Forcesbeyondcontrol Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) Well I have been working on my 78 280z for a little over a year now and finally decided to start posting some pics of my progress. I traded a 1977 GMC 4x4 project for this car in Febuary of 2010. A friend of mine had one while we were in high school and since then I have always wanted one. When the car arrived at my residence it was running and some of the body work had been done. I inspected the car from top to bottom and I could appreciate the way some of the things were done on the car, but there were other things that I wanted to change. At several points in this build I have felt like I am going backwards, due I have torn the car down further than then when I received it. Here is what the 280z looked like the day I received it. It had fiberglass fenders, hood and headlight buckets that were in rough shape. Several areas of the fiberglass were broken and did not line up at all. The engine bay was miss match with old and new wiring (all of it needs to go) and it appear that the car had been sitting out side, due to the rust forming in the valve covers and other area in and around the engine. The floor pans for the most part were in great shape with only a small amount of rust in the passenger front pan. Over all a great project to start. I started by removing the engine, trans and all of the unwanted wiring. While I had the engine out I decide to freshing it up by removing the headers,intake and stripping the block. Both the intake and headers were still in good shape so I had them sand blasted and recoated. I strip the block back to bare metal and got rid of all the old parts. On to the body work! Decided not to go with the bumpers and side marker lights, so I weld them up and completed the body work on the rear shell,doors,and hatch. I found that several area had surface rust coming thru, so they had to be sanded back to bare metal. At that point it was time for priming and applying the engine color.... Edited July 11, 2011 by Forcesbeyondcontrol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forcesbeyondcontrol Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 As I continued to work on the rear of the Z I decide that I wanted a new look for the tail lights. I searched high & low to figure out what I wanted and I found another member working on Mustang tail lights. That was it, they would work perfect. I went for the 2005 thru 2009 lights with the 2010 look. Note: the 280z tail light bulb sockets will plug right into the Mustang Light housing. We started out making the panel in one piece and decide that was not what I wanted so it was change to give it more depth. metal work is done all thats left is completion of the body work......but didn't I already do this section Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Looks interesting but my computer locked up on the third picture I tried to view. They are way too big. Here is a good thread to read - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/98611-posting-pictures-please-read/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forcesbeyondcontrol Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Yeah I see what your talking about, Weird when I open them on my computer they dont open that big. I will see what I can do to fix it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzydicerule Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 your right rear tire is backwards, just so ya know Those taillights are interesting, not my thing, but they do fit pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forcesbeyondcontrol Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 Yes I know the tire is backwards, but its just being use for mock up work around the car making sure everything fits...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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