My 1978 280Z resurrection

[gmanatc97]

I am well on my way into this build, but I figured I would post. There is SO much information here and SO many helpful people with tons of knowledge that they are willing to share. So if during this build I do something stupid or can not figure something out, I know I can get some help by posting what I am doing and planning.

 

I started with a 1978 280Z that I bought from my father-in-law. When I met my wife she had an 83 280ZX and loved it. She had to sell that car shortly before we got married. So when given the opportunity to get this one, I jumped. Of course instantly the thought and plans for a 500hp V8 and a full race setup were flying through my head. The car did not run and there was water leaking in through the rear hatch and doors. Well two and a half years later I am now getting some work done on the car and just want to be able to drive it.

 

So here is what has been done so far:

 

I have pulled the fenders off

Torn out the interior

Found what I think is all the rust (rear hatch deck lid, floor pans, and a spot in the inner fender well on the drivers side)

Edited June 2, 2012 by RB26powered74zcar
Please Resize Images to: 1024 x 768 pixels or close, before placing on HZ.

[gmanatc97]

So last weekend I got a few things done. I patched the rust spot above the frame on the drivers side inner fender well. I also bought most of the materials to put in the fuel cell. I am putting in a fuel cell because its a low cost replacement to a wore out old fuel tank with rust taking it over. I have determined that the rust in the tank is causing the engine not to run. With that said, I have replaced the fuel pump, filter and cleaned out all the fuel lines. I ordered a new adjustable fuel pressure regulator with a gauge so I can tell exactly how much pressure is in the fuel rail and change it if needed. I got the hole for the fuel cell all measured out and cut.

Edited June 2, 2012 by RB26powered74zcar
Please Resize Images to: 1024 x 768 pixels or close, before placing on HZ.

[gmanatc97]

This weekend I got everything I set out to do, done. I got the new regulator in the mail and hooked it up (about $30 on eBay). I have not mounted it yet, still trying to decide where. Any ideas?

 

With the pump pulling fuel from a gas can, I was able to get the pressure regulator dialed in. It took about 8 cranks, but she fired up and idled. I couldn't get the engine to rev. So after posting a help thread in the Nissan L6 thread, and feeling a little dumb, I realized that the tube going from the AFM to the throttle body needed to be hooked back up so the AFM can send the rev signal to the ECU. With that done, she ran like a champ for the first time in three years!

 

I also got the frame for the fuel cell in and the cell in the hole. After reading all the posts and seeing the pics of everyone else that has installed a fuel cell, I knew i had to make a frame to mount the cell. It adds strength to the rear frame area, since I removed a lot of metal from the hatch area. Now all I need is a 45 deg filler neck and to cover the hole with sheet metal. Don't need any road noise and exhaust in the car.

 

Instead of buying the fuel cell mounting kit, I made one. I knew my setup would be a little different than the kit. The brackets cost me about $10 and 30 min. Lowe's has 8 foot long pieces of aluminum that are about 1/8 inch thick and perfect for the brackets. I just measured them out and used a bench vise to make the bends. I am sure most of you are saying, yeah that's a no brainier. But for those of you with limited metal working skills, like myself, its not that hard. Just take your time and add a little to your measurements. You can always cut some off, its REALLY hard to add more when dealing with metal.

Edited June 2, 2012 by RB26powered74zcar
Please Resize Images to: 1024 x 768 pixels or close, before placing on HZ.

[Silverone858]

That looks pretty good. What are you planning to do with the filler? I have the same set up planned and was searching to see how people hook the filler up.

[NewZed]

You can import your pictures in to this program then export them to whatever size you choose. One option, I'm sure there are others.

 

http://picasa.google.com/

[gmanatc97]

I plan on buying a 45 deg filler neck. Summit has them for about $80, but I am going to try and find it cheaper. Then if you take the stock neck that goes to the outside of the car and turn it 180 deg, it points in towards the center of the car. At that point you will need to drill new holes for two out of the four bolts to hold it in. I am going to cover the fuel cell with a piece of sheet metal and make a tunnel for the tube from neck to neck. Everything SHOULD fit under the wood sub-floor. Might need to trim the plastic interior pieces a little though. I am also going to hook the vent tube from the fuel cell to the vent tube on the side of the stock filler neck.

 

Hope this helps and is semi-understandable.

[Silverone858]

Sounds good to me please keep me updated with pics I definitely want to see the end result!

[gmanatc97]

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.

[gmanatc97]

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.

[luseboy]

Interested in your fuel cell set up. I am planning on using that same fuel cell. How are you gonna mount the filler neck? Also I believe you have the fuel cell mounted backwards, you want the sump at the back so when you're driving uphill, the fuel will get picked up. I could be wrong but that was the impression I got. Anyways if you have the welding skills to make that frame, the floor pans are a piece of cake. Are you gonna have to completely replace them? Or just patch them up? Car looks great overall.

[gmanatc97]

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

[gmanatc97]

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.

[gmanatc97]

Had a little time tonight and wanted to get a few things at least started. I mocked up the tail lights with the covers and realized I do have to complete the top piece. I also started to get the intake and exhaust manifolds off so I can put on the header I bought. I wasn't able to get the flange bolts off the lower part of the exhaust manifold, so tomorrow I will go to Harbor Freight for some tool reinforcements! Also going to look around to see if I can find a nylon sleeve to fix the wiggly shifter. Hopefully I'll have some pics of some progress tomorrow.

[gmanatc97]

Been a while since I posted so here is a little update, I'll post pics soon.

 

I finally got the manifolds off and only broke one stud, so I ordered the kit from TheZstore.

Got the rear hatch deck lid fabed and welded back on. It looks pretty good, I'll smooth it all out with a little filler before paint.

I started cutting the floors out. Went and picked up some sheet metal from Lowe's since the local metal shop just blew me off.

I started fabing the filler neck on the fuel cell. Just using a piece of 22GA and a 2" piece of exhaust tubing. Located a piece of 2" fuel hose ($30 for 3') its more expensive than I thought but I have to do it.

 

This coming weekend I would like to get at least one of the floor pans fabed and welded in and the filler neck done.

[gmanatc97]

Finally got a chance to post some progress pics. Here are some of the rear hatch deck lid I cut, welded and rebuilt. I still need to smooth it out with filler and seal the seams up before I paint it.

 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2012 by gmanatc97

[gmanatc97]

So this week I got a lot done on the fuel cell setup. My plan since the beginning was to be able to use the stock fuel door and location to fill the car with gas. With the new fuel cell, that was a bit of a challenge. Here is what I used and how I did it.

 

2' section of 2" exhaust pipe from Advanced Auto (about $4)

6"x12" piece of 22GA steel from Lowe's (about $6)

3' piece of 2" fuel hose from a local hose dealer. I suggest just getting it from Amazon. (I paid $40, but I saw some on Amazon for around $30)

Stock filler neck that attaches to the rear fender

 

I stared out by turning the stock filler neck 180 deg and drilled 2 new holes so all four bolts could be used. Then I took a 2" section of the exhaust pipe and welded it to the end to increase the diameter of the tube. The stock neck is 1 7/8" and would be too loose in the new hose.

 

Then I got started on the filler neck for the fuel cell. I could not bring myself to pay upwards of $100 for one. I took the cap off that came with the fuel cell and used it as a template for the next couple of pieces. I made a lower ring, inside the tank, to hold the bolts in place. I cut it in two pieces so it would go in the hole. I welded the bolts that came with the fuel cell to those to make studs essentially. Then I made an upper ring to weld the neck to and hold it to the fuel cell.

 

To make the filler neck, I cut a 45 deg angle in the remaining pipe, turned it to make a 90 deg turn and welded it together. After welding and grinding it I checked for any pin holes and re-welded any I found. It will get a thin coat of JB Weld around the joints before paint, to make sure there are no leaks. I originally welded a collar on the hose end to make it tighter in the hose, but that made it too tight so I cut it off.

 

Then I welded the neck to the base, cleaned it up a little and bolted it to the fuel cell.

 

And here is the mostly finished product. Unfortunately nobody will see most of the hard work that went into this. In order to keep all the exhaust gasses and such out of the inside of the car, there will be a cover over the whole fuel cell.

[gmanatc97]

Got a few more things done in the past few weeks.

 

I got the fuel cell area finalized and painted. I made a two piece cover for the fuel cell well with a hole in it for the filler neck.

 

Then I painted it with some rubberized undercoating. I also painted the filler necks. I think it turned out very well.

 

Then I started on the floor pans. I started with the drivers side since that was the side with the least amount of rust. I cut out all the bad metal and then about half to one inch beyond the good metal.

Then I measured out the area that needed new metal. Then I cut and rough formed the new pan.

After some adjustments and some trimming the new pan fit pretty well.

[gmanatc97]

After getting the new pan in place I spot welded it just to hold it in place while I used a hammer and a few other tools to form it to the curves of the car. Took a little while but ended up working pretty well.

I ended up having to take a small chunk out of the frame rail due to rust

I just then cut and bent a small piece of metal to fill it in. The floor pan sits pretty well along the frame rail, after talking to it a bit.

 

I also got the running light openings closed up. I just cut a small piece of metal and welded it in slowly so I didn't warp the body panels. I will fill in the rest with a thin layer of body filler.

[gmanatc97]

I had to cut out the seat mounting bracket so that the new floor pan could replace the bad metal under it. When I did that I realized just how bad the front of it was. I ended up cutting about half of the front metal off. After rebuilding the front, I welded it back in the car. It took a little talking to it to get it back in the right place. The last thing I needed was to have to beat on it or modify the seat to line up.

 

I test fit the seat and thankfully it went right in and the bolt holes lined up perfectly.

Please excuse the ugly seat cover, I put it on the seat so I could sit and see how the seat felt finally back in the car. Now hopefully the passenger side goes just as well as the drivers side did.

[gmanatc97]

Its been a wild and crazy couple of months. I have gotten a lot done on the car and thats why I have not posted in a while. I will be back dating the progress on the car over the next few weeks about what I did since my last post. I found out I was moving here in a month or two so needed to get as much work done as possible. I am now able to drive the car and have some fun with it. I even took it to ZDayZ up at the Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap) back in May.

 

Here is a quick run down of what all I got done and will be posting details about in later posts.

 

I finished the passenger side floor pan

Finished the rear hatch area (fuel cell tucked in and covered)

Wheels and tires mounted (needed spacers and longer wheel studs)

Front air dam and grill put back in (at least until they get painted)

Headers and full exhaust in

Engine fully put together and runs real good (this project will never be 100% complete)

Installed new carpet and padding for less than around $200 (just need to finish one door panel and interior is done, for now)

Made and installed new hood vents

 

Like I said, I will be going in more detail in the coming days.

Thanks to HybridZ for helping me and getting this car from a yard find to a drivable fun Z!