gilltech

There is a tenuous connection between the two - the L series engine in SOHC 4-banger form came to Nissan from Prince Auto, who supposedly obtained the design from Mercedes when the latter went to DOHC form. Something like that, so I've read. I have heard of people putting a Mercedes engine in a Zed, but not the other way around. Fits nicely, as you'd expect.

Depends, if they've been modified with bigger jets etc might work OK, they look pretty clean as if they've been professionally rebuilt, looks like someone has gone to some trouble, as normally carbs of that era are well oxidized by now whereas those have been polished. Why someone would bother with those when they could just as easily sourced some SU's with all the parts back-up available, who knows. However, the only way to know if they're up to the job is to try them.

It does look a touch high compared to what we're used to today, but I'd say that looks about stock; I have the same, '74 260Z 2-seat, since 1984. As per my first reply, I lowered my car about 25mm both ends. I can barely slide my fingers under the guards & over the tyre. I reckon I've got it about right, rides nicely, not so low that suspension travel is compromised.

Any of the flat tops make suitable paper weights. Those ones look like reconditioned 200B carbs or somesuch. Yes the flat tops on '73-on Zeds can go OK, -ish, (the correct sized ones) but the problem is that they were designed for the 70's oil crisis era & emissions & lean burn & there's not a lot one can do with them. Or get parts. So everybody bins them & fits the 240Z's round tops or British SUs, and blanks off the 260's emissions pipes & tubes. And are glad they did.

Don't waste your time with them. Get a set of the round tops from a 70-72 240Z & go from there.

I'm in Brisbane, I have a set of rear shock inserts from a 2+2 that I'll never use. May have springs & upper mounts, I'll have to dig through my stash.

If you just want to lower your car a small amount so it looks right, then have a think about my feedback above, simple & cost effective. But if you are looking to lower it substantially, as many have done, then it's not that simple because there will be flow-on effects such as with wheel/tyre combinations & clearances, & especially wheel alignment. Be careful. People buy the king springs then find that they are substantially shorter than stock, to the extent that with some models they are no longer 'captured' by the spring retainers when the suspension is at full droop (such as up on a hoist), AND in order to lower the car without causing bottoming-out problems you will find that they are substantially stiffer than stock, so harder riding. There are other posts on this forum about that which would be worth reading. Also, with 240's & 260's there are quite a number of different stock spring rates used by the factory depending on whether the car has A/C or not, which market it's sold new in, which suspension option (sports, etc) is fitted, 2 seat or 2+2, etc; have a look in a Z parts manual & you'll see what I mean. Who knows what your car has? King springs simplify it all by just offering 2 choices for 240s & 2 for 260s, & the 'standard' option inexplicably uses the same rate as the 'lower' option. You won't know what your new ride height will be until you try them. I tried a set of king springs for my 260 2-seat, the '30mm lower' version; ride height actually went up, front springs were too short as weren't captured, & both ends were too stiff (which is why the ride height went up). So I took them off again, I want my suspension to work as designed not sit on a rigid board which has little give. So proceed carefully.

The A/C-type-heater box is different to the non-A/C heater box, larger & with more controls as you'd expect. If you're looking to sell the whole set-up as you say then you'd be swapping out your existing A/C-type-heater box & retro-fitting a non-A/C heater box, otherwise unless someone already has their own A/C-type-heater box then the rest isn't much good to them as they won't have the controls!

It's a LOT less work - & expense - to just get your existing factory springs re-set shorter. Spring places do it, they re-temper them & alter the length if you want (within reason). The number of coils stays the same, the wire X-section stays the same, so doesn't stuff up the spring rate, the spring just acts through a different range. I had that done to the fronts on mine, IIRC 25mm, & for the back ones I trimmed IIRC half? a coil off which, I calculated at the time, stiffened the spring by about 5% to reduce rear squat & lowered the car the equivalent amount to the fronts. In my case I was limited by a flat-to-slope transition on my driveway, so the above left me with barely 10mm clearance with car laden 2 people & full tank. And I had factory 14" mags with 195 tyres. Your situation may be somewhat different. I'm assuming you aren't looking to slam the car! In any case, measure it all up carefully first before you make any changes.

It's mainly the 'Ram Air Induction' that gets me! (As a Mustang owner). With the air cleaner nozzle aimed right at the corner of the radiator.....ram air from where exactly... Hmmm... Now if he had a pair of side-draught twin-choke 40mm Dell'Orto carbys with 240Z-style air cleaner like my old '76 120Y SSS (one of a limited # NZ-built-new for race series homologation) then I'd take notice. But who knows what is hiding under that orange frying pan. Oh well, to each his own, he's had fun with it, those little Dattos are great little cars for their day, no doubt someone will buy it eventually & also have fun. Not many still on the road today so at least it's being preserved!

Well spotted, Chris240. "Ram air induction" Take a look at a '69/70 Mustang with Ram Air hood buddy, then back at your car. If your car has Ram Air then so has everything that has a frying pan as an air cleaner! Not even to SSS specs..... Too bizarre.

Hmmm, the hubcaps...I think they are off an American 280Z; quite different to our contemporary 260's.

I think what everybody wants to know, is whether with, say, a 2-seat roof skin overlaid on top of a 2+2 roof skin - with their front edges aligned & centred - is the overall shape of the two skins where they overlap the same or very close? (If I've explained that properly). 2+2 is longer & wider so is over-sized for grafting on to a 2-seat shell. Whether any Z parts guys have ever done that comparison I don't know. My theory is that, no, the 2+2 roof has a less compound curvature in the centre towards the back, as the roof sits up higher. So it will need some wheeling & working to make it work, not within the skills of yours truly DIYer (me) anyway.

Most on here would be a mix of both. All enthusiasts, while some are car industry professionals & the rest of us typically DIY types. For the record, all, I'm NOT 280ZX-bashing. Rather, I'm looking at the Big Picture - in the OP it was made clear (quite dramatically with personal emails posted) that there is a non-car-enthusiast partner in the background who is rightfully entitled to have some say in the matter of where money goes. And she's far more pragmatic when it comes to spending money on an investment rather than a hobby, especially when her partner doesn't have car restoration skills, as yet, so as to save money by DIY. A friend had already pointed out that one could well spend 50K restoring any car. True, easily, if one has to pay experts to do all the work. And by the sound of it, that non-runner car just purchased needs the works.....everything. Unfortunately. That's why it was cheap. Hence the Subject line of this thread. The OP is asking for advice. So, there seems little point in antagonizing the better half by drip-feeding thousands of dollars every year for the next however-many years into a car that isn't likely to hold much of that expenditure as market value at the end of it all. Reality check. If you really like the 280ZX model such that it's the bee's knees & the only car to have, then go for it. But you'd be better off getting an 8K - or whatever you need - loan & buying a really good 280ZX now, if you're patient you'll find one; & just fix (or have fixed for you) any little imperfect bits on it. You'd get to use & have fun with it now, not on the never-never-maybe, & you'll still get to learn as you'll be the one maintaining it & perhaps improving it further. Even paying it off you'd be well ahead as compared to going the long & hard way round. And it's likely that you'll obtain the advantage of any PO's expenditure if the car is already well sorted, as they are a bit soft as new but can be made to go so much better with the good bits on them. Or, my other suggestion is the 260Z 2+2, same layout, & better resale as there is a wider market for it as it's closer to the increasingly popular 240Z heritage.

If you mean by 'in front of the toolbox' the vertical panel dropper to the floor pan, the 240s (& at least the early 260s) had diamond vinyl across there, with a plastic trim strip along the top edge. From my experience the little carpet sections behind the seats were small mats that only extended under the seats by a small amount, leaving bare painted floor pan (& sound deadener) under most of the seats.

There are two varieties of the 260's rad support panel as Gav240z says, if yours is a '76 it could have either.

280 motors used to be numerous but lots have been used to re-power & up-capacity the 240s & 260s, & most of the once-numerous 280ZX's have long been sent to the scrap yards or smelters. Keep looking, a motor will turn up eventually, lots though have been sitting in wrecks out in the weather & with often very high kms & it's going to be hard to find one as a plug'n'play. So what does a high end 280ZX go for at present - 8K tops? So why would you put 25-30K +++ or even more into one? It won't matter how much money you tip into yours the market value is all it will be worth, & that's if you can find a buyer willing to pay you top dollar should you one day find yourself having to sell it. Sure good ones go well, & owners enjoy them, the reality is that the ZX is just not in the realm of collectible cars, being seen as a soft boulevard cruiser rather than a sports coupe. Most ZX's around are 2+2's - you'd be better starting over, saving up a chunk of money & getting a good 260 2+2 to play with, it will hold it's value far better. And you can get many parts for them, whereas 280ZX stuff is getting hard - let's face it, they are 30-35 yrs old already.

Pardon my deafening ignorance but who is this guy & what is his claim to being a public figure?

Well is your replacement R180 actually the same length as the original? Was your original an R180 or R200? Ditto Gareth J - I also get the front mount bolts started & keep everything else well loose then gradually tighten them all in sequences. You may well need some spacers on the rear diff studs.

Look I'm sorry but let's be brutally honest here. The car is apparently quite rusty at first glance, you can be sure that the actual quantum of rust will be far worse. The engine is worn out, wheel bearings & brakes are stuffed, & so is pretty much everything else including the interior by the sound of it. The 280ZX cars just aren't worth tipping a bucketload of money into, that's the reality. Few people are interested in them except as sources for engines for the collectible 240/260/280 series. And you're not experienced in car restoration so are going to have to pay other people to do stuff for you, some or all depending on what skills you manage to pick up along the way. Labour rates are not cheap, people have to charge enough to make a living. The rust is a major. Replacement panels & sections will have to be specially fabricated by hand, or cut out of another body shell, you can't just go out & buy parts. Then all grafted in by a craftsman. And only then can you start panelbeating & prepping the shell for general repairs & a total new paint job. Big costs. In-house critic will become toxic very quickly..... My advice, get rid of it now for whatever you can get for it & spend all the money you are going to try & save over the next 5 yrs on something that will at least retain most of all that expenditure. Sorry to be blunt but I've seen too many well-meaning enthusiastic people burned with projects that are just pointless from the get-go. Not fire proof myself either, I'd guess most of us would have hard-luck stories when it comes to old cars - very easy for the heart to rule the head.

You haven't actually said what you've bought?

Well that's all lowered the tone of the neighbourhood. Good luck finding any economically viable re-buildable shell for 2,500 these days.

I know of two types for the 260Z & 280ZX factory mags. The earlier style was a chromed plastic cap with Z logo surrounded by a dark metallic blue inset paint, that just push friction-fitted over the centre projection of the wheel. Then there is a smaller style with Z logo & black inset paint which physically clipped into the hole in the centre of the wheel. I think they possibly came on the later 280ZX's & on their 6-spoke wheel. Less likely to get lost.

Cheers mate, I remember reading your post & feeling very sad for your brother...I've got a soft spot for the Datto 1200 & 1600's & SSS's as they were quite common back in the day & various mates owned them. Did your brother ever get back into them? And if you could take a look in your stash Azman1984 that would be great, I really only need the uppermost round metal plate that the black wire screws on to, & the horn cap spring, before I can fit my wood-style wheel which I bought years ago without realizing it was incomplete. R, John

Hi Azman1984, if your other spare wheel is like the 240 wood-style wheel in your thread's pics above then yes please take a look. But if it's the 260 padded type wheel with the large projecting padded centre as per the Aus-new cars then no good to me but thanks anyway, as on those the horn is a completely different operational set-up & uses completely different internals. Someone here might just have an accident or fire damaged 240 wood-type wheel with good internals that they'll never have use for.