Mitchel0407

Last weekend I went to my first classic car event with the 280z which was a lot of fun. To my surprise I wasn’t the only Datsun at the event. A bit later a one owner Datsun 1200 coupe (talk about rare) and an early 300zx also showed up. On my way back home in the Z cruising along at approximately 75mph she decided I didn’t spend quit enough money on it yet and turned my 5 speed into a 4 speed transmission. What probably happened was the main shaft nut backed off. Guess this is another nice surprise left behind from the previous owners “restauration”. Surprisingly the car still shifts into reverse and doesn’t pop out, 5th gear just acts as an extra neutral now. For now I will need to find a replacement FS5W71B gearbox or modify another 71 series gearbox to fit the Z. I know a guy who bought a 280ZX 5 speed as a spare 25 years back and is willing to sell it to me for €800. It’s ether that or trying to find the correct parts for a pre 80’s 71B and rebuilding mine myself. There is a local shop that builds rally cars out of S30 Z’s who can sell me a rebuild ZX 71B or modified S14 71C close ratio transmission but those cost €4k-€6k. For that price its more interesting to swap in a modified brand new NISMO S15 6 speed from Japan. Escort makes them to fit the L series engines complete with mechanical speedo connection and CNC transmission crossmember. Anyway I guess that’s just the life with a classic car…..

Great to hear that you found the problem! I had a similar problem when upgrading my dashboard backlighting to LED. I knew that they alle worked but after reinstalling the dashboard into the car and testing everything out only the tachometer backlighting didn’t work. Turns out that the connections to the backlight had reversed polarity. After switching the two pins around in the connector everything worked perfectly. This wouldn’t be a problem for incandescent bulbs but seeing as LED’s are diodes the switched polarity suddenly did become a problem.

The settings recommended for my setup (front and rear control arms, front crossmember and quick steering knuckles) by Apex Engineered where: Front: Camber: -1.5° to -2.5° However if it's a street car, it can be reduced to negative one to even zero. Caster: +4° to +6° Toe: 1/16" to 1/8" total toe-in Rear: Camber: -1° to -2° Same as above in the front in terms of camber Toe: 1/16" to 1/8" total toe-in I agree for the most part with these specs but unfortunately this was as far as they could go at the moment. At least the car is way easier to steer now and she drives stable and straight as an arrow. The steering wheel does self-center but it could be a bit more. The rear needs a zero toe or a bit of toe in but for that I need to increase the track width of the control arm a bit and then come back for a new alignment. My shocks are a little done for (especially the right rear is nonexistent) but for just cruising around this is good enough for now. I do plan to install a set of coilovers from Intrax (local to me) or KW. I was considering BC Racing but they were discouraged by the shop if I wanted to have them last more than just 2-3 years especially since I can’t park the car in my garage. Don’t worry, she still has a roof over her head as she is parked under my carport with a cover over her. The more time goes on the more things I want to do, it truly is a never ending project. The next thing I would like to do is add a BRE style spoiler and an air dam as they are a bit cheaper then the rest of the suspension upgrades. After that I want to replace the stock shocks with coilovers and some stiffer sway bars. Way down the line I also want to replace the stock EFI system with a Halltech ECU but I will probably combine that with EFI Hardware ITB’s and a Zstory exhaust system. Separately from everything I would also like to upgrade the brakes for a full set of Willwood disk brakes at some point but that would also require increasing my wheel size to 16 inch. But my current brakes work more then good enough and I like my wheels so that isn’t really a priority. And when everything is set and done and I have some money to spare then I will send the body off for a full restoration and probably some carbon body panels. But those are really long term plans, you might have guessed but I am never ever selling my Z. This thing truly is my one and only dream car and I will pour my heart and soul into it.

Took the car to an alignment shop near my work last Friday to have them realign the wheels. I was in luck as one of their most experienced techs was in that day (old guy with almost 40 years’ experience with wheel alignments). He immediately recognized the car (old Z’s are pretty rare over here) and remembered working on a few of them back in the day. I gave him the recommended alignment specs I got from Apex Engineered and with that, my own complaints about the handling and his own intuition he got to work. Turns out the previous tech just absolutely butchered the alignment. He told me he set everything (camber, caster and toe) to zero but turns out I actually had a lot of positive camber and toe out in the front. For reference a -0,67 degrees toe means a 0.286 inch toe out, that’s massive! The rear still has some work to do as the track with needs to be increase slightly (by turning out the rod ends) so camber can be improved and toe can be turned in. As the rear control arms sit now (stock as shipped from Apex) the toe adjustment is slightly too long and the outer rod end needs to be turned out a bit. Unfortunately the front office didn’t really get how modified the car was and didn’t plan enough time for the tech to tackle this himself so I’ll have to do it myself and come back later for final adjustments. But man the car feels so much better. I have way more control over the car now and steering has become a lot lighter. I hope to make some time next week to fix the rear as I can feel she doesn’t like going over 80mph but that might also be because of a lack of aero. I do plan on buying a reproduction BRE style spoiler and an air dam. Zservices in France sells them made locally and even offers them in a textured black at no extra cost which might be interesting and won’t look that out of place on a silver car. They are also easy resell afterwards as I plan to replace some body parts with carbon fiber down the road once I have the body stripped down and restored. But those plans are for way down the line.

Sometimes the “original” works the best. Part for these cars are quite expensive and although there is a lot of information out there a lot is still missing or people just haven’t posted online, especially electrical. So please if you find things out that you had a hard time finding information about post it in one of the forums. I had trouble with my AFM (Air \Flow Meter) on my ’77 280z a while back and it was absolutely impossible to find information about the workings of them. Being from Europe also made it pretty hard as everybody just said to go on Ebay or another US supplier and buy a new one, not really an option for me. So I went on a big research spree and with some help of the Australian Z car and Land Rover forums I managed to find a suitable replacement AFM of a 90’s Ford Probe / Mazda 626. These where sold plenty over here and used parts for those are pretty cheap. In the end the 280z just uses a generic Bosch L-Tronic injection system and parts can, for the most part, be interchanged between brands and cars from that same era. I’m even running a few Porsche 944 parts. 🤣

Try and see if you can find a wiring diagram online. Unfortunately I only have one of a 197 280z which I will upload just in case as I suspect not much has been changed regarding something like the washer motor over those years. Try and follow the wiring with a multi meter and see where the power stops once you press the button. Also try and check the fuses, one might be blown or has a bad connection. It might be a stupid tip but try and activate the washer with the ignition switch in different positions. I was once lead down a rabbit hole thinking my blinkers weren’t working while in fact I needed to turn the ignition switch all the way to the on position (accessory position didn’t work). N77ZCAR-WIRING.pdf

I do sure love upgrades! But no the 280z wasn’t that small in comparison. But then again my boss drives a BMW M140i and the other one a VW ID.7 Tourer which is pretty big. Do remember I live in Europe and not the US so we rarely see pickup trucks ore large SUV’s. We rarely see cars bigger than a BMW X7, Audi Q8 or Volvo X90 (which are considered extremely big over here). Our parking spaces just aren’t that big 🤣 I mean just look at this picture for the size comparison between a normal family car / minivan and a Dodge RAM. The only people that buy pickup trucks here are people who like them, own a business (tax reasons) and tow a lot. And that’s only because it’s easy and cheap to convert and run them on LPG gas.

Took the 280z to work yesterday as I have a 62km (38,5 mile) commute each way with both city and highway driving. She ran perfectly with a nice smooth idle, stable temperatures right at 180 Fahrenheit (US gauges), a nice oil pressure and the alternator charging nicely at a bit over 14 volts. The air fuel ratio was still fluctuating a bit running lean and then rich at idle but they where pretty stable while cruising. But more importantly she was an absolute blast to drive! The power was nice and smooth and felt amazing to stretch out to 6500rpm. Not to mention the reaction of the other people around you. I saw a lot of thumbs up out of the windows and people sneaking a picture of the car. Even more hilarious was me parking next to my bosses BMW. All that said I’m not fully satisfied with her yet. I believe the rear shock absorbers are currently nonexistent which isn’t too big a deal but the right rear can slam down with tremendous force when going over a pothole or bump which isn’t very comfortable. The alignment also feels a bit off as the car feels less stable then she did before. I will bring her to a garage that also does a lot of motorsports tuning close to my work next week to try and fix the alignment. I will probably also look at a set of BC Racing coilovers sometime in the close future to fix the worn out stock suspension.

It took some time for an update but I am proud to say that I did it, the 280z is road legal again!! Aside from the car I have been very busy working in my backyard as the previous owners took out all the plants and then neglected the yard for 4-5 years. But back to the build log. One of the parts I still had lying around where the oil pressure sender and the coolant temperature sensor for the gauges in the dashboard. It really bothered me that both of them weren’t working and I had a feeling that it was just both of the sensors that were bad. So out with the old and in with the new. Or so I thought…. While installing the new temperature sensor into the thermostat housing the housing itself broke. As the break is a really weird one I suspect that the aluminum housing just became pours. Luckly one of the local Z club members had the correct version of the housing and send it to me. I gave that one a quick coat of paint and reinstalled all of the sensors. This time nothing broke and both the oil pressure and coolant temperature gauge finally worked! Now that that was fixed I started working on some of the smaller items on the list. I replaced the air filter, both exhaust gaskets, the horns, painted the front grill and installed the KNAC shield (translated: Royal Netherlands Automobile Club). As I had a bit of time left in the day I also replaced my pre fuel pump fuel lines and filter, installed the new speakers and fitted the fender mirrors. I expected the fender mirrors to be pretty useless but they actually gave me a way better field of view then my old door mounted mirrors! I believe these are the same metal reproduction mirrors as Zdepot sells. As I was in a bit of a time crunch for the inspection I unfortunately couldn’t finish the door cards and seats in time. Luckly the door cards weren’t mandatory for the inspection so I could just simply leave them off the car. As for the seats I reinstalled the covers for now and reinstalled them into the car. The aftermarket wheels the car came on where poking out a bit too much in the rear so to avoid any complications during the inspection I decided to install the stock wheels for now and switch them afterwards. I hindside this wasn’t necessary as they were allowed to stick out 3cm (1,2 inch) past the fenders. Then came the moment I had been working towards, inspection day! I dropped her of at the garage and they immediately started with the inspection and alignment. The only thing they found was they the washer fluid wasn’t spraying but the mechanic traced it back to a pinched line. Other then that the car was in great shape and both the mechanic as other customers were impressed with the car (S30 Z cars are pretty rare over here). Now I can finally enjoy the car and man she drives good! The only thing I noticed was that the rear shocks are gone but it isn’t a problem for now.

Welkom! It’s good to see you posting here as well.

That’s a bit of what I am trying to do with my own build thread. It’s mainly just a log for myself to build a timeline of everything I’m doing to the car but I also like sharing my discoveries on the forums to hopefully help somebody out in the future. And no I’m not some old sentimental person but just a guy with a love for the S30 body style and L series engine (who will be turning 26 in a little over a month).

Another week has past and another weekend of work has been completed. Luckly the orders I placed where send out pretty fast so I got all the rubbers and bushings I was missing ready to head to work. I started off with finishing the work on the transmission. As the speedometer gear had been leaking, and I didn’t know how much fluid the transmission had lost (or was even serviced the last time), I decided to change the transmission fluid for some Redline MT-90 transmission oil. That was easier said then done as Redline MT-90 is pretty hard to find in Europe. But it appears I was in luck, one performance parts shop here in The Netherlands had a few cans in stock and send them out for me that same day! Even though the transmission mount and crossmember bushings where is decent shape I still decided to chang them out as a precaution. I used a OEM style rubber transmission mount for vibration reduction but polyurethane bushings in the crossmember for added stiffness. Next came the most exciting but also the scariest part. Replacing the front crossmember, engine mounts and oil pan gasket. I wanted to leave the crossmember for last and start by removing the oil pan. To do that and have easier access to the bolts I first removed the steering rack which I gave a quick clean and paint job while I was at it. I might have figured out why the oil pan was leaking in the first place, it turns out about halve the oil pan bolts where loose! Other than that the process was pretty straight forward. Removing the oil pan did give me a pretty interesting look into the engine which felt pretty weird so I quickly reinstalled the oil pan with new bolts. To remove the crossmember I had to find a way to support the engine in the meantime. For this I created my own, incredibly sketchy, engine support bar together with a jack under the crack pully. Even though it was incredibly sketchy it was surprisingly sturdy and stable. But still I hurried as fast and as careful as I could to remove the old crossmember and install the Apex Engineered crossmember. This went surprisingly smooth with the only difficult part being reinstalling the bolts into the new engine mounts. But with a bit of help of the jack and some patience I got them all in and everything safely secured again. Next came the most difficult part of fitting the Apex crossmember braces. The passenger side went without a problem but the drivers side not so much. There the crossmember brace didn’t fit as the car had aftermarket headers and signs of body damage to the left side of the car. The headers where interfering with the brace and the brace was sitting much more forward then the passenger side. This required some modification of the headers (with a hammer) and a few spare washers as spacers to fix. To modify the headers I had to take them off the car which I really hope I won’t have to do a second time as the bolts are really hard to reach. To finish off the weekend I got a call from the body shop telling me my doors and cowl where finished painting! So I immediately got in my car to pick them up and install them back on the car. The installation went pretty good but I didn’t get the doors to sit perfectly flush, the back always sticks out a bit. This may be because of the weather stripping which I assume to be cheap aftermarket. After the doors came the fenders and the rest of the bodywork. As I was missing a lot of bolts around the car I ordered a nut and bolt kit from ResurrectedClassics a while back. During the previous “restauration” (if you can even call that) they just left damaged bolts out or spot welded panels in place. As I absolutely hated that I took my time to retap all the holes or install rivet nuts wherever I could. I also replaced a lot of the bolts with nice plated bolts from the kit. All of this nearly has the car ready for one of the final inspections of it’s life (as they aren’t mandatory anymore after 50 years). I just have a small list of things left to do. - Reinstall the door cards - Reinstall the seats - Set a rough alignment (enough to get me to the shop) - Install the wheels - Install a new set of horns (existing ones have underbody coating in them) - Repaint and install the front grill - Install the new fender mirrors - Install the rear speakers (for now optional) - Replace the pre fuel pump fuel filter (for now optional) And of course clean the car!

No. in my opinion that’s the definition of passion and commitment!

Just like all classic and especially classic sports cars they end up sharply increasing in price once they approach 50 years in age. I always loved the look of the S30 Z cars and I really wanted a classic sports car as a hobby/project car. For me the only affordable option was the Porsche 944 coming in at €10k to €15k for a somewhat decent example. But even those shot up in price the last few years to the point that the price difference between those and S30 Z’s (280z in particular) became pretty low. I ended up paying €22,5k for my 1977 280z at an auction (including auction costs) and put around €4,5k into the car. Mainly comprising of the Apex Engineered suspension parts, body shop (welding frame rails and repainting the doors) and some long overdue maintenance. And yes I overpaid a couple of thousand on my car but at this point I really don’t care anymore as I plan to keep this car for the rest of my life!

I bought my 1977 280z in august of last year and afterwards started looking around at all the available forums and other information sources. This let me to here, the ClassicZcar forum and the WhatsApp group from my local Z/ZX club (Holland). Each I use for a different purpose. - HybridZ: Modified Z projects, technical information, inspiration and keeping up a build thread (mainly for myself). - ClassicZcar: General information and information about stock/original parts or details. - The local Z/ZX club: Meets / rally’s, used parts and local knowledge (we have a few S30 restauration specialists in the group) As the S30 Z is pretty rare here in the Netherlands (and Europe in general) my only option is to use the internet and figure everything out myself. Parts are also hard to come by as my only options are used parts (when they appear online), Zservices in France or importing parts from the USA. As for car culture in general I do agree that it’s slowing down a bit. The cars are becoming more modern, parts are becoming more expensive and complicated and less people have the option of owning two or more cars. In general I’m seeing the economy slowing down and people watching there wallet. That said there are still a lot of interesting S30 Z projects going around. Yes turbo builds are pretty common as they have become easier to make power with and are a relatively cheap power source. But NA or NA ITB builds are also pretty common still among them being the V8 swap. Personally I’m keeping my L28E and will probably end up going the NA ITB route once I upgrade the stock injection (yes I’m keeping the injection and no I don’t want carbs). I do like the sound of the V8 swaps but I also think that they don’t really belong in the S30 Z’s. The Z’s being Japanese cars I find them more suited for inline 6 (NA or turbo) engines. And I just really love the sound of the L series engines. But hé, that’s just my personal opinion.