Project S14 Zenki

Jahling · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:52 pm Post subject: Project S14 Zenki

I've been meaning to start up one of these project threads and since I am in the middle of nowhere, I find myself with more free time. So here goes...

Picked this up in June this year after much searching. Criteria were specific - 95, manual, SE, not red. This is what she looked like in the used car lot:

Jahling · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 9:01 pm Post subject:

After a day of cleaning, this was the result. Too bad it took all day and the sun went down by the time I was done so I could not take a good pic.

Jahling · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:21 pm Post subject:

First on the agenda, clean up the notoriously oxidized zenki headlights.

Before:

After some Mother's aluminium polish and good elbow grease:

Jahling · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:38 pm Post subject:

Next was to replace the tint. It was lifting off the rear window and affecting visibility so this was done for functional reasons.

Yeo · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:36 am Post subject:

Just beautiful man!!

No matter what yuh do, just make sure and keep the body "clean".. no stickers an ting...
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Jahling · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:54 am Post subject:

Doh worry man, I eh have that sticker fetish. Maybe when I get ole I'll aquire it.

So when I got the car, the service history was unknown. Slowly went through the car and changed what was needed. Replaced the engine oil with Castrol GTX 20W-50 (did not know if it was consuming oil) and a Fram oil filter. The airfilter and the plugs were recently changed so I did not touch those.

The next step was the brakes. The pedal was low and mushy when I got the car so first I tried bleeding the brakes. Did not help. Went at the master cylinder, replaced it and flushed the entire system with new brake fluid. That helped a bit but I still found that the pedal was low.

Checking the pads revealed that the fronts had been changed but the rears had not been changed recently. I ended up having Jessie at TSR change all the pads when I was down in Miami. He recommended that I used Wagner Thermo-quiet pads so that is what we went with. Turns out the shims on the back of all the pads were removed by the person who previously worked on the car. Go figure. The new set of rear pads had shims riveted to them but the shims for the front pads were ment to be transferred to the new set of pads and I did not have them. No biggie, they were later fabricated from a set of tin snips and a piece of flat sheet galvanized steel.

It was also a good time to change the pads as the rears were almost completely worn and the fronts had lots of material but it was starting to separate from the backing plate. Sorry, did not take any pics. The previous owner obviously used some very cheap parts.

The rotors were worn but looked like they could last another set of pads so I did not touch those.

The car stops a lot better now and the pedal feel is better. However I am not completely satisfied with it so an upgrade will be in the future. Keeping my eye out for a 300ZX in the junkyard.

Plex · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:29 am Post subject:

Sweet car..Nice to see you working on a project...

Fuzz Windu · Jedi Hopeful Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Posts: 219

nice to see the car going good. i tell yuh that it look evil when yuh tailing somebody

MG Man · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:32 pm Post subject:

oh YEhhhsssssssssssssssssssssss

QAfter so much MSN talk on this beauty, I glad to see JM finally open a page on this car......I almost feel like I know it personally Smile

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I know it's so, for I told me so

Jahling · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the positive words fellas.

The car is currently a driver and the budget is tight so money is mostly going towards upkeep instead of upgrades.

So after doing the brakes, attention turned to the drive train. As I said before, previous maintenance was questionable so I wanted to change the gearbox and diff oil. I got the incentive to do that when I started hearing a metallic rubbing sound when I depressed the clutch.

I thought that it was the thrust release bearing so I picked up a complete clutch kit with clutch, pressure plate, release bearing and pilot bushing. When the gearbox dropped, turns out the the clutch and release bearing had been replaced relatively recently and were in decent shape but the pilot bushing was not replace and it managed to chew itself up quite a bit. I already had the kit so I went ahead and change all the components.

The gearbox and diff oil did not look like it had ever been changed so it was replaced with Valvoline semi synthetic. Thus far everything seems to be working well so I am not going back in there until I get a LSD to install.

Fuzz Windu · Jedi Hopeful Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Posts: 219

nice nice keep em coming

Jahling · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject:

After completing the clutch, took the car for a nice long drive to Key West. The car ran well all the way down. Apparently it is the southernmost point in the continental US. It was a good day trip and the seven mile bridge was really cool. Took some photographic proof that I was there too.

Jahling · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:17 pm Post subject:

On the way back from Key West the mileage rolled over to 150K miles so I pulled aside to take a picture of it. When I first got the car it had 147K. Its a Florida car so its all highway miles.

Yeo · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:20 pm Post subject:

The Lazy Gecko, on Duval Street. BOSS!!!
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www.ttonline.org

Jahling · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:24 pm Post subject:

Yeah I drove by all there. It was a real cool scene.