Threehz

No doubt, after 34 years grime gets in every little nook and cranny! I just gave my engine bay a couple good washes to get the majority of grime and dirt out because right now I'm about to take out the engine and then remove everything from the engine bay for a DEEP & thorough clean then repaint! I've giving each individual component it's own thorough deep clean and restoration job so hopefully it'll turn out alright!

That turned out great! Mine needs the exact same thing done and I've actually been wondering what the original color looked like but I really like that one you used. What kind of paint and the exact color if possible is that?

Most definitely. I have yet to drive a Z myself because I 'm tearing my baby apart and doing a deep down clean up and resto before she hits the road. I can tell you however from everything I've heard that the Z's are for sharp turns and winding roads and it's all about the handling. Maybe we can race when my girl gets up and running haha

Pics look fine to me, and she looks great! Nice find man, I live in down in Tucson and just recently got my 77 and let me tell you there are unlimited resources out there! You should definitely look into joining or checking out the Desert Z Association, http://www.desertzassociation.com that is the Z Club up in PHX, there is also a Tucson and I believe another AZ one as well. You get a bunch of discounts through the club which you can check out and I just joined my Tucson club down here and the people in it have already been a massive help! What are you planning on doing with the car?

Sorry for the double post but.. Diseazd, I'd love a full size/raw copy of your first and fourth/last photo simply to make into wallpapers for personal use. & FiveDime, I would also love a full size copy of your first and third photo for the same reason. Also FiveDime I'd really like to see some pictures of your 510!! If you guys don't mind that would make me very happy! Pm if that's ok and I'll give you my email. Thanks and great photography, and wicked cars!

Fantastic photography and a beautiful car, you can't get much better. This is some true Z rated porn Also good deal on the camera I wish a deal like that would fall into my lap !

I have to admit that hood vent looks pretty cool in my opinion. Also, SO awesome that this actually became reality after all this time, very inspirational hah!

So my recently acquired 77 came with the Interpart's hatch window louvers, aluminum painted black, the actual louvers are in great condition. When I bought it, one side wasn't locked down, and the PO said that he had used a small clip of a wire hanger to replace the little locking piece in the lock, but it fell out. The other side seemed 'locked' down, however it was glued in place with some strange adhesive. After removing most of the adhesive I was able to open the louvers, unscrewed them from the top. That being said the top strip or band with the screws on it to attach to the louvers is in perfect condition. The strip on the left side with the lock on the bottom is for the most part not attached to the window anymore only the bottom by the lock is and I'm not sure if the lock works but it looks like it is OK. The right side is attached to the window however there is still a bunch of that glue stuff on it and I'm guessing the lock on that side is broken, it is cracked near the base... I've searched and read that Interparts is out of business now so it'll be a bit of a goose chase to find those mischievous locks but I'd like some advice. First of all has anyone removed the lock strips from their rear window? Looking at the one not fully attached it seems like it's glued down and should just pry off without too much effort? And if I can remove the two side strips, let's assume both locks are broken, has anyone rigged up something that has worked as a lock to replace these? I'm think worst case I'll remove and restore the side strips then replace them and instead of lock glue strong magnets on both the strips and on the bottom of the louvers in a corresponding place. Anyhow any input and advice is much appreciated and here's pictures of it all! Right Strip Left Strip Better view of left strip Top Strip for reference Thanks!

Yeah that's weird, the 0 does look oddly drawn in, who knows what happened haha... Thanks though I'll have to guess it's 215 and the 5 got replaced with a 0 along the way somewhere.

My paint bode says 210 and it's got the original paint job, however the FSM doesn't even have that as a paint code, and the paint code for the only white paint is 914.. This is not really important I'd just like to know what this means?

Yeah I have three red and one black however the reds actually could easily be mistaken as brown which is interesting.

Actually I'm not trying to make this a complete stock resto, I'm going to do a lot of performance upgrades and that maxifuse kit looks great. For now my fusible links look fine the only issue is the caps that used to cover them. Thanks for the info FastWoman that'll save me a bunch of time if they do end up breaking or burning out.

I do dig that fuse kit though, looks much cleaner. &Thanks Steve I think I'll do that and get it over with as my dash is cracked and I was planning on removing it and refinishing it/patching the cracks. Guess it looks pretty normal other then that stuff? Thanks for all the insight and help guys!

Just picked it up after eight years of sitting, I'm removing the engine and everything in the engine bay to clean it up and repaint the engine bay. So I would access the heater core through somewhere on the passenger inside of the car? So the throttle dash pot looks fine and that white cap is normal?

Good to know, that's what I thought they were but I wasn't sure. What exactly are the fusible links fuses for?

Ok so I'm about to take out my engine and remove just about everything else in the engine bay but first I'd like to know what you guys can see that is missing or has been changed from stock. This is my 1977 280Z, 5-Speed if that matters. When I refer to the picture driver is driver side, passenger is passenger side, back means firewall side and front means front of the car, just to make that clear. I took four pictures one of each "quadrant" of the engine bay to try and include everything. I've already circled things that jumped out at me as not original or messed with: The RED circle is highlighting where the heater core was connected, I'm assuming the heater core had problems and instead of fixing it they just chopped it out of the circuit. The GREEN circle highlights where there used to be two (guessing plastic) caps. The lower one in the picture is a plastic cap (cracked) and wrapped in electrical tape. The second one is simply an electrical tape cone and they are covering two different places where wires come and connect, some type of fuse? I'm not sure what these are so if anyone knows that'd be helpful and also what part originally goes there. The BLUE circle is highlighting that white cap which is screwed onto what looks to me like a diaphragm (which is connected to "throttle linkage/rod"? Forgive me, I don't know the technical name for that.) I'm guessing there WAS a vacuum tube connected to that diaphragm where the white cap and it was used for cruise control? My other thought is that it's there to sense the position of the throttle and send a message to something else? I'm not sure I don't see cruise control anywhere in my car but I'm sure someone on here knows. Anyhow I'd really appreciate some input and any more info anyone can give on what's missing or added in there or anything that looks wrong or strange? Thanks and here's the pictures. Passenger Back Passenger Front Driver Front Driver Back

Hopefully I'll be able to accomplish that much this summer! madkaw the car in your avatar is gorgeous!

Yeeeee HAW! Sounds like a fun rewarding day! I can't wait to start digging in on my Z but there is so much prep work to do..

Yeah that sounds about right, I'm gonna see if Nissan has them and how much it would be there or possibly look on ebay. Hearing from everyone that the PRP door seals make closing the doors hard I think I might do precision seals for most things but maybe go with Vintage for the doors.

I agree the people on these forums have been a HUGE help to me and I have only been here a month or so! If I ever meet any of you I'll definitely buy you a beer! Really though thanks to all of you on this forum, you keep the dream of the Z alive!

Mjr, let us know how it works out because I'd love to get some more opinions on different kits or even individual pieces. Does anyone know what the pieces on the bottom outside of the window are called? Like the outside of the car, driver or passenger window right at the bottom of the window, there is a strip of what may have been rubber at some point but is now hard as plastic on my car. The piece on my driver side is now scraping my window when I roll it up or down and it scratched it up a little so I'm adverse to rolling my window up or down until I get a new one of those. Anyhow that'd be a great help I'll get a picture up if needed

Fantastic advice! ZCurves that is a very helpful breakdown of everything, and so far here every question I've put out has been answered and this community has been great to me! Jim I'd definitely love to see your spreadsheet pm sent! Alright well I've got a solid plan now so I can promise that soon I'll be posting TONS of questions, pictures, etc seeking advice from the wise!

"can't afford" just means not fully committed, and I am fully committed so it's just a measure of how much it will take. Pwd I really like the idea of your 'must, should, would be nice' idea, definitely going to do that! Maybe someday Blue

@David that all sounds really good except I'm not sure if I want to get a donor car. I've been debating that since I started looking at the Z. I guess what kind of parts would I really use from a donor car? It seems to me that a donor car's parts would be in the same, if not worse condition then my parts so why? Just for little pieces (bolts, nuts)? (and David I'm not trying to be argumentative just looking for more info) What I really want to do is take everything out of the engine bay and then repaint that, while everything is out, clean and restore all parts that can be re-used. Then I would like to replace the parts that can't be used with new parts or new performance parts. From there I plan on moving to things like suspension, then interior and finally body & paint. After I get the engine bay all cleared out I can make a solid assessment of what parts I'm going to need and draw up a budget. Luckily classes end next Tuesday for me which opens up the opportunity to get a second job! Thanks for all the advice guys and keep it coming!

grnsky good advice, I was thinking of just doing a full ground up restoration for a while, but then realized that it would be just sitting around in pieces for a long time and I would most likely lose my passion. Exactly what I needed to hear!