looking at a 280Z
 

Hey guys! New to the forum here... I'm looking at buying a 280Z chasis. It's supposed to be in pretty good condition. A friend of my best friend's has it. His friend also has a rebuilt motor for the car also. Basically all we would have to do is install the motor. I haven't talked to the guy about pricing or anything yet, so I don't know very many specifics. I've been wanting a project car that I can work on for a while, so this is sounding pretty nice.

I have only one major concern for the long run, other than the power that motor is supposed to produce. I was talking with another friend of mine (who is an excellent mechanic, I trust him very much), and his main concern is the wiring harness. The concern was how well the wiring would be on such an "old" car. My question is, how well has that lasted other people who have the car. I'm kind of leaning towards completely rewiring the harness over a period of time before dropping in the motor. I'm interested in hearing what others may think about this.

Also, where can I find some good info on the 280Z? TIA!

Wiring Harnesses?
 

I guess it depends on how close you are to the Gulf in TX?

Up here in Washington, the cars rust out the closer they are to a water source. A car with rust on the coast, generally also has corrosion in the wiring harness. If your in a dry area of Texas, your wiring harness may be just fine. If your talking about a 75 - 78 Z, I believe the alternators were only around 65 amps. I am currently running a 100 amps alternator with no problems. If you decide to run a big amps/watts sound system, you may need to do additional wiring, and possibly an alternator greater than 100 amps. There are kits for Chev's alternators into the Z's. Best thing is to look at the harness. If its got corrosion, you may want to hit some of the wrecking yards in the dryer area of Texas and replace it.

Hope this helps!

Speed

rust
 

Up here in Dallas we generally don't have to worry about rust a whole lot up here, unless the car wasn't properly taken care of. do any aftermarket companies make a wiring harness? I.E. JC Whitney? I signed up to get a couple of there catalogs, so I'm still waiting to find out. Thanks!