Zetsaz

Minor update: I repainted the taillight panels last weekend. I still want to take them apart again to resand and recoat a couple spots that are still a bit rought rough but they look quite nice now compared to before. The bezel around the lights is a gloss black and the rest is a satin black.

Didn't think I'd get an answer so fast, thanks a lot!

Weird random story: My dad's still in Mexico for another few days, I took this picture in the Summer of '09 which was the last time I was there. This was back when I only dreamed of a project car, but I thought the car looked pretty good. This is my dad next to the same car earlier today!

No kidding! High quality labor at really great prices. I don't get how the stereotype of Mexicans working hard all the time, and having nice yards, and knowing how to work and cars and all that is somehow negative. I've been poked fun at sometimes for being Mexican and also enjoying car work, and I just think, "how is that a bad thing?!" Those are valuable skills But when friends need help with car problems they know who they're going to haha. Anyway, I figured I'd at least do some little things while my dad gets back next weekend to start on metal work, so I repainted the rear taillight trim. I'll have a picture up tomorrow when there's better lighting to take it in and see the side-by-side with the old ones.

Anyone know where I might be able to find something like these? I've yet to find any sort of build thread on this guy's car, but I like the more modern look they have. Here's a video of the same car if that helps.

Semi-big update: My dad was on a trip to visit family in Mexico and decided to take the seats with him since re-upholstery is significantly cheaper there. Today my seats were finished and he picked them up. They're looking pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Not much has happened to the car itself, the last several weeks I've kinda considered and "acquisition phase." Lots of new parts purchased including some stuff from the junkyard: Seats reupholstered Old New Passenger headlight bucket at a steal from the junkyard (Old on was bent out of shape) Taillights sans burned plastic (Picture doesn't do the new ones justice) Both plastic seat-belt strut tower covers Top is the only one that was in when I bought the car... ... And it wasn't even the original color Fuel door (Lousy pic, but it shows how bad the original one was better) Louvered hood (also a steal, only $40. A few small dents should be no huge issue) I've also committed myself to do SOMETHING about my filler neck situation. Won't update on that until I actually finish it though, no empty promises to strangers Dad should be back in about a week and after that I'll be getting a start on making this thing move and getting the biggest rust issues resolved before my dad helps me sandblast the whole thing.

Major update: Last few weeks haven't been so great. Had to put my little dog down just a few days ago, he had diabetes and went completely blind from some cataracts that developed pretty quickly. Been focused on that so not much has happened to the Z. I figured out what I'm doing with the fuel filler, details to come as soon as it's finished. And the major update... my dad surprised me with a nice gift today. The gift of almost ever replacement panel I need to fix the rust on this thing. New rocker panels, lower rear fender panels, and doglegs for both sides along with a pair of bad dog framerails. The floors will probably just be patched with some sheetmetal, but I'm incredibly excited to get going. Cheap temporary tires should be on this week and a new battery so I can move the car to a friends for the welding once the filler is on and the panels arrive. Stay tuned for updates

Minor Milestone: Student teaching and travel for conferences screwed me for the weekend, but I finally got a chance to take a look at the clutch. The clutch works! Pedal still feels soft and crappy but gorillaman's trick actually worked. This weekend I'm gonna go check out the '78 Z in a junkyard nearby and gut the smaller unleaded fuel filler neck from it so I can actually route a filler hose to the tank. I'm thinking I won't even bother wiring the internal pump on the Camaro tank for a while. I'll just be using the external walbro I have for now while I focus on getting the rest of the car running, then maybe some random weekend when my older brother's in town I'll get the Ractronix pump working properly. In the mean time. Engine seems to be running have decently, all lights are working, transmission is shifting. To get it on the road I just need to replace a couple flat tires, route the filler hose and neck, then close up the giant hole over the tank in the back.

Huge progress made today. The rails I made for the '02 Camaro fuel tank were finally welded to the car's frame. I can't seem to find most of the pictures I had of them, so these will have to do for now. Remember, this is just one way to do it that I think will work for my purposes. Others have tried other ways successfully. Unless some other way doesn't actually work, no person that has done this is necessarily more correct than another. (I will edit this post in the future if I come across more images, and will turn it into more of a write-up when I have time to make more diagrams with approximate measurements) Each piece is two 1" square tubing pieces welded together. There is a bolt on only the rear end closest to the back of the car. The 2" wide barstock is welded directly onto the tubing until the spot in towards the front of the car where the tank's shape starts to curve downward (closest to the welder in the picture). The bolts are about 4" long and are welded in the centers about 2" from the end of the tubing. Friend hard at work, getting it done even despite the horribly awkward angles he was welding at: The centers of the two rails are about 17 1/4" apart from each other. They will seem sharply offset to the right because of the position of the spare wheel well. In reality they are only offset 2 or 3" to the right of center to allow a buffer zone between the tailpipe/muffler and the actual tank once mounted. Super quick video explanation. Pardon the very quiet audio, filmed kinda late and my dad wakes up at 3:30 am, so I was trying not to be too loud. My phone is also 3 years old and doesn't pick up everything very well. I painted over them earlier with some flat black Rustoleum automotive enamel I had lying around the garage, then waited for the paint to dry before mounting. I'm no professional, and I think the rails got bumped slightly at some point, making this a super tight fit. Not quite the super clean fit I hoped for, but it feels incredibly sturdy. Here's more detailed pictures. Driver and passenger sides Underside, a closer view at the covers I welded over the barstock for a cleaner look, and the L brackets on the end with side covers. Top and bottom view after mounting. (including a nice look at my rusty paint ) If it looks a bit far back it's because it is. If it was any closer forward it would almost be touching the tailpipe. Edit: Video is now up. New pictures posted. Also added a random picture of my buddy in the process of welding.

I had no idea this was an option. I'll try that as soon as I get the tank back in and before I try dropping the tranny. For those who are curious, the project is definitely still going but at a snail's pace because I haven't been working and I'm finishing my last year of college. The custom straps and rails for the 2002 Camaro fuel tank are welded and and I've test fit them on the tank. It's holding pretty snug. Just a couple welds to go then I'll be welding the rails I made to the car's frame. I have pictures, but I'll be doing a big dump as soon as the tank is in, the hoses are routed and the filler is fitted, that way it looks more like a write-up on how to do it. I know there are quite a few guys on here that have done the tank swap before, but I've only found a couple that went into any real detail. Pictures and updates to come... very slowly. (Patience is a virtue )

No picture updates currently. I replaced the clutch master cylinder and then the clutch slave cylinder and realized that there might be a problem with the clutch itself figuring that out this week. Slave cylinder's piston is moving plenty when the clutch is pressed, but there's no change in pressure and I still can't shift so I'm looking at the clutch itself. No progress for a while because I couldn't figure out what to do about the fuel tank situation. I finally settled on a custom setup with a 2002 Camaro fuel tank, because going back to OEM would have been more expensive and even more work (since the wheel well was already gone from the previous owner). Snagged a sweet deal on a tank with fuel pump assembly included $100 on fleabay plus shipping. The guy actually found out it had a Racetronix fuel pump in it after the fact and said he was shipping it as is either way even though he normally would have sold the whole setup for $300. Guess it's my lucky day. I also finally found a decent price on a replacement door panel for my driver side that I was missing. $80 used, but in good condition. Should be here in a few days. Updates to come as I get the clutch worked out and get the fuel tank installed.

Not much work done on the fuel tank. Camaro tank is too much of an uncertainty and would require a little to much tampering for my interests right now. I think I'm gonna head to a junkyard nearby where I know there's a Z and rip the old spare wheel well, tank, and straps, then weld the wheel well back into my own car and bring it back to stock. Realistically I could go with a fuel cell, but the inconvenience and amount of custom fab work is something I'd rather put into patching up the body. Gutted the interior. The floors were actually mostly in tact until I started tearing out the factory sound proofing. I found a few extra rusty bits and cut them to delay any future problems, then ghetto patched them with some sheet metal and rivets in the style of Crazyoctopus If you look closely in the picture, at the front by the gas pedal you'll what looks like wet metal. I'm pretty sure that's fluid leaking out of my clutch master cylinder. I tried to bleed it with... meh results. That'll be one of the first things that gets replaced once I get an original tank back in. That's all the updates for now, until I head back to the junkyard to strip the 280 there for the tank, straps, spare wheel well, headlight buckets and maybe a few random other bits.

I removed some of the interior panels so I could work on the fuel lines in the back easier and figure how I'll hook up the filler hose properly later. Removed all the emblems and saved them for after I get to doing some body work. Tried bleeding the clutch, but it still won't fully disengage, I'll have to figure some more out tomorrow. Removed the rusty old cutoff bumper mounts. Pretty easy to get to since my tank is already dropped. Mandatory shot next to my daily driver. A 91 Toyota Celica ST with 276k miles. Put the back end on jack stands to work more comfortably around the fuel tank area. This also gives you a better view of the body. Most of the car is surface rust (especially the roof where all the paint is gone). Driver side rocker panel will be replaced in due time, along with the passenger side dogleg, and both of the lower rear fenders. Fortunately the wheel wells are all in tact. Finished cutting up the spare wheel area. (Pic of me excitedly jumping in the back with a grinding tool because I don't have any more fun shots. That's about it for now. I was going to properly bleed the clutch, but I was tired of having to jump the car so I took the battery to autozone. Might be bad. It's on a trickle charger until the morning. When I start the engine the car won't go into reverse, the gears just grind, and if I let go of the clutch entirely the rear wheels will still spin a bit. I'll adjust the clutch when I get my battery back and figure out what the deal is, bleeding, or something in the cabin.

Some of you might have seen my post about wanting to buy this car. I've been a huge fan of Z cars since I was about 12 years old. I finally had the opportunity to buy a 280z at a ridiculously low price and I went for it. It has a clean title and an engine that'll start and that was about it. For those reading, the intent of this car is not to build a show quality car, or a performance monster; just me trying to apply all the things I've learned and been reading about for the last 7 years of trolling around online and staring at build threads and S30 pictures. It's also a learning experience for me, since I bought it dirt cheap and it has some rust issues and all that jazz I'm not afraid to tear into stuff. Pulled it home with my dad's tiny little Toyota pickup he uses as a daily to get to work about 3 minutes from home. This is the first problem I have to address with the car. And probably the only reason I got the car for $300 (Some people lack both patience to do things right, and the resources to pay someone else to do it right) The spare wheel well was cut out (very poorly) and a different tank was installed off some unknown car from a local junkyard. They didn't even bother to get one with a feeder line on the side, just went with what they got and left the fuel inlet hanging to the side. On the bright side, they did wire a nice Walbro fuel pump to it. Unfortunately that was jimmy-rigged too. The cables were attached after the fact and went straight to the battery and a switch in the cabin. The setup works for running the engine, but it's totally unusable. I'm not too bummed though, I'll probably be picking and buying the fuel tank from my brother-in-law's F-body Camaro. I removed the fuel pump switch and wired it to the stock connections. Worked perfectly and engine ran smooth. No idea why they didn't just do that the first time. Much easier. I removed all the old breather hoses from the mystery tank to clean things up, cut some of the excessively long fuel lines and started properly cutting the spare wheel area (on the bottom right of the pic you can see how much metal was left hanging down) so I could rig up the tank as it is while I work out other things in the engine until I get my hands on the Camaro tank and do a proper job. Pardon the long post that was catch-up/initial thoughts on the car. More to come from today's work in the next post.

I'm beyond excited to get working. $300 bucks isn't bad at all haha. Ghetto build thread will be coming up as soon as I get it home.

Purchased the car half an hour ago. Should be borrowing a trailer to get it back to my place in the next couple days. Super excited.

Update: I was waiting on a month's worth of pay to come in from my job on campus. I didn't buy the car because if I did I wouldn't have enough to pay for everything I needed before my two paychecks came in on Friday. They guy was scrapping it by Tuesday because our scrapyard in town offered him more for the earth day promotions they have every year. I was bummed. BUT... the seller messaged me today saying he had gotten too busy to take the car down and he still has it. He's taking $300. I'll probably be buying it later tonight if I can work out a way to pick it up with my dad. Updates to come.

UPDATE: Still waiting for my dad to check it out sometime this week and get the okay from him to have it in the backyard. In the meantime, I was talking with my older brother about what exactly I'd do with it, if I go and buy it in the next week. We decided the rust was probably too much of a time/money investment to really consider a full restoration, but it's still okay to have some fun. So that plan would be to: -Buy it. -Make it drivable -Clean out the interior -Do some really cheap patch work on any of the rust holes to clean it up a bit -Sand all the faded and chipped paint, then do a cheap rattle-can flat black paint job Any serious investments beyond that will be things that are fully transferable to a different rust free shell in a few years when I'm working in a real career field and have more serious income. Transfer all the good parts to the better shell then scrap the old body or sell it and be at only $50-$100 lost for the fun of having something to play around with now. More car experience gained, more fun had, without any huge investments trying to make major restorations and biting off more than I can chew.

Yeah, Utah roads spell death for things like this. Even my 91 Celica has some rust issues near one of the wheel wells from the salt (granted the thing is ridiculously well taken care of and runs beautifully despite it's 276k miles). It wouldn't take much to get it road worthy, it would just be a fair bit of work replacing the doglegs and rocker panels to make me comfortable with the rust damage. The rest of the car is actually pretty good despite a bit of chipping paint.

Hahahaha, you may just have me convinced. And I appreciate the humor. I'll keep you guys updated. Currently in college and living at home, so I have to get the okay from the pop to get it home. Not that I couldn't buy it anyway... but I'd rather have his approval since it'll be sitting in his backyard or garage for the next year or two if I buy it. Plus he knows how to weld far better than I do... I'd rather be on his good side.

That's what I was thinking... It needs new paint obviously, but on a project I would repaint no matter what. Literally, the only thing concerning me right now is the rockers and doglegs having to be replaced. I know I can find panels, but I'm not sure how difficult the work would be for me and my dad, and I have no clue how much it would cost to do it in a shop.

Been a while since I posted. I'm currently looking at buying a '75 280z as a project car. I was curious about whether or not you guys think it's worth buying. Guy offered it to me for $400, before he decides to scrap it for $350. Here's the details The good: -Running engine -Clutch replaced a few years ago (needs to be bled properly, no pressure right now) -Exhaust is almost new, was in a shop being worked on to pass inspections for a while before they decided to stop throwing money at it. -No rust on the wheel wells -No holes in the floor panels -Interior is complete -Glass is in excellent shape -83k miles -Dashboard is slightly faded but has no chips or cracks. Near perfect condition -All lights etc... operational. The bad: -Rockers and doglegs will need to be replaced, they're pretty rusted, few holes -Floor panels have some rust, but it seems to be surface and mostly on the underside -Two pinholes in driver side door -Carpet and seats are torn up a bit -Missing stereo -Dented passenger side headlight bezel -No bumpers (fine by, I would shave rear and get a 240z style bumper up front anyway. -Might need new batter

Ah yeah... smog checks. I hadn't thought about how that would affect the price. I'll keep looking around here, just because I know a few good deals pop up every now and then, but I'll definitely be looking in CA and AZ. Now that I remember, a couple summers ago I worked with the Utah Conservation Corps and I have a few connections to wildlife and fire jobs. I may be able to get a job in Cali for the summer doing firefighting. Not a bad time to look around I guess.

Nah, I think that's actually completely accurate. I was looking through some of the other pics I got. When I was on the phone with the guy I had the impression that the suspension had had some work done and the interior was in good shape (aside from the carpet being torn out, which wasn't ignored of course). That and I was kind of expecting the body to be a little more complete at that price. Passenger fender will either need to have some welding done, or be replaced. I have absolutely no problem working with interior. In fact I enjoy it. If I replaced the carpet myself, even without a kit, I would have fun. Sound proofing, POR15 on floor boards, you name it. But patch work isn't exactly something I can do well. When the guy said there was no rust and the body was in solid shape, I was expecting better than the follow up emails I got. My brother and I will work on an engine or some interior/audio stuff and painting all day long, but any body work that takes more than a couple days terrifies us. Guess it's back to waiting for the right one to show up. I'll be in Vegas for a few days next month, so I might keep an eye out in the Arizona area. I'm also probably visiting my dad's uncle in El Paso, TX over the summer, so I'll probably start taking a look there as well. I've actually seen a couple Z's in good shape there.

That's kinda what I was thinking. The guy is incredibly helpful too. He says he'd rather sell it to me than some other people that have seen it since he knows I can appreciate it more. I'm gonna try offering $600 (Father's approval since he's helping with the project... though he still doesn't like the project idea).