Hi, I’m Matt. I’ve been a member of Z.Car for a little and figured I’d jump in here too because I’m always lurking.
 
I have a pretty rough 79 280ZX that I’ve had for maybe 15 years. It’s has sat for about the last 10 or so. I daily drove it for a few years, then let it set after some slight running issues and started a family so some of my side projects got put on hold.
 
I had to move the car from where it was being stored(barn) so I got it fired up and running and all my old dreams of doing something to this car came back. Of course my wife’s response when I brought it back to the house was “you’re going to sell it, right?...Crushed!!!
 
Well I absolutely love having something to tinker with and feel that with a bit of work and little $ I can at least get it in a more sellable/drivable state if I can convince myself to let go of it. Seeing the prices from the BAT thread make me want to hold it longer but I know it will never bring top dollar unless I probably put more cash than it’s worth into it.
 
I work as a mechanic at a small shop and have space and access to most tools and plan to dolly there in the near future. That way it will be out of the wife’s eye and I can stay late tinker without her standing over my shoulder asking me why I’m doing this to an old POS.
 
I believe it has been repainted 907 green 20 or more years ago. Original color is red. I fell in love with the green with first sight so I will most likely keep it that color
 

 

 

 
 
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Well presentation goes a long way, if you’re going to keep it give it a good wash.

Does not seem like it’s going to need much, that brake booster looks like it needs to be rebuilt... maybe it’s just the dirt.

 

hows the interior? 

Welcome, and when you get it clean and running, give your wife a ride and let her see the attention and head turns y'all get.  Just might change her mind. 🤞 

Interior isn’t too bad. It has black with tan high back seats. Not sure if that combo is original. Has a dash and armrest cover for the usual reasons, the carpets could use replacing, and the rear trim panels need work to look good again which is doable.

Main fear is the body. I guess I really need to start poking around underneath and decide how bad it is. I believe it had a thick undercoating applied. I know that can possibly be bad in that it can hold moisture if it starts to crack.

The rails are pretty beat up but not rotten. Some rust on the rockers and around rear wheel arches


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Yes, welcome out of the shadows. Looks to be a nice straight ZX. Should clean up nice too. Plenty of help here so don't be shy, with pictures of your progress either. We love pictures.

She’s a tough one gwri8.

Love all the pics with some of these builds, problem is that it makes me want to do a build like them.

Must resist researching platting companies. Drool...

Photo probably stolen from here





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  On 2/7/2021 at 5:08 PM, mailnome said:

She’s a tough one gwri8.

Love all the pics with some of these builds, problem is that it makes me want to do a build like them.

Must resist researching platting companies.


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Resist...that’s what I had to do. My wife hates my Z too. Says “what a piece of crap”. She only appreciates something with headed seats, SiriusXM radio, adaptive cruise control and CarPlay. I don’t need that crap. Wait until she finds out it doesn’t even have cup holders.
I had to tell my wife, why do you want to stop me from enjoying my hobbies...that’s not what your do to someone you care about. You can also say, you can’t get much money for it the way it is but with some work it has some value and working on cars is better than drinking booze and gambling. It’s a harmless hobby.
Resist!


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At one point I had big dreams of putting a turbo engine in. I was working at a salvage yard and we had nice block and head that was mine if I wanted it, and I had collected a trans and rear end from a early 300Z that I just never brought home.

I did keep the head, manifold, 300zx ECU, AFMs, and other useful things, along with some body parts that I stripped from a 82-83 ZXT.

I should have kept that one whole. Was a driving automatic turbo car that someone brought in. I bought it for $100, stripped what I wanted then sold it to them for 100. Doh!

Oh well. I do have a bunch of other extra bits that I may try to sell to fund my “mild” project.


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I haven’t done a whole lot other than pull and clean things as they come off.

The first thing that started it all was a rotten coolant hose going to the air control valve.

Oh I’ll just fix this and put it back together,











Cleaned it up a little and replaced the nipples with ones from my donor 280zxt parts stash.

Then from that to now



Of course I had to keep cleaning things up and pulling them. One of my main goals is to paint the engine bay the body color. Never liked being able to see the red and someone else decided to rattle can black what they could while apparently removing nothing. At least it cleans off relatively easy.

I’m currently cleaning up and undoing the wiring harnesses.


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  On 2/7/2021 at 4:26 PM, mailnome said:

without her standing over my shoulder asking me why I’m doing this to an old POS.

Wait Till she hears the " Peace Of Sh*t "  is gone up over 80% in price only in this last year!! 

  On 2/7/2021 at 5:17 PM, Av8ferg said:

I had to tell my wife, why do you want to stop me from enjoying my hobbies...that’s not what your do to someone you care about. You can also say, you can’t get much money for it the way it is but with some work it has some value and working on cars is better than drinking booze and gambling. It’s a harmless hobby.

Thats golden... 

I'm glad that i don't have to answer for my hobby!  

Might as well do headers!  Also, you might as well delete all that emissions stuff, or just cap off the ports and leave them off since it's already apart. 

I could clean mine up better, but I haven't.  The car runs fine without all that.  I have aftermarket EFi that controls cold idle and startup, but even before that with stock EFi after cold start injector /circuit delete you could mimic it by applying a little gas with the accelerator pedal.  

Unless of course you want to keep it as original as possible, which is perfectly fine too..

 

  On 8/7/2021 at 7:07 PM, mailnome said:

Of course I had to keep cleaning things up and pulling them. One of my main goals is to paint the engine bay the body color. Never liked being able to see the red and someone else decided to rattle can black what they could while apparently removing nothing. At least it cleans off relatively easy.




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Progress!  The rabbit hole(s) is (are) deep but at least there's a bottom to it.......most of the time anyway 😉. Looks like you've got a good eye for detail.