Austin Thornton

What's up everyone!!

I have decided to write up my build thread, and use this platform to share everything with this car from here on out. Let's get started. For more pictures find me on facebook or instagram: austinth0rnt0n

I bought my 1987 Nissan 300zx Turbo GL (5 speed) in July of 2015 with right at 85,000 miles. I bought it from my uncle for $1500, and proudly with my own money. My aunt bought the car from the original owner back in '91, drove it for a few years and decided to sell it. She never had any luck selling it so she stored it in her brother's garage for the next 20 years or so in a small Ohio town (99% rust free!!). Her brother allegedly started it and "took care of it" up until we bought it. So the deal was I'd give my uncle $1500 for it and if I got it running for under $3000, I'd pay him the difference. Boy was I in for it. I was so stoked to have a turbo Z as my first car, and honestly this car was a cosmetic gem. Paint was in great condition and with the help of my Dad who used to professionally detail on the side, got it right. Mechanically, however, she definitely needed some love. At the time, I didn't have any mechanical skills, so in the beginning we took it to a family friend who had a shop. I drove the car from July to October before we had to take it in when it overheated. From there, they pretty much had the car until February, and when I got it back it was dialed. About $3000 later, I was daily driving her.

This is a super cheesy picture of the summer before my senior year of high school. I was 16 lol. It really hadn't been driven much in 20ish years, and he drove it 9 hours home fighting the overheating issue.



I'm skipping over some of the details because I don't exactly what happened when, but here is where she is at now.

Here's what been changed / modified during time at the shop:

-MSA front and rear sway barn w/ bushings
-K&N intake
-Cat delete
-General GMAX tires
-Fuel Pressure Regulator / fuel lines / injectors / injector wires (didn't get the recall and ended up burning up the cylinder 2 exhaust valve, so it needed a partial head rebuild) (and still fighting fuel leaks haha)
-Rear Calipers, pads, and rotors
-Diff serviced
-Spotlight switch
-Timing belt, tensioner, and idler pulley
-Water pump, thermostat, head gasket, radiator hoses
-NGK spark plugs and wires
-Auxiliary air valve
-Alternator, and then another one about 2 years later lol.
-Oh at some point my buddy made me a aluminum shift **** and did a rear wiper delete.
I have the rest of it dated:

-11/25/17 // 98190 miles - oil change
-7/15/18 // 102560 miles - oil change
-9/30/18 // 106300 miles - oil change
-11/07/18 - Powertrix RT Coilovers 8k/6k
-12/19/18 - fenders rolled
-12/26/18 // 110000 miles - oil change

During this time I had some MB battles 18x9.5 +21 square on the car. bought them for $400 drove on them for a few months and then sold them for $600. Currently looking for some clean 17" wheels. 18's were just too big for my taste, and the battles were really heavy. Here is some pictures.








- 5/2/19 // 112500 miles - Z32 Aluminum 30mm front calipers, ISR stainless brake lines, hawk HPS pads, and brembo rotors.
These brakes are tremendous, definitely need some wheels to show them boys off.



6/5/19 // 113900 - clutch master and slave cylinder replacement and clutch damper delete with s130 front brake line.

I think now I'm all caught up, probably still missing a few little bits here and there. Anyway this car is awesome. I recently drove it form Charlotte, NC to Columbus, OH and back with no issue. I took it to the tail of the dragon back in April of 2017, an autocross in September of 2017 and have literally daily driven it since i got it and I've had it for almost 4 years now. Now that I picked up a second car and working full time, I plan on making some big changes to ol Jess (short for Jessica). Will write again soon, thanks for reading!

-AWT

Austin Thornton

Okay so I have been planning some things out.

First thing, I am having a boosting issue. It feels like the compressed air in the system keeps escaping under throttle. I believe it is a faulty pop-off valve, so I'm going to get a 1" NPT plug and see if that does the trick. If that fixes the issue, I am going to order a boost guage and am mechanical boost controller. After a boost leak test, I'll dial her in to about 10psi. Looking for some 17x9.5 real wheels with a offset from 20 to 0, so if anyone has anything PM me! I am also wanting to do a catback 3" exhaust to increase the flow, especially when pushing more boost. Besides that, I also plan on dialing the paint back in. Here's what I am thinking: Decon wash, clay bar, iron remover, light polish, jescar polymer sealant, collinite 458 polish.
Kind of the obsessed garage special, but it seems to provide some awesome results.
Oh, I also plan to wrap all of my gray trim black because a lot of it is starting to fade (pics to come soon).

I would love some ideas on wheels, brands of wrap, detail methods, or anything else I talked about. I'll make another update when I make some progress, which should be this weekend.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

-AWT

Austin Thornton

Quick updated.

Spent last weekend trying to fix a noise that I thought came from the fan clutch. Ended up unscrewing the threads, and was just a big ol headache, but got everything buttoned up. This weekend I am planning looking to see if my wastegate is stuck open/closed and delete the emergency pop-off valve with the 1" NPT plug (just ordered a stainless one from amazon for $5). Either way, I plan on fixing my little issue this weekend.

Oh and I definitely just impulse bought a 3" turbo back (no cats, single tip) from CM performance, so pretty excited for that. Hope to have this issue fixed before my exhaust comes in. That is all for now, but I'd love to hear from anyone reading this. I was really surprised in getting 1000+ views in a few weeks, so thanks for reading!