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My name is Kyle Hausmann, and im 21, from Michigan originally, but over the last 3.5 years I've been bouncing around. mostly Colorado for the winters, but I spent a summer in Wisconsin with a good friend also. My occupation currently is a Chrysler auto tech, at the dealership in my town.
Ive been building motorcycles and tinkering since I was like 13, and my dad and brother got me into automotive stuff. Ive built 2 motorcycles pretty much from frame up, minus rebuilding the engines. But now after messing around with my Subaru Wrx, putting airride, and other bolt on parts on it. Along with fixing all the dents and painting it Light Aqua, I decided that it was a good time to start building a car from the ground up. (or so I thought)
So I set out on a quest to find my 280z back in January, while I was still in Colorado. Pretty much just searched craigslist every other day to see if any were showing up in the Chicago area. I found multiple project cars that seemed like a good starting point, but alittle too much money. I didn't have much luck over that period of time, mostly because if I did find anything, I couldn't act on it until may when I got back from the mountains.
But shortly after I moved back home for the summer, I found an ad on criaglist for the Datsun I own now. 3k and it ran and drove fine, with some rust. within 24hrs of the car being posted, my brother and I drove the 3 hours to get it with a trailer, just incase it actually didn't run.
Once I got it home I raged it around to friends houses and back for the next few weeks waiting to clean out my dads shop enough to squeeze it in between the some odd 15 motorcycles we have. but eventually I got it in there. and then the fun began.
now I will show pictures of the progress so far. and come back to what I plan to accomplish with the build after.
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This picture of the roof shows the 2nd most difficult part of the build. It had dents about 2 inches deep throughout the whole roof like something had been dropped on it. I have tried my hardest to hammer them out and smooth it out with filler, but I wont really know how ive done until I get a good coat of primer.
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then I started spending all my money.
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Then with all the research I put into finding which struts I needed they didn't fit anyways. so I had to do this... which as of 9/28/16 I have one side complete and the other should be done this weekend.
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this is clearance when the strut is fully compressed. I believe it will set the frame rails on the asphalt, or atleast I hope so.
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So... The car is still in progress. and I know technically I ruined the car about as bad as a rollover accident could. but I think in the end it will be 1, much more rigid than original. and 2, different? Looking back I probably should have just put coilovers on the car, but I didn't see any fun in that. or I probably could have bought different air struts, but I also couldn't return these, so that left me without the funds to source something else.
Ive already learned a lot about welding, and I cannot wait to start welding the cage in. I should have the front done this weekend. and the rear should only require cutting the top off the strut tower and replacing it with a wider 1/4 in steel plate. once that is done hopefully I should be able to roll it around again.
once the suspension is in place and bolted back together. I have to replace all the brake and fuel lines, as they were sacrificed when I was taking off the suspension. Also bought a fuel cell, that I will be making a cage that drops through the trunk for.
the exterior body work is almost complete, with just the antenna hole and fuel door too weld shut, and a handful of small imperfections to smooth out. Then I can start prepping for paint.
I wanted to go with something darker in color because I will be creating a full aero kit, that will be all black, and for some reason I don't want a large contrast between the aero and body paint. So I went with the color "Mahogany Metallic Brown"
The underside of the car is unfortunately not in great shape. the passenger side frame rail is almost entirely gone up to the tension rod mounting point. I was going to address this before continuing on with the suspension build and body paint. but I realized that I did not have the right set up to do the work properly. I plan to do an engine swap (rb25) and I decided I would gut the car again, this time with drivetrain removal, and get it on a rotisserie. one day it will be a rust free car, but at this time I will just be fixing the few small spots where the floor pan has rusted out.
That's where she sits so far. the plan is to get the car rolling, possibly running, and painted before nov 1st, when I leave for CO again.
Ive been building motorcycles and tinkering since I was like 13, and my dad and brother got me into automotive stuff. Ive built 2 motorcycles pretty much from frame up, minus rebuilding the engines. But now after messing around with my Subaru Wrx, putting airride, and other bolt on parts on it. Along with fixing all the dents and painting it Light Aqua, I decided that it was a good time to start building a car from the ground up. (or so I thought)
So I set out on a quest to find my 280z back in January, while I was still in Colorado. Pretty much just searched craigslist every other day to see if any were showing up in the Chicago area. I found multiple project cars that seemed like a good starting point, but alittle too much money. I didn't have much luck over that period of time, mostly because if I did find anything, I couldn't act on it until may when I got back from the mountains.
But shortly after I moved back home for the summer, I found an ad on criaglist for the Datsun I own now. 3k and it ran and drove fine, with some rust. within 24hrs of the car being posted, my brother and I drove the 3 hours to get it with a trailer, just incase it actually didn't run.
Once I got it home I raged it around to friends houses and back for the next few weeks waiting to clean out my dads shop enough to squeeze it in between the some odd 15 motorcycles we have. but eventually I got it in there. and then the fun began.
now I will show pictures of the progress so far. and come back to what I plan to accomplish with the build after.
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[/IMG][IMG]
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[/IMG]This picture of the roof shows the 2nd most difficult part of the build. It had dents about 2 inches deep throughout the whole roof like something had been dropped on it. I have tried my hardest to hammer them out and smooth it out with filler, but I wont really know how ive done until I get a good coat of primer.
[IMG]
[/IMG]then I started spending all my money.
[IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG]Then with all the research I put into finding which struts I needed they didn't fit anyways. so I had to do this... which as of 9/28/16 I have one side complete and the other should be done this weekend.
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[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
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[/IMG]this is clearance when the strut is fully compressed. I believe it will set the frame rails on the asphalt, or atleast I hope so.
[IMG]
[/IMG]So... The car is still in progress. and I know technically I ruined the car about as bad as a rollover accident could. but I think in the end it will be 1, much more rigid than original. and 2, different? Looking back I probably should have just put coilovers on the car, but I didn't see any fun in that. or I probably could have bought different air struts, but I also couldn't return these, so that left me without the funds to source something else.
Ive already learned a lot about welding, and I cannot wait to start welding the cage in. I should have the front done this weekend. and the rear should only require cutting the top off the strut tower and replacing it with a wider 1/4 in steel plate. once that is done hopefully I should be able to roll it around again.
once the suspension is in place and bolted back together. I have to replace all the brake and fuel lines, as they were sacrificed when I was taking off the suspension. Also bought a fuel cell, that I will be making a cage that drops through the trunk for.
the exterior body work is almost complete, with just the antenna hole and fuel door too weld shut, and a handful of small imperfections to smooth out. Then I can start prepping for paint.
I wanted to go with something darker in color because I will be creating a full aero kit, that will be all black, and for some reason I don't want a large contrast between the aero and body paint. So I went with the color "Mahogany Metallic Brown"
The underside of the car is unfortunately not in great shape. the passenger side frame rail is almost entirely gone up to the tension rod mounting point. I was going to address this before continuing on with the suspension build and body paint. but I realized that I did not have the right set up to do the work properly. I plan to do an engine swap (rb25) and I decided I would gut the car again, this time with drivetrain removal, and get it on a rotisserie. one day it will be a rust free car, but at this time I will just be fixing the few small spots where the floor pan has rusted out.
That's where she sits so far. the plan is to get the car rolling, possibly running, and painted before nov 1st, when I leave for CO again.
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