Finally getting back to the Z

Okay, So I bought this 1979 "Datsun by Nissan" 280zx about 3.5 years ago with the intention of giving it a paint job and sending it to a happy new home, provided the new owners give sufficient monetary compensation in exchange.

Well, for the first year or so i drove it around. It is a really nice car and fun to drive. It just needs a little body work and fresh paint and it will again be a rolling classic.

The story goes like this. The father of one of my good friend's, Ken, owned this car his name is Bob. He was the second owner, his brother Ken (my friends uncle, also named Ken) was the first.

It was originally bought in Sacramento California in 1979 and lived there under the care of Uncle Ken. In the 80's, Uncle Ken moved to Hawaii and decided not to take the car with him, but rather left it under the watchful eyes of his parents at his childhood home in Sacramento. The car was driven from time to time by uncle Ken's father AKA "The Red Rider". In case you're lost The Red Rider is my friend Ken's grandfather. Follow?

Anyway, time passed, and so did The Red Rider. In dealing with the estate, Uncle Ken told his brother Bob, that he didn't want to ship the car to Hawaii, and that if he wanted it, he could have it. And have it he did. Bob had the car shipped from California to Oxford, Ohio in around 1995.

Since the car is a true California car, it had no rust on it when it was shipped. Knowing that winters aren't exactly kind to cars in Ohio, Bob had the car rust-proofed when it arrived in Ohio. This was a smart move. If you know anything about these cars, you'll know that they are very well built and run and drive really well. They really only had one major flaw. THEY RUST LIKE CRAZY IF DRIVEN IN THE SALT!!!

A little side story here
I'll never forget, one day back in high school, my friend Shane and I were rummaging through a junk yard looking for parts for my Audi Fox when we came upon a Datsun 280zx, just like the one I now own. It was rusted something terrible. I mean the body had fallen through what was left of the frame and was essentially sitting on the ground. I got in just to check it out and when I opened the driver door, the door chimes started ringing. That meant the keys were in it and the battery wasn't dead. I thought, what the heck, I'll crank'er over. It fired right up and ran perfectly. I realized that the car's mechanics were fine except there really wasn't anything left to hold the car in one piece anymore. What a bummer. Unfortunately, salt was the eventual cause of death for most 280zx's in the snow states.

Aside from being total rust buckets if driven in the salt, these cars were probably the most technically advanced cars coming from Japan at the time, a real flagship. Still to this day, every single thing works on mine. These are unique cars in that they are loaded with features rarely seen elsewhere in the industry including: Independent rear suspension with rear wheel drive, four wheel disc brakes, on board diagnostics, fuel injection, tilt, cruise, A/C, power windows, power mirrors, 4 speaker stereo, full gauges and more. Three items on the interior stand out. First, the automatic drivers side power window. This had to be one of the first cars out there to have this option, and instead of being a secondary detente on a solitary control button like cars today, it was a separate switch labeled "auto". The second thing that stands out is the climate control system. No it isn't automatic like you often see today, but it does have a plethora of standard and combination settings, not often found even today. On top of that, the fan switch is an actual rheostat, meaning that the fan motor has infinite speed settings, not just 3 or 4 positions like most cars today. Lastly, the fuel gauge is interesting because in addition to it's typical analog gauge with a needle that swings from E to F, it has a secondary gauge that swings from E to 1/4 giving you an exact reading once the take gets below 1/4 tank. On top of that, it also has a low fuel light. If you run out of gas in this car you area an absolute idiot!

Okay, back to the story of how I came to own this car. Bob's wife (Cris) drove it almost daily until the summer of 2004 when I bought it from them. Interestingly, I also bought his 1986 Audi 4000s at the same time, this was the car Bob mostly drove. (the Audi will be another story, but i do still have it and drive it all the time) Well, bob and Cris's kids, Ken and Jen lived in Columbus, OH and Chicago, respectively and they would never go visit them because they were afraid of having car trouble with such old cars. Well Ken and Jen would give them a hard time about this until they finally got new cars. After all, Bob is a well respected Chemistry Professor at Miami (that's in Ohio in case you didn't know) and Cris works in the President's office of the University. They could afford new cars. That is unless they were spending all their money on crack, which apparently wasn't the case. They got a Toyota Camry for Cris and a BMW 325 for Bob, so it was time to liquidate the other two. Knowing that I always' loved his Audi, Bob offered it to me and at the time he said he was going to get rid of the Z also, my eyebrow went up and after a simple negotiation I had both cars. That's how I ended up with it. (and the Audi).

Well, the whole point of this long winded blog post is to start a log of the restoration progress of the Z. The truth is, it doesn't need much (from my perspective). Basically, it needs two new front fenders, some small area's of rust taken car of and fix 30 years worth of really tiny door dings and other miscellaneous flaws it collected over the years. Then a lot of wet sanding and finally a coat of paint. The overall goal is to have a show quality paint job. That is, a much slicker paint job than it ever had from the factory.

Lots of photos to follow.