Tweet
I've had my car for a little over a year now, and made enough progress(and compiled enough pictures) that I thought it warranted a build thread.
So here we go, the car a 1986 300ZX Z31 Turbo two seater (SWB)
This was moments after signing the papers over to me.
Back a my place.
Now that I look back it wasn't the best looking Z, but then again I picked up a turbo model with only 162,048 miles on the ODO for only $1,800.
The heart, the VG30ET. A single cam, non-intercoolered V6 turbo.
Quick shot of the interior.
The car remained this way for about a year. It was fun car with your typical Z31 problems such no A/C, leaky power steering, and headlights that didn't really work that well. No air conditioning in Florida in the summer was a bad idea, at least I had T-tops to help me out. I didn't do any modification other than a new power transistor unit. Other than that it was basic maintenance mostly sorting out electrical gremlins. In the mean time I had been saving up for quite some time just patiently waiting. The fall of last year, I started college and things really went on the back burner as I did work and just kept saving. Around came the new year, 2013 was the year of maintenance, saving, and waiting 2014 things began to change.
A friend of mine near me who's owns a few Z31's told me he had a Kouki bumper and headlights that he didn't want since he prefers Zenki's and Chuki's. I asked him how much he wanted for them, he replied "You can have them for free, I like the older styling more anyways." And thus began my Kouki conversion.
Pretty damn good score for free. This stuff usually goes about $150-250 depending on how much of it you get at once.
Removed the bumper in anticipation of installation of the hood the day prior to meeting with another Z owner to trade my Zenki hood for a Kouki one.
I drove about an hour south of my place to meet up with another Z31 owner who wanted to trade my Zenki/Chuki hood for his spare Kouki hood. It worked out for both of use because I got the Kouki hood I needed to complete my conversion as well as him being able to replace his girlfriend's Z's hood which had bullet holes in it.(which I have no idea how that happened.)
We put the hood on quickly(well not really) and I drove back to my place with it flopping around on the highway and being misaligned. The looks people gave me driving with no bumper or headlights were interesting to say the least.
Some minor wiring for the headlights to work since the Zenki and Kouki use different style harnesses.
One last fill up before heading off to paint.
That same friend that gave me the Kouki conversion for free is older Z31 guy who likes helping other Z31 owners and often gives out free parts. He also said he'd paint my car for free too, all I had to do was buy the paint and bring it to him. Talk about getting a deal.
Over 12 hours of prep and getting rid of any dents in the body and she was ready for her first coat of primer.
A long time ago, I saw a magazine feature of a midnight purple Z31 in Japan that I fell in love with. After seeing it I said that I would have a Z close to this color.
At first I thought the purple was a little too bright....
Then we sprayed the clear coat on and things darkened up pretty nicely.
I couldn't be any happier with the results, espeicaly when I got all the work done for free. I only ended up paying about $350 for the all the materials including paint, primer, clear and all the other miscellaneous bits.
The next day when I saw for the fist time in natural light, I couldn't believe this was my car. (Excuse the poor bumper fitment, I wasn't able to get the upper bumper mount till a few weeks later.)
After the Z was painted, another month went by without much change to the car. I just kept saving and waiting.
And man did that waiting pay off.
I ordered a set of Stance Super Sport coilovers for the Z31 with 9k and 7k spring rates. It was time to get rid of this blow shitty suspension. The woman at the campus mail center was not happy when I came to pick up this. Must have been mad to move this big ass package. 
I also think she was annoyed by how many packages I got in one week too, I was in there so much the staff didn't even ask for my student ID when I walked in. They just handed me my packages. Some other items I picked up; Intake manifold spacer, Apexi Auto Timer turbo timer, Z31 greddy turbo timer harness, EGR delete plate, Idle air control delete, and AAR delete block off plates, new door handles, and new A/C control unit.
The coilovers in all their glory.
Installing coilovers on the Z31 are not as simple as more modern chassis's, a threaded adapter has to be welded onto the old spindles if you want to do it properly. The same friend I traded my hood to is a fabricator and gave me a good price on all of this as well as painted them for me too for only $100. Quality work for good prices.
And now they're ready for install.
Went to go install the coilovers, the rears went on without any issues, but ran into an issue with the fronts. The hideous wheels my Z came with where such a high offset they didn't clear the fatter coilovers strut body. Had to borrow my friend's wheels for the front. These were his rear drift spares that were down to the belts and unbalanced, his words "Do NOT drive in the rain, you will crash." that felt very reassuring. Another Z31 friend heard of my dilemma and gave me the hook up on his old wheels for free.
He ended up giving me his old American Racing steelies. 15x7 0 offset. I'm not a fan of steelies or wheels smaller than 16, but they were free and I kinda needed them drive the car around so I couldn't complain. At least they were fully polished with plastidipped centers.
So this is how the Z sits with the those tiny 15's on there right now. Much better than other wheels I had on it.
Right now it's back to the saving and waiting period, but come this summer a lot is planned for this car. This includes but is not limited to:
And that's my Z31 from the day I purchased it to how it sits now.
So here we go, the car a 1986 300ZX Z31 Turbo two seater (SWB)
This was moments after signing the papers over to me.
Back a my place.
Now that I look back it wasn't the best looking Z, but then again I picked up a turbo model with only 162,048 miles on the ODO for only $1,800.
The heart, the VG30ET. A single cam, non-intercoolered V6 turbo.
Quick shot of the interior.
The car remained this way for about a year. It was fun car with your typical Z31 problems such no A/C, leaky power steering, and headlights that didn't really work that well. No air conditioning in Florida in the summer was a bad idea, at least I had T-tops to help me out. I didn't do any modification other than a new power transistor unit. Other than that it was basic maintenance mostly sorting out electrical gremlins. In the mean time I had been saving up for quite some time just patiently waiting. The fall of last year, I started college and things really went on the back burner as I did work and just kept saving. Around came the new year, 2013 was the year of maintenance, saving, and waiting 2014 things began to change.
A friend of mine near me who's owns a few Z31's told me he had a Kouki bumper and headlights that he didn't want since he prefers Zenki's and Chuki's. I asked him how much he wanted for them, he replied "You can have them for free, I like the older styling more anyways." And thus began my Kouki conversion.
Pretty damn good score for free. This stuff usually goes about $150-250 depending on how much of it you get at once.
Removed the bumper in anticipation of installation of the hood the day prior to meeting with another Z owner to trade my Zenki hood for a Kouki one.
I drove about an hour south of my place to meet up with another Z31 owner who wanted to trade my Zenki/Chuki hood for his spare Kouki hood. It worked out for both of use because I got the Kouki hood I needed to complete my conversion as well as him being able to replace his girlfriend's Z's hood which had bullet holes in it.(which I have no idea how that happened.)
We put the hood on quickly(well not really) and I drove back to my place with it flopping around on the highway and being misaligned. The looks people gave me driving with no bumper or headlights were interesting to say the least.
Some minor wiring for the headlights to work since the Zenki and Kouki use different style harnesses.
One last fill up before heading off to paint.
That same friend that gave me the Kouki conversion for free is older Z31 guy who likes helping other Z31 owners and often gives out free parts. He also said he'd paint my car for free too, all I had to do was buy the paint and bring it to him. Talk about getting a deal.
Over 12 hours of prep and getting rid of any dents in the body and she was ready for her first coat of primer.
A long time ago, I saw a magazine feature of a midnight purple Z31 in Japan that I fell in love with. After seeing it I said that I would have a Z close to this color.
At first I thought the purple was a little too bright....
Then we sprayed the clear coat on and things darkened up pretty nicely.
I couldn't be any happier with the results, espeicaly when I got all the work done for free. I only ended up paying about $350 for the all the materials including paint, primer, clear and all the other miscellaneous bits.
The next day when I saw for the fist time in natural light, I couldn't believe this was my car. (Excuse the poor bumper fitment, I wasn't able to get the upper bumper mount till a few weeks later.)
After the Z was painted, another month went by without much change to the car. I just kept saving and waiting.
And man did that waiting pay off.
I ordered a set of Stance Super Sport coilovers for the Z31 with 9k and 7k spring rates. It was time to get rid of this blow shitty suspension. The woman at the campus mail center was not happy when I came to pick up this. Must have been mad to move this big ass package. I also think she was annoyed by how many packages I got in one week too, I was in there so much the staff didn't even ask for my student ID when I walked in. They just handed me my packages. Some other items I picked up; Intake manifold spacer, Apexi Auto Timer turbo timer, Z31 greddy turbo timer harness, EGR delete plate, Idle air control delete, and AAR delete block off plates, new door handles, and new A/C control unit.
The coilovers in all their glory.
Installing coilovers on the Z31 are not as simple as more modern chassis's, a threaded adapter has to be welded onto the old spindles if you want to do it properly. The same friend I traded my hood to is a fabricator and gave me a good price on all of this as well as painted them for me too for only $100. Quality work for good prices.
And now they're ready for install.
Went to go install the coilovers, the rears went on without any issues, but ran into an issue with the fronts. The hideous wheels my Z came with where such a high offset they didn't clear the fatter coilovers strut body. Had to borrow my friend's wheels for the front. These were his rear drift spares that were down to the belts and unbalanced, his words "Do NOT drive in the rain, you will crash." that felt very reassuring. Another Z31 friend heard of my dilemma and gave me the hook up on his old wheels for free.
He ended up giving me his old American Racing steelies. 15x7 0 offset. I'm not a fan of steelies or wheels smaller than 16, but they were free and I kinda needed them drive the car around so I couldn't complain. At least they were fully polished with plastidipped centers.
So this is how the Z sits with the those tiny 15's on there right now. Much better than other wheels I had on it.
Right now it's back to the saving and waiting period, but come this summer a lot is planned for this car. This includes but is not limited to:
- VG33
- Turbo relocation
- Holset HX35 or T3/T4 hybrid turbo
- 440 or 480CC injectors
- Nistune
- Z32 300ZX transmission conversion
- All new polyurethane bushings and engine and transmission mounts
- New bigger wheels that are not steelies.
And that's my Z31 from the day I purchased it to how it sits now.
Comment