My 280Z "Rustoration"

[MattMatthewZ]

Hello, I wanted to post a build thread to document the process of my restoration. I have a 1975 280Z that I purchased off a local craigslist ad. Heres the ad.

 

Ive wanted one of these cars since I was in high school and was looking for one that was in decent shape without too much rust and that was running. I went and looked at this one and thought it was in pretty good shape. It had a little rust but I was thinking most of it was surface rust. I took it for a test drive and instantly fell in love. The motor was solid, brakes worked, and it cruised down the highway nice and straight. It felt like a great starting point for my project......so I thought.
Here she is the day I brought her home.

 

 

First thing I did was remove the front bumper

 

And the brackets

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

So once I got her home I had a chance to really look her over.

Spare tire area looked good so thats a good sign.

 

Some rust on the rear hatch.

 

Dash has the normal Z cracks.

 

Interior is rough but complete.

 

Also removed the rear bumper

 

Fenders need to be replaced

 

Drivers floor pan is pretty bad.

 

 

Some more rust

 

The drivers frame rail is rusted, both frame rails in the fender wells are rusted, the battery tray is pretty bad, and the rockers are rusted as well. 

There are definitely cleaner, more rust free Z's out there but it could be worse. I decided to move forward with the project and began to do a complete tear down for a full restoration. 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

Most of the interior is removed.

 

Now its time to get the motor out

 

 

Removed the wiring harnesses

 

 

Removed glass and front body panels.

 

 

 

Some rust porn for you weirdos LOL

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Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

I scraped as much of the undercoating off as I could. This was fun....

 

Removed the fuel/brake lines.

 

Now shes ready to go to the media blaster.

 

 

She looked pretty pathetic when I left her there so I took a quick pic.

 

So with the car gone for awhile I turned my attention to stripping down the motor. I will be shipping it out to Rebello for a high compression 3.0 stroker set up.

 

 

 

 

All parts were labeled and sorted with ziploc bags. 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

I got the car back after a week. They did a really thorough job. It was nice to finally work on it without getting dirty and greasy.

 

 

 

Then I worked on removing the suspension.

 

 

Next I started working on the metal work. Now I haven't welded anything since shop class in high school but I was eager to learn so I went out and bought a welder and got to work!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heres some welding shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

More rust repair pics

 

All interior frame areas were covered with Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating for rust protection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heres the damaged frame rail.

 

I got a new piece fabricated by a local fab shop

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

Some more misc. metal work pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rear bumper bracket holes were filled in

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

Started disassembling the suspension to send out to get powder coated.

 

 

Also sent these parts out to be yellow zinc plated 

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

My dash was in need of some love so I followed the dash repair techniques on this forum and I think it came out really good. Not perfect but 100X better than it was. I ended up spending about $100 on materials and a good week or 2 of working on it here and there. 

Heres the materials I used. Plus I used Great Stuff expanding foam and Duplicolor Truck bed coating for the final coat.

 

Used the Great stuff expanding foam to fill in the cracks that were split open.

 

 

Then I used the bondo bumper repair to fill in the holes

 

 

Coat #2

 

Then applied the SEM glaze putty. This required 4-5 coats of applying then sanding.

 

 

 

Then primed with SEM flexible primer

 

 

I used the SEM texture coating to get a decent texture

 

Then sprayed with 2 coats of Duplicolor truck bed coating.

 

 

I thought it turned out pretty good. I cleaned up my dash support.

 

Then installed my new Fairlady emblem

 

 

 

 

What do you guys think? 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

With all the welding done I built a couple make shift carts so I would be able to roll thee chassis around.

 

My painter picking her up.
 

Some body work shots.

 

Up on the rotisserie.

 

 

Finally some paint! The car will be painted 904 Ivory base coat/clear coat. The undercarriage was primered and coated with a color matched 3M undercoating.

 

 

 

 

Base coat only

 

 

Clear coat. Nice and shiny 

 

 

And thats about where I am at as of now. He was going to deliver the car today but we are getting a nasty storm here in Colorado so it might have to wait until next weekend. He is going to do some more wet sanding and polishing and it should be good to go. I cant wait to see it!

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[terse]

Amazing work so far! Keep it up and continue posting pics, really enjoy them and picking up pointers .

[310z]

It's a long road we travel to bring our cars back to life but one well worth the journey. Good work. In the long run you will always be glad you started naked. 

[rturbo 930]

Looking good man. But I have to admit I think it's funny that you thought your driver's floor was "pretty bad." Most of us wish it was only that bad.

[MattMatthewZ]

Amazing work so far! Keep it up and continue posting pics, really enjoy them and picking up pointers .

 

 

It's a long road we travel to bring our cars back to life but one well worth the journey. Good work. In the long run you will always be glad you started naked. 

 

Thanks! I appreciate it.

[MattMatthewZ]

Looking good man. But I have to admit I think it's funny that you thought your driver's floor was "pretty bad." Most of us wish it was only that bad.

 

Haha, yea I've definitely seen worse. I was lucky I didnt have to replace the entire floor pan, just patched it.

[MattMatthewZ]

 Got the car back from paint and it looks amazing! He did an awesome job. No orange peel and it was wet sanded and polished to a beautiful shine. It feels really good to have it back, now i'm really excited to get this thing put back together. 

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Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

My rear spoiler

 

My Xenon front air dam

 

My suspension parts came back from getting powder coated semi gloss black

 

My new brake set up from Silvermine. Stage 3 front 
 

My suspension setup. Eibach springs with Tokico HP shocks
 

All new factory rubber bushings

 

All new yellow zinc hardware from Fastenal

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Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

 Rejuvenating my rubber!

Most of my rubber insulators and grommets were salvageable but some I had to toss and i'll replace. I dont really have any before pics but they were pretty nasty. 

Here was my process;

1. Soak overnight in jar of degreaser
2. Remove and scrub with stiff bristle brush
3. Then soak in Dawn dish soap
4. Rinse with hot water
5. Soak in jar with rubber rejuvinater overnight
6. Wipe down and coat with rubber protectant.

I know this may seem a little much for just some rubber pieces but it beats the hell out of paying to replace all of them.

Degreased:

 

The rubber rejuvinater I used. Made to clean and soften rubber.

 

Good as new (almost)

 

My Fuel / brake line insulators

 

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ

[MattMatthewZ]

 Had some time over the weekend to start putting her back together. Started with the fuel/brake lines. 

 

 

 

Installed the E brake hardware

 

And then started on the front suspension

 

Painted the front hubs and prepped them for new bearings

 

Edited February 5, 2015 by MattMatthewZ