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This car is actually Zed number 5 for me, I still own all of my Zeds. I bought my first zed as my first car, much like the previous owner of this Zed. When I was a young boy racer I too wanted to modify, paint, change colour etc. etc. As I have refined with age so has my taste, I now prefer OEM and more specifically JDM. Every Zed has a story and its passionate Zed owners. So I will start this project journal at May 2009 and the previous owner Tom, this is a link to his project journal and album for this car. http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/5026-tjs-260z-22/ http://www.viczcar.com/forum/user/100877-taz/ As you can see it started off life as a 301 Brown Metallic. Possibly not one of the most popular colours but definitely in good condition. Tom then painted the car 31J Mazda Aurora Blue. In Jan 2011 I popped into this cars life when I was looking for a first car for my brother. He was not really into cars but this had to be better than an off the shelf Ford he was looking at. This is where the curse of the Devil Zed started with me. For those of you that have not watched the movie Wangan Midnight, in essence it is a story about a zed that needs to be constantly fixed because it has crashed and has a mind of its own. This car has a very close likeness to the Devil Zed in looks and behaviour. I drove down to Hobart to pick it up, the paint work looked like it could use a good buff but it run like a clock. Halfway from Hobart to Launceston a 2hr drive, I noticed some sparks fly out the rear end. This happened as the gearbox jumped out of 5th, which was a known problem. The sparks? Not so much! So I continued to drive and try cruise as gently as I could. As I was approaching Launceston the car was breaking down like it was running out of fuel. Then all of a sudden there was absolutely no power, so I had to roll to a stop. I tried restarting the car but it was not going to start, so I rang my mate for a tow, he came out a while later. I went to start the car to show him that it was fucked but it started straight away and ran like a clock. So I decided to continue to drive it to his place, as I approached the same problem happened breaking down like out of fuel and stop. I had enough momentum to roll it into his drive. The plan was to get the car down to my shed in Rosebery on the West Coast a further 260km away. Unfortunately it had to go down on a trailer. There it lay dormant in my Zed shed for quite some time I was hoping my little bro would be interested in helping fix it, he sort of was but not really phased. A young bloke wanted me to drive him to his leavers dinner in it so that reinstated the need to get it going again. A working bee insued with the help of my mechanic mates. The car would start and run like a clock but as soon as it was warm it would start breaking down, after a full day of trying to work out what was wrong, it was time for an engine transplant. Bugger knows if it is a blown head gasket or a cracked head, either way it gets worse when it is hot. The next day we transplanted a new engine but was taking ages for us to get the damn new transmission on. We left it over night and my mates had to leave. The next day I finally managed to get the transmission in but it was tight. I had one day left until the deadline of this leavers dinner. I went to start the car and drive but it was not going anywhere... The clutch was disengaged and would not engage the fly wheel at all... I PUT THE DAMN WRONG THROW OUT COLLAR ON... Hence why it was so hard to put in, I was pushing against the pressure plate. So I pulled the transmission again put the right throw out collar on and all was good... Went to drive the car out of the shed in reverse and it popped out.I tried again and it would not hold reverse, it is an uphill climb out of my shed so Devil Zed missed its Leavers Dinner revival. I left the Devil Zed alone for a while and worked on my RB25 240Z instead. I also swapped my little brother my Nissan X-Trail for this failure of a Devil Zed. At least he was happy having a reliable car, even though he still did not have his license. In Aug 2015 the Devil Zed got some more attention. This time for my 15 year old step daughter, it was her leavers Dinner. I was determined to make it this time, I had until November 20 2015. Work started and I got my mate Perko to help. I still had very limited time as I was now working 2 weeks on, 1 week off in WA. Some of my weeks off I only managed to get half a day at a time on the car. The short list of works: Fully rebuilt the front calipers (as they were siezed). Rebuilt the rear drums (Just because). Removed three gear boxes in total from my 260z's (this was to get to a brand new button clutch and good transmission). Installed brand new button clutch and good tranny. Brakes would not bleed (bought new master cylinder) Transported car from Rosebery to Devonport so I could get more days on the car. Brakes still would not bleed (Some idiot put the calipers on the wrong way) Brakes finally bled up. Installed new door mechanism (what a prick) Installed new door trims and hardware. Fixed hazard lights. Fixed handbrake Got wheel alignment Installed new rubber boots on steering Rack. Fixed exhaust leak (by re welding flange) Tuned carbies Replaced plugs Now we go back to the original post by Tom... They did not put a clearcoat on the car but instead mixed the clear with the final coats of paint... I had well and truly missed my buffing window by 5 years. I tried a few compounds from Super Cheap and they were not even bringing any swirls out of the surface. I had to Wet Sand first 1500 grit then 2000 grit on every single panel. Orange Peel Galore and this paint was hard as steel. It only took 4 days to complete the job hand sanding and machine polishing. I highly recommend the 3M Perfect-It system and buffing pads. The results are more than adequate to the untrained eye but could use a little more wet sanding on the side panels. I must thank a few family and friends for their help on this one, especially in my absense at work. Jimmy (helping with original engine swap), Perko (helping me swear at the car and the major works), Doug Eastly (assisting with transport odds and ends), Valerie Wells (helping organise everyone), Rhiannon Wells (for choosing the blue one), Troy Eade (installing new plugs), Mark Wells (Tuning Carbs and transport), Discotune (fixing a few odds and ends for registration) Alli Jane Wells (My partner putting up with me swearing about this car) Going back to the start of this saga "EVERY ZED HAS ITS OWN STORY AND PASSIONATE OWNERS" not only that but brings the passion out in others. Either through memories of their own seeing a zed for the first time or just being mates. Please see the finished results below, still pending pit pass. I am confident it will make it.

Just wondering what people have in there way of trim pieces for a rear hatch of a 2+2 need all trims from the vinyl that covers strut towers, side pieces , and tail light cover panel. live in melbourne and currently in lockdown but happy to pay for postage if need be. thanks

Hi All We now have carpet kits available for both the 240 Coupe and 260 Coupe & 2+2 directly from us. (Set Picture is the coupe set) There were problems with these in the past especially when suppliers were selling out to each others so in order to have these correct and available I went and saw Lindsay at the Z-shop along with couple of owners and fully re-patterned these from scratch to have a fully correct well fitting set. Chat with him if you like he has fitted kits to customer cars. We have made quite a few of these now and everyone is very happy with them. We can make these in original Black loop or any of our offered colours in both Loop and Plush Pile We can do one piece cargo mats in Black and Grey, other colours will have a discrete seam due to the original material being 1m wide They are $380 including Australia wide delivery for the whole kit. Happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Regards Stuart 0400995515 www.ausclassics.com Feedback on the sets "Looks Great thanks mate, Love Your Work" "Excellent, Thank You"

Gday Guys my dream of owning a 260z started when I was young I remember seeing photos of them and thinking I would love to own one someday about 18 months ago my brother bought a Datsun 1200 ute and I decided i couldn't be left out and It was time to buy a Datsun myself after cruising around on the internet for a few months I found a 2+2 and took the leap and bought it, thankfully i got it for the right price and thankfully it was pretty strait and fairly rust free although someone had done a not so fantastic job of spraying it, after getting her regod I made the choice to remove the L26 and auto and put in a rb25det and do a manual conversion after completing the conversion a few months later I decided to pull the engine back out to restore the engine bay which after 40 years of neglect had seen better days, i know, i should have done this before putting the rb in there but i was excited ahaa thankfully there was no rust that went any deeper than surface on the chassis rails and firewall and after hours and hours of sanding and priming the engine bay looked much much better whilst the engine was out i had been borrowing my brothers non turbo xr6 fg 6 speed manual ute i was impressed with how the engine went and after a couple of jokes about barras he convinced me ( im easily convinced) to do a fg xr6t engine conversion, so that's what i am doing after consulting a local engineer he has given me the go ahead for the conversion with the specific set of guidelines, i have to seam weld the engine bay, inside the car, chassis bracing and upgrade the brakes and a few other bits a pieces i found a cheap non turbo barra engine ($100) locally to mock up making the engine mounts and to figure out the right postion of the engine etc while i hunt around for decent price complete conversion package for the ecu i will be using a Haltech elite 2500T aswell as full haltech wiring harness/loom, originally i wanted to use a 6 speed manual but have decided that i will most likely use a 6 speed auto ( still kinda deciding) as far as diff/suspension i have r200 LSD and z 31 upgrades shafts, will be using maddat coilovers all round with r33 gtr front calipers and r31 rears ( thanks to mark from street weapon restorations) if all goes to plan in the next 4-5 weeks engine will be in and running, the next stage is to do all the rest to get it driving so i will deffinnatly post pics and videos when it has been finished in the meantime i will upload the current photos i have of the car cheers guys

Previous owner bough car from the 1st owner after 1-2 years after being purchased new. It was used for a certain amount of time and was in Wollongong before moving to Perth. It was in a Perth shed for over 15 years not being used and very occasionally started up. This is where I saw the car and eventually heard it. When we attempted to start it all the fuel lines split. I was partly hoping it wouldn’t start from a price point of view as the body looked in good condition. All the regular spots were rust free apart from the petrol filler cap, drivers foot well and spare wheel well. New fuel lines were fitted and a fair amount of start ya bastard later it fired up to life. Not sounding the best with some sort of exhaust leak (still to be determined) and plenty of smoke which cleared out after a while. I couldn’t really pass up the chance and considering I'd gone to Perth I knew the budget would be even lower in the financial committees eyes. A deal was done and transport arranged. A week later it arrived in pretty good shape and I was able to drive it (first time) from across the street to under the 'carport'. It did come with a range of spare parts all in unknown states and looking quite old - gear stick, drive shaft with 260z 2+2 written on and old datmasta sticker, e88 cylinder head, valve cover, two alternators, two starter motors, A/C compressor (I think), gearbox mount. A few more pieces which I'll work out what they are with time. Car still has all the A/C running gear, if the family is to ever get in for a drive it would be handy to have it. No idea if it runs, not a priority at the moment. After a quick clean - check out the gold pin stripes After a new battery later it is running… very rough, it's a spluttering mess really. It shouldn’t be a surprise but there was always hope that it would clear itself out, like a bad curry. I was going to change spark plugs and other regular maintenance bits and run a compression test. Considering the car isn't warming up, I've decided to follow advice and drain the tank first. Hopefully apply the kbs kit. In between that I'll be doing more cleaning in the engine bay to help determine the other issues (once the tank is back in). I will need to get an air pump belt and work out where to get the other parts - mainly hoses and eventually door seals. Cheers John

Hey all, I have been thinking about starting a build thread for a while but have been putting it off, but i've decided to bite the bullet and start it up, perhaps more or less for my own records but hopefully I will be able to help a few people out as I have found huge amounts of valuable knowledge on this forum. Here we go! Back story: I picked up this 1976 260z 2+2 in mid 2017. I had been looking for a Z for a while (needed a new project car since I sold my last, a R32 skyline) but all I could seem to find was either cars with more rust then metal left or ones that had been restored and way out of budget. So when this one came up, regoed, somewhat driving and what I would call a reasonable condition and price I jumped! The guy I bought it off had the engine rebuilt. He couldn't tell me much or find the receipts but I do believe it was rebuilt. Goals: For me, this car is all about having a project to work on in some of my spare time. I'm an engineer and love designing and building things. My general philosophy is I try to do everything I can do myself and learn from my mistakes and give it another go if I need to. Therefore I know the end result wont be as good as some one who gave their car to workshops and let someone else build it, but for me it's all about the fun of the build. But to the car, my vision is a street car that I can take to the occasional track day or tarmac sprint. I was thinking about naming this thread "add it to the list" because every time I think about an element of the car, something about it needs to be fixed or replaced and I keep saying to myself, i'll add it too the list. But i'll get into details as the thread goes ahead, I have lots of cool ideas, hopefully some of which will come to fruition. I am taking it one step at a time, first the engine, then the suspension and brakes, then the panel work and interior is the simplified plan. Well heres a photo that makes the car look really really good, why not I say, there will be plenty of those gritty 'before' style photos along the way.

Hi everyone! I've been stalking forum for the last couple years while restoring my rusty 260z so I thought it's about time for an introduction. I'm currently up north in Adelaide, haven't seen many z's up this way besides a little further north around Gawler. I haven't had the time to keep a build thread being a typical student but I've been keeping a log on Instagram of the build over the last two years. I had the car shipped over from WA after seeing a handful of pictures, including several large holes in all the typical S30 spots. Couple years later and a little bit of hard work and the car is in primer with rebuilt suspension and drive line ready to go in. https://www.instagram.com/cory.pritchard/

Hi guys, I am selling my unfinished project 76 280z 2+2 rolling shell Ghls30038321 Usa model Left hand drive Perfect for someone who wants something different! The car has been sandblasted and etch primed Has rust in sills, lh rear lower qtr panel and drip panels at front I have all rust repair sections and a complete rh qtr panel for repairing. Spare wheel well cut out and braced setup for aluminim fuel tank. The car is completely stripped all boxed and labeled 99% complete It has adjustable coil overs installed with 4 wheel disk brakes 3.5 lsd diff with Arizona z car solid mount and moustace bar Wolf creek racing cv joints Many other spare parts Engine bay painted in semi gloss black 2pak Car sold without motor or gearbox or simmonds wheels. All body panels clean and rust free Has 16x8 Watanabe style xxr wheels now Perfect for restoration or parts car $4500ono Located in Mordialloc

Hey Guys, Decided i would make a build thread of my RB30 260z 2+2. Im a 20 year old apprentice electrician and linesman, my first car was a Mazda mx5 and it is to still to date the best handling car i have ever driven. I have always wanted a Z car but the price tag was the only thing in my way of owning one, anyways i put up an add on gumtree one afternoon and around a week later i got a message from a guy on the south coast saying he had one. A few more messages later and we were on our way down from the Blue Mountains to a small town called Moruya with a car trailer. As usual there was a bit of rust in the car and interior looking like it had animals living in it but overall it was pretty clean and straight. $2,750 and 9 hours later i had my first Z First thing i started doing when i got it home was stripping out the interior and repairing the rust to get it blue slipped. While my repairs may not of looked 10/10 i thought they were pretty good for someone with no experience in panelbeating. Areas of rust that i fixed included inside the rear hatch, bottom dog legs on both side and the top of the front right quarter panel. While the paint looks pretty good, it has some bubbles coming through. At this point i decided that because i don’t have much money (being and apprentice and saving up for a house) i would just stick with the ratty theme of the car and embrace it. Hence the plates RAT50N. At last in Feb 2016 i got it blueslipped and on the road. As my brother is an apprentice mechanic and his bosses are kind enough to let us use the workshop we have access to hoists and other useful equipment Mechanically to get it sorted for a blue slip we replaced the front wheel bearings, a new lightweight flywheel, heavy duty clutch (had issues with getting this to work) new slave cylinder and tuned the carbies. (need help! this uploader is pretty stupid and won't allow me to upload any photos)

Hi guys, I am after an S30 2+2 or 2 seater rolling shell. Starting a new project using a 280ZX as a donor for the engine and drive lines. Would PREFER if the S30 had an interior and was complete as possible apart from engine, gearbox, diff, ect. Looking for something with as little rust as possible, rust on front end panels is okay, as I can replace them, but I do not want something with rust in the floor pans, or any part of the frame or rear quarter, (rear quarter rust is okay just depends how bad it is) Thanks Located in Northern Suburbs of Melbourne.

Hey guys, ill start by introducing my self. My name is Hadley, I'm 19 and live in the Bluemountains. Last November i sold my beloved Mx5 and decided to get a 260z. I found one for sale 6 hours south so we drove down with a car trailer and next thing i knew i was the owner of this golden Turd.. Its a 1974 2+2 (vin ends in 000764 so I'm guessing it is a really early one). i bought it off an old pommy guy for $2,750, he had been using it to tow his caravan around... the flywheel provide it to. it was unregistered but that was ok. when i got it home i set about cutting out rust and welding in new plates and bogging it up. I must of done ok as it past rego haha. A few months later a mate and i drove to Brisbane one weekend to pick up a l28 block, head and some other stuff. But i haven since decided that i want to do an RB swap instead... which brings me to my main point Ive figured out pretty much everything that needs to be done except for the tailshaft and diff. Ive tried looking everywhere for conversions on 2+2s but i can't find anything that will help. Can i use the standard tailshaft out of my car and will it fit straight in the trans? or do i need to use a combo of both? or just get a custom one made up? Also can i keep the standard diff? its just going to be a stock rb25det atm so will it be strong enough? Im an apprentice so i don't have a lot of money to spend and id like to do as much my self as possible as my brother is a mechanic. cheers guys. some photos of it so far

Hello other z nuts. I have a 1977 260z 2+2 which, after some work, has now been my daily driver a while. I am not keeping it stock but am making it more comfortable, reliable, economical etc a bit at a time. I've been driving it every day for nearly two years and have scored a rebuilt RB30 out of an R31 to go into it, along with both a manual box and a Jatco auto including computers for each. It is currently running a HM reconditioned (some time prior to 1992) L26 with twin SU's and a five speed manual and a 3.545. Before I ask let me say that I've been trawling the forums for some time and have found brief references to the following but nothing definitive or from someone who has actually done it so that's why I'm asking here - hopefully one of you has been as strange as me or worse. Questions: 1. Will the yoke off a stock 260z tailshaft fit either a manual (5 speed) or auto (4 speed jatco) box out of an r31 2. Am I likely to face length issues. e.g. will i need to have the tailshaft cut and pasted? 3. If I need the yoke off the R31 tailshaft is it likely to fit the 260z shaft or is there too big a difference in uni sizes? 4. I scored a Castlemaine Rod Shop set of engine mounts and there's this weird wishbone thing which others seem to say is for the transmission. Can anyone please explain it cause it seems unnecessary at this point - or is there a massive difference in the weight or fitment between gearboxes which the stock mounts wont cope with or cannot be adapted to fit? 5. I have the chance to fit a single downdraft intake manifold off an old GQ RB30 - has anyone run an RB30 Carby in a Z and had good results or is EFI always superior? 6. Am I likely to damage my R200 or the stock tailshaft by putting an NA RB30 in front of it? 7. Am I likely to have shifter placement issues with either the Manual or Auto on the RB30? 8. Will I need to change the shape of my trans tunnel to fit the gearbox, or to add holes to the firewall to have access to bell housing bolts? 9. If you or anyone you know has done this mod and thinks there's other stuff I may have missed (I know about the sump and pickup mods needed) please chip in. Bob.

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum well even more so new to the club and for a while now I've been looking for a 260z 2+2 or a 260z coupe. I'm interested in any unfinished projects, any condition is fine even if it is furtherly incomplete that's not a problem at all, I don't really have much to spend so I can't go anything over $2000. if your interested in selling pls call me on 0423821921 or give me a text and I'll reply back.

Hi guys, Looking to purchase a 2 seater 260z, preferably a manual. Not overly fussed over the originality and little things however, I am looking for something particularly with a rust free chassis and rear. Also not really looking to do a whole lot of work to the mechanical side of things but willing to look at most cars with the s30 shape. Budget is roughly 20k. Located in Melbourne, Victoria. Open to an interstate purchase. I am genuinely interested in purchasing a car! Don't hesitate to shoot me a text on 0433 765 740 Cheers, Stephen.

I know it's a long shot, but anybody got any leads on a 2+2 wrecking? I want the roof section for repair of the dreaded sunroof and other rust areas resulting from same. PM me if you have something. EDIT- 13/3/16 Hunt has been successful. Donor roof found along with lots of other 2+2 parts.

Hey everyone, I've finally decided to register on the forums i've used to pinch ideas and gather information from haha. I own a Dark Green 260z 2+2 in townsville, so if anyones seen it let us know its possibly one of 3 in town here. Picture in an attachment here. I've had help from Les Collins in regards to suspension and all of my work currently and looking forward to finally starting work on the engine. I've had this car for 1 and a half years now and it is my daily drive I love it that much. I will like many of the others here start a Build thread and post up pictures from the Original look of the car to what it is now. Mass, Cheers!

Hi all, I have a 78' 2+2 and I removed the centre console about a month ago for repairs. With that I also removed the ashtray that sits in the back of the centre console and I can't work out how to put it back in! I feel like it's meant to clip in but I just can't seem to see how the chrome trim would sit in there properly. Anyone got any ideas?

i need of help and parts! location: sydney so i had an incident and now need to rebuild the complete front end of my 1977 datsun 260z 2+2 . i need to source the two guards, two headlight casings and bonnet. are there any specialty stores in sydney that could get these in for me? or a website even. Also if anyone has any of these parts i could purchase that would be much appreciated! thanks in advance!