WingZr0

That Z is clean and you would change it ? Is it right hand drive?

Saw 4.11's for around $300 too. 4.36 NOS R180 think I sold for $400.

HaHa , why don't you guys just take off the Heater Vent face plate from the center dash and go in through there? Zedy to bad you didn't do this later, I'm selling some Red dash gauge Light Bulbs tomorrow and White Gauge Faces too . Somewhere I still have a set of Blue bulbs. Cool part is the bulbs even work in rally clocks. Don't know if thats your style but keep up tha great work Silver Surfer .

HAHA , nah, he mentioned wires disconnected that lead to now where. Figured we can see what wires they were, how bad the wiring is are spot if any vacuum hoses were routed wrong. Yeah, guess I layed the tracks for that one .

Hi bro, welcome . Love the S13/14 but you'll love the Z even more! Besides having a good road racing history, and winning the SCCA C-production championship 10 years in a row, they have a huge rally history too. Check out Zpoint.nl and read up and watch some of the vintage rally videos from the 70's. For parts there are the usual suspects named throughout this forum like MSA aka MotorSportAuto, Victoria British now called Black Dragon, Arizona Z Car for more race stuff, Z Barn, Tomie Power USA.com, Cusco, HKS, ACT, Center Force and so many others. For sure get cleanest car you can. If Florida presents no good ones then ship one in from one of the Dry States for about $700, there are more rust free Z's out here than back east. There are around 46 in my town alone! Read up on IZZC.com, here and on other sites to learn as much about the Z and the differences in years as you can. Pick up a copy of Dsport magazine, just about anything you read there can be applied to Z's too .

Hi, welcome to the club . Pics would help us solve your problem. The lights sound like a electrical issue for sure but you engine problems sound more like a vacume problem to me. You have any missing, disconnected hoses or leaks?

Don't know bro but if you gotta drive your Z to work I suggest you put that thing back together and assault this project when you have more time! Believe there was a thread on removing interior panels but haven't seen one on shocks yet to MY knowledge.

Yep he should've put it on ebay or a more Import oriented venue. The emblems may have been left off for styles sake, you know like shaved door handles. But unless there are mounting holes on the hatch lid and the emblems were never applied on. Still can't see wit this cell phone ,

HaHa, yeah, get that Z back on the road . Just so I'm on same page what do you mean by solid diff mount? You mean as in locked differential or a mount that use no bushings? Sounds like you might be right though, give MSA a quick ring and ask if they ever heard of a different style cross member or mount as your experiencing if no one else chimes in on it.

Start as you say with the basics first. Get the Cold Air intake from MSA and aluminum radiator and electric fan. The fan will get you off the pulley system and free more horse power for the engine to use. The intake will give you super fast and quick engine response such as my 280Z. Next look into stuff like Nismo or Kaminari adjustable cam gears. Lighter flywheels, higher flowing oil pump, Bigger AFM and Coil to name a few. If you want the most out of your "stock" engine then you have to think like a drag racer. That means anything that moves or rotates your want lighter versions of. That means aluminum drive shaft, LSD, lighter rims, tires and so forth. Same for body panels, fiberglass hood and fenders. The lighter your car is the quicker it will be, and thats all with basic bolt ons . Spring for Wilwood brakes cause no since in going fast if you can't stop. An old muscle car rule is for every 100 pounds you loose you shave a tenth (0.10) of a second off your quarter mile times . Think TOTAL TUNING ~Z~

Thing about Mega Squirt (MS) is that there is no set price, you just add what ever features and componets you want so it can be either cheap or expensive and theoretically you can make as much horse power as you want. Basically your building your own EMS . With that you can add what ever cam, injectors you want and control what ever you want and tell it when and what to do what you want programming it with your laptop. On hybrid Z theres tons of write ups and a thousand different ways you can do this. I suggest you visit MegaSquirt.com to see their different kinds of offerings and get a idea of price, what might work for you and how far your willing to go.

Both cars should have a R200 as you may know but I never heard of different style mounts or cross members for the R200 in S30Z's. You sure nothings got tweaked or twisted in the 75 or77 bringing that center hole off by a inch due to torque/body twist from burn outs? Does the 77 cross member appear similar in shape to the 75 cross member?

Parts are cheap on a Z. Biggest mechanical things you'll find is a newly rebuilt engine, if you need it, is 2 to $3,500 with some slight performance mods , new trans and diff about $200 each and a whole new performance clutch for 350 to $600. I only need a ten to twenty dollar input shaft seal to fix my Trans so ain't like it blew up. Not trying to scare you, we just want you to be aware . Z's are SUPER FUN to drive, you'll find the seats are the most comfortable you'll ever sit in and you'll pull more Chics at Starbucks than you will mochas .

I'd stay with a 280Z opposed to a 280ZX, less complicated and confusing engine bay. The ZX has too many wires and extra pipping IMO trying to met the ever increasing smog laws which got stricter each year. A good Z shouldn't cost more than 4 grand for starters. Out here in Cali you can find one as low as 2 grand only cause we have way more of them. Search a thread called "Fuel Injection Port Blocked Solid", thats what happened to my car. Like I said booty crack wrong. Any engine builder would have known not to do that. That one problem basically killt the whole car. Had I known what I know now, from working on my Z myself and there by learning all my mechanical skills on it, I would have spotted the problem to begin with before I bought it for $2,000. But that was an EXTREMLY RARE worse case scenario. About only time that has happened in fact.

Man feel sorry for you, such a nice build. You've got eyes in Sacramento, CA ~Z~

Thought I'd be the last one to say it but I agree, take thier advice above! I was like you too and bought my '77 280Z as my first car and boy was I took. No one could tell me anything and I had to have a Z before a reliable newer car first. Was told the engine was rebuilt but when I got it home I found that EVERYTHING they did was booty crack wrong. The body was nice and rust free and interior was great too but all the mechanicals were still 35 years old. No matter what I did soon as I replaced or fixed one thing another thing broke not one month later. Finally got the engine rebuilt, the right way, then thats when the tranny broke. The body as said is fine, just need to replace every old mechanical part. Aka a driving project car. So unless you can do the work yourself or shell piles of cash, if and when things do break, get a newer DD first. It's no fun when you miss a date cause you car hates ,

An ofthen over looked design would have be the previous generation of the Dodge Avenger. That was a great car and example of how cars should be made today. It had great design, sleek aerodynamic lines, cheap price and bang for your buck performance with that lovely high reving V6. Those could of been made into street racers or cool luxury cruisers, but I have yet to see one done up on the streets or even in a magizine read. So much potential that never for some reason got picked up by the after market nor promoted / marketed well by Dodge.

Thats true. But also true people buy cars out of necessity. I thinking more along the classic lines of the 57 ere Chevy's , the Lincoln Zyphers, 40's Buicks and the 60's era Dodge to name a few. At least back then car companies could take pride, point and say "heh look at what we made", and establish a important costumer brand loyalty. The New Z and GT-R we get it they're cool and get thier sales. And your GTO we also get, if it's anything like it was in GT 4; great balance mad power and stupid torque! And obvious design heritage from the Trans Ams.

I always figured a car that looked cool would sell more than say, a 2010 Sentra? Like back in the day the art form of cars changed every year and sales were up and steady. Then they got cheap, forgot about the fact that ART sells and started cranking out generic looking look alikes year after. IMO every one will buy a "pretty" or "cool" looking car over a egg shape Hybrid. The same amount of sheet metal in a 2010 Sentra can be reformed to look like the concept Z above and still cost the same price. The cost for the same amount of steel will never change no matter what it's shaped into. It's the engine performance and suspension set up that things get pricey. So in short I'd buy a 2010 Nissan Sentra IF it just only looked like that Concept Z.

Yep you answered it. Can says add all coats within one hour. After one hour let sit for 7 days befor adding any more coats to allow paint to cure. Got the Black on pretty thick so think I'll just add the other 2 colors just the same when it warms up and call it good. We've had spring weather for the last week now it's freezing outside. It barley hit 61. Wish I had a heated garage, so I paint outside and let fumes flow down to the neighbors house .

It's not the best they can do, thats what thier willing to do. Or more so what the bean counters will allow, what the hell do the know about design and concept? Arne you mean it was drawn up without thought to whats behind the sheet metal? Can the exact design, appearance wise, be built and then made to pass engineering wise test and such? For example reinforcing internally the C pillar.

Your welcome. As mentioned the damper sort of leaks inconsistantly so look at the bolt on top of it and see is there are any drippage lines or marks coming from the bolt, thats where the leak occures. Took me about three tries of starting the car and watching before gas finally started to spill out from the bolt, so if you don't see it the first time keep checking. Don't tighten the bolt to try stoping the leak, you'll just back up the fuel line and gas will start leaking from the nearest / weakest hose clamp. Easiest way to remove it is to remove the fuel pump clamp and let the pump hang by the fuel hoses, then remove the hoses off the damper then unbolt that entire mounting plate that has the damper attached to it from the under carriage. Replace the damper on the plate then reinstall. You'll need pliers to hold the dampers lock nut when you take it off the plate btw. MSA sells a great all metal, non bolt version by UNISEA JECS. Has a rubber plug instead of a bolt. Just bolt it on and go

Btw did you wait 7 days for the paint to cure as they say or can you add another coat like 3 days later?

Yeah I seen that Chevy color too which is actually also correct. The one I'm using is code "SP114 Flat Orange" which leans a bit towards a Yellow Orange. Was wanting a gloss but on thier web site they list all the shades as a Flat color. I've seen Ansa Z Twin Stacks in both shades and the Orange Red was both in a Gloss and a Flat version.The Celica Ansa's I just had where the Orange Red color and more of a gloss. Strange thing is is that the real Factory Ansa "Yellow Orange" sometimes looks like the Orange Red depending on the sunlight and time of day. Yep VHT is cool stuff, like powder coating.

Awesome , yeah I think I'll do that and be a 2nd coat before ripping it off to Tim Z. Waiting for this storm of ours to pass so it can warm up to finish painting. You have picture text? I'll send you some photos via phone if you do . And I highly recommend DJ Krush / Jazzanova playing "Coffe Talk/Wild Drums" on album Come 4109 from the year 2000. And also "Inside My Mind" by Groove Armada on Vertigo from 1999. That is if you like Ambient Music and a NICE COLD Pale Ale .