I'm picking up my 280zx on Saturday. That mods are a good idea on a budget

[Isaac_Tran]

I'm picking up my 280zx with a manual trans and 90,000 miles. It needs brake lins but thats it acording to the owner. I plan on making this a project car and one day a weekend car. I'm not looking the get a ton of power out of it but I do want to make it look nice. I'm a good craftsman and fabricator in my opinion so I plan on making a lot of stuff in house. I want to lower it a good bit, give it some offset wheels and fender flares, and paint it all on a budget plus spruce up the inside. I can make the flares no problem but I'm not sure how im going to do the suspention. $900 coilovers are awsome but not in the buget for me. I have a welder though. I'm looking for links to diy suspenson maybe and what I should look for in rims. 

 

Also is $800 a decent deal? or not so much. best deal in my area but I have heard of people getting better deals 

 

Let me know if you have other Ideas for my project to.

Thanks,

Isaac 

[Ereschkigal]

About your deal... I can only speak for the german offerings but the cheapest I found in my 10 seconds internet search was $5.500 for 120k miles with an auto trans.

So it can't be that bad.

[PaulM]

I got mine for $900 last month and it doesn't start, so you got a better deal than I did.  

 

I went into it planning an engine swap so the deal worked for me.

[Yeti's280zxt]

You can weld, so you can adapt a set of s13 coilovers to your ZX. The fronts require cutting and welding. The rears are near bolt on. Just some new mounting holes in the strut tower.

 

You could buy cheap ebay coils and have it done in a weekend.

 

Rims are expensive on these cars due to 4 lug pattern and zero/negative offsets. Rota makes a few styles that fit ZXs. Check whitehead performance, eBay and Motorsport auto.  

 

 

[seattlejester]

I'd make sure to go over it. Brake lines are important, and if they corroded I would imagine a full replacement of the soft and hard lines might be a good idea.