Kevin McSweeney

Just went for a look at the progress on the roof work. Of course when we stripped the donor roof we found a lot of bondo, and that the support/brace was pretty rusted out, so we decide to drill out the spot welds of the roof skin and similarly on my car, and will re weld the skin in place. Should be finished today and ready for epoxy primer tomorrow or Saturday.

donor roof from 240z

Some more photographs of the car after media blasting. Overall pretty happy with the condition. Some areas of rot of course but nothing beyond saving. Also picked up a roof from a '71 240z and delivered to my body guy who's going to get working on it next week.

Finally, just last week the car went to media blasting. As of right now, we're grinding out the areas that need patching or have heavy filler covering rot and rusted out areas - overall not as bad as I expected but as you can see the fenders are not in great shape. I may think about replacing them. As you can see from the second picture below, the roof has lost all integrity since I removed the sunroof that was installed. I'm picking up a donor roof on Saturday in Sacramento and will let my body guy take the replacement job as it's just too much for me. Looking forward to getting that done as it's a big eye sore at the moment.

Next, the outer rockers and dog legs, both sides. The condition of these actually wasn't terrible other than the rusted out section in the first picture, but since I had the parts I decided to go all in.

Next up, time to tackle the rust. Floor panels and frame rails were first to be replaced.

Some more photographs of the disassembly and overall condition of the car.

After that, once I was happy that the motor and trans were decent, it was time to start tearing down to address the rust and refresh all of the systems. Engine and transmission were removed. For the moment, I don't have any plans to do a major overhaul. I'll give both a good clean and tune up, and will replace the clutch and lightened flywheel (suggestions welcome), and the timing system as I do not have a record of if/when it was last done.

For starters, apologies for creating a new thread about the same build, but I wanted to make this into a more coherent build thread as my previous one started off a little messy with me unclear of my goals and how I would achieve them. Anyway, this thread is to document the build of my 1978 Datsun 280z. It was/is pretty rough, so the goal here is not originality, but to restomod this into a fun, good looking, capable weekend car. Some info on the car: Original L28 motor. 5-speed manual transmission. It is a federal/non-California car (Originally from Nevada). Clean title. Only 2 owners from new before me. Odometer shows 37,xxx miles. Has more than likely rolled over. Photos below are from the day I picked it up in San Jose, CA in late October 2017. It was non-running but I, with the help of a friend, got it running pretty quickly and happily found out that it hood compression and sounds great. All that was needed to get her running after 3+ years sitting was fresh gas, new plugs, and a couple of incorrectly connected and bad relays (I can't take credit for figuring those out, electronics are not my strong suit). Next thing I did was to give the fuel system an overhaul - Fuel tank sandblasted, relined and sealed, and undercoated. New fuel pump and filter.

I have spoken to them before and they sent me out a price list:

It has been over 2 months since I last updated this, but rather than do it here I'm actually going to move this into a more coherent build thread as this one started off a little messy. In any case, the car is entirely stripped down and has been media blasted. It is being epoxy primed right now and the next step is to do some surgery on the roof to undo the damage done by the god awful sunroof. Keep an eye out for the new thread as I'm looking forward to some feedback and advice. Thanks.

Yes I removed all of the bolts myself. I'll give that a try, thank you. There was the standard gasket between the glass and frame - I removed it. I'll give the blade a try. Thanks.

Guys, Dumb question; I'm planning to send some parts out to be plated this week, but I'm having difficulty separating the side window glass from the frame per the pictures below. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing? I don't want to use too much force where glass is involved. Thanks in advance.

10-4 thank you!

Really? I'll have to take a closer look when I take out the complete assembly this weekend. Thanks for the info.

I'm guessing this is going to be a very hard part to comes across, unless anybody knows somewhere that sells it new? I've looked extensively. Photo attached to clarify the part I need. My 78 280z somehow came with neither side. Everything else is there. Thanks, Kevin

Haven't had a chance to get on here much lately but I've been continuing to strip out the car and it should be ready for media blasting in 2-3 weeks. Quick question - What is the correct method of adjusting the rear hatch left/right? I want to get it lined up asap so that I can drill out the holes for the rear wing. The pictures show the bigger gap on the left. I did some reading but couldn't find an answer? Also included some photographs of the rear deck and hatch area inside to show that it's pretty clean and rust free.

Does anybody have any experience with the Megan Racing Coilovers? I've found a set for $809 but I've heard a few people say they are of questionable quality. Anybody have any opinions? I'm building a street car so I don't need to spend a fortune on coilovers so this seems like it could be a good option?

Well I've been crazy busy with work but I got to removing the hood and fenders, and also dropped the engine and transmission out. Looks like exactly what you described, I'll need to section and replace the front of the outer rocker panels. Some photographs of the engine and bay attached as well. Some rust under the battery tray as I expected, but doesn't look like anything too serious. Would like to hear some thoughts. For the next few weeks I'm going to continue stripping the exterior, interior and the ancillaries from the engine bay to get ready for media blasting. Also looking forward to giving the engine itself a good cleaning while the car is at the body shop! I work long hours as a project manager for a structural steel company, so only have time to work on the car at the weekends. On the bright side, I have access to all the sheet metal and welders one could imagine!

I guess my real question should have been - can/do most body/paint shops have the capability of mixing or ‘matching’ paint to photographs or other media (fabrics, for example) or is this only a high end specialist type of thing? Also, are most car manufacturers paint codes pretty readily available? I know the higher end brands (Aston Martin, Lamborghini, etc.) tend to have unusual and beautiful colors available for their models, and I’m wondering are these transferable to other vehicles?

I'm a very long way from putting color on my 280z but I came across the attached picture and thought it looks great. Had a look through 'Super Street' and followed the google image trail but couldn't find any information. Can anybody here shed any light on the color?

Point taken - maybe I throw the term 'restoration' around too loosely. Clearly, as was pointed out, the goal is not to restore the car to factory-original condition. It's not going to be nut and bolt restored from the ground up - at least not for the foreseeable future - but that doesn't mean I can't do some decent work to keep it alive! Resto-mod sounds about right. The aim is to have a good looking, good sounding, fun to drive car for weekends.

I am very serious about restoring this car, and don’t plan on really ever selling it. The only reason that I’m not doing a complete frame up restoration right now is that, as mentioned in the original post, I do not have space. As anybody living in the Bay Area is aware, space doesn’t come cheap here. That said, I do have access to a locked and enclosed yard where I store and work on the car. But sandblasting, priming and painting will need to be outsourced. I hope that makes sense!

Bit of an update - first and foremost, I finally got to drive the car for the first time since I bought it! Actually drives surprisingly well, though the suspension could do with a bit of work. Anyway, first milestone achieved! Now, I spent most of Saturday trying to remove the fenders. As you can see from the photos, it looks like some nice person previously jacked the car up right where the fender bolts to the sill. Short of cutting the bolts off, any suggestions on getting these 2 bolts out? Similar story on the opposite side! I did try to bend the pinch weld back but couldn't get much leverage on it. Also, as I'm sure is pretty common, the 2 screws underneath the cowl are stripped on both sides. Any advice for getting these out. Finally, do the headlight buckets have to come out before the fenders can come off? I also cut that horrid rear bumper off. Planning to fill any holes next weekend but I need to remove the chrome trim that runs the length of the body along the doors first. I thought this would be pretty easy to remove but it doesn't want to budge. What's the easiest way to remove this? I also marked out the locations and roughly fitted the fender mirrors (I figured I better do this before the fenders come off).

I happened to be in this shop earlier in the week and saw your car, along with the white 240 in the foreground. Looks great, congrats!