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Muppet's 280Z


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well, I figured that since I have come into posession of this thing. I may as well learn a little something about what I'd like to do with it. I'm normally a Subaru guy, but I've always wanted a nissan. so let me tell the tale of how I came to own this 280 Z

 

One day I was helping out a friend out near his warehouse, I was hauling away scrap to go to the dump. I happened to see this sad little old Datsun sitting under a tree. My friend and I pulled it out of the mud and over to a nearby blacktop. It apparently owned to the people who had owned the warehouse before him.

 

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Imagine my surprise when I opened the door and found the title in the glove box and the key in the ignition. It was in pretty rough shape, needless to say. The smell gave away the fact that it had become the home for a mouse family. The other dead giveaway was the massive amount of hoarded leaves and seat foam that had collected under the hood. My friend and I contacted the people who used to own the property and found out that they didn't even remember the car. They came down to see it and it turns out that the husband had bought it for their son ten years ago and forgot about it. The son had a family now and they wanted it gone. So they offered it too me for the low low price of FREE!

 

I said yes. and brought it home.

 

Once home, I started to clean and repair a few things. and here is what we've got so far.

 

It's a fuel injected five speed manual with it's spare tire and a massively cracked dashboard.

 

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She's got some rust, and some more rust. but i'm a pretty competent welder.

 

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I'm pretty sure that there are supposed to be some fuseable links here. but when I brought it home there was a solid piece of 12 gauge copper wire running between two of the leads that melted the hell out of the plastic casing. hooray for BS fixes.

 

 

 

Now that she's home, perhaps I can get a job and do some work on her.

Edited by muppet
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well, all my plans are dependent on my ability to find work. I need to be able to eat before I can afford parts you know?

 

BUT in the fantasy world where I have money I'd like to RB26 it. because I have a personal beef with any GM products so an LSX is a no. I need to rip out all the old interior because i'm fairly sure that it's a biohazard at this point.

 

Before any of that though I need to strip it down and clean out all the cancer.

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thanks guys. I am currently trying to lay out my plans for the interior. I'd like it to remain stock-ish. It's going to need alot of replacement parts. Like all new carpet and sound insulation as well as several pieces of interior trim. I am curious about installing a JDM right side drive dash. I know it would be a bunch of work, but right now it's the planning stage so anything is possible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates but I've been slowly pulling out the interior and today I got a yen to remove the front end. I'm glad i did. I found a bunch of crap wiring and evidence that the car had been in a wreck at some point. The passengers side front QP is brown under a bad white paint job. and the headlight/turn signals on that side have been patched on with electrical tape. In addition to that the guy who did the body work went a little nuts with the undercoating and covered the shock/spring assembly with it.

 

I'll throw some pics up soon. I'm roasting a chicken right now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So here are some of the promised pics.

 

This is one of the quarter panel braces on my passenger side. it has been smashed inwards quite a bit and it was hidden under that badly painted quarter panel.

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and this is where I'm pretty sure somebody drilled into the frame rail to pull it back out with a slide hammer. they did a decent job except for the above bracing. But from the look of things this is the most severe damage that isn't rust.

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however she does have her whole face ripped off. and there are only two real problem rust spots that are new. they are near the hood hinges.

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but she's looking good.

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over all it's going well I think. I don't have any money set aside for her yet, still looking for a job, but we'll see if I can't scare something up soon.

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Okay, random electrical patch for the day.

 

I found this random purple wire coming out of my dash today, that was attached to this aftermarket button and an indicator light.

 

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I traced it to my engine bay and found that it was hooked in, badly, to a harness plug that was unattached.

 

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anyways, long story short, I found where I think it comes out. To what appears to be a secondary fuel pump placed in front of the differential.

 

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Confused, but i'm unable to test anything because I'm out two fusible links and an ignition relay. anyways, it just seems weird to me because i've already got an in tank pump.

 

thoughts?

Edited by muppet
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Nice find! I'm always happy to see an S30 saved from the scrap yard.

 

If by intake pump you mean in tank pump, then I'm pretty sure I have one, Access panel in the trunk and all.

 

Unless, it's just the level sending unit.

 

Sweatleaf meant in-tank pump. All S30s came with an external fuel pump from the factory. The fuel level sending unit is on the FWD passenger side of the stock tank. You can access it from underneath the car.

Edited by rossman
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yeah I found the fuel pump under the car but there's also an access panel in the trunk area that leads to something in the fuel tank. I just drained about 11 gallons of fuel out of it yesterday, and i'll drop the tank when I'm not busy frying a cow.

 

I'll let you know what I find.

 

and Rossman, i'm also really happy to get this one saved from the scrap yard. I've saved several other things from the scrap yard in the past, but this is my first JDM and i'm really happy about that.

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