280z1975

Anyone out here bought any of the many H4 headlamps you see when you search Ebay. I would like to replace mine while I have all the parts off but I wanted some opinions before I dished out some cash. I also wanted to know if I should upgrade my headlight harness when I upgrade my headlamps? Read something somewhere about a member who makes a plug and play relay but couldn't find the post or link. Thanks for the help ...

umm, I drove it like 4 miles from the mechanic to home after I got it running ... does that count? At least every once in a while I will start her up to hear the car purr ... one nice advantage to keeping the engine in tact while doing the work. Also handy for moving it around.

I have the same fear, so that is why I am doing they IMAW while I still have a DD to use. I have 7 weeks to get the Z ready before I move and my fiancee takes over my DD as her own. I am lucky in the fact that my job is pretty low key for the next 3 months and I have time to work on my Z each day. It's down to the frame, suspension and the engine at the moment, but as soon as i finish the interior and inside of the car I will be over the hill and can finally see the end of the tunnel. BTW, IMAW and WIAT (or WIAI) should be a registered problem for car-o-files and have it's own support groups :squareeye

In my case I am going to be welding new frame rails on ... and I will be able to coat the insides of these before I weld them on. If I destroy the por-15 on the inside it's not to big of a deal because 98% of it will still be intact ...

Well if they aren't popular would anyone out there like to sell me a wire wheel and cap cheap so I can at least complete my unpopular collection :lick: ? As far as cost in refurbishing them ... I was only going to spend time on cleaning the wheels up and painting them when I painted my car (not much extra effort) then polishing up the wire wheels. While I would love to get a new set of rims I don't have the money at the moment for new ones (Got things that are truely broke to fix) and the tires on these wheels still have a lot of life in them ...

Humm ... I think I may be in the market for some 15" rims ... Still, I do like the look of them ... but if the preform that bad I may just fix them up and sell them to someone who will use them for show rather than a daily driver ...

Arne, Thanks for the identification ... My uncle only had three of the wires and center peices because as he explained to me the design made the front drivers side prone to falling off. He said he replaced the wire and hubcap three times . So would these not be a good choice to put on my Z car (assuming i can find a replacement)? Anyone out there use these or have used these wheels in the past? I was thinking of going to 15" rims eventually because it is easier to find tires in that size and you have more choice. From what I have read the 14" tires are harder and harder to find.

Here is a photo to give a better idea what I am going to do. I will go back and reweld a bracket to reinforce the area I cut out but still provide access for cleaning. BTW, I found over 2 dollars in change in my car, an old rubber eraser and a Smurf Patch ...

I have read a little bit up on this in threads involving using Por-15 but have yet to get an answer. So right now I am about to Por-15 my whole floorpans and interior of my car along with a vast majority of the bottom of the car. One thing I need to do is to weld on new frame rails that are coming in some time next week. So my question is this? If I Por-15 the interior of my car then weld on the frame rails later in the week will I weaken the Por-15 or will it be fine? Should I wait and then Por-15 everything after the welding? Also, I plan to Por-15 the inside of the frame rails (Bad Dog Parts ones that fit over your existing frame rails) and will this affect the weld or the Por-15 on the inside? Thanks for the help.

Hello all, I have a bit of a problem. I need to find out what wheel types these wheels are as I only have three of the wire hubcaps and the 'A' wheelcaps. I really like the look they give and plan to re-chrome them all and have the acutal rims painted to match the car, Nissan paint code 305 Light Metalic Blue. If you know what type they are let me know. Then if possiable I would like to locate another wire hubcap and 'A' Wheelcap or just go ahead and replace the 'A' wheel caps with some Z logo ones. Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the ideas guys ... I hate rust, but then again, you can't be a Z lover and not hate it :lick: I have decided to cut a small hole on the sides of the mounts where they are not tack welded on to allow me access to the area underneath. Later on when I weld on my frame rails I will weld on some support brackets to strenghten and compensate for the removed metal (although I think it would still be strong enough without why risk it when it's my arse on the line in a wreck!). The idea of stripping down the car to the frame and getting it dipped is VERY appealing after spending two days getting off a bulk of the tar. But I don't have 1) the time and 2) the money. See, I wanted to see how well one could restore a Z on a limited budget and time frame but still have something you would be quite proud of. I am slowly but surely having the whole process happen. This car is a Texas car and has for most all of it's life been garage kept. The rust isn't the type you see in other cars, but it's there none the less.

I was planing to do this exact procedure (got a big old bucket of Por-15 and Metal Ready), but my question is more, should I cut away part of the mounting bracket so I can get to the rust under it? I can't get to it if I don't cut away or take the bracket off (it's welded on :stupid: ).....

Ok, a little advice that I haven't been able to find in the search forums. So I am about to start the cleaning and repair of my floor boards and I want to make sure I get all the rust. There is a good chance there is rust under the rear seat braket mounts. I would like to avoid taking them off (not even sure how to do this) but instead put a bit bigger hole in them so I can get to all the rust problems with ease. See attached photo for an idea of what I want to do. Or is it easier and better to take off the rear brackets?

I know this is an old thread, but thought I would add a little information. So the two photos are of the two types of removal, Heat Gun and Dry Ice. The heat gun worked and was a bit messy but at 15-20 bucks it's cheaper. The dry ice worked better on flat areas where it was in direct contact (and helped on the bottom side undercoating removal) but it cost me about 30 bucks. Still, I will go with the dry ice as it was a lot easier to work with and made things easier. The photos will show you the two type of techniques.

Ok, you win! I know mine isn't the worst out there, but the differance between my bad frame rail or and my good one is like night and day. When the sun went down I took a light and found the source of leak. My only concern is pluging it up would lead to any water going to another area!

Hey everybody. Got around to cutting off the rusted (and I mean really rusted) frame rail on the passenger side yesterday. I think I have sourced the problem of where the water is getting in there (it's somewhere in the battery tray area) but I would like to know if anyone knows of any other places that water can get in there? The driver side frame rail is solid and I have removed a lot of the tar from the bottom and have yet to find any rust, so I will let it be. I have some Bad Dog frame rails comming in the mail soon enough so I will be ready to make things all better soon enough. Is there any modification needed to the frame rails for the fuel lines which run right up on the inner side of the frame rail? BTW, it was kinda scary cutting that close to fuel lines, but I was careful. Some photos of the damage! Of all the problems on this Z, this is the worst.

Thanks for all the replies ... I should have some photos up soon of how the progress on the floor pans comes along. I have finally put together a photo album of my restoration project. http://gregggermer.com/photos/280z/album/ Ciao,

Thanks for the great ideas. I can get Dry Ice just down the road at the local grocery store and it should make for things going a whole lot easier for removal. Now once I remove all this tar/sound insulation, would some Por-15 and then soundproofing material (B-quiet Extreme (aka brown bread) be a sutable replacement?

Hello All, Well I have finally gotten my Z stripped to the point I would like it to be at. There isn't much on the inside or the outside (less the bottom) to be take off and I now have an idea of where my problem areas are. The first problem I want to address are the floor pans. I have attached some photos to show the extent of the damage. The driver side is rotted through with three pin hole size spots. The passenger side has rust in the same area but isn't all the way through. The entire area of my floor board seems to be covered in this tar crap and it is making it quite fun to try and find the rust and treat it. It's all over most of the area including the console area. Can I just spray paint stripper or aircraft remover to this stuff and get it off that way or should I just manually chip away at the bulk of it (as I started to do) and then get the leftover with paint remover? Do I need to worry about the transmission/console part of the interior (where I am 98% positive there is no rust) or can I just strip the floor pans and focus on that area (where I know there is rust)? I will also be redoing the underside of the car so I will get to any rust on that side also.

Yes, thank you for that clarification ... I posted that last night at like 2am when I was having trouble getting to sleep. I figured if I was up, why not think of more ways to make my Z nice ... The link provided allows for almost close to flush look on the Z, but I would like to go for a fully flush look for the side markers.

Thanks, that was exactly what I was looking for. I may go and try to find some clear lenses that would work with this set-up. When it's all done I will try and post a Technical Article for doing this.

If anyone knows of a post that has covered the idea of running the turn signals on an early Z car let me know. If not, anyone have any ideas or suggestions of where to start? I really like the curves of my 280z but really feel like the turn signals take away from it's appeal (and a fraction of aerodynamic drag ). My idea so far is to use the existing hole and fill in the screw holes and use some sort of back mounted system with a custom done rubber outter seal. Anyways, any ideas would be greaty welcomed.

Ok, so now that I know what bumper it is does anyone know how hard it would be to adapt this 240z styled air dam to my 280z. I really like the look of the front bumper being that small. I could go with the 280z one from MSA but if it's an easy mod I would like to do it.

Hello Everybody, I am in the middle of stripping down my Z at the moment and need to start thinking about a new front end (there are some parts that are damaged and the cost to replace them approaches that of a new air dam) so it's time to add a new front end to the car. :cheeky: I really like the front end in the attached photo but I have been unable to identify it. If you know where to be able to find it please let me know. Thanks for the help.

forget my post ... I wasn't thinking before my morning coffee ...