tech9

I have this really nice Bink's gun that we were going to use, but for some reason kept glogging up, so we used our backup $9 harbor freight gravity feed gun. Worked well, just more work to clean up the clear coat later. The paint we used was ppg, from the local paint store. Finished product here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=132565

Its just PPG "Pumpkin Orange" had it mixed up at the paint shop. Sanded to metal, primered, wet sanded, sealed, paint, clear coat. We put the garage doors down half way, covered most of the stuff ont he sides of the garage, but failed to put plastic or paper on the ground. Actually painted with the wheels on also, just covered with plastic. Most of the overspray was dust by the time it landed, so nothing was hurt except for under the car, which easily came off with some liquid paint remover. Garage looks spotless, no paint stains at all, was actually amazed. We did use 1 fan to try and draw the paint/air out. If you do this, defiantly get a good mask with good filters on it, we needed them. The GN was just painted, and cost a LOT more then to paint the 280z

Ya I plan to replace all the stuff on there. Still trying to get it running right, having a little issues with the fuel pressure, something is wrong in the gas tank. Once I get it all worked out, thinking about some sort of performance exhaust, not sure yet.

Let me know how you guys think this turned out. Finally done with the paint. Here is the thread of what it looked like before: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=124659 There was a little debry from painting inside the garage, but its not that bad. Have to sand out a few runs in the clear later, but overall its pretty good.

I was just talking about making some of those for my project, but decided to just take all the bumpers out.

Lookin good!

Finally warm enough to work on the z again. Got the doorjams hood and hatch done. Maybe body done by next week.

I did get the "power" problem fixed, it was a fuel problem. old tank, old lines, etc. That is fixed, still smokes. I have valve seals, going to replace when it gets warmer.

Update 11/18: Finished sanding to bare metal and shot with Epoxy primer and going to shoot with lacquer tomorrow. Body worked turned out good. I was thinking maybe pumpkin orange now...

I thought I would make this interesting and have a few pictures showing the progress on my car. I will update it as progress happens. Here is the car on the street right before I bought it. It didn't look too nice, but was defiantly worth it. Ended up tearing apart the motor, changing the head gasket, cleaning up the emissions, etc. Finally got it running.... Decided to try the rustoleum paint job. Didn't find too many surprises while sanding, normal bondo here and there.

I am having a little of the same issues. Next I was going to replace my regulator. Are you having performance issues with it? Sometimes mine will just work fine, and the next day can barely make it down the road. I changed the pump, cleaned tank, filters, etc.

I'm interested to see how long that will last on the car. What about powdercoating?

Nice runs!

I checked the resistance twice now actually, a kid down the road said he had the same problem and it was his ECU, so hes going to let me borrow his. I got the head so clean it up a bit, and there is a ton of carbon buildup in the CC. I'm also going to fix the valve seals while i'm at it. I got all the spare sensors at the junk yard, so its worth while.

I replaced all the sensors, wires, plugs, put a new airflow meter on, tested all the wires and sensors. It's like trying to fix the problem in the dark, I can only think engine problem. There was so much white smoke that it has to be burning coolant. The head needs valve seals anyways, so I might as well pull it. Who knows what goodies are in a 14 year old engine.

It's defiently the relay clicking, it was the idle screw apparently. Were still in search of the problem, I read the EFI bible and its helpful. I'm thinking maybe head gasket though, coolant was a little foamy.

Well now I've tried almost everything. I'm thinking maybe still a head gasket cause the coolant is a little foamy now. Oil still looks clear but who knows. I tested all the fuel injectors, found 2 and 3 were crossed, injectors work, in my opinion they aren't spraying good, but they are spraying fuel. Checked all vac lines, cleaned all electrical connections, including the coil and all the wires around it. I did find that my thermo time switch is bad, tested and theres full resistance. I'm going to junk yard again tomorrow, they have a 77 280z there, missing the computer and some of the engine parts, but most are there, so at least I have some spare parts. I did want to swap a known working computer in there, but after testing it seems to be working fine. I hope its just the headgasket causing all the problems.

The z-car club around here is pretty lame, noone knows what is wrong. The main problem is that the car starts, idles perfect, but when you try and actually rev up the motor, or give it any load, it just bogs down. We can't figure out yet if its too rich or too lean, but the injectors do fire, and they keep firing during the whole process. Just don't know where to start, we've tried almost everything.

I found out today that my EFI relay is clicking while idle. I'm sure this is not normal right? Maybe this is the cause of my problems. If you push on the gas at all, the clicking stops, or seems to. The car idle is fine, but once you give it any gas it acts like its starving for fuel (we think that is the problem) does this sound right? Maybe the relay isn't doing its job?

Click here to watch 280z-exhaust-idle Click here to watch 280z-rev-up You can't hear it well, but you can tell its leaning / riching the engine so it ends up losing rpms.

Compression test - dry = 120 on all cyls, none were off much much. So i'm going with good rings. The smoke seems white, or a little grey (i will post a video soon) I tested all the sensors using the factory manual and they all tested "good" but I'm not sure what is happening. I will post picture / video soon.

I was also wondering if i should sand to the primer or the metal to try the DIY paint. A lot of people roll on the paint, but I was going to try and spray it with my compressor.

Hey, i'm a little new to z's, but i bought a 1977 280z and were trying to get it running. At first it wouldn't start at all, and a little replacing of fuel line, cleaning out the tank, fuel filters, etc. we got it running and idling perfect. Very little smoke The problem is when you actually give it gas, sometimes at cold start it will rev up almost perfect and its actually drivable for about 2 minutes, then it just loses power. There is smoke coming out the exhaust, and we made sure its not water, but we haven't ruled out fuel or oil. We tested all the electronics and they seem good. It will produce a smokescreen at high rpms (if you can get it there - 1500+) but will have little smoke at idle. The smoke smells a little like gas, but a lot like fuel. The plugs have oil on them, and were still trying to determine where its coming from, it has good compression, so i'm thinking the head. But is this why there is such a performance decrease? I'm going to try and find a junkyard head and try that one out, could there be an electronic problem? Thanks for the help.