1977 280z driving project from the Netherlands

[Mitchel0407]

It took some time for an update but I am proud to say that I did it, the 280z is road legal again!! Aside from the car I have been very busy working in my backyard as the previous owners took out all the plants and then neglected the yard for 4-5 years. But back to the build log.

 

One of the parts I still had lying around where the oil pressure sender and the coolant temperature sensor for the gauges in the dashboard. It really bothered me that both of them weren’t working and I had a feeling that it was just both of the sensors that were bad. So out with the old and in with the new. Or so I thought….

 

  

 

While installing the new temperature sensor into the thermostat housing the housing itself broke. As the break is a really weird one I suspect that the aluminum housing just became pours. Luckly one of the local Z club members had the correct version of the housing and send it to me. I gave that one a quick coat of paint and reinstalled all of the sensors. This time nothing broke and both the oil pressure and coolant temperature gauge finally worked!

 

  

 

  

 

Now that that was fixed I started working on some of the smaller items on the list. I replaced the air filter, both exhaust gaskets, the horns, painted the front grill and installed the KNAC shield (translated: Royal Netherlands Automobile Club). As I had a bit of time left in the day I also replaced my pre fuel pump fuel lines and filter, installed the new speakers and fitted the fender mirrors. I expected the fender mirrors to be pretty useless but they actually gave me a way better field of view then my old door mounted mirrors! I believe these are the same metal reproduction mirrors as Zdepot sells.

 

 

 

 

As I was in a bit of a time crunch for the inspection I unfortunately couldn’t finish the door cards and seats in time. Luckly the door cards weren’t mandatory for the inspection so I could just simply leave them off the car. As for the seats I reinstalled the covers for now and reinstalled them into the car.

 

 

The aftermarket wheels the car came on where poking out a bit too much in the rear so to avoid any complications during the inspection I decided to install the stock wheels for now and switch them afterwards. I hindside this wasn’t necessary as they were allowed to stick out 3cm (1,2 inch) past the fenders.

 

Then came the moment I had been working towards, inspection day! I dropped her of at the garage and they immediately started with the inspection and alignment. The only thing they found was they the washer fluid wasn’t spraying but the mechanic traced it back to a pinched line. Other then that the car was in great shape and both the mechanic as other customers were impressed with the car (S30 Z cars are pretty rare over here).

 

  

 

Now I can finally enjoy the car and man she drives good! The only thing I noticed was that the rear shocks are gone but it isn’t a problem for now.
 

[flatout]

congrats sir, hopefully the weather in your area is nice this time of year and you get get out and put some miles, (or kilometers) on it (never been to Netherlands so unsure if you guys use miles or Km)

[74_5.0L_Z]

Congratulations.  These old cars are a lot of work, but worth the effort.

[Mitchel0407]

Took the 280z to work yesterday as I have a 62km (38,5 mile) commute each way with both city and highway driving. She ran perfectly with a nice smooth idle, stable temperatures right at 180 Fahrenheit (US gauges), a nice oil pressure and the alternator charging nicely at a bit over 14 volts. The air fuel ratio was still fluctuating a bit running lean and then rich at idle but they where pretty stable while cruising.

 

But more importantly she was an absolute blast to drive! The power was nice and smooth and felt amazing to stretch out to 6500rpm. Not to mention the reaction of the other people around you. I saw a lot of thumbs up out of the windows and people sneaking a picture of the car. Even more hilarious was me parking next to my bosses BMW.

 

All that said I’m not fully satisfied with her yet. I believe the rear shock absorbers are currently nonexistent  which isn’t too big a deal but the right rear can slam down with tremendous force when going over a pothole or bump which isn’t very comfortable. The alignment also feels a bit off as the car feels less stable then she did before. I will bring her to a garage that also does a lot of motorsports tuning close to my work next week to try and fix the alignment. I will probably also look at a set of BC Racing coilovers sometime in the close future to fix the worn out stock suspension.
 

[flatout]

a project car is never "done" but we sure do love upgrades.

 

You dont realize how small these old cars are until you park next to something modern. your bosses BMW was probably huge next to the Z

[Mitchel0407]

I do sure love upgrades!
But no the 280z wasn’t that small in comparison. But then again my boss drives a BMW M140i and the other one a VW ID.7 Tourer which is pretty big. Do remember I live in Europe and not the US so we rarely see pickup trucks ore large SUV’s. We rarely see cars bigger than a BMW X7, Audi Q8 or Volvo X90 (which are considered extremely big over here). Our parking spaces just aren’t that big 🤣

 

I mean just look at this picture for the size comparison between a normal family car / minivan and a Dodge RAM. The only people that buy pickup trucks here are people who like them, own a business (tax reasons) and tow a lot. And that’s only because it’s easy and cheap to convert and run them on LPG gas.

 

[Mitchel0407]

Took the car to an alignment shop near my work last Friday to have them realign the wheels. I was in luck as one of their most experienced techs was in that day (old guy with almost 40 years’ experience with wheel alignments). He immediately recognized the car (old Z’s are pretty rare over here) and remembered working on a few of them back in the day.

 

I gave him the recommended alignment specs I got from Apex Engineered and with that, my own complaints about the handling and his own intuition he got to work. Turns out the previous tech just absolutely butchered the alignment. He told me he set everything (camber, caster and toe) to zero but turns out I actually had a lot of positive camber and toe out in the front. For reference a -0,67 degrees toe means a 0.286 inch toe out, that’s massive!

 

 

The rear still has some work to do as the track with needs to be increase slightly (by turning out the rod ends) so camber can be improved and toe can be turned in. As the rear control arms sit now (stock as shipped from Apex) the toe adjustment is slightly too long and the outer rod end needs to be turned out a bit. Unfortunately the front office didn’t really get how modified the car was and didn’t plan enough time for the tech to tackle this himself so I’ll have to do it myself and come back later for final adjustments.

 

But man the car feels so much better. I have way more control over the car now and steering has become a lot lighter. I hope to make some time next week to  fix the rear as I can feel she doesn’t like going over 80mph but that might also be because of a lack of aero.

 

I do plan on buying a reproduction BRE style spoiler and an air dam. Zservices in France sells them made locally and even offers them in a textured black at no extra cost which might be interesting and won’t look that out of place on a silver car. They are also easy resell afterwards as I plan to replace some body parts with carbon fiber down the road once I have the body stripped down and restored. But those plans are for way down the line.
 

[flatout]

toe out (especially significantly) will definitely make a car drive "twitchy". I've always felt a road car benefits from toe in stability. A track spec may vary from that but street toe in is usually an improvement.  I'm really surprised by the caster number. 1º is very little. how well does it self center the steering wheel? If your happy with it then that's all that matters. but you may even have a little more improvement if you can get 4-5º out of it. 

[Mitchel0407]

The settings recommended for my setup (front and rear control arms, front crossmember and quick steering knuckles) by Apex Engineered where:

 

Front:
Camber: -1.5° to -2.5° However if it's a street car, it can be reduced to negative one to even zero.
Caster: +4° to +6°
Toe: 1/16" to 1/8" total toe-in

 

Rear:
Camber: -1° to -2° Same as above in the front in terms of camber
Toe: 1/16" to 1/8" total toe-in

 

I agree for the most part with these specs but unfortunately this was as far as they could go at the moment. At least the car is way easier to steer now and she drives stable and straight as an arrow. The steering wheel does self-center but it could be a bit more. The rear needs a zero toe or a bit of toe in but for that I need to increase the track width of the control arm a bit and then come back for a new alignment.

 

My shocks are a little done for (especially the right rear is nonexistent) but for just cruising around this is good enough for now. I do plan to install a set of coilovers from Intrax (local to me) or KW. I was considering BC Racing but they were discouraged by the shop if I wanted to have them last more than just 2-3 years especially since I can’t park the car in my garage. Don’t worry, she still has a roof over her head as she is parked under my carport with a cover over her.

The more time goes on the more things I want to do, it truly is a never ending project. The next thing I would like to do is add a BRE style spoiler and an air dam as they are a bit cheaper then the rest of the suspension upgrades. After that I want to replace the stock shocks with coilovers and some stiffer sway bars.

 

Way down the line I also want to replace the stock EFI system with a Halltech ECU but I  will probably combine that with EFI Hardware ITB’s and a Zstory exhaust system. Separately from everything I would also like to upgrade the brakes for a full set of Willwood disk brakes at some point but that would also require increasing my wheel size to 16 inch. But my current brakes work more then good enough and I like my wheels so that isn’t really a priority.

 

And when everything is set and done and I have some money to spare then I will send the body off for a full restoration and probably some carbon body panels. But those are really long term plans, you might have guessed but I am never ever selling my Z. This thing truly is my one and only dream car and I will pour my heart and soul into it.
 

[jhm]

7 hours ago, Mitchel0407 said:

I do plan to install a set of coilovers from Intrax (local to me) or KW.

 

Either would work very well for you.  I haven't had any first-hand experience with Intrax; but am extremely impressed by their technical data and the reviews I've read on them.

[Mitchel0407]

Last weekend I went to my first classic car event with the 280z which was a lot of fun. To my surprise I wasn’t the only Datsun at the event. A bit later a one owner Datsun 1200 coupe (talk about rare) and an early 300zx also showed up.

 

 

On my way back home in the Z cruising along at approximately 75mph she decided I didn’t spend quit enough money on it yet and turned my 5 speed into a 4 speed transmission. What probably happened was the main shaft nut backed off. Guess this is another nice surprise left behind from the previous owners “restauration”. Surprisingly the car still shifts into reverse and doesn’t pop out, 5th gear just acts as an extra neutral now.

 

For now I will need to find a replacement FS5W71B gearbox or modify another 71 series gearbox to fit the Z. I know a guy who bought a 280ZX 5 speed as a spare 25 years back and is willing to sell it to me for €800. It’s ether that or trying to find the correct parts for a pre 80’s 71B and rebuilding mine myself.

 

There is a local shop that builds rally cars out of S30 Z’s who can sell me a rebuild ZX 71B or modified S14 71C close ratio transmission but those cost €4k-€6k. For that price its more interesting to swap in a modified brand new NISMO S15 6 speed from Japan. Escort makes them to fit the L series engines complete with mechanical speedo connection and CNC transmission crossmember.

 

Anyway I guess that’s just the life with a classic car…..

[flatout]

As far as i know from being in the 240sx world is the s15 6 speed is geared better for performance driving but is weaker than the s14 5 speed but i think the nismo one is advertised as fixing some of the weak points.