280Z Black Pearl in red

TVRSimon

Club Member
Hi All,

I purchased a 280Z black pearl (1978) in red....back in January from VegaClassics i think some of you may now or have seen the car in Southampton when imported.

I figured it was about time i joined up as i start to embark on the process of restoring.

The car has a few quirks for example i have to go through the boot to open the doors but overall its in pretty good shape with the exception of one rust hole in the rear drivers area.

It has a few issues which I have been slowly sorting out mainly brake related and have already managed to source a new booster and master cylinder (280ZX combined with a wilwood MC) which seems to have fixed the problem. I have kept the original booster and MC on the hope of repairing but not sure how easy it is to find the kits etc.

The car is now registered after a pretty straight forward inspection (also tax exempt) so the plan is to get the brakes finished and then get some basic running to find other issues before taking it off the road and starting the restoration process.

I have not fully decided what to do in terms of finish and look of the car and although I like the idea of returning it to a Black Pearl' edition i'm not embarking on this to keep the purists happy and i'm not a fan of black cars or the massive bumpers which just have to go!!

I've attached a couple of pics of the car back in Jan from the original advert surprisingly i have not taken any of my own!! (Hopefully i have uploaded these correctly!)

2.jpg 3.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    477.8 KB · Views: 65

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Welcome, the car looks well. Yes those bumpers are huge.

'rear driver's area' - obviously a typing error?

Why paint it at all?
 

chris frizzell

Club Member
i have a 280z you can get convertion brackets to put euro bumper on . off ebay usa also get better mpg scrapped mine and i think they where melted down to build a super tanker. have fun and welcome chris
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
Great colour - I echo Robs' thought !

A Black Pearl version might only have any 'original' value if in the States and even then I'm not sure.
 

TVRSimon

Club Member
Thank you for the welcome. Sounds like I don't need to get too hung up about it being a Black Pearl.

The colour is already gone and I think the 'racing' mirrors have been replaced, so the only thing left is the noisy rear louvre and the peeling paint sticker with '638' on it!!

I'll start a thread in the rebuilds section to record progress once I get started in the hope of getting it to some events next year.
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
When you say noisy louvre, is that because of the wind noise or the 'chatter' of it on the back window (if loose) etc ...
 

TVRSimon

Club Member
I wish i could say it was the wind noise but not driven the car properly yet.

Its more to do with my unorthodox approach to having to open the car through the hatch and noticing it is quite lose especially when the hatch is closed.

It has the standard rubber between the louvre and the body but the fixing bolts are quite lose where the bolt goes into the lock which means it moves quite a bit.

Another thing on my list to resolve at some point!!
 
Top