Wednesday, July 12, 2023

300ZX - Ground up epic re-build - The start!

There are a lot of cars that are put together and look good from far but far from good. To me it's the little details, it's the things you don't see sometimes but know and feel that it's done the right way. This was one of those builds. Let's just call this build Snowball primarily because this snowballed into a really extensive attention to detail build.

Sam is the owner of this 1995 Nissan 300zx and his passion for this platform is alarmingly scary and it was a pleasure bringing his vision to reality.

The car started off as a clean stock 300zx with some OEM+ wheels from a different platform. Clean and stock. He initially wanted the factory motor resealed, refreshed some aftermarket components a slight tune and go. Well that's not what happened. He ended up wanting to do a fully built motor, upgraded turbo's, turbo manifold, fuel system, intakes, everything for streetable power with efficiency shooting for the 600hp range. 

Phantasm motorsports pulled the motor and the build was underway. Of course Z1 Motorsports was involved. Seeing their facility itself you are in a sense of awe. Had all the stock components shipped out and was waiting. 






During the wait I guess the itch of not being able to do anything got to Sam and he wanted to get the body refreshed. Well, went down that rabbit hole. The body shop in Garner, NC did all the body work. Stripped the car including the engine bay down to find a lot of issues, nothing major but enough to warrant fixing. The battery tray was rusted, found some stress cracks near the strut tower years and years of grime build up etc. Sam wanted everything fixed and that's what happened.




I targeted the completion of the engine bay first. In the event that the motor etc came back at a reasonable time the engine bay would be ready to accept all the new goodies and then the rest of the car could be tackled at the body shop and not worry about any damages to the fresh paint. 



The subframe was removed as well. While it was out got that refurbished too, removed all the old bushings, stripped it down, fresh powder coat and all new bushings and hardware.   






With all the engine bay issues addressed that got a fresh new coat of paint. I love the Lexus color Glacier Frost Mica, it has so many shades and character under different lighting and Sam saw it too so that's the color that got picked. 





A detail that you wont notice would be the painted brake booster as well. Primarily because the black bulky booster would be an eye sore on the firewall. 


This picture shows the difference in color between the engine bay and the factory color. 


With the engine bay addressed and the subframe reattached to make it a roller again there was another surprise in store for the car. Follow the progress...


-AJ Abraham


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@ashc_sam



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