240Z restoration & car life
Finally some progress on rebuilding the engine. Spent lots of time controlling the bearing clearances, gapping piston rings etc. Doing my best to make sure everything is done correctly the first time. The block has been bored 0.5mm, as the cylinders weren’t perfectly round.
Damn, I’m going to miss this car… 8500rpm redline VVL is very addicting.
Last year, we did the restoration work and repainted the engine bay on the Z. A bit of bad luck with the clear coat made it yellow in a few spots, and along with a few other small mistakes, made me want to respray the engine bay. Although the car is originally “tennisball green”, I wanted to keep it white. We scanned the paint, and found it to be a Toyota color. However, I wanted the car to be a little bit more than just plain white, and at the same time I wanted to use a Nissan paint code. So after a bit of research, I ended up chosing the Nissan QAB paintcode, called Brilliant White, which is a… Read More →
In my opinion, oldschool rides deserve oldschool wheels. Or at least wheels that look like oldschool. With the introduction of cheap knock-off wheels the last few years, alloy wheels have become a huge debate within the car communities. Some are ok with buying knock-offs, probably for different reasons like available sizes and especially the price, while others frown upon them. I don’t care what wheels you put on your car, but personally I prefer the real deal. That being said, some wheels like the famous Watanabe banana-spoke wheels could be considered knock-offs themselves. For some really good info on “Kyusha shoes”, check out this link. You can guess by the picture what my favorite oldschool wheel is, what’s yours? (Image… Read More →
The new GT-86 / BRZ was by far the most popular chassis at Tokyo Auto Salon. No surprise though, as this is the newest performance oriented chassis from Japan. All companies were eager to show off their latest styling or performance products for the Hachiroku. It was awesome to see the different styles, from TRD, Greddy, Top Secret and many more. I believe there were over 90 GT86′s and BRZ’s present at the Makuhari Messe this year. Please enjoy the pictures!
Great film about a few of the many legendary Japanese car restorers. This gives a great insight into the different approaches to tuning and restoring, and about the heart and soul that goes into this cars. Please watch, enjoy and become inspired!
Some more pictures from the RWB New Year meeting in Roppongi. I’ve never been a big fan of Porsches, but I have to say – these cars have presence! Low, wide and loud, I can appreciate that – and I can definitely appreciate the work, heart and soul that goes into these cars. Maybe Porsches are growing on me… Awesome seeing these cars in real life! Enjoy the pictures.
Ok – time for more pictures from Tokyo Auto Salon. The second day, Saturday, was way more crowded that Friday, so it was more difficult to get pictures of the cars without people standing between the camera and the car. Also – I don’t have an external blitz for my camera, nor an expensive lens with low AF, so the pictures aren’t that great. Anyway, I won’t bore you with more rambling, enjoy the pictures!
Going to Tokyo Auto Salon has been a dream for many years, and this year I could finally make it happen. It was held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba as before, but was a fair bit larger than last year, according to official statements. There were over 800 cars on display, over 400 exhibitors, and some 300.000 people visited during the three days it was open. We went both Friday and Saturday, and that wasn’t enough to cover everything. Japan is a weird and wonderful place, and that also reflects in the car modifying culture. But you can read more about that elsewhere… Please enjoy the pictures!
I’m changing the layout again. Was never completely happy with the design of the previous one, especially the variable width. Using fixed width this time, and far smaller featured images, to hopefully make the website a smoother experience. Please bear with me as I sort it out.