New wheels

Since my old wheels had cracks which were poorly repaired and wouldn't hold air well (well mainly the rears), I decided that I would get both new wheels and new tires (definitely need new tires as the current ones are deteriorating). I could have gotten used wheels, but after looking at forums and craigslist, the sellers were either too far, asking too much, or selling really beat up wheels. When I was looking on Datsun forums to see what would look great and fit on my Z, I saw these Enkei Apache II on one Z and I knew that's what I wanted. Classic wheel design, yet brand new (and affordable compared to other wheels). They are the correct bolt pattern 4x114.3 meaning I didn't have to go through a 5 lug conversion to fit more modern wheels and came in a 0 offset at 15x8 which means I don't need spacers or that I didn't need to roll my fenders or cut them for fender flares (which I was on the fence about in the first place). All in all, it met every single one of my needs. AND I got free shipping on them which made me really happy that I saved some money!

Opened up the first box and I was extremely happy on how they looked

that I had to take a picture of them to upload onto Instagram/Tumblr.

Although it was short-lived. As I was opening each box inspecting each

wheel, the very last wheel I noticed a small nick on the lip. I was a little

disappointed that I paid to get new wheels and it was already damaged.

The damage isn't too bad (less than 5mm long) but the idea hurts more.

I contacted the retailer and they said they can't replace it as the wheels

are now out of stock and they are not sure when they'll be restocking, but they

can refund me 2-3 weeks after they receive the wheel back (meaning about 4 weeks).

I told them the shipping cost in relation to the wheel cost wouldn't make sense and

that I'll just deal with it. They ended up giving me a small refund for the inconvenience

(not as much as a new wheel, but hey I'll take it). Even if they covered the shipping, if I were

to order a new wheel elsewhere, with shipping and tax it would  still be more than the whole refund.

I rather keep the wheel and get that small refund. It makes the most sense to me.

One of my friends said she knows someone that can probably repair it and

I would just need to buy them a 6-pack or something haha. 

 Here's what they look on the like on the car! I can't wait to get

some new tires and see how well it sits. Plan is to get some 

Yokohama S-Drive 205/50R15. I'm hoping my friend can get

me a discount, but if not then it's okay because the tires aren't 

too expensive and it shouldn't be too bad, as I thought tires would

cost more initially. 

Some Assembly Required

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and happy new year! First, I would like to thank my Aunty Kay for the Autozone giftcard which definitely came in handy as Erik and I needed new gloves, throttle body cleaner, towels, etc.. and also to the rest of my family for money that I used toward getting a 1/2" breaker bar and 3/8" torque wrench (which I really needed for what I was planning to do next).

So the last week I've been preparing to drop the engine and transmission back into the car on Sunday. Although I didn't rebuild the engine as I planned before, it was good to take it out, replace the valve cover and oil pan gaskets, and clean it up (at least to my best ability). It was also good to take a look at the clutch so I didn't mind the whole process of taking everything out just to put back in. It wasn't a waste of time imo.  My brother was nice enough to volunteer his time before he went out for the day.

Rolled the engine on the stand out of the garage to the car.

We put the oil pan back on with new hardware then put the 

engine on a mover's dolly while we get it leveled with the 

transmission to put them together.

Torquing the flywheel bolts down to spec with locktite (blue bottle). 

Note: we used my deep 13mm socket to hold the flywheel in place. 

Clutch and pressure plate were then torqued down to spec as well.

Proper lubricating to make sure everything goes smoothly. 

Bolting the transmission to the engine

Probably would be lectured as to where we decided to

lift the engine and transmission from an expert but we didn't run into

any issues or did it feel sketchy at all although it may have been easier 

in another spot.

 Took a while to wiggle the engine in the proper spot for the 

bolts to slip into the engine mounts. Had to look for the bolts in a 

little bin as the previous owner didn't have installed when I received my car...

Towed all the way from Nevada without the engine OR transmission bolted

in place. I'm glad everything worked out in the end.

And everything is secured in place! I need to buy 

two bolts to secure the transmission crossmember

in place as they were not provided with the car... 

I also decided to clean up a few things I 

had laying around covered in oil/grease/dirt haha.

That's all that basically happened recently. I also bought some other parts but you will have to wait until they come in next week to find out what it is! Stay tuned!

Coming together

As this year comes to a close, I can slowly see my car coming together. Although it's most likely will not be running by the start of the new year, I'm okay with that. There's no need to rush through these things and I'd much rather have everything reliable and done correctly. It was a good goal to have, however I was not expecting schoolwork to take up that much of my time along with working as well, so plans have changed. New goal is to have the car not only running, but roadworthy and registered by 2016 which I believe is plenty of time to  to give attention to detail.

Anyways, since the last update, a few things have came in.

Firstly, I would like to thank my grandma and grandpa Sorensen for the Dremel Tool Kit as an early Christmas gift which will allow me to make small precision cuts and grind/polish things as well. A very useful and versatile tool. You can never have too many tools haha.

Next, we have my MSA Sway bar kit (which had been out of stock since early November)  which include new sway bars, endlinks, and brackets and should help with handling. I also got two new fan belts since the old ones looked worn out.

I've also spent some time today working on the interior of the car. As you can see from this picture below that I took in May, there's an orange interior that I wasn't fond of. Mainly because it was super dirty and no matter how much I cleaned, it wouldn't come out. Also, the padding underneath would hold moisture well which isn't good and I wanted to inspect under it.

After I took out the orange trim, it left the padding exposed as seen below 

(top view driver's side)

The padding came off with ease.

Then there's the sound deadening which I wanted to take off as well.

Originally, I wanted to wait until I got dry ice so I could just hammer

it all off in chunks but since I had time, I just used a flat head and rubber

hammer as it was coming off relatively easy (floor on the other hand isn't).

Started at the rear of the tunnel. You can see the pile of sound deadening

near the passenger seat belt and that was only from the passenger side and top.

After an hour of removal, I decided that my back had enough and that I will finish

the driver's side later in the week and will have dry ice to do the rest of the car at the same time.

I've also have been working on my oil pan and it was covered with dirt, oil, and rust. After soaking it in apple cider vinegar (mostly for the rust) and cleaning it with a wire brush the majority of it was clean. I also used some throttle body cleaner (my brother had left over and didn't need it) which cleaned up the rest really well. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this process. We had some left over spray paint from another project (metallic silver or black) and my oil pan had bare metal exposed and some previous paint spots so my brother semi-jokingly suggested to paint it and I was thinking why not haha. I was going to do black but my brother said to try the silver.

I think it looks way better than before and the thing shines soooo bright in the sun. It'll be funny to see it on the engine since the rest is so dull and dirty. I think silver was the best choice haha.

Well, that's all for now. Happy holidays and stay safe! 

Thanksgiving Break

Hello everyone!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I had a little extra time off of school and work for Thanksgiving so I decided to work on my engine for a bit. So when I was removing the oil pan to look inside my engine around May, 3 out of the 32 bolts holding it in place snapped (3 in a row at that)and I have put off removing them for the longest time. I tried using a nut to get the remainder of the bolts out but there wasn't enough threads to hold onto, so the only solution I thought of was to drill them out. I had the engine on the engine stand and being able to rotate it to the side made drilling easier. I covered the inside with paper towels to prevent the shavings from getting inside.

Bolt 1

In this picture, the left hole is what it looks like normally and the right side

you can see that I started drilling out the first bolt and it's about halfway through

(sorry no before pictures haha I was focused on getting it done)

Bolt 2 & 3

The first bolt was easy to drill out but the other two were really difficult

to start since the bolts broke uneven. I broke off the bolts to make it 

nearly flushed with the bottom of the block to reduce the amount of

material I will need to drill. The drill bit I was using kept slipping and

going to a smaller drill bit helped me get it going. As you can see in this

pic, I drilled all the way through on the second bolt and the third bolt broken.

And here they are drilled out all the way!

 Bolts 1, 2, and 3

Since I drilled out the bolts, I have to rethread the holes for 

the bolts. My brother let me borrow his tap to rethread them. 

Have to make sure it's going straight and not going at an angle.

Success!

 

I'm glad it went smoothly for the most part and I didn't struggle too much haha. 

Finishing this Semester

As this semester is getting closer to the end (last week's two presentations and essay wasn't fun), I'm starting to get more free time. Which means I can finally start working on my car again! Also, I created a Vimeo to post videos about my car adventures and to share them with everyone. Here's a timelapse of me sanding the peeling clear coat on my 260z. Wish I recorded all of it but my phone battery died on me.

 

Sanding from Andrew Sorensen on Vimeo.

This ended up happening the same day as well :/

Early in November my brother finally got a car after his Civic Si (em1) was stolen early January. I made a video of his first car wash just for fun haha.

 

First Wash from Andrew Sorensen on Vimeo.
That's it for now. I need a few hose replacements, a battery, fluids, wheels, the MSA sway bar kit and I think we should be running soon! I also need tires but I have a friend who works for Yokohama so she said she can get me better prices for me which will be awesome!

More Parts!

So I found time to visit Motorsport Auto (MSA aka The Z Store online) in Orange on Tuesday after I got off work to pick up some parts! When I pulled up, there was a beautiful 260z in the parking lot. Owner seemed pretty cool and I wish I could have stayed to chat about his car, but I was trying to beat traffic on the way back (which I didn't anyway haha).

Anyways, I got there and the employees were very helpful and I got my parts pretty fast. I ended getting my 6 to 1 header and MSA exhaust. I wanted to get their sway bar kit also but it was out of stock and will be for a few weeks!

6-1 header and MSA exhaust pipes

Should sound really good when I get the car running which is hopefully by the end of the year! My next update might take a while because of work and as this school semester is getting closer toward the end, more stuff is coming up! The next two weeks I have two presentations and a 10 page paper (yikes!). Wish I can just throw all the parts on now, but school comes first.

Quick update!

So just a quick update. In parts news,  the Mishimoto radiator hoses came in recently!  I've been meaning to buy some parts from the Z store (it's a secret! can you guess what?) but I've decided that next time I'll drive to Orange to pick up the parts instead of paying for shipping (~$70). Unfortunately they are only open on Saturdays for the weekend (while I'm at work) and I can probably only go on Tuesdays during the week haha.  I'll figure it out  a time to go soon hopefully. Or I'll pay my brother $20 to go pick it up for me haha.

 I've been having a hard time finding time to work on the car but I was able to sand down the clear coat a bit last on 10/21. I think it looks a lot better!

After sanding and before the wipe down

After the wipe down.

Some spots I got pretty low by accident. 220 grit is pretty rough

and I should probably be using 2000 grit if I wanted to keep most

of the original paint but I'm only sanding where it's peeling.

Lol can you see my gas tank?

Here's a before and after shot to give you an idea

of how much of a difference it looks. Even though

some spots look rough, I think it looks better

than having peeling clear coat everywhere. I basically

just want a smooth surface for PlastiDip or ElastiWrap

(which I'll probably go with since more color options). 

Unfortunately, I only had enough to do the passenger

side and half of the roof of the car on that Tuesday haha.

However, on 10/25 I was able to find some time to start

sanding the hatch and driver side (stills need work) and

the whole front still needs to be started so maybe I can do

that tomorrow hopefully! If I do I'll definitely update this post

either then or when I get my parts! Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Today (11/2) I sanded down the rest of the car (and my hands hate me for it!). I'll probably go back and redo the hood since I was testing on it and didn't sand it as smooth as I could. Here are the pics!

I also got this rust converter that should turn the rust on my car into a black sandable primer which is nice. I sprayed it on various rust spots both minor and major to prevent spreading as a temporary fix.

Battery tray and passenger footwell