My 1990 300zx Twin Turbo build by megaDan

9 minute(s) of a 731 minute read

Here's hoping the monthly update becomes a thing.

Yesterday was Cars and Coffee in Lake Mills. (If anyone from the Milwaukee area has not attended and wants to check it out, shoot me a PM. We tend to have a good contingent leaving together from the Delafield every month) Fantastic turnout despite the heat and the modifications made by the crew to improve parking speed and reduce traffic were splendid. Lots of positive feedback on the Z :-) Personal highlights include a clean 84' Lancia Delta and a Caterham kit car with a flowmeter as a speedometer (edit: forgot about the LFA!). Unfortunately I was learning how to use a new lens so I didn't get any photos of either spectacle worth sharing publicly.

After the crowd cleared out I spent a little more time with the camera; this is gonna take some practice.

One...decent shot I guess.

The weather was about 85* and sunny and the Z held up well. Given the fact that I was battling heater core issues in the spring I thought higher temps might expose a weak point. No issues at all. Very pleased. Only work planned for the early summer is swapping out the worn out factory leather shift boot/knob/ebrake boot with new versions my wife got me for my birthday a few years ago. Didn't feel right to install them on a work in progress.

Next C&C features a TSD road rally; here's hoping for good weather! For the record, Sunday's fill-up yielded 18.8 mpg. Not bad for mostly country roads. Despite all the fun that was had Sunday, the highlight of the day happened at about 9:30PM. Goodwood Revival tickets purchased!!!! Now I need help with my wardrobe...

5-25-2018

Life moves pretty fast...yadda yadda. So much for monthly updates. A hell of a lot has happened in the past 12 months.  
By the numbers:
4 vehicles purchased (3 mini coopers)
3 countries visited
14 states visited
2 heater cores replaced
1 trip to Goodwood.

June 2017
Family trip to Yellowstone. What a blast! Stayed at the Murray Hotel, highly recommended. Went rafting on the Yellowstone river, hiked Mt. Washburn, saw a bear.

A week or two after getting back from Yellowstone I got a hit on Craigslist for a 2004 Mini Cooper S in my price range (<$1000). It needed a clutch, had water in the cabin, had some electrical gremlins, and needed some TLC but only had 100k on the clock. I drove it 50 miles home (gingerly) for $800 and got to work.

The July C&C hosted a road rally. The wife and I opted to take the Z, which was a fantastic decision despite the pouring rain during portions of the drive. They offered two classes, Experienced and Novice. I've never done a 'competitive' road rally, but I've done enough where I thought experienced was appropriate. There were quite a few 'rally' cars there with all the right equipment: clipboards, stopwatches, GPS, etc. I was definitely hoping not to place last.

The day ended up being a blast, and until the last 10 minutes we didn't really notice any mistakes we had made.....when we couldn't find the road we were looking for. I thought we were in good shape up until this point, maybe a remote chance of finishing top 3. We were totally lost and adding minutes to our time. Now I was back to hoping not to be last. We figured out where we were and drove....spiritedly...to the finish. Met up with the group, had some beers, swapped stories (shout out to the C4 Corvette driving with the targa down all day), and waited for the results. It turns out we did OK. Our deviation was half that of the 2nd place team. Apparently we killed it. Nice!

I finally got collector plates for the Z. No more annual registration to file or fees to pay! I don't plan on parting with this car for any reason. I should have done this years ago. Work continued on the mini. I planned on making this my person car for daily duty as well as the occasional track day, all while trying to keep the budget as small as possible. I replaced all the suspension components, bushings, ball joints, etc, except for the struts/springs themselves. I still had some new in box modifications waiting that I never installed on the mini I had 5 years ago. This one got a well rested supercharger pulley and camber plates. With the water on the floor, I expected the body control module to be toast. It turns out it was just the HK amp that was fried. I purchased one out of an E46 for $25, rewired it to work with the MCS, and I was in business. The water on the floor was caused by disconnected sunroof drain tubes. A $0 fix.


The build left me with a nice pile of mini parts next to the Z for 4 months.

Work on the mini continued through the summer through July and into August. Control arm bushings were shot and replaced with poly. Motor mounts were replaced, and while replacing the ball joints I discovered the factory fittings are apparently made of chinesium. A couple whacks with a hammer deformed the ball joint nuts like playdoh. Due to the fact that this is a Wisconsin car and has been sitting for at least a year, the underside was a bit rusty. I took my time getting it apart and didn't have TOO many issues. I learned that vinegar does a KILLER job gently but quickly getting rust off exposed fittings and surfaces.

We also did some shopping for our trip to the Goodwood Revival. There was no way we were gonna travel all the way there and not fully partake in the experience. I spent a lot of time trying to find vintage clothing or styles that fit, and I didn't have any luck. We went to Kohl's and found something that was close enough. It wasn't really vintage, but almost looked the part. I combined the suit with a flat cap and was very pleased. My Goodwood outfit was almost the only stressor for the trip, and it was finally taken care of.

I was hoping to get the Mini done before we left, but there just wasn't time. We left for our trip at the end of August. Flying to Iceland for a 24 hour layover, then to Spain for the wedding, then to England for Goodwood and more vacationing, and finally another layover in Iceland.

Iceland was incredible. So much so that we've already booked another trip and are spending another week there this fall. The first half of our layover was spent driving the golden circle. We stayed at an AirB&B and the next morning we spent a half day walking around Reykjavik and exploring the city. Unfortunately I lost my camera on a train in England so all my decent pictures of this portion of the trip are gone. Fudge.

The wedding was in Barcelona. We had two days to kill before the wedding itself. We did a walking tour of Las Ramblas and the gothic quarter. I have to admit, I didn't know what to expect of Spain, and I wasn't all that thrilled to go there. I was blown away by how cool Barcelona was. The food was incredible, the people were nice, and the city was beautiful. The wedding was unbelievable. My new brother and sister in law somehow planned this thing themselves from 2000 miles away. It went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. This was absolutely a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it.

From Spain we flew to London/Gatwick and took a train to Ashurst for our stay in the New Forest. This is where I lost my camera. Ugh. We actually did a great job of enjoying ourselves and not letting the loss ruin our trip. We got in around midnight, and we were up early for a trip to Bath. We made it an early night since the next day we would be up even earlier for THE REVIVAL!