'77 280z build

98cobra+75280z · December 13, 2011

I've been a member on here for a couple of years now and have since owned two z's. The first one I bought back in '07, its a '75 2+2. I swapped in a '82 l28et and drove it around for a year or so. the body on the 2+2 is pretty rotten so i started looking around for a good roller that i could swap my stuff into. While looking around i started updating the drivetrain;

-MS 1 v2.2 running an HEI 4 module.

-larger water-cooled turbo

-walbro 255 pump

-AEM wideband

I got the car to run on MSnS about a month ago, and then i found the perfect donor car. Its a '77 280z that is extremely straight and only has rust in two areas, the pass frame rail and battery tray.

Working on the car tends to be a slow project, i only have time on some weekends and on breaks. I'm currently finishing up my last year at Purdue University studying mechanical engineering. And on my summers i have been working for Ford in dearborn so there is no way to work on my cars then either. Im hoping to finish, or at least get the 77 driving this winter break. As for some of my custom touches i am currently finishing the back roll pan that the previous owner started. I also finished my center console and started going through the suspension and prepping the engine bay for the turbo motor.

Here is a switch panel i made that will go under a new pioneer radio. let me know what you guys think, it was made from a sheet of aluminum and some hand tools.

my plans after this week, since finals will be over, is to button up the suspension and body work. Paint the engine bay and run all the wiring for the megasquirt.

Then patch the frame rail and battery tray. Then install the interior and engine then hopefully load up my base tune and drive it around a bit.

Ill try and keep this thread updated with pics if you guys want!

98cobra+75280z · February 13, 2012

The car is almost completly done! just a small section of the frame that still needs patched up as well as hooking up the tach and water temp gauges. Other than that all thats left is tuning.

These pictures take you from when I purchased the car back in December through the complete build. All the suspension was taken out of the car and redone as well as the motor swap from the '75 2+2. The motor is a stock '82 l28et with a skyline turbo and now runs of MS1 v2.2. The interior was completly gutted when I bought the car but now has Jeep Cherokee seats, dash carpet, custom switch panel, pioneer radio and speakers, and boost, wideband, and oil pressure gauges. The car will probably never be finished since I am now thinking about the next stages of the build. But at least it runs under it's own power now and can be driven.

Thanks Hybridz for all your guys help thoughout this build.