Mitchel0407

Last week my order from Apex Engineered came in so now I can start stripping down the car and prepping her for the body shop. Money is a bit tight right now so I’ll install all my suspension parts first and probably send the car of to the shop in February. In the meantime I decided to strip out the interior and see what’s hidden underneath. It doesn’t look that bad but for a car that has been quote on quote “restored” only 10 years ago they sure did a shitty job. Lots of surface corrosion sports throughout the interior, lots of missing bolts, fasteners and rubber plugs and unpainted parts from shotty repair work. I cleaned up the surface rust and sprayed a generous amount of rust converter on everything. I will order some more rust converter, primer and color matched paint soon to clean up and protect the inside parts. I’ll also look at some spray wax to protect the hidden parts and crevasses of the chassis. A guy on YouTube I follow (M539 Restorations) uses one from Liqui Molly I believe which seems pretty good so I will give that one a try. It's not all bad news though. It looks like that in all these years the wiring harness stayed unmolested by all the previous owners. I also found out that the car has 4 pretty big and new looking JBL speakers! They didn’t all work when I tested the radio but I believe that might be the head unit itself. I will probably replace it with a Bluetooth capable retro looking one in the future. I also found a full and intact box of original Nissan glass 10amp fuses in the trunk!

Good work! You seem to be making some great progress these last few weeks. As for me I just got my 280z to run a bit better. Today my final part from Apex Engineered should come is so I will strip the car this weekend so the car can be send off to the body shop.

I love the look of the spray bar and the use of the stock fuel pump hole! I believe those are blocked from factory for the L28 engines, did you just cut it open?

Time to update the build threat again. Things are moving slow at the moment but none the less progress is being made. I have contact with two local body shops in the area for the frame rail repair and to measure the body to see if it’s twisted in any way. One of the body shops is specialized is classic car repair and restauration but will probably be quite expensive but none the less a representative will come by to look at the car this week. The other body shop is a more generic one that also does a lot of classic BMW’s and has done some paint work for me in the past. There hourly rate is a lot cheaper, I know they deliver great work and I know they sometimes are willing to do cash work. To save money on the body shop hours I decided to bite the bullet and order a bunch of parts from Apex Engineered which should arrive somewhere next week. Deciding what to buy was quite difficult as the shipping rate varied a lot but in the End I got the shipping down to $284. I all I bought the frame rails, front fender braces, front and rear control arms, steering knuckles, front crossmember and the rear strut brace. As importing stuff from the US is pretty expensive I decided to place a bigger order then what I strictly needed to maximize the value for my money. As the car needed to get welded anyway I ordered the front fender braces as well to reinforce the front of the car as they weren’t that expensive and seemed to me as a worth wile upgrade. As for the control arms my main reasons for buying those was to delay any major body repairs. If my body turns out to be twisted repairing it would turn into a full on restauration project. I do plan on restoring and repainting the car some day but not now, so as a temporary solution the adjustable control arms allow me to tune the effects of a twisted body out a bit. At some point I would like to get the full Apex Engineered Retro Mod suspension so this will give me a great starting point to work from anyway. To save some more money at the body shop I will strip down the interior and remove the fuel lines myself before sending the car of for welding. But before doing that I still have a chance to fix some small stuff surrounding the engine. My backorder from Zservices in France finally came in together with a used Bosch AAR from a Porsche 944 as my original AAR turned out to be broken. So last week I took the valve cover off to adjust the valves and replace the gasket as it was leaking a lot of oil. Good thing I did as the valves where very out of spec. The adjusters where a pain to get loose but after that adjusting them was very easy. I put everything back together with some new NGK spark plug wires and started her back up. Even with near freezing conditions the car started right up and idled better then ever before. The engine still runs very rich at idle and I suspect it might be an injector issue but other then that the engine runs great and the emissions are within the limits so I will place that issue on hold for now. My plans for the coming weeks are to strip down the interior, remove the fuel lines, front fenders and doors. This will also give me the opportunity to clean and inspect those parts of the car for more hidden surprises. I will also repaint the fuel lines as they are full of undercoating and try to restore the dashboard as with any Z mine is cracked. As for the doors I want to rebuild the door hinges and maybe try and reupholster the door cards as mine are actually of a 2+2 and have a giant hole instead of a second door latch. I’m hoping to get the car back on the road after this so I can finally start to enjoy my 280z this spring. Video van WhatsApp op 2025-11-24 om 10.58.36_fab92d46.mp4

Great work so far! I’m sure this will be an awesome build. I suspect you will be running fender flares or a wide body kit seeing as your wheels are poking out a bit?

As listed in the post above I did order those parts. Shipping is indeed expensive but that’s not Apex’s fault, they use UPS and when you fill in your address you just get a direct calculation from UPS. I don’t know where you live in relation to Apex (Milwaukee Wisconsin) but I know that shipping across Europe can reach the same prices. As for me my shipping came down to $284,50 which is a lot but still respectable. Unfortunately I also need to pax an extra 4,5% import duty and 21% tax on top when my package arrives at customs. The kits don’t come pre assembled but they do have great product installation videos on their website which make installation basically a step by step tutorial. I don’t mind at all, installing car part is basically a very expensive version of adult Lego.

As I understand it he needed a new gas cap for his 1976 280z and found a gas cap from a 2002 BMW that fit his 280z Understand that in general engineers are lazy people (I could know, I am one) and the wheel can only be invented so many times before you start making similar products. So no I don’t find it weird at all that a gas cap from a 2002 BMW happens to fit on a 1976 Datsun 280z. Hell my 1977 280z is running a AFM from a 1996 Mazda 626! 😂

What did you get, the Pro Touring kit? I do like how the Apex suspension looks and I heard a lot of good things about them. I also picked up some parts for myself to try out. Modified S30 Z’s are rare in Europe and once with anything more the coilovers even more so I’ve never seen the Apex suspension myself. I will eventually move down the new Retro Mod line as I want to keep the stock drivetrain and R200 diff but for now I just got some nice upgrades that give me the adjustability I need. - Front fender brace - Frame rails - Rear strut brace - Front control arms - Steering knuckles - Front crossmember - Upper steering rack clamps - Rear control arms

After many nights thinking about it, the current Black Friday sale and optimizing my order for the most value for my money I finally decided to pull the trigger. Maybe it’s because of the size and weight of the total order but the calculation of the shipping was a bit weird. As the parts will need to be shipped to the Netherlands I knew the shipping would be expensive but my shipping came down to almost $600!! By combining some stuff I got the shipping to drop down to $280,- while still giving me the stuff I wanted and basically a free rear strut brace. Here is a list of all the stuff I got: - Front fender brace - Frame rails - Rear strut brace - Front control arms - Steering knuckles - Front crossmember - Upper steering rack clamps - Rear control arms While weighting my options Apex dropped there Retro Mod line of suspension which allows you to keep the stock R180 or R200 long nose differential, axles and spindles. I really wanted to get the new rear suspension and subframe but found it to be too expensive for me at this time. By dropping the rear subframe I got to order the front crossmember, control arms and steering knuckle and still be a lot cheaper off. Weirdly ordering all the front suspension bits separately was almost $300,- cheaper than buying the Retro Mod front suspension kit. Seeing as I don’t need the tie rods (and the steering rack, you need to buy that separately) I’m even cheaper off. I’m hoping to get the frame rails and fender brace fitted over the winter and have the car ready before next spring.

My god, seeing that engine finally inside the car truly gives some perspective just how massive that engine is. The L series looks small in comparison!

The Datsun EFI system might look complicated but once you understand how it works it’s dead simple. Start with the basics and preform all the electrical measurements at the ECU plug. Don’t worry if the measurements are a bit out of spec and try and leave the AFM (Air Flow Meter) alone till you’re out of options. I suspect your issue might come down to something as simple as a bad connection or a broken wire. Try to look for damage to the wiring harness in the engine bay. Even though you replaced the fuel pump measure the fuel pressure just after the filter. The pump might be fine but it could still be that you aren’t building pressure. There is a fuel pump cut off switch inside the AFM to shut off the fuel supply if the engine stops running.

Unfortunately I live in the Netherlands so I will probably never be able to attend SEMA and there aren’t a lot of S30 Z’s running around here let alone modified with Apex Engineered hardware. I do plan to change that over time as the suspension kits look really good not to mention the perfect timing of new Retro Mod line which retains the original differential setup. The wife isn’t happy with me spending money on the car but I really want my 280z back on the road this spring. I’ll wait till black Friday to see if there are any good deals and then contact for an order for at least the frame rails and rear suspension.

I don’t know if they attend or what can be found at SEMA but I’m interested If Apex Engineered will be there. I just saw that they dropped a new line of suspension upgrades this weekend called the Retro Mod line of suspension. The Retro line allows you to keep the stock R180 or R200 diff and looks a lot like there I guess existing suspension (non track attack) line that seems to be renamed to the Pro Touring line.

Welcome back to the forum!

I am planning to do it the right way but finding a body shop that can straighten the car is a bit difficult. I was always planning to fully strip, repair, straighten and repaint the car at some point but if it’s possible I would like to at least be able to drive the car on the road. Seeing as I don’t have a car trailer and “officially” my daily driver isn’t allowed to tow more then 1400kg it would be a lot easier to transport the car to body shops under its own power. And for that I need an valid inspection…. Instead of diving head first into an full restauration, which will take years and tens of thousands of euro’s in one go, I’m just trying to spread out the costs and take it on piece by piece. I would like to at least enjoy the car for a bit and attend some meetings in my 280z instead of my Opel Astra diesel estate. Seeing as most parts come from the US it’s a big hurdle to buy. Shipping is very expensive, there is a 4,5% import cost and then a 21% tax on the total amount. In all I pay 50% more than someone from the US for parts. This also gives me time to calm down the misses a bit as she only sees the dollar signs flying away. I have seen this spiral before and I don’t want to end up with a stranded project. I want to keep my Z for life and I will take care of her.