Stan's blue 1978 260z

stanlonng · Post by **stanlonng** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 10:15 pm

Hi guys thought id do a bit of a proper intro to my Z..

she is a 1978 new Zealand new 260z that my Dad and I picked up late 2013 as a project to work on together while I was completing year 13 at school.
We bought the z sight unseen off of trademe, the only info we had about it was that it was parked up in a barn in otago in 97 with plans of a rebuild that didn't end up happening.
the gamble paid off as it is structurally rust free with the only rust being on the cowl and a few surface rust spots on various panels.

we started off with the major things like replacing bushings, rebuilding the master cylinder and the brake calipers and (of course) getting the engine running.
we managed to get all of the stuff we needed to get a wof finished on the day of my school ball in mid 2014 so got to drive my partner to the ball in that which was awesome!

I have taken the car to caffeine and classics at smales farm a few times and been to a few cruises so you may have seen us already!

shortly after then we decided to ditch the dreadful flat top carbs causing endless problems even after a rebuild causing the car to run incredibly rich. we ended up getting some rebuilt 240z carbs from a site in the states called micropolishing (similar to z therapy) and have had no issues with the carbs since!

The z has been coated in satin clear plasti dip to help prevent further surface rusting which seems to have worked quite well. I plan on slowly building it up over the next few years and dont plan to sell it at all.

Next on the list: Gearbox rebuild and electronic distributor to sort out the hard starting when cold

Hope to see you guys out there!

Cheers, Stanley

Greensheep · Post by **Greensheep** » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:21 pm

Welcome, wow great colour

Your z looks to be in great shape

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:41 am

Great post, excellent original looking car, welcome onboard. Keep us posted on the longevity and resilience of that plasti dip.

strydah · Post by **strydah** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:02 pm

Hi and welcome
She looks a beauty. Great to see original examples like yours given a new lease of life. Well done and keep us posted.
Steve

stanlonng · Post by **stanlonng** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:35 pm

The Plasti dip has held up well so far, put it on about this time last year and looks just as good as the day that I applied it

- Also, if anyone has any info on converting form points ignition to electronic ignition that would be greatly appreciated. I know I need to source a 280zx distributor but not sure what else is needed for the swap

Cheers,Stan

nustad · Post by **nustad** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 9:59 pm

Great to see another on the road - saw it at Caffeine and Classics - awesome to see a z represented. Keep the updates coming

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:08 pm

If you want to go electronic ignition look at the Pertronix type. Super easy to install great for the road and still retain your orig dizzy so no need to find another.

stanlonng · Post by **stanlonng** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:50 am

I have seen those pertronics ones on the z store but have had some problems with ordering stuff for our dizzy as its the smaller sized (70mm)
most of the stuff ive ordered for the distributor from the states seems to be the larger sized stuff. So im kind of cautious on ordering it incase it doesnt fit. Have you got one installed? Would love to hear what its like compared to points.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 4:00 pm

Yep I have one installed super easy to do. I got mine from Motorsport Auto in California. No points to worry about and I have had no problems in the last 3-4 yrs. NUSTAD has one installed as well if I'm not mistaken.

nustad · Post by **nustad** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 4:08 pm

Yes I have one - it works well. More stable ignition and cleaner revving. Although I did have to mess about with getting the right resistance in the circuit to also have a fat spark and a working tacho.

stanlonng · Post by **stanlonng** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 5:47 pm

sounds good, cheers for that guys!
What do you mean by mess around with the resistance?
do you need to chuck a resistor in line for the Tach to work properly?

marrow · Post by **marrow** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:48 pm

I think this is you?

nustad · Post by **nustad** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:48 pm

Mine was stuffed up by myself.....put in a coil with the wrong ohms. But the tach works off a inductive loop from memory. Happy to be corrected on that. Just do some reading on all the different forums first.

If Brian's is working well copy his. Mine is medusa and not to be replicated!

nzeder · Post by **nzeder** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 11:29 am

NZ New dizzy will be better than the US types - if I recall they have more mechanical advance like 12 degrees vs 8 for the US stuff. I think the US guys call it the Euro spec.

Nustad is correct the tach is off the positive side of the coil - in fact the car will not get power to the coil if the tach is missing ( ah Karl

) in the standard wiring layout.

You can convert the tach to a more modern negative pickup type you need to get and install a smith tach converter (I took my tach to a smith gauge guy years ago and he installed it inside the tach) then with a rewire no more + inductive loop pickup design.

The zed tach is a licensed copy of the smith gauge

This site explains how they work.
http://www.accutach.com/smiths-tach-cal ... background

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 1:34 pm

I had no probs with my tach I just pugged and played although I was actually replacing an old Bosch style system that gave up the ghost. The big ballast resistor was already removed from my system.