My Project Z.

[Pharaohabq]

I got this Z a couple weeks ago, and should be working a bit on it. here's some pictures. Front right:

rear, little dent in the hatch, hopefully not too hard to fix.

Driver side:

Interior a little rough:

Door skin:

door plate

little rust, but this is about it

Right side pretty straight.

driver side, pretty straight

Left Side

Hood straight, paint not so good

Engine, dry and dusty, no obvious leaks, Bad EFI plugs tho.

Ditto, noted the 2nd fuel filter, thanks...

Color #

Probably didn't need to show this:

The emmissions cert is faded:

So now to decide what i can do with it.Phar...

[NSR_s30]

Hows the floorpans and rails? Looks to be a pretty solid project.

[evildky]

bing in NM I'm guessing it's solid....I hate you :p

looks like a good solid foundation for a great project

[Pharaohabq]

Yup, floorpans are great, no rust, not even any chipping of the undercoating, same for the rails. That was part of the first place I looked. Nothing in the spare tire well, nor above on the base of the rear hatch. the only spots I could find are behind the rear tires there's a little in there. I need to pull off the rear wheels and look inside the well to see if I'll have to replace anything. I sanded the outside and there's a little pinholing, so I'm afraid it's coming through rather than surface. on the right side rear it's kinda bad in the lip for the wheelwell, so I might be looking at replacing that edge. no fun... but not too hard. I've more been trying to source interior parts, I've found a lot, but the $ is a little high so I'm looking around for deals. Paint will be fun though, I don't particularly love the gold color but changing the color to something else is often a really big job.

Phar

[evildky]

a color change on an S30 isn't as bad as most cars, looks like most of your interior is in need of replacement anyway, and what better way to get to knwo a car than to strip ti to a rolling chassis

[Pharaohabq]

oh my, yeah that would be a ton of work... But you're right, the interior is going to be mostly replaced, so pulling most everything off before painting might be a good possibility. It'll take some time to do all that. I better take a lot of pictures so I know where everything goes. Are the windows hard to remove and reinstall?

Phar

[evildky]

the windshield has to be removed to replace the headliner, and it's a good idea to have it professionally reinstaled after 30 years to ensure a leakfree windshield, the hatch I'd also recomend leave tot he experts, the quarterglass is 4 screws each, takes 10 minutes and sdone, the door glass you can just roll down and pull the chrome mullion , prepping the engine bay is the most labor intensive but still nto too bad, you'll end up with a product you're much happier with

[Pharaohabq]

So When I have it painted, it's best to paint to hood/fenders separately from the body right? I'm a little nervous tearing the whole thing down, but you're right, I'd be much happier knowing I didn't fark it up... I don't particularly want to pull the dash tho (unless I can find a non cracked one cheap

Phar

[nsrZ32]

Solid looking s30 congrats

[evildky]

depends on your bodyman and what he likes, and how much work you want to do yourself, you can go to anyshop with a blank checkbook and let them handle it, most would prefer you remove all body panels, doors, hood, hatch, fenders, buckets, valance, and jam thema nd the chassis, then put it all back together, then they can paint all the panels on the car at once you you get consistant, even color

[Pharaohabq]

"Jam" them and the chassis? Sorry, again this is a term I'm not familiar with... Do you mean sand, strip and replace? Near as I figure, Jam = gooey paint remover.... Is there a recommended type for 30+ year old paint, at least two layers....? Phar

[evildky]

lol, guessi I shouold have said "jamb" as in to paint the "door jamb's" basically you get all your pieces alighned and fitted, take them apart and paint all the mating surfaces, inside doors, under hood, hatch etc, then bolt it all together and have a good painter spray the outside of the assymbled car so the color and coverage is even

[Pharaohabq]

ahh, okay. That we can do. clear everything out of those areas, and mask then then after choosing the paint color, have those innards painted. that makes sense. I wonder if I should attempt to spray those areas myself. though I'm not exactly setup for HPLV painting, so I should likely ask my body shop what all they need me to do.

Thanks, I guess it's obvious I've never had a vehicle painted

Phar

[zman07]

body looks great, how are those frame rails and floor pans

[Pharaohabq]

they're great, no rust. it's a New Mexico car so rust isn't much of a problem. I looked under the interior carpet and nothing rusty at all. I jacked it up and there's a little surface pitting where the undercoat had been scratched, but it's nothing bad at all, I was going to sand and recoat the spots on the underbody before I prime and paint the topside. I have a little rust behind the rear wheels, but but that's the worst of it. I'll have to put in some new panels to fix that, but otherwise it's really nice. As you can see my interior isn't so good, but I've got all the interior parts cept the wheelwell vinyl and the door panels, to change the color to black.

I would like to put in a L28ET but $ permitting, I might just stick with rebuilding the stock engine. it was sitting for around 6 years before I got it, and It looks like I'm the 3rd owner. I got the Stock engine started, but I think it should be rebuilt. If you guys have any advice I'm always willing to listen.

thanksPhar

[06r11179]

congrats on the project z. yours looks better than when i got mine. i found mine in a field near my uncles house and lean sale it. after a few 10,000 dollars later she is a great little car and every dollar was well worth it. congrats again.von.

[Pharaohabq]

Unfortunately, my honey-do list is a killer this summer, hopefully I'll get to the paint stripping and all this fall. Then I can put all the new parts into the interior. I'm still trying to decide on what to do with the engine. The stock NA L28 runs pretty good now that it's been run a while. though an RB or a VQ35 from a 350Z would really be nice. but it's all $$$. my wife is still wondering why I bought a 30yr old car.

As far as Southwest cars go, I've actually got a line on a few other S30's out here that might be availiable. There's a 240 in baby blue, that I know has been sitting in a yard for oh I dunno 15 years maybe. It might be availiable, I'd have to go knock on a door. I see good ones in craigslist pretty often too. I know a guy who's parting out 3 240's right now too...

Phar

[DachshundTooAteEZ]

280s are the best, that's great

[hitbychance]

sweet car man im sure it'll make a great project

[Captain!]

love the old z's

[Pharaohabq]

okay, Just a quick update, I haven't done much to the car while I'm looking for an L28ET. I found one for 600, but it has a spun bearing in the bottomend, so I'm not sure that's worth it. There's another in Tx that they guy wants to sell the whole car, no title. little wary on that.

I did get the old L28 working okay, and I swapped in a new master cylinder, but the brakes are only 1/2 there, so I think I need to look at the seals on the wheel cylinders.

I've got the whole new interior sans seats, carpet and hatch panel, but those shoudlnt' be too tough.

I've got a voltage leak somewhere tho, since the battery is new and went dead. but I can jump the car and it'll run and charge the batt, just if I leave it sitting it'll go dead, so I need to figure that one out. Lastly my Fuel gauge doesn't work, Tho I think they swapped the fuel tank at some point, so maybe they didn't hook it back up right. I'll get into that later.

Phar

[ineverwenttoprom]

I wish i didnt live in an apartment so i could work on something like that. Looks like fun. good luck with the build.

[Pharaohabq]

Okay, Quick update. I've decided to swap in a VQ35HR rather than try to rebuild the old L28. an ET might be nice, but the VQ has way more power, 6 sp transmission too. I'm amassing parts for now tho, so I'll let you know when I get into the teardown, of course with picts.

Phar

[joker350gt]

Okay, Quick update. I've decided to swap in a VQ35HR rather than try to rebuild the old L28. an ET might be nice, but the VQ has way more power, 6 sp transmission too. I'm amassing parts for now tho, so I'll let you know when I get into the teardown, of course with picts.

Phar

[evildky]

I like the idea of the VQ swap, I half considdered it before ordering the custom pistosn for my L28, but the cost of the engine trans all at once is a bit much for me to spend all at once

I see you're already in contact with 240hoke over at hybrid, so most of your issues were covered in his thread

[krayzie94]

How much did you get it for? I you don't me me asking.

Also, can anyone point me in the right direction towards some general 280z information? (Curb weight, weight distribution, etc.)

[evildky]

zhome has a lot of data, not very user friendly but if you dig aroudn for a while you can find most anything

[krayzie94]

zhome has a lot of data, not very user friendly but if you dig aroudn for a while you can find most anything

Thanks for that, I'll try to gather what I can from it.

[Pharaohabq]

hehe! I paid $400 for the car. So far, Vq35HR engine/harness $500 +$380 shipping

6sp G37 transmission : $750 + $125 shipping

Parts needed.. ECU. looking, hope to pay <$300 but who knows. Car-parts has em for $500. BCU found one I need to buy $100. NATA looking. Other misc parts I'm sure I'll need like at least another $500 bucks worth. but hey it woudn't be a project w/o this. Oh, I'm hoping paint will be < $1000 too. I'll probably do all the sanding myself, and let someone experienced do the actual painting. though I might paint the engine comp myself.

I'll put in more updates as I actually get started.

Phar

[gerwalke75]

400 for solid frame rails and floor boards?!?! I hate living in the southeast.