93anthracite.com

In case you haven't figured it out yet, this is the primary focus of the website. I'll be documenting the buildup and development of this car from stock street car to purpose-built track car. Pictured here is my 1973 Datsun 240z, as purchased in November of 2006. Along with updating the project pages, linked on the left, I will have short entries here for each time I work on the car.

Go to 1st entry of the journal below.

11/25/09
Removed engine and transmission.

11/14/09
On the interior, I have scraped off all of the foam left from removing the roof panel, leaving the only remaining part of the car with the original orange paint. It is now cleaned up and will be left as-is as a reference to the car's origin. Seats and harnesses have been re-installed.
I moved to the outside this weekend and used a wire brush wheel on my angle grinder to get off all the surface rust that had accumulated on the underside; luckily it's been in the garage, so not much had formed. Primed and then applied 3M #08883 Rubberized Undercoating to seal it up.

6/14/09
Applied seam sealer to interior along floor pan seams. The following weekend I filled a couple extra interior holes and then painted over the seam sealer.

4/18-4/19
Over the weekend I primed and painted the rollbar and floor pans. Pics here.

4/17/09
Had some work done at Quality Welding in Charlottesville, VA. They cleaned up some welding on the floor pans, plus attached my new frame rails and a jack rail. More details at the chassis page.

4/11/09
This weekend, my buddy Pete (85xr.com) and I cut out the old, rusty floor pans on both sides and installed new ones from MSA. Click here for more details.

3/30/09
Picked car up from Piper. They did a phenomenal job, as I knew they would; click here for a review on my experience with them. Here are links to take you to other areas of the site with their work: roll bar, seats & harnesses, fuel system, and sway bar reinforcement.

3/11/09
Dropped car off at Piper Motorsports to get a bunch of specialized projects taken care of.

3/9/09
Picked car up from Marty's Race Cars, click the link for details on my experience. What a colossal waste of time and money; I recommend anybody seeking auto work in Central VA avoid this shop at all cost.

9/1/08
Spray-painted the interior of the car a metallic grey. Much more detailed description here.

8/16
Finished prep for paint and primed interior. Also removed gas filler neck and fiberglassed hole where antenna was.

8/9-8/10
Applied 3-step POR-15 treatment for rust prevention on a multitude of interior areas. More detail here.

8/2-8/3
Installed carb linkage and removed emissions parts. Cleaned, polished, and painted taillights and reinstalled. Filled interior rust holes with PORPatch.

6/24
Removed all components and wiring to dash shell.

5/31-6/1
Cut holes and installed hood vents. Unwrapped original body harness and labeled to determine future plans. Stripped interior sound deadening & insulation w/ angle grinder.

5/24
Finished removal of dash-related components (heater core, center console, etc.) Removed insulation and sound deadening around firewall and dash areas.

5/22
Finished removal of body wiring harness.

5/17
Removed wiper motor and linkage and vacuumed debris out of cowl. Removed dash and most of dash harness. Nearly done with removal of body wiring harness.

5/10-5/11
Test placement of hood vents. Removed front grill. Removed sound deadening from floor pans back. Finished work on vented inspection lids.

4/26-4/27
Removed gas tank and electric fuel pump. Removed fuel vapor canister residing in passenger rear of interior. Removed old coolant line that supplied coolant to old carbs. Modified 2nd set of inspection covers to have a mesh vent in the center; still needs some smoothing out.

4/12
Stripper party! Pulled AC components, washer bottle, battery, blower motor, seats and carpeting, seat belts, center console, and front bumper.

4/5
Installed K&N air filters on SU carbs. Corner weighted car:

Empty: 2283 lbs. W/ driver 2451 lbs. These weights reflect the car as it came from the dealer with AC installed; I hope that it will be a little bit lighter when I am finished.

3/9
Drained gas tank.

3/2
Replaced radiator hoses and assorted fuel lines

2/9
Installed stock SU carbs. It is a considerable less complicated setup.

1/5/08
Purchased P90 L28ET + T5 trans for future build.

2007
Replaced fuel filter and mechanical fuel pump. Exchanged carbs for 73 carbs.