1985 300zx 2+2 restoration (My way)!

[nacnud]

This story is about a restoration of a 1985 Nissan 300zx 2+2 which i bought in march 2011. I bought this car with no intention of restoring it due to the good general condition, and also the picture album, and the documentation including all bill's for the money spent by the previous owner for a restoration which was completed in the year 2000! After inspecting all documents and photos, i took the car for a test drive, and apart from a slight vibration from the prop shaft, and a little misfire from the engine now and again it felt good. Also the paintwork was in great condition, and the interior was great, apart from a cigarette burn in the seating of the drivers seat! I also noticed some cracking on the side walls of the tires, but these are things you can expect for a car of this age, so no problem! Oke, buy the car and take it home and have some fun! The real reason's i bought this car was i wanted a good car for the summer with little to no work, and to give me more time to work on my Jaguar E-type which i had been restoring for years. I was always doing other projects in between times, like building a trailer for my GL 1800, (which you can see in my other pictures), and also we had a friend who had a 300zx years before, and we regularly had lots of fun with him, and his car in Luxemburg when on holiday.
Well i got the car home, and had some fun the first weekend, but also put it up on the bridge in my garage to check a few technical issues like the vibration in the transmission. Well the first thing i noticed was the thick under seal on the underside, and also the suspension, that had been painted black but was rusting underneath the paint
Oke and now? i had a quick think about how much work it would be to take off the suspension, send it to the powder coating, fix the bearing on the propshaft, and get it back together before my wife started asking when are we going for a trip in the Nissan!!! Three, maybe 4 weeks i thought, so what are you waiting for lets get to work
Well that was the beginning of a long story,keep but i will try to use pictures instead of words, to keep you interested! The 4 weeks have been some 4 years, and more, due to restoring a 1991 Ford escort cabrio in between times! Help, but to no avail, when i get something into my head it has to happen! Oke now a few pictures to keep you interested!

[nacnud]

[Scorpion93]

Hello Nacnud ! indeed you know when you start but never knows when it stops . Tomorrow my 280Z go to be reworked for full re-paint in original colour... with some adaptations .
Nice white Z... maybe you can post some pictures now in its best shape ?

[nacnud]

Hi Scorpion 93,
i know how that long winding road looks like, and without navigation! i have the same problem with cars, don't know when to stop restoring!
Good to see that you are also making progress, and once you get the paint on the end will be in sight(if that's what you want)! Scuces to-morrow with the paint job! i spent 210 hours in the paint shop for the finishing in total, and i wont tell you how many months i took to get it prepared for this! nice hearing from you!

[nacnud]

How did you get on at the paint-shop on Saturday?

[nacnud]

Well like i said Earlier 4 weeks for the rebuild, aim the more i found, the more i Kept thinking to myself What am i going to drive this summer? Well now A Few pictures of my 1991 Escort, qui I bought for the summer, to keep me on the road while i was working on the 300zx, qui i had to restored first, with a compleet respray, 150pk engine, and a rebuilt interior! So now you Understand why i take so long to restore my Nissan, i do get into other project's in between times! Well i beter get back to the Nissan story before i wander off the trail!

[nacnud]

So the story continues! But i will save a few for a rainy day! Keep on laughing

[nacnud]

The continuous stripping down, and i also get some back from the suspension coating! Sometimes the translation is back to front

[Scorpion93]

Nice red tokicos !

[nacnud]

Wait till you see the rest😎

[nacnud]

Rear brakes revision. Never Looked for new pistons, just fixed 'em myself!

[champfacp]

So you machined the old piston to weld a sleeve?!?
Great job!

[nacnud]

Yes ! I used a bearing sleeve, and heated up Both the piston and the sleeve Before Welding!
I wrapped the shrunk fit sleeve with insulation material to slow down the cooling process, qui Eliminates the forming of martensite, so you-have no cracking!
After this i turned down to the pistons more tolerance, and ground down the rest for a flat smooth surface finish! This is quite a long job, but If they made it, i want to fix it! 😋

[champfacp]

but If they made it, i want to fix it! 😋

Do you mean it is done this way from the factory??

[nacnud]

No! This was my way of repairing the rust damage! Due to the pitting On the surface, i Should certainly have had fluïde leakage!



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[champfacp]

OK! & ouf! I thought this was a weird thing from a car manufacturer like Nissan!

[nacnud]

Well if the pistons had been thicker, i would probably have shrunk fitted the sleeve without welding! i have used this techniek for repairing damaged bearing surfaces before in production machines!
If a part of a car is difficult to find, or worse still obsolete, i use my skills to make a new piece (where possible). just having fun

[champfacp]

Great work !