MEZZZ

After you get that $1,000 Z, plan on spending alot of jack to get it in decent running condition.

I had my car shipped from Oregon to Ohio using Dependable Auto Shippers (DAS)...reasonable rates...

No, you have the correct control arms, one is flipped and goes upside down compared to the other side.

ditto that, I kinda like it as well. I painted mine last fall trying different paints. Flat didnt look good, seni-gloss was too shiny. I ended up going with a matte finish with just a little sheen to it. Then I sanded down the chrome bezels and painted with a gloss black for a bit of contrast. I finished it off using the JDM amber colored turn signal lenses. I think gloss black bezels would look pretty sweet with the carbon look. Post a photo when you get it together.

This ad reminds me of the thief that I bought my car from in Salem, Oregon, maybe he has moved to Portland : ) Alot of the wording is the same, down to the needs a little love, with a paint job it would be a show car! Same storyline too....found out afterwards (when I got Ebay fraud dept. involved after never receiving title), it was the same classic, buy and quick flip for a nice profit, enhancing the value by lying about the condition. 3+ years and thousands of $'s later, it still needs that paint job (along with alot of other things) My avatar photo is one of the ads from the auction : ) Live and learn

I knew a couple guys that owned them back when I was a late teen. I remember one of them was mid seventies and the guy had alot of trouble. He broght it to my uncle to look at. I remember my uncle shaking his head looking the car over, saying what an absolute PITA it was to work on. He said you needed a special tool to get the plugs out. A couple years later, a guy at my old job bought a '78 (He had traded a "77 Trans Am for it). He owned it about 3 months(traded it in on a "79 RX7). He liked the car initially but grew very tired of its quirkiness and lack of power very quickly. Driving back from a picnic, 4th of July, I saw a red Dino sitting out at a dealer lot way outside of town in the sticks....it had some weeds growing up around it in the gravel lot, must have been sitting there for awhile. I fought the temptation to pull over and look at it, twice, coming and going....helped my lovely wife was with me. Finally, on the Fiat front, a co-worker came in Friday with a new Red Fiat 500...Im old enought to remember why they pulled out of the U.S., hopefully, they have their act together now.

I wish I would ahve tried that idea Darrel. I just took a palm sander and sanded them down until they fit. Wasnt crazy about doing that but had read a few other people doing the sanding them down also. That part was by far the worst one to deal with in the complete E/S kit.

You beat me to the punch on the 3rd brake light. I bought one last year (still havent installed it, stalled on my progress in other areas) but it is a great piece. I did install the R/T mount though, worth the money and then some. thanks Dave! A headlight harness will be on my list as well.

I will chime in as well, in no particular order Different seats ( I refoamed and reupholstered mine and still didnt like them ) Different stereo Poly bushings Front air dam Lowering springs/shocks R/T style diff mount Toyota front brake upgrade Upgraded dash lights New rims and tires dynomat

Well, I've been away for awhile, havent worked on my car since last fall. Work, family, life allowing little time for awhile now. I am getting ready to get back to work and I am interested in doing a 5 spd swap. I have been searching local Craigslist ads and found an '81 with a blown head gasket and rust. Told the tranny was great when parked. I beleive this would work. I also found an '86 300zx non-turbo with 77K on it that they are parting out due to it being wrecked. Ive tried to search on this, is this a tranny that would work? Thanks in advance

Ive done many hundreds of transactions on Ebay and have been burned once many years ago for the paltry sum of $20. The guy had 2,000+ transactions and 100% feedback too. Not usre what happened but in the next couple weeks he had racked up 20+ negatives for not shipping, I am guessing the poor guy passed away. Actually, Ive been burned twice, counting my Z that I bought sight unseen and relying on the sellers word. He answered all email questions to my satisfaction and seemed like a decent guy over the phone. I wont go into details but I agree, go with smaller purchase from a reputable seller and NEVER buy a car without checking it out or having someone do it for you. I had bought 2 other autos on Ebay as well as a Harley sight unseen and was VERY happy with those transactions. It only took one bad transaction to change my ways forever : )

I agree with the Chip Foose rendering of a Z. While some of his stuff is a bit over the top, I have seen a few episodes where the Overhaul was a bit more laid back. He always ask the "victims" significant other what the plans were for the car, color, etc. I will say no matter if you like his taste or not, you would have to agree that he does some great work. The detail is great, fit and finish superb. Chip, come steal my car, I will be sure to tell my wife what color I wanted it, leather, engine, top of the line suspension...forget the 23 inch rims, 16 will do just fine : )

I forgot to put down the one "reality" car show that I really do enjoy watching, Overhaulin' with Chip Foose. Great storylines and awesome builds, the guy is fantastic. I dream of the day I come home to find my "project" stolen for the TV Show... Chip, you reading this?? Its either that, or when my 10 yr old becomes a major league ball player he told me he will pay Mr. Foose to rebuild my car.. Like I said before, Chip, you reading this?

I was browsing last night and caught the last 30 seconds of this show, nver even heard of the Speed channel before last night. I caught a glimpse of the red car and thought, cool a Z. I set the DVR to catch the 1 am showing and got home tonight to watch it. Needless to say I was dissapointed. Both builds were crap, the white one for obvious reasons, the red one not as much. The finish on both were terrible, orange peel, gaps, etc. The best part of the show was the unveiling of the 2 donor cars, they looked nice in primer gray! I will go back to watching other car shows. I do enjoy Chasing Classic Cars, Mecums Auction, Motor Week and that english show mentioned in an earlier post.

http://www.atlanticz.ca/ go to tech tips at the top of the page. Alot of useful info on rebuilding the suspension along with photos. Not sure if there is a section on ball joints but great nonetheless. I replaced mine when I did the front end. I am pretty inept working on cars but figured it out. BTW, I went with Moog brand ball joints

I used the dry ice method also and it works great! I was lucky because my company uses the stuff and I grabbed 4 blocks for the job. You simply sit a chunk on the area, wait about 15-20 seconds, you can actually hear some cracking noise. Take a hammer and screwdriver (I used a 1 inch wide wood chisel), tap it firmly and the tar mat just breaks off cleanly with no residue. Wear goggles or safety glasses, the stuff tends to fly. I did my whole car in under an hour.

You will find many on here Welcome. Post some photos, we all like pictures. Congrats on ressurecting your car after all those years. You will find a treasure trove of info on here to help you along the way.

I used poly all the way around on mine last fall. I did do the ball and socket setup on the TC rods, using new rubber stock bushings on the front and poly on the rear. Then I tackled the back and in my opinion, it was harder. I pulled everything out (both front and rear) cleaned, painted and put back together with new struts, springs, brakes, R/T mount, bearings, tie rods, ball joints, etc. I am a novice at best, working on and off the project, it took me a couple months. $200 sounds reasonable to me, at that rate if you paid me, I would have made about $1 an hour

I bought the poly kit from Energy Suspensions, I beleive I bought it from Ebay though, got a btter price on it. I dont think you will find any kit that offers bushings for the sway bar as I remember, due to them being different diameters based on the year. At least for the front. I do remember buying them seperately. I am a novice to all of this and it took quite awhile to do everything. I ended up removing EVERYTHINg and cleaning, painting and putting it back together. While there, I did the Toyota brake upgrade, SS brake lines, Tokico struts, Eibach springs, ball hoints, outer tie rods, rims and tires, exhaust, pulled the tank, replaced the lines, etc, etc, etc. I got a bad case of while I was at it, I might as well..... I only remember the spindle pin bushings being a real PITA, not getting the old ones out as much as getting the new ones in, I had to do quite a bit of sanding to get them to fit.

Oh that piece. Mine was actually held on by tiny sheet metal screws, I simply removed it. I never like the look of that piece, it seems most over the years bowed at the ends slightly, like a smile. Of course, now I have about 8-10 little holes to close up. It looks bad now as it sits. I finished up painting out the bezels and adding the European amber turn signal lenses in the fall. I actually drove it about 5 miles yesterday, Im up to 20 miles in the past year : )

nothing better than a rebound fling , especially if they are still a little vengeful!

Listen to Carl and heed is advice.I wish I had found this site BEFORE purchasing my car, I would have saved alot of aggravation. First and foremost, see the car in person or have someone (possibly a member from this site) check it out. Ive told my horror story about buying mine sight unseen and will share it again if it saves someone what I've gone through. I bought my car sight unseen on Ebay, communicated several time with the P.O. Was advertised as a rust free, unmolested car, a great example of a Z. With a paint job and new seat upholstery, it could be a show car. I asked all the right questions, received all the right answers and sent the guy $4000 and paid a carrier another $1000 to ship from Oregon to Ohio. I figured with maybe a couple grand more, I would have a great car. The car had rust inside the hatch, on the frame rail, the battery tray, the passenger floor, the rear quarter had bondo. The brakes squealed, the steering wheel shook violently at highway speeds, the heater and radio didnt work. The car had been painted with spray cans, the front end was shot, same with the brakes, etc. The original, unmolested car had a P90 head on it meaning the motor had been reworked. I took the stupid road and have spent 3 + years on and off (as I have time and $$) working through the car. I have over $5,000 in it on top of the $5,000 spent to get it here. I still need about another $2,000 to $3,000 more to get it decent. In 3 years, I havent put more than 100 miles on it. As it sits, I am embarrassed to admit what I have in it but it was either do that or dump the car for the $2000 it was worth and take a bath on it. It should be very nice when finished, all new suspension, struts, springs, bushings, tie rods, ball joints, toyota brake upgrade up front, rebuilt rear brakes, Rewind wheels and Toyo tires. Lots of new parts on the motor, plugs, wires, A.F.M., injectors, belts, hoses, thermotime, etc, New interior including guages, radio, full dash cover, steering wheel, carpet, upholstery and dynomat. Exterior including body work and paint. I am doing all the work myself and it has been a learn as I go for me. I rarely have time to do what I need, it will probaly be another year or two before I have it where I want it. I will have overspent on it by twice what I could probably get in return. It is a love/hate thing at best. So once again, take Carl's advice, if you havent read up on him, he is probably one of the most knowledgeable Z guys on the planet. My 2 cents...good luck.

Are you talking about that little piece about (doing it from memory) less than an inch tall and maybe 2 inches wide that is tacked on behind where the bumper is? It is slightly off center below the license plate area. The worst part of the rear was the interior panels so you could get to the nuts from the inside. On my car, I drilled a hole to catch the stock 240 numper in the drivers side and easily reached in where the antenna is located to secure the nut. The passenger side however, was a PITA because the filler neck for the gas tank is in the way. I ended up drilling a small hole from under the car to accept a socket to tighten it up.

Mine sticks out well past the rear bumper. I installed a Pacesetter Monza exhaust on my 280. Then I replaced the rear bumper with one off a 240. Since the bumper is in tighter, my muffler sticks out further. It has taken me awhile to get used to it, still not sure I like it that much. One benefit to a tip sticking out further is less fumes into the cabin.

Classic!