soccer937309

So i recently started working on My 1978 280Z, took the motor out of the vehicle AND am doing a "refresh" of most of the components. The PO did a great job of keeping the maintenance done and the car in general is in good shape, mostly rust free. And lots and lots of original things like the brackets for the oil pan, all there! Anyway i have my block painted and just wanted to brag a bit and i also ordered a box of oil filters from Nissan and love the OEM color on them! And this is the before.... lots of you already know about this one!

Thanks! I am excited about getting this thing off the gorund, i work so damn much tho that my weekends seem to be just me catching my breath from the work week but i am gonna put forth more effort to get my Z rolling right.

I am fortunate enough to work a Toyota Dealership and we get a lot of stuff at a discounted price for some of the stuff that I will be needing for my '78 280Z whether i decide to go back to stock or use some upgraded components. Now I see alot of guys here recommend the online Z parts guys and others, but i notice a lot of the same brands popping up lik eBeck And Arnley or others that are classified as "Good" for our vehicles. What is your opinion on using These parts places Considering the brands I use will be on the more "Premium" side of the brand scale....? Thanks guys.... Elvis M Romero

I love the look of polished metal. I have a Craftsman 8 inch polisher that use for personal work and parts. Well i wanted to emulate the others on here and took off the valve cover and after about 6 hours of polishing and sanding and detail work this is the before..... And this is the after.... And installed.....So Nice Like i said it took about six hours of sanding and polishing and dremel tool work and wet sanding and buffer pad changes and grease wax.....but the end result speakes for itself, it was worth everything. even if you only see it when i change the oil.....

This is the dealership I work at and i am lucky to have a great boss and facility to use when i can. So I washed and polished the mags and cleaned the interior. And this is the outcome in the sun.....

These pictures are before i washed it, This is what i say when i pulled into the dealership for work that morning...Love At First Sight. This is the Stock engine. Not Bad for a 33 year old car!

Well thank you all for the warm welcome and i will definitely take you up on that invite jfa.series1. I am posting pics now... i took these and i will try to post in order of when i bought it, then the cleanup and how it it is now, thanks guys again.

I have been on this forum now for acouple of month but have not properly introduced my self. First and foremost thank you to all the guys and gals on here that have been kind enough to share their wealth of knowledge on our Awesome Z's. I purchased my beautiful '78 280z 2+2 March 2011 for a mere $1000. She runs, she drives and is all bone stock. Inside is actually pretty good black vinyl, It doesn't ahve a radiobut everythign is immaculate in terms of actually being THERE. So I was fortunate to work at a Dealership that got it in for a trade and i jumped right on it. Anyway I am from Ardmore, OK. and Have loved always to work on vehicles and this will be my official restoration. i am planning on Creating an original looking vheicle with a lot of newer upgrades like electronics and wiring and some mechanical upgrades. So thanks to everyone ahead of time for any help i may get.

I didnt think of that, i appreciate it alot. Now that i think about it i shoulda thought about it a loooooooong time ago!

Hey guys! I am pretty new to this forum and have not posted much or anything. I have a '78 280Z with the stock everything....! When I purchased it for $1000.00 it was running as good as a 33 year old car can run. The previous owner was regular with minor maintenance, oil changes, lube and grease. Anyway, my point is, I am planning on doing some updates to my Z. Rebuilding or renewing the block and head components is one of them. So now my questions is i have a Manifold Bolt/Stud kit (P/N: 15-8081) from thezstore.com that i recently purchased to upgrade some hardware that was as old as the car itself. Well now i had the head worked on and i am kinda lost on where all the studs and bolts go in. i have more holes than bolts on the Intake and Exhaust side of the head and I was wondering if anyone knows where to look for that info, i have tried searching but i may not be wording it all correctly or searching with the right terminology, I wanna say thank you before hand to all of you and for all the great info you have on here for us Z noobs.

just finished polishing my valve cover. lots of hard work, nasty polishing grease and hell of a time sanding. but well worth it! here is a pic! as you can see the valve cover before polishing, ME after polishing........ and then the final product.....AWESOME!

I have made the group and i am looking for suggestions for our Avatar Pic, Blue Crazy Offered an awesome idea of a baby type picture for our main pic, If anyone has something to contribute please do, I put one up already but if we can find something better or more imaginitive then we will go with what we all can agree on

i believe anyone should join beacause obviously once we actually get in our cars we feel so much younger and i think thats the gist of the car ownership experience! Now where do i look for some parts like the plastic parts for the shifter area?

I think that starting that group would be awesome! I am gonna go ahead and try to start that group! Thanks for all the positive feedback, i got super lucky on finding this gem. I'm in Oklahoma so maybe a midwest or southern states meet is in place!

Well Gary, I'm 28 September 4th, 1982 to be exact...So i am definitely not anywhere close to the vehicle's age.when this vehicle was new i was not even throught of! My mom was 15 years old! ! So yeah i'm from the younger generation in many respects but i love and enjoy the well made cares of yester-year! Thanks Gary

Thanks ezzzzzzz,(are those enough z's?) Well i have always loved Cars Classics especially! The simplicity of their tech is so awesome, I work for a 'Yota Dealer and they are so complicated to work on that it si mind boggling so it is a break and relief to work on my Z. Like i said i am parking it and starting to mess with the engine. I am gonna post some pics of the Engine bay today, i'm at work and its busy now, but i don't know if the engine looks great or not, i am having some driveability issues but im reading guys, I'm READING! thanks again.

Thanks SB MIke! I'm Excited and pouring over a lot of great ideas by the users on how-to's and im alreaduy writing stuff down i want to do! Thanks Again

Hey Guys I'm New to owning a Z. So im looking forward to havin a good time making it all nice and shiny and just getting out to drive this gorgeous vehicle. I'm 28 years old and it will be an addition to the three vehicles i already own. So Thanks ahead of time for all the help you guys have posted and hopefully will help with mine!

Hey Guys! First I wanna say thanks to the forum mods for posting a lot of information on here for us new Z owners. I consider myself a car fan, i am not the most knowledgeable guy when it comes to all this but i am learning, I am a Service Advisor for a Toyota Dealership In Ardmore, Oklahoma. I Bought a 1978 Datsun 280Z 2+2 In Really good conditon on 3/21/2011. It was traded in on a new car and got a heck of a deal on it from my General Sales Manager. With That said please know i will be on here pouring over a lot of the posts on here and lookign at links that have been posted. I will eventually have questions and i love doing my own work so i will need help. . I want to thank you guys in advance for any help you already have unknowingly given to me and also for future help i may receive. I have three other vehicles so this is my pet project. I own a 1999 Toyota Tacoma V6 Pre-Runner, 2009 Toyota Tundra 5.7L V8 4x4, and a 2009 Honda CBR-R600. So let the good times roll! I am trying to figure out how to post pictures so bear with me guys! Again thanks Guys!