1976 280Z Restoration Project

[wheee!]

14 miles on the car! Went to Touge Bash at Stratotech in Fort Sask and won a Top Tier award!

Edited July 4, 2021 by wheee!

[Namerow]

That's a nice reward for all those hours spent on the restoration.  Perhaps it's time for you to re-post a picture of what the car looked like when you started...

Edited July 4, 2021 by Namerow

[wheee!]

Half of that sheet metal was replaced... new fenders, cowl cover, floors, frames, nacelles and under-bumper panel..... ugh!

[wheee!]

Always buy a pretty lady a drink…

[wheee!]

Installed the Techno Versions V Boost tach adapter last night. The ebay version, although functioning, tended to jump around a lot. The V Boost version has enough power to smooth the signal totally out! 
Still waiting on the replacement fuel pump. The stock unit can’t feed the volume anymore and is leaning out under load. Ordered a Walbro in line unit to replace it. This should also get rid of the pump noise that was driving me nuts. 

[wheee!]

Well, it has been a long time coming, but I finally got the car out to a car show. Went to the 30th Anniversary of the Edmonton Z Car Club Car show on Saturday. Wow! Where did all of these S30's come from! It was a great turnout with lots of great cars. I am over the moon thrilled with SASSZ and how she looks in the sunlight. We weren't the only ones apparently because we took first place for the S30 class and Best in Show to boot! Validation after all this time feels amazing... Thanks to everyone on this forum that have helped push me along with advice and encouragement, parts and knowledge. This was indeed a village effort to get me this far!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Edited July 25, 2021 by wheee!

[Patcon]

Congrats!!

All the images seem to have downloaded small. I can't enlarge them...

[wheee!]

Just now, Patcon said:

Congrats!!

All the images seem to have downloaded small. I can't enlarge them...

Just fixed that....

[Patcon]

Ahhh, much better!

A nice selection of cars there

[wheee!]

There’s always one more thing… I took the time to rethink the push button start system this week. As it was designed for the stock electrical system, the ignition needed to be activated by pushing on the brake to start the car. But this was a pain in that it was clumsy and if you stalled in an intersection while rolling, you needed to stop the car with the brake to start it. 
So I had an idea to replace the rubber bumper on the clutch pedal with another brake pedal switch. Normally open, closed when the brake is pushed. I drilled out the rubber bumper nut in the pedal box for the bigger diameter brake switch, and wired it to accessory power and the push button ignition switch. Voila! I now start the car by pushing in the clutch instead of the brake! Much safer and easier to do!

Rubber bumper for attention.  Forgot to get a picture of the brake switch. 

[Pilgrim]

I bought a 1977 Chevy Monza Spyder with the 305 V8.  It was the first car I ran into which required the clutch pedal to be depressed to engage the starter.

Probably the first week I owned it, I pulled the switch out of place from the clutch pedal assembly and wired it closed so that the starter could be used any time. 

When I'm working on a car, I really don't want to have to climb into it to use the starter.

I and my family owned that car for 30 years, and not once did defeating that safety device result in damage or problems for anyone. 

 

[wheee!]

All my modern clutch cars are like that so it is a good “safety” feature for when the wife drives/starts the car.
Plus it is part of the wiring of the push button and I have no issues keeping a safety feature installed. I have five grandkids climbing around in there at times and one of them is bound to push the start button eventually….