A 280Z

[A280Z]

Thought I would throw up a build of my recently acquired 76' 280Z.

The car hasn't been on the road for a while but is in pretty good condition. When I had it delivered it hadn't been on the road since 2011. A lot of the interior was removed (but included), the wiring has been hacked around with (no indicators or lights working), and there were some small patches of rust in the floor and rails.

Few pics of the car from back in the day, 2006.







Sadly the black front bumper is long gone and in its place a pretty bent mess but should be able to sort something. Engine is still running the triple Mikuni carbs and does run but just not all that well.. An RB25 conversion is planned for the not to distant future.

I am starting to make some progress with the car so with throw up a few pics for anyone that is interested.

Car straight of the transporter

[A280Z]

First thing needing attention was some small pockets of rust.

Firstly in each front lower tower corner. The drivers side was the worse of the two but both needed work.

Before - rust is awesome



After - patched and painted. (Stink phone pictures)



Next were the rails, neither was really bad but they have been crushed over time and started to open along the edge in a few spots.

Before - rust is awesome



After - patched, treated internally, painted and under sealed.

[A280Z]

I am changing the look of the car (ZG flares etc) so needed new wheels. Sadly budget doesn't stretch to Watanabe's or Works so went with Rota RBs as they look ok, have pretty good offsets and fitted my weak budget.

17 x 9 +19 Fronts and 17 x 9.5 +13 Rears





Fitted Falken 225/45 to Fronts and 245/40 to Rears

Test fit

[A280Z]

When the car was originally painted the owner decided to paint the door window frames and rear quarter windows body colour. I didn't really like that look and the car came with a set of chrome quarter windows extra. I am on the lookout for some stainless door window frames (or may attempt to strip the paint from these ones eventually) but as a temp step I have painted the trims satin black. Flares, Wing, Splitter etc will all be black so should sort of match.

Before - note door frame is body colour and rear quarter is chrome. I did not paint the chrome quarter windows but the spare body coloured one that came with the car.



After - slight improvement



Still have to do drivers side.

[A280Z]

I wanted to put ZG style flares on the car so ordered a f/g set from the states. Quality was pretty good for the price.

They come in a gloss black gell coat finish



Trial fit - 14inch Enkies looking pretty small



Next came the rough bit, hacking up some mint guards. Measure up then hack away. This part kind of hurt...



Fold lower edge to meet, weld and trim. Drill some holes and install some rivnuts.



Repeat on other side matching heights



Now measure fronts and cut. Easy as compared to the rears.



All for corners done. Pushed car outside to make sure everything lines ok. Looks Ok.



We also swapped out the rear shock top isolators with some front versions which are around 30mm shorter to bring the rear ride height down a bit and remove some of the rake the car had.

Flares still need to be painted, all welding and cuts treated and painted and rubber welting fitted.

[A280Z]

One flare finished. Cut metal treated and painted. Flare painted and rubber welting installed. (Para Rubber FTW)

[kirihi]

Wow, great work mate, your 280 is looking awesome - love the rims; there's nothing wrong/budget with them! I prefer the look of your earlier 280 to the '78 280ZX 2 seater (with the overkill front bumper) my wife had 20 years ago. Welcome to the forum - keep up the good work

Chris

[Pedey]

Making progress! Good to see you on here, did the wing eventuate?

[A280Z]

Wow, great work mate, your 280 is looking awesome - love the rims; there's nothing wrong/budget with them! I prefer the look of your earlier 280 to the '78 280ZX 2 seater (with the overkill front bumper) my wife had 20 years ago. Welcome to the forum - keep up the good work

Chris

Cheers man, yea I think they are a good buy for the price and am happy with them. Should do the job. Definitely wanted the 240z shape and this car came up so jumped on it.

[A280Z]

Making progress! Good to see you on here, did the wing eventuate?

Cheers man, getting there slowly.

Yea got the wing made and shipped up. Am happy with the quality. Looks like it will fit sweet. Have it painted and ready to go on. Hopefully this weekend if I get some time.

[us2]

Your third from the top picture is a Z Club Concours at Long Bay reserve.

My car is beside yours.

[ZMAD]

Nice work with great results. Such rapid transformation.

[nustad]

It is a maxima colour - I remember talking to Bruce about it. Car is looking great and all your changes look fabulous. It is shaping up well! You've made heaps of progress compared to my my meagre progress in 15 years!

[A280Z]

Bit more progress

[A280Z]

So when I got the car the bumpers were in a pretty bad way. The rear bumper looked like it had been painted with chrome in a can and the front was a shocker. It was too wide for the car somehow and had been bent and bashed into shape to make sort of fit. The brackets had been bashed to death also. I really have no idea how they got it on to be honest. I am trying to track down a replacement front bumper but in the mean time thought I would have a crack at tidying it up.

First I had to make some new brackets that actually allowed the bumper to fit on ok. The ones it came with had the bumper sitting miles out in front. Once done I had to cut the bumper in two and remove some metal to make it fit then re-weld. I really have no idea what the bumper was off originally..



Test fit, bit better



Once happy with it I welded up all the holes in it smoothed it out as best I could and painted



I also stripped back the rear bumper, welded up some holes and painted



Painted both up satin black and fitted. I will still try and find another bumper but looks better than it did.

Front on





Rear on