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patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/1/15 2:18 p.m.

So, we're Team Alavanche, because my 4 year old said so. That's the royal WE, as I am an army of one unless he is out in the garage picking washers out of the pile of swept up crap.

Challenge vets could recognize this car from $2010 when dmyntti campaigned it with a junkyard turbocharged 350, tractor paint, and 195 width all season tires. According to the results page, it came in 2nd to last, and blew up at the drags. I bugged him about it a couple years ago at his house when i dropped off a chassis. Then in May i was picking up a Monte Carlo from him and he looked at the Z and said something about it maybe being for sale. I asked price, looked it over, and it was sunk into the mud resting on the exhaust and oil pans/a-arms and filthy with little tiny ants everywhere in it and mouse poo on the seat. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity. A few weeks later I picked it up.

The next day i pressure washed it, removing the number panels, some of the blue paint(lots of it actually) and all the tree goo.

Then I had to work late all week and did not touch the car. The next weekend I hooked up a battery and drove it off the trailer, once I put some trans fluid into it. Oil was milkshake and high, but it started and made quite the racket and got off the trailer by itself.

So i did what anyone would do. Ripped out the hurt engine and dropped the known good one from the aborted $2015 V8 WRX into it.

At that point, I was content to have the engine off the floor, room to put the car inside, and the old engine in the bed of the truck to scrap, so I put it inside to start hooking junk back up. Exhaust Y pipe came by way of some ebay china brand headers, a 15 year old thrice used flowmaster Y, a used tailpipe from my dad's scrapped suburban, and a piece of exhaust i picked up in someone's trash on garbage day.

This is the fuel system that the car came with.

In the interest of airflow to the radiator(the car overheated at $2010) I purchased a cheap ebay aluminum fuel cell and moved that to the hatch and built a sealed enclosure around it from scrap steel and aluminum to be legal, and moved the pump and filter to the rear and used the old lines to hook them all back together. Filter brackets are by way of home depot yellow tag fence part clearance about 10 years ago that I knew one day i could use for some automotive function

And that's about where I'm at now. right at one month of work, mostly at night after the kids go to sleep. I am going out of town today until next week so unfortunately nothing will get done, but I am offically entered and will be there come hell or high water. I've been intending to and trying to get cars there for 10 years, and something has always come up either with car or life to keep me from being there. Not this year, Murphy, not this year.

jimbob_racing
jimbob_racing Dork
7/1/15 2:33 p.m.

Nice build! I'll be watching your progress.

DatsunS130
DatsunS130 New Reader
7/1/15 8:56 p.m.

Is your son old enough to use a paint roller?

patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/1/15 9:13 p.m.
DatsunS130 wrote: Is your son old enough to use a paint roller?

Old enough to be dangerous. Spraying it when it dries out enough to sand outside, we had 19 straight days with rain.

Billy_Bottle_Caps
Billy_Bottle_Caps Dork
7/1/15 9:29 p.m.

Looks like a great start

JacktheRiffer
JacktheRiffer Reader
7/2/15 12:52 a.m.

Lookin good. Love seeing old Zs getting love.

spin_out
spin_out Reader
7/2/15 7:18 a.m.

I like this far more than I should. Keep at it.

Gimp
Gimp SuperDork
7/2/15 8:04 a.m.

Don't be fooled. The kid is the boss.

JohnRW1621
JohnRW1621 UltimaDork
7/2/15 9:29 a.m.

True Awesomeness!

edizzle89
edizzle89 HalfDork
7/2/15 9:52 a.m.

soooo..... what are you doing with the old engine and turbo set up?

sethmeister4
sethmeister4 SuperDork
7/2/15 10:03 a.m.

Sweet! I like this better than the Subaru. Looking forward to seeing it in October!

fasted58
fasted58 UltimaDork
7/2/15 10:07 a.m.

Great build. Looks like a winnah.

NOHOME
NOHOME UberDork
7/2/15 10:33 a.m.

Reminds me of the Roadkill Ratsun project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjC00J8FaM

patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/2/15 1:32 p.m.
edizzle89 wrote: soooo..... what are you doing with the old engine and turbo set up?

$75 can have headers, y, turbo, q-jet carb, downpipe, and carb hat. Come get it, but don't bring high expectations. Engine is toast and just scrapping it. Sounds of a spun main in a dime a dozen block make it worthless.

Re: Subaru. It had strong points, but weak(hackitude and gobs of rot) outweighed them. I can at least claim to have owned a V8 WRB WRX. The Datsun fits me like a freaking glove once i moved the column a little and will move shifter to fit me better. I'm smaller than PO so have to switch a couple things around. chineseparts.ebay.challengefriendly.cheapstuff.com has given me cheap radiator, fuel cell, throttle cable, AN fittings, and misc stuff. Also Summit Racing being my local speed shop with clearance racks has given me a pair of drag rims for less than one costs. And a bondo $25 fiberglass repair kit to make adjustments to the homemade hood that came extra with the car for $12. Home Depot is helpful as is me keeping every scrap of everything ever.

jimbob_racing
jimbob_racing Dork
7/2/15 2:26 p.m.

Do you need a valance for the front end? I have a banged up one piece fiberglass unit on my '77 280Z parts car. Free for your Challenge project, just pick up at my house.

dropstep
dropstep Reader
7/2/15 7:07 p.m.

i like it. Those rims remind me of foxbody turbines!

patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/2/15 7:30 p.m.

Car came with a very low urethane valence and a BRE style fiberglass ducted one, removed to get it on the trailer. The house I'm at has enough 4g service to pop online if i sit in bed and lean against the window.

If you're following me on twitter @patguzowski you'll see more and random updates or pics as i am in the garage. And occasional rants about sports, but mostly car related stuff.

edizzle89
edizzle89 HalfDork
7/6/15 1:17 p.m.

PM sent about the turbo parts, let me know if you got it, my email was acting sketchy...

patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/7/15 12:35 p.m.
edizzle89 wrote: PM sent about the turbo parts, let me know if you got it, my email was acting sketchy...

It's there, havent sat down with emails yet.

While gone, three important parts showed up. 2 fuel line fittings to button up the fuel system, and the title.

Should make some progress this week if i recover from whatever illness is kicking my butt.

XLR99
XLR99 Reader
7/7/15 3:26 p.m.

Looks like you already did most of the heavy lifting, but let me know if you need some help!

patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/7/15 9:58 p.m.

door panels fabbed out of $free damaged in shipping wheel tub kit that a guy had sitting behind his barn and offered out of the blue "take these or i'm scrapping them"

thanks to some generic dayquil, el cheapo ebay aluminum radiator mounted after work.

$4 swap meet addco poly end link kit.

green flexible radiator hoses. nice and ugly. however stainless, they work, and most importantly CHEAP. local surplus guy bought out a ton of mr gasket's old inventory a while back and had these in his store for $5 for the 4 foot kit with 4 sets of ends.

all business inside, including the cardboard so i wouldn't sit in mouse poo.

so, the engine looks way better in the Z than it did in the WRX, both in fit height wise and quality of the mounts. car still has mr. nelson's 2008 ECTA tech sticker on the windshield.

also, working with used AN fittings is kind of a pain, and mixing and matching brands of hoses and fittings makes for fingers full of pinholes. the full fuel system is all reused in new position with the exception of the solid aluminum front to rear line, a tube nut/sleeve, a reducer, and 2 new fittings. the old 3 foot hose leading from regulator to carb now leads from regulator to carb and also feeds the other thing that needs fuel under the carb above the intake.

ssswitch
ssswitch Reader
7/7/15 10:51 p.m.

Wow, that looks really good. Must've been one sporty looking tractor that paint was intended for.

Green stainless hoses would freak me out. Who thought that looked good?

wheels777
wheels777 Dork
7/9/15 4:11 p.m.

Wow. Flashback. First LSR pass in that was 142+. Ran 11.02 @ 127+ with a 1.56 60 foot in high 90 temps on street tires. We were planning to bring that to the $2008 Challenge until Cameron asked to build the black Bug. So we pulled the parts off we needed for the Bug and sold it to Don.

MrJoshua
MrJoshua PowerDork
7/9/15 4:18 p.m.

Wait-another Andrew Nelson built chassis with a big honkin engine is coming?

patgizz
patgizz PowerDork
7/9/15 6:12 p.m.
MrJoshua wrote: Wait-another Andrew Nelson built chassis with a big honkin engine is coming?

yup, the man does nice work.

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