My New Toy, 1974 RB26 Powered 260Z

AWK888 said:

240 Z is on the wish list ...beautiful car

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I have a 71 240Z as well, but it's getting my current stock VR38 motor with a DCT trans! I have a bit more metal work to do on that project.

240Z TwinTurbo said:

I have a 71 240Z as well, but it's getting my current stock VR38 motor with a DCT trans! I have a bit more metal work to do on that project.

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This was my attempt at the project...ended up selling it as i couldnt get it to where i wanted it ...had a non turbo RB25 ..power steering and wide body kit from carbon signal...one off wheels

I'm bad about updates, but definitely making progress. I updated all the vent tubes for the AC system.





I added warning lights for the E-brake as well as a Check Engine light from the Tech GT. Although not yet received, I also have a Traction Control light and Knock light being delivered.

The car is pretty much back together minus the center console and is running just fine. However, the car desperately needs a tune so that will be about 1-2 days worth of work to get it dialed in 95%. The initial reason I started doing a bunch of work to the car was due to the heater valve leaking inside of the car. This was something that I postponed addressing because I wanted to deal with things one at a time.

When I purchased the car it was placed on the lift because the previous owner wanted me to see the passenger side floor pan that was replaced. This is common on the early Z's due to rust, but in the case of this 260Z it was not a rust issue, but someone had jacked the car up or hit something on the bottom side of the pan severally creating a large hump inside the car. The owner tried to get it flat, but ultimately replaced the floor to get this straight. This was done 20 years ago and was not done properly.

Anyway, when I pulled the carpet and dynomat I did not like the job that was done on the pan so I decided to go ahead and replace the passenger side floor pan. The good thing is KF Vintage makes reproduction parts that fit perfect since they are based on laser scans on a pristine Z. The other good thing is the old pan repair didn't extend past what the new pan covers so it should be a pretty basic drop in repair. The bad thing is that I have to cut out the pan and weld in the new one because I might as well address this now with the interior being removed. Simply put, this project doesn't seem to have an ending.

Below are the pics of the interior almost completely stripped exposing the replaced pan.





The other issue was that I strongly considered relocating the Tech GT, relays and wiring from the passenger side floor board to behind the passenger seat. Unfortunately, the car has an Alpine 4 channel amp behind the passenger seat and an Alpine mono channel amp behind the driver's seat driving the 10" sub. I started thinking about options and I remembered my 83 Porsche 928S had the ECU and fuses in the same spot, but behind a wooden cover. I then came up with the idea to just leave everything in the current location, but remount onto some better quality wood. I can then use 4-5 standoffs from the wood to provide a cover made of Lexan. This will allow it to be seen when the carpet is folded down, but allow the passenger to put his feet over it. Hope this makes sense, but just imagine the piece below with a Lexan cover.

I forgot to mention that I also ordered a set of Bad Dog full frame rails. The stock frame rails extend from the front frame to only half way down the pan. These aftermarket rails connect the front frame rail to the back frame rail to significantly improve chassis stiffening. Below are some pics I stole from the internet.






BTW, I already changed the driver/passenger side floor pans in my 71 240Z using the exact same KF Vintage panels so I have good experience for how to approach. The pics below are the job I did on my 71 240Z with no previous experience. I used a lap joint welding through a 3/16" hole every 2" and then seam welded, which was probably overkill considering Datsun just used a lap joint with a spot weld about every 3".

Pan arrives Monday so gonna try to get it mostly prepped before then.

240Z TwinTurbo said:

New pan arrives Monday from Columbia😀

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It actually arrived this afternoon! Spent most of the day getting the old pan out, which was not so simple due to it being a mixture of original pan and aftermarket pan welded from the bottom of the car. Finally got all the spot welds drilled out and the only thing remaining before installing the new pan is to hit everything with a disc sander, eliminate the rust and spray on some weld through primer. Still have to address all of the welds on the bottom of the car so need it get it on jack stands and let the fun begin.








Since the pan arrived I decide to do a quick test fit despite not having all of the welds ground on the inner rocker.

Figured I would add some warning lights since I have the capability to utilize them. Believe it or not, the car has active traction control by cutting injectors and it works really well. The only thing I don't currently have is the ability to signal "Knock," but will figure out how to add that later.

Check Engine is triggered by the Tech GT
Parking Brake since the new gauges don't have a light provision for that
Traction Control has a light from the Race Logic controller
Knock, well don't currently have the ability to signal