I need another project like I need a hole in my head...but I could not bear to see this car crushed. It was scheduled to be squished this spring.
It has an interesting story too, the owner is a Mechanical Engineer who has been living and working in Shanghai for the past 13years. He parked the car at his parents 6acre property in 1995 (after the car failed emissions). This property is located in the Forest and he left it under the trees and it has not been run or moved since.
His bother is my buddy, who told me about the car and said that his parents were tired of seeing the car and were going to crush it this spring. I thought I would go check it out just for grins and thought it would be a REAL "piece" -rusty and roachy (ok so it is!). But was pleasantly surprised to see it complete, straight and in decent shape for a car that was last run in 1995! The car was covered in pine needles like you would not believe, you can see we had to dig around it to get it out and the tires were starting to dry rot badly. The dry Colorado climate has been pretty gentle to it.
Interestingly enough, next to the 280Z is a REALLY rare Mazda Cosmo with a BridgePorted 13B! It supposedly making a solid 240-250hp. The fate of this Cosmo is uncertain right now but hopefully will be saved and not crushed. It is a complete running car and was last started and run 6months ago.
So the 280Z that followed me home today has some rot on one small piece of the passenger floor but actually its not extensive at all, the frame rails are very solid. Lots of surface rust as you can see, rear lower 1\4s are typical. The tires actually held air, after we pumped them up. The Western Wheels are pretty old skool pimp! The interior is pretty sad.
After I drained the lovely smelling varnish 13year old gas, filled it with 5 fresh gallons of fuel, filled it with coolant (fixed a coolant leak with a handy garden hose in the process), I cranked it until it built good oil pressure and then tried to start it and it would just not go. The engine is not getting fuel at all, so the pump might be dead. I sprayed some Starter Fluid into the intake and VROOOOOM it fired up and ran for a solid 10second...pretty damn cool...LOL. I had to whack one of the rear drums with a 16lb sledge for a while as the shoes were glued to it and it was just dragging as we pulled the car.
Well here are the pics....yes I know I am crazy, but one less Z saved from the crusher!
Very clean engine bay actually!
The Mazda 13B Cosmo:
Loaded Up And Ready To come Home:
Ahhhh...fun times ahead!
Yasin