AZGhost623 Posted February 28, 2015 Report Share Posted February 28, 2015 Nothing was working for me, so reached out to a Z specialty company here in town, ztrix.com, and embarked on a quest that may bankrupt me, but in the end provide me something really unique, and quite awesome. Ztrix guys took me to their shop, which is filled full of all kinds of awesome shit... 240sx stuff, datsun stuff, bmw stuff, all kinds of neat stuff... hrmmm heres the fender molds, but I dont see the pieces... oh but wait... sweet, here is the gnose... lets pop this bad boy out of its mold! man it looks sweet! a little bit of patch work it looks like still is needed, but no big deal overall... alright alright... wheres the fenders... lets get them matched up to the nose so we can see what were dealing with here... damn that looks sweet! This is going to be epic! Lets do some testing fitting to see what it looks like! Damn that looks sweeeeet! They fit just right so far! Lets get the rear fenders cut out so we can get the rear quarters on and see what they look like... That should be high enough... but while doing the passenger side... disaster! The rocker panel near the quarter panel just disintegrated when cuting out the fender. Litterally chunks of car came off. I knew the passenger side rocker was bad, but didnt know how bad. So detour getting the rocker off today. Cut the rocker in half, and had to drill out all the spot welds. Ill never do that again hopefully... took me all day to do. all done. Already have the replacement part. Will be welding it in tomorrow. So while I was ripping this off, the ztrix guys were fabbing up the rear quarter on the other side. This is a template they will use to make a plug, which will become a mold. They will pour it, and then it will be all one piece... In case anyone is wondering, the wheels are vintage, three piece HRE-505's. 17x10 up front, and 17x13 in rear. Rear tires are 335/35/17 with a 9" lip So tomorrow, (Saturday 2/28/15) I'll be heading back to ztrix.com. Ill get the rocker welded in, and then we will get the front fenders and gnose bolted into place for its trip home. The rear quarters will probably take about a week. More to come..... 1 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted February 28, 2015 Report Share Posted February 28, 2015 Welcome! Lots of work ahead of you. Thanks for the pictures. Quote Link to comment
Slowpoke Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 Been following this on another forum. Can't wait to see it done. Going to keep it white? Quote Link to comment
ownTer Posted March 1, 2015 Report Share Posted March 1, 2015 Thanks for sharing this! I hope to see updates often. With tons of pics. Quote Link to comment
hobospyder Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Thanks for sharing this! I hope to see updates often. With tons of pics. this ^^^ Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Lots of prototyping took up our time so I wasnt able to get the nose on, but did test fit the fenders. They need to be re-worked some to get them to fit right. But here is what we did all day Saturday, up until about 11pm. Car had to come home with me out of the shop so its going to now be a while before any more updates. The body panels are all off and being sent off to the fiberglass guys to work the symmetry and shape, which this plug will make the mold, and then these get tossed out into the dumpster. 20-30 hours worth of work just to make a plug for the molds and then you just toss it.. madness! Onto the second side... which was the same process as above. My wife thinks this looks very "Porsche-ish" and mentioned those RWB kits. I have to agree. Also this kit doesnt look out of place at all. We followed the body lines, and everything looks great. Kinda hesitant at first, but everything looks fantastic even in rough shape, like it was meant to be! Currently, they measure 18" off the body to the furthest point out. It adds +8" additional off the stock factory lip. So now they need to be worked, and shaped so they are perfect symmetry. Once they have it complete, then they will make a mold off this plug and Ill head back to have it test fitted. The nose and fenders I worked on here and there, but they need some corrections as well so they will fixed too. All the hard stuff is pretty much out of the way now, so its just going to be a long days worth of work to get everything on. That will be about 2-3 weeks from now. See you then! Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Been following this on another forum. Can't wait to see it done. Going to keep it white? Maybe... it seems a lot of people go black on these cars when 'pimped' out (KuroZ, DariusHashabi, etc etc) so I may do something different. I know white is a color that is hard to hide imperfections which might be why people go black... Maybe a Mclaren Orange, or a magma red like the current 370z's, or a midnight blue... dunno yet. Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 dude, pink like barbie pink? LOL Quote Link to comment
hobospyder Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 like barbie pink? LOL maybe a shade darker but yes be that guy Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 be that guy LOL I think Ill pass.. Quote Link to comment
Phantom Posted March 11, 2015 Report Share Posted March 11, 2015 So, just out of curiosity did you check out the Reaction Research wide-body kits? Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 So, just out of curiosity did you check out the Reaction Research wide-body kits? Reaction Research is now Ztrix. We actually used his YZ fender as a base that wasnt nearly as wide as I needed. We then threw on another fender of his on top of it which kinda worked, but not really. So we chopped it up and remade it to be what we needed it to be. Quote Link to comment
fyanrudger Posted March 12, 2015 Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 I know white is a color that is hard to hide imperfections which might be why people go black... White actually hides a lot more than black. Car looks pretty damn awesome...keep it up. Did you drive it home without a rocker or get it towed? Everyone talks about the rockers being structural, so i'd be a bit weary cruising around. Quote Link to comment
INDY510 Posted March 12, 2015 Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 It looks awesome!! .. and it kinda looks like an IMSA race Z, from the back... :cool: .. how are you going to make them symmetrical on both sides? I need to make my 510 bubble flares a few inches wider someday, but not sure how to make them all match perfectly. Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 White actually hides a lot more than black. Car looks pretty damn awesome...keep it up. Did you drive it home without a rocker or get it towed? Everyone talks about the rockers being structural, so i'd be a bit weary cruising around. I towed it to the shop on a flat bed trailer since its kinda undriveable with the big tires on the rear prior to the fender cut. Drilled out all the spot welds, and punched the new piece, and spot welded it back into place. It definitely is an integral part of the car. It fixed a minor door issue I had once the part was replaced. Just thought it was a weird door issue.... It looks awesome!! .. and it kinda looks like an IMSA race Z, from the back... :cool: .. how are you going to make them symmetrical on both sides? I need to make my 510 bubble flares a few inches wider someday, but not sure how to make them all match perfectly. Thanks man! Its a lot of measuring and more measuring plus some geometry work. Just getting it mounted up on the car, and looking at it from the front, sides, and rear also helps a lot in looking at the symmetry of the two parts. We did make some small templates on some cardboard sheets, that we were able to flip on the other side to get the right depth correct and shape of the wheel well. There is a cool link on a IMSA 240Z restoration back in 2014. Looked at that page quite a bit when making the shape to come up with someone unique of our own. In particular the rear flare covers the entire wheel. I kinda dig the tappered look on the rear like the original datsun works flares had, so thats what we went with when coming up with this design instead of the entire wheel being enclosed. The RWB Porsche stuff was also an inspiration when coming up with the design as well. http://www.carbuildindex.com/34701/imsa-gtu-datsun-240-z-restoration/ 1 Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Shape is down. Need to work on the gas tank area. A little bit of more work, and then Ill have the final piece that will go on the car. 1 Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Fresh meat from tirerack. Never used them before, but they were the most affordable, and had the best selection of tires and quickest turn around time. Nobody in town had anything this large, without going special order.So tirerack drop shipped the tires to Firestone out by me. They then called me up told me they had them, and I dropped my wheels off tonight. They were all kinda in awe on how big these tires were, and ot gf course... they asked what car was ioing on? Provided them the pictures, and they couldnt believe it was going on a Datsun. I showed them a picture of an instagram follower I have who is also running 345x40, but in an 18. I think their heads blew up at a that point haha toyo proxes TQ - street/drag radial 345x40x17 Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 Here they be... Installing on Saturday. Rear Quarter panels, Front Fenders, and GNOSE. 2 Quote Link to comment
Slowpoke Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 Those look awsome! Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Saturday work: Lots of prep work on the rear quarter fenders. Cut the top fender away showing the inner fender. Sawzall'd the inner fender into 1" widths and cleaned up the metal for welding. Interior removed/opened up to ensure nothing caught on fire and could be watched with a water bottle just in case to put out any flare ups. The driver side has an antenna line that runs over the hump. I deleted it out. The passenger side has a cable harness. Disconnected it under the passenger seat, and pulled it out through the body to the rear of the car. We tied a string onto is, so it could be easily pulled/fished back into the car after everything was welded up. The interior of my car is trashed, but it gives some good access to the inner fender to do some body sealer and/or some insulation. John at Ztrix did the welding, looking good for someone who claims to be an amateur welder! :) John rounded down the metal pieces because it was pretty sharp after we wiggled the tabs and they broke off. This way anyone working under the fender might not accidentally cut themselves. Traced the outline of the new quarter panel with a marker, and then used some wicked SEM epoxy on it to seal it to the car (30$ per 7oz bottle). It has a 90 minute cure time, so it gives time to work with the part for fitment. Used dry wall screws to screw into the panel and into the car to hold it into place while it cured. When it cures, its hard as a rock... serious industrial grade stuff! Fitted the tires, and trimmed as necessary. Took it for a short drive around the block, making it squat to see if anything rubbed, and trimmed as necessary again. That was pretty much the day which seems like simple tasks, but the prep work takes forever! I drove home on surface streets, hitting potholes and other things on purpose just to make sure if it was going to rub somewhere it could be trimmed. That was Saturdays work... 7 am until about 5-ish. Had to be home before dark, because I have no headlights! ============================ Sunday Work: Sunday was getting the front fenders rough fitted, and the imsa nose fitted. Lots of trimming work. This was the first time John ever cast this mold, so we were learning a lot of of these as to what needed to get done. Lots more measuring drilling holes, and trimming. The hardest part was lining up the fender headlight buckets to the gnose buckets and getting the headlight centered. That took A LOT of time figuring out how that was going to work. The front tires didnt work. With the adpater on it, it didnt fit and hit the corners. We felt it best to not trim the fenders as it would ruin the look. So I went back to my 16x8 tires as a temp solution. Ill get the front hubs converted to 5 lug hubs so that will remove the 2" adapter I have up under there and will suck the wheel in. It will then be right where it needs to be. Ill get some better pictures where the body doesnt blend into the floor so much later this week. Its a 20ft beauty queen right now. Lots of work still needs to be done. Im going to start getting pricing from a body/paint shop to see what its going run as well as getting a wrap done inlieu of paint. If anyone knows of a good place in greater Phoenix Area let me know. As far as wrap material goes, anyone who could ship me stuff and/or install is fine too. Big thanks to John Washington at Ztrix.com for all the help and assistance. This entire kit will be for sale up on his website once he gets it updated. Im sure it will include a lot pictures from this build as well as more that I didnt include up here. Quote Link to comment
petercscherer Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 I'm not usually a fan of flares or body-mods to Zs... But this is amazing! Reminds me so much of Porsche race cars of the era! Love the progress and I look forward to more updates! ~Peter Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted March 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 I'm not usually a fan of flares or body-mods to Zs... But this is amazing! Reminds me so much of Porsche race cars of the era! Love the progress and I look forward to more updates! ~Peter Before we put the front on, my wife also thought it looked very 'Porsche-ish" as well in the rear. Im super happy how this all turned out so far. I still have a lot of minor details and things to take care of. 1 Quote Link to comment
AZGhost623 Posted August 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 Just a small update... Got the car stripped down this weekend to the metal. So many layers of paint, bondo, and paint again. I am not even joking when I say the hood had atleast 1/4" of bondo on it. The car has to be atleast 5lbs lighter now. The hood took 5 hours alone just to get it to the metal using a pro-grade 3M Stripper wheel. I have quite a bit more work to do with prep before I cant paint it, but its going to be soon... 1 Quote Link to comment
Phantom Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Dang - it looks like it was in a hail storm! Quote Link to comment
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