Its a Datsun...

After searching Craigslist, the local paper, trader mags, and back alleys, we found this diamond in the rough. A 1983 Datsun 280ZX with 180,000 miles and by the looks of it they were rough miles. The title says Georgia, but rust like this is imported!

The good... The 2.8L straight 6, 5-speed ran reasonably well out of the box, even better after we plugged a huge vacuum leak. It needs some tuning and more that one vacuum leak traced down, but the running gear doesn't seem to need anything major. We ran it yesterday long enough to determine it doesn't overheat. It revved to 6300 rpm and all of the rods and bearing stayed in place. From 60 feet away it doesn't look too bad. It should be a great platform, from a handling and performance standpoint.


The bad... The floor pans are made of Swiss cheeze. There's a lot of rust. We think most of the rust is structurally insignificant, mostly cosmetic. The clutch is questionable. The original fuel injection system was sitting in the passenger seat. The previous owner gave up on the FI and installed a dual carb setup. The electric fuel pump that the previous owner had rigged only works sporadically, but hey, he showed how to get it going again by tapping it with a hammer. Redneck Technology!

We also discovered that the fuel guage works. Damn Japanese cars, E actually means empty. After a tuning session (we stuck a bolt in a hole to plug a vacuum leak), we took it for a test drive around the neighborhood. We ran out of gas!

We hope to sell some pieces that we won't need to put some cash back into the budget. Somebody might be interested in the FI setup, the rear hatch, glass T-Tops, etc.