There I was, sitting at the kitchen table, building my first model car. The year was 1976. This was no ordinary model and it was not the American iron most kids dreamed of, no, this was a unique car, it was a Datsun 240Z. Flash forward a few years to 2009 and I have almost got my dream car, a distant relative of the 240Z but it was not a 240Z. It was a 1987 300ZX. Although it was a fairly nice GT car, it lacked the pizazz of the S30 cars and it lacked the character that made the 70-78Z a true sports car. Manual transmission and the L28 straight 6 were legend and I knew so some 30+ years later. Today I no longer have the 87 300ZX but instead the car of my childhood dreams, a black 1978 280Z. This car, simplistic as it is, has the character of what a well designed GT should be; quick, light, reliable (post EFI), and a smile inducing thrill of a ride. This blog is the day-to-day, ins-and-outs of the restoration of the black (maybe a black pearl Z?) to the car she once was. In fact, it will, with some modifications, be the car it needed to be back in 1978 - Turbo Charged. Stay tuned for the rising Phoenix of my dreams.
