MOUNT'S RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 1) Another spare set of parts which I wanted to strip down and paint was my original na radiator mounts which for me had always been an eyesore ever time I looked at them when I opened the bonnet and looked at my engine bay. I thought replacing my original mounts with a brand new set of mounts in 2012 would satisfy my OCD which they did for a couple of years but now its been 12 years since they were installed and the new mounts have suffered some dulling and fading of the factory paint. So I pulled out my old original mounts and began the stripping process. This was followed by the de-rusting process. And then the mounts where cleaned up using the wire wheel to finalise the paint prepping process. With the mounts ready to go, I set them up and spray them with 3 coats of epoxy chassis paint coming out looking amazing even when compared to my 10 year old brand new mounts that have now faded from the sun. Comparison (Painted Vs OEM) The mounts were then left to dry for a week before I could apply a couple of touchups to the mounts where needed which I havent done yet.

POWER STEERING TT HARDLINE RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2) Another small update on the restoration work being done on the twin turbo power steering hardline. All I was able to get done was a quick once over of the mounting hardware for the hardline with a wire wheel in preparation for paint. Before After The plan is to coat this in a gold paint to replicate the gold cadium coating the hardware has from the factory.

INTAKE DUCTING MOUNTING BRACKET RESTORATION (PART 2) Just a small update on how the intake ducting's pair of mounting brackets are going with their restoration. If you guys remember the last time I worked on these brackets was back in February and since then they have been in a seal bag while I worked on other parts over the next few months. Unfortunately after all of that time in storage the metal had begun to flash rust which is something I wasn't expecting to see but as I'm new to all of this metal work prepping i know now. As i needed to prep the surface of the metal anyways, I just went over each of the brackets with a brass wire wheel and the brackets both turned out looking better then they did before. Obliviously the next step is for both brackets to be painted, but again I was unable to get that done this month but I hope to get them all finished up by the next update.

FRONT BUMPER BAR & REO BAR APRIL UPDATE For this months update on the front bumper bar section, I continued stripping down and preparing several parts for paint. During that process I was hit with several setbacks which did slow down my progress but after some presistences and hard work, I was able to spray down the first couple of coats of epoxy chassis paint onto the first of many parts I intend to paint for this rebuild and this success helped to motivate me to continue pushing through with my efforts ive been working on over this month. FENDER SUPPORT BRACKET RESTORATION (PART 1) Starting off with a couple of spare sets of fender support brackets which mount between the points where the front bumper bar meets the front edge of the front fenders or wings as they are called in the UK. As you all know, the first task to be done was to remove all of the old factory black paint which included the usual soak in a costic degreasing solution while it was also baked in the ultrasonic machine for about an hour or so. Unfortunately the results from my first paint stripping attempt on these brackets was mixed which i have now come to expect at this point. Out of the 4 brackets I treated, 2 of them come out pretty much stripped of all the old paint, but the other 2 brackets were alot more resilient to the process and still had most if not all of the old factory paint still intact. So a second soaking treatment was done but with a longer 2 hour cooking time in the ultrasonic machine. This resulted in one more of the brackets coming out mostly stripped of all of the old paint coating while the last bracket still had no change to the amount of paint that was removed, making me feel a little defeated at this point. Fead up at the lack of progress I had made so far, I decided to just go ahead with the next step of the process and soaked all 4 brackets in evaporust to remove all of the surface rust that had formed underneath the paint. The last step in the process was to prepare the surfaces of the metal on all 4 brackets for paint. To do this I use a couple of different abrasive methods to strip away the remaining paint and to also rough up the surface of the metal to help give the chassis paint I was going to use as good of adhesion to the to the metal as much as possible. I ended up using my new sandblasting attachment on my pressure washer to strip down the last troublesome bracket which was followed up by all 4 brackets getting a quick once over with the brass wire wheel. All that is left now to do, is to paint the brackets in a couple of coats of epoxy chassis paint which will not just make the brackets look better then brand new but will also protect the metal underneath from rusting in the future. Unfortunately you will all have to wait to see the finish product as I ran out of time to get it done this month. FRONT BUMPER BAR UPPER BRACKET RESTORATION (PART 2) Another part that I wanted to restore in this section was the front bumper bar's upper support bracket which I last touched on back in February. This bracket is part of the alluminum mounting support bar that mounts onto the top of the front bumper bar and is part of where the nose panel will slide and lock into when installed into place on the core support. The used support bracket that came off the mounting support bar had signs of rust on the paint which is why I wanted to restore it back to new again and like with the process of the fender support brackets this bracket would be getting the same treatment. However one of the biggest challenges with just stripping the paint off over this part in particular was the fact that it was quiet a long piece that would not fit into any of the plastic containers I have been using so far to soak parts in my costic degreasing solution. I had no way to submerge the part and heat the costic degreasing solution to allow the old factory paint to be soften and then be removed. So to overcome this problem I specifically looked into purchasing a sandblasting attachment for my pressure washer as it seemed like a quick and easy tool to use to achieve the results I was after. once I had acquiring all of the necessary equipment and a 20kg bag of Kilned dried sand, I strapped down the part to a metal wire draw and began blasting the part down. The process was pretty satisfying to watch and being a mostly flat piece, the sand blaster work wonders on stripping away all of the paint from the bracket. With the bracket stripped, I then prepped the surface of the metal for paint which again being a flat part meant that the wire wheeling process was not to difficult to get done in a about an hour. With how well the stripping and prepping process had gone on this part within the span of a weekend, I fast tracked the painting process the following weekend. I applied 3 coats of an epoxy black chassis paint to the part which came out looking fantastic and I was really happy with the new high gloss shine of the epoxy coating. I planned to let the part hang in place for about a week to let the paint fully cure before I can show off the finished product of the restoration of this part next month.