The Crusty Impulse Buy — 1986 Nissan 300zx Z31 3.0l v6

Are you turning the whole car white? I'm currently restoring a 76 midget, it's going to be repainted from its very very dirty and faded portly resprayed at some point white, to Tacoma super white.

 

Eventually. But I just painted the engine bay for now because the exterior paint isn’t a priority.

I sprayed single stage because base cost clear coat is a royal pain in the ass to finish properly. I did base coat clear coat on my Mercedes rear end, and the Tacoma hood and roof and it’s difficult. I opted for single stage here because it’s cheaper and way easier to spray.

 

I'm starting with my engine bay in the midget as well, easier to hide mistakes there. I'm doing full three stage, or at least going to attempt to.

 

The interior is as velvet as they get.

 

Good luck. If I have to paint another car entirely next time in base coat clear coat I’d take it to Maaco or something. Single stage is ez to spray, and truth be told this car isn’t valuable enough for a show quality paint job.

 

That steering wheel cover though. Gotta replace it with crush red velvet too

 

I added that. The leather was all crusty and nasty from 240,000 miles.

 

The way I see it, if I balls it up bad enough to need to be redone again, I'll take it to a proper shop. But considering I got it for the same price you got yours, I'll take a crack at it myself just for the sake of trying.

 

The day I dragged my $500 project home... I was actually looking at a 240z in very rough shape for a grand more if this fell through.

 

When’s the last time it ran?

 

Supposedly about 30 years ago. I believe it since two of the valve springs didn't "spring" when they were removed. I'm picking up the rebuilt engine on Monday. After 6 months of work, I've finally gotten to the point of putting bits back on instead of taking them off. It's not going to be a competition show car, it'll be a summer cruiser when done so I'm not nitpicking every little thing.

I try and do as much work on it myself as I can, but the engine has been the one thing I took somewhere. I don't have the machinery or precision tools to bore it .30 over and set the crank end play and such.

 

I too have an old car. sitting in a Sears Kit garage from 20 years before the car was even made...

 

I'm jealous

 

My son and I on the cover of Datsun Roadster Newsletter 1991. The two of us reading the newsletter in front of his '92 240SX (about 400,000 miles on it).

 

Neat!

 

The long awaited update... it runs.

https://youtu.be/T1HdNiehrDw

The car has been sitting dead in my driveway collecting dust for nearly two years.
(In that time I decided the best remedy to one broken car is two broken cars)

In late 2020, I did 90% of the restoration on the car including pulling the engine, painting, suspension, interior, etc. and then stalled out after I realized the car was not getting spark.

I threw everything I had at it. I swapped the engine wiring harness and ECU three times, two distributors, a coil, an igniter, etc. to no avail. I gave up, and let it sit until I could find the time and motivation to work on it again. I'd work on it on and off again over those two years but never made any progress until today.

In a last ditch effort before I towed the car across three states to someone who I knew could fix it, I gave it one more shot. I overlooked the one thing I was sure wouldn't be the problem, the wiring for the igniter on the ignition system. It was one crossed wire causing it to not have spark. I fixed the wires, cranked the engine, and it started on the first try.

I still have some more work to do like finish the suspension and put the interior back together, but for now - it runs. For better or for worse.

 

Hell yeah! So cool to see this updated!

 

It lives!!