Juicy’s Blog

4/25/22

It’s been about a week since I’ve done any work to the Z. Unfortunately, last weekend my computer hard drive died, and I lost the start of the story. So, I’ll have to go back in and retype everything… But for now, I’ll start where I’m at. Today I dropped the tank out of the parts car, surprisingly it had the lock ring for the filler neck, and all the plastic that covers the filler neck was there! After getting the tank out, I noticed it actually had liquid fuel in it, it was brown, but liquid! The inside of the tank looks to be in better shape than the other, and doesn’t have any holes. The sending unit bracket it basically rusted away, so I’ll have to look into my options on that. I’ll pick up more vinegar tomorrow and fill it up to soak for about a week, then an hour or so of muriatic acid. But here’s the tank:

 

 

I’ll get out tomorrow and pick up some vinegar, acid and battery cables. The kiddos are sick right now, so it may have to wait a couple days.

 

4/24/22

I’ve been tinkering with the fuel pump soaking in vinegar for about a week. Putting it on the bench and hitting it with a wire brush got it decently cleaned up. The old pump itself is trash, but I just needed the hanger to be in good shape. This thing cleaned up much better than I thought it would. The little pipe (I think the return line) has some pinholes in it, but hopefully it can be repaired. Either way its usable! The tank however…. I was prepping for the muriatic acid bath, and decided to dump all the vinegar from the fuel pump into the tank to let it start soaking. Dumped the 4 gallons in there and when I tilted it up, gas started spilling out from the bottom. The back/underside of the tank is completely rusted out, so the tank is now scrap. Guess its time to pull the one from the parts car and hope for the best.

 

 

4/15/22

It rained today, and I found a puddle on the passenger side, after getting up some of the carpet padding, I found a rust hole about 2” in diameter. There’s a panel down there that needs to come off to further assess the damage. 

4/14/22

Today I wanted to work towards pulling the carpet out so it can be properly cleaned and to see if there is any rust under the cabin. The factory AE seats are in really good shape for their age, they even have the bodysonic subs underneath them!

 

The carpet is also in really good shape, which is great news! I really didn’t want to purchase new carpet….

 

 

Thankfully it doesn’t look like the rust is too bad. So far everything is looking really good up front. 

I got some keys made and bought a cheap used battery for $45. I hooked up the battery, shot some brake cleaner into the intake and turned her over. She actually fired! Just a little spit, because there’s currently no fuel tank. But she fired!

I also started to check out the rust situation in the back hatch. It needs a ton of work, but should be repairable. 

She’s got a tool set! Missing the orange wheel chocks, but that’s alright with me.

Soaked the old fuel pump in a vinegar bath, even strapped an orbital buffer to the side to help shake it up. The buffer eventually seized up and would have burned the shop down if the breaker did not trip. We’ll just let that soak and hopefully we can save the hanger.

I broke out the shop-vac and sucked up all the bugs and flaky rust from the hatch and cleaned up the leaves and pine straw under the hood. 

Noticed the condenser was smashed, but it looks like the parts car has a good one. Willing to bet the radiator is destroyed as well.

Today I pulled out the rear hatch lock cylinder, I’ll take it tomorrow to get a key made. Apparently, a key that fits the hatch lock will also work the doors and ignition. It has a bit of damage, but I’m hoping the locksmith will be able to clean that up a bit. I also plan on picking up an old used battery to try to turn this thing over!

Today, I received a message from an old high school friend Tyler Pancake. He came across these 2 1984 Nissan 300zx’s for sale for a great price. I contacted the guy and quickly got my stuff together to pick them up. Both cars need significant love, but at least one is salvageable. The one in the best shape is the 50th Anniversary Edition (right), of which just over 5,000 were built. I got them home with a lot of assistance from Kelby Hill. After we got the first one home, our buddy Brandon and our wonderful wives helped get the car into position in the back yard. This was quite a struggle due to not having any keys, the steering wheels were locked. 

The view from the driver’s seat of the Anniversary Edition:

The guy I bought them from had a gas tank just chilling by a tree, with a little flower bed growing around it. Turned out to be the AE’s tank, so thankfully he let me take that too.

I took the pump out of the tank to inspect the inside…. It’s pretty awful…

That’s where I’ll leave it today!