Kevin McSweeney

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!

Yeah, i don’t know the entire history of it, but I know it was garages in Reno for quite a few years! And of course I may find more rust as I strip, but so far so good.