mdbrandy

I was just at our local PPG dealer yesterday investigating what they have. We have 2 automotive paint shops in town - one sells PPG, and one sells Dupont. What kind of respirator did you use? Cartridge or supplied air? I will be using HVLP of some sort, although the Ingersoll-Rand gun I currently have (for painting suspension parts) will be replaced with something else... Oh - and your ride looks really nice

I'm in the middle of researching "garage painting" myself. What kind of paint system did you choose? It is a catalyzed paint, or single stage? One of the biggest issues seems to be isocyanates in modern paints. I'm doing a lot of reading about different paint systems that might work for the garage painter, but no decisions yet...

I had a '71 240 back when I was 17 that I did exactly that with - a deep metallic blue, with two white stripes, starting at the tip of the hood "bulge", over the top of the car and down the hatch. I had the stripes follow the contour of the hood bulge so that they each came to a point right at the tip of the bulge. I've seen similar schemes where the stripes were just straight all the way to the front of the hood, and I don't like it half as much. Wonder whatever happened to that car...I sold it in 1981 as one of the frame rails started rusting off the floor board...

Thanks Skip. I have e-mailed you a response to your PM.

Looks like you got lucky. The fact that it was "in stock" was probably the key - you found one of the few pieces left sitting in back rooms. My Nissan dealer searched their database and came up empty ("back ordered"), which they take to normally mean "unavailable". Guess I'll be bringing my spare one back to life...

If anyone has a junk 280Z body sitting around that they don't mind hacking a piece off of, I could use the front of the left (drivers side) "fender extension" part of the unibody from as close to the rad support forward as possible. Circled area in pic. If you have such a piece, PM me. Thanks.

I have the basic Toyota 4-pistons on the front already. Just made it that much easier to lock 'em up and slide through the oil patch... I do like my brakes now. 4-piston calipers on the front, basic drums on the back with new tokico cylinders, and steel braided lines all around. Brakes are solid as a rock.

Yeah, the overall car is in that kind of shape. That's why I bought it . Now I just have to stop hitting things with it... The overrider did it's job though. If that hood had hit the bumper straight on, you can see how far back it would have been pushed. That would probably have damaged fenders, cowl, stuff under the hood, etc. Things would have been much uglier I think.

That's an amazing price for a brand-new Nissan hood. I'll have to stop into my local Nissan tomorrow... And your's had it in stock?!? Where do you live? The Nissan here in Champaign, IL has some good parts guys, but I have yet to find anything for my Z's that was actually in stock... Mark

Well, I pulled the left bumper end/valance/headlight bucket and hood tonight. Interestingly, I find that this is not the first time this has happened to the car! The portion of the left side of the body that the hood hinges attach to and the headlight bucket fits up against/over the top of is all beat up and bondo'd. Obviously, the left front corner took a beating at some time in the past. In fact, I had never noticed it before, but the underside of the hood has no decals, emission stickers, etc of any kind. It should, right? Thus, it is probably not the original hood. I see no other damage, no evidence that the rad support has ever been repaired, etc., so hopefully that's all I'll find... Fun with Z archeology

Thanks Carl. I kind of thought that big, flat pieces of sheet metal might be somewhat difficult to fix. Never had the problem before. So far I see no damage other than the hood, headlight bucket, and the bumper bar. We'll see what happens when I've got it all apart... Mark

The picture says it all. This is what happens when you can "almost" stop behind a 1991 Pontiac Transport Minivan. Long story involving a cop approaching the cross street of a major, somewhat blind intersection with the red his way, turning on the siren as he approached, the van panicing and stopping dead in the middle of the intersection, and an oily approach to the intersection (major intersection with hundreds of cars a day sitting there waiting for the light...) letting me slide about 100 feet from only 30 mph. I probably hit him at less than 10 mph, but went under his bumper. Four nice tire skid marks showing my path through the oil...at least I know all four brakes work. The hood isn't terrible, but it has several waves and dents, and the left front corner was bent down about an inch. The overall hood apparently is tweaked a bit, since the left rear corner was "up" about a quarter inch when closed (wasn't before). The bumper itself was barely touched, except for that bar on top, which was bent backward. I think it directed the Van up and over the hood. Would have been a lot worse if the nose of the hood had actually hit the bumper dead on. So, anyone have experience with hood damage like this? I actually have a replacement hood, although it has surface rust inside that I'd have to take care of in order to use it. It is even the same color! But how hard is it to fix a hood in this condition? This one, like the rest of the car, has essentially no rust, so it's a shame to have to trash it... I have to find my spare headlight buckets and see what shape they're in too...

I have a set of 4 aftermarket joints from VB, but their quality appears poor. After assembly of one of them, there was still obvious axial play. The Nissan joints come with mulitple circlips to get the axial play minimized, but the aftermarket joints have no such facility. Dtsnlvrs suggests Spicers, which I have seen advertised by MSA, but haven't looked for otherwise. The Nissan joints are slightly MORE expensive than Spicers from MSA. Are there other sources; for Spicers or otherwise high-quality U-joints that people would suggest? And Tomo - No, there is no pinhole.

Well, I just invested a chunk of change in a set of 4 Nissan half-shaft U-joints (37126-VB925). Just opened them tonight. And interestingly, they have no provision for grease fittings! I am somewhat surprised, and wondering how much grease I need to put in the joint when I put it together, since I'll never get another chance... The caps are fairly well filled with the "normal" yellow Nissan grease. The cross-piece, however, is totally devoid of grease. Should I pack the cross piece with grease before assembly? I can't think of any downside to doing so, and the spinning of the joint ought to then keep that grease forced toward the caps where it is needed... Any suggestions are appreciated. It's been a long time since I've done U-joints...

Well, I was in a local restaurant a couple of days ago, and my '78 280Z was parked to the right of a big pick 'em up truck. We were both pointed out into the lane of traffic. The 'older' gentleman that owned the truck apparently got in it, pulled out, and turned right a little too early. The lower panel of his truck, just in front of his right rear tire hit the left side of my front bumper, on the plastic end piece. He moved about 3 feet after he started hearing the "squeal" of his truck rubbing along that plastic. He came back in to get me, leaving his truck in place so I could back up and try to minumize any further damage. So I backed up. And looking at the two vehicles, there was a little rubbed place on the plastic of my bumper (not visible from 3 feet), and a three-foot "gash" down the side of his truck. My kids do more damage to my cars with their bikes! If I had been driving a Z with a 240-style bumper, it's pretty obvious that the guy would have been replacing my bumper, the left headlight bucket, and maybe more. As it is, he just has to fix his truck. So they may be ugly to some, but they come in handy!

Did you keep a pre-muffler of any kind, or just the flowmaster at the back? How's it sound? Quiet enough?

OK, so I got the 280Z back on the road today! Yeah! However... Apparently there was a lot of condensation in the exhaust system over the winter. As the car warmed up, it was blowing some nice moisture clouds out of the system, which allowed me to see...2 rust holes in the muffler. Rats. So, I figure on replacing from the premuffler back, or possibly everything from the manifold back. Depends on what I find. There are quite a few threads on exhaust, and I've read quite a few of them. Seems that there are lots of scattered opinions and deisgns. It is highly unlikely that I will modify the engine anytime soon to put out much more than stock power. Probably in the next few years I'll pull the engine for a "refresh" (there are some oil leaks, and 130K right now), but even then it is likely that I'll go stock, or mild stuff. And I don't need loud. Nice and "strong" sounding is fine, but I don't need to go roaring around. I have my foot in the intake enough without advertising the fact . So, is there any real reason to go to a 2.5" system NOW, in case I need better flow in the future, or will 2.5" be a good thing even with a stock system? Since I have to spend $$ to replace things now anyway, I'd like to go with something that is a little future-proof. I can't spend mega-$, but I don't have to go ultra-cheap either. So would y'all out there suggest buying a "system" such as places like MSA or VB type places sell, or would having a shop fab something be better? Stainless looks expensive, but is there any good reason for it other than longevity? I have no idea if any of the muffler shops here in Champaign, IL are any good, but I guess I'll be finding out... Just found this problem a few hours ago, so I'm just getting the thinking process started. Thanks.

It's a '75 or '76 280Z 2+2.

Ah! There's a piece of info that I didn't have. No, the AC in the '78 is dealer-installed. I guess the AC in the '75 was factory then...

I don't believe that is correct. The cats were only standard on California cars. I have owned 2 '78 cars - one federal and one CA. The federal car did not have a cat. And it wasn't just removed, since the floor sensor and warning light system were not there either (That car is now in boxes in my garage - so I got a lot of experience on what it did and didnt' have). My current '78 daily driver is a CA car, and DOES have a cat. One other point is that both of these cars had manufacturing dates of 5/78, and VIN numbers that were only 4000 apart.

Space-saver Spare. I had a '75 280Z from '81 through '89, and now I have a '78 280Z. The raised rear deck is probably one of the worst things about the '78 compared to the '75. Much less hatch room, at least given my memory of the '75. Which admittedly is now 17 years old . The '75 had a full-size spare in a more-sunken spare tire well. The '77/78 have a shallow tire well in order to make the fuel tank a little bigger, with a space-saver spare, and the jack under the raised platform as well. One other point of difference is the darned vacuum control system in the '75 car. There was a vacuum storage bottle with a bunch of vacuum lines and solenoids for the cabin HVAC system that continuously caused me problems. The ends of the vaccum lines kept splitting, causing vaccum leaks. And I was too dim to just replace all the lines to fix the problem. Or maybe it was involved; I don't remember...the '78 has no such vacuum system.

As I noted in Post number 7 in this thread, I have done this job with just a hand pumped bicycle tire pump. You don't need a lot of pressure.

That would have been my guess, but I have very little experience with differing suspension setups, so I didn't want to overplay my knowledge...

On my '78, I went with all poly, plus tokico illumina shocks and stiffer springs. Rides stiff as heck over the winter-potholed roads around here, but corners like it's on rails. I can't tell how much of the harsh ride is due to the springs/shocks and how much is due to the bushings, but it's night and day compared to the worn-out stock setup that I removed from the car. Sounds like you would hate it, though.

If you find any, and have 2 extra, let me know!