Project POS 24T

[Dave]

alrighty, as most of you know, I got a 240sx a little while ago to serve as a daily driver and track car. So, I decided I'd go ahead and make a thread to update as the car slowly comes together.
So far I have stripped out the vast majority of the interior (left the dash and some interior panels) and done a lot of cleaning. I tossed the old carpet cuz it looked and stank like hell and I can get a brand new, pre-molded one for $120, so I'll probably do that. Otherwise, I'm just waiting to sell the mkIII so that I'll have some money to play with and get this car on its way to GRM $2005 Challenge domination

[Mike]

$2005 challenge, but burning $120 on carpet? I'd do without that.

[Chris]

Dave is doing 2 budgets: one for personal additions to the car( like carpet that can be removed) and the budget for the $2005 challenge. This is bc hes still using it as a daily driver and needs some interior pieces.

[.RJ]

Dave is doing 2 budgets

These are not mutually exclusive.....

[Dave]

thanks Chris

I'm running a budget on normal shit just to get the car in the condition that I want it (carpet, regular tires, etc). Being that the majority of the mods for the Challenge would also be on the regular budget, there won't be a whole lot of conflict.
Essentially, anything that goes into the non-Challenge budget will not be in the car at the challenge. Therefore, there will be no carpet (or any other body panels for that matter I imagine) when this peice rolls down to FL.

[Mike]

so you're going to disassemble the car for the challenge?

[Dave]

I'm going to remove some parts. Like yours, the interior is quite easy to tear out, so I'll pull most of it, including a majority of the interior panels and speakers, as well as all but the driver seat. Therefore, any expenses made to improve these things will not be put toward the Challenge budget.

[Evan]

dont forget that the challenge includes a concourse.


sh0wkar!!!

[.RJ]

dont forget that the challenge includes a concourse.


sh0wkar!!!

Well at least I can help out with something!!!!

[Dave]

mission #1 accomplished with only a few events of worthy note. Pics and details to be provided tomorrow. Soon my brothers, very soon....

[Dave]

in reference to last night's post...
Rex and I drove to Annapolis last night to purchase a parts car which we will split. It has upgraded suspension (Rex gets that) and a manual tranny with a good spare engine, as well as other parts (I'll be getting that big stuff, we'll be sharing random bits). It was a really good deal and hopefully we'll be able to get most of our money back.
Our drive up was pretty much uneventful. We were a bit behind schedule, but that was a good thing to a point, since we didn't have to deal with traffic so much. We finally arrive at the rendezvous at about 8pm. Previous owner, Brian, as well as 5 of his redneck friends, were completely blitzed, so we knew we were in for it. Not only did he have it jacked up on his scissor jack with one wheel off, but he didn't even bother to turn it around so that we could back the car dolly up to him and make life easy. So, we went ahead and swapped the wheels over (he wouldn't agree to our price for his wheels) and tried to figure how we were gonna load it. We tried to push it out into the street behind the truck, but we soon discovered it is pretty hard to push a car when it appears that one of the calipers is locked up.
So, Brian calls one of his friend to bring his truck and tow it out into the street. 30 minutes later, he finally shows up. We get the truck into the street and loaded with not too much trouble. Meanwhile, Rex and I are having a very hard time concentrating, since Brian's incredibly hot girlfriend is now hovering around us.
We finally get on the road around 10:30 and everything was going smoothly. We had stopped and tightened down the straps, so we were pretty sure it wasn't gonna come off. Up on the interstate, we hit a merge lane (luckily almost zero traffic) and we hear scraping (mind you car had no muffler on it so it couldn't be that). Turns out that the jackhole who put on the driver's rear tire (that would be me) didn't tighten it all the way down. I just got the wheel on there so that I could drop the jack, and forgot to tighten them all the way down before we got going. End result, wheels is nowhere to be found, even after running back a mile behind the truck. Put the spare on, amongst large amounts of foul language, tightened everything down, and moved on.
Eventually we got it home and parked it in my driveway. I played with it some today, primariliy pulling panels for fiberglass molds. Soooo, without further ado....
interior yesterday

interior today

this morning

this afternoon

[Mike]

the dahkness is spreading!

[Dave]

figured I should give an update on what's been going on.
Rex and I swapped the shocks from the parts car onto his quite some time ago.
The driveshaft has been removed and is ready to go onto the hatch.
Transmission is almost completely off, there are two bolts at the very top that are extremely hard to get to and that is what is still holding the tranny on.
Today we took all of the calipers off of the parts car. I'm going to sandblast them and rebuild them and put them on the hatch as a set of fresh and new brakes and try to sell the set from the hatch to recoop some costs.
Today I also drained the hatch's radiator and filled it up with some of the radiator cleaner. I'll drive it a couple days with that in it (once the car is driveable), then put in fluid and be done with it.
I also gravity bled the brake system today, so there is fresh fluid everywhere on the car (except passenger rear where the bleeder valve is seized :evil: )

Things that still need to be done to get driveable:
Transfer brake and clutch pedals to hatch. These things are an absolute bitch to get to.
Swap of clutch master cylinder.
Remove tranny from coupe.
Remove tranny and driveshaft from hatch.
Install tranny and driveshaft on hatch.
Put exhaust on hatch. I have it, but don't want to take it off when doing swap, so it's just sitting under the car.

[Maengelito]

both you and henreh are the biggest masochists in the club. i love it.

[Feersty]

It shocks me that y'all have the capability to build a car. Do you have a Haynes manual that you are referencing>

[Dave]

actually we have a electronic copy of the Factory Service Manual

[Dave]

today Rex and I got the engine/tranny out of the donor car and were able to get the tranny off the engine, so it is ready to go into the car. Tomorrow is gonna be a big day hopefully!

[Chris]

guess I missed your last few posts! looking good so far Dave, I'll be there to help once I'm back in the burg.

Are things still looking possible for the $2005 Challenge? If so, is the plan to keep the engine fairly stock or boost it? I know you like keeping things quiet, so maybe you don't want to tell... :twisted:

[Dave]

got a lot done today
Fresh battery put in
Automatic driveshaft removed.
Auto tranny is almost ready to come off.
Removed brake and clutch pedals from donor car; still need to pull brake pedal off of the hatch to facilitate the swap.
Sandblasted and painted a set of calipers. They'll be getting rebuilt in the next couple days and going on the car this weekend.
Painted the center console/E-brake black. Looks REALLY good, but now I need to paint the dash and some other panels so that it matches.
I'll put up some pics in a few days so that you can see what is left of the parts car and how mine is looking. It's slowly getting there, but we got a lot done today, even though we still have a long way to go.


we also painted Rex's valve cover black with red lettering. It looks wicked hot

This car is still on par for being in the Challenge. I don't think I'll have any major problems getting it under the budget.

[ScottyB]

sounds awesome Dave, cant wait to see this thing together with Rex's. did you just use a rattle can on the interior bits? oh yeah, if you ever need your valve cover pimped out lemme know...i can whip up a decent rattle can flame job, right RJ? 8)