Say hello to Daisy, she's a 1977 280Z, coupe, 5-speed manual, I believe ALL original except she's been re-carpeted and has an after-market stereo system in.

Ok so I've been talking to a few of you guys and said I'd get a picture up tonight however the sun was setting so I snapped a couple pics before it did. She got hosed off before we took her home so she's not as completely filthy as she was but she won't get really washed till tomorrow!

Here she is!

YEEHAW!

Oh and the hub-cabs are off because we had to pump the tires up fyi, been sitting for eight years also.

Well, now. Once you get everything together, you'll be "Driving Miss Daisy," won't you??

You know it brother! Today shes gonna get a good bath, body and engine bay and then it's time to dig in!

Well today the girlfriend and I gave Daisy a pretty good bath, washed out the engine bay but there's still a lot of dirty, some grease on her body that didn't seem to come off and there were pine needles in every nook and cranny imaginable and then some. There's a lot of pine needles left to get out of the engine bay, and spider webs on her underside, most of which have more needles in them.. She looks a lot better for the most part though.

Tonight I think I'm going to hit her up with some simple green, specifically the engine bay, see if I can clean some of the gunk up in there.

Anyhow I've got a picture of her post-bath and then some shots of the interior as well! Note that nothing has been done to the interior except some windex on the windows.

nice car how do the seat covers smell?

nice car how do the seat covers smell?

I would imagine they smell like the previous owner's a$$

On a serious note though. The car looks great so far. I used to live in Tucson and miss seeing all the rust-free old cars with faded paint.

Good luck with it.

Pine needles... something in my memory is screaming at me about that... Oh! there was a thread here somewhere about pine needles clogging up the cowl drains in the front fenders. You need to check that any water that enters the cowl vent area drains out of the fenders right in front of the door. Someone had a problem with the drains getting clogged from leaves or needles and water accumulated in the fenders causing them to rust out.

Yeah it has little rust dots here and there but the only real rust I've found is on the driver side back wheel well, not the well but the outside right behind the well, I'll get a picture of it soon. Shouldn't be too much of a problem I hope.

As for the needles thanks for the tip Walter, the cowl is next on my list, I need to remove it because it has enough pine needles to make a tree! I'm sure the drains are suffering from it so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to remove it and clean in there.

Grant I can't say I've sniffed the seat covers but when inside of the car there is a nostalgic smell of good old times I can't really explain it but it is one of a kind and I hope it stays.

I hope to keep updating as I move along through this journey!

Nice she can become a looker real soon, I like the side stripes. You might run into what is called sooty mold if the pine needles especially if it had been sitting in the car for a while, it's hard to rub off, but use a 1/2 cup of vinegar per gallon of hot water let it soak and it will come up like a heavy coat of wet dust.

I must agree on that nostalgic smell, even after 37 years, in pieces for 28 years, even after a refurbishment, it is still there. Simple Green is my friend also.

Nice car, enjoy the ride.

Bonzi Lon

Yeah I really like the side stripes a lot and the entire original paint job for that matter..

Thanks for the vinegar tip Walter I would not doubt I have a problem like that in there.

@Bonzi have you used Simple Green on chrome? The bumpers are still pretty shiny but not the shiny they could be and I'm wondering what would work best on that?