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I just spoke with his previous business partner at C7 carbon (they make corvette carbon fiber parts now), they used to pop carbon fiber parts for Scions under the name C12 carbon, but apparently this was just before the guy Paulo split and started RSpec carbon. All these businesses are located in San Diego area and have their parts made in Baja California. Still.... no luck tracking down the elusive Mr. Paulo Sierra or a status update on my parts. Any members down in San Diego that have information on this guy, I would certainly appreciate any help.

Also here is an image from the body section of the FSM.

Here are a couple of pictures from my 7/70 that I took so that I could re-assemble in the future. Don't like relying on my memory, Hope this helps.

Maybe she is hanging out with her sisters, Anode, and Cathode.

I wonder if the collecting/investing community was nervous about crossing "TheGuild". Does his opinion influence the value of a Z? He put his bid in early then implied that car might have flaws. I didn't read all of the comments. Maybe he overbid. Or maybe the seller lost out because TheGuild scared away bidders. Most buyers wait until the last day to make their bids. The auction flow was not normal.

Whatever the seller does DON"T take his check!!

Greeting all. I recently purchased a 1983 280zx N/A manual Federal car that was listed as having a “reliability Issue”. The previous owner of the car had moved out of state and after spending an enormous amount of money and the car spending 13 months in 2 different shops he decided to wash his hands of the car. The PO was only able to drive the car 145 miles in a year and a half that he owned it! Being a pretty good backyard mechanic and having owned 4 other Z cars I figured that I could have the car up and running in less than a day. I was told that the car was running extremely rich to the point it would foul the plugs in a matter of minutes. I purchased the car, which is very nice, and it would not start when I went to the local repair shop to pick it up. I spent the next 2 weeks checking and re-checking everything on the car. I went thru the FSM diagnostic procedures 3 times. The timing and distributor position were way off so I pulled the front cover and installed a new chain and put the distributor drive shaft in the correct position. When I finished, the car did the EXACT same thing. I tried 2 AFM, 2 different ECUs, I tried 3 distributors, I tried 4 CHTS, I tried 3 ignition modules and different combinations of all of these and nothing changed. I also own a 1981 280zx N/A manual California emission car. I removed all the sensors, with the exception of the ECU, from the 1983 and put them in the 1981 and the 1981 sensors into the 1983. The 1981 started and ran, it even ran when I put the 1983 distributor into the 1981. This distributor has the 2 plug Ignition module, but it ran, not well, but it worked . Still no start, super flooding of the engine on the 1983 car. So, I was getting fuel and spark and air. That’s all you really need to get a car to run. I even tried to start the car on starting fluid and it would not run. In that 2 weeks I was only able to get the car to run 1 time and it ran BAD. It would only run with the throttle wide open. The car smoked, the exhaust stunk of unburned fuel and the spark plugs turned black. The car would not idle at all, it would die if the rpm dropped below 3,000. When the car finally died and I could not restart it, the plugs were soaked with fuel. Check the grounds! I did. The repair shop that I picked the car up from is an old school shop. They had actually added extra body grounds from the battery to body and from the engine to body. The AFM and distributor were grounded. The 4 ground wires at the ECU had pigtails soldered to them and were body grounded at the ECU. Now I start thinking bad ECU. How do you prove that if you don’t have access to a good ECU. The 1982-1983 ECU’s were upgraded with Heavy Duty internals so that the Dropping Resistor was no longer needed on the 82 and 83 cars. Try finding a 1983 ECU! They don’t seem to exist. I spent the next week thinking and researching 1979-1983 280zx ECU. Who can fix them. Who can diagnose or test them, but I could find very little information on any of the S130 car ECU’s. I started thinking what is different amongst all of the 280zx ECU’s? I spent 12 hours digging thru all of the S130 FSM looking for the differences. How many of you know that the 35 pin connector on the 1979 thru the 1983 ECU’s change very little. The wires for the AFM, CHTS, TPS, Cold Start Valve, Thermotime Switch, Air Regulator even the wires from the fuel injectors on all of these cars stayed in the exact same place for all years. The 35 pin ECU connector does not change from 1979 to 1983 with the exception of adding a few things on these cars, even on the HD ECU 1982/83 cars. Here is the difference: *Sometime in 1979/80 O2 sensors were being added (pin 31 & 16) to California cars and made their way to all of them by 1983, but the O2 sensor is in the same pin position on the ECU connector on all years . *In 1980 there was a 2 wire plug (labeled “Not Used”) was added to the 35 pin ECU connector (pin 20 &10) but stays in the same place. *In 1983 an altitude switch was optional and added to the 35 pin connector (pin 28 & 35). That’s it! I researched all of the input sensors that feed info into the computer, and with the exception of the coolant temp sensor (1979) that changes into the CHTS after 1979, the specs are all the same on the CTHS, AFM, TPS, Air Temp Sensor, nothing changes from 1979 to 1983. Remember that I am trying to prove that my ECU is bad on my 1983 car. I have access to a 1981 that I know works and there is a local wreaking yard with a 79 and 80 280zx there. Since nothing changes on these cars ECU pin out, why not put my 1981 into the 1983. I got a Dropping Resistor and main wire harness from the junk yard and pulled out the positive wires and dropping resistor form the main harness. I added EV1 connectors (from an junk Audi) so I could hook up my makeshift resistor harness to the fuel injectors. I added spade connectors to the negative side wires on the EV1 injector connector so I could plug the negative wire into the original injector connecter so that I would be connected to the ECU for the grounding to trigger the injectors. I ran power from the battery to the dropping resistor. Now I had power thru the dropping resistor to the injectors. The makeshift harness was hooked to the ECU ground wore thru the original wire harness and I could now plug in my 1981 ECU and BAM!!!! The car starts and runs great! BAD 1983 ECU! So if you are having the super flood issue with your 1982/1983 car and you have eliminated EVERYTHING else by following the FSM exactly, its probably your ECU. Remember a bad/disconnected CHTS can and will give you a super flooded engine also. One interesting thing to note that while I was at the wreaking yard, the two 280zx that they have are close to the river and have been completely submerged several times during spring thaw flooding. I purchase one of the “been underwater” ECU, the one that had the O2 sensor input in the 35 pin connector, and took it home and opened it and cleaned out all of the dirt an muck with precision electronic spray cleaner. After running the 1983 with the 1981 ECU, I installed the 1980 “been underwater” ECU into he 1983 and the car ran great! Shakedown run tomorrow! Moral of the story, check everything 3 times, beg and borrow parts from your friends, think out of the box and do your research. 5 weeks, countless hours of labor, $270 on parts and only $3000 purchase price for the car and now it runs great. I may just install the Drop Resistor permanent and keep the 1980 ECU instead of trying to find a unicorn 1983 ECU. Don’t give up! The answer is out there!

Be advised, I have cut those before with a flat head screwdriver if they are really stuck. I would prefer a punch or a brass drift would be even better

FYI There is a record line of container ships off the west coast. Supply chain disruption is not likely to get better before the spring. No excuse for not communicating though

there's some email addresses at the bottom of the thread starter, Paulo Sierra. https://clubsciontc.com/forums/sponsored-sales/fIeVx5TDZvSq/c12-carbon-complete-line-of-carbon-fiber-products?page=1

HS-30H - "There's a sucker born every minute". It was true then and it's true now. If you make enough noise - for a long enough period of time - people (suckers) will eventually start to listen.

On my 240Z and 260Z, I used about any tool I could fit to press on the flat areas at the red arrows. You can't push too hard there, as you may warp the ring. The early cars didn't have the inner ring area where I have the green arrows. I would think after removing the sending unit wires and low fuel level wire that you may be able to get a set of pliers that open wide enough to go across that area. Hat tip to @siteunseen for the picture I lifted from this thread:

Doors and hatch are fitting much better. Still some adjustments to make.

Welcome. Looks like an awesome car. We might have similar stories. I had a 280z when I was a kid in the early / mid 80's. Ended up selling it when I got serious about college. 20 years later (15 years ago now) I got interested / addicted again. My unsolicited advice is to resist the temptation to take it apart and try to fix / address everything. Stick with weekend or 2 weekend projects and keep it running. This is a great forum. I have learned so much from the smart people who are regulars. In other words, you have come to the right place.

Found an " elephant " oil cap today on the junkyard, pretty cool. Will put it on my on Z. Searched a few hours still not found the 5 speed driveshaft, with the slide piece. If anyone has a lead to one, let me know..

Oh wow that's a blast from the past! I had completely forgotten about showcars. Yes these are two different companies and different people. Showcars as I recall offers a variety of fiberglass kits/pieces for the Z, I've honestly not heard that name in over a decade and am not even sure if they are still around...though from what grannyknot says above perhaps they do still exist.

Strong possibility, to say the least. 😉 Amazing how quickly he has built up a loyal fan club in (what he calls) 'The Z Collector Community'. A lot of people seem to hang on his every word. Maybe they are oblivious to the past shenanigans?

Absolutely not, geographically they are based in the same area but the guy at showcars has proven himself to be a bit of a scammer. He boasts a huge variety of makes and parts but in reality he has very little in stock. I haven't checked him out in a while but most of what he offers is fiberglass, only when he gets a fully paid order does he start to fabricate the part, then if the parts arrives at all it will be many months away and a pretty shoddy in its fabrication. At one point he was also offering Charlie Osbourne's pans and rails at a sizeable mark up, I don't know if that is still true. A number of members of the OntZclub got burned by him and it is common knowledge now to steer clear no matter how good his offer sounds.

Weird. The ZGuild guy bumped the bid by $5000 to $40,000 at the very beginning of the auction and nobody bid after that. No 2 minute extensions, just faded away to that first day bid. A ton of comments on the auction page though. An odd one.

I can make them, too.

Zedd Findings = company name Charlie = owner founder, he's the man datsunzparts.com = the internet domain (aka website) for Zedd Findings...it is not terribly uncommon to find a company with a URL that does not match their company name Charlie has been doing this a long time and is quite reliable.

Silicone sealer has acetic acid in it (that vinegar smell when it is curing). Acetic acid is corrosive. I would caution against using it on bare metal as the resulting corrosion it causes would be just as bad as not using it. Before installing a rivnut I paint the bare metal. After installing the rivnut I go over it again to seal the area.

And about your strut boot fitment... I believe the strut boot is intended to snap onto a bump stop plug. The bump stop goes up under the hat and the boot can be attached to the bump stop either with the boot simply snapping into a groove in the bump stop. or a zip tie if necessary. In other words, the aftermarket boot may not be designed to snap around the flange on the hat like the original, but may snap around the bump stop instead. Like this pic from a generic boot on amazon: