The rebirth of a 1990 Nissan 300ZX

I have worked on a lot of these cars over the years. Yes they are a huge pain in the ass to work on because the engine bay was designed by a midget or a mechanic sadist. Of all the factory turbo cars that I have built and worked on, the Z32 has been my favorite. When I came across this one I bought it. It was owned by a kid that was working at an independent shop learning the trade. His plan was to strip the interior, stick on the wildest body kit he could find, and make it into a street racer. Well, he had 1 good idea out of the 3. The car had an almost perfect body. Except for drivers door damage that looked like a kick or someone backed into it. I was able to work the metal back to the point where it almost needed no filler. The only filler I use is fiberglass based with maybe a skim coat of bondo or even body putty if you have the time to let the putty cure.

The engine in this car had been replaced with a JDM unit, which is normally a good thing, but this one was hurt. For that reason, I didn't care about keeping the car stock or original. After the teardown I found bad scarring in the #2 cylinder and another cylinder with broken rings and ring lands. Probably from detonation. It looks like the original owner took good care of the car, but the other 2 owners before me just tortured it.




Before : Original paint except the drivers door. Body in very nice shape with no rust found inside or underneath. Engine is toast. It has 3 sizes of injectors and low compression in 3 cylinders. The worst has 64psi and leakdown of 87%. Interior is perfect except the seat covers.





The clutch was slipping and it wouldn't rev above about 2500 RPM.




Big intercoolers and 740 cc/min injectors enough to handle a total HP of 770 at the crank. Since I wanted it to look completely stock, I went with 2 3 inch intercoolers in front of the front tires instead of a big front mounted cooler. It took some metal fabrication to get them to fit but it looks factory underneath now.



The only bodywork on the whole car. It looks like someone kicked the door or maybe a minor parking lot battle. The new bullet is ready to go in.





The underhood paint is fine. It just needed some scrubbing on the lower parts to get grease and grime gone. I would much rather stick the engine in before paint if I can, so I did. The car is going back to the stock Azrec Red. With epoxy primer and 2k primer done, it's time to paint.




4 coats of color done. Now for the clear.




4 coats of UV clear.




Seats are re-covered and bolted in. Still working on wiring and the stereo system. The gauge pods on the A pillar are air-fuel ratio and fuel pressure. In the center console I built a pod for Amps, volts, and oil pressure. All are electric so I didn't have to run any fluids inside the car. First cut and buff done. Now it can go back on the ground and outside for a wash and detail.



After Meguiars #5 and 3M swirl remover. Chassis Dyno results: 654HP, 677 lb/ft torque. Best time to date : 10.57 at 141 MPH, factory posi unit and 3.69:1 ratio gears. Not bad for a V6 that gets 18 MPG in town and 29 on the highway. So far I have $9,387.67 invested including the cost of the car ($2,000), and it appraised for $31,000 to $36,000. I did a teardown video of the engine. it's on my youtube channel.