cajunz

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think I'll just go on and have it done right. Now to source the parts. Cygnusx1, I'll check out rpmron's and see what he has to offer. I'll keep you guys updated on my progress. Brent

I've got the engine from my '78 pulled and dissassembled (N47/N42). The crank, cam, and rods look to be in good shape. Probably just a polish on the journals. The bores have a very faint ridge at the top and there is some scuffing on the piston skirts and bottom of each cylinder bore. I checked the bore taper on each cylinder and came up with .0018 taper across all cylinders. My question is, do I need to have the block bored/honed or am I good with just honing? There aren't any mechanics/machinists around here who work on these engines. The one machinist that I talked to said he recommended boring out .020 over. He said he could do the the bore/honing, checking the head/block mating surfaces for trueness and machine if neccessary, and rebuiild the head for between $500 and $700. This is my first rebuild and I want to make sure I do it right. Any advice from the experts would be greatly appreciated. Brent

I'm with Blue. What you see is gonna require some serious metal fab work. There are better cars to be found.

Black Gold Man, no way I'd finance. Cash on the barrel only. I'm going to have to go and drive it before I even think about making an offer. I'm just impressed by the fact that there was no rust I could find. I checked all the usual spots and nothing. It's been on the lot for over 6 mths so hopefully they will deal.

72 OJ, thanks for the response. The dash doesn't concern me too much as is. It's not too bad. I finally found the classic values section on NADA and her asking price is pretty much in line. I think I can get it for a little less, hopefully. I've looked at a lot of 280zx's and I'm amazed that there is no rust and no detectable body damage. A nice respray and you'd have a really nice ride. The car is a couple hours away but I'm gonna have to back and really check it out again.

Hey guys, I found a nice '83 280zx NA coupe on a used car lot today. Stopped to give it a look and it was actually pretty nice with only 88k on the clock and from the condition of the car it looks accurate. I could not find a spot of rust on the car. It still had the original paint with clear coat starting to show its age on the hood. I checked around the windshield, fenders, doglegs, quarters, floorpans and under the battery and no rust. The owner of the lot said he sold the car new to the owner back when he worked for the local Nissan dealer. The owner is asking $6900. The interior is in pretty good shape with only a few small cracks in the dash. What do you thinks she's worth?

A real good source on body work and paint is Kevin Tetz's Paintucation series of DVD's. He's the host of Trucks on Spike TV's Power Block.

Beat the stuffing out of it with a big dead blow hammer and then used a thin chisel and worked my way around the hub until it came loose. It was a big pain.

Well, I got the new garage furnace all plumbed and it works like a charm. With the garage doors insulated, it was about 60 degrees in no time. I got my rear brakes disassembled and ready for overhaul. I also started cleaning up the the fuel system and brake hardlines. It's so nice to have a warm place to work. Gonna be a good winter.

SteveJ, I would love some warm weather up here, but unfortunately, that won't happen until May. Hope with a warm garage that I'll be able to make some good progress on the '78. We just hauled the last two pickup loads of z parts back from Montana, where they were stored in my Dad's barn. I finally have all my car in one place. No I just have to reassemble them all.

Didn't do anything directly to the z but I did get my new 75k BTU gas furnace bolted to the 11ft ceilings in my garage. That wasn't much fun. Now I just have to run the power, gas, and ducting tomorrow and I will have a warm place to work/hangout this winter. It's about 20 degrees in there right now. Can't wait.

Welcome to the site. I'm over in Vernal, which is about a 3 hr drive east of Salt Lake. I've got a '78 I'm in the middle of restoring and a '09 370z that's put away for the winter. Let's see some pics. Brent

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll rebuild the calipers I have. They weren't leaking before so I hope they stay that way.

I just disassembled the brake calipers on my '78 280z and had a few questions. All the cylinder bores were in good shape but I noticed a couple of the pistons had some mid corrosion. You can't feel the corrosion spots unless you drag a fingernail across. Will I be able to rebuild these calipers or will I need to look at replacing them? Can you buy replacement pistons? I haven't been able to find any info so far. Thanks for the responses. Brent

I've done my floor pans inside and about 3/4 of the underside of the care with a quart and had some left over. It's pretty thin and goes a long way. Great stuff but as usual, its all in following the prep instructions. A quart will be more than enough and if you seal up the can, it can be stored in the fridge and last a pretty good while.

Fuel injection has been used for years on aviation piston engines. Works like a dream.

sblake01 is right. I didn't tell the Walmart employee how much I found. I just told her that if anyone came in asking about the cash to call me. The elderly lady woman was so grateful to get her money back and it was a good teaching experience for my kids. I lost about $400 in cash at the Mall one year at Christmas and never got it back, so I know what it feels like.

I was walking out of Walmart right before Christmas a couple years ago and found four crisp $20's folded in half. I went back into the service center and told the lady that I'd found some money and left my number. Next day an elderly lady called and said she'd lost $80 in brand new bills. She came by the house and I thought she was gonna kiss me on the mouth. She told me that the money was all she had left for groceries for the rest of the month.

I second what Blue says about the flecks in the paint. We have our aircraft hanger coated with the flecks and when you drop a nut or washer, it disappears. You have to get down on your hands and knees and and get the light just right if you want to find it again. Looks great though.

Welcome to the site. I've got a '78 that's in the middle of a long resto. Enjoy the ride!! Brent

I put the Peal and Seal inside the doors of my truck a few years ago and recently noticed that it had come loose and fallen to the bottom of the door. Of course we have nearly 100 degree days in the summer and 30 below in the winter, so I'm sure that didnt help much. Good luck. Brent

Who'd have thought we'd have two early 240z's on our little town. There's a guy driving #900 and I just met a guy driving #2200ish today. The car is in decent shape and when he popped the hood, he had an '82 Maxima diesel with a rayjay turbo. Neat setup and he said gets nearly 40mpg. The car didn't have the original engine in it when he bought it.

Man, that sucks. My wife averaged a deer a year when we lived in Montana.

Well, I'm gonna try to make the original replacement panel fit. For some reason, it was about 1/4 inch short on the front, so I welded a small strip and it seems to do the trick. I'll try and get some pics tomorrow to show what I'm doing.

Just got a call from Tim at Tabco, checking to see if I got the dogleg fitted. He's gonna send another panel and have it cut 1/4 inch longer to see if that helps with the fit, all at no charge. Now that's customer service.