First Photoshoot

Well Friday night I got the first good pictures of the car. Soon I will get some interior photos together (once I get all the missing parts and wiring fixed). The exterior for the most part is in good shape. The bumpers and front spoiler need some work that I will tackle sooner than later, but the rest is in good shape. She sure does turn heads everywhere I go! After the pictures Heather and I went for a cruise on a curvy road... when I got her up to speed she started smoking a little and this time you could really smell it in the car. So I know I have an exhaust leak up front somewhere... one more thing on the list to fix... 

Luckily just the other day I drove by a muffler shop that had an early 70s Z (a 240z) sitting in their lot. So gonna run the Z over there to see about fixing the exhaust. Plus maybe I can find someone here in town with more Z experience.

Link to pictures: http://www.centellas.org/sam/teamplp/datsunz/pics/2010march-1stphotos/ 

Take Your Z to Work Day

TGIF. 

Decided today I would drive the Z to work. Maybe tonight after work I can take D out to dinner in the Z. We could kick it old school and go to Bonnie Doons and have a car hop serve us in the car. Make the Z remember her glory days. The problem is there are no cup holders for the milkshakes... So this week I have been working on the interior and figuring out all the wiring. It wasn't in as bad of shape as I thought... well that is the current diagnosis. I got all the harnesses plugged in, matched wires and the shift boot that was just laying in the car is now properly installed and has a nice MOMO shift knob installed that my wife got me for the SpecV.

I had fun this week doing all the research on the wiring inside the car. The car was originally an automatic so there are some wires in there that just don't go to anything anymore that the previous owners just left hanging. Plus in 1975 was the first year they had all the smog restrictions so I have wire harnesses for some EPA stuff that has since been removed from the car. The hard wiring project will be trying to figure out how to wire a radio into there... all the wires were cut so it will be a frustrating afternoon sitting there testing wire to wire to see what drives which speaker, power, etc. 

Until then, it is cruisin' in the Z with no tunes.

First Cruise in the Z

Well I got her out of the shop yesterday afternoon and we went for a cruise. Well, ran some errands, but I had the window rolled down and would of had the radio cranked up if it had one. Details details... 

First round of repairs got her road worthy. Basically a tune up, she got new spark plugs and a new injector (#1). We fixed one trans leak from the main seal to the output shaft. Next on the list is doing the brakes, I have never worked on drum brakes so we will see how it goes. 

So we took a cruise... I drove from the shop home, then to the BMV to get her registered and order my new title (yeah!). It took a lot of driving around to find the BMV... man IN makes everything difficult but I enjoyed the extra drive time. In between trips I snapped a couple pics of the Z... 

So good story... after the BMV I had to run to ACE. Sunday I dropped off my Z keys at ACE because I was in the hurry. Heather was going to pick them up for me. Well they gave my keys to someone else! Luckily they tracked down who they gave the keys to and got them for me... Whew it was the only set that came with the car! Unfortunately the keys were not cut well and didn't work. So I went down there to get them fixed... 10 key blanks later I finally got one ignition copy made that kinda worked, two ignition keys that sorta worked, and two new door keys. Hope not every project on the Z will be this hard! 

I finally made it home, it was dark already and luckily all the exterior lights work on her (side markers, headlights, brights, turn signals, dash lights, etc.). I took Heather out for her first cruise in the Z. We drove around the neighborhood, by the Frank Lloyd Wright house, and I put the peddle down a little. Felt good.

Back from the Doctor

Well she was in the shop for a few days. They found a laundry list of things I need to do... first order of business was finding why she was running rich and burning oil. Well Injector #1 was not functioning properly. I tracked down a part over the weekend, and we got that in as well as all new spark plugs. The cylinders all had good compression and with some adjustments to the idle she is running pretty well. 

The mechanical to do list right now... Replace both rear brake cylinders Air Flow Meter Boot and lots of other hoses are cracked and worn Leaking trans oil from the shifter assembly (very slow leak) New exhaust... I think from header back (at least new gaskets) Front suspension is fairly tight, but needs updates... 

Besides that she runs and drives great. The exterior of the car looks very nice, but the interior is missing a lot of parts. She doesn't have carpet, missing dash pieces, and the center console has seen better days. Some of the positives though are that the dash has no cracks and the windows and chrome trim are all in good shape. The seat belts are a little iffy so I need to get those replaced soon. Got her from the shop this afternoon and heading out to get her registered, keys made, and just enjoy driving her around!

Restoration Road - Step 1

So the first order of business was to get the car to the shop to get properly checked out. Well the car wouldn't start without needing to be jumped, so I figured, lets fix that first. Took the battery out (rusty bolts made the job 10 times harder than it needed to be) and got it tested. Battery as I suspected was bad, so I bought a new one and while I was at it got new battery cables (both). While under the hood I noticed a wire on my fusible link was being held together by one wire, so I made a new jumper wire for that as well. She turned right on, and I drove her to the shop. As I type she is at the shop getting checked out... it is nice getting her in a shop on a hoist to get a thorough check out. Wish her luck in there!

Introducing

Welcome to my newest Blog... "Me and My Z"... 

On March 15th, 2010 I traded in my Sentra SpecV and got a 1975 Datsun 280Z. For those who know me have seen me drool over Z cars for over a decade. I always wanted to get a 1978 Datsun so I could own a car my same age and we could grow old together... Well I decided to just shop for a good deal and find a fun Z to drive. I also am a firm believer that patience is a virtue, and that things happen for the right reasons. 

Well the weekend of March 14th I had a consulting gig in Chicago. So I did a quick craigslist search and there was a nice looking 280Z. I looked up the address, and it was 2 miles from the location I was consulting at on Sunday and Monday. WOW. So I decided to drive the SpecV to Chicago that weekend (usually only drive it in the summer), and to add to the odd timing the registration on my SpecV expired that week, so selling her also saved me new registration (I put off registering her since I was shopping for a new car).

The car was nearly rust free, had a fairly new paint job, mostly complete interior (missing radio, some panels and carpet) and turned right on. She smoked a little, actually a lot, and she was running rich and burning a little oil. I took her for a drive and she shifted well, suspension was decent and the brakes worked. She kept smoking though... 

Well I worked a great deal on the car (I think) and the dealer paid to put her on a flat bed and drive me home. As I was leaving the dealer asked if I wanted all his Datsun stuff, he threw in two big boxes of stuff (interior parts, gaskets, new hoses, new battery tray, etc.). Here is a picture of her from the lot of the dealer. When I got to town I took her to my shop to diag the motor and start my list of repairs. 

Wish me luck on this new fun adventure!