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the reason i wanna quit my job and work harder at the same time...


andres14oj

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yes, quit my job to have more time to work on it and work harder to make more money for it... I just got this beautiful 77 280z not to long ago and got to work on it almost immediately. I figured i make a build thread to hear your opinions and ask a few questions. Since this is my first s30 i dont know what info to provide here. 77, 2 seater obviously... 4 spd shift stick, stock l28 efi engine, manual everything including steering... is that the same on all of them? I though i read somewhere that 260's came out with ps, but anyway.

My plans are to strip this baby down to the bare chassis and take care of all the old paint, rust, sound deadening and maaaaybe some basic reinforcement. Considering getting a rotisserie to ease the unibody work, either build one or find an affordable one. Interior will consist of 2 aftermarket reclynable seats, door panels, repaired dashboard with hopefully all working stock gauges minus the clock xD probably stick an aem uego inthere, and maybe a headliner.

Cleaned up/sand blasted and repainted stock suspension parts with all new polyurethane bushings, replaced bearings if needed. New struts with with springs (still looking into that, like i said, im new to s30's), and possibly rebuild the diff (is it even worth it?).

Engine will be the stock l28 for now. I did a comp test on it and all pistons checked at around 170 across the head so i figured i play around with it for a while. I wont be messing with the long block on this one, but i will replace the rest of the gaskets/seals on it, will delete all the emission bs and will be adding a header, full exhaust and intake sys (still looking into that too). And of course i'll clean it up and paint it, nothin ricey, or maybe...

Exterior will be mostly stock since the bodies on these are, well almost perfect! Will try to locate some 240 bumpers and maybe a a front spoiler, nothing too aggressive, i dont like the way some of the aggressive ones flow with the sides. Im thinking about some dark metallic silver, all one tone without the little strip thingies.. Wheels i havent decided and breaks i will keep the stock ones with new lines maybe, that is if the cylinders are salvageable.

And that should pretty much sum it all up, do as much work myself as possible, in the end it pays more, after all i've seen a bunch of guys doing rb swaps on their 240sx's with high dolla harnesses and some of them not even getting their wipers to work, mine even has a/c.

Keep in mind that i am not in a hurry and will be taking this slow, i wanna say about a year to two years, depending on what troubles i run into.

This is what it looked like the day I got it: it didnt run, it was missing a gas tank, a battery and the sellers had never heard it running. This thing had registration stickers from 95 and the engine looked like it had just been turned off and never messed with, so i was very hopeful

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put her up on all 4 and after a quick inspection got to work on the engine. Changed the oil, tried to fire it up by using my injector cleaner canister and found out that the injectors werent working. Got lucky at a local junyard and found some 280zx injectors for a sweet deal. Bought a fpr from the local autoparts, new fuel hose, about a billion clamps, clean up and eyeballed the injectors and put everything togheter, hooked up my canister and BAAAMM!! It fired right up n ran perfect. Did a comp test and got around 170 across the head, YEAHHH BITCH!!!

 

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Oh yeah, i also got this gas tank just to find out that it doesnt fit smh...

 

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I even cleaned it up at work, damn shame. For sale if any locals r interested. Rust are more like stains that come back after the cleaning is done from all the chemicals used

 

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I decided there was no reason to keep waiting to dismantle it and start the fun so i got to it right away! First step remove the engine and tranny and take it to get pressure washed so i dont get all dirty when i start taking it apart:

 

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I've read alot about s30 lately and been learning about the common rust spots, well the major ones...

I kinda feel lucky with this one, I mean, it is certainly no 240 but even 280's get their rust share right? Well this one it's got some, but i'd say it's very minimal, what do u guys think?

So far I've removed the front end panels and part of the interior and this is what i've found

I'll start with the worst spots:

hatch frame, apparently it's only corroded on one side, left side. Right side is like perfect.

 

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between doors and rear tires, whatever u call that spot. Again, left side corroded thought right side not as bad

 

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Floor panels, both of them complete except for this little spot on the right side. One little pinhole through

 

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Driver side's almost perfect

 

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Battery tray, not bad at all, pretty much surface rust

 

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Roof im sure is just surface rust, will need to remove all those scales to find out...

 

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The rest is great, some of that dusty rust that i can almost remove by rubbing my finger but that's about it

 

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Wheel wells look great. Undercoating is peeling off and looks like a fridge from the 90's under there

 

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Not to mention the frame rails are complete and in pretty good shape

 

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Engine bay has some surface rust on the frame rails, most of it towards the fire wall, towards the front of the car is mostly dust

 

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This is how it currently sits

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My dog wanted to keep the old humid stinky carpet lol

 

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gave him these but not even he wanted them

 

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Sorry for all the dark pix guys, like i said, i only get to work on it at night and due to severe hangovers on weekends daylight is not tolerable...

LMK what u guys n gals think, negative feedback is sooooooo welcome, so are tips. I will keep adding to it as i go.

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Hate to be the bearer of bad news but once you poke around a little more and get some paint off you'll find that most of those rust spots are worse than they look. When I bought my car I could only see one little hole in the floor pans. After I got all the stupid tar crap off the floors, I found that there is roughly 2 square feet of cancer in the floors, and some of the holes went over the frame rails and cancer ate through those too. That said your rails look to be in good shape but you will have a fair bit of rust on your hands. Definitely do not quit your job. Though most Z parts are relatively cheap, you don't quite realize how many parts you have to buy haha. Good luck with your project. It looks gnarly now but once you get everything out and clean it up a bit you'll be stoked with how it looks.

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got it half stripped. Well fortunately nothing surprising or unexpected has come out, except for for that tiny rust hole on the floor pan. i am still looking for some shelves so i can organize all my parts, at least the ones im reusing. Gonna take off the dashboard, today hopefully and start taking all the sound deadening material off, which seems to be pretty weathered and easy to remove

 

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worked on the car today. Actually, worked on a tool for the car today, the rotisserie. Bought some square tubes from the local store, 2 1/2" 11 gauge and 3" 11 gauge for the sleeves (I think i went a little overboard with the sizes..) and with the help of my gas powered arc welder and my cut of saw I was able to come out with this from scratch on a few hours (I had plans for everything already, lengths and angles and all that). LMK what u guys think

 

 

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I also received my repair panels. Will be having some fun soon! Im also working on a new ic setup on my s14:

 

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