1978 Datsun 280Z

then push her down the stairs!!!

do u think she would eat the cats? ;D

That black 240 is amazing!

I adore z cars and this project embodies all thats good about enjoying and caring for cars. I doff my cap to you good sir. Oh and being an avid fan of wangan midnight pretty much forces me to say wide arch mentalist spec

Tiny update:

Following both the build poll, and the wheel poll, some decisions have been arrived at. The wideboy build is the way forward, as for the wheels, the 5-spokes are preferred, although given a SINGLE original 917 wheel retails at 4,000 GBP, if I do go down that route, it'd have to be some newly made replicas. Not quite sure my pockets are willing to stretch that far, but it is early days yet, this build has a long time left to run.

Malcolm messaged me, he's going to get back to welding the shell shortly, now he has all the parts he needed, he's been busy with work for both McLaren and Aston Martin so pushing the Z to one side is an obvious no-brainer.

Lastly, I've finalised the interior plans on paper, it should be along the lines of a GT3 car meets Singer Porsche meets 70's GT tourer, it'll certainly be something special, in the mean time I'll continue amassing parts here and there.

In cheaper news, a few things picked up off fleabay:

some new balljoints



and a tatty but solid OE spoiler, I searched for a 432 reproduction spoiler but alas like many things, priced too much like unicorn poo.

Malcolm has made some fairly steady progress with the shell, however...in doing so a ton of gremlins turned up. We'd always known the shell had had a major accident at some point in it's life, in retrospect, we have NO idea why they decided to fix it, it should have been scrapped then and there.

Summarising somewhat:

• It's difficult to judge what kind of accident the car had. I thought it was a roll, but looks like the whole car was bent up on the left side in the accident and that would have buckled the roof badly.
  
  
• Whatever happened we think the reason the roof was removed was to straighten that buckle out. They must have put a roof from another car back on and kind of trimmed it to suit what was there rather than taking it down to solid mounting mounts and attaching it at the spot welds
  
  
• One of the current problems is the A pillar (where the door hinges bolt) and the B pillar (door shut) are half an inch further apart on the right side, and it's the right side that is closer to being correct.
  
  
• On the left side they have shortened the rear wing so they could fit the new door. They've knocked the rear panel around so the join is half an inch further back, and they've trimmed the extra half inch off the flange that wraps around the door shut.
  
  

If you recall the first few photos you can actually see what we're talking about here...if you look at the photo below, where the rear 1/4 panel starts, you can see a weld, whoever screwed with the shell to begin with has actually chopped out a 1/2 inch strip and effectively shorted the rear 1/4 panel to make the door fit.



At this point in time, beyond making the jig and repairing the front frame rail, not a huge amount of work/money has gone into the shell at this point. In terms of other accumulated parts specific to a 240z, there is a fair bit of investment of both time and parts sourced.

I could proceed with the shell as it is, it is repairable, it is just whether it's honestly worth bothering to do so, it's relatively rust free yes, but structurally sound? If you essentially replace 50% of the shell. Given how much this one is testing my patience, I have begun actively looking for another shell at present, so I'll keep you guys informed as to where this leads to.

Just caught up on this - I think you're wise to seek out another shell. It's a shame this one turned out to be more crooked than it first seemed.
As you said, it's a labour of love! You'll get there!

looks great, I appreceate that your doing all you can to spare it and bring her back to glory.
and when its all done it will be a hell of a background story for the car....
but for those that like to just buy a pre resto or for those who just plain like inspiration and the car for what it is heres something I found on my travels a while back.
www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/2147979.htm

To follow up on this, I have a job offer in Canada starting in September so it looks like I may be staying in the land of maple syrup for longer than I'd originally thought! This Autumn I shall be flying back to the UK to part out the shell. Unless anyone is genuinely interested in a crazy project?

I'm going to ship back the rare and now surprisingly expensive parts - lexan windows, carbon fibre (they were bought when the dollar was considerably more friendly to the pound) and see if I can start afresh with a different car there. The remainder of the parts that I have left in the UK - essentially a complete car minus interior and gearbox/engine will be sold to keep 240/260/280z's in the UK, on the road. Luckily all the parts coming back to Canada are relatively lightweight so I can hopefully find a good shipping agent or means to get them over there.

So for anyone wondering, the project isn't dead, just on an extended hiatus. It will also be probably the only Datsun Z sporting a Lotus Esprit-esque ski-rack.

Great to hear of the news Can't wait to see this when the car looks like your Sig Will be truly stunning!