Street Rat 280

[Gollum]

You know, I thought I started a project thread on here a LONG time ago, but apparently NOT! So here goes.

 

[insert random picture of me here] Okay!

 

 

I've been diggin' the datsuns when I was 14, going to street races and seeing V8 S30's spank just about anything that dared to temp them. I began to see the value to me immediately, they were the best "blank canvas" vehicle I'd ever found. I was 90% a "non-partisan" car guy. I had NO affiliation despite working on Hondas just about every weekend and also my fair share of Stangs (neighbor had a 10 sec del sol that ate more pistons than his girlfriend had periods).

 

So as soon as I got my license, I made one of the biggest mistakes ever.... Bought a '80 280ZX. At the time the CA law hadn't changed and it was still a rolling smog year, thus I figured I'd spend 5 years or so doing the suspension, brakes, adding lightness etc, and then I could go nuts with the motor... Well the governor had the last laugh and stopped all those plans. So almost 10 years later now I STILL have a 280ZX ('81 this time), and I've slowly been dumping all my S130 parts.

 

Anyway, about 4 years ago I needed a car. Had $1500 in the bank and found a L28ET powered '75 280Z on craigslist for $1,100... SOLD!!! The seller was in over his head and realized it was a money pit he couldn't afford and it just sat at his work month after month. I drove that bitch to work the day I bought it and just about every day possible for the next 6 months. Then I received a free 280ZX that was a SOLID driver, so inevitably the 280Z ended up in parts being worked on... go figure. I'm now hauling ass getting it back together, sick and tired of my lack of budget (now married + a 3 month old), keeping me from driving this sucker. Nothing is "wrong" with it, but after I swapped heads it never ran right and I never put forth enough effort to figure it out, assuming I'd just buy megasquirt...... That was like, ummm, 3 years ago....

 

 

So check it, I drove probably the most dangerous S30 ever as a daily driver over 40 miles each way to work. Looked bad enough that Japanese Nostalgic took a pic of it at MJS:

 

 

Caster and toe where SO bad I ate up a set of tires in less than 3 months, and had put new tires on the front I had lying around. Front lip sagged when I got the car, and just got worse as I abused it, not caring about a POS urethane dam. The engine was fairly solid though, despite having the loudest exhaust leak in the history of mankind. You could hear this car coming from at least half a mile away thanks to it's exhaust leak. My exhaust leak would set off car alarms... But it WAS solid, and developed 7psi at ANY rpm in ANY gear. The intake had been converted to a N47 intake, which meant that the stock J pipe wouldn't fit, so someone did a real hack job putting shit together with lots of rubber and clamps. I didn't like this, so I covered it back to a stock "ugly" turbo manifold with a stock J pipe. Ran much nicer...

 

 

A friend of my wife mentioned her brother had a 280Z that had been sitting for over a decade. Talked to the guy and basically said "come by and take what you want, it'll motivate me to get it junked". Well I showed up and it was a LATE 280Z, with almost ziltch of anything of value to me, except hey! A hood!

 

 

I took the hood, fenders, suspension, wheels, and other odds and ends home with me. Definitely worth the $50 tank of gas in the truck to pick it up. Was a fun day.

 

Not the greatest pic, but this was taken some time later once I had a garage to work in, thus allowing me to start busting ass getting shit done.... (haha.....)

 

 

Also, I'd replaced that dam which had become more than a hazard. It donated a 240Z turn signal to the highway and would scrape on a lane divider bump (turtle I call them) if I aimed the front just right and throttle lifted... So I picked up this killer dam from a friend up in Sac. It's a MSA... type 1 I believe?

 

 

Of course now I had no turn signals, and my cheap ass didn't want to pay 240Z look at me premium, so I bought headlights with turn signals in them. Now I was "legal"

 

 

 

Oh, and I also tied the side marker to be a turn signal. I personally didn't see the point in it as a side marker and thought this was a better use of it. Shaving was the eventual plan (and still is).

 

For a short while I thought it would be a good idea to paint my car.... I got a bucket done + 2 access covers painted and realized it'd be over $200 in rattle can at this rate... No thanks! I could do all the prep work and bring it to maaco for that and save me a lot of headache. That being said, I later bought a harbor freight air gun and used store credit at autozone to buy a can of paint that looks like it'll get about 1/2 way done painting my car.

 

 

 

Eventually I decided that my exhaust leak issue would only be fixed with a new head, and I was right... in a way... It wasn't until pulled my head (after I bought a longblock that I had to pull myself from a guy down in SF) that my head gasket was blown... right out the side, thus spewing exhaust right out under the 3&4 exhaust section, which is what lead to me believe it "HAD" to be a manifold leak, since I could feel it when warming the car up and putting my hands to the manifold....

 

So, since I had a new spare engine with a stellar looking head, I put it on.

 

 

After pulling the timing cover twice, I had it running. But it didn't seem quite right. I know the cam was timed right, I check a million times. It had to have been something I did in the process. I ripped the TPS wiring at some point so I thought that had to be it. Still haven't repaired it officially but it'll be handled soon now that I'm back at it. I thought it could have been the PCV system, since I tired hooking it up again (was never connected since I got the car). I have a feeling the PCV is still to blame, but the installer of this swap originally had added a resistor in the wiring to the head temp sensor, which I didn't find till months later.... Once I get it all back close to "stock" I think it'll run just fine. We'll see...

 

 

So I've moved twice... no, three times since that above picture was taken. I now have a semi-permanent place I'm renting, which includes a decent 2 car garage. So I started what I wanted to do ALL along with this car....

 

 

That and OH so much more came out. I knew this car was never going to be the cleanest chassis out there, and was overall in pretty shoddy shape. The wiring was a hack job at best, so I just started yanking anything and everything that wasn't necessary.

 

"Look Ma', No Dash!"

 

 

I had an entire chassis wiring harness from a '83 S130 so it became my donor for the fuse panel and wiring. Crimped and soldered EVERY wire the CORRECT way. Still not done, but getting done little by little.

 

I had some fun deleting the fuel reservoir tank thingamajig that should have never been.

 

 

 

You can see in the pic above my new fuel pump wiring. I know it's not as clean as it could be, but I didn't want to drop the tank so this was as good as I was going to get for now. The OLD wiring was the same heavy duty wiring you'd get in the car audio section at best buy and was just chillin' going through a hole in the spare wheel area. It wasn't really tied down anywhere, and the relay wiring was anything but elegant. So trust me, this is WAY better than it was.

 

Part of my mantra for getting this thing on the road has been "use what you have, buy as little as possible, get it done". I'm extremely eager to get driving this car again, even if it means being ghetto in the mean time. This is where the rat rod aspect comes into play. I really don't care about having a dash. Think of this as being a track car that gets to see street duty. It's not going to be pretty in many ways, but it's going to get the job done. I won't have windows, those are for pussies. Anything that's not really "needed" isn't going into this car. I'm amazed I'm even considering a stereo.... I really don't know why, yet I find myself setting aside a wire on the fuse panel for it... Well that might be the ONE exception, a stereo. Anyway, point of all this, is that sometimes buying SOME things is definitely worth EVERY penny.

 

 

Set of 5 relays from amazon, something like $10 shipped to my door. Again, worth EVERY penny. The panel is from the same piece of stainless my "dash" panel is made from, that I had lying around. I'd love to use aluminum, but that'd require BUYING something...

 

Another little project I tackled while in the garage working on this thing was getting a different shifter installed. I really wanted a tall rally'esk shifter that didn't require much movement from the steering wheel. Luckily I had some datsun truck shifters lying around to play with... This shifter WAS straight up and down just hours before:

 

 

Had to heat it up and hammer it to get it to bend about a good 20 degrees left, and about 15 degrees back towards the driver.

 

Much beating to get'er done.

 

 

My makeshift anvil:

 

 

Don't worry, the piston is seized and would take a press to get it out... Nobody wants this POS. I would have used a bench vice to try to pry the shifter how I wanted it... but I don't own one yet. Maybe next Christmas...

 

1st gear now sits comfortably just at the edge of my palm with my shoulder against the seat:

 

 

 

2nd sits just about an inch or two behind the steering wheel, perfect imo.

 

 

 

Due to the fact the side gates don't change regardless of any changes bellow the pivot point, 5th is a little far away, but manageable. What matters is that 1-4 are easily within reach. 5th is still WAY easier to get to than ANY VW I've driven... I even drove one cabrio where when you got it into 5th the shifter just felt like it was going to keep falling all the way to the floor... SO awkward...

 

 

Since these pictures I've finished up a lot more wiring, but haven't taken any pictures, as wiring pictures don't really excite me. My goals is to try to having it running in the next few weeks for a camping trip up near tahoe with spectacular roads. That's the second week in October and I've got two week-long work gigs between now and then, so I better get busy!

 

Left to do:

 

Finish cutting holes for gauges (90% done)

Wire Gauges to signals

Wire Gauge Lights

Lay in engine harness and wire up after modifying for better fitment

Wire switches (none done yet)

Finish Relay Wiring (2 left I think)

Wire Wipers

Jerry Rig PCV routing so it's at least setup the way it should be

Wire new fuse panel to battery terminal clamps

Wire ignition switches

 

I think I can get all that done in the little time I have. But it'll come down to how the engine runs out the gate. If I can get it running fine then we're golden, I can sort out other issues in no time.

[Alex Datsun]

i see no rat, i just see typical Z deteroriation LMAO!

 

This is going to be sweet, so im guessing your removing wiring for everything that will make it run along with head/brake lights and then thats about it?

[Gollum]

Yea, before I got started making new circuits the ONLY wires left on the ENTIRE car where from a connector next to the passenger seat that went back to the tail light wiring + fuel tank. ALL the other wiring was pulled, even the other wiring that was on the same connector (defrost, antenna, speakers, emergency brake switch, etc).

 

I repeat, not a SINGLE wire other than those were on the car. What the car will have when done in a few weeks (hopefully a few weeks):

 

Brake Lights

Turn Signals

Running Lights

Head Lights (low and hi, fancy I know)

Reverse Lights (legally required)

License Plate Light (required by law, same circuit as running light)

Coil

Alternator

Starter

EFI

Fuel Pump

Wipers

and I guess stereo.

 

I plan to have front defrost down the road, but not having side windows I doubt it'll be much of an issue. The simple physics is that condensation builds up due to a temperature DIFFERENCE, which there won't really be much of a chance of. My future plans involve either a simple heater core with computer fans attached, or my preferred method will be high efficiency quarts IR electric heating elements mounted to my future dash plans.We'll see when we get there.

 

 

And the main reason I consider it "rat"-like, is that it's going to be "bare bones" like a hot rod would be, but with zero attention to the look of it really. It'll be 100% go, 0% show. I mean, even most cars I see at track day events look worlds better than my S30.

[Josh V.]

i like the Relays. Keep it up!

[Alex Datsun]

did you get the relays from ebay? I just bought a 40 pack of relays looks exactly like yours but relays look like any other one though