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Great pictures! Looking at your pictures brings back memories, some good many bad. I maybe put the rear tub on 25 times, but the front was closer to 50. Then there is the sanding and filling and sanding etc. Bill

There is a nice 250 GTO on ebay. It has 4 days to go and is up to $10,000.00 Bill

Gary, Great pictures of one hell of a Z. Bill

I can rember when I was at that stage of the build. I like the VW headlight rings, what year, model are they? I have some British (AH 100-4) rings that aren't perfect. Bill

Weighed my 280z/Ferrari GTO Ford 302 - 1370lb front 1630lb rear with me, a tool box and full tank of gas. It works out to 45.6% front and 54.4% rear. The driver and tool box totaled 200 lb. The Dayton wire wheels, tires and knock offs are 75lb each, for a total of 300lb.

I remember cars that looked like that, one hell of a lot of work! Living in AZ for the last nine years, I have had several totally rust free cars. 59 Thunderbird, sat for thirty years, 77 280Z, now titled as a 1962 ferrari GTO coupe. 1947 Ford pickup and a 75 Mercedes 450 SL. All of these cars would be rust buckets if they were in the North East. Too bad the shipping would cost $500.00 for a rust free car. Bill

No problem with sticking to the duct tape. I have also used the duct tape to cover the bottom of a rusted floor after sand blasting then fiber glassing the inside floor. When you take off the duct tape the bottom of the floor looks great, add a little spray undercoat and you can't tell anything was ever done to the floor. Bill

I had great success in repairing several interior plastic parts with ABS cement. It is the black stuff that you glue the black drain pipes with, after all isn't the interior plastic ABS? For holes and large cracks, duct tape the finished side and glue from the back side. Be sure to clean everything real good before you start. The hard part is waiting for at least 36 hours before you test the repair. For the holes you are talking about, just fill them in and drill them back out when the glue dries. Good luck, Bill

Here are pictures of the Thunder Ranch hinge setup. They give you the "U" shaped piece that bolts to the hood, you have to make the rest. I welded a 1" angle between two 1/8 plates that bolt where the original Datsun hood hinges were mounted. The oversize holes in the plates allow for adjustment in all directions. Bill

Sorry, Thunder Ranch does not trim their headlight covers. They do label the right and left sides. Bill

Thought I'd put my $0.02 in the GTO thread. Here are some detail shots of my Ford powered 77 280z / GTO. The inside door handle was relocated, a new flat door panel was made, power windows and locks installed. The door pull is Victoria British #9-269 The Gas cap is from http://www.cobraaccessories.com "gas cap assembly with internal locking cap" $195.00. The mounting flange was machined off to fit in the body recess and the back of the cap was drilled and tapped to fasten it from the inside. The hood strut took a lot of searching to get it right. I made a fiberglass cover for the wiper area, it was a fairly simple mold to make. The radiator is Summit #SUM 380425 with a perfect fitting 90 Taurus fan and shroud. I hope the pictures are here Bill

Thunder Ranch ships their GTO kit with Mar-Glass to bond the fiberglass panels to the Datsun body. Bill

Having spent 49 years in the philthadelphia area, look out for rust! Engines bolt in, wiring can be replaced, but rust is a total pain and can cost way more than the car is worth to fix right. If you get the car, I can fill you in on all of the goodies. Bill

Still looks pretty much like my Thunder Ranch! License plate recess, slots behind the side windows, the shape of the front end, the size of the front brake cooling intakes. Some differences, the fuel filler latch cutout faces forward instead of toward the rear, the hood hinges are different. Thunder Ranch bought the molds from Alpha after Ferrari threatened to sue Alpha. Check out http://WWW.GTORR.COM Bill

The GTO kit on ebay seems to be a Thunder Ranch or later Alpha. I just finished a Thunder Ranch that I bought last fall, the Ebay car appears to be identical to mine. Forget the idea of removing the body to put on another Z, the rear section, rocker panels and door skins would be destroyed in the process. If you can pull off getting a title, and buy the car for 1K, it might be worth the effort. The new Thunder Ranch kit is $3195.00 - about 4K by the time you get it to your house. Bill

Thanks for all the input on the exhaust harmonics. We tried the bullet muffler in the 3" diameter pipe that 2126 suggested. It worked great and also quieted the overall noise fom the exhaust. Thanks, Bill

I had a Factory Five Cobra for 5 years. They used the factory headers into the exhaust system that you described without any flex pipe. They hang the back of the exhaust on the stock Mustang rubber mounts. There are 4000+ Factory Five's running the system that you want to build without any cracking problems. Bill

Knowledge is power. My exhaust shop was amazed at what was available through the internet! This is the third custom exhaust system that he has built for me and he is willing to work on it until it is perfect with no additional cost to me! Thanks for all of the input, if anyone has more ideas, please post them. Thanks Again, Bill PS this car is really F... fast!

I am being drummed out of my 302 powered 280Z at 1500 & 2300 RPM under load. Tried softer exhaust mounts- no help. The system consists of block hugger headers into 2 2.25" pipes to a 4' long 3" pipe then splits into 2 2.25" pipes and mufflers.

Here are pictures of the battery box. The first is looking almost straight up and the second is looking in from the wheel well area. Also two pictures of the car. Bill

The box is for a top terminal group 42 battery. I bought mine at autozone. Pictures in a day or two. Bill

Yep that is the name of the company. 1-928-771-2590 Their #901020 box fits perfect between the front gas tank support frame and the one over the mustache bar and to the right of the wheel well support. I totally removed the wheel well, so you might have to cut a small corner into the wheel well. The box is 7" wide 7.5" high and 9.75 long. The group 42 battery drops in from the top. Bill PS My 250 GTO got the Past President's Choice trophy at Knott's this weekend out of 250 cars!

Sunday morning was very soggy at the AHA Knott's show. They started the awards at 10:00 AM. I got a second place in a 2 car class...LAST Place! Loaded the car on the trailer, and was waiting to see how some of my friends made out when the called my name for the Past President's Choice trophy! This is about as close to best of show that I'll ever get in a 250 car show. Bill

Staledale, Sorry you can't make Knott's. I did Carlisle a few times with my custom VW convert before we moved to AZ. About 10 years ago my wife and I saw the light and moved to the middle of Arizona from the suburban Phila. area. Got tired of the snow, freezing rain, rain, grass, leaves and assholes on the road. It is hard to find a rusted car here that was not imported from some other state. I'll post pictures from the show. Bill

I will be at the Knotts' show next weekend with my Ford powered 280z Ferrari 250 GTO. Look for the YELLOW! one. Bill