Alright guys it's been a little while since posting but I've been doing as I mentioned before and just collecting some parts and doing little things here and there.
On the M2 front, I finally received my Dinan axle back exhaust that I ordered on black friday.
This thing is rad and coupled with the VRSF catless downpipe it is insanely loud. I shot a little video at SSR Performance where I had the exhaust installed. I have it in sport+ with the valves open so its basically a straight pipe to the far right pipe which you can see shooting out flames:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwR0U-YTtIo
But for the main event, the 240....!
I used a rust-oleum headlight restore kit on the headlights because they were stupid hazy. I previously used this kit ($10) on my friend's car and it works really well and lasts about 2-3 years before needing to be done again. I AM on the lookout for HID headlights but this at least makes my halogens look good for the time being. A little before and after action:
I believe I mentioned before that the guy housing my car said the fuel pump went out and he replaced it with whatever. So I picked up another walbro 255 and installed that. It DID NOT fix my now broken fuel gauge level and I didn't really know what to look for while in there. I know I've heard about a "floater" but I didn't really have time to mess around with it any further. Also the threads that that big plastic ring screw down onto seem to almost be stripped on one side and its really hard to get it screwed back on evenly. It will start threading on one side but not the other and ends up really crooked to the point that I have to use a chisel and hammer to keep it spinning to get it locked down tight. bummer.
I've been wanting to switch out all of my plastics for black and I remember back in the day people would literally give them away for free or sell a whole set for like $50. In looking around these days (and in a new market: CA vs. FL) the prices have become absurd. $100+ for EACH plastic trim piece. So I set out to pull all of my blue plastics and my rear seats for painting and dyeing black.
Unfortunately I found some surface rust in the back seat area....I don't think its too substantial and I am pretty sure that a day with a wire wheel and some sanding that I can remove it all and hit it with some rust reformer and primer.
I have decided to lay down sound deadening material throughout the entire car and buy new carpet anyways so worst case scenario, the rust only adds a half day of labor to that project. I've found a great website for the carpet but I am still researching which sound deadening material I want to use. I am between dynamat and second skin damplifier pro.
so I set out to paint all of the back half plastics last weekend.
It was a nice sunny weekend so I was able to clean and dry everything very quickly. I used degreaser and soapy wooter to cleaning all of the plastics. I bought a bissel steamer and hoover extractor and used them on the rear seats and let them also dry in the sun before painting.
I had a couple of black plastic pieces a friend had given me a while back. I tested a small piece of blue plastic with both duplicolor vinyl and fabric dye gloss black on one half and flat black on the other half. The flat black is almost a 100% match to the oem black. So I used gloss black on the rear seats and flat black on all of the plastic pieces (even the black ones for a complete match). About 3 coats on each piece.
I think drying in the sun was good to help get rid of any smell also.
I had pulled the passenger seat to be able to get in the back for the fuel pump swap and pulling of the seats and plastics. While cleaning it, I found a pretty gnarly spider under the cushion. So I ran a bug fogger in the car while doing all of this painting....since the plan is to pull all of the interior for the sound deadening install and new carpet eventually. I didn't want any more surprises.
That's about it for what I've done recently. I am STILL collecting parts for some projects and estimate I've got maybe 3 or 4 weekends of things to do. Here's what I have collected so far:
Black dash coverlay and a metal windshield defroster vent. I do plan on pulling the dash and attempting to repair my cracks first (and obviously the rest will need to be black to match all of the pieces I'm painting now). The coverlay is my back up plan in case the repair doesn't look too great:
ISR Short Shifter and a GKtech solid shifter bushing. I never really had a problem with the shifter in my 240 before but now that I daily drive the M2 the difference is crazy. The 240 shifter is super loose and sloppy so I'm hoping these will tighten things up. I'll get around to installing it when I have all of the front trim out for painting and sound deadener install:
Next up, PBM solid steering rack bushings. My rack is totally shot and I'm looking into buying a remanufactured/rebuilt unit and wanted to go with solid bushings when I do the install:
MOOG outer tie rod ends for when I do the steering rack install. My car isnt a drift car or a race car and I don't plan on running any crazy tie rods or spacers, etc.:
Chase Bays - Power steering reservoir and lines; power steering hard line replacements (nice braided lines); and coolant overflow tank. I think you get the picture of what's going on with the power steering system now:
Since I ordered from Chase Bays, I figured I'd get their radiator cap and FPR gauge also:
On the interior side...I got an old school broadway mirror:
I'm planning on replacing the lights on my cluster, roof light and A/C control with LEDs. I'm still waiting on 3 that are backordered:
I've been looking for good condition black door panels for like 6 months now and they seem impossible to find. The only ones available anywhere are on ebay from Turkey and the sellers want like $500 a panel. Knowing that they'll probably just break like my shitter blue ones eventually, I've decided to order the Street Faction v2 door cards. I ordered them on 05-08-21 and it said something like 10 weeks I believe. So while I wait for those, I am getting my door parts in order. I've gotten the LH air vent in black and RH door handle in black. I DO have the RH air vent and LH door handle, they should be here in the next week:
I got newer headlight and washer stalks but forgot to take a picture of them.
I've ordered from courtesy nissan a new center air vent trim and air vents, shift trim with shift boot, and LH window regulator. The RH regulator is discontinued so I will be buying a used one on ebay shortly.
I've also ordered from a company JSAI in Australia a rep S15 Spec R Aero front bumper and S14 kouki rear valances. It was also a 10 week lead time.
I've received my p2m black/grey checkered floor mats and trunk mat. I went to home depot and bought a 1/2" thick piece of MDF and plan to spend a weekend re-doing my trunk. I'm going to wire wheel and sand it, rust reform it, spray bedliner, and then sound deadening. I'll cut the MDF to the shape of the trunk mat and then use double sided velcro to hold the mat on. and I'll redo my battery box back there. That should give me a usable trunk again.
So really my last few things to actually buy will be carpet, rack & pinion, RH window regulator, and sound deadening material. I will also be getting a short hub, quick release, and nardi 330m perforated leather wheel.
This will get the car into a pretty good "restored" condition where I will feel comfortable bringing it to be painted.
Mechanically, I still need to be re-tuned for 91 octane out here. I also think I've got a vacuum leak somewhere because (i) the car takes forever to start up (maybe old gas too?) and (ii) when I've driven it around my neighborhood a little bit, it has almost no power and never hits boost. I don't have an air compressor so I'm not sure the best way to go about looking for a vacuum leak.
Ohhh yeah and also since I'll be doing the power steering rack install, I've picked up new oil, oil filter, water wetter and distilled water, and some motul dexron iii atf for the power steering. Some fresh fluids will do her good.