Chris Hammondhttp://www.chrishammond.comRSS Feed for Chris Hammond120This 240z gets aroundhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/2222/This-240z-gets-around<p>Apparently that’s the word on the 240z. I sold it in January 2010 (or somewhere close to there) and since then it has apparently changed owners twice (possibly more).</p> <p>I emailed <a href="http://www.project240z.com/Blog/itemId/479/The-240z-Lives-and-it-looks-great.aspx" target="_blank">the guy who sent me photos in October after he painted it</a>, to see how it was, and he tells me it was sold in December <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-sadsmile" alt="Sad smile" src="http://www.project240z.com/Portals/0/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/This-240z-gets-around_C988/wlEmoticon-sadsmile_2.png" /></p> <p>If you are the new owner, drop me a line, I’m curious how things are going.</p>Chris HammondMon, 13 Jun 2011 17:20:26 GMTd54febe0-8d79-41a3-9d76-647a5f79c4f0The 240z Lives! and it looks great!https://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/2029/The-240z-Lives-and-it-looks-great<p>So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged here on Project240z.com, reason being that I sold the car quite a while ago. Back this summer I got an email from a guy telling me he was the new owner, having purchased it from the guy that I sold it to. Then, a couple weeks ago I got these in my inbox (see full post for photos):</p> Chris HammondSun, 14 Nov 2010 01:50:22 GMT559c1585-9728-4771-b925-53cfc5cf2c6bProject240z Lives Againhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1973/Project240z-Lives-Again<p>Yes, it's true folks, the Project240z lives again! Check out the latest incarnation!</p> <p>PHOTO REMOVED</p> <p>So what if it is in a web based video game.</p> Chris HammondSun, 15 Aug 2010 18:24:10 GMTa08f5092-41b6-45db-84d2-1a5f08620c72Tis soldhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Blog/itemId/1887/Tis-sold<p>So this won’t be the final post here on Project240z.com, but we are likely coming close to the end. This weekend the car sold, an airman from the local Air Force base in Denver came by and gave me a deposit for the car. I’m going to try to get the title cleaned up this week and hopefully get it to him this weekend if he comes up with the rest of the money.</p> <p>I’ll post again when the car is gone. Thanks for all the interest in the car lately, unfortunately 99% of the interest came after I sold the car, not before, but oh well. For now check out my new toy, <a href="http://www.project350z.com/">http://www.project350z.com/</a></p> Chris HammondWed, 27 Jan 2010 08:55:48 GMTaf4e40a0-8629-47be-9951-7e955c3880101973 Datsun 240z For Salehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1876/1973-Datsun-240z-For-Sale<p>So I really am looking to sell the 240z this time around. Though, the more time I spend on it, the less I want to sell it, so perhaps I’ll continue working on it while I wait to see if it sells, and then who knows what will happen after that. At this point in time I’m not looking to part the car out, that might change in the future, but for now I’ll keep from parting it out. Basics: Price: $1750 with all the spare parts (storage bins full), $1250 with the car as it currently sits. (add $250 to clean up title) Year:1973 Make: Datsun Model: 240z Title: None (can be acquired at additional cost) Mileage: Unknown Location: Parker, Colorado (delivery available at $1.25.mile up to 500 miles from Parker, CO)</p>Chris HammondSun, 03 Jan 2010 15:56:15 GMT1133fb7e-06a0-4d19-a673-064a63825108For sale again?https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1872/For-sale-again<p> For any of you who follow the website regularly you'll notice that I haven't "put" the car and website up for a sale in a while. Well, it's your lucky day.</p> <div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: 1.4; "> <p>I'm considering putting the car up for sale, as well as the domain names (www.project240z.com and www.240z.net).</p> <p>In the next week or two I'll get everything together, car and website info, and likely get it listed on Ebay. I'll set it up with a reserve auction, if it meets that reserve then I'll sell it all outright, if not I will likely start parting things out. </p> </div>Chris HammondSun, 27 Dec 2009 01:10:09 GMT7d5f24d5-e45e-4bab-8cf0-8e97e96e3e23Welcome to yet another project! A 1995 Audi A6https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1838/Welcome-to-yet-another-project-A-1995-Audi-A6<p>So here we are, a new domain, a new project and a new car! This car, while a "project" isn't a project <a href="http://www.project240z.com/">like that other car is</a>.</p> <p>Since we moved to Colorado we figured it would be a good idea if we had AWD/4wd vehicles, so we sold our 2004 F350 and traded in our 2004 GMC Envoy for a 2008 F250 FX4 last week. That put us down to a one (running) vehicle family, I couldn't take it! I'd been looking around for a while for another ride and came across this Audi not even 5 minutes from our house. It's got just under 130k miles.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 15 Oct 2009 23:57:37 GMT5ca98b8b-287d-44a3-91cd-b4f0eb608c8cShould I make the 240Z Electric?https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1833/Should-I-make-the-240Z-Electric<p>Today, while I was hard at work, a buddy of mine sent me a link to a car on Ebay, it was a <a style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; " href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1984-GTI-RABBIT-517-ORIGINAL-MILES-ORIGINAL-OWNER_W0QQitemZ130335847774QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item1e589f355e#ht_500wt_1182">1984 Rabbit GTI with 517 original mile</a>s. I was looking at the car in amazement, seeing it was in St. Louis, and more so in Creve Couer, near where we used to live.</p> <p>From there I clicked on another link, I'm not even sure which one, and I came across a list of cars, one that peaked my interest, a <a style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; " href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Electric-Car-1957-Porsche-356-Speedster-Replica_W0QQitemZ260484651636QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item3ca6185a74">356 speedster replica</a>. I decided to check it out, and then I started reading more realizing it was also local to St. Louis, but get this. It is electric! I thought, oh that's cool, but then I scrolled down and started watching the video embedded into the ebay page. I'm 68 minutes into it, it's a 91 minute video.</p>Chris HammondThu, 08 Oct 2009 18:22:16 GMT58471f05-3b80-4d32-b9e4-5d326667759bYet another domain name, look out 240z.net is coming!https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1825/Yet-another-domain-name-look-out-240znet-is-comi<p>So for a month or so I've been waiting for <a href="http://www.240z.net/"><u><font color="#800080">www.240z.net</font></u></a> to go through the expiration process as the previous owner decided to let it expire. Well today it finally came through and guess who got it! </p> <p>Woot!</p> <p>Stay tuned as <a href="http://www.240z.net/"><u><font color="#800080">http://www.240z.net</font></u></a> gets built over the coming months. No sneak peeks right now as to what I plan to do with it. It will not just become a replacement for Project240z.com, I don't plan on this site going away.</p>Chris HammondTue, 22 Sep 2009 23:14:50 GMTbc122f7c-a319-49b4-80c0-10b96640b660Labor Day weekend and working on the 240zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1820/Labor-Day-weekend-and-working-on-the-240z<p>So the Labor Day holiday weekend is coming up, and my brother is coming to town. I’m planning on putting him to work on the car. I’m not sure what the goal for the weekend is, but I do want to at least get something done on the car! </p> <p>I was looking to try another body, one popped up last week on Craigslist but the dude sold it. I emailed, called, etc but the guy wouldn’t call me back, when I finally got in touch with him someone else had already purchased it, just my luck. </p> <p>So as of right now I’m going to keep the current body, unless something better pops up in the mean time.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/Thumbs/240z.jpgChris HammondThu, 03 Sep 2009 22:26:45 GMTe45b2d48-28d2-4d98-970b-e2c204215604Organizing the garage, and guess what I found?https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1814/Organizing-the-garage-and-guess-what-I-found<p>So we’ve barely been in the house three weeks and I already lost and found something! <a href="http://www.project240z.com/Blog/itemId/434/Out-goes-the-dash.aspx">So in my last blog post I complained</a> that I thought I left the fiberglass dashboard for the 240Z in St. Louis. Well I was wrong! Tonight while trying to get things moved around in the garage to make room for our two primary vehicles I was up on the loft moving things and came across the dashboard!</p> <p>So all is well again in Project240z.com land, well, as well as it can be! I was going to drive the car around the block tonight, and park it in the third car garage, but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen unless I wanted to take the wiring harness out of the old dash and hook up the wires. Right now the ignition wires aren’t going to anything, so that would make it kind of hard to start the car and drive it. Oh well, I moved it around a bit by hand and made room for one of our cars in the garage at least, the F350 will have to stay outside for a while longer.</p> <p>Hopefully by the end of September I’ll either have a new quieter exhaust on the car, or all the paint completely stripped off, or maybe even both!</p>Chris HammondMon, 24 Aug 2009 00:59:55 GMTdf3da4bc-5432-434d-bd7d-cde27b116fc5Out goes the dashhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1812/Out-goes-the-dash<p>So tonight after work I got the 240Z off the trailer, both of which had been parked in the Garage since we moved to Colorado a few weeks ago. I had lined up a storage lot for the trailer and wanted to get it out of the garage. Well the 240Z wasn’t easy to start, took a good 5+ minutes of attempts before it finally started up. Later in the day I realized the MAP hose wasn’t hooked up to the Megasquirt, that would explain the difficulty in starting! whoops.</p> <p>So I dropped the trailer off and came home to organize the garage a bit, moved the newly assembled shelves in place and started going through some of my boxes. After I got bored with the unpacking I decided it was a good time to put all the bulbs and fuses that I had purchased yesterday into the car. That was pretty quick and painless, but didn’t produce any fruit! I didn’t see any lights in the rear of the car at all. So what next?</p> <p>I simply decided to pull the dashboard out! The whole thing, gone, removed, not going back in (likely not) along with the blower and heater core. Why might you ask? Why not. The car will hopefully be somewhat streetable, but I won’t be using most of the gauges on the car anyways. For a speedo I’ll have the G2X (GPS data logging), for RPM I’ll likely have the G2X, or even a Netbook running the Megasquirt software to show me all the appropriate date from the ECU. So why do I need the stock dash? I don’t! Though I did realize after I pulled the dash that I left the fiberlass dashboard in St. Louis, and didn’t bring it to CO. Luckily I’m going back to STL next week for work and will hopefully get it packed up and shipped back.</p> <p>I’ll need to do some creative wiring, hooking up a switch for the headlights, a horn, turn signals, and even the ignition, but I think it will be cool to have all those as switchable items on a nice clean looking dashboard, not the big old clunky stock one. </p> <p>Here’s a photo sans dash.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3832794826/"><img alt="Sans Dashboard" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3448/3832794826_2bf00d6e2c_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p>Chris HammondTue, 18 Aug 2009 00:56:52 GMT8f414a97-081c-4931-afee-0b9c788d3a7e240Z update for Augusthttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1811/240Z-update-for-August<p>So I didn’t actually get anything physically done on the 240Z this weekend, but I did manage to get $40 worth of light bulbs and fuses for the car.</p> <p>I hope to start getting them installed tomorrow night so that I can start testing out the wiring, see what all I am going to have to rewire/fix in order to make the car street legal. Fingers crossed that the stock wiring still works fine!</p> <p> </p> <p>(My first blog post from my fresh install of Windows 7)</p>Chris HammondMon, 17 Aug 2009 02:56:15 GMT21d3b6bb-0c4e-435a-bb46-7ff23106d8c8Two years agohttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1810/Two-years-ago<p>Two years ago today was the day that the Datsun toasted Motor #1 on it's first autocross run! Here’s a shot of that first competition run.</p> <p><img title="" alt="IMG_3199 by you." src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1046/1099890831_dece40264a.jpg" width="500" height="333" /></p> <p>And then a short time later (same run) here’s my getting out to push it</p> <p><img title="" alt="IMG_3242 by you." src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1095/1100954876_fabcf871a6.jpg" width="500" height="333" /></p> <p>Here’s what we found when we just happened to pull plug #2</p> <p><img title="" alt="This isn't good by you." src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1408/1099448933_14d8ebae20.jpg" width="500" height="333" /></p> <p>And then this is what it looked like when I went to drain the oil from the motor</p> <p><img title="" alt="Drained by you." src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1107/1121489208_b95723354c.jpg" width="500" height="333" /></p> <p> </p> <p>A few things have happened in the two years since that fateful day. A few months later I purchased a <a href="http://www.corvettez06.org" target="_blank">2004 Corvette Z06</a> and autocrossed that for a year.</p> <p>I sold the Corvette.</p> <p><a href="http://www.project240z.com/Blog/itemId/430/Packing-the-garage-driving-the-car.aspx" target="_blank">I got the Datsun running again with another motor</a>, same turbo setup. </p> <p>We moved to Colorado. <a href="http://www.going2colorado.com">www.going2colorado.com</a></p> <p>In the next few weeks I hope to get more of the 240 back together, starting to work on the electrical system and such. Then during the first week of September the car goes to <a href="http://www.hanksvillehotrods.com">www.hanksvillehotrods.com</a> for a new exhaust, maybe I can talk them into a cage too ;)</p>Chris HammondWed, 12 Aug 2009 23:00:10 GMTcf632f14-38ba-4b85-ad5e-30086455b590Week number 2 in our first homehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1809/Week-number-2-in-our-first-home<p>So here we are, it is now week #2 in our new home here in Colorado, and we are still loving it!</p> <p>Even though the past few afternoons we’ve had some brief storms, the weather here is amazing. Here’s a result of yesterday’s storm</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3809994973/"><img alt="Hail from Today" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/3809994973_c029995be0_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p> <p>The hail didn’t appear to cause any damage to the cars thankfully, it was definitely interesting to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3810807564/" target="_blank">see it all coming down</a>, and then <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3809992353/" target="_blank">a result of the gutters</a>. We were our furniture shopping yesterday, and while we almost bought something I quickly learned that getting a second mortgage instead of doing PMI hits your credit pretty hard. To be frank, my credit score dropped 50+ points in the past week! Oh well, I’ll just have to work harder to pay that portion of the mortgage off quickly. We were going to do no interest financing on the furniture, but I think we’ll just pay cash for it now, so hopefully by Friday we’ll have living room furniture! </p> <p>We also stopped by the local mall, Park Meadows, holy cow that place is fancy! We hit the Borders to check out the computer book section, thankfully I <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3809995977/" target="_blank">found a copy</a> of <a href="http://bit.ly/dnnbook/" target="_blank">my book</a>!</p> <p>Tonight we figured out that a garbage disposal will not handle everything. So I had to clean out the pipes under the sink, lesson learned :) <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10981363" target="_blank">We also went skating for the first time in Colorado tonight</a>. Natalie is not as comfortable on skates as I am, of course I’ve been skating for 18 or so years, so it' is understandable why. We went just over 7 miles tonight, if you look at the <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10981363" target="_blank">heart rate on the graphs</a> you can see some data about the skate. We figured out it was mostly downhill the first 3.5 miles, then we turned around and boom, uphill into the wind. You can see my heart rate jumped and pretty much stayed up the whole way back.</p> <p>On Sunday we got to meet the neighbors behind us, they also closed on their house on the 31st, but they’ve not fully moved in yet as they have a lease until the 24th of this month. They are a couple, around our age, no kids. I think we’re going to get a long great, we must of spend an hour or two talking to them on Sunday, it was nice. The house they purchased was one of the short sales we were bidding on, I think it worked out best for everyone right now, they got a great house, and so did we.</p> <p>The rest of the weekend consisted of me driving around looking at furniture stores, electronics stores, and a VW car show! That was fun, nothing like the bug shows in California, but way better than any VW show I went to in Missouri. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/tags/vw/" target="_blank">Here are a few photos from the show</a>. I also got the <a href="http://www.project240z.com" target="_blank">Datsun 240z</a> started up for a bit on Sunday. I’m hoping to get it to a muffler shop this week so I can get it quieted down and then maybe be able to run it a bit more frequently as I try to get it tuned up and drivable. Natalie spent most of the weekend at the barn watching a dressage clinic, though we did go out to dinner with a number of the people from the barn on Saturday night, that was great fun and a good time for Natalie to get to know some people.</p> <p>This weekend coming up we have a lot planned. Saturday we’re going to go up to Leadville to watch the mountain bike race. A few of my fraternity brother’s are racing in it, as well as Lance Armstrong! That should be fun, we are looking forward to being up high in the mountains for a while. On Sunday I am going to head down to Colorado Springs to the SCCA Autocross down there. I’m thinking I might tow the 240z down there and see if I can’t drive it around on an empty space in the lot for a while to use the area to tune the car while driving, we’ll see if I can get everything together for that!</p> <p>So that’s our update for now, hopefully everyone is doing well. We are really loving it here in Colorado, and look forward to lots of visitors this winter!</p>Chris HammondTue, 11 Aug 2009 23:51:36 GMT4f0c5002-3c7a-4695-83ed-d42350a7d79eCar is loaded for Coloradohttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1802/Car-is-loaded-for-Colorado<p>So I loaded the car up on the trailer tonight after work (well, between work actually). I’m going to take it to a buddy’s shop for a few days as we get the house packed up and everything loaded onto the moving (horse) trailer. Tuesday I’ll go pickup the car and we’ll hit the road for Colorado on Wednesday. </p> <p>I even drove it up on the trailer under its own power!</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3749868081/"><img alt="@project240z is loaded for trip to colorado. #going2colorado" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2454/3749868081_c4bd798642_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p>Chris HammondFri, 24 Jul 2009 02:10:37 GMT3f7ca1fc-e25c-469d-838a-f15773cdf5977 days till we leave Missouri!https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1799/7-days-till-we-leave-Missouri<p>Seven Days from now we’ll hit the road and head to Colorado, all of our life’s belongings with us, except the horse which should be there at the barn by the time we leave St. Louis. e’ve got a lot to do between now and then, but I do have all the utilities squared away at the new place. I got internet/TV/phone setup this morning, then called the other less important utilities such as power and gas :D</p> <p>We’ve been packing up around the house, there’s still a lot left to do, but hopefully we’ll get it finished tonight and Friday. Tomorrow we’re having a little get together at Dave & Buster’s here in town as sort of a going away bash.  <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103101229567">http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103101229567</a></p> <p>Friday Natalie is going to a concert and I’ll begin loading up the trailer. I hope to have an idea if we’ll be able to get everything in the trailer or not, if I can cancel the Budget truck by 10am we won’t get charged. But heck, even if we cancel after 10am, it only costs us $50. In my mind that’ll be $50 well spent, as we have the truck reserved for a Monday pickup if we do need more room for loading things. It’ll also likely tow the 240Z better than the Envoy will.</p> <p>We’re planning on leaving St. Louis some time on Tuesday, driving roughly half way (Salina Kansas or further) and then finish up the rest of the drive on Thursday. I’ll likely need to go down to Cplorado Springs on Thursday to get a bank account down there for our second mortgage, they’ll give us a discount on the rate if we have an account there for them to ECH from. </p>Chris HammondWed, 22 Jul 2009 16:53:04 GMT93e6c024-6293-44a0-9e8c-d8cf1af21370Packing up the Garagehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1797/Packing-up-the-Garage<p>So this weekend’s goal was to get the Garage packed up and ready for the move. I didn’t get much done in there yesterday, mainly just a few things assembled on the 240Z (<a href="http://www.project240z.com">http://www.project240z.com</a>) today however was a whole different story. I spent 9 hours in the garage, packing, cleaning, assembling, and throwing things out. I managed to get the car running, and even drove it around the circle (check out the 240Z site later for the video).</p> <p>I packed up the things in the garage that I could get into a box or container. There are a few more things to pack up, but mainly it comes down to getting the boxes out of the garage and onto the trailer next weekend. I have quite a bit of stuff to throw away or scrap. A load of metal I don’t think I want to move, so I’ll try to find a scrap yard this week where I can go and maybe even get some $$$ out of the deal?</p>Chris HammondMon, 20 Jul 2009 00:32:31 GMT9e4a72ca-a007-491b-b68e-1ba29c53ce6fSteering Column for a 73 240Zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1796/Steering-Column-for-a-73-240Z<p>So just an FYI so others don’t waste money like I did. The steering column off a 1978 280Z will NOT fit on a 1973 240Z. I contacted the ebay seller to check before hand and was assured it would, unfortunately upon reciept and attempt at putting it in the car it does not fit :(</p> <p>I guess I’ll just have to rig the bad 73 column for the haul to Colorado and look for another solution in the coming months. </p> <p>Lesson learned, don’t trust ebay sellers to know what they are talking about.</p>Chris HammondSat, 18 Jul 2009 19:51:31 GMT131049e5-9d51-4dcc-b436-75e1c62dfea5Photoslide show of the househttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1795/Photoslide-show-of-the-house<p>This blog post is going to be shorter than it could be, but for once in my life I’m going to hold back some information. I wouldn’t want anything I might say to jeopardize the closing of our house! </p> <p>So I was playing around online tonight, go figure, and came across this photo slideshow of the house. These are not photos I took. (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/tags/domingo/" target="_blank">here are photos I took</a>)</p> <p><span class="Publish_Video"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="355" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/XjWPBOeSjjQ"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XjWPBOeSjjQ" />Flash Not Installed</object></span></p> <p>So we are closing on the 31st of this month. I went out to Colorado last Friday and went on the home inspection. I had a good day, this was my rental car!</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3706568895/"><img alt="Oh no I didn't rent this, yes I did" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3420/3706568895_705ec14a75_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p> <p>I won’t get into too many details on the inspection for a number of potential reasons, but it went very well. Nothing too major was found, and the one item we wanted inspected is getting replaced! </p> <p>Now we’re in the bind of figuring out how we are going to get to Colorado for closing, hopefully with all of our furniture at the same time. We’re currently planning on loading up the horse trailer and a budget rental truck with all of our stuff, putting the 240Z (<a href="http://www.project240z.com">www.project240z.com</a>) on the car trailer, and drive all three rigs out the day before closing. We might leave even a day earlier, but in order for that to happen I have to rearrange a work trip that is scheduled Mon-Wed the week we close (we close on Friday). I hope to know if I can rearrange that trip tomorrow.</p> <p>So we’ve started packing, throwing lots of things out, reorganizing what we have, and want to take with us. We’ve got a long way to go, but I think we’re making good process so far. I’m hoping to get the Datsun back together this weekend and to spend the weekend packing up the garage. If I can get that done it will leave my office, and then clothing. Hopefully Natalie will tackle the kitchen this coming week!</p> <p>Natalie’s last day at the barn working is tomorrow, it’s a big change for her, not working every day. I look forward to seeing more of her!</p>Chris HammondFri, 17 Jul 2009 02:09:56 GMTdc62bf09-aec5-4109-a8c4-31f461900d7bPower washing the second suspensionhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1780/Power-washing-the-second-suspension<p>We got back from Colorado on Saturday night. Sunday afternoon I was out in the driveway power washing the extra suspension for the 240z. I got quite a bit done, it looks a lot better than before, and I also managed to get most of the disassembled so that I could get it sand blasted. I did manage to get grease all over the driveway though, which then go on the dogs when Natalie decided to try to wash the dogs in the driveway while I was out there. Whoops! Lesson learned, grease gets everywhere.</p> <p>I’ll hopefully have some time this weekend to get down to Egypt (my boss, with the sandblaster, lives way down in the sticks of MO) to work on sandblasting some of the parts so they can be painted and then reassembled. I’ll take pictures if any of that happens!</p>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:36:38 GMT844e03df-996d-4399-a01f-d8f67821fe0cStarting on the suspensionhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1774/Starting-on-the-suspension<p>With the <a href="http://www.project240z.com/Blog/itemId/424/It-runs-twice-and-therersquos-audiovideo-proof.aspx" target="_blank">success last night</a> I decided I had to work on the car this evening a bit. The first thing I did was get it up on all four jack stands so that they were under the frame and not under control arms of the car. This would allow me to begin working on the suspension pieces. </p> <p>When I got the car from Jeff, uhhh over three years ago now, it came with a second suspension that had been pulled off another car. This other suspension has springs (yellow), new(er) struts, a larger front sway bar, and also the addition of a rear sway bar. It also is a lot cleaner then the current suspension. So tonight I started pulling off the front suspension, starting with the sway bar, and moving on to removing the rest, at least what I could, of the right front.</p> <p>I got stuck at the tie rod, but I did manage to get most of the other bolts removed. I came to a conclusion though, I’m going to likely just drop the whole front suspension out, including the cross member as the second suspension has one as well. In order to do that though I am going to have to dismount the motor. I will attempt to do that by lifting the motor up off the mounts with the cherry picker, hopefully without having to disconnect the transmission and not removing the whole thing from the car.</p> <p>Before I do that though I will likely fully disassemble the other suspension and take it to a friend’s house to sandblast everything. I’m heading to Tampa for a conference tomorrow, so that will have to wait until the evenings next week. I’ll try to get everything disassembled during the week, both front and rear suspensions, and then probably go down to his place Saturday if he’ll be around.</p>Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:17:08 GMTce0d2911-e4e0-4250-9613-97c41cd74fffIt runs again!https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1748/It-runs-again<p>So today we had a garage sale, nothing that resides in the garage was actually sold, but we did sell a lot of stuff that we wanted to get rid of before the move. Post sale the 240Z got some love. Here's the timeline, without times.</p> <p>Attempt to start the car as is, no dice, turns over but won't fire.</p> <p>Remove the VR sensor, rewire it the opposite way. Nothing, no signal, looks like the EDIS doesn't see it at all anymore.</p> <p>Remove VR sensor plug, replace with a different plug, from the box of EDIS supplies.</p> <p>Crank, what, what you want me to start? Okay, vroom vroom</p> <p>Run around like a chicken with my head cut off, call Whittle and tell him the news.</p> <p>Put a fan on top of the car to blow out all the smoke from the garage</p> <p>Crank crank, damnit, won't start, flooded.</p> <p>Remove the plugs, dry them off, crank it without plugs to try to get rid of fuel, whoops forgot to turn off the injectors</p> <p>Turnoff injectors, crank it again, blow out the cylinders with air from the compressor</p> <p>Insert plugs, wires</p> <p>Crank crank vroom vroom vroom, turbo whistle</p> <p>It was a successful day!</p> <p>So tomorrow I'll get the radiator back on the car, and put the exhaust system on the car, and we'll see what she does then. The car is nowhere near done, but it feels great to have a car that starts again!!!</p>Sat, 09 May 2009 17:42:24 GMTf883031c-a21f-4c90-b224-ac0a368bf61dWiring up the engine and attempting to starthttps://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1741/Wiring-up-the-engine-and-attempting-to-start<div class="watch-video-desc description"> <p><span>I spent the morning with Dave and Terec helping to finish buttoning up items on the 240Z so we could attempt to start it today. We were successful in getting to the point of attempting to start it, though we weren't successful in actually getting it started, there's an issue or two that I need to track down. Likely issues with timing and firing for the Megasquirt. Because the last time I had the car running was back in August 2007 I've now got a new laptop and don't have it configured for the Megasquirt. I'm hoping to get it setup tonight and try to hook it up tomorrow to see what I find.</span></p> <p><span>Here's the video from today's work.</span></p> </div> <p><span class="Publish_Video"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="355" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/Plj8ZyVgPuQ"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Plj8ZyVgPuQ" />Flash Not Installed</object></span></p>Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:59:13 GMT5a32a707-dddf-412e-9d65-15ac135a72c9Working on the 240Z on a weeknight?https://www.chrishammond.com/Cars/240z/itemId/1739/Working-on-the-240Z-on-a-weeknight<p>I can’t say I’ve really put any effort into the Datsun on a weeknight in probably the past 20-22 months, tonight I spent a couple of hours in the garage working on a few things to get the motor ready to attempt to start it this weekend. I didn’t get a lot done, but the things I did will save the time I would have had to spend on Saturday doing them. I’ve mostly got the fan in place now, with 4 more bolts to put it onto the clutch. I put the single belt in place, and also hooked up the EDIS trigger on the 36-1 wheel for the megasquirt setup.</p> <p>I also put the throttlebody and the intake to the turbo back on the car. I put the battery onto the charger so that it’ll be ready to go Saturday. The more I mess with that thing the more I realize I need to get that moved to the back of the car soon after the car runs again, rather than having it sitting up in the engine bay taking up valuable room.</p> <p>I’ll probably do a few more of these minor buttoning up items tomorrow and Thursday night, leaving for tasks like the radiator and coolant, along with other minor things, for Saturday when Dave and possibly Terec are over to assist.</p> <p><span class="Publish_Video"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="355" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/2Ke7FK0CLHg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2Ke7FK0CLHg" />Flash Not Installed</object></span></p>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:07:16 GMT02c5c7b8-1e0f-40ab-99db-a23e43050e14