Pharaohabq

Well if those are the picts of the car, I'd say consider the parts and the sales price. If it's more than say $500 bucks, I'd say keep looking. especially for a 280Z, there's still a ton of them around. especially if you want to look in the Southwest. If you spend $1000 on a relatively decent body and $500 to ship it anywhere in the east, you'll be in really good shape, compared to the time and $ you'd spend trying to get a rusted out body to a workable shape. Don't get attached to any particular body. There's still enough of them around that you can afford to shop around. Read up about where the rust often occures. As for a light engine to get swapped in. The SR20 or the 2JZ are really some of the lightest most powerful engines that you could swap in, personally I'm in the middle of a VQ35HR swap. As far as the car itself, really before you buy a car, you should really think about what it is that you really want to use the car for. If it's for weekend rallysports then great, plan on aiming for that, Setup a whiteboard or a notebook on what you want and where you want to be when you're done. Sticking to some simbilance of that plan will really help you stay on target and keep your costs down from buying too much "while I'm at it" parts. I can't say this enough, Research research research. Understanding what's common to upgrade and where quality parts are availible really will save you time and money. You're not building a SEMA show car, or maybe you are, either way, you need to know what you want the end product to look like and perform like so you can have a plan to get yourself there. Aimlessly buying parts just clutters up your space. Tackle each portion of your build as an individual researched project so you don't get overwhelmed and can keep motivated. I'd also recommend joining any local Z club in your area, it's always handy to have wrenching help, not to mention there's a lot of people there, like us, who've mucked around with these cars for 20 years and know a lot of the tricks and secrets about fixing them up. Things that you won't necessarilly find in any manual, like burning out old bushings. or that you can replace a bad wiper motor w/ a mid 90's honda accord motor, or cleaning old parts with a battery charger and baking soda.. Of course asking on here is great, we're happy to give you all the advice we can, but we don't like repeating ourselves, so please search, search, and more search on any topic you can think of, we've probably written about it. Aside from that we love pictures, so when you find a car, show us what you've been doing and I promise we'll be interrested. Phar

Ooooh! CF Fenders! that's sexy, I thought your wheels were hot. now I'm really liking the CF body parts. How much do you think a set of CF fenders would cost? likely more than I have to spare, but Ballpark?

Thanks SantanaWhite, I apprieciate the interrest. If you have any questions about things, just send me a message. I'm happy to discuss how this goes. I'm learning as I go, but it's been fun. I'm almost ready to put the Z back on the ground. I got the steering rack and crossmember all put back in place, the brakes are all still disconnected, but that's fine, no Engine installed so it's not going anywhere, and the E brake still works. I've been pulling out the interior and getting things set for paint. Who knew there was so much crap attached to the car. Lights, body panels, trim pieces etc etc etc. Phar

I don't think it's venom that's got PR280z, looks more like alcohol. Don't drink and drive. No really though, the more you can learn ESPECIALLY before you start buying parts will really make a difference in how your car turns out. On an old (read stock, untouched, classic, "rustfree" creampuff) Z S30, you'll of course want to make it run, and that should be high on your list. But much more important is the ability to make it stop. I've personally seen this happen twice, people find an old Z and try to drive it home from a field or whereever is sat for years, and they play out in the field, getting it started, then go to drive it home and though initially the brakes were just soft, they were quickly on their way out, so initially they could stop, but the 30 year old rubber didn't have life left or some other issue and after 2 or 3 stops, Boom no brakes. So make sure that when you're getting your Z going, that you've gone through your brake system. Rebuild kits are still availible as are upgrades like the Toyota S8 calipers. Save your Z and possibly your life, and redo your brakes before trying to drive any where if your Z has been sitting for some time.

Nice, So how well does it fit in the 280Z clamshell? Modern switches can't help but be better than the 240Z switches. Now if you can just get the cruise moved over as well

Yep, Not cheap. These cars are 35-40 years old and will eat your lunch if you let them, but once you get it going, you'll be hooked. But yeah, get it going first, then paint it or sell it, by then you'll understand why we're crazy about them. Does it start at all as it sits? It's a 72, so it's carb'd, do you know if your carbs have round tops or flat tops? Read up on the Wiki's on Datsun Z's and read on here as much as your little fingers can think up things to search on. You'll be an "expert" in no time.

Which version of the 240Z do you have? Early or late? The 280Z dash should install fine in a later 240Z, the early has a couple extra brackets to remove and you may have to drill a little. The size as you can see is basically the same, it's the mounts that will need attention.

It's an interrsting idea, but really if you're going to go through swapping to EFI, you should get that done first. I don't believe the performance gain you'd get from cowel induction on an S30 would really net you that much, compared to other types of tweaks, such as a cam (which also makes for fun noise) and adding a turbo (more fun noise). Sure is can be done, but I'm not sure the end result is worth the work. I'd be happy to see you do it though, Post us lots more pictures! Phar

Wow Strange stuff to find in the oil pan, I wonder what they were drilling to drop that in there. Sure seems like they wouldn't want that in there, That's a really good argument for those magnetic oil pan drain plugs. (Also a really good idea to use one when you're breaking in a rebuilt engine. The tiny shavings from when things are seating, is actually a good amount, and keepign those out of the bearings is always a good idea. It's cheap insurance I'd say. Weird they's leave that bit in there.

Well I would say a lot depends on your budget. Having the L28 in there is already a step up from the L24, but keep the Carbs from the L24, it'll make wiring much easier. The L28 is .4 liters bigger which actually will help you a lot in the HP ratings just stock. You should read up a bit more about them, but I think you may have done that already since you've identified the head and blocks. Swapping to the ZX 5 speed will also make cruising much more comfortable. All this that's been suggested with the engine mods sounds like great advice. If you feel ambitious you could setup the L28 with a Turbo but you'll need more parts, which you could probably get off Ebay or on these boards. You'd probably have to go with EFI-MegaSquirt etc at that point, but like I said, ambitious. Anyway, in the L24 in the meantime, an easy mod is to swap over the Electronic distrib from the ZX, to get rid of the points on that L24. Really though, Think about where you want to be, and how much power you're going to want in the end. A stock L28, really isn't anything shabby. All these mods are $ tho so it's up to you and your wallet. If you're looking for 300+ HP then you might be best off looking to a different engine swap, or even going V8. You can get the L28 to 300HP, but it's not cheap, and not going to get much past that. Whereas you could get an RB, 2jz or a VQ, and get to near 300HP in just stock form. If the car runs now on the L24, I'd recommend you drive it a few weeks so you can get the feel and get to know your car. That way when you do a swap, you'll have a good feel for the comparison as well. These are not new cars, they've got a lot more "character" than the new cars. Don't forget to go over your brakes and suspension. Updating those are as equally important as making it go. The Toyota caliper brake upgrade is good, along with Energy suspension bushings, at the very least new gabriel shocks and struts (whole coil-over setup is nice and very doable) Arizona Z car has some nice parts. Modern Motorsports has a cool catalogue. There's tons that you can do, The "Best Idea" is to know what you want to end up with before you start tearing it down and get the "While I'm at its...."

Yes, It's been done many times, just search on here I'm sure you'll find plenty of pictures. The replacement rails you want are the Bad Dog frame rails, they're already cut to the proper size, and they will fit over your existing with a little work, depending on how bad yours are. It's easiest to do this on a lift, but it's not required. Just work safe with lots of stands. Fit them over or cut parts out is up to you, but either way, you should treats and seal the rust before you put on the rails, or you might get more rust eating through your floor.

Well without a pict really it's hard to say. But I doubt you've ruined anything. you may want a tower brace just to help prevent any flexing. but for 90% of the people out there, you're not going to do enough romping on it to really damage anything. Besides, if it cracks, you can always weld it again. The stock spot welds never busted, so what's to say your solid weld is going anywhere? I wouldn't worry about it. Especially with the stock engine. Small holes are nothing to patch, Generally it's the frame rails that support most of the car, though the rest of the body is a structural component. Doing like was suggested, and just putting in the Bad Dog rails is plenty strong, and you can use them as a jacking point. But for fixing that spot in the rocker, I don't think you'll have any trouble. but if you're worried about it, put a floor jack under it just in case. Well I'm not sure you're going to like that 240Z tranny, yeah it'll work, but you're going to be turning a lot of revs going down the freeway. a 4speed will be turning about 3500 RPM at 70MPH, where a 5 speed will be cruising at about 2800. it's up to you tho. I've always liked overdrives just for the fuel econ and noise comfort. Good deal on the hi temp paint. It should look good, what's most important is that YOU like it since it's your car. Good choice on the brakes. no sense buying way more expensive parts, but look into the 84 Z31 rotors with the toyota calipers. that should setup the front, then the rears there's a lot you can do, but the drums will work in the meantime, and the kits to rebuild them are like 10 bucks each. As for your ignition and missing interior parts. Well Ebay is my first choice. aside from that there's a lot of people on here and around the community that have parts, so no worries there, just look in the classifieds. Good choice on the wiring. It's a ton of work to rewire everything. I'd recommend getting a 4x8 sheet of plywood and some nails, then hang the harness on there, to plan out all your connectors, and where in the car things will mount. Once it's all labelled and you've got your connectors set, then mount your fusebox, and run the circuits based on how you had it on the board. that way you won't be struggling to run each circuit one at a time, and you'll know which ones are going through where in the chassis. It'll be nice to have the extra circuits. As for your engine. If it's already got the new seals and such setup then good deal. no worries about replacing them, but if it's apart, you might be ahead to replace then with known good seals as compared to hoping the once you've got are good. The engines are old, the rubber is old, so just because it LOOKS good, doesn't mean it is. Ounce of prevention etc etc etc.. The rear oil seal, I seem to remember that with the oil pan off that you can replace that carefully. I dunno, it's been a while since I tore down an L28. someone else likely knows. Your suspension mods. I would really recommend you swap out all the bushings first before you get into swapping springs and such. 30 year old bushings have a lot of slop to them, where new ones will make the car feel tighter, more nimble, less roll. better alignments stuff like that. $800/tires I'm talking a set of 5, pirelli's or Michelins. I've also spent good money on Dunlops, and even a set of Yoko's. Phar

Well it's been a while since I've updated. I've been working on the body a bit more. the Engine is out and waiting. I've decided that it needs paint before I go too much furthor. I've done all the welding for the mounts and the paint. I've reinstalled my modded steering crossmember, and will setup the steering shaft relocation when the car is back on the ground. I will install the 350Z pumpkin when I get some shafts for it. I understand I might be able to use Z31 shafts, but I'll need to clarify that. Stripping everything out of the body is fun, but tedious to document. hope I don't lose many parts.

I'm not very familiar with the UTEC. So I couldn't really answer that question. I know thought that the closer to stock setup that you have, then then easier your troubleshooting will be later on since the add in parts like Haltech and UTEC are designed to augment the Stock system. As for the NATS removal, it's really not that big a deal, you just need a DASH haness for the same year (which you'll need if you're going to run any stock gauges) the NATS antenna, a Key and a BCU. Nissan will set it up for you w/ the ConsultIII. The system should also have the Stock Fuseboxes and the IPDM in the Engine compartment, but those aren't 100% required. All these parts can be had relatively cleaply compared to the engine or compared to a harness hack. The Z32 has the toothed gears on the Diff shafts so you can get the Speedo signal from there. What Year is the Engine? Some of the early ones had oiling issues, some of the early tranny's weren't so good either. I'd be really interrested so see how you end up setting this up. I saw yout thread in the Z32 section and will follow it. Phar

Looks like a pretty good find on that engine. Hope it's in good shape, Do you know what vehicle the engine came out of? There was another Z32 VQ swap I saw some time back, but they had to cut the hood to make it fit, so you might be doing that, or perhaps building a stout skid plate. Up to you, I'm sure. But I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes, because if my VG dies I will likely be looking into VQ35 or VQ37 for mine. The HR engines people have said the plenums are taller, but I haven't seen that on my S30 VQ project. I'm sticking with the NATS. it's not so big a deal, it's just a key, the antenna and the BCU all of which can be programmed to your computer with a ConsultIII at the dealer, but you're dealing with a Tune as well, due to your Turbos so you go from there and hope it works out. Phar

What should up the Spiff factor a bit, not to mention protect the frame you've put so much into. Are you going to have to tear down much for the powder coating to be done?

Good Job, Glad you got it figured. Now what caused the issue? It'd be good to see if you could figure out what killed those coils, because, as you know they're not cheap. I'm glad those guys gave you some good support. So how about a Vid?

Hey man, Thinkgs are looking good. Nice job on your welding. It doesn't look like it's going to leak. Did you also weld the bottom?? You'll need to at the very least seal the bottom and paint the top since fresh welds rust pretty easilly. A couple other comments: Your engine painting, I'm hoping you're using high temperature paint? Standard paint might be okay, but usually with any heat, especially on metallics, they have a tendency to discolor. Not to mention high temp paint holds up to oil a little better. Good deal, on the engine. While you have it apart, you might consider replacing the valve seals with the better Viton seals. As for your tires, well $400 bucks or your life? Good tires are a necessity. Old dry cracked ones could blowout and cause real trouble especially at speed. I'd recommend, 215-55-R16's on 16" rims, 0 offset. You should still fit in the tirewells with no rubbing, and not rub your springs either. There's a whole discussion on here about tires and rims in the wheel area. I wouldn't be upset about spending even $800 on a good set of tires. Replacing all your 30+ year old bushings will also make a huge handling difference. The Energy suspension kit is pretty good If you hold off on that SX tranny, and get an 82-83 S130 "ZX" tranny, then you won't have to worry about getting your driveshaft modified. A ZX tranny shouldn't be that hard to find. there are a lot still out there. Just call around. The ZX tranny will just bolt up, where I don't know if the SX tranny would require body/bracket mods to make it fit. All in all it's great that you enjoy working on your Z, that's the same reason most of us do it, but at least you're keeping the positive attitude and the work is flying by. Oh, Harbor frieght, Yeah most of their stuff is pretty good, but Don't trust their floor jacks to hold for a long time, Always use jackstands. Harbor frieght jackstands work fine. it's a safety thing... at the very least put the tires you take off the car underneath, so that if the car falls it'll hit the tires before making you into a pancake. Work smart. Keep having fun and keep us posted. it's awesome to see what you're doing.

It would be interresting to hear how things have sorted out.

You might not want to waste the $ on cheap tires. At least not too much. For temporary you can go to the junkyard and buy some tires off wrecked cars in the size you need, sometimes you can get them for 5-10 bucks each. otherwise the tire shop might have some cheap. But aside from all that, rather than spend the $ on something you're going to replace, Maybe consider buying your actual tires you're going to use. Get like 215r16's and some decent rims that you'd be able to sell later. 215's are the widest you'll fit on an S30 w/o any fender issues. Can't wait to see your picts. These cars are awesome, but they're more picky than your girlfriend. They'll drain your wallet faster, but once you're in one, you'll be glad for all the work and trouble you went through to get there. Just make sure you have a plan and watch out for the "while I'm at it" bug. Also avoid buying parts for later on, like new mirrors and interior and airdam and and and... At least till you've got her running and safe to drive (tires, brakes insurance etc etc.) Try to stick to one project at a time and you'll get through things quickly. If you do too much, then the projects get bogged down waiting on other projects to finish and it's easy to get discouraged at that point. Are the existing tires so bad that they won't hold air even temporarilly?

Hey Seattle... Oh that 2" hole saw, is it skipping around because there's no center point to hold it in place? If that's the case you can screw a piece of wood behind the plate to give the saw something to center on. Aside from that you can use your angle grinder to cut a notch for the edge of the saw to seat into. then maybe it'll bite and you can cut. What kind of hole saw do you have? The carbide ones are pretty good for metal. Looks like you've done a lot of work, but that you still have a lot to do. Gotta give props to you for being brave enough to paint it yourself.

Another possibility is to tack weld the bolt heads so you don't have to hold it. It's not the best way but it works. You'll have to grind then pop the old bolts out once its loose. Clean up isn't too bad but you'll need to replace the bolts afterwards.

K204... Hey Well welcome to the world of Z Restore First thing I would recommend is to read through all the stickies to familiarize yourself with just what it is that you've got. Where rust shows up, and what it's going to take to make the power you want. Even in stock form the 280/260/240Z (S30's) are not bad. They will not be cheap to resurrect. though Ebay is your friend for parts as are the classifieds on here and elsewhere. You'll need to think about and the site down and write out a plan for fixing it up how YOU want it to be, what you want to modify, and what can be upgraded. This forum isn't really for keeping things stock. it's much more for improving an already great design. If the end it's your $ and your car so you do what you want with it. As for the engine, the Turbo version is certainly a start. there's tons of other powerful engines you can throw in there, Toyota JZ's, Nissan VQ's, SBC's, Nissan VK's It's what you want to do that matters. But hey we love picts so take more and show us what you're doing. (Oh I hope you're sanding before primering that rust, you don't want a problem later... ) Phar

I realy like how you did your FPR mount.

Car came from NM eh? It doesn't look bad. It's got WAY less rust than my early 240Z. mine needs new wheel arches inner/outter. dents pulled etc.