Sunday morning at 7 am, I was headed back to John’s shop in Scottsdale, this time to get the front fenders and the IMSA G-nose installed. Again, lots of trimming, sanding, and fitting for a good fitment. The fiberglass parts aren’t perfect, as they’re made for race cars who don’t care about fitment. We just cut away enough to get it close, and I will need to do all the detail work on my own at home now.

The biggest challenge we had was getting the headlights mounted. John had never mounted these pieces before, because he had never had a request for it. So this was all new territory. The issue was to make sure the headlight was mounted in the center of the fender as well as on the headlight bucket on the G-nose. It took several hours to get this down right with lots of measuring and fitment testing again. As you can see, the stock hinges were converted to work with a G-nose front end. The stock 280Z turn signal lights also had to be removed.

Finally… everything came together, and we bolted it all up.

The front lip measures 5.5″ off the ground. We would need to do some more testing with the front wheels now, and this is where we ran into another issue. That spacer is causing problems again, pushing the wheel out too far. I was not able to turn the wheel very far without it hitting the fenders. We thought about trimming the fenders, but I’ll just have to get the front hubs converted like I did on the rears. So I made a call to my wife, who brought me out my old 16×8 XXRs and they were put on instead. I was able to drive home on those without any issues.

At this point, there is still a lot to be done: Front hubs with 5 lug conversion, more body work, paint, and I have to put the interior all back together again. We took everything out of the interior during the welding so we could watch for fires. It’s not done by a long shot, but it’s close enough to where I can drive it again, and have some fun with it in the meantime.

Planning ahead was definitely not optimal, especially with the wheels. I spent a lot, but learned a lot along the way. Such is life when you start hot rodding and going outside the boundaries of what’s considered “normal” off-the-shelf parts. The flares were sold as well as the front air dam to help pay down some of the added cost. The $400 hub adapters might wind up as expensive paperweights, unless someone wants to buy them down the line.

In the next episode, we’ll pause and assess where the car stands now, and plan for the rest of the restoration / modification.

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

Once the roughed-in fenders were sent off, three weeks passed when John texted me, and said to start thinking about getting another date ready to come over and get the new rear panels mounted. Along with that text, was a picture of the final product test-mounted on his parts testing/fitting Z.

One of the things I did do while I was waiting was to get the rear tires replaced. They don’t make 335/35/18 anymore. I found another Z owner running 345/45/18s on a hot rod open-wheeled Z just like I had done. So I went with the 345s. Ordered them from TireRack.com and had them drop shipped to Firestone to have them mounted. The Firestone guys were all intrigued as to what kind of car these were going on. When I told them a 76 280Z Datsun, no one believed me. That’s when I took out the pictures and they were all shocked and giddy at the same time!

Checking out the tires before mounting – they’re insanely large! This was possibly a bad idea on my part to change tires. We had measured everything around 335/35, and now I have 345/40. After discussing with John, he was pretty confident there wouldn’t be any issues. Pretty meaty tires – if you’re a vegetarian, I suggest you look away!

With the new rubber on the wheels, the car looked quite ridiculous. I had to cut out the inner fender just to make them fit. The inner fender was spaced out in 1″ strips, and cut deep into the fender. There would be no more trailering the car around at this point. I would be driving it over there early on a Saturday morning. Got the car over there, and onto his lift. We worked the tabs a bit, and got them welded up to the body, and then trimmed and rounded a bit – just in case someone was under in the fender, they wouldn’t slice open an artery. Doesn’t need to be too pretty, as no one is going to see this stuff anyways. If anyone has done this before, there is quite a large cable bundle that runs through this fender. We tied a string to the end of the cable that plugs into a harness under the passenger seat. When we pulled it out through the hatch, we could easily pull it back through into the car without any issues. The antenna is on the driver’s side, but I’m not running a radio – No need when you got triple Webers! So I removed it off the car altogether.

Now the fun could finally start with the fenders. We used a SEM epoxy product, About $35 per 7oz bottle. We drew a line around the fender on the car, and then cleaned up with a grinder to get down to metal. This ensures the epoxy had a strong point on the car to bond to, and not just paint or filler.

The fender was then mounted with drywall screws on the car to hold it into place.

Both sides were done, and tires were remounted. We lowered the car, and checked for any rubbing or clearance issues. A solid drive was necessary to make sure it was going to be ok on the road, so I took it for a quick spin around the block, and made sure to hit some bumpy stuff, as well as making it squat. More trimming was needed, and eventually everything was perfect. The fenders added an additional 8 inches from the original stock fender lip location, widening the Z by a full 16 inches!

With no headlights, I had to be home before dark. So we finished up and called it a day. I made it home with plenty of daylight to spare for another picture. I got plenty of thumbs up, honks, and looks while I drove home on the freeway. “Breaking necks” is what I was told this was called…

Up next, we tackle the front – Will it be as radical as the rear? Join us to find out!
Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

I sent John an email and after a lot of measuring and pictures, and more measuring, he was pretty sure he had something that would work. So we set up a date to meet. Got my car all tied down on a trailer and headed over to his place on a Thursday morning out in Scottsdale, AZ. I had to strip the car down as much as possible for the work we were going to be doing. I took off the front fenders and airdam. (I kinda dig the open wheel look!) Did some body prep work, clean up and sanding with the fenders removed as well as some light repair work.

Met up with John, and we went to his fiberglass shop to get the panels and got the small tour. Eventually we found the parts we were looking for, as well as some ‘extra’ stuff as just in case that he had made, and I was introduced to the new addition with the front fenders and airdam. We grabbed all the parts and headed back to his shop and did some light mockup work.

But it wasnt all high fives… the fenders in the rear, were clearly not wide enough.

So John hatched a plan. We could use two of his fenders, and overlay them on top of each other. We could see how well they matched up, and then we could work the shape after that to come up with something new, and custom. Wide wheels have always been “in” and it was a trend that clearly wasnt going to go away. So this would help him, as much as it would help me. So we set down the road with both of us having some interest in this.

We mounted up the two panels and began to work out the shape. This took us 4 DAYS of grueling work to come up with a shape that we were all happy with just for the rears. These would become the ‘plugs’ for which molds could be made from. I later learned that this is just all prep work for the molds. Once you get the molds done from the plug, you pretty much toss it.

Panels screwed to panels screwed to car.


With one side completed in a very rough form, now we had to do the other side. We had to create an identical side now that would need perfect symmetry. Lots and lots of measuring, and about 11pm we finished.
It came out awesome. It just looked right, like it was meant to be. Strangely it started to also look a bit “Porsche-like” as well with the wide hips. At this point they would need to come off, and be sent over to his fiberglass shop, where they would be fine tuned so that the mold could be made. We unscrewed the panels from the car, and it was the last time I would see these panels.

Next episode: With the Banzai Runner at the point of no return, would it stay on track?

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

Eventually the cheap XXR wheels were getting to me, and I wanted something with a little more pizzazz. Everyone seems to do Panasports, CCW’s, TE37’s/Volks/Rays Wheels type of setup. I agree they look fantastic on the car, but I was trying to be somewhat different, remain somewhat period-correct, and go against the grain.

That’s when I found a craigslist ad in December of 2014 that was a game changer. Vintage pre-90’s Hyashi Racing Equipment (HRE) 3 piece 505’s. 17×13 in the rear, and 17×10.5 up front.

I became so excited when I found these wheels. I had been searching for HRE-505’s for a while, and got extremely lucky finding these. A couple weeks of greyhound bus shipping, and here they are. I didn’t put much thought into this, other than I would ‘make it work’. Somehow, some way, these were going on the Z. That’s what hot rodding is all about, isn’t it?

So the first thing was I searched far and wide on getting the lug pattern changed. No one was willing to redrill these wheels to make a 4×114.3 fit. So I found a company on the internet, and $400 later I had a set of hubcentric wheel adapters. Unfortunately the smallest size they came in was 2″ wide. One side bolted to the hub, the other side bolted to the other half of the adapter.

I got them mounted on the car, and I wasn’t too sure about this… this looked like it was going to be a problem.

Next I went looking for the biggest flares I could find. BAMF, ZG, none were big enough. I eventually found the Marugen Shokai Works flares out of Japan. I heard they were some of the biggest flares you could get. I paid a pretty penny to get them, $650 to get them over here from Japan. The flares themselves only ran about $320 if I remember right – the rest was fees and shipping. No one knew the exact width, but they were what I had to go with. Needless to say… they were not big enough.

The next month or so January to February of 2015 I spent all my time and energy to rebarrel the wheels. They were 3-piece wheels after all, so that meant I could get new barrels and have the offset changed a bit to make it work under this flare. Nobody, and I mean nobody could do it. Even HRE didn’t have the tooling anymore to do these wheels – too old. That was a pretty common thing I got back from everyone, was they don’t make 3 piece wheels like this anymore (sandwich style).

Defeated, I kept looking for a way to make this happen… I got in contact with Silvermine motors, and got their 5 lug conversion stub axles. This would eliminate the 2″ of extra room taken up by the wheel adapters. Someone also mentioned doing “flares on flares” but I just wasn’t down with that. It seemed a bit ridiculous to me in theory. Lots of work later, and another $200 spent, I had new new 5-lug stub axles in place… But still not enough.

It helped, but still, I had 2″ sticking out past the flare. I was OK with this, I guess. It was extra wide, I told myself… [EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank God it didn’t stay this way.]

But then I got a break. Through a local high-end tire and wheel company in Tempe, AZ (Wheel Specialists) they mentioned a name. “John Washington” who might be able to help me. Eventually I found ztrix.com and gave John a call…

Up next – Banzai Runner goes to a whole new level.

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

With the engine gremlins defeated, and a potent, functional powerplant under the hood, it was time to make the car all one color. What we budgeted quickly dried up, so primer white it was going to have to be for a while. I didn’t want to do primer grey so I went with white instead. Kind of a mistake because EVERYTHING sticks to it, and doesn’t come off… but that’s the purpose of primer!

Masked off everything with painters tape and newspaper. I didn’t take very many pictures of this process, and started taking things off when I realized I hadn’t taken a single picture yet.

Eventually fender mirrors were added to further that foreign look several months down the road. The are indeed functional. However, they take some getting used to. Once you get used to them, it’s pretty easy to navigate with them down the road. They are not authentic but, a GT mirror knock off out of Taiwan on ebay – about $80-ish which is a far better deal than the $300 or so for the real things.

A “broadway” mirror was added as well to allow a broader field of vision to the rear. It’s a 270mm convex mirror, and works really well to get both corners of the car. However, in the middle it looks like everyone is tailgating, since the mirror is curved.

I got tired with the rear of the car, and started looking for a duck tail spoiler for it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a three-piece, a 432 replica, a BRE, a Victory or what. Eventually from looking at pictures online, I went with the Victory from MSA. It was a very easy install, and really went towards the look of what I was trying to accomplish.

At this point I was pretty satisfied with the car and how it looked. It ran great now, and had the sporty Japanese look I was after. Only about 1000 miles were put on the car just driving on special days to work, and club drives/meet ups. With AZ heat, you don’t really get to drive a car without AC much, so it sits in the garage for several months during the summer months.

It sat about this way for about a year before I was finally able to have some fun in it.

Datsun 280Z – Fly-by

Banzai Runner startup and exhaust sound

Dyno tuning the carbs, and timing in at UMS Tuning in Mesa. It was EXTREMELY loud. The recording doesn’t even come close to replicating how loud this car was screaming! I need to get back out there again, now that I think about it.

Up next – The Banzai Runner gets some PROPER wheels and tires – and another setback.

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

Eleven episodes into the build series, and you’re still here? Well, that’s awesome – if you can stick around to read, I can stick around to finish the project.

Another couple months passed, and after a few payments to Dave at Rebello I had my engine back! 89mm bore, with cast pistons and a pin height of 35.5mm, L20 rods, and a machined 280z crank to create a 3.0L engine. Compression ratio is around 10:1 because of the shaved P90 head, if not a bit higher I believe. It has his 63DI-9 cam in the head with a .480/280 lift and duration.

I’m sure you noticed the electric water pump is gone as well. I found out the water pump wasn’t shielded. When the car turned on, the EMF screwed up with the crank angle sensor pickup, causing it to read incorrectly. If I pulled the fuse on the water pump it would start up immediately (when there weren’t other issues). The generic fans were not cutting it either in the Arizona heat during a few small drives. So I opted to go back to old standby. The alternator was upgraded to an 80 amp as well – not that I needed it, but I wanted the external voltage regulator gone. It basically became a 2 wire setup, ground and battery.


So while the engine was out, I came across a smoking deal I couldn’t pass up. A brand new Kameari intake manifold. I absolutely loathed the Cannon intake linkage setup, but I love the return spring at the end of the throttle bar. It’s adjustable and very heavy duty. It can be cable driven or use the stock pedal linkage. I opted to go with a cable, which is a lot more sensitive than the stock linkage. The body has all the same modifications Dave did on the Cannon, and it has shorter runners. The Kameari intake had to be modified slightly to fit around the MSA header flange. I bought an aluminum bit for my drill and massaged out the areas on the intake to make it play nice with the MSA header.

The orange hard plastic/rubber things you see are phenolic thermal insulating spacers. They stop the heat transfer of the engine through the metal to the carbs. You can literally touch the carbs after driving without burning your hand, while you can barely touch one of the throttle arms because it’s so hot. They work EXTREMELY well! Unfortunately I have found no one in the US that sells them. They are relatively cheap, about $5 each with gaskets.


The throttle arm turnbuckle is spring loaded where it connects to the arms on the rod and carbs. Makes it very easy to take on and off. Everything was already adjusted, I didn’t have to make any changes on the arms as they already the same length. The throttle cable setup was a hodgepodge of parts. Lokar cable kit, custom bracket by Savage42, and some other bits.

Unfortunately, I cant find any pictures of the heat shield by itself, but the new one I purchased was by far the best. It mounts to the front of the carbs, and has an adjustable tray underneath. Its a two-piece setup. It was imported from Japan off the yahoo auctions site. The flange up front keeps the hot blast from the radiator shielded away. I plan to run some ducting from under the car, and mount it to the front of the shield. It will then have a blast of cooler outside air coming across the carbs.

Up next – Banzai Runner gets a preliminary coat of paint and finally gets to have some fun out on the road!

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

A month or so passed, and my stuff was finally done. $2400 later, I got the head back.

The intake manifold was machined so it was like a cone. Wide opening on the carb side, getting smaller towards the engine. The balance tubes were also drilled out and blocked off. The side you see below had a 45mm opening.

Putty on the balance tubes to block them off. I guess the idea is, you don’t want one tube pulling more fuel/air mixture, robbing from another.

I started assembling the head back onto the engine with a new Cometic MLS gasket that Dave provided. Almost immediately, more problems – the head bolts started snapping before they were torqued to spec! I found someone local who had some replacements for the broken ones, only to have them break again! Frustrated, I ordered some ARP head studs, and it locked down as it was supposed to.

Started up the engine, and heard a GLORIOUS sound. Pulled it out of the garage, and into the driveway where I could inspect to make sure everything was working ok. Everything was NOT ok… I had coolant seeping out towards the rear of the head. Torqued some more on the head bolts to ensure it was torqued right, and it still didn’t fix the issue. After some reading and asking around, I was told to get some copper spray to use on the MLS gasket. This would help fill in any little gaps that may be allowing coolant to get free. Drove it back into the garage, and sulked. Take the head off again? I was getting to be a pro at this unfortunately.

After I got the head off, I put some Permatex red RTV down on the block to also help. Sprayed the MLS gasket with the copper coating, and again reassembled the head.

The engine started up, but again coolant came out, flooding the #6 cylinder. Nothing to do but pull the head off again. Now remember… this was supposed to be a brand new remanufactured engine. I had put less than 500 miles on this engine, and 0 miles with this Rebello head!

I got a straight edge and put it up against the block near the rear. I had sunken gaps everywhere around the head bolts and coolant passages! This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was supposed to be a good rebuild from a respected Datsun parts reseller. Lots of good reviews, but everywhere I looked on this engine, shortcuts were made everywhere. Who rebuilds an engine, and you don’t redeck the block??

[Editor note: While our friend Stu may not have known, those of you in the Z community for any length of time have undoubtedly read the nightmare stories about Datsun Parts LLC and their shoddy engines/heads. A quick search for “Datsun Parts LLC engine problems” will confirm our position. Stu was much more patient than we would have been.]

Sulking, and ready to throw in the towel, I called it a night for several weeks. The Banzai Runner sat like a boat anchor in my garage. What do I do… Do I give up? Call it quits? All this hard work for nothing? Thousands of dollars spent down the drain? Where do I go from here?

Discussed it in detail with my wife, and she understood what was going on. After a long discussion, and a call back to Dave, I was again pulling out the engine, and sending everything back to him. I begged Dave to take pity on me and work with me if he could. I wasn’t expecting much, but we worked out a plan. I shipped the block and head back to him for him to do his work.

This is NOT where I expected to be at this point in the build – Despite careful planning and execution, what a mess this has turned out to be.

Tough decisions to come – Join me for the next episode!

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

My total budget for this project, including purchase, was $15,000. I planned on doing 98% of the work myself, and only subbing out work on occasion where needed. I hoped to make good use of the budget by making sound decisions going forward. Lots of research was done, tracking spreadsheets, evaluating, and shopping costs from all over the place – even across the sea from Japan, to make sure I got the best deals possible. Research into L28 blocks, heads, head flow characteristics, and other info helped me nail down how I wanted this to turn out. However, as any hot rodder knows, parts sometimes don’t fit, and sometimes your ideas just don’t always work out. This increases cost, and puts a strain on the entire project.

Looking at other builds online helped me find inspiration for where I wanted to take this car. I studied the “Kuro Z”, “Sakura Z”, “Imai Works 260Z”, “Yuta Z”, “Vengeance Z” and many many more that maybe have no names, but are equally impressive. I looked at everything from car colors, wheels, body modifications, interior and other areas to decide what I was trying to accomplish. Crazy bosozoku cars, shakotan cars, race cars, street cars, everything – still soaking up knowledge and ideas.

Eventually I settled on wanting an old school Japanese muscle car – on a reasonable budget, of course. I would stick with the stock engine, go down the triple-Weber route, headers, exhaust, and other go-fast bits to try and make everything fit within my budget at that time. Weight reduction would dictate removal of the bumpers, some fiberglass bits, and removal of other unnecessary bits no longer needed (AC, heater, etc) to make it lightweight. I wanted this car to be so unique and different, but in a cool way, that it would get known. Kinda vain, I know, but I was determined to put out a cool car that would spark conversation – either good or bad – within the community.

Of course, every great project needs a name to go down this route. Any of you know Eleanor? Of course you do. What about Christine? Yep, you know that one too… This is why it would need a name going forward…. “BanZai Runner” was the name I eventually came up with.

Eventually this picture made its way to me one night. An old Polaroid picture, taken in Japan, year unknown. Fender mirrors, wide rear tires, flares… perfect, just what I was looking for.

Once some bigger problems started happening, the budget got thrown for a loop and put the entire project into jeopardy. I was literally at a crossroads with my wife with this love/hate relationship that had been building. Talking to several members in the community, as well as my father-in-law, and friends… it was decided I would keep trudging along… somehow I would find a way to complete this car, and make it everything I wanted it to be.

Engine problems threaten to sideline the Banzai Runner for good…

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

With a plan in place, and the rest of the project more or less mapped out, it was time to make sure it could move under its own power. After getting the car home I took a few very easy drives, as suggested with the break-in instructions. Right away, I started to have some issues. After several drives to seat the rings, I took a very long drive around the valley. On the way home, I decided to really get the RPM’s up which I had never done before. At 6000 RPMs, I heard a very LOUD pop sound, the car ran like crap, and died. I coasted off the freeway onto the shoulder, and had to call a tow truck home. I had no idea what happened, and I figured I blew up my engine some how.

Got the car home, and it started up! But… it definitely wasn’t running right. I drove it a bit out of the garage, and decided to take a full look at it. The first thing I did was pull the valve cover off. What I found wasn’t good.

I’m surprised this car even ran! It was basically running on 3 cylinders! Fixed and put back together. Then it happened again.

Then it happened a THIRD time, except this time in the #6 cylinder, on one of the valves, the retainer split. No valves dropped into the engine bay, thank goodness.

I even had to invest in a spring compressor tool so I could work on this stuff without bothering other people. Eventually all the springs were replaced with Schneider doubles hylift springs. But… again it happened.

At this point I was so frustrated – it was clear that something was terribly wrong with this engine. After talking to a few people in the community about repair, I eventually made my way to Dave Rebello. I told him what was happening and asked if he could fit it in his schedule to get it fixed. It was prime race season now, so he was quite busy, but he said to ship it on over to him. I bought the timing chain holder and removed the head. Pulling the head, the valves definitely had touched the cylinder heads. Number 2, 3 and 6 pistons had exhaust marks, and number 4 and 5 had intake marks.

I also learned this was NOT an 89mm piston as well. Needless to say I was pretty pissed about this. I shipped the head off to Rebello and waited for word back. I decided, since he had it, to do a full street port, and add a cam with a good street compression ratio. I also sent the Cannon intake manifold to him so he could port it as well.

Special delivery, and the Banzai Runner budget takes a huge hit…

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

With the engine in the bay, the wiring was up next on the list.

Remember how I mentioned that this car sat for 12 years? Well guess what? It sat with a full tank of gas! It was the nastiest stuff I have ever had to deal with. Terrible, terrible stuff…. With the gas tank dropped, I began to inspect it. It was not looking good at all.

I needed to come up with some options on what I was going to do. Find a replacement? Fuel cell? Clean it? Calculating costs of a fuel cell quickly exceeded a budget that didn’t have much room to afford these kinds of problems. But there was no way I was starting this engine until the fuel lines were all taken care of, including the tank. Postings were placed on all the usual spots, looking for a used early 1976 fuel tank – but this resulted in nothing. So I started looking locally at some places that could clean out the tank. “Commercial Radiator Service” or “CRS” here in town said they could help me out. They focus mainly on industrial heavy machinery. Had a quick look of the place, and left the tank with them. A week later I was told to come get it. The foreman said it was one of his more difficult jobs his guys had to do, but it came back pretty! The fuel lines were blown out with compressed air, and cycled through with solvent on a small pump until it ran clear. Unfortunately, no pics of the restored tank, but it looked like new!

With everything wired up, and a clean fuel system, it was time to see if we could get this started… With the new setup, setting the timing was a cinch!
Initial startup to 3000 rpm (idle), then you add initial + 3000 rpm to get your “all in”. I was shooting for about 32-34 degrees total timing. The built-in rev limiter would ensure that I wouldn’t kill the engine accidentally!

It took some fiddling with the carbs a bit… but eventually…. [NOTE: Some NSFW language]

No muffler, no exhaust… just an open header – no tune or carb sync, and stock jets out of the box.

I cut the hole in the hood to mount the Datsun Competition hood scoop. There was some fair bit of history around this part – It was actually a dealer option down here in the Southwest on cars with SU carburetors that experienced vapor lock. It worked so well, that the Datsun Competition department picked it up as a performance modification. Remember that hot AZ heat I’ve been talking about? This will ensure that extra heat has a route out of the engine bay.

At this point, it was time to bring the Z home with me.

With the car now heading home with me, I could continue to work on it after hours, weekends and whenever I needed to, in my own garage. 14 weeks was spent to get to this point. However, it was during this process, my wife and I found out we were going to be expecting our first child! As if the project wasn’t going fast already, I needed to get this wrapped up sooner than later. My wife was now getting anxious with all the money I had been spending on this project, and with the car not complete, it was weighing heavy on me as well.

A pause to make important decisions – Would the Banzai Runner continue?

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion