I recently found that my 280 daily driver had some rust in spots that I'm not yet comfortable at repairing.
I've done a lot to this car over the past few years. I've gone through the suspension, installing suspension techniques springs and sway bars, tokico hp strut cartridges, and polyurethane bushings. I installed a 4.11 r-180 diff and replaced all the brake hardware with stock replacement pieces. A 240z kaminari front spoiler was added with 240 front turn signals. And, a fiberglass 280 hood was also thrown on a while back. I replaced the tired motor with an n42 block/head motor with far fewer miles from a previous car I owned (also had a msa 6-1 header and 2.5" exhaust). The most recent addition was the sportmax wheels from when that group buy came up. Next, it was time to tackle the body.
Cue Daily Driver shot:
More pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nullproject/1978280Z
I knew it needed dog legs on both sides, with the passenger side really needing the full quarter replaced due to a wreck from a previous owner. I recently took the passenger-side seat out to transport an r-200. I lifted the carpet, and was horrified at the lack of floorboard found underneath. All that was there was undercoating, which I easily put my hand through. I've been under the car plenty of times, but had always seen what looked like floor and never bothered to actually see if it really was.
While I really want to learn to weld, I have no welder at the moment and am hesitant to learn welding on anything structural in my car. I will eventually, but know that will be a little further down the road. I mentioned my lack-of-floor finding to a friend of mine and said that I was thinking about looking for another body in better shape.
Not five days later, he calls saying he's found the body I need... and it's only a few miles away from where he lives. It had been in a neighbor's back yard and the guy had just pulled it to his front yard to sell. I drove down to look at it and decided to bring it home.
Cue new addition to the litter, a '76 280z:
The car has a blown motor and has been sitting under a tarp since 1994. Physically, it's in great shape. The roof looks damn good, the panels are pretty straight, and the floor boards also look good (definitely looked closer this time). The previous owner admitted to running over a few too many things, but that's ok. Opening the hood, it looked like some grunge-era raccoon made a home on the passenger side of the motor, but the frame rails were straight and the battery tray only has light surface rust. The PO had removed the battery when he decided to put his project on hold. There's some surface rust here and there, but nothing major. The spare tire well looks untouched and had only one spot of surface rust. Amazingly, the brakes actually worked and weren't locked up. That came in handy when getting it off my friend's slide back.
The plan is to strip it down, clean it up, install a spare n42 motor and zx 5 speed I have and get it running. Once running, I'll transfer all the good pieces from my '78 (complete suspension, wheels/tires, front spoiler and hood).
I'll be documenting the progress here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nullproject/1976Datsun280Z
I've taken the bumpers off and started taking out the interior to see if there are any surprises. So far, it's all pretty good.
Don't think the '78 is going to waste, though. My friend is going to adopt her and turn her into a drag car. He doesn't care about the floors, as he's a very experienced welder and can fix all that's wrong.
Anywho, just thought I'd share.