UJSP's 240

Whats up guys! I posted an intro thread a while back, but I suppose its time I get the "build" thread going as well. Its not going to be fast paced, its not going to be uber-high dollar, but it will be mine. And that's good enough for me.

I picked the car up from an older gentleman in Green Bay on 6-1-12. He was extremely excited to show me the picture he had of him and his buddies shaking Bart Star's hand at the Ice Bowl, which I thought was pretty cool. Who better to buy a 240 from!!? Unfortunately, its an auto, and it was a pignose, but I got a decent price on it, it had relatively little rust, and only 98k on the clock.

Little rust on rocker and under both mirrors:







Body work began a few weeks later with the help of a good friend of mine who has plenty of experience in the area. I myself have had no previous bodywork or paint experience except for the occasional spray paint sessions. I learned a ton about feeling the body for dents, creases, scrapes, etc and how to use bondo with a DA sander to get rid of these imperfections. I also got my feet wet in the art of grinding and sanding away rust, shaping sheet metal patches, and using fiberglass and bondo to smooth out the patched areas. Wet-sanding and scuffing the entire body in preparation for paint was also quite a learning experience. I have alot more respect for the art that goes into body work now. If you haven't done any of this yet, I highly recommend it. Its an oddly stress relieving feeling taking a grinder to your own car, and an even more rewarding feeling when it comes out looking good!


The top has already been shot in these pictures by the way. We went with a black top instead of color matching it like it was from the factory. Maybe its just because Im used to the DSMs where the top is black instead of color matched, but I think it has much better "color flow" and a better contrast, if you will, than when the top was color matched.







All masked off, ready for paint:









Chuki front bondo-prepped, primed, and wetsanded:



No more rust hole! (after a metal patch panel, fiberglass, bondo, and primer)



Spraying Adhesion Promoter on the flexy important bits, to make sure the paint doesnt flake in the future:





The mad scientist replacing the pisto... oops.. I mean.. mixing up a batch of paint:



No fancy cameras allowed in the "booth" during paint, for fear of overspray on said camera (that shit gets eeevverywhere by the way), so the only pics I have now are after the final coat of clear

Still wet:







Runs? I see no runs here. Nothing that a little wetsanding cant take care of:



Here you can see where a fly decided to land in the half-dried clear coat. Attempted to pluck him out, but a few of his digits stayed. Oops.




A few days and a little wet sanding later, my photographer friend and I decided to take a few quick snaps of it. Needs much moar low, and much moar wheels. Its on plasti-dipped wheels from my Altima for the time being. I just couldn't stand rocking the steelies with hub caps. Coilovers and "real wheels" are in my very new future.

Moooonster truck:











Minty fresh interior, disregard the auto shifter. A 5 speed swap is in the books as well:







Thanks for looking! I shall update this thread as I do more to the car. Let me know what you think!

Beautiful. The paint job came out great!

nice cant wait to see more of this

Car looks awesome, I love the black top.

Nice paint work! Great start to a great build.

sick man good job

Your buddy want to paint another one? Ive got all the materials. Just no place to spray.

Thanks for the kind words guys! Im real happy with how the color turned out. It just makes me want coilovers and "real wheels" even more.

We also elected to not replace the black stripe that goes along the length of the body and wraps around the rear bumper. What do you guys think about that? Its not that Im NOT a fan of the line, I'm just not a big enough fan of it to put a bunch of effort into replacing it, if that makes any sense at all.

Quote :

Your buddy want to paint another one? Ive got all the materials. Just no place to spray

I could ask him, but Im pretty sure the answer would be no thanks. His neighbor was bitching about the smell the ENTIRE time.. and has called the cops in the past. If you have any kind of a garage with a compressor this could be done though. Its not like we had a professional paint booth setup or anything. Just a few tarps over the tool boxes and water on the floor to keep the dust down. Pretty fancy stuff. haha

nice front bumper! lol


the car looks odd without the black lines around it. but looking good!

^^ Lol thanks man! The car was wet with paint no more than 3 hours after we picked up the bumper from you. It made it a lot easier to pick one up local, so thanks again!

paint job looks good, What color white did you use? the Altima wheels look pretty good on it imo.

Looks really good man, I dig your style.

^^ Thanks guys!

We used "Toyota Super White" code 040. I know they used it on the white Scion TC for sure, and Im sure they used it on other Scions and Toyotas as well.

you can always make the line with electrical tape lol!

^^ I am 99.23% positive that the previous owner/ body-work-doers did just this for the line on the rear bumper. It was a tremendous pain in the arse to get it all off. Using a heat gun when its already 101 degrees in the garage is NOT fun.

Looks good.

Just a little update on this for you guys. Not a whole lot has changed since I'm so busy with my last year in school and all. Also, not having a garage to escape to seriously hinders progress. My projects usually move a lot faster than this. Oh well, no rush just enjoy the ride right?

Anyway, big thanks to Nick and Liz for the hookup on some super good condition Megan Streets. Honestly probably the best used parts transaction I have ever had. Its nice to know there are still good people in the car scene! Thanks guys!

Tossed those puppies on and lowered the car a bit. Its not slammed by any means, but I haven't gotten around to pounding back that pesky pinch weld above the tire, and its probably not worth going any lower without a decent set of wheels and at least some camber correction in the rear.

A week or so ago it was nice out on a Sunday so I took to the car with its first coat of wax since the re-paint this summer. I've never waxed a car before, as this is the first one I've owned that deserved it (see: shitbox DSMs). My shoulder hurt BAD for a few days. Totally worth it though. The wax brought out the shine on the black top more than anywhere else on the car, and I was pretty happy with the results. Anyway, we headed out to catch a few quick photos before all the leaves were gone. A real quick edit of a few and this is what we got!

(all photo work done by a good friend of mine, Andrew Smith-- MyBoostedGST Photography, not me. I suck at cameras.)
















The plan for the future is still a 5 speed swap (I have all the parts, just need the space and time), wheels, camber correction, a tad lower, and maybe an exhaust. After that, I believe I will be happy with it for a while.

Looks much better being low(er)

Sweet, how many coats of base, and clear you do?

coilovers were def. a great addon!!

Thanks guys!

Quote :

Sweet, how many coats of base, and clear you do?

I wasn't in the garage when my buddy was physically spraying the car since he only had one good mask, and I didn't feel like asphyxiating for the sake of watching paint dry. But he said he did 3 base and 2 clear coats.

ujsp wrote:

Thanks guys!

Quote :

Sweet, how many coats of base, and clear you do?

I wasn't in the garage when my buddy was physically spraying the car since he only had one good mask, and I didn't feel like asphyxiating for the sake of watching paint dry. But he said he did 3 base and 2 clear coats.

Sweet, how long did it take to wet sand and buff it all?

Was this car from the Green Bay Area? Looks very familiar

Anyways the paint looks great you did a awesome job this car looks brand new again!

The car was in the garage for about a week, but it obviously wasn't being worked on the entire time. Fixing rust is fairly time consuming, and teaching a total newwwb (me) how to do advanced-ish level body work isn't the quickest thing either.

But to answer your question, maybe 5 hours was put into wetsanding and buffing. I elected to not wet-sand, as I didn't want to screw up all the hard work by sanding through the clear, so I had my buddy do it all. And again, for fear of burning through the clear, he didn't go super crazy with the wet sanding. If one wanted to, they could spend a LOT more time on it, but honestly, its good enough for me. There comes a point when a car is so clean/fresh/nice that your afraid to drive it, and I want to be able to drive the car without freaking out about every little rock chip.

And yeah the car was at a small corner lot in Green Bay. ABC auto sales I think?

Hey guys, a small update here for you I guess. Well, not really an update, more-so just me getting really sick of winter and collecting parts in preparation for spring to hit. The car is still in storage, and will remain there until mid May when I graduate (hopefully).


I picked up a full 5sp swap a while back.
-Trans with mounts
-driveshaft
-fantastic condition clutch
-flywheel (got it resurfaced already)
-TOB (I'll probably replace this with a new OEM)
-Slave cyl with full SS braided line

I also made a trip to the dealer to get a new shifter bushing (the little plastic bit on the bottom of the shifter), some PP to flywheel bolts, a manual pilot bearing, and a few other random items for the swap.



Anyone ever seen green gear oil like this before? Smelled new too.



Got a Z32 VLSD out of a 142,xxx mile partout. There is a lot of mixed information about whether the VLSD is any good or not, so I guess we will see. Any opinions? I'll still need 5 bolt axles from a J30, and swap the S13 diff cover on, but then it should be bolt in as far as I am aware.









Also grabbed some Z32 front calipers from a junkyard. Ordered a rebuild kit and some pad shims from Z1 Motorsports, and tore it apart. Sanded and wire wheeled them a bit, and now they just need paint or powder. I haven't decided which route to go yet. As for the rest of the brake setup, I still need to order rotors, pads, and lines. I'm staying 4 lug to make things simple so Im ordering Circuit Sports 4lug Z32 rotors and conversion lines. The rears will be staying stock S13 with new rotors, pads, and lines to match the fronts as I don't feel like messing with swapping in Z32 e-brake parts.



In the backround of this one, you can also see the Megan Streets that I pulled off the car before I stored it. Those will be going back on in spring obviously.



And finally, wheels. I needed some bad. I know they aren't "real" wheels, but I don't have the funds for expensive wheels, and I sure as hell don't want someone to steal them off the car at night. This is Milwaukee after all. They are 17x9.75 +25 xxr 527s. I got 5mm spacers, hubcentric thinggers, and lugnuts with them. But no centercaps. I CANT STAND no centercaps. So I made some!



They are made from a "2in Knock-Out Seal" with a coat of plasti-dip, an Axis Racing sticker, and some jewelers clear epoxy to top it off. I got the idea from here:


LINK

The epoxy layer didnt turn out quite as well as I wanted, but overall I am pretty happy with them.



These are not the centercaps we're looking for.



And thats about it for now. Im just waiting until spring when I can finally toss some of this stuff on the car. Anybody else feel the same way????