gmanatc97

Okay. Just let me know. I should be able to clean them up.

You are correct about the fuel cell being in backwards. It was just set in there mocked up in the pic. I have taken it back out to paint the cage. I did like the clean look of it in backwards though. As for the floor pans. I am going to have to replace most of them. The rust starts at the seat front cross support and goes almost up to the firewall. The trans tunnel it still in good shape though. I am going to cap the rail and then replace the entire floor.

For the filler neck, look 4 posts up. I have explained my plan.

I am still about two to three months out from having my Z back on the road. With that said, I have seen a few Z's around (1-2). Just the other day I saw what looked like a 240-260 with a body kit driving past me at the gas station. So is there a Z following here, if so where? If not, why not. We have the roads up here in the mountains to tear up in a Z!

Keep at it and don't let it overwhelm you. I (ARMY!) got my Z from my father-in-law (Airforce) about 4 years ago. It has taken me until now to settle down and really get my project 280z going. So from one military brother to another, welcome back and thanks for serving! Good luck on the baby, house and Z.

So if my freon in my 280 is low, it no longer a project car but a completed car with no A/C?!? And here I thought I had more body work and welding to do!

Was the Freon low? Only in Knowville!!!

Id be interested in the Western wheels. Right now I have the stock steel wheels with factory hub caps. I wouldnt need the center caps, I would just use the Z ones I have. What are you looking to get for them? I am up in Western NC about an hour North of Greenville SC and about 2 1/2-3 hours from NE ATL.

I also worked on the rear hatch deck lid area. I posted a write up about it in the Fab section. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/107643-rear-hatch-deck-lid/page__view__findpost__p__1007074__fromsearch__1 Let me know what you guys think and if you have any ideas. This weekends plans are: 1. Pull the radiator and clean it out. 2. Pull off the things attached to the firewall and engine bay. If nothing else, just kinda pull the things away towards the engine, so I can start painting it. 3. Would like to get it all back on the firewall and engine bay walls. My father-in-law (the one I got the car from) is coming up from AL for the 4th and I would REALLY like to be able to fire the engine up for him. So I may have to hold off on the painting thing, at least until he goes back home. I have started to think about doing the floor pans myself. The rear hatch area turned out to be a challenge, but I got through it. It would be really satisfying to be able to do everything on this car in my own garage. It would also give me a chance to work on my metal skills. I am finding out I have a little and they are getting better. Worst case, I can always cut it back out and go another route.

Okay since my last post I got a few more things done. After talking to a guy that I am thinking about have do my floor pans, I changed the fuel cell setup a bit. He has professional race car building experience and is concerned that the aluminum straps I bent to hold the tank will crack under the stress. So to be on the safe side I took his advise, and made a cage out of 1" square stock. I did 45 deg cuts and welded them together, then welded it in the original square frame. I reused some of the aluminum to make the top straps. Ill be taking better pics soon after I take it all apart and paint it.

Yeah, sorry about that BluDestiny, I posted it and when I reviewed what I posted I realized my pics where WAY too big. You must have been reading it as I was changing the pics out. They should be back up now, let me know if they are still not there. How long have you had your Z in Daytona? I moved up to NC about 2 years ago from the Daytona/Palm Coast area. Would have been inspiring to see some finished Zs while I was there. Miss the beach!

So now I have about 3/4 of the top piece left that is still useable. I am at a cross roads. The way I see it I have three options. 1. Do I buy the replacement top panel from the Z store? 2. Do I use what I have and just add metal to it to extend it to the corners? 3. Do I just cut the top piece so it is even on both sides from the middle and weld it back on. Option three is a little outside the box and I have not seen anyone do it. I could cut it even with the flares for the tail lights That way I still have the stock points for the license plate and lights for it. Then I could just make the rest of the top as flat as I can with body filler without having the lip that protrudes out. Looking for any advise or suggestions.

I finally got tired of putting off the rust repair on the rear hatch deck lid area. I had planned on buying the repair panel from the Z store, but wanted to see exactly what the damage was first. Thought this might help those on this site with the limited metal working skills like myself. This is what I started with. I was able to cut the top piece off by drilling through the old spot welds. I found that most of the metal under the top piece was still pretty good. There were a few spots, mostly towards the corners, that really needed attention. So I gridded down until I saw clean metal all across the top and around the edges. Looking at what I had, I realized that even if I bought the repair panel, it would only replace the top. I had to do something about the underside. So I got to it. Here is how I repaired the left side that had rusted through. The rust went all the way from the outer edge to lip that the weather stripping attaches. I started by cutting out the bad metal and tried to keep the cuts in a straight line. Then I made a template out of cardboard and used it to cut the patch piece out of 22GA steal. I got a piece about 2'x2' from Lowes for around $20. Please excuse the welds, I had a hell of a time getting the weld hot enough to penetrate the new steal without burning a hole in the old sheet metal of the body. I welded from the outer edge up to the first bend. That would give me an anchor on either side to bend the first section. Then I took a scrap piece of 1" square stock that I used for my fuel cell cage. I cut it down the same width as the top of the patch panel to give me something to bend the entire piece as straight as I could. Worked surprisingly well. I used two C-clamps to secure the square stock in place and to bend the steal. I did the same for the very top lip section. Welded up to the next bend and used the square stock in the same way. When I cut the patch panel I made it a bit longer than I needed so I would not come up short and would have something to grab and bend. It would have been a pain to try and bend a 1/4" lip. And here is what I was left with before trimming it up, welding the rest, and grinding it down. And now the finished product, sort of.

I am also having a problem with my fuel pump wiring. Seeing how you are neck deep in it maybe you can help. Three years ago when I got the car it didn't run. Thought it was the relay under the passenger seat so I bypassed it and now my pump runs constantly. I have read the fuel injection bible and a few other threads, and it seems that to that relay there is a wire from the distributor and the AFM, right? Those are what tells the pump to run, correct? I have a blue and a green with a yellow strip coming out of the harness where the relay was. And the relay looked exactly like the one in the picture in your last post. Then I have the red and black ones going to the pump, pretty sure they are not original. Where did you get your new relay and which wire goes to which post on the relay?

I read your post when you had the whole story. At the very least you should call the cops. That way if anyone is trying to track you down you have already started a paper trail with them and it's documented. Unless you REALLY don't want the cops involved, know what I mean?

Thanks NewZed. I agree fully with Andy, I don't really want the fuel pump to run constantly and especially in the event of a crash. I am still at least a few weeks out from getting her back on the road, so I would like to solve this problem before then.

Whats the make and model of the wheels? I really like those and 205s on the rear would be great.

Okay so I have read and understand the Fuel Injection Bible. But no where in there does it mention the relay under the seat. I know the function of the relay above the ECU, so that might be causing the fuel pump to run constantly. Either that or the connection on the AFM. On the relay under the seat in my car there were only four connections. One for the positive and neg going to the pump. I can only assume since the pump works the other two were the power going into the relay and a ground going into it. Am I wrong in that?

Very nice. Plan on the 350Z orange for mine as well. It will be a while though.