So, with much excitement and anticipation Michelle and I borrowed the family truck, rented a car dolly and made the trek north(ish) to Elk Grove where we found.......
"Our" 260z. It's a 1974 260z in decent condition.
It should be noted that by "Decent" I mean it's either in boxes or missing. Notice that 4x4 ride height? No bumpers, no engine, no seats. That's all okay. The plan was to replace the engine anyway.
So we hooked it up and after a quick dinner break, made the (slow) drive home.
So where are we now? This weekend I'll assess the current state of the car and determine what to do next. This is going to be a long term restoration project, but one that my wife and I are certainly up too.
Greetings! This is the first in hopefully a long line of posts documenting the long term restoration/modification (Resto-Mod) of our 1974 Datsun 260z.
First and foremost, who we are. I'm Eddie on the right, and my wife and shop assistant Michelle is on the left.
I work in the automotive field and my wife is in Education.
Between the two of us we should be able to handle anything the car throws at us.
We'll be working in my modest garage. There should be enough room to handle everything that needs to be done. The goal is to do as much as possible in house to cut on costs and keep it truly "Our" car.
So lets talk about "Our" car. Lets start with some basics on the 260z. The 260z was a transitional car between the 240z and the 280z. It was only available for one year. For the most part, it's the least desirable of the Z cars. The 240z was an amazing watershed moment for the Japanese automotive industry in the United States. It was a basic affordable sports car. Inline six cylinder in the front, power in the back with a body that was functional and just flat out looked good. For a great look into the 240z and it's impact, Jay Leno talk about it here.
The 280z was the first Z with fuel injection, but we're going to ignore that model. Due to being in California we have to ignore everything made after 1975 due to smog restrictions. Since we'll be modifying the 260z, I don't want to worry about smog laws. Although, I do expect my car to pass emissions testing when done, just not the visual.
So lets talk about the 260z one-year special. For the 260z engine displacement was bumped to 2.6l and new (not as good) carbs were fitted. Then everything gets a little weird. Depending on what month your 260z was built you either got the thin 240z bumpers or you got the thick safety bumpers from the 280z. You either got thin shock tubes like the 240z or you got the 280z suspension with thicker tubes. Basically with a 260z you have to just dig in and see what you have. Our 260z already has the bumpers removed, so it doesn't matter what they were.
In the next few days there will be whole post devoted to our 260z taking inventory of what we have to work with and what we need to do.
So what's the end goal for our 260z? Obviously to make it run. I intend to run a modern fuel injected motor and make what I feel a modern Z car would be. As far as what engine and what that all means, I'll be detailing that all in the future. For now, the plan is to inspect and see what we're working with. Oh yeah, and we'll be going Shakotan style. More later on what that means.
Follow along as we go and pick up our chassis tonight.
