Fonzerelli_jnr
Forum User
Hi All,
As you can tell I'm new here and I am hoping people will be kind enough to give me some advice / answer some questions.
I have been offered a 1979 280 zx 2+2 and I would like to know a bit more about what I'm getting into.
As a bit of a background I've spent too many hours and too much money on an '81 celica that was a rust bucket but has got to the waiting for paint stage and also have a '91 supra turbo and two early '90's accords (that's just the Jap stuff). As a result of this I am all too aware of how something that looks not too bad can end up like pulling on a thread that never stops unraveling and that some parts are just not available.
So, the Datsun. The car itself is pretty solid. The sills need a little tidying at the ends but look ok. There are some previous patch repairs to the rear section of the front inner wheel arches and a couple of small ones that need doing but no major dramas. The scuttle panel under the windscreen looks suspicious in that I think it has had a skim of filler over the top. It worries me that this is a problem area on these cars?
As to the wheel arches. Well, there aren't any. The front ones are non existent and whilst it has rear arches they are completely filler and feel about three times as thick as they should be. The lower font valance corner panels are also so bad it is not possible to repair them.
Having had a quick google it would seem pattern front wings are available at a price but the lower valance corners not. Do decent corners ever come up and if so are they ridiculously pricey?
Rear wheel arch repairs for the 2+2 are not seemingly available but standard coupe ones are. I can't be the only person that has had this problem with the rear arches so has anyone found a workaround? Can you cut up standard coupe ones and make a profile that fits maybe? On the celica I cut a front wing profile out and fiddled that in on the rear to solve the problem and unless you could see both rear arches at the same time you could never tell that it's not quite the same as the difference is minimal.
Any advice that someone that has been here before can give me would be gratefully received. I am prepared to hear the news that there is no easy solution without spending hours and a lot of cash and in that case I'm not sure this is for me.
Many thanks,
Pete.
As you can tell I'm new here and I am hoping people will be kind enough to give me some advice / answer some questions.
I have been offered a 1979 280 zx 2+2 and I would like to know a bit more about what I'm getting into.
As a bit of a background I've spent too many hours and too much money on an '81 celica that was a rust bucket but has got to the waiting for paint stage and also have a '91 supra turbo and two early '90's accords (that's just the Jap stuff). As a result of this I am all too aware of how something that looks not too bad can end up like pulling on a thread that never stops unraveling and that some parts are just not available.
So, the Datsun. The car itself is pretty solid. The sills need a little tidying at the ends but look ok. There are some previous patch repairs to the rear section of the front inner wheel arches and a couple of small ones that need doing but no major dramas. The scuttle panel under the windscreen looks suspicious in that I think it has had a skim of filler over the top. It worries me that this is a problem area on these cars?
As to the wheel arches. Well, there aren't any. The front ones are non existent and whilst it has rear arches they are completely filler and feel about three times as thick as they should be. The lower font valance corner panels are also so bad it is not possible to repair them.
Having had a quick google it would seem pattern front wings are available at a price but the lower valance corners not. Do decent corners ever come up and if so are they ridiculously pricey?
Rear wheel arch repairs for the 2+2 are not seemingly available but standard coupe ones are. I can't be the only person that has had this problem with the rear arches so has anyone found a workaround? Can you cut up standard coupe ones and make a profile that fits maybe? On the celica I cut a front wing profile out and fiddled that in on the rear to solve the problem and unless you could see both rear arches at the same time you could never tell that it's not quite the same as the difference is minimal.
Any advice that someone that has been here before can give me would be gratefully received. I am prepared to hear the news that there is no easy solution without spending hours and a lot of cash and in that case I'm not sure this is for me.
Many thanks,
Pete.
