What’s up everyone – 2017 is here, so I figured I’ll drop some teaser shots on what’s been going on out in the garage this Winter.
Around mid October, I decided to take on the task of tucking my engine harness on my 3000GT, modifying a lot of the chassis harness and some other fancy bolt-ons to clean up the engine bay from the old factory components. These cars are as notorious as the 300ZX when it comes to difficulty working on them and minimal engine bay space, so it is without question that this was a daunting task for me from the start.
The longest process of this winter build has been the wire tuck. Extending around 50 wires to be hidden throughout the engine bay takes, well…forever. New mesh style split loom was used rather than plastic loom and globs of electrical tape. It is so much easier to work with and provides a much nicer look and more flexibility compared to before.
Some fuel line upgrades were also completed to make it a fill AN system. 3SX Performance custom fuel kits allow these lines to be perfect, bolt-in alternatives to the OEM rubber lines – they’re also E85 compatible!
A Mishimoto fan shroud, fans and coolant expansion tank was added to the car to make a lot more room in front of the motor and get rid of the ugly, OEM coolant tank (seen here in our last article).
A custom relay & fuse box panel was made to mount in place of the glovebox. This simplifies many functions from the old OEM chassis harness, such as fuel pump control, fan control, lighting and more.
Next up on the list were “JDM” sidemarker lights that were originally intended for a Honda. GTO’s (Japanese 3000GT) had a tear drop style side marker light, but I felt that the rectangular style of the Honda lights fit the sharper body lines of a first generation 3000GT. After measuring twice, tape lines were set and some pilot holes were drilled in the corners.
A Dremel with a reinforced cutoff wheel was used to go corner to corner, while a metal file was used to make any final adjustments to the hole. In went the light, and the fender is now ready to go back on the car.
Fresh fluids from Pennzoil filled the crankcase and transmission before the cars first start since October, in the fear that the extended time that the car has sat in the garage has caused a break down in the oil’s properties.
In the anticipation of taking the car out to this weekend’s YUP!!! Truck Club Winter BBQ (see bottom of article for event info), it was due for a quick detail. A once over with a Meguiar’s Clay Bar pulled quite a few imperfections from the paint. It seems that at some point within the past year, the car caught some red overspray – whoops.
Some Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound cleared up some haze in the car’s paint. It’s crazy how paint may look fine, but you then realize how rough it was after clay and compound.
A final coat of Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell Wax sealed in the shine as it was time to tuck the car away for the night.
Stay tuned for the first full shoot of the car with it’s new wheel setup as well this weekend!
Photos & Words: Mike DeFusco
YUP!!! Winter BBQ & Meet Saturday 1/7/17 Lower Nike Park Warrington, PA 18914 11:00-4:00pm
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