A brief update on the Z after a typical urban yuppie weekend (which may or may not have involved a trip to Whole Foods):

Sigfrid loves it now.
Loves it so much in fact, that he's decided not to buy a daily driver (at least not yet) and concentrate on finishing Ratchet. This encourages me greatly as any second car would just siphon money away from the Z...S. is genetically incapable of leaving a car stock.
Besides, I could never understand the cars he was considering- BRZ's, Caymans and the like.
Why have two sports cars, both 2-seaters?

Without massive lashings of cash the Z will never be a track car (like he goes to the track ever anyway) and she's a surprisingly fine street car right now. With some careful upgrades the Z could be a superb street car- easily maintained, cheap to insure/tag, relatively good fuel economy (20-25mpg city, I'd guess), unburdened by modern electronics.

And cool as hell.

People of all sorts just love the Z...hardly a trip goes by that I don't get waves, thumbs up or honked at.
Nobody gives a crap about my FC but Ratchet is a real highway star.

 

Short update before I leave for Santa Fe tomorrow...

Another work day and more significant progress.
We figured out the brake problem!
Starting at the rear, we inspected/adjusted the drums again, then swapped drums side>side.
Nope.
Up front we switched rotors, then calipers...still dives to the left.
About the only thing left was the hardlines and the prop valve and ultimately, how the lines were routed.
Which turned out to be the cause.

From the master cylinder we had a tee on the front circuit- one line went straight to the driver side caliper, the other, through the prop valve and on to the passenger side caliper. The prop valve was absorbing enough energy from the off-side caliper to cause the imbalance.
We ended up deleting the prop valve entirely and the brakes work very well.
Extremely well, actually.
She tracks straight under braking and the fronts lock before the rears...she seems perfectly normal.

So, yay!

Also installed (well, laid in) the real rear deck carpeting, just to see how it looked.
It needs to relax and flatten out but the fit appears reasonable, should be OK.

And...the stereo is in, so Sigfrid has tunes.
Apparently, of critical importance.

More and more like a real car.

 

Absolutely the most important thing on a car. Not even good tires, wipers, or functioning brakes can compare. Just hang around the ghetto or inner city. You will find that tunes are a must, even before bright shiny wheels.

 

Really glad you figured out he brake issue and all is now well. If the engine sound is not cool enough, then yes tunes are very important

 

Yes, the brakes are now "street car" acceptable.

I returned from a family gathering in Santa Fe (what a weird city!) Monday and S. and I met up yesterday. We rebled the brakes, performed some panic stops and determined we're good to go. No pulling, even with locked wheels. The fronts lock before the rears and she's very controllable.
So, good.

We also spent a bit of time fiddling with the electric choke- which I still want to replace with a cable- and adjusted the accelerator pumps to address a slight hesitation off idle that Sigfrid can sense but I cannot (our driving styles are polar opposites).
He's talking more and more about going back to FI, a wish that mystifies me...she runs very nicely as is and I have no desire to revisit my struggles with the stock system.
If he gets a new Megasquirt and updated sensors/controls, then we can talk.

Spent most of our time installing interior bits and making adjustments.
All the interior comes out for sound mitigation but we're doing a practice run to gather/test all the clips and widgets needed, so we'll be ready.

I'm concentrating on the doors.
We removed the handle (exterior) to adjust for some linkage slop (you can see the adjuster in situ but cannot access it) and I checked out the interior handle because I'm going to the yard to seek a replacement.
I want an assembly that integrates the door lock into the handle unit so we can eleiminate the push/pull **** on the top of the doorframe. It hits me right in the armpit if I hang my arm on the sill...very irritating.
Also hope to find some nicer armrests.

My junkyard wish list is now comprised of the doodads and little stuff required for final assembly- except for the center console, there's no construction left to do.
Which is an odd feeling.

S. is close to making a decision on gauges and the final electrical will be completed when the dash is removed for soundproofing. We also need to figure out defrost vents (the original Miata vents were lost when the dash was trimmed to fit the Z).

Even with the remaining punch list items left to complete, our Z is probably more finished and functional than 75% of the Z's out there.

Fortunately, the weather is turning and I can pivot back to working on my engine again soon.
Oddly (or maybe not...), Sprocket's current engine has been running perfectly lately, so no pressure from that side.

Now waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

Is that thing still following you around?

 

Yesterday I harvested some Maxima interior doorhandles and a new hood release cable assembly from a Subaru, today we began installing them.

Unfortunately, the weather forecasters were horribly wrong and a snow storm scheduled for Fri. afternoon hit a day early...we froze our little butts off.
First world problems.

Mounting the new handle was easy and so was fabbing the rods for the door latch, we had that functional within an hour.
The lock is a whole 'nother animal, the entire linkage must be re-engineered and geometry is not on our side. S. was still struggling as I left for the day.
I'm guessing he'll figure it out.

Tweaked the choke a bit more and it seems to be functioning perfectly now (granted, without a tach we have no clue about RPM, but she sounds about right...). At least it sets the fast idle cam and releases it as it should, I think we're done.

Sigfrid got tired of me refusing to remove the dash till we were ready for soundproofing and somehow found the cash to order our 280Z specific kit. Can't wait to see it and begin final assembly of the interior.
Of course we need some warm weather but that should return soon enough.

I can hardly believe how close we're getting.

 

Denver's whiplash spring weather has slowed things down a bit...we got snow and freezing temps (today's high will be 30°, Monday is supposed to be 70°) and I'm just sitting it out at home while S. tries to bear the garage and continue with the locks.
I don't know if he (we) will be successful and I may have to yard again to find a better solution.
We'll figure something out, I'm certain.

Sigfrid has decided to keep the Miata gauges...I'm not a fan but whatever.
The fuel gauge will work as is (remember, we have a FC fuel tank/sending unit) and with Miata sending units, so will the water temp and oil pressure. He's found a unit that supposedly bolts to the speedo drive and gives us a VSS signal and then some Digital Dakota boxes will interpolate for the speedo and tach.

Our sound deadening kit arrives Tuesday.
This should be interesting, it was designed/sold by an acoustical engineer who has a Z and is supposedly the culmination of a few years of experimentation. It comes with Dynamat (presumably, but could be a different brand) and pictures of where to place it for maximum effect. Then the whole interior is covered with a "membrane", which I imagine is like the stuff used on roofs, but I'm not sure. The kit was just under $400.
At any rate, the interior will be stripped bare again and final assembly can commence.
I'd like to wait till the weather is more reliably warm but am pretty sure Sigfrid will be unrestrainable and we'll begin immediately. We'll proceed in two stages, first the front/main cabin and then the rear hatch area. Should make a huge difference to driver comfort.

A few other little things have happened, the best of which is the install of a cupholder/change drawer unit over the stereo. I had it in the FC years ago and Sigfrid saw potential I did not and put it in after some clever mods. The change drawer was adapted to fit an iPhone and with the proper adaptors, it now runs the stereo. I was quite impressed and will get pics next time I'm there.

She's sweet and getting sweeter by the day.

 

Hopefully that kit is the bees knees for that price.

 

As predicted, Sigfrid couldn't/wouldn't wait and has already started the install.

We weren't planning on working today but he found himself alone and by the time he contacted me I was already elbow deep in bread dough and could not join him.
I guess I'll see Tuesday how it all comes out.

He sent me some pics but even knowing what I'm looking at, I could make neither heads nor tails of them. There's some shiny stuff and some black stuff but nothing makes much sense.

Tomorrow I'm back at the yard, looking for bits to complete the doorhandle swap.

 

We put in a frenzied but productive 10 hours yesterday and it was bloody magnificent.

"Frenzied" because we raced an impending blizzard (which hit overnight) and wanted to take advantage of the warm, sunny weather. Seriously, it was 65° and beautiful, today I awakened to 6" of snow (and more coming...).
There was little time for pics and the ones we did get are pretty crappy, so bear with me here.

About the kit...
When I said it was $400, that is for the entire car but S. was only able to afford the "basic" 2-door kit (which was $280) and we still need the two "door" kits ($60 apiece) to finish. This is OK, the doors will be easy (comparatively speaking) and don't affect the rest of the car.
We still need to do the rear deck/hatch area but again, that will be cake compared to the main cabin area.

The kit consisted of 30 16" x 20" aluminum backed deadening sheets and a large roll of a black adhesive backed foam membrane. The instructions call for at least 50% coverage of the panels, more as required. You tap on the panels and add more of the deadening untill it stops booming. Then the entire thing is covered with the black foam sheet.
The adhesives are quite aggressive and it all laid in nicely.
It took for ******* ever to do though, much longer than we'd anticipated.

Also unanticipated was the propensity of the aluminum sheets to slice your hands to shreds.
There will be blood.

We went all the way up the firewall to the windshield, which as by far the most difficult area to do. Lots of nooks/crannies and brackets to weasel around and over.
Much contortion was involved.

Here you see the aluminum being laid in:


It looks random but really isn't, we spent a lot of time getting it as effectively distributed as we could.
The entire enterior was then covered in the black membrane, which I did photograph but given my pathetic skills, just looks like a giant black hole.

Then we installed the carpet, a nightmare that turned out incredibly well.
We've had this "deluxe" kit for over 2 years now and it spent the last few days basking in the sun and relaxing into shape. It was molded to shape and has a very thick horsehair-ish backing.
It ended up fitting surprisingly well...with some persuading, and should relax/mold into shape even better over time.

Again, my photo skills let me down but this gives a few hints:


The black membrane is visible below the windshield and in the footwell sides and you can see the thickness of the carpet backing aound the shifter cutout.

I originally had the rear wiring harness running down the passenger rocker panel (which is how Datsun did it) but it was obvious that would screw with the carpet, so it was rerouted to run down the top of the trans tunnel, out of harm's way and covered by the as yet unbuilt center console.

I had optimistically expected to finish off the dash wiring yesterday- primarily wiring in the gauges- but that did not happen. I figure 4-5 hours to finish that all up.

I am extremely proud of how easy the car is to assemble, especially given the total Frankenstein nature of the parts. If you knew nothing about Z's, you might think it's all original because it just bolts into place with no weirdness or effort. It's actually easier than the stock setup.
And between the Miata HVAC system and the Miata dash we probably saved 30-40 lbs.
The sound deadening package added quite a bit of that weight back in, but well worth it.

Even with the doors not yet done, the interior is noticably quieter and the doors thunk closed with a satisying solidity. It will only get better.
We are thrilled.

As we approach final interior install a few glaring bits now stand out, mainly the ebrake handle, which is chrome and cheesy looking.
We'll figure that out.
Sigfrid is certain he can get our new doorhandles to work and he'll probably be on that today.

I ain't going anywhere today though, it's really crappy out.
Hope to continue tomorrow or Friday.

 

That dude sold you some ****. That isn't dynamat. Did it smell like bitumen tar?

 

Very nice job.

A few years ago I decided to tackle the really bad interior droning exhaust noise issue on the RX7. If only the Borla had used real mufflers and not straight though resonators in place of mufflers on their cat back exhaust system... I must be getting old. Just to clarify, a n/a rotary with a header is not going to be "quite", even with the main cat in place - I learned that the hard way.

Anyway the drone was really bad around 2800-3200 RPM at any more than just enough throttle to keep a steady speed any gear - which means anything more than about 71-72 MPH on the freeway got BAD. The sound pressure inside the cabin was very noticeable and annoying.

Most of the aftermarket sound deadening / barrier material is very expensive. I had read on a forum where someone had used a home building sound deadening / barrier material inside their car with very good results. So I said what the heck, I will try the inexpensive method first.

United Plastics Corporation - Plastic Profile Extrusions, Flexible Sheet

I order a 48" x 96" roll from Home Depot online for $48 - not sure if they carry it any more.

I removed all the; carpet, loose factory sound insulation and interior trim pieces from the hatch area. I used 64" of the sheet, cutting pieces to fit off patterns I made using large sheets of paper. I completely covered the area of the rear hatch, along with the sides and even rear panel extending down into the vertical spare tire well. This worked out to about 16 lbs of material that I added to the rear of the car over and behind the rear axle. Not the best thing weight wise, but the car is 50/50 weight balanced from the factory and it is RWD. As a side note I did not remove the backing because I didn't want this material to be permanently adhered to the car.

The different is amazing - the sound pressure, the resonance and droning were all gone! The exhaust is still way too noisy on the outside, but inside the car with the windows up, down or open a couple inches and the sun roof either closed or open it seems like a different car. I could actually enjoy driving the car again on the freeway or in town!

 

No, it doesn't smell of anything.
I understand your skepticism but don't share it.
Dynamat has a rather checkered online review history, many people consider it overhyped and priced...I don't necessarily subscribe to that opinion but can see their point.
I was impressed by the specificity of the instructions and the reasoning behind them, and the end result seems quite impressive.
We'll see after this blizzard passes.

 

Maxima doorhandle w/integrated lock install finished and working beautifully.
Took a while to figure out the lock actuation but another set of pivots did the trick.
Possibly not as convenient as the push/pull stem at the door top, this setup gets rid of the stock chrome assembly and means you can hang your arm out the door without being armpit impaled.
Pics are (as usual) kinda dark, so apologies for that.

 

I just love all the little modernizing & detail changes you both are making on the Z-car project. You are literally doing a restomod of sorts.

 

Thank you, it's nice to be appreciated.
The guys on the Z forum pretty much hate it.

We knew from the git-go that she would never go back to original, too much was either crapped out (like most of the interior) or totally missing and the expense of sourcing OEM parts would far exceed the value of the car.
It quickly became a point of pride that we could rebuild the car using almost no Datsun parts and have it appear OEM (ish) to a non-Z person. Being junkyard sourced, everything has a very convincing patina and could plausibly have come on the car.

Besides, a lot of the systems were frankly, ****.
I mean, why wouldn't you want wipers with a 5 position intermittant instead of two speeds that sounded like rocks in a dryer?

I dailied British sports cars (including a Morgan Plus 4) for nearly three decades, so am very familiar with the hair shirt that is owning an old car and thought the Z could combine the best of both worlds...looks classic but drives comfortably.
Suffering for purity's sake was a badge of honor in my youth but I'm too old for that **** now.

We figured that with our starting point, a really nice (not Pebble Beach, but very good) restoration would cost around $30k and a reasonable driver car between $15-20k (assuming we used original stuff).
Since Jay Leno already has one (at least), the market is vanishingly small...everyone seems to love 'em but very few are willing to ante into the game.

Ratchet may never be investment grade but she is a car that can be easily maintained and driven reliably for years to come. Registration and insurance are dirt cheap and emissions are practically painless.
I'd trade my FC for her in a heartbeat.

 

lol, i like the car, and quite frankly it looks way more of-a-piece than the parts list would suggest. i do also like the sprit of the thing, ie, using the "parts bin" that is the junkyard to build it. i think thats how a lot of cars are built actually, especially Nissans, they share a LOT of parts between models. it seems like they can look at a whale or dishwasher for styling inspiration, pick the engine, and suspension, and all they really need to do is design the subframes, and boom done

 

I am scratching my head wondering why they put the door handle down so low stock.

 

You sit so low with the stock seats, that location is ergonomically reasonable.
Not great but not awful, even with the taller Prelude seats.
Plus, it's in one of the few areas where there's room for components.
The inner door skin has a pronounced indent (presumably to increase arm room for the driver and keep the armrest from rubbing your ribcage) and there's precious little space for moving parts.

You can imagine how awkward the transition was when I sold my 240Z and hopped directly into the FC...took awhile to adapt.

 

More good stuff has happened, let's start with some pics.

Here we see the new pedal pads and the new Subaru hood release mechanism. Next to the hood release is the **** which opens/closes the driver side fresh air vent.


A Honda Del Sol donated it's ebrake handle and boot:


The general dash layout:


There is a lot (poorly pictured) here.
The START button has been moved to the original Miata hazard switch location above the center of the stack, the Ford(?) change/cupholder sits above the headunit and below the headunit (where the Miata airbag disable used to be) is the new HAZARD switch and the <s>cigarette lighter,</s> oops...the POWER PORT.
The stock Z center console has been crudely hacked to site the FC shifter bezel/boot and the armrest.

You'll be forgiven for not noticing that the dash fits the firewall better, some trimmage accomplished that and even more is yet to come. We are searching for some eyeball vents to use as defrost and the dash will be complete...soon as we find an airbag cover.

The center console and the door cards are the two big remaining projects left to build.
The two biggest projects left to execute are getting the gauges functional and completing the sound mitigation.

Sigfrid got a new job and the money tree is blooming again, so both projects are on the fast track.
He starts work on April 18 and we want the Z as complete as possible by then.
The materials required to finish the sound project were ordered last night, might arrive by Saturday.
We have the doors and the hatch area left to do, probably a day's work.

The gauges are a more complex job.
Using the stock Miata cluster, the FUEL gauge will work without modification.
We're replacing the Miata OIL and WATER gauges with VDOs, using the Miata dial faces and needles so they look stock. The gauges and sending units are ordered.
The speedo and tach will each require a Dakota Digital translator box, they too are on order.
Additionally, the speedo will need a VSS signal generator to replace the Datsun mechanical speedo drive, Sigfrid is on that but I don't know the status right now.
We'll have a mostly functional cluster soon.

It seems our heater core has a small leak, not sure whether to repair or replace it but that will be decided when the dash comes out again.
Other than that, she runs perfectly.

I've resisted a test drive, preferring to wait till the sound deadening package is installed and I get the whole effect at once.
Just sitting in the car though it's obvious how much more relaxed it's going to be in there, there's a stillness and dampened atmosphere that is quite different than before. I expect it to be pretty dramatic and hopefully, comparable to a new car.

 

That is truly amazing, what you two have been able to do with updating that nearly 50 year old interior design! And to think that most, if not all of the pieces/parts were sourced from the salvage yard. That is taking "auto parts recycling" to a whole new level and meaning.

 

I always envisioned a sort of higher end rat rod look for the car...not new/shiny but not ragged out and stripped. More of a well used classic affect- a nice car, carefully maintained.

Learned some stuff along the way, too.
As the Z became road worthy, I started to notice how creak free the interior was when compared to my FC. It should be the reverse as my Mazda interior is 99% complete and fully factory fastened but the FC is a rattletrap and the Z is not.
The biggest and most obvious difference is the dash shell and how it's mounted. We gutted the Miata dash of all internal metal structure, leaving only the centerstack support. The whole dash sits on the trans tunnel and is held with four bolts, it is not fastened anywhere else. Therefore, the dash is not getting pulled/stretched/contorted as the chassis flexes and does not creak in response. It basically just floats in position.
I plan on selectively removing fasteners in my FC dash and seeing what effect it has.
I doubt it will be as good as the Z setup because the Miata dash is much nicer than the ancient deteriorated plastic in the FC but it's worth a try.

We work again tomorrow, probably continue the sound material on the doors.
Maybe start wiring in the gauges and we need to check out a suspected leak in the heater core.

 

It's been a trying few days, these last.

First the good news, excellent news, actually.
The sound package was applied to the doors, so the main cabin is done.
Parts have started arriving (VDO gauges) and the rest is on its way (the remaining sound material, Dakota Digital stuffs, some Miata eyeball vents for defrost, an airbag cover- finally- and a Miata center console.
I've now driven home two nights running with no dash installed and the heater core exposed, trying to confirm a suspected leak, but no sign of coolant anywhere so far.

She drives just beautifully in normal urban conditions, I know I haven't topped 60mph yet but up to that point, it's just amazing. The rear hatch remains to be soundproofed but the interior is already a vault, it should be quite luxe when complete. Quiet, supple but not overly soft and fairly flat in corners, I really like the Audi steering wheel.

The reason I've been driving the Z home is because the RX7 is gasping her last.
On the way to Sigfrid's yesterday morning, I thought she felt a bit odd but nothing really demanding of attention or immediate worry. Later that day, I was called to make a rescue run for Sigfrid's wife Alex, whose Honda Pilot had just died.
The FC was real cranky about starting and finally ran raggety and smoked like crazy, until there was a strong fuel smell and I killed the engine. Gas was dripping off the engine, apparently over the exhaust manifold but we could not see as source.
It reeked of fuel and there was a good two foot puddle under the car, seemingly from the passenger side rear of the motor but again, we could not definitively locate a beginning.

I let it cool down for an hour and began stripping the manifolds.
I was down to the exten mani and had fully exposed secondaries, jumpered the fuel pump test connector and could smell gas but saw nothing external leak.
Then I'm down to the top of the block, looking at the primary injectors and there's absolutely no sign of gas leaking anywhere. Splice the hoses, pressurize just the primary circuit and not a drop of gas to be seen.
Where did the gas come from that spilled enough to puddle under the car?

We confabbed and decided that there was a limited amount we could do that night and also a limited amount we could do parked in the street.
So I drove the Z home and this morning returned to Sigfrid's with the freshly serviced injectors I'd been saving for the new engine and the cleaned up fuel rails.
Figured that if that didn't fix whatever the hell was going on, the next step was a tow back home and yank the dead motor out.

Finally got it together this afternoon and fired her up.
Ran like ****, smoked like crazy from the engine bay, sounded awful, reeked of coolant but not fuel.
Won't idle below 2k...she seems terminal.

There is nothing coming out the tailpipe, all the smoke is coming from the engine but we can't find any external trace, it's like it seeps out the pores of the block.
The plugs are old and crappy but also dry, not flooded. When spun over, there seem to be the required number and sequence of "chuffs" and nothing spews out the plug holes.

Proving a gamer to the end, she is still kinda driveable...enough so that I'm going to risk the 17 miles home tomorrow, with Sigfrid as a follow car.
It's going to be hell.

 

After the most terrifying 17 mile drive of her life, Sprocket made it home today...quite possibly her final journey but still exhibiting the heart of a Viking.
We still have no clue what's going on and I'm conflicted as to how much I want to know.

I'll decide later, right now I'm jacked on adrenaline, caffeine and nicotine and am in no state to make good decisions.
It's inconvenient mainly because Sigfrid still has two weeks before starting work and has ordered basically everything we need to finish stage one of the build. We'd planned on really making some serious, final progress and I have no time to dick around with my car right now.

I imagine I'll get to spend some quality time driving the Z in the time before Sigfrid begins commuting in her and the FC will languish in the parking lot for a while.
After he starts working, I'll have all the free time I'll need.