All Activity

01-14-2026. Prepped for more paint. I was able to get the body ready for more paint, and I will paint it, knowing I will see spots later that I can spot repair/fix if needed. this will get it to about 95% on being completely painted. Working on the body is such that you could spend a year and still find things to "fix".....and I think it's time to "push" it forward. After getting it ready for paint, I installed the radiator finger tight and the cut down radiator engine inlet I got from 42004U.com. I then grabbed the intercooler and put it in there to get some measurements for making brackets. I grabbed one of my 90's do this as well. TIME FOR MORE PAINT!

Part 3-SEMA SHOW 260z More work on the Gull Wing Door and Rust Removal using Laser Technology

Nice progress, looking good. You are further along than me. I picked up the race wire kit during some Black Friday deals but haven’t gotten around to installing yet.

01-13-2026. Just a little something to keep my motivation going. New badge and antenna delete plug from Resurrected Classics and Z Car Depot. I know, the clear looks dull, it will just need to be sanded and buffed. I'm planning on using Poppy's Patina wipe on clear in the summer God willing.

Gosh it better be more then 260hp. I will eventually dyno test, but we don't have one close to me. I live in a tiny town in Northern Idaho. Its a very clean z, but sadly painted in the 70s- early 80s and the owner danced on the roof. Lol

love how European shops are so full. lots of nice tools and cars all stuffed in a small "shed"

A new year has started and my battle to get the 280z road worthy goes on. I had liked to get some more things done over the holidays but sickness and other obligations got the better of me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get some progress in. To prepare for a new years eve party I had to temporarily get the Z inside the garage so I continued my journey of stripping down the Z by removing the fenders and wiper cowl. I kind of regret but I'm also glad I did. Turns out the last “restauration” was a fairly cheap one. Some threads where damaged and instead of repairing the thread or welding in a nut they just left the bolts out, or in case of the lower mounting points of the fenders just weld and bondo them on. After getting them off I was met with the nice surprise of finding out they never painted the inside/back of the fenders or any non-exterior part for that matter, only primer. As a result I was met with a lot of surface corrosion spots. I also discovered the car has some crash damage on the front left that was never properly repaired. Some sanding, rust treatment and painting later the car already looked a lot better. At least now I know the Z won’t rust away in the next couple of years. Every panel I remove it becomes more and more clear that a full restauration to the bare metal of the body is necessary if I want this Z to survive at least another 10 to 20 years. I really wanted to start installing some of my new goodies from Apex so I decided to install the rear strut brace as it won’t interfere with any of the bodywork. It was freezing outside but with the help of a heater it was quit doable. I do love the look of the Apex rear strut brace. It’s strong, elegant, functional but doesn’t scream “aftermarket modification” which I like a lot. I don’t really want my car to stay stock but also not heavily modified, just tasteful, functional and a bit more modernized but still the classic look and feel. The last few couple of days have been pretty cold so I moved back to the garage for some of the car work. Unfortunately my garage isn’t insolated and I don’t have a strong enough heater but it’s better then outside and good enough for some paint work and rebuilding the hinges. Rebuilding the hinges was easier then I though at first. Having a vice does make life a lot easier when removing and installing the hinge pins. To get them out I just used an impact socket and an old bolt that was slightly smaller then the hinge pin. With some force they came right out. All hinge pins where worn which caused the doors to sag and the passenger side (which sagged the most) was even bent! The rebuild kit I bought from Zservices EU was great with the exception of the hinge pin bushings, both the outer and inner tolerance was out of spec on all of them. If it was to tight then that wouldn’t be that much of a problem as I could modify them but the tolerance was to loose causing the bushings to sit loosely in the hinge and the pin to have some play. I decided to rebuild the passenger side hinges anyway and will install them soon to see if they sag with these bushings installed. If they do I will have some custom made at a machine shop. Continuing with the doors I decided to do some spot repair on the upper corners of the doors as both sides had some corrosion under the paint, and the doors where off the car anyway so might as well do them now. Here to I discovered the inside of the door was never painted causing some corrosion on the inside of the doors. The more I work on the car the more I want to punch the previous owner and bodyshop in the face. Even so I can't wait to drive the Z, I guess that’s the S30 life for yea….

Part 2-Sema Show 260z This video shows the construction of the Gull Wing Doors on this 260z. The workmanship is excellent and the Shop-Yorkshire Car Restoration is very well equipped with very expensive and high tech fabrication tools. The construction is very interesting and well planned out.

01-11-2025. Pretty cold out today, so I stayed inside and started looking into some of my wiring questions I needed to solve. My combo switch and adapter plate from Race Wire solutions came in the other day, and I will be using that along with the 12 circuit rewiring kit I bought some time back from JEG's. I got Chat GPT to help me keep it straight in my mind and went about figuring out how to wire in my combo switch with what JEG'S sold me. it will be installed in the dash, as part of the dash center plate I got form Skillard, along with 2 gauges and a cool panel/bank of switches made by Allstar Performance I ordered from Summit. now to decide paint the4 panel or upholster.....

Worked on getting the rear subframe on. Started lifting it up and found this bracket hitting the differential bushing. Had to lower it down and cut it off. After that little set back I was able to get it all bolted up. Waiting on the axles, but I can start on the brakes and just leave the control arms loose.

Looks nice, Im guessing 260hp at 6500 to 7000k Do you plan on dyno testing it? Seems like it will be a super fun street car. Realy clean but not so over the top that you cant drive it everyday and enjoy it. Looking forward to more.

01-09-2026 UPDATE: several things coming together on my 260Z ATLAS Z 4.2 project. I picked up my fuel rail that I had modified so the hookup to my PTFE hose will be clean and how I want it, and the radiator I got back as well. You can see the crossovers are done.....now the radiator hookups match the engine, note the reinforcement plates he welded in to support the pip runs. I also picked up my seats from the upholsterer with the seat covers I found on eBay. Lets see......I picked up another batch from the powder coater, door handles, window frames and headlight frames.....which I have cleaned up and restored. The dash center panel came in from Skillard....and it is cool that he sent a new sticker and large pic of his Z car to hang up in the garage. Lastly, my header studs came in from Atlas Enterprises. It is VERY COLD out today, but I will try to get out to the garage this weekend and try to get most of the sanding done so the rest of the shell can go into paint. PICS:

@Derek I just found your 85d thread on speedtalk forums!!!. Just glad there are people on there sharing knowledge still!

This 260Z Build for the 2026 SEMA SHOW comes all the way from Great Britain. Yorkshire Car Restoration is performing a Wild Build with a complete Liberty Walk Body Kit, Mercedes V8 Motor and featuring Gull Wing Doors. This company is well known car restoration companies in Europe. Since the car will represent them at a SEMA SHOW, you bet they will go all out. I seen some of their previous restoration work and their workmanship is excellent. The 260Z Project Car is from California and is pretty good shape. The body seems to have relative only minor corrosion problems( floor pans probably don't need to be replaced.

There was a guy in Socal i went to visit 20 years ago that built cars like this. He did work for Toyota making them an all aluminum GT2000 and working on Shelbys 2nd gen cobras. This is pretty impressive. I hope they make a Z one day.

01-07-2026. I got the sail panel on the drivers side painted, and the hatch jambs up to where it will change to black, the taillight surround....and the other sail panel then ran out of paint, so waiting for paint to arrive. I put filler on the spots on the doors and quarters that were still waiting to be done, and it hardened up so even though this weekend will be cold, and I can sand those down and get them done. I also painted the roll pan, and that exposed a little work needing to be done and I got some runs, so I will have some paint correction. Nevertheless, it gives a good idea what it will look like, and real progress was made in just a couple hours. you can really tell a difference in the blue before and after the clear coat! PICS.

01-04-2026. More time in the garage today. I got the radiator support area painted up and got the roof and sail panels coated in multiple coats of filler primer. I then went ahead and got some filler in around the top and sides of my rear roll pan, and after it was dry I got it all sanded out. I am now about 95% done with the tail. It's ready for final paint....but I need to do the cuts for the 240Z taillights and make sure the taillight panels fit the way I want them to. The filler primer made it possible to see the condition of the roof and sail panels much better, especially holding the light in one hand and looking across it. more work needed PICS:

01-03-2026. Ok so today i pulled the door handles, locks quarter windows and main window frames. they are going to the powdercoater. i got the rear roll pan installed right where inwanted it and sealed down, later inwill put a bit of filler (glaze) around it and the rear will be done. i got the roof and sailmpaels done. it will now get filler primer and a quick look over and get all the edges etc ready for sealer and paint. very productive day! pics:

Ah, you meant the pattern specifically. I was so focused on the bottom bolsters that I misspoke anyway. They're LX, not LS.

Not too big of a deal to add an aero catch to the hood. I have seen some weld theirs in, I ended up using some L angle in aluminum that connects from the tower to the firewall with nuts and bolts. It doesn't have to be strong due to how our hood opens. I don't think the VQ35HR makes much sense to install unless you can get one dirt cheap or just happen to have one lying around. The VQ37 is just superior even when you take into account dealing with VVTI. From what I have read you can always swap 35 HR heads if you want full control over both camshafts. I plan to get mine tuned over the winter and will see what it makes to the wheels. I have been on a street tune for over a year with no top end. The street tune has been more than enough for the Z, tons of torque. I suspect I am around 280whp currently.

Yeah, but I haven't seen that pattern on any other car so I don't know what they came off.

Those are Recaro LSB seats. Made 70s-90s and were available in a bunch of different makes overseas (BMW/VW/Ferrari etc), but in the US they came in the Mk2 VW Golf.

Yeah its a waste of money, it was a major cosmetic mod for the car. I think it was over 1800 with the conversion lower manifold, fuel rails, and gtr intake and cover and that was with me purchasing everything second hand. In the end the intake doesn't probably net any hp. I really dislike the stock plastic intake. It does get people confused at shows when I pop the hood though.

For you that have been following along. My 3.12L is finally in my car and home. Gosh it looks so good I’m just going to stare at it! Amazing work by Andrew Kazanis! This engine was built and done prior to a shop fire. So it’s been through a lot! I love the contrast of the stock blue block and gold zinc and black. It features. My 3.1L 10.2:1 compression ratio 88.5mm bore. N42 block. Sonic tested. LD crank by marine crankshaft. Crank �Off-set grind to 84.6 stroke�Finish rod journals @ 1.8889" Thrust Finish 1.27”�R & R plugs with threaded plugs�Dynamic Balance�Ion-Plasma nitride, straighten & micro-Micro polish all journals E31 head. Port work by Andrew Kazanis Dsi valves Diameter: 45/36.5mm Length: 118mm, titanium retainers. Isky springs. Bonk cam. Roughly stock exhaust and intake port sizes. Vapor honed inside and out. Rebello JE Eagle pistons and toyota rods 221 CFM flow at .45-.5 lift. Mine is 88.5x88.5x.25x3.14159x 84.6x6 /1000 = 3122cc It is showing off my intake design and Efi throttle bodies as well as a bunch of my small parts.

Your Z looks great. Sorry to hear about the fire, glad the car was salvageable. GTR intake manifold looks awesome, I know that took some work, I’ve got a 370Z and not too may people have tackled that mod.