YellowFever

Here's my car in Ford Vapor... probably too silver for the OP.

Here are my Konig Rewinds, 16x7, 0 offset. 215-50-16 Front tires (Toyo Proxes TPT) 225-50-16 Rear tires Stock suspension: Lowered with Tokico springs: I did have some rubbing in the rear, but I rolled the fenders and that took care of it. The front has plenty of clearance... I may even try to lower the front another 1/2" or so.

I have lots to be thankful for at the end of my 5-day Thanksgiving weekend. The car is finally running! I first fired it up at 11:30 on Thanksgiving day... with an uncapped 6-1 header. I'm sure my neighbors LOVED the noise (I know I did!). Just to make sure everyone in the neighborhood enjoyed the engine run-in as much as I did I ran it for 20 minutes above 2,000 RPM (just to break in the cam, don't you know). Since then I have tied up some loose ends and even driven it down the road to the gas station... who would have thought 93 octane gas WOULD EVER be below $2 a gallon again? Tomorrow I'm taking it to the muffler shop to get the old exhaust adapted to the header... so tonight I took a short video of my wife pulling it out of the garage for its first bath. http://YellowFever.smugmug.com/gallery/6248549_HePT8#427609245_WrMaJ-A-LB

Sorry to insult your sweet ride, dude! Actually, I know that's not your car... because NO ONE would be brave enough to drive that thing around in Mississippi!!!

Thanks, here's a pic from the first day I had the car... And another shortly before the repaint... I bought a set of Tokico springs and struts from e-bay. My wheels are 16x7.5 Konig rewinds with 215-50s up front and 225-50s out back.

Hey Jeff, welcome to the party... I love the bass boat look as much as the next guy, but perhaps some pink stripes with a lace pattern would have looked nice?

We sure were! Got on I-59/I-20 in Cuba, then took I-59 south to Laurel. I got home at 9:45 am, so I must have been on I-59 starting at about 8:45.

Yep, we towed it from Ira's garage to North Auburn (Camden Ridge) Saturday night around 7 p.m. I originally dropped the car off at Ira's shop in February... it sat in his shop until September when the body shop was ready to start working on it.

That one I have installed is from an "older" Kawasaki. Not really sure what year or model. Vortex makes billet gas caps for most modern sportbikes. It consists of a model specific trim ring and a generic screw-in cap. You can get anodized colors or even chrome. The cap is flat, so it doesn't match the curve exactly (there is a small gap at the top and bottom). The body shop welded the top of the gas tank into the fender then attached the stock Datsun filler pipe to the back of the motorcycle gas filler. I don't know how much work it is (since I'm FAR from being a bodywork guy), but it did turn out pretty nice.

Now that the car is home I am finally able to get some pictures of the motorcycle gas cap installed. The one that I just put on is kinda beat up so I ordered an aftermarket billet cap to replace it. Also, the lock cylinder got left behind in Alabama so it doesn't even latch closed at this point.

Yep, I forgot my fender protector at home... then awesome AutoZone didn't even have any for sale. I don't think it was brave of us, but it was awfully stupid!

Sorry Omar, I've been sworn to secrecy on the cost of the paint job. I can, however, tell you that my bill at the paint supply store was over $900.00 (ouch!).

Home at last!!!! A mere 7 weeks since it was painted any my baby is finally home! Now if I can only get my neighbors to help me get it off the trailer and into the garage Here are a few pics from the journey... Six weeks of dust from the body shop and 1 week of dust from the mechanic's shop. Howdy Ma'am... My bro guiding the engine in... Clutch going in. Ira works so fast he's just a blur! Engine and tranny in... almost time to call it a night. Next door to waffle house at 5 a.m. in Montgomery, AL. Sunrise in Alabama. Does Ford Vapor Clearcoat Metallic sparkle? Hell yes, it does!

LOL... I don't care who you are, that's funny right there! I let my wife hold my beer long enough for me to take the picture.

Well, the weekend has come and gone and I still haven't seen my car in person. I was supposed to go to Auburn to pick it up and bring it home, but plans changed at the last minute. The company my wife works for bought a 4-day cruise to Mexico for some of their employees and a bunch of their customers. At the last minute one of the customers had to cancel so my wife and I were invited on the trip. There were a total of 160 emplyees/customers on the boat... and the booze was flowing! So instead of spending all day Saturday working on the Z so I could bring it home, I spent all day Saturday on the beach in Cozumel with a beer in my hand. Not a bad trade-off, I guess.

I'm still waiting for a picture of the motorcycle gas cap. But in the meantime here are a couple of xrays just for giggles. Before surgery After surgery (sorry 'bout the crappy quality)

Thanks for all of the kind words. The paint job actually turned out better than I ever imagined it would. The painter is a true artist... he suggested the color, I suggested the stripes, and we both decided on the body mods. Without his vision my car wouldn't be as pretty as it is (if I do say so myself). I have asked my buddy to send me a picture of the gas cap installed. Hopefully I'll get that picture tomorrow. He put a motorcycle gas cap on his yellow 300ZX twin turbo, and on an old red Z car that he used to have... it looked awesome on both of those cars!

After 2 years of ownership I finally bit the bullet and had my '76 280 painted. It was painted by a good friend of mine at his body shop in Auburn, AL (about 275 miles from my house). The engine and transmission were removed so the engine compartment could be painted too. The paint was finished the morning of Sept. 21st 2008, shortly afterwards I received a cell-phone picture of the car in the booth. I was as excited as a 43 year old little boy could be! The main color is Ford Vapor Clearcoat Metallic, the stripes were custom mixed to match the centers of my Konig Rewind wheels, and the clearcoat is some super-duper stuff that my painter buddy used on his personal project car a few months ago. There were also a few body modifications made: shaved and smoothed rear bumper/valance, shaved and filled windshield wipers, side marker lights, and FM antenna. Most of the car's emblems were removed... the Z vent emblems were replaced and the 280Z fender emblems were replaced with "DATSUN" fender emblems. An MSA type 2 airdam was installed and the stock gas cap and fuel door were replaced with a Kawasaki sportbike gas cap. In the booth... Look at that reflection! Smooooooooooth! With a gorgeous paint job like this you're probably wondering why the thread title mentions frustration. Well, that's a damn good question... The same day that the car was painted I had a little accident while working on my house. I broke my right ankle/fibula. Two days later I had surgery to fix the damage... I now have a stainless steel plate and 8 screws holding my fibula together, and an additional 2 screws to stabilize my ankle. It has been 3 weeks since my car was painted and I still haven't seen it in person... IT IS DRIVING ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!! My next doctor visit is on Thursday the 23rd. The doctor might replace my cast, or he might put me in a "boot". I don't really care what he does because the next day I will be headed to Auburn to get my car! I plan to go to Auburn on Friday, install my new engine on Saturday (with a lot of help from some good friends), and trailer the car home on Sunday. Maybe someday I'll actually be able to drive it again! Ya'll be careful out there!

I haven't accidentally started my Z in gear by reaching through the window to start it... but I have done something similar which almost resulted in a broken foot. I was working on the Z in the garage one evening last year. I don't remember exactly what I was doing, but I do remember that I had the distributor cap removed and I wanted to bump the starter to get to TDC on the timing mark. I went inside to ask my 10 year old son (Nick) to help me... he loves doing this kind of stuff. I put him in the driver's seat and gave him instructions. I never even thought to check if it was in gear... because I knew it wasn't going to start without the distributor cap! Anyway, I get positioned next to the front of the car and Nick gives the starter a good 1 second long bump... and the front tire rolls up on top of my foot and wedges against my ankle. I started hollerin' for him to stop (even though he HAD ALREADY STOPPED). I couldn't pull my foot free, and Nick was freaking out (unsure what to do, and probably scared he was gonna get in trouble). He couldn't reach the clutch pedal, so I told him to pull the gear shifter back into neutral. He did, but the car didn't budge... the damn e-brake was on. So now I'm coaching him on how to release the e-brake, but he just doesn't have the strength to lift the lever and press the button at the same time. The next directive that I gave Nick was to RUN inside, RUN upstairs, and bring my wife out to the garage to rescue me. While he was gone I started trying to get my foot free. Gently at first, cause I didn't want to hear any snapping, popping, or crackling. My foot started to come loose and I began to pull harder. Just before my wife burst through the garage door to save me I was able to yank my foot free. My foot was OK (sore, but unhurt), the Z didn't crash through the wall, and we all had a big laugh over how stupid Dad can be! Nick still helps me with the car work... but everytime I ask him to do something for me I always finish with "... and don't run over my foot!"

My '76 did something similar when I first got it. It ran fine when cold, then began missing above 4,000 rpm or so. I thought it was electrical, and I tried everything to fix it without any luck. I finally tracked my problem down with a fuel pressure gauge. I had plenty of pressure at idle, but the pressure dropped the higher the RPMs went. The hesitation would start when the fuel pressure dropped to 25 or so PSI. I had a clogged strainer in the inlet of the fuel pump. I removed the strainer (actually the little bastard wouldn't come out, so I broke it out) and put a filter inbetween the fuel tank and the fuel pump... problem solved.

It's possible that your damper has "separated". The stock ones are made up of a hub and a timing ring connected by rubber. If that rubber fails then the ring can move in relation to the hub. Once that happens your timing marks will be off. You might want to check if there is any play between your damper's timing ring and hub.

Hmmm... very interesting. That may just be the reason for this silly little switch to be there. Last year I swapped the dual pickup distributor for an early 280ZX distributor. So I guess the wires from the temp. switch eventually lead to the ignition box on the passenger kick-panel... which is no longer in use on my car. Thanks for all the information, guys!

Wow, that's a lot of stuff to pull out of memory. I assume you're a bit younger than I am... 'cause at 43 years old my memory doesn't work quite as well as it used to! If I remember correctly my car was built in 6 or 7 of 1976. My buddies car, which is only 3 months newer than mine, is a 1977 model.

It looks like the switch was only used in 75 and 76 models. The top picture that I posted came from the 1976 service bulletin which outlines all the changes between the 75 and 76 models. I see the "water temperature switch" in the 1976 wiring diagram but I can't find it in the 1977 wiring diagram. I guess they dropped it for 77 and went to a vacuum only EGR system.

Last weekend I pulled the original N42/N42 engine out of my 1976 280Z (non-California). The car will be non-op for approximately 3 months while it is being painted and a replacement engine is built. While removing the engine the wire leads on one of the thermostat housing sensors broke off due to corrosion. The other 3 sensors ("thermal transmitter" for temp gauge, "water temperature sensor" for ECU, and "thermotime switch" for cold start valve) are all okay. I did a little research on the broken sensor and found that it is the "Water temperature switch". Further investigation shows that this switch is used to control the EGR valve... which my car doesn't have... since EGR was California only in 1976 280s. Would Datsun really have used this switch when a pipe plug would have worked just as well? Is there any other purpose for this sensor, or has it really been on my car for 32 years for absolutely no reason other than to plug a hole in the thermostat housing? Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I am not going to replace this sensor since it appears to serve no purpose on a non EGR engine (the replacement engine will be non EGR as well).