New forum member here and first time Z-chassis owner. A buddy of mine had this 350z for a long time, but mechanical issues and life got in the way so it sat parked in his garage the last 1-2 years.

I got it running again and took it off his hands to try and "restore" it. It's a 2005 base 6 speed with 120k miles and a few gremlins to go along with it. It was overheating when he parked it, the engine cradle (k member) has a dent in it from getting too cozy with a curb, the APS oil pan is stripped and dripping, both door handles are broken, CEL, etc etc. I'm also not very sure what an STD smells like, but I imagine it would smell similar to the interior on the car since the windows were down in his garage.

With a fresh battery the car fired right up, but misfired all the way home (10 minute drive so nothing major). I'm chalking that up to the old gas in the tank which I'm debating pumping out or topping off with 93 and some HEET (3/4 full tank) after I get the codes read. I have a 2015 Mustang GT as a daily, so I've got all the time in the world to work on the Z. I'm fortunate enough that he's giving me every replacement part the car will need, but it was storming last night so I'll have to go back for all that along with the bumper soon.

Photos from when I first saw it last week and when I finally got it home last night:














It's nasty, it stinks, it needs a deep clean, it needs paint correction, the tires were rotted, but I'm excited to get to work on it.

 

for some reason i feel as if i have seen this car before on the forum, or maybe just another one with teal wheels

 

Probably, I actually won these wheels in a raffle from another local 350z owner who's very active on forums. It just so happened that I bought a 350z, so now I can use them at least for the time being.

 

Nice basis for a build/restore.

After you dump or re-color da whills. Heh heh.

Welcome.

 

Haven't decided on a color yet, and honestly that's low on the to-do list with all these other maintenance items I need to take care of first. May go with a metallic charcoal similar to my daily:

 

Nice man!

Love Z resto's. Can't wait to see the finished outcome!

 

Rock-n-roll.

 

#deadaf

Good luck on the rebuild man. Love your 5.0.

 

Actually thinking about dumping my Z for a 5.0 .. The new mustang design looks amazing...

 

Lol thanks all. I love everything about the Mustang except the stereotype but it's very hard to lose it in the new model. You've gotta be trying pretty hard to slam into that crowd in order for it to actually go that way.

**Update: got the smell of rotting blue waffle out of the car but ran out of time after picking up all the extra parts it came with from the seller this morning. Hoping to put in a lot of time on it next weekend.

 

you came here just to brag about your crowed killer. ok kidding. welcome and goodluck on the resto.

 

Welcome and congratz! Hope it's a good car for you.

 

Welcome to the forum and i hope you enjoy building your project Z. Keep us posted with photo's,

 

Should have some more photos this weekend, I took off friday so I could have a long 3 days with the car to make progress. I was also able to get the misfire fixed this week, turns out one of the coil packs was just unplugged. I never remember to check the simple things first.

Need to change the oil pan, engine cradle, multiple light bulbs, possibly the belts, compound the headlights and paint, keep cleaning the interior, clean the engine bay, etc.

It also had an overheating issue according to the old owner, but I haven't had any issues yet (knock on wood).

Once all that's done, I'll finally go get an inspection and start driving it to work once or twice a week just to keep everything moving.

 

Got a decent amount done this weekend. Swapped the oil pan, flushed the cooling system, compounded out the crap on the headlights, fitted the front bumper, reconnected the sway bar, pulled the seats and shampooed the carpets, detailed the interior, swapped out all the busted light bulbs, and got my state inspection.

Had one rather large issue though. When compounding the headlights, I ran my DA over the edges of the hood a few times and saw what I thought was "good paint underneath" so I proceeded to do the bottom half of the hood which turned out to be a very bad idea.



The hood had imperfections and bare metal showing in spots anyway so I sanded it smooth, sealed it with a black primer, sanded it again, and already made an appointment to get it wrapped gloss black on friday. Next up: paint correction on the rest of the car and knocking out that fender dent on the passenger side/replacing the panel.