'72 Shakotan Z RB20DET

[Rustbucket]

use left hand drill bits :huh:?

 

I could try, but drilling it further is such a cunt. It has an easy-out snapped off inside it.

[Rustbucket]

This cute little guy was waiting for me when I arrived home from work this evening. Going to head to the shop on Sunday and do some work to 'er.

 

 

Just a dinky little 18" core.

[Rustbucket]

Spent a couple hours at the shop yesterday morning. Had a coffee or two and rigged up my intercooler among other little things. These pictures really put this car in to perspective. That core is only 23'' wide from inlet to outlet, 6'' deep and it takes up most of the front support!

 

 

 

 

 

Welded the ends of some hardlines from bullshit I deleted from my motor, and also on my fuel tank.

 

 

Went to the post office after work today and picked up all the Nissan goodies for my motor.

 

[Rustbucket]

Another box of fun stuff this evening! H4 headlamps, sending unit and associated parts, as well as a really shiny door mirror.

 

[Rustbucket]

Timing belt, tensioner, and idler got done last night. Also had a friend come by and measure up my transmission to make a spacer for my short shifter. Killed some time making my manifold look not quite as shitty with all the heat shield brackets cut off it.

 

 

[Rustbucket]

Started to throw some panels at my car this evening so I could align the hood to see how the pins could work for me.

 

 

Cut half the weight of the hood out of it, because it doesn't really need to be all that sturdy anymore.

 

 

I'd forgotten what it looked like with a front end on it...

 

 

 

Obviously they'll sit a lot lower. I just left it for the night because it was getting late.

 

 

Distribution block/ proportioning valve, and tee came in the mail with my jegs order. Those were the last pieces I needed to complete my brake set-up, so I used some twine to measure out how long I need to make my braided lines for the rear.

 

 

Also bought one of the last components to my fuel system.

 

 

Will get cracking on both in these coming weeks.

[Ira210]

Dude...that is bad ass!! Throw on the suspension and wheels!!

[DOnatello]

great project man, I like how your doing things. Be careful with that welded diff, I can already see a crack in one of the welds. Maybe you could break out the 211 and pour some wire on her!!!

[Rustbucket]

Naww, there's no cracking in that thing! It was all TIG'ed way tougher than the 211 could ever get in there. Finished with all the hood pin bullshit tonight, and started looking at the engine bay side of my brake lines. Should be incredibly straight forward.

 

 

 

 

[DOnatello]

I think I will let the picture speak for itself.

 

 

Just Because GTAW looks cool doesnt mean it is suited for all applications. Yes your Miller 211 would work fine for this. It would have worked better than the GTAW. If you really want to weld it properly your going to need to gouge out those TIG welds and come back in with a 6010 root pass with 3/32" rods in SMAW, then 2 cover passes with some 7018 in 3/32". Make sure you wire brush and chip the slag extremely well in between passes to prevent contamination. Im afraid if you run this diff as is, the rest of those welds are gonna break and you will end up ruining your ring and pinion gears. The other welds cracked because of heat stress, I cant imagine how easily the others are going to crack. Imagine comign hard around a corner with the diff locked in place, then suddenly it letting lose!!! I hope you put a roll cage in that beast!

 

 

[Rustbucket]

Just Because GTAW looks cool doesnt mean it is suited for all applications. Yes your Miller 211 would work fine for this. It would have worked better than the GTAW. If you really want to weld it properly your going to need to gouge out those TIG welds and come back in with a 6010 root pass with 3/32" rods in SMAW, then 2 cover passes with some 7018 in 3/32". Make sure you wire brush and chip the slag extremely well in between passes to prevent contamination. Im afraid if you run this diff as is, the rest of those welds are gonna break and you will end up ruining your ring and pinion gears. The other welds cracked because of heat stress, I cant imagine how easily the others are going to crack. Imagine comign hard around a corner with the diff locked in place, then suddenly it letting lose!!! I hope you put a roll cage in that beast!

 

I stand corrected, sir. That being said, I've had countless friends run diffs welded a similar way and had them survive clutch kicks from a 400whp SR. This makes me sort of want to look in to an LSD replacement for the R180.

[Rustbucket]

So, I made up a bracket to keep my brake block nice and tight to the inner fender, in a good spot to keep all the lines really simple and straight forward.

 

 

 

Only four hard-lines in the whole brake system, including the two from the master to the distribution block. I'm making good use of stainless braided lines wherever I can.

 

Also started on the harness bar this evening. Started cutting up some fancy stuff.

 

 

Wedged the length in the hatch to see what my options were like for mounting the eye bolts for the harness'. Because of the design and length of the harness and how tiny these little cars are, it's best for me to loop the harness back towards the seat and down to the eye bolt just behind the seat on the rear deck. It loops the bar simply to keep the harness at the proper angle to the seat.

 

 

 

Hopefully going to finish welding the plates on either end of the bar this Sunday, and have it powder coated next week.

[Rustbucket]

Made up my final rear lines at work this morning. Brought in 25ft. of stainless braided line, a big pack of crush inserts, and a bunch of metric fittings, so that should take care of my front brakes and clutch line while I'm at it.

 

 

Then went by JRP after work and bought a rad and fans so I can get to mocking up my motor and mounting the rad in a half decent spot.

 

 

Look for another update Sunday, or Monday night.

[Rustbucket]

If you're looking for other cool things to read, one of my best friends is currently nearing completion of his gangster-ass 1JZ Cefiro build. Well worth the read, as he's put a ton of effort in to making that car awesome.

 

http://zilvia.net/f/chat/423231-build-where-most-cars-arent-cool-1jz-cefiro.html

[Rustbucket]

So, I went to the shop with serious intentions this afternoon...

 

 

Got down and dirty with the Civic rad, to make sure it wouldn't hang to low while still clearing the hood. Roger that.

 

 

 

Cut out a big piece of the old core support.

 

 

 

New piece. Good for welding brackets to, and a large piece of plate because it's going to be my main jacking point later on.

 

 

Rad brackets.

 

 

 

Like butter. Sits about a half inch lower than this, I just have to step the holes a little further.

 

 

Threw these in real quick.

 

 

My rear brake lines from the passenger side, to the drivers side.

 

 

 

 

 

Just need to get some nice clips to hold the lines and prevent them from rubbing through.

 

[Rustbucket]

Finished making that brace/ loop bar for my harness' this evening. Pretty stoked with the outcome; it was nice welding plate for once. Began by beveling that bar that I'd cut to length the other night.

 

 

Had tacked the two pieces of plates to the strut towers to maintain the angle that they would need to sit on for the bar to bolt in nicely. Then proceeded to bevel the bar, and test fit accordingly, until I could tack it on.

 

 

Cut the tacks of the plate to the tower, and welded it on the bench.

 

 

Made up some caps for the ends.

 

 

 

All finished, and ready for sandblasting and powdercoat.

 

[Rustbucket]

So, I got an email this morning confirming my wheels had arrived at Adam's place in Japan. He sent me a quick photo of what I believe to be the 9.5J with a -19 offset. Which would be sweet, because my rears are 15x10J -25.

 

 

In the past few weeks I've got a decent amount of behind the scenes shit all tidied up.

 

Pieced together a few more things for my fuel system.

 

 

Shaved the breathers on the valve covers to accommodate the new catch can.

 

 

Sectioned my strut tubes 2 1/2" to allow for maximum low. Once I had mocked them up the first time I was really unhappy with how long they were - problem solved.

 

 

Also modified the camber plates a tad, just to allow as much articulation as possible.

 

 

Cleaned up the bay, and finished painting/ clearing everything.

 

 

 

Got my hardlines bent up in the bay.

 

 

Had this sitting off to the side, assembled and waiting to go in.

 

 

Got most of the front end stuff tied up tonight, hung my doors, and mocked up flares once again for motivation.

 

 

[INDY510]

.

Daaammnn ...... :cool: ...... this is winning!!! ...... .. very nice work,, I can't wait to see more

[Rustbucket]

Neglected to bring a camera this evening, but took a shitty cell phone photo anyways. Motor and tranny went in as a combo this evening. Only things missing in the bay are the catch can and FPR which remain mostly hidden anyways. Intake piping and rad hoses obviously aren't there either.

 

[ComicArtist]

Intake manifold is badass. This build is inspiring. I've wanted to go RB20 for a long time, I think I'm actually going to do it now. Are you planning on using the Wiring Specialties harness or make your own?

[Rustbucket]

.

Daaammnn ...... :cool: ...... this is winning!!! ...... .. very nice work,, I can't wait to see more

 

Thank-you!

 

Intake manifold is badass. This build is inspiring. I've wanted to go RB20 for a long time, I think I'm actually going to do it now. Are you planning on using the Wiring Specialties harness or make your own?

 

Thanks, brother. Just gonna make my own harness. There's not a great deal of wiring in the original car, so there's quite few things that need to be messed around with from the Skyline harness to the Datsun. That, and I've got a wiring guru who's spent the better part of a decade working on silly Nissans; Brendy is gonna be my saviour.

[Rustbucket]

JP came and picked up my harness bar tonight, so that he can make it sparkly to match my steering wheel. I also remembered my camera this evening, so I took some pictures of shit I got done tonight.

 

First off, here's a less fuzzy photo of the bay.

 

 

 

 

Shit sits nice and low. Weight is way down.

 

 

Rad clearance.

 

 

Exhaust side.

 

 

And, intake side.

 

 

Throttle pulley comes mighty close, but still functions as it should.

 

 

I had mentioned I sectioned my strut tubes the other night so that I could go as low as I wanted to. Here's the front suspension, with no compression, just hanging out. Awesome, right?

 

 

Decided to make my front fenders tire-friendly. All this is hidden beneath the flare. Just figured I should make it a little nicer.

 

 

 

 

So, yeah. That's how she's sitting right now. I'd like to get intake piping, rad hoses, exhaust, and some other engine bay things all done shortly. Then I'll go back to some lame jobs. Just trying to keep it lighthearted lately.

 

[Alex Datsun]

This is so frikkin awesome.....its like frikkin awesome....keep it up

[Rustbucket]

This is so frikkin awesome.....its like frikkin awesome....keep it up

 

Haha, thanks! No stoppin' 'til she's done, now.

[Dorimoto]