Ken's 280z Resto Thread

[wheee!]

I might skip this step and go straight to the gas shock mod...

[Captain Obvious]

Ken, Car looks great! I'm "Mid-Atlantic" by some interpretations and I'd love to see the car, but not sure how far south you are.

With the hood torsion rods assembled properly into the hinges, there should be no danger of anything springing apart. You put it together off the car and then once the assy is together off the car, you put it on as a unit and it should be uneventful.

Also, is it my imagination, or are you going for "turn signal overload" in the front?

Whee, have you got any pics of a gas shock mod? I've not seen that.

[ksechler]

49 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

Also, is it my imagination, or are you going for "turn signal overload" in the front?

The car is a 280 which had the grill mounted turn signals, but I retrofit the 240 bumper and 240 valence.  I kept the 280 signals because I didn't want to mess with trying to find and fit a new grill.  The lamps mounted in the valence are non-functional.  They are just there to fill the space.  I'm not really bothered by the way it looks (at least not right now).  I always reserve the option to change it later with the proper 240 grill and removal of the 280 turn lamps.  

By mid-atlantic I mean MD.  Not too far from Philly.  

...and yes, it would probably have made sense to assemble the torsion rode stuff off of the car.  I didn't.  I used my considerable arm strength (;-)) to get them into place.  

 

 

[wheee!]

4 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

 

Whee, have you got any pics of a gas shock mod? I've not seen that.

http://www.hammondsplains.com/z/zworld/zraceproducts/

 

Gas shock conversion kit

Check out the new Gas shock conversion kit! This gives any Z a cool "showroom look", provides a great deal of open space for installing an inner cooler, and allows you to place your hood in any position! Plus installation is fairly easy and our kit includes a step by step installation booklet. This kit will fit most Z cars: from 240 - 280ZX. Weight: 4.0 lbs.

Price: $157.00
Shipping: from $17.95

[Patcon]

It looks like you have to cut a hole just above the frame rail to allow the gas strut to mount to the outside of the frame rail...

[Captain Obvious]

Just call me Mark, Thanks for the pics. I've never seen that before.

Ken, There's absolutely no way I would ever ever try to put those rods into place once the hinges are mounted on the car. If you managed to do that without screwing up your paint, then I humbly bow to your dexterity. Heck, I messed up the paint on my hinges and that was while putting them together on the bench. With the help of a BF vice...

Sending you a PM as well.

 

[ksechler]

I installed the windshield this weekend and put in most of the interior.  I haven't done the doors yet and a couple of miscellaneous things, but the bulk of it is done.  On a somewhat sour note, I bought the MSA carpet kit with bound edges.  The only carpet from the kit I ended up using was the hatch area.  With the sole exception of the hatch carpet, the fit and quality was wizz-poor and I elected to re-install the original underseat and floor carpeting instead.  The original stuff was a much better quality and all of the edges were bound not just some like the MSA kit.  The original carpet was faded but intact.  It isn't my intention to put MSA down.  They've provided a lot of parts for this project and I'm glad they are around, but I definitely didn't like the carpets.

 

[madkaw]

How can that happen. I mean how can the Z speciality stores sell poor fitting kits- just amazing to me. Sorry for the news , but you are making fast progress . Fall is upon us and great driving weather!!


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[MattSaint]

Wow, fantastic work.

[ksechler]

Well, a project like this is never "done" but I'm going to call the restoration complete.  The car is registered and I drove it several times this weekend.  A couple initial impressions:

The car is LOUD.  Despite using $1K worth of sound deadening there is still quite a bit of noise.  I'm chalking it up to old cars and it's good noise anyway.  

I need to work on the carb jetting.  It's little rich in the low range and feels a little sluggish coming up.  Mid to upper range it goes like hell and is almost scary - Thanks Eiji!

This car is TIGHT.  Good tight!  No body roll when corning and it sticks like glue.  The steering wheel is heavy, though and I'm not sure if I think it's right.  However, I haven't had the car aligned yet.  I'm kinda scared to let anyone else touch her.

The brakes are so-so.  Good stopping power but heavier in the pedal than a modern car.  It makes heel-toe down shifting very difficult.  

Other than that, the car works surprisingly well considering it is newly off a 4-year rotisserie restoration. 

Photos will follow probably tomorrow.  

[wheee!]

Congratulations and well done!

[madkaw]

Loud like exhaust loud or ...?


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