Lil' Red - The 280ZX Restoration Story

This journey started back in 1986. My dad, who fixed up wrecked cars on the side, bought a damaged red 1982 Datsun 280ZX and fixed it up. I got to drive it around quite a bit and loved the manual transmission and how spunky the engine was. But I really just loved how cool this little red sports car looked on me. Alas, as happened with numerous other cool cars my dad fixed up, he sold it to some lucky person and I never saw it again.

Fast forward almost 40 years, and my dad passed unexpectedly in early 2025. While his health had been on the decline, it was a shock to us all. Sometime after his funeral, my son Casey told me he wanted to fix up an old Porsche or perhaps a Corvette. Casey got the bug for fixing up cars from his grandpa, which, unfortunately, I had not gotten. After helping him look around I had the idea to see if we could find an '82 280ZX to restore, and paint red as part of the process. This would be my tribute to my dad, and would be something fun to do with my son.

So we set about looking for the exact year and the coupe version, not the four seater, and relatively low miles. It wasn't easy, but eventually I found one in Valdosta, GA that looked like it might work. And it was a turbo to boot, and even better, it was originally red. After a little research, it seemed like the car was in decent enough shape and the 88k miles appeared to be real. But, man, did the body need some work. Once I saw it up close, I couldn't tell if I just bought a rust bucket, or this thing was the recipient of the worst body and paint job I'd ever seen. But the price was fair, and these things always come with a little risk, so I bought it.

Now, my wife and I were in the process of moving from our home in Atlanta to South Carolina, and we needed to take some furniture to Casey in Cincinnati where he lives, so I rented a U-Haul and a car trailer and we made the big trip. It began in Valdosta with a stop in Atlanta for some furniture, a stop in Cincy to drop off the furniture, then finished the trek at our ultimate destination in Lancaster, Ohio, at Young's Collision Center. My dad started that business up right after he sold the original 280ZX, and my brother now owns and runs it.

The plan is for Casey, who's only 2 hours away, and me, a flight away, to find our way to Lancaster about every 4-6 weeks to make this car great again. We are documenting the process via video and with this article, which I will update as we make progress. As of late July 2025, we've already made good progress, and I'm feeling great about the purchase after what we've discovered so far. But this is going to take some time. At least a year I would imagine, possibly longer. So please check back regularly to see how we're doing. It should be fun. And soon, I'll have video posted on Youtube that I will link to from this article, so you won't have to go looking for it. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as we will.

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June 2025 Update

Here are a few of the images I got before I made the trip to Valdosta

The car is loaded and finds its way to Ohio

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July 2025 Update

So, the car was missing badly when I got it. The previous owner put a new battery in it the day I picked it up, so thankfully it started and ran well enough to get up on the trailer. But it wouldn't really run, so we took it to a local mechanic in Lancaster to ensure there were not major problems and to get it running good again. And after a number of weeks, they got it to a good place. And there really wasn't much wrong with it mechanically, at least at this stage to get it running. Later in the year we will begin going after all of the mechanicals to ensure everything is good, the gas tank is clean, etc. But for now I just wanted to see if it would run and if there was any major engine challenge. While the few drives I took are not absolute proof, I am very happy with the condition of the engine at this stage. I was able to confirm that the turbo engaged. I was also able to confirm that the suspension is likely going to need a complete overhaul. Not a surprise.

The plugs had just recently been changed, so here's what was done to get it running again

• Replaced the points

• Replaced the distributor cap

• Replaced the distributor rotor

• Replaced the plug wires

Got great news on the floor pans, no rust! What you see on the image is carpet padding residue. We did find rust in the spare tire bay in the trunk. We also found rust at the top of the windshield and around the rear passenger window. But overall, not bad at all for a 40+ year old car. You'll see more of that as I post more video down the road. You'll also need to look at video to see all of the body crud this car arrived with. Good news is almost all of it was simply bad body work, not covered up body rust. So we're taking everything down to metal to ensure that when this thing gets painted, it will look amazing. I also took the image of the seats and worked through options via AI. I took the seats to an upholstery guy, who can start working on them in around 3 months. Sent him the image of the seat I settled on, and he says he can do it. We shall see. FYI, the Z is for placement only. Not 100% sure what I'm doing there. And the plaid color will be less mustardy and more of a tan shade. Finally, all that grinding and sanding is dirty work as you can see from my face!

Tri layer paint

The one decision I made this trip was to not go with the original red. We're going with a more modern and deeper, and frankly, more beautiful, color of red when we get to the paint stage. This image doesn't really do it justice. It's gorgeous!

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August 2025 Update

In my absence, the guys at Young's Collision have been making great progress. I could not for the life of me get the trim pieces for both sides of the t-tops off. The screws were badly corroded, but they got them off and great news is no rust back there. With the corrosion, I was thinking the worst. I recently ordered a bag of stainless Nissan screws, so will definitely need to use them there once we get ready to reassemble. They also got the rear hatch off, which we needed to do. Zach got the rear bumper shocks off as well, and he finished grinding the paint in that area. They also got the rear driver side window out, and ground the metal down nicely, plus the windshield is out. Bummer news is we're going to need a new windshield. Need to start looking for that.

Good news is that other than the rust I already exposed at the top of the windshield, it looks pretty good. I ordered the windshield chrome, and it just arrived, but now I need to buy the clips for the upper and lower pieces. The lower clip strips are easy to find, can't find any uppers. May need to buy two lowers and trim to fit for the upper. Finally, when I bought the car I wondered why the hood was not on it. I assumed maybe the new radiator was causing an issue. Nope. The hinges on both hood brackets were broken. One side was locked up, the other completely broken off. Andy from Young's Collision figured out a fix to replace both broken hinges. Nice handiwork there, saves $$$ on a used hood bracket that would probably lock up down the line as well.

All of this work is in preparation to get the metal that we've worked primed. One thing about metal is it likes to rust. Andy from Young's Collision has already acid washed the exposed metal in preparation for epoxy priming. Zach is finishing up the areas I missed when I was there in July. Sorry, Zach! Great progress, guys! More pictures to come as I get them.

8/18/25 Update

Woot! All of the grinding we did in July to get the back half of the car body down to metal has paid off. It is now primed, which will keep it from rusting while it waits for us to finish the rest of the car, but it also exposes the dings. I can see one already, but I took out some putty in that driver's side rear quarter, so I know there's a little more work to be done. But a nice milestone for sure. Great work by the guys at Young's Collision to get us this far. They're busy dudes, so appreciate fitting us in when they can.

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Sept 2025 Update

Made it back to Ohio for a few days in September and made some good progress in a short time. Also talked to the upholstery guy and it looks like he's got the material for the seats and should be starting on them in the near future. He is taking the material to an embroidery company to have the "Z" placed where we want it on the seat back. Can't wait to see how that turns out!

As for the body work, I managed to remove the nose of the car, which needed to happen so I could work on the fenders, plus I'll have to sand some of those pieces by hand. You can see how that looks in the images below. I also had the time to grind both doors down to metal as well as the driver side fender. I am starting to get the hang of it, but it is dirty work. My hair was full of crud after all that. And the poor guys at Young's Collision had to live with the mess for a day. I hear they did a full clean after I left. Sorry guys!

Here's a quick video I pulled together showing the progress on this trip.