deja

Oh man that sucks. Ya just don't think about what happens when all that snow melts. Happened to me when I lived in Ohio. Our basement floor drain plugged up and when the snow outside melted and ran into the basement it had no where to go. Yeah I remember having to wade though that freezing water to did the drain out. So glad I live in the South now, I sure don't miss northern winters!

Getting the skirts molded on was not that easy. I added a lot of fiberglass to the back side so I could use panel adhesive to help make sure they don't loosen over time. Of course it remains to be seen if it works. I plan on being down your way for the annual Lablanc car show. Maybe you can make it to the show.

I know that's right. I still have some odds and ends to finish, like putting the interior back in. But I am driving it.

Good catch. Yes it is recessed into the hood.

Thanks. Its about time for you to organized another Atlanta Z gathering. I missed the last one and Ernie's party because of this project.

Well never mind, its working now. I spayed everything with some penetrating oil and now its working. I think with all the sanding a paint spray things were just not as free as they should be. Hopefully I won't get locked out of the car, LOL.

Thanks. You got yourself a nice ride there too. Its cool your's and your wife's Z's are the same color. I actually bought my car from someone in Idaho!

Sorry about the double post, don't know how that happened. I have a 77 280Z which I just painted. I attempted to keep the old locks. The one on the passenger side has an issue, like it doesn't work. I swear it worked when I took it off. I did remove the dammit clip that holds the arm to the lock in a stupid attempt to install the lock and of course it took me 30 minutes to find the dammit clip. Also there was a rubber sleeve over the end of the lock arm that sits inside the lock lever inside the door. I tried replacing that rubber with a piece of hose but the lock still doesn't work. I wonder if something else cam off when the dammit clip flew off. There seems to be too much slop in the arm where it mounts to the lock itself. So I figured I'd just get new ones, but there's a problem. Every lock I see on-line look like this: But mine looks like this: Is the 77 280Z normally different that earlier models? Anyone know where I can get a replacement for what I have? The old type looks like there is another part (a rod of some sort) that is not used in my car.

LOL. If Grecian would only produce hair................. I followed what you told me about using the panel adhesive. Stinky, expensive and messy stuff but I think it will a major improvement as far a stability goes on the fiberglass parts. I still used screws in addition to the adhesive on the flares. Of course after I redesigned mine to use the adhesive MSA comes out with glue on flares!

Thanks Ryan. I'm glad I took your advice on painting the whole car. It was a lot more work but worth the effort for sure.

I like the skirts because I think they make the car appear lower. But when I first put the skirts on several years ago something didn't quite look right. I finally realized what it was. The door sat back from the skirts making them look like you said just an add on. I added a 1/8" to the bottom of the door so it the same height as the skirt.

That grille is a modified billet grille for an early Dodge Ram. No clue who made it, I found it used on EBay.

What do you do when you have too much time on your hands? You modify the body on your 280Z of course. After nearly ten months of body modes and paint I am finally back on the road. I have learned a lot about body work and painting, mainly that I am not good or fast at any of this. I am still no expert by any stretch but I am better than I was when this project started. There are still some scratches in the paint even though I have color sanded it. I don't know if they are in the clear or were in the primer and are showing through the base coat. Half blind old people shouldn't do body work, LOL. Once again the "while I'm at it" thing caught me and I ended up doing much more than I had originally planned. This all started because I wanted 5 lug American Racing Torque Thrust wheels. But the wheel and tire configuration I picked were too wide for the stock rear fenders (225-50x17 Yokahama S Drives on 17x8 wheels). I tried rolling the rear fenders but that didn't work well at all! So I decided on ZG flares. But that meant I had to pull that ugly chrome strip off the side which meant I had to paint the car. I figured if I had to paint the car I might as well do all the things I wanted to do at the same time. Molding on the side skirts lead to molding on the flares which lead to molding on the BRE rear spoiler. I then changed my rear valance to look more stock instead of the custom one I had previously made, WHEW. I have always wanted front fender vents so I picked up some '71 Cuda fake vents and cut the fenders for those. It took many, many hours of sanding the car to get to bare metal. I had to redesign the skirts and ZG flares so I could use panel adhesive to help stabilize them for molding. After priming, filling, sanding, re-priming, sanding, more filling, more sanding, more primping and more sanding I was finally able to lay down the paint. For this I recruited a buddy that has done this before. The paint mixed by PPG is called Cyber Gray Metallic. Its used on the newer Corvettes and Camaros. The base was covered with 3 coats of PPG 2021 clear. The metallic elements go way past what you normally think of. There are blue, red, green and silver partials immersed in the dark gray paint. At different angles of light they give off different reflections and looks very cool, the attached picts don't do it justice. Of course the big question is "was it worth it". Even though these changes are all cosmetic I think so. I can certainly say my car is unique which is what I have always wanted. Besides it gave me something to do for 10 months, LOL.

Congrats on the initial start. Keep your eye on the water temp until you burp all the air out of the LT1, it takes a while. The car looks great too.

A +40 offest is going to require a 1.5"-1.6" spacer to clear the strut mounts. I ran 17x7 with a +40 and using 1.5" spacers.

I used TOKICO HZ3012 for the front and HZ3013 for the rear. They did NOT come with spacers for the rear or bump stops for the front I picked up 88-715 bump stops from Black Dragon and spacers 23-4186 from zcarparts.com.

Try searching Google for Corvette cold air intakes. I found this one that might be adaptable.

FYI I just contacted Brian about his setup. I got a reply today and he says there are none available right now and doesn't know when thye will be available.

I used a stock GM Z28 drivehaft on my 280Z/LT1/4L60E swap. I had the shop put a new yoke on just because the stock one had a lot of miles and had them add the JTR U-joint adapter after they shorten the shaft. I have no clue if the stock Z32 shaft will take the torque of the V* but why take that chance when you already have the GM shaft and they both need modified anyway.

That is the one I used. In fact I have one I did not use (bought it for my tranny but went another direction). Its been opened but never mounted. I can send it to you for $25 including shipping.

Yikes that price is way out of line. Try MSA. Who knows they might actually have them in stock, lately the seem to be a little slow. I don't know about shipping to France but you could call them 1-800-633-6331, they are in California. Fender emblem Left side roof emblem Right side roof emblem Who knew there was a right and left side for those roof emblems.