O RLY?!

I discoverd my new car had wheel locks on the wheels preventing a normal person with normal tools from easily removing them.  Why someone would put wheel locks on stock wheels from an 88 300zx, I haven’t the slightest idea.

I used a dremel to cut a 1/8 inch deep slit on the top of the lugnut.  Next, I grabbed a giant screwdriver and used a hammer to pound it into the groove I just cut.  After enough pounding, the lugnut split down the side.  I hammered a slightly smaller socket onto what was left of the lugnut and was able to break it loose.

The hard part was trying to get the broken lugnut out of the socket I hammered on so tightly.

I brought the car up to Perrysburg for Thanksgiving weekend to change the timing belt and a few other minor things.  My dad and I started the job early Thursday morning and didn’t finish up until Friday afternoon.  We had a some trouble getting a few parts off of the engine, mainly due to old age and lack of proper tools, but the job was pretty straight forward.  While the car was disassembled, we also replaced the oil seals, water pump, thermostat, and radiator hoses.

I identified a rattling noise coming from the right rear shock absorber.  I bought some Tokico Blue shocks and replaced both rear shock absorbers.  After getting the old ones off the car, I discovered that both were worn, so they were due for replacing anyway.

I ran power wires and a bunch of speaker wires for a 4 channel amplifier in the hatch of the car.  I’ve always been a fan of maintaining a stock look for the radio.  This keeps theives away and keeps the dash looking original.  Of course the factory radio lacks any power at all, and in this case, only has a cassette player.  The additional amp allows me to hook up my Ipod as well as providing significantly more power to the speakers.

I also began blacking out the chrome trim.  The chrome look is a just a little too 80’s for me.  I finished the t-tops, but had to stop on the rest of the car until the weather warms up again.

The clutch developed a whine while I was up in Perrysburg, so that will be the next big maintenance item to address.

Here is a list of what I have replaced so far.

• Hood struts
• Battery terminals
• Wiper blades
• Rear shocks
• Cam shaft oil seals and crankshaft oil seal
• Radiator hoses
• Thermostat
• Water pump
• Timing belt
• All accessory belts
• Headlights

I bought a used car.  Its a 1988 Nissan 300zx.  Don’t ask me why I wanted an 80’s sports car, I’m just at that age right now

I wanted an inexpensive sports car that I could work on myself and use to help teach me about repairing cars.  I avoided the traditional American sports cars (firebird, trans am, camaro, corvette, etc.) and searched for a less popular Nissan Z or Mazda RX7.  I found this Nissan on Ebay in Pennsylvania.  The body was in good shape and the miles were relatively low for a 20 year old car.

Scott and I took a day off work and drove to PA to pick it up.

My brother has agreed to help me with the first round of maintenance and upgrades over the Thanksgiving holiday.  This includes a timing belt and water pump replacement (highly recommended when purchasing a used Z) and also rewiring the audio system.

The only thing that scares me is attempting to repair the rust spots.  There are only a few, but everyone tells me body work is a nightmare.

I created a separate page for my latest project since it was kind of long.  I built a Home Theater PC (HTPC) inside my old Tivo case.  The page detailing construction can be found here.  I also added the link to the list at the right.

My laptop died a few months back and I have been looking for an inexpensive replacement.  There has been a lot of hype lately around ultra portable laptops and Dell recently released one of their own.  The Inspiron Mini was exactly what I wanted.  It is extremely small, lightweight, and inexpensive.  Compared to other high-end “compact” laptops (Thinkpad, Macbook Air, Vaio), the Dell Mini is a fraction of the cost.

Obviously this won’t replace your home desktop computer, but its perfect for carrying around and browsing the web or checking email.

Here are a couple of pics to give you an idea of how small this thing really is.