1975 280Z project - Seattle, WA

[teucer]

Selling my 1975 280Z project. I had such grand plans for this car! But in the 13 years since I bought it, life changed, and I’ve finally had to accept that my days of spending hours wrenching in the garage are over. I hope to pass everything on to someone else who will finish it up and have fun driving it like I always wanted to.

 

Because this was intended to be a total drivetrain refresh with an LS1 swap, many of the original drivetrain parts are missing, but you get a T56 and LS1 to make up for it.

 

Body was never wrecked to my knowledge, with no obvious repairs. Body panels have no dents. Clean Washington title.

 

The car definitely needs some rust repair, though nothing that would make it scrap. I planned to have it dipped or sandblasted and sent to the body shop for any repairs that came out of it, but never got around to transporting it. The car was garaged the first 8 years, then outside under a fabric cover the last 5 (moved and lost my garage).

 

The dash has a big crack in it. I planned to get a cover but never did.

 

A few years ago I took it to Darnell Autobody of Tacoma and had this work done:

• Rusty battery tray replaced
• Rusty frame rails replaced with Bad Dog rails and coated
• Rear deck tray rust repaired
• Quarter-panel vent holes, antenna hole, and rear side markers welded over TTT coilover plates installed in all 4 shock towers

 

At some point I cut out the spare well, planning to replace it with a flat panel from which to hang a plastic Camaro fuel tank. This turned out to be premature as I never had the replacement work done, but I do have the fuel tank (and fuel pump).

 

The original seats were shot, so I bought a pair of vintage Porsche 911 seats restored and recovered in vinyl, including seat rails. The rails have different mount dimensions so I planned to have adapters fabricated to mount them.

 

The entire suspension is TTT: front and rear coilovers and LCAs. Struts were converted by TTT. 

 

The car has the TTT Q45 rear end conversion installed, with all the Q45-sourced rear end pieces. The mustache bar doesn’t fit due to an alignment issue with one of the bolts hanging from the underside of the body. It’s a pretty small misalignment. I planned to take the body to a frame alignment shop to have this fixed. The CV axles rear uprights were converted by TTT. 

The Q45 diff was inspected by Clary’s Transmission of Seattle and came out clean.

 

Front brakes and hubs are from Modern Motorsports (RIP Ross).

 

The LS1 motor mount is a custom piece by Dave Kipperman built for his own race car. It replaces the Datsun steering rack with a Subaru power steering rack (included).

 

The LS1 I bought from an eBay stranger, and it turned out to have a failed rocker bearing inside with all the needle bearings everywhere. I only discovered these when I removed the heads. I had the entire engine torn down and rebuilt by Action Machine of Seattle with top-shelf parts at a cost of $5K+.

 

This LS1 is one of those rare examples that were built with an LS6 block. Unfortunately the block has one head bolt thread blown out of the side (pictured). The machine shop said there was enough thread remaining to hold secure, so they were willing to take on the rebuild, but it would need to be sealed with silicone to ensure no water got inside.

 

The T56 was disassembled, inspected, and reassembled by Clary’s Transmission of Seattle and given a clean bill of health.

 

Other parts included:

• JagsThatRun shorty LS1 headers, coated by Swaintech with White Lightning (http://swaintech.com/race-coatings/race-coating-descriptions/white-lightning-exhaust-coatings/).
• New LS1 wiring harness by TechRods.
• RoadRunner LS1 ECU with EFILive tuning software.
• Ported LS1 MAF and throttle body.
• New gauges from eGauges.
• 240z bumper brackets.
• Camaro radiator fans.
• Probably some other stuff I forgot about.

 

Everything not installed on the car is neatly packed in plastic storage containers, the contents of which have been carefully catalogued in a Trello board, with pictures of many parts. (access given upon request).

 

Many pictures were taken early in the process and are viewable at this Google Photos album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mBGevhhNXzGZgki28.

 

I took some pictures this week that are more accurate: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GfCkppAqEmBzaUsz7. I can take more pictures of anything described above upon request.

 

I learned a lot from HybridZ and respect the community here, so before I put it on Craigslist I thought I’d give someone here a chance to take it away for less.

 

Asking $5000 for everything. Hoping for a local pick up in Seattle, WA.

 

Bonus: if you want a rotisserie lift, I’ve got one for sale here: https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/129741-accessible-systems-rotisserie-lift-seattle-wa/. The car comes with mounts to attach to the lift.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Edited March 14, 2019 by teucer

[teucer]

Sold.