***Other new pictures on page 4 and updates are on Page 9***
Page 1 General Overview <--
Page 2 Old car and friend's cars
Page 3 Future plans and downtown pics
Page 4 Miscellaneous Pictures
Page 5 Drag racing
Page 6 Engine Work
Page 7 Upgrades
Page 8 Dream Cars
Page 9 Updates
Page 10 Donor Cars and Turbo
>>> Also, check out my 87 Buick Century after looking at my Z <<<
------------------------------------------------------------Brief Overview-------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not an import guy, but I really fell in love with the original Z design. I found mine in the summer of 2004. It has about 175hp. The car makes an excellent fair weather/weekend car, but also works great as a daily driver and always starts right up. I still have some of work to do as you can see, but its still in pretty good shape. I need some minor body work done, and the car needs painted, but thats really about it. Its a pretty quick car, maybe not much of a drag racer. Maybe when I do my turbo swap I'll be able to hold my own at the strip, but put me on a circut track and i give you a run for your money. Circut racing is what these early Z's were known for. I chose the Z because of its looks and its overall performance, not mearly on 1/4 mile specs. There are a lot of Camaros, Firebirds and Mustangs around here, but very few classic Z cars (I think i've seen 6 other S30's ever). To me, if its not American, or an Exotic supercar, it had better be an original model Z. My second choice to a first gen Z (240Z, 260Z, 280Z) would be a Firehawk/Trans-Am or Camaro Z28 SS. My all time dream muscle car would be a 1970 Chevelle SS 454.
This is my 1977 280Z. I got it for $1,350 in July 2004. I didn't really start driving it until October when I got it all paid off and got the tags and everything worked out. First thing I did was give it a total brake overhaul, which ended up costing about as much as the car did. It was worth it to be able to finally drive it though. Let me tell you, nothing is more difficult than driving an 87 Buick around when you have a 280Z sitting unused at home. Since then, there have been several occasions when the car has sat while I've driven other cars. Now I drive the Geo more often because of how expensive gas has become.
---------------------------------------------------------------The Motor-------------------------------------------------------------
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Under the hood, its got a 2.8l Nissan OHC L28 inline 6. It puts out 170Hp stock. Not much to brag about, i know, but unless you have taken your car to the track and can show me a time slip proving it's faster, then you can't talk crap. (This message is directed to rice boys) So far, i've built up a little kill list. These are the ones I remember:
1. 99 Grand-Am
2. S10 Xtreme
3. 2000+ Hyundai Tiberon GT
4. 83 Datusn 280ZX Turbo
5. some lame Vtech Civic
6. Older body style Grand Prix with a wing and neons lol
7. 99 S-10 V6 longbed *sorry kyle ;-)*
8. Some little fag in a Saturn lol. even ended up giving him a cars length head start!
9. That same kid who i made a fool of in my Buick driving the riced out Sable!!
10. Early 90's Pontiac Boneville. I cant say for sure I know he was racing, but he sure took off in a hurry at the light and didn't slow down when i flew past him.
11. 2000+ Olds Alero. 170hp V6 model. Close race, but I walked away at about 50mph.
Cars I couldn't beat lol!:
1. maroon C4 Corvette
2. a red C4 ZR1 Corvette (Yes, I said ZR-1. I know this because not only did it have the badges, it had the 3rd brake light mounted on the top outside of the hatch. The regular C4 had it on the inside.)
------------------------------------------------------------Everything Else----------------------------------------------------------
Famous "Z" sugar scoop headlights
Anyone who has ever owned a car this old knows how much work it is to keep it going. Add that to making it a daily driver. For me, this car is not only a hobby, its something that is part of my daily life. Keeping it up and running is not an easy task. There are times when I was about to throw in the towl and call it quits. For those of you with newer cars, you can't understand how hard it is to do upgrades and paint jobs when you are constanty having to fix things. There has been something wrong with this car as long as I've had it. The amount of money and time its takes to own and drive somthing like this isn't easy to explain unless you've lived with it. Hopefully the little I've been able to do in the time I've had it shows. It doesn't look a lot different than it did 2 years ago, but I can tell you that it is not the same car at all.
Inside its a 2 seater 5 speed. I got the seats reupholstered December 2004 with duplicate vinyl of the original. Almost looks like leather eh? I really wish I had taken some pictures of the inside when I first got it. It was pretty messed up and looked like crap. Since I got the car, the inside was is what has been improved the most. I also just recently replaced my old Pioneer audio cassette player with a new Kenwood CD player. Very nice with USB and Aux line in.
The Guages and wheel. All original and everything works except the clock which is a common problem on these early Z cars. I'm gonna try and rebuild it once i get a chance.
Here are a few shots of my new Sony XPlodes and the Audiobahn speakers. They replaced the $7 Wal*Mart ones I had in there before. Finally after almost 4 years I have some good quality audio going on. Still got that nice engine rumble too when the music gets old.
-------------------------------Before--------------------------------------------------------------After----------------------------
The pic on the left is one of the original wheels. On the right is a pic of the 280ZX wheels on the car now. Not only do the alloys look better than the hubcaps, but they also have all centercaps. Below are pics of them when they were first picked up and right before i had them put on the car. Once the dirt and crap was removed, there were some nice wheels underneith. More pictures of the wheels are on Page 4
Just a shot of it with everything opened up. The little doors on the side of the hood allow easy access to the battery and Master Cylinders.
The rear window has louvers on it. You can see how they kept the carpet in the back black whereas up closer to the front, it faded to a dark brown after 28 years in the sun.
The rear badges. 1977 was the first year the Z came in a 5 speed (until then it had only 4 or auto) so they gave it an extra badge for that.
The pic on the left is how it looks now. On the right is how it looked when I first brought it home. Its been cleaned up quite a bit since then. The biggest difference you can see in the picture is the new wheels and the hood emblem. It didn't have one for about 7 months, and the wheels are only a VERY recent addition. Basically one of the only cosmetic improvemts that is noticible. However, the paint looks MUCH better now than it used to. The color is deeper, much shinier, and the oxidation on the sides has been removed.
This is a cool picture I think. It is a shot of the car in front of the original owner's house. The car was bought in Seattle Washington and shipped to this house here in Wichita back in 1977. Unfortunately the original owner doesn't live there anymore, but its cool to see what it may have looked like to see the car parked here back when it was new. I made it an age enhansed version that kinda looks like it was taken back in the 70's just for the heck of it. An original version of the picture can be found on page 4.
Its amazing what some rubbing compound and a lot of time will do to 30 year old paint. I worked on the hood, roof and rear so they are pretty nice when they are clean. It still needs paint, but it looks a little better now than it did when i first brought it home. I really don't know if I want to stick with the original color or change it to a deep Viper blue. There are lots of issues that come up when changing the color of the car like door jams, engine bay etc.
Page 1 General Overview <--
Page 2 Old car and friend's cars
Page 3 Future plans and other Z's
Page 4 Miscellaneous Pictures
Page 5 Drag racing
Page 6 Engine Work
Page 7 Upgrades
Page 8 Dream Cars
Page 9 Updates
