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Hi All! I've owned a few s30's in the past and finally decided to build one. My car background is a lot of JDM cars including Supra's, AE86s, S13s, Skylines, a Stagea 260rs, etc. I have always loved the style of the s30 (don't we all), the aftermarket support for it and the random people who would stop me and tell me about their "Z" story. The story of this build started over a year ago when I purchased this 1978 Datsun 280z. The story behind the car (that I know of) was it is an American car that was brought to Washington and held at a speed shop awaiting restoration. Then was bought and stored in a heated warehouse for years in BC before i bought it. A little side story, I originally purchased a 1971 240z from the same person and they also had the 280z for sale but was well out of my price range. I would have loved to restore the 240z but unfortunately the amount of work it needed was well beyond my budget and experience just to get it to a useable condition. If you looked at it funny, rust would fall off the car. Mistakes we made. I was sold on what it could be but not what it will take to get there. almost a year later the 280z was still for sale, and the price was a little better. With some luck, i was able to convince the owner to trade back the 240z and cash for the 280z. Success!...Now, it seems the 280z was re-sprayed a British racing green but wasn't done the best and was flaking so i believe that's why it originally underwent the restoration in Washington. The car was just a rolling chassis, the front end had been primer epoxy'd and luckily had everything in boxes and labeled like "driver door guts", or "Rear hatch slam", which was nice to see. Now the goal of this project was to be a fun drivers, resto-mod car. It will be getting an RB26 from an r33 GTR, an RB25 transmission, DBW for the factory ITB's, Techno Toy Tuning full suspension, brakes, differential swap kit, running a Haltech S3 ECU and Wiring Specialties Harness, Poly fuel tank with an r32 skyline Radium hanger and Hellcat fuel pump. The bigger ticket items like turbo/manifold, radiator/fans, and then some smaller things are missing but most of the project is there now. I do plan of re-wiring the whole car considering I'm spending money in every other area. Now, just like anyone, I did set out with budget but considering since I last built a car, prices have gone up for parts which I stupidly didn't account for. Also a lot of, "well if i'm already doing this, then i might as well do that", and "since i have this off, i might as well get that." So the budget has been blown....but at least I'm happy! (maybe). BUT as it stands, the suspension and diff swap kit is in and the car is currently at the body shop getting the sunroof hole patched as well as some of the smaller trim holes plugged and a few small rust spots taken care of. Here are some pics throughout the build and as it stands. Any questions, advice or help for some "gotchas" will be welcome!

As listed in the post above I did order those parts. Shipping is indeed expensive but that’s not Apex’s fault, they use UPS and when you fill in your address you just get a direct calculation from UPS. I don’t know where you live in relation to Apex (Milwaukee Wisconsin) but I know that shipping across Europe can reach the same prices. As for me my shipping came down to $284,50 which is a lot but still respectable. Unfortunately I also need to pax an extra 4,5% import duty and 21% tax on top when my package arrives at customs. The kits don’t come pre assembled but they do have great product installation videos on their website which make installation basically a step by step tutorial. I don’t mind at all, installing car part is basically a very expensive version of adult Lego.

Today I picked up some sandblasting and powder coating from R&S Powdercoating here in Colorado Springs: And......you seem to always find hidden damage once everything is stripped off, huh?

What transmission are you planning on running?

Did you end up purchasing the parts? With black friday sales I was considering their rear control arms. I don't love having a third heim that can wear out compared to others but i like the triangulated design and the motion it allows. As far as the shipping. just the control arms are like $60 to ship inside the US. can only imagine all those parts crossing the ocean would be costly. Maybe the kit comes assembled? would be weird but possible.

Love to see the scans and some thought behind the design. I was thinking the same thing about the limited motion of the apex shock. My car came on a set of coilover struts that has similar travel so i've been looking at options. If you need any assistance with CNC machining, I may be able to help out.

Yep, that's the correct part number (and the same one I bought for my Z). Looks like it's still available from multiple sources.

I believe this is the part: https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/16111103603 or here: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-fuel-tank-cap-2002-2002tii-1602-16111103603-1

sent you a message

Thank you., JHM . Appreciate the offer. But if you had any kind of sloshing out on the street, then no, it won't work for the track. With a full tank and 40 tread wear tires up to temp at a place like Streets of Willow, every left turn with the car's physics fully loaded right sends a cascade of fuel out of the cap, down the fender, and gets me black flagged off. Darom -- I think that's the cap that's now out of stock. Unless you have a source for it we don't know about?

I installed 10-12 years ago, the fuel prices were high and there was some gas theft going on in my area. I needed a lockable gas cap

Similar to what @darom did, I located one of those old Bimmer locking gas caps and gave it a try. It does indeed have a tight fit on the Z's gas cap inlet; but I found that gas could slosh up and leak out through the internals of the cap during hard cornering when the tank is near full. IIRC, it's an internally vented breather-style cap. It didn't work for my intended application; and I don't think it would work for yours. However, if you want to give it a try, I can dig through the garage to see if I still have it....LMK.

Annular discharge 😆

@tube80z - so I have done what you suggested here: I put lips on the battery tray to keep the battery from shifting at the bottom: The battery hold down "plate" has a couple of jog bends to capture the angled bracket that the tank mounts to. I just need to secure this plate I made (what I was referring to with the red outline above) to the main plate to finish this up.

Yes. Thank you. Looking forward to his reply on that 2002 cap.

As I understand it he needed a new gas cap for his 1976 280z and found a gas cap from a 2002 BMW that fit his 280z Understand that in general engineers are lazy people (I could know, I am one) and the wheel can only be invented so many times before you start making similar products. So no I don’t find it weird at all that a gas cap from a 2002 BMW happens to fit on a 1976 Datsun 280z. Hell my 1977 280z is running a AFM from a 1996 Mazda 626! 😂

Okay. Sorry. But now I'm doubly confused. The out of stock locking cap you posted is for a 280Z, right? Where is the 2002 cap you purchased?

Sorry about the confusion. I bought a 2002 bmw gas cap which I installed on my '76 280z.

Thank you for your response but I'm a little confused... You bought a 280Z gas cap for your BMW? Or you bought one of those locking models for both cars? Either way, yes, still out of stock.

OK, here's a question on carb tuning. This past summer I visited a local tuning-shop, with open ended question about whether to rebuild my poorly-running carb (a Holley vacuum-secondary 750 cfm, basic model) or to buy something else. The technician recommended something with annular discharge boosters.... wouldn't even talk about anything else. Those are nice pieces... but also expensive. Asking AI, for annular vs. downleg, I get the standard AI answer: part obvious, part irrelevant, part condescending, part generic. How about human intelligence? So... who's running an annular discharge carb, such as this one: https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/carburetors/street_strip/parts/Q-750-AN?utm_term=&utm_campaign=Holley+-+Non-Brand+All+SKUs+Performance+Max&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&hsa_acc=7848552874&hsa_cam=22795333857&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22795335240&gbraid=0AAAAAD1FzSrgg0ZyXizSf4N8XZyF0lFbQ&gclid=Cj0KCQiArOvIBhDLARIsAPwJXOaTarreYIfCzmnZukhFJ0DfE902wysmGZtkPzPe60nCkk0bztd8cPkaAlw2EALw_wcB ? Oh, and good luck asking such questions in our "fuel delivery" subforum!

Got out there this morning to gather some stuff to take to the powder coaters. It was also a good time to clean up the front suspension bits so I can put the front end back together. It was a dirt/oil glob on both sides, so with cleaner (g@s) and a toothbrush, a rag, a screwdriver, and a wire wheel attachment in my drill I got everything cleaned up enough to put together in my effort to get this hulk to the body shop for some block sanding and a coat of blue and clear, color sanded and buffed.

I bought a gas cap for a 2002 bmw for my 280z (MSA used to sell them, it is showing out of stock: https://www.thezstore.com/product/4445/locking-gas-cap-70-76-240z-260z-280z ) The cap fits tight. Not sure if this is something that will work for your racing events.

I bought, and installed my new Mfactory Helical lsd ... I also installed techno toys 4340 billet stub axils that i did have to make 4mm spacers where the bearing is pressed on against the flat plate side with wheel studs other wise the plate would tighten up against the bearing housing locked to where it would not spin freely , and I also used OEM 300zxt axils that were in fantastic shape like new internals i installed new grease ,and boots flipped the bearing cage on passanger side axil ,and painted them .... the adapters were from silvermine motorsports i came up with a method to center the companion flanges to adapters by using jb weld and using a digital measuring caliper to center before jb weld hardened holding the companion flange in a vice and putting the 300zxt adapter on top while jb weld cured to hold parts in position for welding ... i used a 2 1/2 thick machined flat large metal plate with 5 clamps to hold the companion flang ,and 300zxt adapter round plate tight with force on the 2 1/2 inch metal plate for welding process to keep every thing from warping, and it worked perfectly . I left it clamped until everything cooled down after welding ... The adapter ,and companion flange after this clamped welding run /spin true flat with no up and down or side play in movement while spinning zero vibration while running on the car .. every thing is worked out pretty good so far every time my TCI street fighter 700r4 hits 2nd gear both rear tires bark posi , and around the corners it feels great tracks fantastic ... some pictures

Hi, this is my first post to this forum, thanks for having me! I bought an rb20 head and am wondering if it is acceptable to use it on an rb25 block. My concern is that the rb20 head has a combustion chamber sized for a 78mm bore and I would like to use it on an 86mm bore block, do I need to port the chamber to match or is it okay to have the chamber overhang the bore? From the factory it had a flat top and bottom overhang so I assume it would work around the whole circumference? Thank you for any advice

More from Sema Show- Fully Modified Toyota Truck with Tilt Front End nject Fuel Injected V8 motor to power it. Interior of this Race truck Rear Suspension for this OFF ROAD RACE TRUCK Eating Lunch at one of the numerous Food Trucks outside of the Main Convention Buildings A Razor Crazy Fully Modified with a Disc Brake with Taxi Cab Performance Casters and 48Vt Electric Motor. I still don't know what the Front Cooler is for. My guess would be the Cooler is for cooling the Electric Motor. Nismo Race Car on a Lift at their booth. Ford Gt with a Coyote Motor in it. HKS Booth with their Turbos, intercoolers and many other accessories. A Cute Mini Bike with a VW Fender Covering it. 240z with many Carbon Fiber Parts all over it. As you can see, the attendance is definitely down. this pic was taken in the Front Entrance of the Main HALL. Normally, there would be Wall to Wall People. Outside View Prismatic Powders-Wall of their wide selection of Powder coatings. Make you own Mid Engine 67-68 Ford Mustang You cut out the Mid Section of your Mustang forn the Firewall to to Rear Tail Light Panel then insert his new frame into the space. The Finished Product should look like this pic. I stiill working posting pics that for some reason are not posting.