DJ_Party_Favor

PARTS ACQUIRED DURING THE MONTH OF JANUARY So this month I actually recieved a couple of rare emblems or badges mainly for the new nose panel setup Im going with for the rebuild. I was not expecting to find either of these badges avaliable to purchase but i just happen to be in the right place at the right time i guess. OPTIONAL GOLD / RED Z BADGE First up is the extremely rare and very hard to find optional Gold/Red Z badge for the front nose panel of the car, which i didnt even now existed until only a couple of years ago thanks to a blog post from a good friend of mine in the US name John and his project website. Like myself John has a desire to acquire as many rare and optional parts as he can and document his discoveries on his website. He was actually able to acquire one of these rare badges brand new from nissan and compare the differences between all of the Z badges released for the 300ZX in Japan. For more information: https://z32enjoytheride.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/post-29-jdm-nose-panel-and-emblems Anyways so while searching through yahoo auctions, I found a listing for a person selling a bright yellow nose panel with one of these rare badges on it and so as gift from my wife for christmas, I bid on the item and won the auction, but I was still unsure at the time if the badge was a true gold / red badge and I would have to wait until it arrive to know for sure. Thankfully after several weeks of waiting when it finally did arrived and I pulled the panel out of the box I was pleasently surprised to find out that the badge was 100% a real gold/red Z badge and I was over the moon to say the least. Now all i had to do was figure out how to remove it from the nose panel it was mounted to without breaking it, more on that later. STILLEN SMZ BADGE Following the purchase of the rare gold/red badge from Japan, I also brought a set of reproduction "SMZ" stillen badges, which I found on ebay in the US of all places. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/266571724026?itmmeta=01HRJV62BW1N8C0ZTZGECKA42R&hash=item3e10e9b4fa:g:kZAAAOSwR2Nix1L3 These badges were part of the body kit setup for the Stillen 25th anniversary SMZ models in the US domestic market but not found on the australian market models. The badges were placed in two locations one being found on the lower right hand corner of the front nose panel with the other located underneath the left hand tail light. Now im sure your thinking to yourself why would I want to add this badge to my car and the reason I am getting these is for the sole purpose of restoring my original SMZ nose panel back to its original factory SMZ setup which would include this badge being mounting on the lower right hand corner of the nose panel. I know my car is not a true SMZ model but if I was to have purchase this panel off of a real SMZ 300ZX back in the day when they were sold new, I would have expected this badge to have came included on the nose panel and I want to reproduce that option as best I can. I will not be installing the rear badge just the front one. All in all a very exciting set of parts I was able to purchase this month and I am very eager to see how these 2 badges along with the new smz louvered nose panel are going to change and enhance the aggressive look of my new front end one day.

RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW & AUXILIARY FAN (SEC-214) JANUARY UPDATE The one thing that is really keeping my car at the moment from moving under its own power is the fact that I have removed the radiator from the engine bay. This was done so that the radiator core support could be repaired and repainted and as of the end of this month, the core support is now fully repaired and painted thanks to my Dad and I could in theory put the radiator back into the car at any time that I wanted but the fact is I sold my PWR radiator in the middle of 2023 as I had been wanting to ditch the expensive all alloy radiator in favor of a factory style raidator for a long time now due to several reason, including that the PWR radiator was missing several of the mounting holes for the oem fan shroud and that the PWR radiator also came fitted with a smaller sized diameter hose outlet for the overflow bottle just to name a few. Luckily for me I had actually purchased a brand new replacement radiator back in 2010 from CZP which was a Koyo aftermarket replacement radiator which has been sitting in storage since then as I had decided to go with the PWR alloy radiator instead of the koyo and I was planning to sell the koyo radiator at some point, luckily i hadnt and now I will be using this radiator as my main replacement for the rebuild. The funny thing is it turns out this is not infact a 300ZX Z32 specific replacement radiator and is actually listed as a 1989-1994 Nissan Maxima J30 radiator part number A1242. Even though its not listed as a 300zx radiator, everything looks be to in the same place as the oem 300zx radiator from my photo archieves would suggest and so I test fitted a couple of cooling related parts for the radiator including the upper and lower Z1 silicone radiator hoses and the replacement oem fan shroud just see to see if everything would fit correctly which thankfully for me it did. Now what I found during the mockup test fit of everything was that the koyo radiator was missing the side mounting holes for the oem 300zx fan shroud and that the upper radiator tank was missing the oem air bleeding screw found on the 300zx radiator along with a basic drain cock design compared to that of the 300zx setup. Even with these issues mention, I should be able to make new holes for the mounting points for the fan shroud, I should also be able to swap over the drain cocks from one radiator to another and the air bleeding screw is more of a convenience option for a bleeding a radiator then a nessecity. However I would like to compare my original oem radiator with the koyo unit side by side just to see a complete comparions before continuing with the radiator install back into the car.

AIR GUIDE & FRONT LOWER ENGINE SPLASH GUARDS (SEC-747) JANUARY UPDATE Early on in my part acquisition efforts for the rebuild, Z1 motorsports released their new all alluminum front and rear engine undershrouds to allow 300zx owners to replace their original plastic factory undershrouds with a more modern alloy varient. As you all know, I had already replaced both my original undershrouds or engine splash guards back in 2012 with brand new units and within 10 years of everyday use, the plastic guards have already started to deteriorate especially the rear guard which had collected a small amount of power steering fluid from a minor power steering leak I have had for a few years now. So when I saw this product on Z1 motorsports website, I jumped on the opportunity to purchase a set of these new undershrouds and upgrade my original setup with a new all alloy one. https://www.z1motorsports.com/z1-products/z1-motorsports/z1-300zx-z32-aluminum-undershroud-p-27826.html I ended going with the full front and rear undershroud kit in a anodized black finish and today I will be comparing the new Z1 guards with my original ones in an effort to see what differences there are between the oem and Z1 guards but to also figure what what factory parts from the oem guards can fit onto the new Z1 guards like the lower foam support on the 2kspec front bumper bar. After setting up all of the splash guards together, I was able to see clearly and compare the differences between the oem guards and the Z1 alloy varients. I was very pleased with the look of the new guards which look more modern and stylish with additional vents for better air flow and all of the mounting holes line up with the oem guards so I see no issues with fitting these new gaurds to my car. However the foam support panel I mention above can not fit onto these new guards as the raised mounting points for the support is not included on the front guard and there is no way to make the support fit which is a bummer. Also the anodized finish seems to collect fingers and stains really easily for some reason but that is the extent of the negatives ive found so far. Ultimately I can't wait to install these undershrouds to my car and I expect them to last the life of the car compared to the oem guards.

2000 INTERCOOLER DUCTING & CARBON CANISTER VACUMM HOSES (SEC-640) JANUARY UPDATE Another item I have been sitting on for quiet some time now, is the 2000 model intercooler ducting setup. Believe it or not but all of the series 6 (1998 - 2000) TT & NA models came fitted from the factory with new designed intercooler ducting to go with the new series 6 front bumper bar redesign. The twin models would of course have the ducts mounted directly onto the factory side mounted intercooler assemblies underneath the headlights. whereas The NA models would also have these same ducts fitted in the same location but instead of having side mounted intercooler assemblies to mount to, the ducts would have to mount onto a pair of brackets to simulate the mounting points of the factory side mounted intercooler assemblies. I actually discovered this 2kspec ducting setup randomly while researching on the 300zx.co.uk forums website where I found this photo posted by a uk owner who acutally owns a real 2000 NA model car several years ago, first showcasing me this discovery. With the ductings existance on my future plans list and with the additional funds used from the accident payout, I was finally able to acquire all of the parts needed for this setup to go ahead during the rebuild, expect for one bracket which i'll get onto later. Again using the Nissan FAST parts fiche illustration and the above photo evidence I able to assemble and test the ducting setup onto my car. As expected the setup fits perfectly and I am really happy with the new ducting which wont just provide a little bit of air flow directing through the smaller lower mouth openings on either side the 2kspec front bumper bar but also provide coverage for some of parts located where the ducts are mounted. The only issue I have to solve in the future is the fact that the outer bracket for the duct to mount on the other side of the car is apparantely now discontinued from nissan japan and so my current solution is for my Dad and I to fabricate a bracket to replace the discontinued one in the future.

HORN & EARLY STYLE HORN COVERS (SEC-253) JANUARY UPDATE So after months of storing my one and only OEM early style horn cover, I decided it was time to start figure out how this part acutally mounts to the front frame rail, as my car never came with these covers installed from the factory. Not only was I curious to see how the cover would look in its oem location on the car but I was wanting to see if there would be any sort of clearance issues with other parts like the 2kspec front bumper bar and the 2kspec intercooler ducts I was also planning to test fit on the day. Looking through the Nissan FAST Parts Fiche illustration on Section-253, the oem horn covers don't actually include part codes for any of the factory mounting hardware for the covers but I did managed to find in my vast array of oem fasteners, 4 suitable sized M6x1.0 screw's to allow me to mount the cover onto its oem factory mounting location. I first fitted the cover using the upper mounting point on the frame rail. With the cover now loosely in place, I realised I was missing an additional lower mounting point for the cover to secure it fully to the frame rail. So after some digging through old build threads on the 300zxclub forums website, I was able to discover what parts I was missing from this setup and it turns out I had found these parts a few weeks ago, amongest the bolt box my Dad used to put all of the old parts he had taken off of the car back in 2022 when both he and I removed the damaged front bumper bar after the accident happened. Because of this I was now able to know where these 2 random brackets actually mount onto the car which was a lucky break for me. After installing these 2 additional lower brackets, the OEM setup for the horn cover was now complete and I do like the cover in place even though I suspect that the installation of the 2kspec front bumper bar will probably block the appearance of the cover anyways. Following the install of the horn cover I then continued with the test fitting of the 2kspec intercooler ducting setup which when fitted in conjuction with the horn cover, did indicate contact between the ducting and horn cover ever so slightly. However I don't believe this minor contact will cause any massive issues with the fitment of the 2kspec front bumper bar when both items are installed together.

PAINTING PROCESS JANUARY UPDATE With the painting process probably the biggest process of rebuilding my car back together again it has been a slow process to complete to say the least. But after 6 months or so, my Dad has finally reached a point where the paint work is 'mostly' finished with all required panels primed, basecoated and cleared. All that is left to do now is wet sanding and polishing to a high gloss finish. The first set of photos sent by my Dad to me, were of his initial attempts of wet sanding the bonnet with 2000 grit sand paper. After a few hours of work the orange peeled surface of the bonnet was now more smooved out and showing a much higher glossy finish as you can see in the below photos. Currently the wet sanding process has come to a hault while my Dad works on other projects but its a start at least. Following that, one weekend I decided to do a test fit of the newly painted 2000 model side skirts to compare the colour match with the respray paint from 2012. As you can see the colour match is close maybe a little lighter in shade compared to the quarter panel but it will be fine and I will no longer have chipped or bubbling paint marks on the side skirts moving forward. The side skirts do need additional work with regards to the mounting tabs where 80% of the factory tabs popped off during the removal process. I will tackle this issue at later date.

PROGRESS REPORT JANUARY 2024 Ok everyone, after 2ish years of working on this rebuild project, I have found that producing video content around my rebuild project's developments has become alot more difficult and time consuming to make then I anticpated and though I really wanted to push purely video content on this rebuild project thread, I have started to feel recently that not posting anything for more then 6 months now, is denying eveyone in this community the chance to enjoy the fruits of my labour and have something interesting to look and read about regarding not just my rebuild project but 300zx information in general. So as of now I will be changing things up a little bit and trying to make monthly progress reports to keep everyone up to date with whats happening with my car and the rebuild project in general. As it is early into 2024 I will be starting these progress report blogs from January onwards and hopefully later in the future, when I get a handle on making video content I can then put my entire build project and rebuild project into video format like I am planning but for now I have plenty of information and photos to share for the month of January. To begin with it has been roughly 6ish months at the start of January of barely any developments going on with the rebuild. Though I have been ordering parts here and there, I havent really been actively progressing the project myself much more then I would have liked as I have been waiting for my Dad to finish off the paniting process of the rebuild as he has been able to dedicate alot more of his time and skills to progressing that side of the project for me all while I am still working a full time job and living 40 minutes away from my Dad's place. However with a new year now upon me, I was determined to get this car project moving again and I made myself a bold new years goal 'to have the car back on the road by the end of June 2024". I was confident that with the painting process now 'almost' complete, all I had to do was reassemble the car back together again and enjoy Zedding from here on out. So the first thing I wanted to do was begin test fitting several parts and setups of parts to see how they all go together on the car, I also wanted to begin grouping and storing all related parts together so when I go to reassemble those parts back onto the car, I will have everything needed for those parts to be installed including fasteners, clips you name it and while I was figuring this out, I realised I needed to break down everything into more managable groups of parts so I dont go off into tangents trying to figure out what goes with what. Thats when I began a process of photo archieving parts per each section found on the Nissan Parts Fiche which has helped me lock down a more efficient flow process for organising all of my parts and storing them together, but more on that later.

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 7)

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 6)

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 5) 2022

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 4) 2022

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 3) 2022

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 2) 2022

Rebuilding my Nissan 300ZX (Part 1) 2022

Yeah i have finally dismantled the cooler down to its bare minimum and my plan is to chemically bath the cooler in a derusting solution and then maybe sandblast it to prep it for painting. I really want to try using an ultrasonic cleaning machine to aid in the derusting process as well. Ill post results when i begin the process.

Thanks mate, im in the process of converting my original thread picture base build journel into video format so progress might be slow at first but hopefully ill get a rythm going and be able to post on a regular basis.

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.

Hey guys, a youtuber going by "Jesse's Garage" has been rating his subscribers 300ZX's and so to get some exposure of my Z and my 2kspec replica project, I sent Jesse in a few photos and some details about my Z and he then gave his honest opinion on what he thinks of my car and then giving it a grade of between F to A. It was a fun little exercise for me to participate in and I was differently excited to see my car finally posted on youtube. I am still editing my very first youtube video atm and it could be a little while before its ready to be pulished but I'm hopeful i can get it done sooner rather then later. Here is the link to the video with my car featured in it, but he has done several videos with other owners cars which you can find in his channels playlists. I was differently happy with his rating of my car (of course I would) and I hope it will show his audiance what a top teir 300ZX should look like in the future for other Z owners to admire and maybe strive for, which I think is the point of these types of videos showing what should be done to keep these cars looking their best for all of time.

It has taken me nearly 5 years to source one of these coolers after a few months of back and forth with a ebay seller in the uk the search is over, Though the unit has deteriated pretty badly I hopful it might still be usable after a good derusting and cleanup and painting, or I might get the cooler reproduced by a fabraication shop and this part will go a long way to get it replicated to as close to oem as possible.

Unfortunately your out of luck they are offically discontinued from nissan from what i know. Jp car parts have them listed at like $4500 aus for one so im pretty sure they arnt going to be affordable for anyone if they are still avaliable

Well my search may be over, i just found a auction on ebay for one with the oil cooler and bracket combined. I have purchased the item but i cant pay for it as the seller only lists for postage within the uk. Ive messaged him to try and organise postage to australia. Fingers crossed this all works out.

Thanks for the suggestion, not really going with my z32 specific parts theme im limited to for my build but i may comsider it as a possible third option.

I appreicate your repsonses Stephen and JaiKai, and im aware of all of the potential issues sourcing one of these coolers is going to be as I do know they are located in the worst possible place on the front lower radiator support and so they rust easily. I am only wanting to install one of these coolers for a niche OEM modification I am trying to add to my Z as part of the OEM theme I going for. I am simply trying one last ditch effort to source one or even get some assistance from someone in the uk who might be able to source one for me from say an online ebay breaker who only deal with uk customers. I am happy to pay for all fees and even a commission to anyone willing to assist me if they helps. Otherwise I have seen a a common style cylindical finned cooler for transmissions readily avaliable online which i guess would be a suitable option if no one can help me source an oem one. I just thought it would be alot easier to just bolt the oem p/s cooler onto the oem oil cooler bracket I have already sourced, then having to fabricate a mounting plate to mount the aftermarket cooler to the oem oil cooler bracket plate. and I'm also installing as part of the oem style setup an extrenal transmission cooler using an oem UKDM oil cooler and I want to replicate the oem setup as close as possible. Ill give it a few more weeks of waiting as I'm still working out all the details and if I still dont get a reponse or assistance I'll give up and go the aftermarket route as my only other option avaliable.

I know this is proabbly a long shot but i have to ask it anyways. Im looking to install the oem power steering cooler into my jdm z32 as a rare modification project that interests me and i have everything to do the install except the power steering cooler as i cant find any for sell on ebay and what not. Ive asked the question here before but no one has ever been able to offer me a chance to buy one. So if someone out there is wanting to sell even a rusty old ps cooler ill take it.

Well my method to accomplish this task was to buy all of the gauges brand new from nissan one by one and buy and gut a used 94+ cluster and swap over the guages to the 2kspec ones. The wiring conversion for me was the hardest part. Its not exactly a cheap option going this method either but it would be easier then finding a whole used cluster maybe. And thats assuming the gauges are all still avaliable from nissan. I did this back in 2011-2012.