mattb

Thanks zbane, actually the car is quite a dog. I've seen worse frame rails repaired, but the kicker is that the frame has had two collision repairs, neither of which are perfect. The first was apparently done quite some years ago.....it seems the car was rear ended and sustained HEAVY damage, so they cut the car in half and attached the back section of another ZX. Upon close inspection there is some evidence of this by the shape of the rocker panels, and a bit of weld seam in the passenger door jam, but otherwise that repair actually isn't necessarily a deal-breaker. But, the P/O got the car with a broken e-brake cable and had been parking it by just leaving the car in gear...one day it slipped out of gear and rolled into a tree. This crushed the right front corner of the frame, so he cut out that part (a bit ahead of the front wheel mount, and about halfway into the radiator cross-member) and welded in part of the frame from another donor car. Unfortunately he did a pretty poor job, the entire front end is buggered up and the right headlight is offset and looks terrible. Also he did not have the frame re-aligned, so the entire front section is angled slightly to the right (barely noticeable, but affects hood alignment and makes the car pull to the right). Add to this the rotted areas of the floor pans, significant rust under the vinyl roof just above the windshield, and bubbling in various spots on the body panels (particularly bad on the left rear quarter panel behind the wheel), and it's just not worth it. Thanks for the link, I was familiar with Bad Dog rails but not the Zedd Findings units. I may have new rails installed into a '78 280Z I'm considering buying. The rails are really good but there is the usual minor crushing from jacks etc on the bottom surfaces, as well as some surface rust in places and an area on one rail that is soft and completely rusted through in one spot. I was thinking I could cut out any rust spots and weld in new rails over the old ones (I know Bad Dog rails are oversized to accommodate this). This would not only LOOK a lot better, it would serve to stiffen the chassis beyond what weakening the rust did. I'm curious about those rims myself, I've never seen them anywhere. If/when I do finally scrap this car, those will definitely be something I save.

Hi folks, Matt here in southern Arizona. I've been a Z fan for about 7 years but wasn't in a position to acquire one until about a year ago when a '79 280ZX came up for sale in my (then) small town in Indiana. I've since decided it's not really worth restoring or otherwise fixing up due to some frame repairs and rust damage (especially since I'm now out here in the west where Z's are much less difficult to come by), though it makes a great daily driver. Got me all the way from Indiana to Arizona a few months ago with nary a hiccup. My current plan is to keep the ZX as my daily driver/work car, and find another 280ZX or first gen Z to fix up. I've got my eye on a 280Z that looks like it would make an awesome project, really hoping that works out. Anyway, guess I'll hang out here and soak up more knowledge. Isn't the internet great? Btw, here's a page with a couple pics and more details on my current Z.....note that this page was written some time ago, when I was a little more optimistic about its restoration potential, . http://theplaceofcoolness.com/280zx.html