Bart's 86 SVO restore thread!

[BartsSVO]

Back from the dead!!

Well, pretty close anyway.

Back in June I was involved in a fender bender that broke my patella in my right leg and seperated the tendons. I've been up and walking for about a month now but I've been through surgery and PT to get to this point. I still don't have 100% flexibility in my leg, but it is slowly progressing.

The car is drivable now. A couple of weekends ago I had some buddies over that finally patched up the leak in the oil pan. I had tried repairing it a couple of times previously but it just made it worse so the car just sat parked for about 2 months before the accident. I pulled the transmission the night before the accident to have another go at it and the rest as they say is history.

Bits and pieces of the interior are back in place, but I was recently laid off (I know, this hasn't been my year!) so I'm having to hold off spending money on the car except for just basic maintenance stuff. It is now my daily driver after the accident but I hope to get my truck fixed in the next week or two. I did some work to the rear end this past weekend but it looks like I'm going to need a new housing. Someone attempted to replace the axle bearings at one point in the past and didn't do a good job at it. Now the new one just rattles around back there because the housing was damaged from the bearing not being installed properly. It isn't as bad as it was before, but it is still very annoying and will need a more permanent fix.

I have made a few pictures of the car at the MCA event in Leeds, Alabama the previous weekend. They're sitting on a CD at my Fiance's house because my DSLR is broken right now...and I don't have the spare money to get it fixed!

[Catman]

Sorry I missed your post!  Hope you're doing better.

[rohan]

They only made like a few hundred of these cars right?  I remember them- they had that funky two wing fing on back.  Big fat tall tires were so cutting edge back then that is one cool car.  You have great vision all I could see iin the first pics were a pile of crap bolted to a heap of junk sitting on some heap of rust. 

[S204STi]

Glad to hear you are up on your feet again, hope you get a job soon!

[BartsSVO]

I'm working again...but the car isn't!!

My turbo let go about 5 weeks ago and being unemployed delayed me from being able to send it off until about 2 weeks ago. While its there I decided to fork over the extra $200 or so to have it rebuilt as a T4/T3 hybrid. Its going to be in the neighborhood of .50 a/r cold side and a .63 a/r hot side. It should be good for 350+ hp (should I ever mod the engine that much) but be reasonably streetable.

I've also got to swap rear ends on the car, as some bozo put 2.73 gears in the car one point. It was originally equipped with 3.73s. This rear I acquired has 3.45s (stock for 1984) but at least it was free. I'll worry about finding a set of 3.73s (or more likely 4.10s) later on. However that did explain the car's rather lackluster acceleration and the speedometer being off by so much.

The car was a victim of one too many Maaco paint jobs and someone cutting corners on mechanical repairs. As a result, the car will practically have a completely rebuilt drivetrain by the time everything is said and done.

[Raza]

I read somewhere that those things got pretty decent gas mileage back in the day.

When it's finished, you'll have some car.

[280Z Turbo]

I'm working again...but the car isn't!!

My turbo let go about 5 weeks ago and being unemployed delayed me from being able to send it off until about 2 weeks ago. While its there I decided to fork over the extra $200 or so to have it rebuilt as a T4/T3 hybrid. Its going to be in the neighborhood of .50 a/r cold side and a .63 a/r hot side. It should be good for 350+ hp (should I ever mod the engine that much) but be reasonably streetable.

I've also got to swap rear ends on the car, as some bozo put 2.73 gears in the car one point. It was originally equipped with 3.73s. This rear I acquired has 3.45s (stock for 1984) but at least it was free. I'll worry about finding a set of 3.73s (or more likely 4.10s) later on. However that did explain the car's rather lackluster acceleration and the speedometer being off by so much.

The car was a victim of one too many Maaco paint jobs and someone cutting corners on mechanical repairs. As a result, the car will practically have a completely rebuilt drivetrain by the time everything is said and done.

I agree a 2.73 is too high, but a 3.45 might be good for a turbo. Turbos like to hold on to gears to build boost. They like resistance to pull against. That's why Nissan installed a 3.54 rear on all 280ZX Turbos. My friend had a 3.90 in the back of his Turbo Z and didn't like it. He swapped in a 3.54 and said the gears were much more usable.

[BartsSVO]

I've got the rear end, new turbo and braided oil lines installed...but the sucker is still smoking. My guess is the tall gears plus advanced cam timing was too much and pushed out the head gasket somewhere or lifted the head. Unfortunately I'm in a new house (just got married about 3 weeks ago) without much room to work on the car, much less a place to park it. Right now its sitting in the garage of my old place until I can get some shelter for it here or the old house sells. It'll get a new head gasket regardless because I'm going to have to pull the head. I will also probably spring for a set of head studs to facilitate easier head installation and to ensure more even clamping of the head.

If that takes care of the smoking issue (I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't break a ring) then the car will be just a few pieces of the interior away from "completion". Of course anyone with such a vehicle knows that you never stop tinkering or making "improvements" as time goes on.

[rohan]

Well?  Any progress?

[rohan]

Wonder what ever happened to Bart hope he's ok.

[Rupert]

Maybe we should un-sticky this... Bart can resurrect it if he comes back.

[Secret Chimp]

Seconded