I used to really enjoy prepping for a car show but after a dozen or so, the work of doing so outweighed the satisfaction. But now that the convention is upon us, and in our back yard, I know I'll regret not entering my 1978 280Z to see how it does. This show has given me the motivation to accomplish things with the car that I've long desired to do, but never gotten around to.

So here is the plan:

1) Buy tires and mount to the original mag wheels offered with the Black Pearl by Nissan. I've had these wheels for 13 years and they are "new in the box"! These are not the mag wheels that I previously had on the car, which are also in very good shape. These wheels have never had tires mounted to them.

DONE - See before and after pictures.

2) Take car up to Vinny to get some work done:
Replace all suspension bushings
Install new oil pan gasket to stop small leak (hopefully)
New slotted rotors / pads up front and shoes in the back

CAR is going up to Vinny this weekend

3) Install Black Pearl Stripe kit. I looked long and hard for this kit, which was part of the special appearance package (SAP) offered for the Pearl. My car came without the stripes applied. I have one original kit and one replica kit. I'm going to bring both to a pin-stripping shop in Norwalk and see what happens. The original kit may have deteriorated past the point of being usable. We'll see. If that is the case, the replica kit goes on!

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

Oh I like the new wheels. They just scream '70's vintage japanese!! Can't wait to see the car with the stripe kit.

_________________
Adam Perry
Datsun 260Z

What's your plan for those 15" 5-slots, once you replace them with the correct 14" aluminums?

_________________
1970 240Z

I'm going to keep the 15" slotted mags as the main set of wheels on the car and just put the new 14" wheels on for shows where originality counts. But I'll be selling my older Nissan mag wheels that I used to have on the car. They were only used for about 34k miles and appear as my ID photo.

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

OK, I read through the ZCCA Judging Manual, which you can view at:
http://www.zcca.org/downloads/2012/ZCCA ... l_2012.pdf

Certain other things have got to be swapped out for the show or else I'll lose points. Yes, I know I'm crazy for doing this stuff but my car most likely won't be in a National Convention show again any time soon.

So I swapped out my beautiful wood steering wheel with the old clunky original this afternoon. But I could not find the spring that goes between the horn button and the wheel. Anyone have an extra lying around???

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

What if you entered the "daily driver" category? Seems like it is far less strict about "personalizations".

Mileage for daily driver category must exceed 75,000. I have 36,000. But it's kind of fun converting it back to it's original look. The only thing that won't be original (or Nissan replacement) is the battery, tires and radio. Just ordered some reproduction decals for the engine bay made by MSA and authorized by Nissan. They've got a lot of new decals for our cars.

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

This is awesome! Go get 'em Ross.

Will you be driving or trailering it up?

Thanks Filipe. I'll be driving it up to the convention in a caravan of two with Robin Foote.

I dropped the car off with Vinny Bedini today for the installation of new suspension bushings, new brakes and other minor repairs.

Vinny gave me a tour of his shop, which I've always wanted. Unfortunately, my very understanding wife was waiting for me in the parking lot. Otherwise I think I could have spent an hour there taking in all of his projects. Vinny gave me the short history of each vehicle and it really was a lot of fun hearing about both current projects and those on the back burner.

Can't wait to get my car back and be able to stop it with new brakes!

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

awesome! nice to see you all revved up Ross!! love the progress!

_________________
Mike Tubiak
1978 Datsun 280Z - HLS30-438694

Well Vinny called me tonight to say that the car is 95% done.

He started with the rear brakes. Turned the drums and installed new shoes. Then he bled the brakes and got nothing from the rears. So he inspected the wheel cylinders and they were apparently shot. So he installed new wheel cylinders and bled the brakes again. And again, nothing at the rears. So he looked at the master cylinder and it was somehow bleeding fluid into the Master Vac and not sending fluid to the rears. So he replaced the Master Cylinder and then flushed the whole system. Then installed new slotted rotors and pads up front. So now I can stop the car without saying a prayer first!!!

Vinny then moved onto the bushing kit and installed everything except for items that will be done when shocks get replaced. With only 36,000 miles the shocks and springs are still in good shape.

He told me I was missing my "shifter bushings", which I had no idea even existed. Anyone know what these are? Apparently they either deteriorated over time or maybe a prior owner removed them for some reason.

He replaced my tie rod ends and said they were shot as well.

So while I've done brakes on this car before, I'm glad I didn't take this job on myself. I would have gotten very frustrated dealing with the sequence of things that needed to be taken care of.

Vinny politely scolded me for not driving the car as much as it needs to be driven. So I guess that gives me an excuse to start taking it to meetings and fun runs. And now that I know I'll be able to stop the car when I want to, it will be even more fun!

I pick the car up Monday.

Next step - a full detail. Thinking of using the guy that Keith brought to one of our meetings.

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

I'm certainly no expert when it comes to manual transmissions, but I believe these are the small hard nylon/plastic "rings" located where the shifter control lever connects to transmission rod (just underneath the shifter boot). When I bought my 5-speed 1980 280ZX, there was a ton of play in the shifter lever even when in gear, so I removed the boot and found these bushings had worn out and bought and installed new ones.

- Jim

Thanks Jim. The problem is that I don't know what is "normal" for this car anymore. Although I drove a 280Z daily from about 1984 to 1989, that was a long time ago. So whenever something seems loose, slow or sloppy, I chalk it up to "well that's how things were in 1978". Going from the 350Z to the 280Z doesn't help either. There is such a big difference I always just think "well you can't compare the two".

But Vinny knows what these cars are supposed to act like. So having him go through it has been great!

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

Shifter Bushings disperse the torsional vibrations between the lateral shift stacks and the transmission balk plate. Because of the high stress they endure, they frequently deteriorate and can actually fall out over time. The old Datsun spandex replacement bushings held for awhile, but by the early 1980s it was clear that simple polyeurathane buffers on the ends of each scramrod held up far better and gave tighter shifts. This same idea was later expanded into the 280ZX program to include constant contact high speed muffler bearings made of the same material.

_________________
1970 240Z

Yeah...what Frank said. I'm just glad to have new parts where parts were missing. Hope I'm not missing anything else more important!

_________________
Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles