Make: Datsun
Model: 260Z 2+2
Year: 1976
Engine: L26
Transmission: 5spd Manual (was auto)
Current Engine and Mods
Features a crow cam
Orginal 240z Twin SU carbies
Exposed K&N Air Filters
Custom Extractors and a full 2.5 Inch Straight through Exhaust with stainless tip on end
280zx Electric Igniton
Removal of orginal electric and manual fuel pump in favour of high flow RX7 series 4 fuel pump
Exterior Mods
Dark Tinting
Old Skool Alloys
Darken Rear Facia and rear lights
Alteza Headlights
Interior Mods
Pioneer MP3 Player
Kicker 6 inch Splits in front
Pioneer 2 way 6 inch speakers in rear
Sansui 10" Sub
Kicker Carbon Fiber 440 Watt RMS 4 Channel Amp
Blacked interior
THE STORY
As you can imagine being on one of these sites I'm a bit of a car nut. Haha! Imagine that. I've always loved cars, specially old skool cars. My current pride and joy is my 1976 Datsun 260Z 2+2. I've had this little puppy for over 4 years now and its been a joy everyday. It currently has the 2.6L straight 6 with, 240z carbs, K&N exposed air filters, revier crow cam, electric ignition from a 280zx, efi fuel pump from an RX7, and full exhaust system which means both extractors and a good 2.5inch exhaust with stainless steal tip.I converted the car from auto to manual and didn't that make a good power difference. Oh YEA! The car was painted about 7 years ago but rust bubles appeared not long after I bought it.
I've add a few other touches just to make the car more liveable. I relifed the Aircon so it actually worked and made cold air not just move hot air. Got to love that in Aussie Summers. I grew it a sound system. A pair of 120 Watt RMS each 6 inch Kicker Splits went in the front. A pair of 6 inch 2 way 100 watt RMS Sony speakers went in the back. Currently it has a Sony MP3 player pumping power to a Kicker 440 watt RMS four cannel pro comb carbon fiber cased amplifier. (sounds great doesn't look that fancy.)Added to that I've a baby Sansui 10" in a ported box. Nothing flash but when it fires straight past your ear its loud enough for the moment.
The car received some nice dark tinting. Looks good with the blue though I found the original blue to light for my liking. In fact the tinting was the very first thing I did to the car when I got it. I also had it dyno tuned when I got it and pulled 110RWHP and 300ftlb of torque from the car. Quite happy.
They original came with sealed beams. I replaced with semi sealed alteza style lenses. They are brilliant. So good my other car got given a pair even though it had decent headlights to start with. I added a set of 6 inch driving lights behind the grill so its nice and hidden, chucked some LED bulbs in the reverse lenses for a brighter rear light and then just maxed the wattage out on all other bulbs for maxium brightness. The back facia panel was also painted black with the rear lights getting a colouring to complete the look.
The stock wheels soon went the way of the ghost and on went some fatter 14s. The extra track width is an asset to these cars. Along with adding a stereo I had to do something with the interior. The car already had an electric sunroof. Full roof panel with hidden cavity. Very tidy. The dash while featuring a couple of cracks looks great with sunken gauges but all that cream. So hard to keep clean when your me. And at the time this car became my daily driver. Notice the that its got a crappy stereo and auto t bar in this photo. Its an old one. So I changed all the cream to black and ripped out the back seats so it was a proper coupe. I used vynal spray paint. The first black photo shows how badly I did it at first. oops. Got better. Well I just kept spraying till it was black really.:D
I belong to a local group of zed fans. Newcastle zeds
Here we talk about zeds, organise events, meet up, talk gossip etc. Good bunch of guys most of the time. Drop in and see us all sometime.
One of my zed crew is a mate of mine and has 13 last count between him and his father. You can see his 76 coupe here next to my 2 +2. The coupe is shorter and only has two seats while the 2+2 it almost a foot longer and has what sometimes passes for tiny children as back seats. Maybe good for a lap dog really. We are seen here at the MAD car show which is a yearly event in Swansea for all cars from hot rods to hi tech cars. Usually when the car is running I'll go to all the little local shows like that one as one its good to meet people, great day out with parking provided if you enter and you just don't see enough old skool zeds in shows in Australia.
FUTURE PLANS FOR THE CAR??
Well currently I'm slowly stripping the car down for rust repair and repaint. I'm going to paint it in midnight blue. I've found that in most sections of the car where it features double skins, like the beaver panel, sills, doglegs etc it has a good amount of rust. Nothing that can't be fixed. A mate of mine is going to help teach me to weld up the metal and paint the car. I make holes mostly with welders at the moment :D
I'm replacing the Heart of the car with a buick 3800 V6. Its going in fairly stock to start with. It will be a nice power upgrade from what I currently have. While not as revy, the torque will be nice and the EFI a great bonus. Plus parts and upgrades for these engines are so common and easy to get hold of. The engine will be mated up to a T5 borg warner box (5 sp man). Originally I planned to do some engine work but for now it will all stay fairly stock till its engineered and on the road fully. Then I'll go nuts
Well like everything else what I planned for the rear end I've changed my mind. I'm going to keep my original diff and change the guts. I purchsed a 3.89 28 spline centre from an R31 skyline. I'm going to try and put that inside my diff housing. Hopefully it will all work out. The drum brakes on the rear are disappearing for R31 rear disc braked items as well. The front will recieve toyota hilux four pot calipers while a 280ZX master cylinder will replace the 260Z item to maintain the correct bias for braking.
The suspension will need to be moded as the new engine is so much lighter then the one in the car. It will need to be lowered. I have new inserts for the struts but are yet to source springs till I see how high it sits.
Other things I plan to do include electric windows and a range of LED bulbs and lights to replace the old lighting in the car. I'm going to install a set of angel eyes and some corner lights as well. Can never have to much performance base lighting (by that I mean the corner lights not the angel eyes lol). I plan to convert the back lights completely to LED gutting the original lights to make the new ones. Should be interesting. Luckily I've a spare pair.
If you want to see how I'm going with the rebuild have a look on the next couple of pages ;) or you could just stare at the next photo and try and guess. Its all under wraps for now. Haha!
Be sure to check out the last page to see some pics of my mates hot rod another work in progress. Feel free to write me a message I respond to them all. Cheers!
The body work will get some minor work. The back end will be frenched, a chin spoiler added to the front, the sills will get skirts of a type, the cones will be welded to the guards, the badge and antena holes deleted and a rear lip spoiler added.
As for the interior? I've no idea. Still to think that far ahead.
Just a quick sneak peak picture of the V6 in the engine bay....its on the way!
Feel free to drop past my mates workshop for any custom work you could want. Rods Trucken Trailers
