Sunbaked '76 Cali 280z

[Robotsan]

Thought I may as well start a build thread as my 280z finally arrived this morning at 8am sharp!



I'd say I had similar levels of excitement to Christmas 1995, but with a bit dollop of "oh shit, what have I done?" on top.

The car has spent it's entire life so far in California, but of course, it had to be pissing it down on its first day in Manchester. So I quickly got it into the garage and went back to work. Amazing how much space there is around it in there compared to the beemer which usually lives there! I'll actually be able to work on it in the garage which is a result.



First things first, @SacCyclone you were right, the metal is super clean and tidy! No sign of any bad rust anywhere (yeah yeah, I know it'll be there somewhere!) - just little spots of surface rust where the paint has been chipped.

Hatch slam panel almost looks new:



And not a hint of rust in the spare wheel well:



And bar the right wing which has a dent, the panels are beautifully straight:



The car came off the trailer and started first time, which shocked me, as the shipping company marked it as a non runner on the arrival inspection sheet. Bonus!

For the first few minutes it sounded quite lumpy and the idle hunted about a bit. Then it started to sound a lot smoother. But when I give it some throttle, it almost dies when the revs come back down. See video below.

Any starters for 10 on the cause? Time to go through the EFI Bible I guess?

Also quite a bit of sooty deposit was left on the drive, so perhaps it's running a bit rich? I'm very much a noob home mechanic, so this is just guesswork.

Tomorrow I'll pull the plugs out one by one and see what they look like.

Then when I next get a free day, I'll drain some fuel out of the tank to see what state that's in, and take it from there.

Oil is super clean and new looking, and plenty in there:



And the engine bay in general looks tidy:



With a few exceptions. What was meant to be connected to this?!:



New looking AFR (I think?) But old cracked rubber tubing after that with some dodgy blue patching. Could that be affecting the idle?

 

[Robotsan]

And some of what I think are the covers for the plugs (?) on top of the injectors are cracked. Which I guess is better than the actual injectors being cracked, but also suggests they are original and might be best replaced?



And one of the HT leads appears to be a right angle type while the rest are normal?!



Another perished looking cover:



Oh and the aerial has a problem What's missing here then, some sort of grommet or plug to hold it?:




Nice to see the original tools and the Toyo spare is still in there too though, and looks unused:






Plans for the car are:

Get it running nicely!

Strip out the remaining interior, including original sound deadening.

Paint all floors with POR15 or similar, then body colour.

Install new modern sound deadening to floors, doors and roof.

Install new vinyl headliner, new vinyl for trans tunnel & strut towers, new door cards and new carpets.

Stick dash cap down and install new non-cracked console.

Get some stainless 240z style bumpers, front corner indicators, and air dam from Classic Composites.

Then onto a custom exhaust, maybe fit the flat top SUs Mike kindly chucked in the car, then BC BR coilovers, nice wheels etc.. and then, who knows! All a long way off, and my bank account is going to take a pasting.

Oh, and brakes. I'm not sure what to expect having never driven a car this old before, but *I think* there's a lot of travel and sponginess, judging by the 5 mph test drive out of my drive and back. Will need someone who knows these cars to tell me if they're alright or not.

Onwards and upwards! Shit.. what have I done?

 

[Robotsan]

Found a photo Mike sent me while he had the car. So this bit of the aerial has somehow gone missing in transit

 

[SeanDezart]

Congrats on the new baby - in the photo on the truck, the sills look iffy - no ?

 

[SacCyclone]

Transport or shipper could not figure out how to get the radio mast down so probably removed the mast hold down assembly...maybe check inside the car for the assembly?

Who knows how many times the car was started briefly to move around and it may just be loaded up due to cold start activation every time and never brought up to temp. Plugs are new so remove and clean up and then warm it up a bit.

Previous owner said that the tank had been done and when I got the car there was hardly any gas so I put in a fresh 5 gallons.

Happy that it and all the parts arrived safely.

Mike

 

[Mr.G]

That looks like an awesome project. Nice and straight panels. You have a great journey ahead of you

As for the brakes, check condition of rotor and pads, flush and bleed with new Dot 4 fluid. Change oil as a matter of course, filters (air and fuel), plugs and leads, drain fuel (drain plug under tank) and check condition. If flaky I'd get a.ahop to Renutank it, or kits are available, eg Frost.

Are you keeping stock? Lots of that emissions stuff can come off.

Inspect fuel hoses, old looking rigid ones need changing. Check for vacuum leaks, even the dipstick not down properly will affect idle and running.

I've never really got on with POR15, but I know others have, if the floors don't need painting I'd keep them original.

What have you done? The right thing and got a Z!

 

[Robotsan]

Congrats on the new baby - in the photo on the truck, the sills look iffy - no ?

Nope, clean as a whistle. Got the nasty US running strips on though, so they'll be coming off eventually.

 

[Robotsan]

Transport or shipper could not figure out how to get the radio mast down so probably removed the mast hold down assembly...maybe check inside the car for the assembly?

Who knows how many times the car was started briefly to move around and it may just be loaded up due to cold start activation every time and never brought up to temp. Plugs are new so remove and clean up and then warm it up a bit.

Previous owner said that the tank had been done and when I got the car there was hardly any gas so I put in a fresh 5 gallons.

Happy that it and all the parts arrived safely.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I'll have a look for said bits. The aerial extension is usually controlled by the radio right? Just by turning it on and off? Or is there a separate switch?

Thanks I will check the plugs today - great news about them being new and the tank being cleaned out - I had a feeling you mentioned that.

And yeah the parts are all there too - and all the new door cards are perfect so we needn't have worried about that

 

[Robotsan]

That looks like an awesome project. Nice and straight panels. You have a great journey ahead of you

As for the brakes, check condition of rotor and pads, flush and bleed with new Dot 4 fluid. Change oil as a matter of course, filters (air and fuel), plugs and leads, drain fuel (drain plug under tank) and check condition. If flaky I'd get a.ahop to Renutank it, or kits are available, eg Frost.

Are you keeping stock? Lots of that emissions stuff can come off.

Inspect fuel hoses, old looking rigid ones need changing. Check for vacuum leaks, even the dipstick not down properly will affect idle and running.

I've never really got on with POR15, but I know others have, if the floors don't need painting I'd keep them original.

What have you done? The right thing and got a Z!

From a George to a George - thanks!

I will have a look at the brakes, but I think you said they'd been gone through @SacCyclone didn't you? So I suspect it's more me not knowing what they're like as standard!

Are there any relatively cheap ways to sharpen them up? Toyota Hilux calipers I've seen mentioned?

Will be mostly stock - although I think I'll be getting the twin SUs that Mike gave me refurbished and installed if the EFI gear plays up.

Thanks I'll check the fuel hoses. Are we talking just in the engine bay, or around the tank too? I'm guessing between the two it's hard lines right?

The floors have already have some POR15 on as there as Mike repaired a hole made by the heater core leaking. Which got into the shagpile carpets and started surface rust around the floors. So I just want to get the last little specs of that and get the rest of the old sound deadening off so there's nowhere for it to hide!

 

[Jason McIvor]

Great looking project

Remarkable how similar the engine bay is to mine - also ex-California
Patched air rubbers, hunting idle, vacuum hose holes, etc are all very similar to what I had to do

No doubt the holes won't be helping the idle but also check for quality/cleanliness of the petrol getting to the injectors. I had to replace injectors and clean fuel tank (along with replacing the rubbers etc) and now runs really well

Also some air quality/smog stuff in there that you can blank off and get rid of

Good luck with it

 

[Robotsan]

Great looking project

Remarkable how similar the engine bay is to mine - also ex-California
Patched air rubbers, hunting idle, vacuum hose holes, etc are all very similar to what I had to do

No doubt the holes won't be helping the idle but also check for quality/cleanliness of the petrol getting to the injectors. I had to replace injectors and clean fuel tank (along with replacing the rubbers etc) and now runs really well

Also some air quality/smog stuff in there that you can blank off and get rid of

Good luck with it

Thanks! Yeah we're seeing very close similarities with @BenjEtch 's Cali 280z too. Not surprising with what heat does to rubber I guess!

What sorted your idle out may I ask? Or was it just many things together?

Hopefully from what Mike is saying, the fuel should be good, but I will drain a little fuel anyway to make sure.

Yeah lots of EGR stuff isn't there. Is there any perform benefit from removing anything yet?

Or is it a case of if it isn't broke don't fix it?

 

[Jason McIvor]

Thanks! Yeah we're seeing very close similarities with @BenjEtch 's Cali 280z too. Not surprising with what heat does to rubber I guess!

What sorted your idle out may I ask? Or was it just many things together?

Hopefully from what Mike is saying, the fuel should be good, but I will drain a little fuel anyway to make sure.

Yeah lots of EGR stuff isn't there. Is there any perform benefit from removing anything yet?

Or is it a case of if it isn't broke don't fix it?

Idle Fix
- was a mix of things tbh. Firstly a little bit of blocked injectors (dry and dirty petrol), this was easy to hear cos the 5th cylinder was missing. But I think the key thing for idle were the vacuum hoses (I only had to replace one) and the hose from AFM to throttle - initially I glued the rubber together and that worked really well but was always a concern so I just replaced it. Idle was great after that.
I also completely overhauled the AFM - took it apart, cleaned it, oiled it, and moved the carbon analogue dial about half a millimeter to make sure a good signal was being generated. Good youtube "how to" for this

Fuel
- if your fuel tank is really dirty, along with the filter etc you may notice that the engine "hunts" for fuel when the tank is below half-full. But if the tank is full of petrol the car runs pretty well. If this happens then clean the tank

EGR
- absolutely, if it's not broke leave it there until you get the rest of it done. No performance gain and a tiny weight gain by throwing the carbon box in the bin

 

[Mr Tenno]

Looks like a great base for a project! Glad it arrived safe and sound.

Strip out the remaining interior, including original sound deadening.

Install new modern sound deadening to floors, doors and roof.

Be really sure you need to do this before starting, it's laborious to remove and a big, messy job to re-apply neatly.

 

[Robotsan]

Looks like a great base for a project! Glad it arrived safe and sound.



Be really sure you need to do this before starting, it's laborious to remove and a big, messy job to re-apply neatly.

Yeah I'm not expecting a fun time I'll judge it again once I've got the seats out, but think I'd like to to be on the safe side, because there was so much moisture down there and a lot of rust before Mike got to work on it. He removed most of the sound deadening on the floor, but the trans tunnel and rear part still has it, so just worried it could trap moisture again, or is continuing to.

So I'll have to put new sound deadening on the floor anyway, so may as well do a good job on the whole floor and trans tunnel is my thinking.

Heard dry ice is the way to get the deadening stuff off!

 

[Robotsan]

Idle Fix
- was a mix of things tbh. Firstly a little bit of blocked injectors (dry and dirty petrol), this was easy to hear cos the 5th cylinder was missing. But I think the key thing for idle were the vacuum hoses (I only had to replace one) and the hose from AFM to throttle - initially I glued the rubber together and that worked really well but was always a concern so I just replaced it. Idle was great after that.
I also completely overhauled the AFM - took it apart, cleaned it, oiled it, and moved the carbon analogue dial about half a millimeter to make sure a good signal was being generated. Good youtube "how to" for this

Fuel
- if your fuel tank is really dirty, along with the filter etc you may notice that the engine "hunts" for fuel when the tank is below half-full. But if the tank is full of petrol the car runs pretty well. If this happens then clean the tank

EGR
- absolutely, if it's not broke leave it there until you get the rest of it done. No performance gain and a tiny weight gain by throwing the carbon box in the bin

OK cool. I will get the plugs out tonight and see how they look, clean them if need be and will also run the car for longer afterwards, like Mike advised.

Might also pull that AFM to throttle hose out and see if I can silicone up the holes or cracks.

Interesting about the AFM, thanks.

 

[Robbie J]

It looks really clean, a few pic's of the rails would be interesting. I think in condition its close to what I had if not better. I had one sill at the back had a bubble and was worse once we got it off.

Good find

 

[Makesy]

Enjoy! Let the fun begin!

 

[Geoff-R]

A man after my own heart, an E46 and an S30, you must be used to rust

 

[Robotsan]

It looks really clean, a few pic's of the rails would be interesting. I think in condition its close to what I had if not better. I had one sill at the back had a bubble and was worse once we got it off.

Good find

I'm not 100% sure which bits you mean, but here's some photos Mike sent me shortly after he got the car. It was pretty dirty back then as apparently the owner lived up in the hills!








You can see the hole in the floor that Mike had welded up in this photo:





Bit of surface rust on that seam underneath here, which I'll treat, but the actual doglegs are incredibly clean:

 

[Robotsan]

A man after my own heart, an E46 and an S30, you must be used to rust

Haha! You know what, I've been really lucky with my E46s. This M3 is my 3rd, and its in really good nic. The inner rear arches have a tiny bit starting which I need to get on top of before winter though. But apart from a bit of surface rust on the subframes, its remarkably tidy.