my son and I just purchased a 1980 280z.
He turns 16 in a couple months so we have time to fix it up.

The air filter is crazzzy dirty, so I'm thinking about just adding a cold air intake.

Any suggestions?

 

the stock set up is a cold air intake. but a nice new elbow and cone filter looks much cooler. more expensive than changing the filter element. look for cracks in the rubber pieces that connect filter to intake. here are some things to better spend money on:
Get your battery load tested. Be sure you have clean, tight corrosion free terminals on both ends of your battery cables. Be sure the ground (negative) cable goes to a bolt into the frame before going to the starter. grounding through the starter is not a reliable connection. Z's don't like low voltage. causes the electronics to act funny. it is possible to have enough amps to crank but not enough voltage to run the electronics. If you have one size fit all cheapo clamp on terminals they are a problem waiting to happen.

Clean the connectors for the maf or afm, ecu and tps. Deoxit by CAIG is probably the best connector cleaner on the market. spray with CorrosionX after cleaning and before putting together this will help prevent any further corrosion.

Replace outer tie rod ends, and ball joints. replace the bushings with poly (don't forget to lube them as directed unless you like squeaky things). New shocks. Get new boots for power steering. all those things will make you think you are driving a different car. doing them piece meal is a waste you won't see a great improvement until you do the complete job. You need to get the car realigned after messing with the front. Have your tires in good shape and rebalance. Rear bushings nice too but more work and you won't notice as great an improvement. Rear shocks also because if the fronts are gone so are the rears. if car squats when you jump on the gas the rears are gone. If you have the electro adjustable shocks they are DEFINITELY GONE.

 

Thank you for the information and valuable input.

We are installing a new battery to day so....

 

Just note that if you do replace the bushings with urethane that you don't use the urethane on the TC rods... they often fail with urethane and you will loose steering when they do fail. Not good....