MEZZZ

Jan, join a long list of people that got less than they thought in buying a Z, or any used car for that matter. First and foremost, keep in mind you are buying a 33 year old car. Unless it has been meticously maintained it is bound to have problems and/or develop them. The P.O. may not have even been aware of some of the issues, although unlikely. I made the mistake of buying a Z 2,000 plus miles away on Ebay from nothing with photo's and got hosed pretty bad. Turned out the P.O. bought the car 4 weeks prior to listing it and made a nice profit of $2,250 after spending $1,750 on the car. (If you do the math, I paid $4,000 and another $996 to have the car shipped.) The only thing the P.O. did in the 4 weeks prior to selling it to me to enhance its value was lie and mislead. While I wasnt excpecting a show car for that kind of money, I didnt expect the rag I got either. Then to top it off, it took Ebays fraud dept almost 3 months to finally get a title. Long story short, if you love the car, take your time as funds allow and fix it up. If it isnt eaten away with rust, anything else can be fixed relatively easily. You will appreciate the car in the long run and gain a sense of pride in your accomplishments. This has some great people on it that will help you along the way...good luck

I bought a frame rail from Bad Dog last year, great guy, great product, very happy with it.

Thanks guys for the advice. I took the Toyota caliper and new s/s brake line to Autozone with the old hard line. I was able to match up a replacement line very easy and cheap too..$3.99 each. I will use some line pliers to attempt the bends. The new Moog ball joints came in a couple days ago, I have all pieces in place to start to reassemble, now all I need is time, my wife is hammering me right now to take her to the chinese buffet Tomorrow, baseball in the a.m then back to the office to get caught up. Maybe Sunday

You should be able to take this logo to any truck lettering company that does vinyl graphics. Just right click on it, hit save as, put it on a floppy, thumbdrive, email it to them, etc. They can plug it into there system and cut out an exact replica any size you want. The blue in the photo looks a little off in spots but it wont matter as they will use blue vinyl for the logo. We use such a company for graphics on our fleet of work trucks. I've been to the sign shop and had them make me some decals in the past. Its amazing what they do and with such ease too.

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/7BSA01 $157 with the discount if you give them your account number for classiczcars, I got one last month.

You can still get a Monza "cat back" from Pacesetter for 260-280. (240 is disco.) I installed one a few weeks ago, went on without effort and is alot quieter than I would have thought from reading posts concerning it, although it isnt burned in yet, Ive only driven 10 miles on it. A bit louder than the generic that was on there but not much. It does stick out further from the rear but I did notice in my short drive that I didnt notice any fumes, a big plus IMO. You can get them from Black Dragon still or do what I did and go Ebay and save about $40. Got it in 3 days and it was perfect from this place. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/75-76-77-78-Datsun-280Z-Pacesetter-MONZA-Exhaust_W0QQitemZ390086683281QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item5ad2fa6a91&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245

Thanks for zeroing in on that one Mike. I figured I would send a link to all the products they offer but that is the one I was referring to. Nice to know the deep scratch kit works, I have some very fine scratches on my driver window, I will now have to add that kit on my list of (many) things I need.

I bought a rear last month off a guy over at Hybrid. Did the same thing preith mentioned. Sand blasted, welded up the holes, ground them down, skimmed them and then primed. He opted to go smooth (no rear bumper) and sold it to me for $100. It is very straight, he spent alot of time on it. For the front, I went fiberglass from MSA. If you have some coin, there have been some very nice stainless steel sets on Ebay recently for around $1100. Your avatar pic is from MSA, part of a set or a stand alone purchase. I leaned in that direction but dont like the way the rear looked at all.

http://search.eastwood.com/search?asug=&w=glass&p=Q&ts=custom I am not to this point yet in my project but have had this link saved for awhile. I have read great things about these products.

Looks very nice, (almost) enough to want to make me paint my car that color! Seriously, looks beautiful

Thats about the only thing I could think of Walter, there was no damage (evident) to the car, front valance, everything was fine. I now not need to wonder why my car handled so poorly. Between that and my bump stops (they were literally dust!) and the worn out bushings (or no bushing in one case), it is no longer a mystery to me. Have to admit, it is a little disheartening to think of my car skidding down the road on the left ball joint like that.

Stephen, just wait until its finished 2 years in the making so far, another year or so I might have it worthy of a whole picture. But yes. they do look very nice, much better than the photo actually, I am VERY pleased with them. Fairly reasonable to, I bought them from MSA, tires mounted, balanced, chrome valve stems, center caps and even their Z logo's...$1079 shipped from California to Cincinnati. You could probably sell your Panasports for that much

That is my favorite site besides Classic Z. It is nice to have the step by step with photos. I got all excited when I saw the first post thinking there was another one

Sorry, I forgot to ask another question. My brake lines "bridge tubes", the hard line between the shock tower and the calipers need replacing. The nuts were stripped clean and I could not get them to turn. In hindsight, I should have used some vice grips on them. I ended up cutting them, figuring I was going with S/S lines and Toyota calipers and I would just buy a new set. I have done ALOT of searching and cannot find these. MSA has one side but not the other and I have had no luck finding them online. Can someone point me in the right direction by chance? Thanks in advance.

I would like to start by saying I have never had a wheel off a car in my life except to change a flat tire. What started as the task of replacing my front brake pads has turned into a complete front end rebuild. My rotors were shot, calipers trash. The right side pads were just "floating:, no pins or clips holding them in place. I decided at the time to replace my struts, then I figured I might as well do the bushings since I was that far. I am pulling it apart piece by piece and cleaning 32 years of filth from it. I have been through 2 bottles of degreaser, 2 rolls of paper towels, 3 wire brushes and a pack of sandpaper. I had to go out and buy a compressor, air tools, tie rod seperator, spring compressors, etc, etc. I got the tie rods apart and attacked the ball joints. Check out the photo. Do you think they are shot? What might have caused the one to be ground down like that? It looks like someone took a grinding wheel to it! After cleaning and sanding, I am using self etching primer and painting everything. Here is a pic of my hillbilly hanger I made this morning. Here is another of the parts I have completed. I am using Illuminas and Eibach springs, Toyota S12 calipers, cross drilled rotors, SS brake lines, 15" Rewinds with Toyo Proxes 225-50-15's. Energy Suspension bushings with the exception of the T/C Rods, I am using the ball and socket kit from MSA with new rubber bushings in the rear. I have new tie rod ends and Moog ball joints on the way. I am down to the rack, not sure as to buy a rebuilt or attempt to open it up myself. This will be the casual weekend driver. Is there anything else I should be doing while into it this far? Thanks for looking

Here is the photo of mine with 15" Rewinds and Toyo Proxes 225-50-15 As I said earlier, my front end is on stands right now. You can see the car will need to be dropped some.

I wish I had taken some photos. I installed Toyo Proxes 225-50-15 on 15" Konig Rewinds a couple weeks ago. I only had them on my car for a couple days before ripping out the front suspension. I can say that the short drive I took (about 10 miles) I had no rubbing issues at all. Plenty of clearance on (at the time) a stock, albeit worn out '77 280 suspension. I can say that unless you lower it, it will not look quite right. I am putting on a set of Illuminas with Eibach springs. Should drop it an inch or so but Im not quite sure that will be enough from looking at it. I can take a photo of the rears (once my wife gets home with the camera) but the front is up on jack stands so it may give a slightly skewed view.

I searched and cannot find the answer to this question. I need to know the diameter of a stock '77 front sway bar. I recieved a urethane bushing kit today and it did not come with sway bar bushings. It gives part #'s for different size bars but I cannot find the info needed on what size I need. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Nice to know you are happy with the setup I have opted for. I am awaiting the parts from MSA as well as the poly bushing kit. Hope to have it all by the weekend so I can get it back together. Stephen, thanks for the great tutorial. When I get it back together, I'll post the pic of it with the new graphite rewinds.

Sounds good, thanks for the info. Its nice to know I am on the right page for a change. While I have the front end out, is there anything else to pay attention to, anything other recommendations? I am cleaning everything, sanding and painting as I go.

I dropped my front end yesterday. Started as a brake job and has progressed into Struts, springs and now bushings. I hesitantly orderd a new urethane bushing kit a couple days ago. I ran across this post on another site about the T/C Rods. I read alot about breaking, mostly to racers and the such which I wont be doing. But this post intruiged me and I wnet ahead and ordered the kit to try. I got the kit from MSA for $26. I decided on going rubber on the backside vs. the poly that come in the kit. Anyone have feedback on this? http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/comprod/ball&socket/index.htm

your car looks great, close to the color I want to do mine when finished. I am guessing that is some type of Nissan motor? RB25 or the like? Keep us posted, I need inspiration

That makes too much sense I only have a month of experience. The front mounted up fine, I am a bit perplexed on the rear though. On a 280, you have to drill new holes into the quarter panel for the bracket to line up. The driver side was easy enough, I already had removed the interior panel to get the in-op antenna out. THe passenger side is a different story. There is no room getting to it from the inside because the fuel filler hose has a metal sheath around it and I only leaves about 1/2 inch of room to get the bolt through. I tried flipping it and putting the bolt thru the bumper mount but I still cant get a nut in that tight area either. Another day I will get back to it.

Im going to post to an even older thread Arne. I bought a set of Tokico Blues about 6 weeks ago along with ALOT of other items. I did a best offer of $198 with shipping and it was accepted. The (Ebay) company emailed me saying they were backordered on the rears for 2-3 weeks and gladly refunded my money via Paypal. I promptly went back on Ebay and ordered another pair of "Blues" for $203 shipped. They sat in there box for about a month. A couple weeks ago I opened up one of the boxes and pulled out a white strut. I look on the side and see Illumina written on it. The vendor sent me Illuminas by mistake? I went in with the part #'s and they match up to my car. I've been wrestling with just keeping them or emailing them about it. Someone said they may have subbed due to an out of stock situation as well. I doubt that happened. They had Illuminas listed for $401 a set. The cheapest Ive found right now is $399 shipped if anyone is interested. A VERY good price. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOKICO-ILLUMINA-SHOCKS-NISSAN-260Z-280Z-75-78_W0QQitemZ310166409147QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item48375bcfbb&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245