Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

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Byron510
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by Byron510 »

I just finished up the day a bit early on Shawn’s project. Yesterday I managed to get both pass side doors assembled with all new rubber bits, linkages adjusted, locks working, glass sitting right ect. Shawn and I ended yesterday by stripping down the front suspension and steering bits in preparation… for today’s paint preparation.

Shawn met me at my work to sand blast all the parts clean. I put him in the suit, and let him go at it. He was amazed at how well the process worked. I actually think he enjoyed the sand blasting part. So I was disassembling components while he was cleaning them. Then when he got to the big bits, I started shortening his front struts to use 280ZX inserts. I used the replacement strut cartridge nut from his old inserts with the new 280ZX gas inserts, and needed to shorten the strut tube length by 46.5mm. I also cut the weld off of the spring perch. These may get welded back on in a lower position, or we may go the coil over route – not sure yet. I have a set of 2 ½” ID 250#X8” long Eibach springs (thanks to Matt) but we lack the rest of the components at the moment to assemble them so we’re still a bit undecided as to what to do at this point. A slightly shortened stock spring for Shawn make work just fin with the perch located a bit further down. He’s not into a performance drive at all, in fact he want the ride to be soft. So keeping the stock bits may be the way to go. If I found a slightly stiffer stock size front spring, then this would be ideal.
We decided that the car will get new ball joints and tie rods. No photos today, nothing really interesting except more progress. Hope to clean up the motor and then install it with the front suspension sometime in the next couple weeks.

Byron
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jason
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by jason »

There are some springs you can use Byron, about the same as the old Euro springs, I think they come out of the rear of the 198x Hyudai Excel Hatchback ... Something like 125lbs or so ...
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by jason »

Byron, did you ever decide what to do about Shawn's springs? I am looking for a set now for the rear of the current project. Anyone have any idea what the spring rate is on the Thurnderbird springs that people have been suggesting?
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Byron510
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by Byron510 »

No not yet Jason.

I have shortened the stock struts to use KYB gas ZX inserts, machined off the welds on the spring pearches, but have not picked a set of springs to use. Once I have the springs, we'll set the ride height, weld on the spring pearches and go from there.

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jason
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by jason »

The Hyundai springs worked out well with the Dodge D50 pickup springs out back to match Byron. It's about the old Mulholland rates at stock ride height, a bit stiffer if you trim them down for the ZX insert sized struts I'd imagine. The old brown 4 door I have has this setup without any spring trimming and it's my favourite cushy ride in a 510.
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by jason »

On a cheerful note, I finally found my spring set at home! They work out to about 440lb springs for the rear or about a 120lb wheel rate. That's about 46% stiffer than stock and are .75" shorter than the stock rear spring. I was looking for something in the 150lb range, but, I may go with these to start off with.
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

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Shawn and I got a full 12 hours work on his car today – the headliner arrived from Jim at Headliner mart this past week, and we wasted no time in getting it in the car.
I’ll be honest, this is my first headliner. Shawn and I spent a majority of the day just thinking about a game plan on how to install it. We did ok, but there are a few little creases. We must have installed and removed the headliner a dozen times before we actually got started. The sewn in loops that the spring bows are installed in were actually too wide, so they had to be cut down and narrowed. Then we noticed that the bows are colour coded - note to all, they are different lengths! Luckily I had not removed them, and they were still in order from front to back: Red, Yellow Green, Yellow, and Blue. With the bows in place, we were able to glue the original headliner insulation to the roof panel, and finally install the headliner bows with liner for the last time.
We started at the front header bar, pulling the headliner as tight as we could to the front and worked rearwards down the sides and finally over the rear window header bar. We sprayed the edges of the liner and only the window and door lips and front header bar with spray on glue. We also used the same fiber board wood pieces on the rear sail panel (C pillar) and mimicked the A and B pillars to more less how the factory installed the original headliner. The foam under the A pillar was gone, so I opted out of using it. Shawn wanted to try the ¼” foam behind the liner material on the B pillars, but it turned out a bit lumpy, so we opted out again on the C pillars. And lastly I cringed as I cut the hole in the roof for the dome light – something just doesn’t feel right about cutting a hole into a newly installed headliner. But it all worked out pretty good.

Afterwards we drug the motor into the shop – I’ll cover this in the next post.

We finished out the day by driving over to my workshop and we removed the glass from the Memorial car. Shawn will be using the front windshield in this car. It's a shame that the glass wasn’t as good as we'd first hoped - there is a rock chip pretty much in the drivers line of sight when viewed straight ahead (of course - Murph never misses a chance). Bu this glass is still much better than the major wiper burn in the glass that came in his car. I don’t think I'll urethane this one in, in case he decides to exchange the glass in the near future.
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here's what we started with
here's what we started with
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Roof insulation in place
Roof insulation in place
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Apparently I need to clean my camera lens!
Apparently I need to clean my camera lens!
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Byron510
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

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After we deemed the headliner installed, we drug the motor back into the garage for a look over. We took of the alt and clutch style water pump off (which will be turfed in favor of a standard L16 unit). But I have some questions about his engine’s origin – maybe someone can help me out. It has a 90 degree oil filter piece that bolts to the block, and the oil dip stick is in the front of the pan. The dip stick does not appear to be altered. My questing is, can we accurately check the oil in the front of the pan? Is this a stock set up in say a PU of some other application? I’ve not seen this before, which is why I ask. It’s an L18, with an A87 head and it had a clutch fan installed. Any thoughts as to its origin and weather this oil dip stick location is ok? I’ll have to measure in oil when we assemble and see there the dip stick started to pick up the level.
My original intension was to remove this 90 degree adapter, remove the pipe in the block and replace it with a standard filter thread and then move the dipstick to its normal location on an L16 - there is a brass plug in the boss, just like many L20B's and Z22's. Now I'm thinking we just leave it as is - make a new gasket for this 90 degree adapter and install it as is (with of course a good clean up and painting of the block - that goes without saying).

Byron
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defdes
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by defdes »

That's a new one to me. Never seen an oil filter adapter bolted to the block or that funky dipstick location. I dont see how you'd get an accurate oil amount from that location as you are basically measuring the run off. I would opt for the sock location and allow that oil filter to mount in a vertical orientation.
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by duke »

The car is looking great Byron. I wish I had the patience and attention to detail that you do when it comes to body work. Your brother is a luck man.

On the topic of that oil filter adapter it looks to have the same bolt layout at a KA oil filter mount. You may be able to use the KA mount, which puts the filter in a more downward location. You could also use the KA gasket for this mount, so you don't have to make one yourself.
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by RonM »

I don't recall having any trouble changing the filter on an L18 such that a 90 degree mount would be of much help. I snooped around online and found nothing to support it's existence. That being said it does look kind of nifty, and I'm sure would garner some attention in the 510 crowd. I say leave it, and see what stories come from it.

Your build is inspiring, and at the same time intimidating. Keep up the good work bro!
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

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The other places I’ve seen the 4 bolt pattern is on Z22 blocks, but I’ve never seen anything bolted up to them. I’ve also seen this same bolt pattern used on the L28ET motors where the OEM remote oil filter cooler lines are plumbed into this. But I’d never seen this on an L18 before, which really had me wondering what the origin of this engine is. This must be a factory installation, I just don’t know in what.
duke wrote:The car is looking great Byron. I wish I had the patience and attention to detail that you do when it comes to body work. Your brother is a luck man.

On the topic of that oil filter adapter it looks to have the same bolt layout at a KA oil filter mount. You may be able to use the KA mount, which puts the filter in a more downward location. You could also use the KA gasket for this mount, so you don't have to make one yourself.
Duke, thanks for the tip on the gasket – that will be easier to look for than the L28ET PN.
RonM wrote:I don't recall having any trouble changing the filter on an L18 such that a 90 degree mount would be of much help. I snooped around online and found nothing to support it's existence. That being said it does look kind of nifty, and I'm sure would garner some attention in the 510 crowd. I say leave it, and see what stories come from it.

Your build is inspiring, and at the same time intimidating. Keep up the good work bro!
Changing the oil filters, I agree is not an issue with the normal L16/18/20B set up which is why I was originally just going to change it outright. I figured that the upside down oil filter would dump more down the side of the engine block – but then I thought about it afterwards and the difference in loss of oil during a change would be hardly any different between the two. My original thought was that this was a wrong combination set up and that this engine was originally in a front sump orientation. Then I took a good look at the dip stick – it’s unaltered. I expected this to be a cut and modified unit, but it looks also to be OEM with markings and all. The standard L16 oil filter set up will not work with this dip stick – I tried bending it out of the way and it won’t install correctly. So I bent it back. Then I figured it’s not worth changing any of the set up IF it’s all original to this engine in this orientation and will work – I just need to make a gasket and put it all back together and I won’t need to drill out the other oil boss or source another L16 dipstick

********************************************************.

Thanks to you both for your positive comments. Shawn was really not having fun through any of the bodywork/paint stage – I don’t blame him, I pretty much despise the bodywork myself and it too SO long to complete! The paint happens fast and you get to see results quickly which is the satisfying (but very stressful) part.

Now that we are assembling things, Shawn is liking the work much more. I can see that he’s enjoying himself a whole lot more now when we work on the car. He’s taking pride in cleaning up the bits before installing them back on the car. He had a blast (literally) sandblasting the suspension and steering parts – now he’s painted them all ready for installation. He’s was so proud to come home on Saturday night and tell his wife about how he installed the headliner in his car. It was all hands on, neither of us had done anything remotely close to this before so it was an achievement for both of us. For me it was very cool to hear Shawn’s wife talk about how proud Shawn was of this task. For a brother, this is what makes an extended project like this worthwhile. Thanks to you both for your comments Duke and Ron.

Byron
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510rob
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by 510rob »

I'll bet that motor started out life as an imported Z18 of some variant (Z18, Z18E, Z18ET), then received an L-series head at some point.

Where did you get the motor?
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by RonM »

510rob wrote:I'll bet that motor started out life as an imported Z18 or Z18ET then received a L-series head.

I don't know Rob but, check out the picture below. It shows the dipstick up front. maybe your on to something. (disregard the red arrow)
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Re: Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

Post by 510rob »

I'm reasoning that it might be some kind of Z18 simply because of that wacky oil filter mount, which is definitely a late production component, yet it is the short deck height block, and has that strange dipstick placement. The motor you have a picture of is a Z18E, but keep in mind there is also a Z18 carb motor, and, jeez, who knows, as long as it works. hehehe

EDIT - now that I think about it, the motor should say right on the block's pad if it is a Z18 or an L18. Byron, inquiring minds want to know. Which is it???
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