Plans

Now that we're all caught up, I'll explain my current and future plans. For the last couple months, I've been planning on what I wanted to do with the engine. Whether it was swapping it out for a 1JZ, 1UZ, RB25 or keeping the L26 (it's not the original). I knew I wanted to keep the engine Japanese because that's just my preference. Not saying anything else is bad, it's just not the way I vision my car. That being said, I determined recently that I want to stay with the L26 that I already have.

I've been saving up for the last couple of months when I was trying to decide what to do motor wise and now the question is to rebuild, or not to rebuild the L26. Even if I were to rebuild, I would need to buy a few parts eventually anyway. I actually made a list and there are at least 40 parts that I need. I totaled the cost of the parts and it's about the amount that a rebuild will cost. So I think I will buy all the essential parts before the rebuild since I'm not entirely sure that it needs it yet since I've never heard it run without said parts.

In the end, if it needs to be rebuilt, I'll be in the same spot if I did the rebuild prior to getting the parts. Instead of waiting for the rebuild, I would be waiting for the parts. Basically what I'm saying is that it doesn't hurt to get the other parts first since it wouldn't be able to run without them anyway. Also, it may run great meaning I won't have to spend money on a rebuild and can focus on other things. If things work out then it will be running earlier than if I went the rebuild route. Prepare for car parts!

TLDR; Staying L26. Buying parts. Hopefully it runs well.

Progress

Hello everyone!

So since receiving my car in May, I've done a few things for my car. However, before I could buy car parts, I had to buy my own set of tools since I didn't want to rely on my older brother to bring his tools home for me to use.


Unlike him, I can't afford Snap-On tools so I got a set of Husky tools which I think are great alternative and feel great in my hands. I also bought an engine stand and a cherry picker from Harbor Freight.

Pulled the engine and placed it on the engine stand. After looking at the engine, turns out it wasn't the original engine but was still a L26. At this point I was thinking about what I wanted for my car, if it was the L26 or something else.

One weekend I decided to to take out the dashboard to try to "fix" it haha. Used Great Stuff to fill in the cracks and then covered that with this bumper repair stuff which I sanded with 220 grit. Finally painted the dashboard with a SEM texture paint which could have came out better but oh well. 

Good enough haha.

Finally had some money saved up so I decided to buy a radiator since the one with the car was thrashed.

 One weekend I wanted to clean up the engine a bit. 40 years of gunk removed, mostly.Also, when it started to rain a bit, I decided it would also be a good idea to buy a car cover.

Overall, that's basically what I've done besides cleaning the inside up and taking off parts. I've been mostly saving up for either a rebuild or parts that I need.

Hello! Welcome to my blog!

For my first post, I think I should let you guys know more about myself and how I got into cars to now. As a kid, I would play around with HotWheels all the time, but I started to get into cars when I was around 9 or 10 like most kids when watching The Fast and the Furious too many times hahaha.

Although I liked cars, I never had that burning passion to go out to learn more about them. I made a Tumblr around 2012 and the main thing I would reblog were cars. My brother had always been into cars more than me and was one of the major influences with me being into cars in the first place. At the time he was really into drifting (which I thought was pretty cool too) and he would go to Irwinedale and Long Beach for Formula D. In 2013, my brother decided to bring me along to FDLB as a late birthday present. This event really changed how I looked at cars. As I watched the cars drifting in person with the tires screeching and smoke everywhere and walked through the car show across the way (meeting one of my Tumblr buddies as well), something clicked and I finally started to get that understanding/passion. 

Soon after that I became hooked on cars. I tried to soak in as much as I could. Although it seemed like a lot of people were into stance or form>function and that was the trend going on, I knew that wasn't really for me as I wanted something fun and function oriented. I got really into old Japanese cars, specifically old Datsun Z cars and I fell in love with the lines and knew I had to own one in the future. Learning what made the models different, carburetors, engine possibilities, etc.. I loved it all. 

Fast forward to April 2014, I bought my 1974 Datsun 260z on Ebay as a birthday present to myself. It wasn't running, a lot of parts in boxes with very few parts missing, in Nevada, paint not in the best condition, and had bad tires, but when I saw that ad, a part of me knew I had to get it. The good thing about the car is that it had only a little bit of rust from the pictures and seemed like it would be easy to patch. I saw the ad at night and decided to sleep on it and decide in the morning. Woke up, and felt good about it so I placed an offer and ended up with the car. 

Pics from the ad

Rust issue passenger foot well. 

One month and whole lot of stress about shipping  later, it was finally in my possession. 

I swear I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of that week. Well, I think that's enough for a first post, I think I'll do another one soon with some of the work I've done so far in the 4 months of owning it and future plans.