Agreed...

 

Day 9: and the problems begin.. Not sure if I've mentioned that the chassis I got is a 2003 enthusiast automatic. Mines a 2003 touring manual. I was told that the frames should be the exact same with all the holes drilled and such for both models.. This is untrue. Yesterday as soon as I got it home I noticed small things like it's got a different master solenoid for the brakes and it doesn't have a hole drilled for the hydrolic clutch fluid and line. But those are small things. One big thing I've noticed is the retainer for the shifter.. Where the hole is for the auto is a squar.. And the manual is a circle.. How am I supposed to bolt my shifter onto the frame? And the pictures just show that yesterday I began stripping all the interior and dash.

 

I don't envy the head aches that these subtle differences will cause you.

Sound's like you're going to need at least an angle grinder, dremmel tool and possibly some aluminum tapping drill bits.

Some more specific pictures of your problem areas will help folks give you solid advice.

 

I'd find a welder who can cut and weld that stuff to make it for your MT Z!

 

That sucks, things just got that much more complicated.

 

that would work to although all that aluminum welding could be even more frustrating than drilling and tapping...

 

Day 10: finished gutting out my donor. And the shifter holes are the least of my worries, I'm just worried of what else is going to be different.. Mounting bracket for trans or anything big like that.. If anybody here has done a auto-manual swap please give me your input on what other issues I may have! Thanks

And it's so stripped down I might as well just put a LS motor back I'm it and make it my track car

 

Seems you got $1.15 in your tray there! Sweeeeet.

Looking forward to more pics of the part swap over.

 

Day 11: about finished gutting the new shell out. Now I have to put everything back in..

 

If you're going to do an LS swap into that thing, it's going to require a ton of work but there is a place that sells a LS swap specifically for the Z:
http://fueledracing.com/
I'd try there first if you're serious.

 

I was interested until I saw the prices.. A grand just for the engine mounts. I don't have the time or money, I'd just rather put the turbo back on. And btw since I already have the engine out I'm going to try to put a front mount on it instead of the rear mount. If anybody knows the best place to buy cheap but good quality headers let me know. And I probably won't be able to fit my turbo In there so if anybody is selling a small turbo also let me know!

 

Look who just found this thread Just wondering if any of you guys know if there is a difference in the rear ends, gearing or otherwise between the touring and a base or enthusiast, or whatever this silver thing might be.

 

I think the only differences are between MT and AT (MT-3.53 AT-3.35 IIRC, ) as far as gearing goes. And the other difference, is that the Base model rear ends are configured with an open diff, whereas the enthusiast, tourning, etc.. models have a VLSD.

 

Okay.. I'm finally back! I'm almost done so I'm not going to catch up by telling what I did each day, instead I'll just post pictures of some of the things I've had to do so far. The days don't matter, I'm almost done so it will be less than a month anyways

 

So up next after stripping all the interior I wend ahead and made the auto- 6 speed transfer. Only thing I've had to do so far was make a template from mine and cut a hole in the firewall for the hydraulic clutch line. Everything worked out great,the pedal bolted onto two of the 3 oem pre drilled holes. But the 3rd was non existent so I had to make a sleeve spacer and bolted it down so it's stiff. Turned out nice. All that's left is the boot mounting and it will be ready for a manual. I got the clutch line bolted In also, this required me switching master solenoids also.

 

Next was interior.. Very time consuming. But finally finished. I've never seen so many wire harnesses, it's really a miracle all of the electronics worked when I plugged it up yesterday! Replaced starter and broken engine mount and time to put the engine in tomorrow!

 

One problem I've ran in to is a plug on the main dash harness.. It figured out where all of it went except one plug.. There are two blue plugs on the same strand and they are the same exact thing, they are both together and I'm 90% sure one of them is supposed to go to the clutch pedal because that's what it reached and it's the only one not plugged up lol. But here's the issue.. There's two on the harness and only one on the pedal. I figured only one is needed so I plugged up the one with yellow tape on it. Think the other one is for different models?

 

And the pics up there of my interior are all of the silver car, I took all of my blue cars interior and electronics and replaced everything that's not welded to the frame. It shouldn't be considered a flood car.. I got it on the lift today and looked up under it, I'm going to swap rear ends just for kicks and giggles but everything appears to be fine on the sandy car.. Oh I ran a carfax on the silver z and it was declared flood salvage in 2012 in NJ.. So it's new nickname is sandy since it must have been hurricane sandy.

 

From the accident I'm sure. You would have noticed when you were pulling on the engine. When I stripped my buddy's wrecked Z, both engine mounts, the trans mounts, and the driveshaft were ALL broken.

Caliper covers FTL!

 

Did you figure out the AC switch problem?