My sanity away from my PhD....78 280z

[zsteelman]

Figured it was about time to start documenting this progress so that I can get input from others.

 

In June of 2010 I purchased this 280z from a guy doing a father/son project. They could not get it started and gave up on the project fairly quickly in favor of an 89 CRX.

 

 

I drug it home back to Fayetteville, AR to get started, picked it up for $500.

 

First thing to do was get rid of all the nastiness in the inside of the car and determine the extent of the floor damage.

 

 

After I got the car gutted I was pleasantly surprised to only find minimal rust around the plug holes, only one whole that had to be patched.

 

 

I decided to clean the floor and coat it with Herculiner for protection. The bottom will also be covered as well once I can get the bad dog rails in place.

 

 

Started off by wirebrushing then painting with rust reformer paint.

 

Next step was to fiberglass the plug holes as this car will be a toy/track car and not see rain often.

 

 

Once all of that was dried and smoothed I began to lay out the Herculiner which is AMAZING btw.

 

 

Next step in the project was to remove the park bench from the back of the car. I shaved and welded in new patch panels for the holes that were left. Then followed with fiberglass filler and body filler to a smooth finish.

 

Before:

 

During:

 

After:

 

I think it turned out pretty good considering I was just learning how to use this HF welder WITHOUT gas :S. I will be upgrading soon but this is a good one for brackets and such.

 

Now that winter has started to roll around here in Arkansas I have began refinishing some interior pieces as I can bring them into the house and clean them up without making too much of a mess.

 

Door Panels Before:

 

After:

 

And wrapped for storage:

 

Next was to finish up the taillight panel.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Now time to attack the dash. I had originally intended to try the dash restore process, but after knocking on it some with a hammer the cracks got too bad to attempt. So I believe I will be buying a full cap and placing it on. I will paint the underdash and cap with the vinyl dye that I have used for the rest of the restore to retain the same color.

 

 

For now I have converted to my light weight racing dash lol

 

 

More to come soon as I attempt to get the car started this week. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.