My Fair Lady

[Yardjass]

Here is my 1990 300ZX NA 5 speed that I bought with 66,200 original miles in January of 2011. The last owner was good to this thing and before I bought it, there was a lot done to it. The major things being:
- Drilled and slotted rotors from Concept Z Performance, hawk break pads, new OEM calipers, stainless steel woven lines.
- Labree aluminized test pipes w/ hi-flow cats, HKS Hi-power catbacks.
- Stillen stainless steel headers
- Jim Wolf Tech cold air intake.
- AIV system delete.

It also had lots of hail-like dents from some idiots with a ball peen hammer. Whoever would do such a thing to a car like this needs to be taken out and shot but it did get me a nice discount on the car. Here are the pictures from the sale posting but you can't see the dents in the pictures. My friend calls it a "hundred footer". She looks really nice from 100 feet away but then you get up close and you start being able to see the craters.




This is what I got right out of college as my reward to myself for getting through. Could have got a new car but they feel so plasticish and full of computers. Nothing like a 90's era Japanese sports car to set yourself apart and have a real, mechanical feeling beast that gives you that feeling that it is communicating with you when you drive it. So, here we go. The first year and a half has been largely cosmetic fixes and fixing other annoying problems. I'd like to drop an LS V8 in it one day but that has to wait until it looks good. A lot of this is probably going to be boring but I'll try and throw some cool pictures in where I can.

Jan 2011: First things first. New tires for the stock wheels. I know. I can barely contain my excitement typing this either.

February 2011: Moved to Norfolk, VA for a job. Spent the drive with a container of water with a Jack Dempsey fish and a power inverter in my cig lighter powering a heater and bubbler. Water was sloshing all over the damn place but I'm pretty sure all it did was clean up some of the coolant that the rusted out heater core had sprayed into the cabin. Fun, fun.
Not much done on the car yet. Having been a broke college student, I spent some time saving money. Replaced a clutch slave cylinder that died. Went into the interior with some carpet cleaner. I also ordered some of these to replace the damaged OEM one (http://www.z1motorsports.com/product...oducts_id=4581) and started looking for front fenders and a new fascia. This thing was getting painted and there were too many dents to even bother keeping what was there.

The rest of 2011:
Here's an old picture. That's what I was working with.


A few exploring Virginia Beach:



Started playing around with paint ideas. I liked this. Still haven't done the side hash but I might.


Smoked signal and side marker lights. Because the old ones were cracked and Amber just sucks. I was really starting to dig the blue/smoke/gunmetal look at this point.


By this time, I had also ordered 2 new fenders, a hood and an OEM TT front bumper, which were making the spare room in my apartment look like a junk yard. Not a whole lot to show for it though. My civic died at a stop light so I did what any rational person would do and bought a 2012 Golf TDI to daily. Kind of killed my funds for the Z for a few months. On to 2012.

January 2012:
New heater core. No way I was going to pull the engine to do this or remove the dash. Cut the lines with a dremel tool right after the firewall and hose clamped that sucker in there. No more coolant spraying into the cabin and no $1,000+ repair bill. Forgot to take pics but sliding under there was not fun. I have a buddy who is smaller. He squeezed in there pretty nicely and I'm very greatful.

March 2012:
Went to an Autocross event followed by a test and tune at a drag strip. Launched the car @ 4k. Was trying to break into the 14's. My fastest run was around a 15.2. No idea if that's good driving or not but I'd say I'm happy with that 22 year old engine. Decided to launch it on the fourth pass. Launched @ 4 grand and was almost down the strip shifting into 4th going about 98 when the clutch blew up. 1 XTD stage 3 clutch and lightweight flywheel later (and a hilarious picture) and it was back on the street.


April 2012:
Finally had all the new body pieces and enough saved up for the repaint. Time to switch some panels. Here's a few pictures. It looked like some high school kids ricer when I was done with it.





With the new fenders. I don't think I ever got one with the new bumper or hood. The bumper was tan. The hood was white. Sexy. I also did the little brackets on the sides of the front bumper. Got some less rusted ones from a junk yard and refinished them.




Before:


After:


I also replaced a cracked cowl grille and plasti-dipped them, the wiper arms and the rubber trim going up the side of the car. It was peeling to bare metal. Should have waited. Their tape tore the plasti dip off with they painted it anyway.




Back on the car:




Smoked tail lights, just to get the last bit of amber off the car.


Time for paint. Took it to Richmond in May. The guy was busy so it took a few months. Picked it up around the end of June.

June 2012:
Got an update from my buddy painting it!


The way back from Richmond. I love it.



A few in the parking spot:




That's it so far. I can clean it up and wax it this weekend without having to worry about any more out gassing. Also laying some carbon to redo some interior parts but I don't have pictures yet. Thinking wheels next and maybe do something about the 3rd brake light that has turned maroon.

[Dominick]

Pics no worky

Try uploading them to photobucket.com and copy the [IMG Code] and paste it into your text field

[Mishimoto]

Subscribing so I can see pics when you post them, sounds like a neat story!

[Yardjass]

Thanks Dom! I was copying just the URL instead of the code. Getting the rest of them on there now.

[Dominick]

There they are! Looks good man. Those rear angled exhausts look menacing. Plans for rims?

[Yardjass]

Probably RPF1's in that SKB color or whatever they call it. Turns out 9 to 10" wide with a +45 offset are pretty hard to come by used, as are the gunmetal ones. Probably gonna be saving because there will have to be some sort of nice summer tires to go with them.

[Dominick]

Never can go wrong with RPF1's. I've never heard of the "SKB" color, but I do know that they look amazing in a full polished look

[nismo300zxjdm]

Looks nice man! That's a cool color

[Yardjass]

Thanks man! Just checked yours out and that's a cool, well everything.

[Yardjass]

Just putting in an update. Not much going on with the car lately. I've been saving money and waiting to get a house so I have a garage to work on the car. I have already saved up for a JDM turbo front clip but I have nowhere to put it. Once I get the house, I'll be turbo swapping it. Planning on doing new injectors and fuel pump when that happens too. I decided against an LS swap because you either have to cut into the firewall or alter the suspension geometry for the thing to fit. Not worth it IMO although the weight savings would have been awesome.
I just noticed a rust bubble on the fender that rusted out from the inside. Going to have to get that fixed and hopefully that isn't too expensive. If it isn't, maybe a rear wiper delete at the same time. I'm also planning on removing rust on the underbody and adding rubberized coating when I get a chance.


My buddy has an awesome camera and we did some photoshoots last week. I can't get the pictures to link but here is the site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onelown...7631874965266/

[Yardjass]

Okay, I've been kind of busy. Tore my ACL and couldn't walk for a few weeks. Then re-tore it. Been saving for a house but I don't think I'll put much down. Should have enough for a front clip for a TT swap once I have a garage to do it in. Gonna have to have surgery and I won't be able to drive her or work on her for a while. At least I'll have a lot of cash saved up when I'm all better. Here's a couple shots from a recent photoshoot:








Did some dipping on my Golf. Here's what it ended up like:




I got around to re-doing the finish on the cowls. Sorry, no pictures because it is pretty much the same as last time. I did discover this though, which royally sucks. Kind of pisses me off, seeing as how I just paid to have this thing repainted. Best part is the panel wraps the whole way around the car to the other side so the body shop will have to paint the whole thing. F#$k my life. It is still getting a turbo swap first. I can live with this as long as it doesn't spread.








11/7/2013:
Put some night shade on the 3rd brake light. Those of you who know Z's, know they turn maroon/orangish after a lot of sun exposure. Then I wet sanded it and the center panel that was scuffed up as well.
Here's a good before picture. They were both pretty scuffed up and crappy looking.




Here is midway through wet sanding. I started the sanding by hand and used a 3m headlight kit and a drill for the 3000 grit and the polish. Drill was dead so I had to charge it overnight and pick up on it the next day.




The finished product. Kind of hard to see. I'll try to get a daytime one up when I get a chance. Either way, it even looks a hell of a lot better above before I got to finish it.




1/9/2013: Got the rear wiper delete today and installed it, or should I say, removed it. Again, sorry about the dark. Don't have much choice in the winter.




I also got ahold of another pair of TT rear wheels. 8.5" wide instead of 7.5" for the NA. I'll be cleaning all four of them up soon and getting some competition DOT tires to throw on them for Autocross.

[nismo300zxjdm]

Sharp looking Z man, keep up the work!

[Protege v2.5]

Get the rust repaired As soon as you can because it WILL spread.

[makaofox]

Looks real sweet man! azura blue tt swap is always something to brag about lol. Keep it up!

[Yardjass]

Put some rust converter, primer, rubberized undercoating on the rust. Should stop the cancer for now. When I can walk a little better, I'm gonna cut the rocker panels open and represerve everything, then seal it up with fiberglass and throw some JDM rocker panels overtop to make it look good.

In other news, I got a great price on Volk GT-U's! Need to do a proper photoshoot soon.

[CherryBomb]

Love the color!

[c7scayman]

Originally Posted by CherryBomb

Love the color!

Do you work at a Sunoco on County Line Road? There is a red 300zx just like yours always parked there.

[CherryBomb]

Originally Posted by c7scayman

Do you work at a Sunoco on County Line Road? There is a red 300zx just like yours always parked there.

Nope, I work at Infiniti of West Chester.

[Yardjass]

Okay, short update but long overdue. By the way, if you ever are thinking of tearing your ACL, don't. On to the car:

She has a place to sleep now!
\

I also got some night garage flares (thanks to nissan300ZXjdm for making me aware of these). They should allow me to cut the rusted part out of the fender, and will allow for wider wheels in the rear. Here are test fits of my GT-U's and my buddy's RPF1's. Looks like the Volks (+42) would either need to be rebarrelled or need a spacer. The +12 RPF's look pretty good, and they're 10.5" wide :D





And here is one just for amusement. Staring down my buddy's 430RWHP WRX:

[Yardjass]

Originally Posted by CherryBomb

Love the color!

Thank you sir!