v8wannabe2

Alexideways has the right idea, it's called guidecoating. I lay down a couple coats of a high build primer and then mist it with a contrasting color. You will see the dents as the board won't remove the paint in the low sport. Get use to using your hand to assess the flatness too, rub it back and forth over the area in question and with a little practice you can get pretty good at finding the highs/lows. When you sand always use the longest sanding board possible, I use an assortment of different length boards along with wooden dowels, rubber hose, etc. When your sanding sand in an X pattern. Yep, you can expect to put a lot of hours in to it to get it straight. Remember, with body work you only see what you did wrong when it's finished

I welded it with a 110v mig. The headlight seam was pretty easy, most of the work went into the rear quarters. They are about 2.5 inches wider that stock because of the way I butt welded the new rear quarters on. A lot of time went into things most people don't even notice (filled in cowl, deleted B pillar emblem, shaved door handles, shaved drip rails)

They started life as 76 280Z bumpers, I've done some pretty extensive mods to them.

The poppers are actually from 2 trunk popper kits (heavier pull), I made some adjustable springs to push the door open once released. A lot of tinkering around with linkages to get it right, but not really a big deal.

The powder coating cost around $120. To widen the rear quarters, I butt welded the new panels on 1.25" out on each side. I cut the old panel off at the edge where it angles down and left an extra 1.25" of metal on the new panel. Had to fab up some pieces to blend in behind the doors. If that makes sense.

Here's some pics of my 280Z project, enjoy

My 76 280z has a bell shaped piece of metal at the end of the driveshaft that slips into the transmission. It got "out of round" and my car made a clanging noise till I got it fixed. You really need to get under the car and look around.

Sorry, can't help you with that one. I'm hoping to have the machine work done this month and get the engine together over the winter.

Keep in mind that they changed the latch post from the door to he body (or vice versa) at some point in the mid 70's. The door from an earlier 240 will not fit on a 280.

Here's a pic of my Mikuni Solex triple set up on a N42 head (originally FI).