Mitchel0407

I would love to see a full weight comparison between the original and carbon fiber door. I know from lugging my 280z doors around that the factory doors are quit heavy.

A bit more time has past and a bit more work has been done. I have been trying to complete the body work and paint on the doors but I shamefully have to admit that exterior bodywork is not my strong suit. I did get an appointment at the body shop for next week to replace the frame rails and install the Apex front fender braces and asked them to repaint the doors and wiper cowl as well. I guess you win some and you lose some, and boy I lost this one (please don’t judge to hard). I moved on to some other small tasks and replaced the radio antenna for an aftermarket powered one. I did have to solder on a new connector as I don’t have the same connectors and plugs as the factory harness uses but I made sure that any changes are reversible if necessary in the future. I also ran new speaker wires to the aftermarket JBL speakers that came with the car as the existing wires where all corroded from the inside. Here again I used new aftermarket connectors on both sides so the speakers can be easily disconnected or switched from audio channel. The body shop would like the car to stay somewhat drivable under it’s own power so they can easily load her on the trailer and move her around the shop. So I threw on the trickle charger so the battery will be full and see if she will start after a couple of months of sitting still. After a bit of cranking she came to live. After letting her warm up a bit I checked the AFR gauge and to my surprise it was sitting at 14.5 idle! With a bit of gas the AFR rose to 12.3 under power and then settled back down to 14.5 at idle. Did the 280 just fix itself over winter? As the car will be off to the body shop soon I don’t want to just sit around and do nothing until the car is back as I would really like to be able to drive the car somewhere begin May. So I decided to look into the possibility of removing the dashboard while still being able to drive the car. After studying the electrical schematics for a bit I really didn’t see a reason why this shouldn’t be possible so as with anything I just tried it. Worst case scenario I have to put the dashboard back in. Turns out that the dashboard really doesn’t have anything to do with the 280z EFI system. If you disconnect the three big connectors in the passenger footwell and then take the dash out the car starts just fine. So now I have the hilarious combo of a stripped out but still drivable 280z. The car does feel really sad and empty now but soon she will be stronger then ever with some nice suspension upgrades, a new radio and a freshly restored dash and interior panels!

Yesterday after work I decided to just try and remove the dashboard and see what happens. Worst case scenario I have to put the dashboard back in place with a few bolts till she’s back from the body shop. But fortunately I didn’t have to! From what I could understand from the wiring schematics and pictures online the dash shouldn’t have any components or connections preventing the stock EFI from starting and running the engine. The dash just receives signals from the sensors but doesn’t send them. The only wiring connected to the dashboard where three connectors connected to the white panel in the passenger footwell. I disconnected these took out the dashboard and tried to start the engine. She had some trouble as the engine was cold and hasn’t started in a few weeks but after a few seconds she came to live and ran perfectly.

As the title implies I want to find out if a stock 280z with the L28E (fuel injected) can start and run without the dashboard. My 1977 280z will be dropped of at the body shop next week for new Apex Engineered frame rails and front fender braces. The body shop would like to have the car running so it’s easier to move around the shop. In the meantime I would like to restore my dashboard and replaced a few tings like the bulbs and the speedometer. But for that I need to know if I can remove the dashboard and still be able to start the car. Does anybody know if the 280z can be started without a dashboard?

You might find more info in his build thread.

What will be the main purpose of the car for you? What do you want the car to be? Seeing as you will be installing a roll gage, iMSA widebody kit and an LS big block for I suspect power and torque, you will mainly track the car and won’t be driving on the road. I like your choice of Apex over T3 but that’s my personal preference. But why the Pro Touring and not the Track Attack kit? Also don’t forget the basics of the build like chassis reinforcement, safety features and fuel delivery. These chassis are over 50 years old so if you plan to track and abuse them make sure the basics are good, rust free and reinforced. A good roll cage will do a lot together with the frame sleeves and some bolt on parts but things like seem welding the chassis will also help a lot. VA Engineering over here in the Netherlands has some great pictures on their Instagram of their cages and seem welds. The transform the S30 Z’s into period correct rally cars and yes they do get used like a rally car should.

You are flying true this! Love to see your progress!

I find the front strut brace very interesting, is it connected to the cage thru the firewall? I suspect this will mainly reinforce the strut tower from moving front to back. Will you also be adding a front strut brace for side to side reinforcement? I will be sending my 280z off soon for replacement 3mm (instead of 1,5mm) frame rails from Apex together with there front fender braces as they where not that expensive and my body shop won’t charge me extra for welding them. I wonder how different the fender braces will be in comparison.

Good to have you back! Do you have some pictures of the cars and what’s been done to them?

The money is a big consideration but the main point is more what it’s worth to you. Do you want a particular setup and is the money more secondary, is money a primary driver, do you want to slowly upgrade or go all at once. I see a lot of people mention only the costs of the build but if somebody is really passionate about something then it doesn’t matter as much. For example the fuel injection on my ’77 280z isn’t in the greatest shape, she drives good enough but the AFR readings aren’t the best (extremely rich at idle and slightly lean at open throttle). The economical thing to do is to just swap over some triple Webber carbs, but since I would like to keep the fuel injection I decided to, eventually, slowly upgrade the fuel injection with a new ECU and a set of ITB’s. I might spend 3 to 4 times the money but I’ll have a car that I want, as I like it.

I really like the L28’s as they have a lot of character and an amazing sound but a used VQ would also be a great option. I don’t know exactly what you would need but It may be a good idea to get a wrecked donor 350z and use its drivetrain components together with the Pro Touring or Track Attack suspension kits from Apex Engineered. That may be the easiest route if you want to go VQ or even RB (there subframe accepts loads of different engines). But if costs are a driving factor then finding and even building another 350 might be the best option. A swap done right can run you $10k to $15k easily as it’s not just the engine you need to swap but also the driveline, suspension components and electronics.

I agree, keep the fuel injection for drivability but if it’s in your budget I would look at aftermarket options if the current stock system gives you too much trouble. If you just want a simple plug and drive solution then the Fast EFI might be the simplest option that keeps the car closest to stock. But if you have a bit more to spend then I would suggest going for an ECU that capable of sequential injectors instead of batch fire like the Haltech Elite 750. If the stock EFI starts to fail and you just want the car to run and drive good on a “budget” then I would suggest looking for some second hand triple Webber carburetors. It would just be a case of removing all the stock EFI components and intake and slapping the Webbers on (with ideally some slight dyno tuning to dial it in). The stock fuel injection system and ECM are nearing 50 years old now and most are slowly starting to fail. I believe mine is also on the way out as the idle is very rich in fuel (10,3 to 1) and no matter what I do it just won’t change, it looks like it’s stuck on the WOT fuel setting (yes I checked the TPS and everything else in the EFI bible). The car runs good enough for now (13,0 to 1 when driving) and once the frame rails have been repaired the car will pass inspection but the next step will be an new Haltech EFI system with properly some ITB’s from EFI Hardware.

A new year has started and my battle to get the 280z road worthy goes on. I had liked to get some more things done over the holidays but sickness and other obligations got the better of me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get some progress in. To prepare for a new years eve party I had to temporarily get the Z inside the garage so I continued my journey of stripping down the Z by removing the fenders and wiper cowl. I kind of regret but I'm also glad I did. Turns out the last “restauration” was a fairly cheap one. Some threads where damaged and instead of repairing the thread or welding in a nut they just left the bolts out, or in case of the lower mounting points of the fenders just weld and bondo them on. After getting them off I was met with the nice surprise of finding out they never painted the inside/back of the fenders or any non-exterior part for that matter, only primer. As a result I was met with a lot of surface corrosion spots. I also discovered the car has some crash damage on the front left that was never properly repaired. Some sanding, rust treatment and painting later the car already looked a lot better. At least now I know the Z won’t rust away in the next couple of years. Every panel I remove it becomes more and more clear that a full restauration to the bare metal of the body is necessary if I want this Z to survive at least another 10 to 20 years. I really wanted to start installing some of my new goodies from Apex so I decided to install the rear strut brace as it won’t interfere with any of the bodywork. It was freezing outside but with the help of a heater it was quit doable. I do love the look of the Apex rear strut brace. It’s strong, elegant, functional but doesn’t scream “aftermarket modification” which I like a lot. I don’t really want my car to stay stock but also not heavily modified, just tasteful, functional and a bit more modernized but still the classic look and feel. The last few couple of days have been pretty cold so I moved back to the garage for some of the car work. Unfortunately my garage isn’t insolated and I don’t have a strong enough heater but it’s better then outside and good enough for some paint work and rebuilding the hinges. Rebuilding the hinges was easier then I though at first. Having a vice does make life a lot easier when removing and installing the hinge pins. To get them out I just used an impact socket and an old bolt that was slightly smaller then the hinge pin. With some force they came right out. All hinge pins where worn which caused the doors to sag and the passenger side (which sagged the most) was even bent! The rebuild kit I bought from Zservices EU was great with the exception of the hinge pin bushings, both the outer and inner tolerance was out of spec on all of them. If it was to tight then that wouldn’t be that much of a problem as I could modify them but the tolerance was to loose causing the bushings to sit loosely in the hinge and the pin to have some play. I decided to rebuild the passenger side hinges anyway and will install them soon to see if they sag with these bushings installed. If they do I will have some custom made at a machine shop. Continuing with the doors I decided to do some spot repair on the upper corners of the doors as both sides had some corrosion under the paint, and the doors where off the car anyway so might as well do them now. Here to I discovered the inside of the door was never painted causing some corrosion on the inside of the doors. The more I work on the car the more I want to punch the previous owner and bodyshop in the face. Even so I can't wait to drive the Z, I guess that’s the S30 life for yea….

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.