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First time Z owner, Joey J's 77' 280z Build Thread [PICTURE HEAVY] Updated 4/5/15


Joey J

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I don't think it's a 2+2, they are a lot longer. Thats besides the point though, both Zs are super clean!

 

Are you going any lower? :lol:

Hmmm the rear window looks a little longer. Maybe it's just the picture.

 

No way., can't go any lower. This car is daily driven. The frame is already less than an inch off the ground.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very nice Z Joey. Really love a Z with fender mirrors and overfenders!

Where did you get the mirrors? Have been looking for some on ebay but haven't found any yet.  :blush:

 

Oh and what specs do the wheels/tires have? And any information on those coilovers are welcome too!

Can you buy them in a complete kit and just weld em in?? 

 

EDIT: nvm my last question, found your thread about them. :-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very nice Z Joey. Really love a Z with fender mirrors and overfenders!

Where did you get the mirrors? Have been looking for some on ebay but haven't found any yet. :blush:

 

Oh and what specs do the wheels/tires have? And any information on those coilovers are welcome too!

Can you buy them in a complete kit and just weld em in??

 

EDIT: nvm my last question, found your thread about them. :-)

I got them on eBay. There is a guy selling them from the phillipines.

 

I'm running a square setup of 16x10 -25 215/45 tires

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  • 1 month later...

Haven't done much to the z but just wanted to give an update.

 

Changed the fuel filter I put right after the tank before the main filter. This was only a few months old and was so dirty

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Right before a long trip to a car show a u joint goes out making a loud squeak while driving.

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It was the biggest mission to pull off the half shaft. Those bolts were rusted on!! I had to buy a legit set of wrenches.

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Finally was able to get it out with a lot of pb blaster.

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I got the new joints in. It looks purdy :)

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That weekend I went to a preety far car meet. The car made it back and forth like a champ.

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Some random pics :)

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Forgot about updating the thread, oops

 

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After cutting the rear fenders I find that they're already bonded with some sort of sealant. Lucky me :)

 

 

Here's how one ended up, these things are a mission to put on. I have to camber out the rear a bit to have the lip sit flush with the fender.

 

Pics of the final product, enjoy :)

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn't be happier. I'm in love with how it's sitting on these CCW's, it was worth every penny.

 

Joey.

Nice work on the car so far. But trust me you didn't get lucky. :confused:  Your going to have to get someone to weld the two pieces of your car back together. When you cut for flairs you should have left the outer part hanging down a bit. Then fold it back under and weld the two half's of the car back together. 

 

Trust me I did the same thing the first time I cut a car for flairs. Best thing to do is get some 3/8 or 1/2 round bar stock and have someone bend a big ass radius and tack the two pieces back together.

That is a structural part of the car. It will seperate after some driving. If you want I can take a couple pics of mine so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

Oh yeah I made part of your coil over set up. :thumbup:  I make the bottom sleeve that you weld to your housing. Mack is a customer of mine.

Great looking car. You are making some super fast progress.

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Joey.

Nice work on the car so far. But trust me you didn't get lucky. :confused: Your going to have to get someone to weld the two pieces of your car back together. When you cut for flairs you should have left the outer part hanging down a bit. Then fold it back under and weld the two half's of the car back together.

 

Trust me I did the same thing the first time I cut a car for flairs. Best thing to do is get some 3/8 or 1/2 round bar stock and have someone bend a big ass radius and tack the two pieces back together.

That is a structural part of the car. It will seperate after some driving. If you want I can take a couple pics of mine so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

Oh yeah I made part of your coil over set up. :thumbup: I make the bottom sleeve that you weld to your housing. Mack is a customer of mine.

Great looking car. You are making some super fast progress.

Thanks for the tip! Gotta get that done ASAP. I just PM'd you I need some info on those lower sleeves.

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  • 6 months later...

absolutely amazing. DAMN that thing looks good. NICE work

 

I was looking at some z's online and then at mine and thinking how far from cool my stocker was. but you just posted a pretty sweet recipe.

 

coilovers, camber plates, 16x10 -25 215/45, over fenders, bre rear spoiler, and is that a bre front lip, fender mirrors, and remove the bumpers. Sounds like something i could do for ~3k and a couple days in the garage. I actually hope i have a little rust or bondo cause i don't want to cut up a clean car, but i want to cut it up lol.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Wow, i can't believe its been almost a year since my last update. Hopefully i can upload all my pics and post something up this weekend.

sweet ride man

Thanks buddy!

 

WOW why haven't I seen this thread bump in the last year? The updates are AWESOME! 

Yep, an update is definately over due.

 

absolutely amazing. DAMN that thing looks good. NICE work

 

I was looking at some z's online and then at mine and thinking how far from cool my stocker was. but you just posted a pretty sweet recipe.

 

coilovers, camber plates, 16x10 -25 215/45, over fenders, bre rear spoiler, and is that a bre front lip, fender mirrors, and remove the bumpers. Sounds like something i could do for ~3k and a couple days in the garage. I actually hope i have a little rust or bondo cause i don't want to cut up a clean car, but i want to cut it up lol.

Haha, go for it!

 

very nice.  really like those wheels

Thanks!

 

awesome build and documentation to show all 

the car looks great and is one of my favorite factory colors 

It wont be that color for much longer  B)

 

your car looks really good i even like the new paint job seen it on ig the other day!

That was actually just a render. The car should be ready to go in a 2-3 weeks.

 

holy shit, ive been in love with your car for a while now. its been an inspiration to me for a while. keep it up!

Thanks buddy, appreciate it!

 

Hi Joey! I am restoring my 280z and I would like installing those ccw wheels in mi car. I was looking at the website ccw wheels and the 16" appears in different lip sizes¡ Do you know the size lip of your wheels?

 

I believe they have 5 inch lips.

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  • 6 months later...

About to start working on the front suspension a bit before starting to pull the engine.

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Out with the old...

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In with the new...

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Removing those 30+ year old bushings, they're pretty comfy in there.

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Ooo la la... New tension control rod  B)

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All bolted back up.

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What do we have here... Donor car??? We'll come back to that.

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This was the last time i drove her... It's been just about a year. Picture was taken April of 2014

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Pulled the motor at a buddy's house as he has more space.

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Stripped the bay as much as i could

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Pulled off as much as i could that day... 4 hour drive to the shop that's was supposed to do my paint and body work. Thinking about that shop just makes me angry.

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Okay so... Next day... made it to the shop. The owner goes by Soloelement. NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS GUY!

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Okay, before continuing I want to give a bit of back story as to why i chose this shop 4 hours away from my home. The car was supposed to be a 2014 SEMA build going under Airrex USA. This guy had worked with them once before and he offered to do the job for just the cost of paint and materials which i couldn't refuse. BASF ended up sponsoring the Z and i got all the primer, paint, clear, hardener... EVERYTHING. I help up my end of the deal and paid our agreed amount anyway. The following picture are from the countless times i drove up to Soloelement on the weekend. Oh, did i mention its a 4 hour drive?! :sneaky: 

 

Next trip up there, nothing was done so i had to pull out my toolbox and get to work. 

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The following trip up there I started with the welding... Yes i did... Never used a welder but i had to learn.. This was 4 weeks into the build because there was absolutely ZERO progress.

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There were a few more trips in between this but after all that I'm thinking there is not much else i can do. He needs to sand and do this thing. I focus on the motor because i need to have the swap ready for when i get the car back. I'm here rushing to get everything done because i don't want to be holding up the line.

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Fast forward. SEMA is only a couple of months away and the car has not been touched since i last did. I took the car in Late April... SEMA is in Early November. Suspension is in from Airrex so i get to work on that. Little did i know the car would sit in this same spot until weeks before SEMA.

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Pulled the old suspension and took this pic to show the evolution this car will be going through. Lukily i was able to find a local to swap suspensions with me since i needed a clean slate to work on.

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Ready for sale...

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Suspension is ready to accept the new Airrex bags.

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While i was down there i decided to do a few more things

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At this point i know the car is not going to make it but Soloelement keeps reassuring me that it will be ready. He's a man of his word so he will have it done. So i push on... Engine bay cleaned and scuffed up to the best that i could...I was so un-motivated at this point... Thinking did he really plan to just paint over this...

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Paint from BASF is in!

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Remember that spot the car was jacked up on... That's where he painted the engine bay... Yay!  :confused:

Oh, this is a week before car needs to Ship to Vegas. Were in Florida. He still tells me it will be done.... 

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Made it to SEMA... I flights and hotel had been booked months before... 

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We talk there... he still says he will get it done. I decided to give him a few weeks. I'm texting and calling almost daily at this point. Weeks go by and he says its almost ready. We set a date for pickup. He is no where to be found. After a 4 hour drive and hours of sitting outside of his shop. He tells me its ready and painted but he had an emergency and is out of town. LUCKILY, i peak through his window and see my car... Surprise, surprise... its still blue. I'm furious at this point. I call him threatening him with the cops. He comes the next day give me my car back and gives me all these stories as to why he couldn't get it done. It looked like he was going out of business. His electricity was cut off. At that point i started thinking back i never saw cars coming in to get work done. I never saw any employee of his... He created this illusion as to how well he was doing, but it was all a lie. So this is what i got back. Just like it was right before SEMA. 28 weeks the car was at his shop.

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YES, that hole on the left side he just painted over. I cut it out for him to weld a plate but he ignored it.

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Took some pics while refueling

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I'm trying to look at the bright side, at least the rear is shaved.

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Then i check his work.... Sigh...

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So top pic is what i was supposed to be picking up. Bottom is what i actually got... I used this to blast him on social media.

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At that point i have zero motivation to get the car done and a few months go by which brings us to the present.

 

I cleaned up the engine bay the other day to figure out what I'm going to do. 

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Oh i forgot about the l28ET. The block was damaged so i decided to scrap that idea. Yesterday I stripped the motor so i could try and recoup some of the money from that. It had a P90 head and forged pistons so i should be okay.

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The plan now is dropping a RB25DET into it  :devil:

 

The task at hand is to do as much research as possible to so i can attempt to do this on my own. I got some pretty hefty quotes doing this at a shop. $8500 from one shop to do everything even get the motor. Another shop $2800 for labor and wiring fuel and ECU, this came out to about $7200 after buying all the needed parts. Cant afford that lol. 

 

I'll do my best to keep this thread updated. Most likely i'll be working on the car every weekend. I'm motivated to get this car back on the street again. I miss taking her to shows.

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