ZR8ED

I guess it mainly depends on how "stock" you want it to look, or do you want to protect/paint the car using modern materials and techniques. There is a reason the originals rust so bad. Their protective materials and methods were poor to non-existant when compared to modern vehicle construction techniques. Your choice. BTW that pic is awsome!

Finally have some outside shots. Unfortunately it was already getting dark by the time I got home from work. I will have to wait for a bright sunny afternoon on the weekend to get some shots that show the colour better. I'm happy with the results so far.

Been a while for an update. Bodywork bodywork bodywork. Sand sand sand. At least I have not found any rust, at least nothing hard to clean up. The rear fascia and side skirts are now installed, and have been blended into the rest of the bodywork. Chiseling off the old wing was a nightmare, along with some minor bleeding, chisels, sawzall, and drill, I got the darn thing off. What a mess too. It was on there good and strong, but I am much happier with the look now that it is gone. Car has been shot with primer, and will be painted a nice medium dark metallic blue in the next few days. Then I'm going to get back into the interior. It will need a full detail job now, and I'm going to replace the carpets, maybe the centre console and some trim, and that will be about it. I'm trying to staying well away from "while I'm at it" which I am well known for. Yes I have some pics, but not ready to post up yet. I will get to them soon.

JSR. It had a large following. I was member for some time as well. I think they even made up some stickers! Look it up and revive the thread! I came up with a solution to long projects. TWO Z cars. One left alone stock and reliable and one jackstand racer!

Move the lines further forward to avoid that bottom corner of the door. As others have said. Make them a bit thicker too.

Finishing off installing the MSA body kit,(I'm trying hard not to get caught in the "while I'm at it" syndrome. I hope to shoot a final coat of primer tonight. Maybe paint by the weekend...we'll see.

All else being unchanged, when I first completed my v6 swap, the first time I tracked it, the car instantly and dramatically understeered. Previously the car had a very neutral feel (as described by myself and very experienced racers who drove the car helping me with the suspension setup.) I had a staggard tire setup (225/50/16 and 265/45/16). I then went to even more dramatic staggard setup. (235/45/17 and 315/35/17) Adjusting the suspension again, I managed to get back to a neutral feel. With excellent exit throttle application control. (in short I could easily put the power down, yet add oversteer on demand if I wanted) Nothing wrong with staggard setups, it just takes different planning. The lightweight setback position of the v6 made standard "known" suspension setups for the S30 inappropriate, and took a bit of pure trial and error. I am not a suspension guru in the least, so I can't commment on your specific settings other than the Fore/aft settings for my car had a larger delta than I started with. Good luck!

I'd also add that from the pics, it looks like it has no front bumper either. With an aftermarket airdam, that means there is an unfinished looking area..unless you did body work there to smooth it out. I also don't see any paint. Flat black is not a paint when I go out to look at a car. It may as well be primer. It is a very "love it/hate it" look. I also don't see any description of brake upgrades to match the new hp levels. Lowering springs..any new bushings? If things are stock, they better be in excellent condition. No paint (I know its a flatblack murdered look), stock brakes, unknown condition of suspension sounds to me like $3000.00 extra that it needs. Add that to your price, and see how reasonable your asking price is. I'm not trying to sound harsh here. I am very experienced in buying/selling z's, and I have a huge amount of recent experience selling an ultra modified Z. Modded Z's are harder to sell than stock Z's in similar condition. Think of a 20yr old explaining the car to his insurance agent. Insuring modded cars is not as easy at it once was. Many modded z's right now have not disclosed this to their ins companies...If they did I believe many would get dropped. Good luck in your decision.

I used a two part metallic paint normally used for calipers. Worked great too! Make sure you properly clean, and I mean CLEAN the valve cover, give it a very light sanding 400 grit, and clean it again. Then paint it, install it, then forget about it. Just don't use it as a tool holder anymore, or you may scratch it! Have fun!

Well its not quite a "bolt in" kind of swap. The rear cover is much larger (deeper)and will not clear your rear most control arm bracket. That is the bracket that is bolted to BOTH sides of the left and right control arm. A custom bracket is needed. I am unaware of a part that you can order from a catalogue. I had to modify my stock bracket using 1/8 inch flat bar. You may also have to change the front driveshaft input flange. (the nose of the diff) Depending on the year/style of diff/tranny, and anyone who may have modified the car in the last 30 years Some diffs have a round or square flange. You don't mention if you have a R200 or R180 in your car. The 260 had some cross over parts from the 240 and 280 depending on the build date, so make sure you take stock of what YOU have to start with. Once you know that, you can figure what you will need to do. Best case is modify the rear control arm bracket and bolt the diff in...I won't even go into the worst case, as it depends on your starting point with your car. BTW don't assume your car has X diff from the factory..who knows what may have been previously modified. Good luck!

Thanks! Paint is a two part aerosol spray paint system called "Metal Cast" Used primarily for calipers. There are a few colours to choose from, and uses a ground coat, and what appears to be a clearcoat with the "colour" in it. Nice to use, but need to watch out for mottling of the paint (blotchy) and it is very important to make sure the part is totally clean. I cleaned it several times, and still had a minor problem, but not the end of the world, but it did take a bit more time to repair it. Looks great now! Bodywork is underway. Poor paintjob is an understatement. Someone should be ashamed of themselves. I could not easily modify the crappy rear spoiler, so I chiseled it off. I will use the California wing afterall. Messy work, but will take less time. I'll take some pics once the car "really looks different" Hatch clean up, then rear bumper install is the next task. Once the hatch is primered, I will pre install the mounting setup for the wing so I can simply "bolt it on" once the car is painted. It will be easier to paint it on its own. Moving along..slowly.

I appear to be in keeping with my "zig when everyone zags" way of thinking. I'm keeping my eye out for a light metallic blue 1978 280. With the white interior (black dash/carpets) yea baby!

It all started with the Atari 2600 game machine, then my first real computer, and Apple 2+ yes I said Plus! way better than the appleII, not as elaborate as the Apple 2c which was not completely compatable with my older stuff! Then it was on to an 086 PC with 640K and TWIN 5 1/4 floppies! Uggg I feel old all of a sudden.

Great story Tony! I have similar stories back when I was getting "in" with a group of hotrodders. My GM factory town didn't "cotton" to jap scrap, but it was the Buick GN guys who took me under their wing, as I had a "mean RWD Turbo V6" in my litle Datsun. Suddenly I became part of their group. I didn't need to say "fu" and do a burn out when they first told me to "get lost"! Made some good friends and connections to fabricators/shops. It just took a bit of time. The reason I am adding another post to this thread, is regarding the search function of the site. I have mentioned this in the past, but when posting the start of a thread, OR when a thread really comes alive with good discussion and information, the thread should have some key words imbedded in it. For example within a thread, it should read: This thread is useful to fix "wheel vibrations, driveline vibrations, driveshaft vibrations, halfshaft vibrations, CV shaft vibrations" When someone is searching using anyone one of those keywords, it will turn up this thread. Of course putting good searchable titles for the thread would be helpful as well to make searches more clear. We search using keywords, but we don't write posts using those keywords very well. This thread is helpful for figuring out if Members are Rude, why members flame, Noob mistakes, Noobie mistakes, new members, Noob members. Cheers!

Meph. I'd like to say I have 20+ years of Z connections all over the place so I can keep up on what "may become" available. But alas, this car is from a member of the club, and it was listed on Kijiji, though that is not how I came about this car..... I will tidy up some wiring/hoses over the next few days, but I will get into the body once I enlist some help. I am going to further mod the custom wing/spoiler as I do not like it at all, then its on to install the body kit. I am not likely going to install the California wing, as the one on the car is not removable (bonded on, and not worth the effort to remove it) I see some inspiration ala my old wrap around wing. I got the fibreglass ready, and my skills are sharp (er) after my airdam mod I made last year. Stay tuned...

I have started a build thread here. Come see 10hrs of labour into my build. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/95781-my-17th-z-a-1978-280z-again/

Well here is my next project. Albeit a temporary project. I just sold my first Z. The other 15 have come and gone over the years, and this one makes 17. It starts with a solid driveline, suspension, brakes etc. Mechanically it is great. It has upgraded toyota brakes, exhaust, headers, mild cam and cold air intake. The paint is well let me just say it is poor. I got the car with a MSA body kit (facias and sideskirts) My goal is to clean it up, do the body, paint it, then sell it and move on to my last Z project. So here are some pics of the car. The "Before" Ok this may be the first post, but here is my first update. I have taken stock of what I have, and what I need to do. I didn't have enough time to start with the body, but I really wanted to work on it this past weekend, and complete one part of the project, so I decided to work in the engine bay. It sure needed it too! This is going to be a labour intensive project to help offset the low budget nature of the project. Labour invested 10 hours Dollars spent $40 (paint, sandpaper, brushes, cleaner and papertowels/rags)

The purpose of using a clearcoat was to reduce the amount of basecoat used. Basecoat (the colour/pigments) are extremely expensive when compared to the clearcoat. You are generally using enough basecoat to "hide" the primer. Applying too much just wastes paint, and if it is still wet, the extra coats can "mottle" the paint (make it look blotchy and not uniform in colour). Being too far away or over atomizing the paint "dries" it out, and it can actually be dry before it even gets to the car!

OS Giken lettering?

What a crazy few weeks. Selling an custom exotic sports car is almost a full time job! The widebody has gone on to a good home with an experienced z owner from my own club (those details will remain private unless he wants to come forward on his own) Ok. Soooo. Sold one 1978 280z with (I think it is safe to say) extreme mods, only to get a 1978 280z with very mild mods. The car project shall be called "Sell this one too!" It is a 280 with toyota brake upgrade, 14x7 or 8 wheels, intake/headers/exhaust. Stock FI, air/con, and a full yet partially installed MSA body kit (skirts, airdam, rear fascia)two wings (one msa California wing not installed) It has vents moulded into the quarters, has a black interior, and crappy blue exterior paint. My mission is to cleanup, do the bodywork, install the body kit, paint, and sell, then move on to a nicer project. Now don't feel too sorry for me selling my old Z. I am thoroughly enjoying a Porsche 944 cabriolet with a Gemballa bodykit and nice wheels. Beautiful car to cruise around in, and more importantly wife friendly enough to be able to take the car on trips, that she would not let me use my previous Z for. (ok I may be a bit whipped, but at least I can still play with cars after more than 20yrs of Z's) I started by taking stock of what I have, and what it needs, and how I will tackle it. I don't have a big budget, so I need to put all of my skills to use here. I can't start the bodywork yet, but I still wanted to work on it this thanksgiving weekend, so I elected to clean/organize some wiring, and start painting brackets and such in the engine bay. I will have to mask it all off once the bodywork starts, to try and keep my work looking decent, but at least I got to play with the car some. The engine bay was so dirty, that I would be ashamed to show it at a 4x4 offroad weekend event! Here are the initial pics. Remember these pics...it can only get better from here. Wish me luck! "Once again into the breach!"

I had a similar issue. Driving down the road, then suddenly It was coasting and the engine was off? Turned out it was the ignition module on the side of the distributor. If it is not making a good contact with the dizzy body, it gets hot and shuts down. I made sure the unit was securely fastend to the dizzy. (it was loose) Search ign modules. A new one may be required!

Sincerest Condolences Scottie. The car doesn't even compare, but I sure am glad that your ok though. Scott.

"vaca" in Portugese means "cow" (spelling?) hehehe I had to laugh when I saw your title! Good luck with the move. Does the move include plans for a big garage?

I had a large group of Z guys to draw on. We used to rebuild and tune webers together, "tuning parties" if you can call getting all covered in gasoline a party...well there was beer, so that counts for something! I was on the young side of the group, so I stayed at it the longest. I have one very good friend who had a Z, but owns a wicked MKII turbo Supra, and we get together at least once a week to either work on them or to clean them up and go for a coffee/cruise. I think owning a Z that has been more or less completed, or at least is no longer on jackstands for any longer than the odd weekend, is a part of getting together that kind of winds down. I don't mind helping others work on their cars, but again, most of my friends are driving cars that have been put together, and are driving them. I don't know anyone starting from scratch. Funny how that works out. I work on the car for years with improper tools, on a gravel driveway, and now I don't work on it much, but I have a comfortable garage with plenty of "cool tools". It has been almost 7yrs since I have been into a MAJOR project. Anything I do now is weekend stuff. Most of which I do "just because". Ouch..do I sound old to you? I wonder what will happen with my next Z?

Cleaned the car, changed the oil, checked coolant etc, took it for a cruise.