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Got a few more things on today. This kit has tons of adjustability, just making some initial guesses on caster, bumpsteer, etc. a little bit of a puzzle with the hardware, some things you only needed if keeping stock subframe or other stock parts. I hope to have the rest installed next weekend.

Day 1 of installation. almost a 12 hour day and made some good headway. see below pics. click on pic.

Day 1 of installation. almost 12 hour day and got a lot knocked out. Pics below:

Here’s a few more pics of that plate with the impossible carriage bolts, I circled where they are. They definitely could have designed that better.

Heat advisory today, and I believe it, damn it’s hot. Started off replacing studs with APR extended studs then attaching 370Z wheel bearings to the custom spindle, did all that in the AC. Then to the outside, unboxed all the front suspension and got subframe, new plate for control arms and upper control arms up. Stupid plate was near impossible to install. It’s perfectly shaped to frame, bolt holes don’t align when carriage bolts are up, and plate doesn’t align and fit on when carriage bolts are down. Took forever halfway adjusting it, having my dad tap carriage bolts from top while I’m holding and aligning from bottom. Nightmare, but finally got it on. Hopefully the rest will go smoother. Did I mention I’m exhausted

just finished +6000km euro trip, whew it was hot down there. Would have been sweaty in datsun. found this type of momo steering wheels on sale in germany but they didnt ship to finland. ordered leather and suede versions to my friend in berlin and pick them up later.

08-15-2025. Again, more parts arriving and I got a piece of 16 ga. steel painted up and then assembled my fuel pump and filters and laid it out and marked for drilling.

Came with four almost brand new tires and the original wheels on also pretty good tires. The original wheels good use a repaint tho.

Beautiful Z, it’s in great shape for an almost 50 year old car. I like those wheels too.

Hello everyone and welcome to my 1977 280z project! I will be using this thread to document my journey with this car and all the little thing that will be done to it to ultimately restore and modify it to be my dream car. I bought the car last week at auction for the decent price of €20.500,- kind of on a whim as this has been my dream car ever since I first learned of there existence (thanks Wangan Midnight and the Devil Z, I know its cliché). Yes €20k is a lot of money but a mid-condition one sells for over €32k here in Europe nowadays. (You can see which side I tied up and which side my dad tied up 😂) What drew me to this car was the paint (absolutely not perfect and needs a repaint at some point but looks good enough for now), the goodies like new wheels and tires, new wooden steering wheel, factory 5 speed gearbox, R200 diff and the claim that the engine was rebuild 10 years ago. Although when picking up the car it turned out there was no documentation what so ever. The car runs and drives and is in fairly decent condition but currently has no valid inspection (called APK in the Netherlands) as the previous owner stats it’s because of the car running rich. Of course it has a cracked dashboard, some small surface rust forming and is missing bolts all over the car but these are all thing that can be fixed over time. For now my main goal is the fix some little stuff and get her on the road so I can start to enjoy the car. So naturally I placed the car on my Quick Jack lift and ordered a bunch of parts from Z-Services EU in France. There are a few thing I like to address before taking it in for inspection. The hood doesn’t open as the cable brackets are missing, the door hinges need rebuilding as the doors won’t close properly, some general maintenance and fixing some sweating oil seals around the car.

Actually, it appears you can still buy kits! https://www.dkhardware.com/asp-a-16-105-auto-keying-kit-product-4838272.html?srsltid=AfmBOopXhi66Ub5objUsVLlPIOtGXJCK2Tf8aZSSusaSLkTvPvIAvVgg https://www.locksco.com/buy/product/New-keying-kit-for-Datsun/CLENC8ae41abfed476c50acd2d7916a7fb627 If neither of those are in stock or don't ship, Star Road sells a kit with blank tumblers and a file. https://jdm-car-parts.com/products/key-cylinder-re-key-kit-for-datsun-240z-260z-280z-make-matching-key-on-your-own

Original locks can be rekeyed, but I know at least in the US, there are very few locksmiths that still stock the tumblers. If you're lucky you could maybe find an old school locksmith, or if you're very lucky you could find an old kit. If not, you can always file your own tumblers out of some brass sheet. Here's a write-up on the process of rekeying Datsun locks. https://ratsun.net/topic/47412-how-to-dissasemble-datsun-510-ignition-switch-and-rekey/

More parts came in today. Sniper 2 arrived, laid it all out, took some pics, and went ahead and used some thread sealant and put the pressure regulator together, and tried to take a pic of where it will be mounted. Psi gauge still in the mail. It will be "fun" making room for this HUGE sniper. There is a "hole" there, just have to get a couple cuts just right so everything fits. Took a few pics, first one is the "Master Kit" which is the fuel system, and it came with some NOS fittings.......then the entire deal and held it up on top of the intake and air cleaner....looks like I will be getting a thinner air filter to go in it, to clear the hood.

Cool but expensive. The chronograph is $3k USD.

Probably just fine. The polyurethane products were developed as a performance improvement. More precise steering, less wheel movement. The aftermarket will hype and sell whatever they can.

Hmm, well having the rubber and poly switched was pretty dumb of me. How much worse is it to have all rubber vs poly up front/ rubber on the back? This is a street only car

This has already been done a few years ago. Reach out to Jakub at Datsun Europe, he's running a zf8hp50 behind his sick turbo L and has a few adaptor plates left.

parts are pouring in.

ordered a 9" air cleaner and I decided I didn't want it chromed AND the sniper to be polished, so I took it to a local guy and had it blasted and powder coated gloss black to set off the sniper a bit. the bottom ring is only powdered where it can be seen, as it won't fit on the mouth of the sniper if the powder is on there...too thick. I think it will look ready good and contrast the polished stuff.

This thread is ancient so I'm just posting in case others come along in search of a solution. If you install the MSD 8920 as indicated by the OP and the tach only reads 200 rpm, here is what fixed it for me. At issue, reverse the wires to the tach. Connect B/W wire to red going to the 8920 and connect G/W to 12V switched. After this my tach was happy.

I used to run this: https://www.thezstore.com/product/6551/tension-rod-t-c-kit-70-8-87-240z-260z-280z-280zx-300zx It worked pretty well. I have since gone to rod ends and a clevis.

NO!!! Actually it seems well suited to a billet solution and I can't compete with billet solutions. The only reason I can play in this arena with my equipment is leveraging my pattern making abilities.

Hello everyone, I’ve been looking all over but haven’t really found the answer I’ve been looking for. I just bought my first Z (1977 280z 5 speed) and noticed I have two different keys and no spares. I suspect the door locks have been changed at some point. As you can imagine I would like to open everything with only one key. Does anybody know where to buy a full lock kit with matching keys? So that’s for the doors, hatch and ignition. Or can I rekey the original locks? I can’t seem to find matching locks online but I did find lock sets for Datsun 720, 510 and 280zx. Does anybody know if I can make one fit a 1977 280z?

Actually it's rubber in the back, poly in the front. The front bushing takes the force under braking on the Z's, under compression, and is the one that you don't want compressing too much, making the steering squishy. But the poly should not have split. It does take a lot of side forces as the rod moves up and down with the suspension. But usually it causes the rod end to fatigue and break off. Seems like you got a bad batch of polyurethane. Bad chemistry, or a knockoff.

I have a 280z that I recently finished building. On the tension rods I installed brand new bushings. Rubber on the front side and poly on the back, as I believe was recommended by several people here. Torqued the nut to 40ftlbs. I was just under the car for something else and noticed that the rear bushings on both sides are split very badly. This is after only about 10 miles of driving. Wondering how this could be. I will switch the rear bushings to rubber but still want to know how this could have happened. Comments welcome