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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!

Your work looks great. There isn't as much activity here anymore, but some of us are still watching closely. I really like the battery bracket. The more spread out the support is, the more secure you can make the battery without damaging it. I've always disliked the common OEM-style hold down bar.

Great work so far! I’m sure this will be an awesome build. I suspect you will be running fender flares or a wide body kit seeing as your wheels are poking out a bit?

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?

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

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.

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 a Food Truck outside. Mc Donalds Extra Value Meals like Cheese Burgers Deluxe Costs $35 on the Strip. All the Strip Hotels charge for Parking. Even if you did not ask for a Room with a View. you may be charged for it and you don't find out till you are checking out. Even though I enjoy going to Las Vegas for the Sema Show, the cost of going is not worth it to me. So this maybe the Last Time that I go the Vegas! Even the hotel that I stayed at-Harrah's was empty. This pics show a Robot Vacuuming a Hall Way. Even McDonald"s on the Strip was empty. 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.

It seems there isn't much activity on this forum vs. about 10 years ago. I guess not as many of these cars are still being modified now. Anyway, an update on some progress. The pool hose I am using here is just for mock up purposes. It has the right ID to fit tightly on the fittings. I just heat up the the hose (a plastic/vinyl material of some sort) and then slide on the fitting. I believe this is helping to establish the actual hose lengths I need as well as "clocking" or indexing the fittings to the hose. Additionally, though I did not plan it this way originally, I came up with a great design for securing the battery to the tray... and made this upper battery mount bracket in such a way as to tie in to the bracket that I made to mount the oil tank in the car. The upper bracket I made today not only clamps the battery in place, but also ties into the oil tank bracket and the engine compartment panel, triangulating everything. This design makes the mounting for the tank very rigid. I still have a bit to figure out with regard to mounting the forward most part of the bracket that I made today to go on top of the battery. I think I may cut a plate like this red outline and rivet it to the upper battery bracket. This panel will sit atop of the angle piece that presently holds the breather tank in position. Then the two bolts (within the red outline representing the new panel) will join all three layers. The result here is that the triangulation appears to substantially strengthen the tank bracket. I won't have issues with the weight of the oil in the tank causing the brackets to bend/fatigue.

Got a lot of the rear track attack kit put together today. It went together pretty well, their videos are very helpful. Only minor issue was these lock washers being too big, just ground them down a bit.

Yep that is there forever home. I can cover them if needed, but this is an around town hotrod only. no wipers, my version of a cooler AC Cobra.

You don't really need the brake line differential pressure warning switch. It does function as a decent junction block. You are also likely to want an adjustable proportioning valve instead of the stock unit unless you plan to run stock brakes.

Did you grab the engine and see if it moves? That's all I was suggesting. Trust (your ideas). But verify (that they work). “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ” ― Archimedes

After many nights thinking about it, the current Black Friday sale and optimizing my order for the most value for my money I finally decided to pull the trigger. Maybe it’s because of the size and weight of the total order but the calculation of the shipping was a bit weird. As the parts will need to be shipped to the Netherlands I knew the shipping would be expensive but my shipping came down to almost $600!! By combining some stuff I got the shipping to drop down to $280,- while still giving me the stuff I wanted and basically a free rear strut brace. Here is a list of all the stuff I got: - Front fender brace - Frame rails - Rear strut brace - Front control arms - Steering knuckles - Front crossmember - Upper steering rack clamps - Rear control arms While weighting my options Apex dropped there Retro Mod line of suspension which allows you to keep the stock R180 or R200 long nose differential, axles and spindles. I really wanted to get the new rear suspension and subframe but found it to be too expensive for me at this time. By dropping the rear subframe I got to order the front crossmember, control arms and steering knuckle and still be a lot cheaper off. Weirdly ordering all the front suspension bits separately was almost $300,- cheaper than buying the Retro Mod front suspension kit. Seeing as I don’t need the tie rods (and the steering rack, you need to buy that separately) I’m even cheaper off. I’m hoping to get the frame rails and fender brace fitted over the winter and have the car ready before next spring.