GTS-Retro

looking great. will be good to see some pic of the car once its sitting on the new rubber.

I have this on DVD too, HR31 running Rb30 block, twin cam head and triple solex. Sound is awsome!

just read thru, very entertaining guys. Also very inspiring, i have to do head gasket on L28 and i wave been procrastinating. No More!

New wheels came in yesterday, me so happy These are the rears 15x10 -16 Fronts are still in transit.

cant wait to see more, don't power steering setups have difficulties overheating on the track? or how do you overcome that situation?

6AL-2 nice!

Slowly plodding along with work, I stripped out the engine bay as much as possible before painting, Pulled out air cond, i also added additional spot welds where the inner guard attaches to the strut towers. Radiator support was rusted out so that was cut and shut with new steel plate that wraps underneath the support. Took a few hours to cut cardboard templates then transfer to steel. I had to keep crawling under the car for test fitting and small adjustments. So after the weekend i had a stiff back at work from laying on the cold floor. While i was there i couldnt help loosly bolting up the carbs for a glamor shot. I also made up new linkage, i found some 5/16 rod end and 5/16 stainless main bar. the bell cranks are original, they look like plated steel. I also got a set of redline links for the throttles, much better than the lynx ones, lynx had plastic ball joints that were looking crusty. Only thing i had to modify was the thread extenders/mounts for the rod ends. My manifold has 3/8 unc thread and the rod ends have 5/16 unf. So i bodged up the thread extenders by welding on 5/16 nuts to the tops. you can just see in the pic the spot weld joining the 5/16 nut to the 3/8 extender. My carbs have the cooling bodies underneath. two little outlets for fuel to return to the tank thus cooling the carb slightly, however im a bit lost as how im going to plumb up six outlets to one fuel retune line, i search for some pics on google but have not found anything, anyone have any ideas ? I will put this pic up, optional part 85 replaces 55. thats what on the underneath side.

Spent last weekend repairing rusted out lower radiator support area. I also treated the area with POR15 metal ready. The metal ready treatment has been on for two weeks and there is no sign of surface rust. I left it unpainted to see how it worked. I also reinforced the strut towers, additional spot welds along the inner guard and around the strut tops. Also while im in the process of cleaning up the engine bay I had my cam cover coated. Linished areas need more polishing. What do people think of Uni filters, i heard some people say they are a fire risk! any thoughts?

i found a 280zx PDF manual and read thru the description of how it works. Im guessing that in the event of removing the aircond the heater will not block off some of the vents etc. so i guess it may not heat as well. I will remove as much as i can so i can paint the re attach it all and see if it can hold gas/work. Would be nice to have air in summer. The only thing is that the triple manafold dose not have a position for the vac line to attach so i will have to make a t piece where the brake booster vac tube attaches.

thanks for the info guys. the two solenoids are disconnected since the rubber tubes perished and fell off. So im guessing that i need it to switch between hot and aircond.

I have removed the charcoal canister however i might put it back in to keep it looking legal. Dose anyone have more info on how they work, or if they are needed for the air cond? I have this silly feeling i want to try and get the aircond working.

Well i have been working the the engine bay removing as much as i can to check for rust and get ready for paint, only rust is the support under the radiator. So next weekend i will be cutting and welding it up. Once the bay is painted i will be installing my triple solex carbs. There is so much ugly anti pollution junk in the bay, some of which i am unsure what it is! can someone identify this for me as i want to rip it out for simplicity. image found on the web for reference;

just had a big read thru, fantastic work love the colour.

very nice ride man, cant wait so see more.

ok so an update, Front and rear foot work done!; new ball joints, tie rod ends, bushes, shock and springs. put a set of offset control arm bushes in for a bit of camber and replaced the rear strut tops with front tops i got from a yard. car sits nice now. havnt been able to go for a spin yet need battery, wheel alignment and rego! Also picked up a set of triples, price was right and they appeared to be alright set up. 45 mikuni solexs. using some long ram tubes with oiled ram flow filters over them, Mounted to the manifold with redline soft mounts. linkage is a bit tatty im going to replace the rods and rosejoints with some better stuff. manifold is a lynx. will get some pics tonight. also test fitted my mirrors. also did a play around with them on the fenders. I might get some spacers for the front the 8" look like there hiding in there. The mirrors are only balancing on the fenders so i didn't want to put them to close to the edge. I don't really like em on the fenders because the stalks are not the right length, they are shorter than originals. I guess it give a streamline profile front the side but it just looks off! I also got an ADR approved boss for my little SAAS wheel to complete the vintage look. While i had the struts ect. dismantled i cleaned it all up and recoated in enamel black. also stripped back inside guards and painted black, no holes found very impressed. Previous owner painted inside metallic blue! during removal. Front end came apart quite quickly, found pedders sticker on strut inserts, they must have done it a few years back. That would explain only one bump stop on the front and one of the sway bar link washers used on the control arm bolt on one side. quality i bought two strut mate kits from monroe so new bump stops and dust boots for the front, price was absolute rip off!

cheers man

ok, this might be a dumb question however; I need to replace my head gasket in my 260 NA block is L28, head is E88 think its the original head from L26. What head gasket should i get? is there any difference between L28 and L26 Na gaskets. any help is much appreciated

hi mate im after a rear bumper for my 2+2 you got any? im in adelaide

i have just read thru your build instead of working,, time well spent this car is beautiful cant wait to see the colour on it.

sorry to hijack. im looking at doing my gasket too. the wedge you talk about is that to keep the timing chain pulled tight?

yeah im gonna try and get a colourtune and unisyn of ebay. I approched my tune from the rich side. The difficulty i had with the throttle stops was, when i had it set just before stall. Using the tube in the ear technique i couldn't hear a clear suction tone between carbs. So i had the idle set a bit higher so i could listen to the suction tone, then I set the mixture and then dropped the idle back down.

Replaced plugs today and attempted a tune. I used a rubber tube in the ear to listen for the difference in pitch while adjusting each throttle stop screw. I think i got it pritty close. Carbs had been set crazy rich, then slowly leaned it off till i was happy, engine sounded pritty good, small amout of smoke still. Definatly going to try and track down a colourtune. I let the car cool righ tdown then tonight i poped out and gave her a cold start, she fired up well. while i was staring in owre (or it could of been the petrol fumes) i notice a few small drops of water leaking from the back of the head. once the engine warmed up to temp they stopped. Guess im going to have an adventure into the engine soon!

ok i get ya. dose anyone have any pics that might help for reference. im going to cut of an weld up the holes in the filter box as i want to keep that. and tidy up the manifold remover diaphragms etc. or maby i should just get that side draft and turbo it!!!

Perhaps this is a later L28 and the Su carbs retro fitted instead of EFI for simplicity back in the day. Having a look at the carbs there are a lot of hoses missing of the air filter box and some diaphragms that are not connected up? could someone in the know give me an idea of what should be connected to the air box etc. The wheels are lighter than Alloy wheels of the same size, i have some 16x8 superlites and they are heavier than the 15x10 steel. not sure of exact weight though. Surface rush on the rotors is nothing a bit of hard breaking and it comes right off.!! I Will be getting new pads and having rotors re ground to make sure they are not warped etc. as long as they are not below min width.

I had the wheels done myself. there is a place in Adelaide that dose it. The new shells were ROH by manufacture so I guess they are good quality. The wheel centre have been welded around the entire circumference so they are blood strong. standard stockies just have a few spot on them. All up I think it was $780.