76 280z Restoration

[Wass]

Hey y'all! I'm Kyle out of Austin, TX and I'm just starting a ground-up restoration of my 1976 280z - a few months into the teardown so far. I end up traveling for work a lot which limits my time in the garage significantly, so progress is slow so far, but I will try and update this thread as progress happens. 

I'm the lucky 2nd owner of this beauty and had the opportunity to attend ZCON in Austin last year before starting the tear down. I'd highly recommend ZCON for anyone who hasn't gone yet. I'll start with a few pictures of the "before" state and add pictures/video as I have the time to edit and upload. 

I'm a complete novice but have learned a lot already through trial and error, and especially from the local Z group of friends. Looking forward to sharing the trials of this project and getting everyones insight on how to handle certain aspects of the teardown and rebuild. I want to do as much of the work as possible myself - from welding frame rails to reupholstery to wiring and more. It won't be a concours car, but it will be a (mostly) home-built rebuild that I can say I did most of the work on.

Enough background, below are some starting pictures before work started. If I have time today I'll add a list of known issues that I'll need to tackle and would appreciate any preliminary feedback!

 

 

The day I bought the car in May 2017. Bought from the original owner. Didn't trust myself to even test drive it, you could tell he was sad to let it go but happy it was going to a fellow enthusiast.

 

A month after I bought her ZCON was in town. Met Matsuo-san, designer of the S30 and had him sign some original Datsun ads I had purchased. 

 

At the judged car show, photo by professional photographer. Credit to Westin Easley Productions. At this point I had done almost no work to the car - not enough time and more importantly, I was still at an apartment with a single stall and no extra room for working/disassembly. Not perfect by a long shot, but she's mine!

 

At COTA for parade laps.

 

At Cars and Coffee with some friends and their beautiful Zs. 

 

That's all for now! 

 

[wheee!]

Welcome and congrats! Feel free to check out my similar build thread for tips from all the pros on this forum.

[siteunseen]

Yes, welcome aboard.  You have a very nice car to start out with. 

Zed Head has a '76 and knows them inside and out.  He's a frequent flier on here, good guy and very helpful.

[Wass]

43 minutes ago, wheee! said:

Welcome and congrats! Feel free to check out my similar build thread for tips from all the pros on this forum.

Appreciate it! Your thread is partially what inspired me to do as much of it myself as I can, or at least try to. Love the ingenuity and fearlessness of trying things out - like the DIY heat lamp and powder coating station.

[Wass]

44 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

Yes, welcome aboard.  You have a very nice car to start out with. 

Zed Head has a '76 and knows them inside and out.  He's a frequent flier on here, good guy and very helpful.

Thank you! I'll keep an eye out for Zed Head - any and all help is appreciated!

[Zed Head]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

Zed Head has a '76 and knows them inside and out.  He's a frequent flier on here, good guy and very helpful.

You don't know me man!  Stop spreading rumors!

I'm not really a resto guy though.  I see the typical rotting saggy bumper rubber.  Keep an eye out for that piece and don't think you'll ever find a perfect one.  Very hard to find good ones.

[wheee!]

What month production is your 76? Post August 76 and the common parts or 75-76 production with unicorn pieces.

Edited September 24, 2018 by wheee!
clarified date

[Wass]

12 minutes ago, wheee! said:

What month production is your 76? Pre August and the common parts or 75-76 production with unicorn pieces.

I believe it's pre-August 76. HLS30-305984. If I'm reading the charts right it puts it early in the Aug75-Aug76 production. I didn't realize there were versions with unicorn parts - I assume that's due to the changes made in the 77's? Would those just be 77 280z parts, or were they truly unicorn parts that were stop gaps until the 77 changes were finalized in production?

[wheee!]

3 minutes ago, Wass said:

I believe it's pre-August 76. HLS30-305984. If I'm reading the charts right it puts it early in the Aug75-Aug76 production. I didn't realize there were versions with unicorn parts - I assume that's due to the changes made in the 77's? Would those just be 77 280z parts, or were they truly unicorn parts that were stop gaps until the 77 changes were finalized in production?

The early 75 280's, up until August 76 were different in some ways. They used a lot of the 260Z parts. The door cards are the biggest headache. The doors and cards switched to the new style in August and finding the old style cards is next to impossible. A 240 door card is a closer match. The door latches and hardware changed as well. Your production date is in the driver door jamb tag.

Edited September 24, 2018 by wheee!

[Wass]

Didn't know that! Just looked, it's 5/76 so sounds like doors will be fun ? 

[Wass]

Long overdue update incoming! Well, an old update. Finally getting some time to go through all the video from earlier this year that I have on the teardown process. Here's the first one from back in May, just getting the carpet, seats center console, etc removed.

Below you can see all the crap that was falling out of the seats and the amp the PO had installed behind the passenger seat. You can also see the new shifter boot I hand stitched/sewed with new vinyl last year. It was an early exploration of sewing/stitching vinyl by hand, not to confident about redoing all the seats by hand and may need to invest in a used sewing machine heavy duty enough for vinyl/leather. 

A later shot of the passenger side with center console out.

And shot from the back. You can't really make out the rust in the photo, but it's on the far right of the spare tire well. The sound deadening was hiding most of it.

Also a clarification from an earlier post. This isn't intended to be an OEM restoration. There will plenty of customization as the teardown/rebuild continues. While I respect and love seeing truly OEM restorations, I am more focused on building my skills around wiring, engine bay organization, welding, fabricating, painting, car upholstery, etc. and that will require a bit of deviation from a true OEM restoration. Also some fun upgrades of course, but those are TBD still.

[Wass]

Looking for some guidance on building a rotisserie, getting near that point in the teardown.

I've looked at a couple different styles, like the one from @wheee! thread that looks to use a lot of angle iron. Or the ones that cobble Harbor Freight pieces together. Visited a friend in town that had one  made from 3" square (pic below, not my car) which looks like the style from Red Wing Steel manual.

Any input is appreciated on do's/don'ts! And I'm still working on the dozen or so videos to get y'all caught up to present on the teardown.