My first project car

[almoststew1990]

At the ripe old age of 36 and having liked cars for maybe 35 of those years I've decided its time for a midlife crisis my first project car. I am not very good at making decisions because it is easier to just continue with the status quo, so I've been looking on and off for a car for a few years including this post a few years ago. But this week I finally stopped being wimpy and bought something - it helped that it was nearly a third of the price of that grey 300ZX.

I feel I am being a bit ambitious having barely changed a battery by myself in the past - parts are hard to come by!

On Saturday I spent an hour or so cleaning it up and giving it a more thorough inspection (I get excited and forgetful when I view cars as it happens every year or so). For a car that "doesn't have leaky t-tops" it definitely had mould in it - but I might put that down to being stored in under cover, damp, all winter. But it cleaned up OK.

It has spent many years in Spain not getting salty so the underside is actually OK except for the jacking points.

By coincedence (especially considering how rare these cars are) there is a guy a few miles from me that is breaking a couple of these so I can pick up a few parts locally.

Things to do (next couple of weekends):

• Replace driver seat with one from the spares man
• floor mats
• Oil Service
• replace the coolant as apparently it has been stored with no coolant in it which doesn't sound great and make myself comfortable the waterpump and thermostat are Ok because the coolant temperature gauge does not work.
• Get some tyres, or perhaps chavvy rims and tyres, as the current tyres are dated 2016
• Side lights do not work, tail lights do not work - check bulbs, fuses, visible wiring but after that it is likely to be the switches on the steering column which are pretty notorious for failing. I somehow didn't notice this when I viewed the car but I did check the lights...

With that done I will have some confidence to drive it. Over the next month or two I will pay a grown up to replace timing belt, water pump, thermostat, a couple of accessible sensors, as well as the radiator hoses. These parts have to be imported from the US.

 

[almoststew1990]

Today I picked up the service items (oil, filter, coolant, air filter, can't remember anything else) from Euro Carparts but more importantly some ramps:

I was then too chickenshit to do the oil service or coolant so instead I went to the parts guy to pick up the seat. Getting it back home I decided the best bet was to combine the good base from the spare with the good backrest from the seat in my car, but mount it on the good railes from my car. I then spent a few hours taking apart the spare:

However when I got the seat out of my car, I noted the base of the spare seat had much much worse corrosion. I decided that I would rather have crap leather but some actual solid metal under my butt so proceeded to put my own seat back together again. On the plus side I know how the seats come part now, and I could hoover up the rubbish that had accumulated under the seat.

I then re-mounted them in the car but forgot to re-attach the seatbelt house thing, so out came the seat again.

For someone who has an energy limiting condition, I am now completely knackered!

 

[Diddums]

Awesome dude. Gonna enjoy this one