1976 280Z Restoration Project

[wheee!]

Some aggressive camber but ride height and final alignment and suspension settings will wait till the car is complete. The ride height will need to come up a bit for sure.

[Captain Obvious]

1 hour ago, wheee! said:

Some final shots after I filled the diff and greased the U joints.

The bling is unbelievable!!

[madkaw]

Take a close look - it will NEVER look that new, clean , pretty again ?

[Mark Maras]

 Nether region porn.

[wheee!]

Take a close look - it will NEVER look that new, clean , pretty again [emoji846]

Sad but true. Hence the myriad of pictures. I’m hoping to get a good photo shoot at the end of the restoration. From all angles.

[wheee!]

Take a close look - it will NEVER look that new, clean , pretty again [emoji846]

But it will never look like this again!

[wheee!]

Every day brings a new chapter in the history of this Z. Today I began tear down of the driver door. I quickly discovered that the door had seen some major repairs at some point in its life. The lock and door handle assembly had been welded in from a donor car along with some new metal along the bottom of the door. The poor metal repair resulted in some heavy body filler sculpting again.... almost half an inch thick in places. The door glass roller was broken, the regulator was bolted in with wood screws, the jagged metal of the speaker hole, the missing vapour barrier and resulting goo everywhere...
I lost the desire to continue in the hot sun. I put my tools away for today and I will tackle it again another day. Very disappointed to see that much work needing to be done to make this door useable again. Oh well....
No pics today. I was too disgusted to look at it any more.

[grannyknot]

1 hour ago, wheee! said:

the regulator was bolted in with wood screws,

I have found my share of wood screws too but they are usually holding patches on to the floor pans.

I was just going through your rear end suspension pics above, that is some sharp looking hardware, when you put the pedal down you're going hook up.  

[gwri8]

3 hours ago, wheee! said:

No pics today. I was too disgusted to look at it any more.

Yeah, I know that feeling also, but I also know the feeling of making something right again.  It's worth it.  I'm sure you know ?

[wheee!]

Yeah, I know that feeling also, but I also know the feeling of making something right again.  It's worth it.  I'm sure you know [emoji119]

Oh yeah, it’s all good. I have come too far to stop now. It was just a disappointment. I will fix the doors and then, just like the crappy quarters, it will all be water under the bridge.  

 

[wheee!]

I should know better than to cruise TTT’s website...
My car hasn’t even hit the road and I am already changing parts! The outer tie rods I bought from TTT a couple of years ago are great, but they have improved the design to include high clearance bolts. This is great as they run VERY close to the rims. I of course had to order the new bolt set...

Old:


New:

[wheee!]

A little more good news as my local hero @zKars has located some good condition 75/76 doors for me in his warehouse. Minimal rust repairs required and no bondo/damage. They might actually be from the same production run as my car! The original paint looks to be the same "240 Green" as my car was! That would indicate to me that they were built at the same time probably (as I assume they painted several cars the same colour during production).