2ManyZs

The plate with the spring loaded stud would need to be riveted to the cover, and the latch plate would then need to be screwed, riveted or welded to the headlight bucket. It won't be easy to do, but it could be done nicely with a little patience. The mounts that come with the headlight covers have a screw(?) the goes into an L shaped bracket that mounts to the headlight bucket, so even these will be a little tricky to line up right. BTW, you could look in the specialty section in the hardware store, you might be able to find screws that would work that have a very coarse thread that would only take a turn or two to release.

Well, if you are changing from an automatic to a manual you are going to need trans, clutch pedal assembly, and a few other little bits and pieces. $600 might be a little on the high side unless he's throwing in a 3.90 rear too. You only have to change the mustache bar and rear diff mount if you are going to use an R-200. You should be able to find a 3.90 R-180 out of a 200sx and use that, save changing parts, and save a little weight too. I didn't realize you had an automatic. You already should have a 3.54 rear so to save a little money for the trans swap you might want to leave the 3.54 in until you get everything else done. Then you can search for the 3.90 rear. BTW, if you can get your hands on the tranny, let me know, I am going to be stripping a 72 sometime this summer and can let you have the clutch pedal and all that for a lot less.

You might want to look at the thread I put in the Tech articles on transmission and rear end gearing. You won't like your car in 5th gear if you don't swap to a lower ring and pinion. It will end up being too high and you'll be lugging the engine, same result, lousy gas mileage.

If you look on www.zhome.com you will find a complete list of colors and paint codes by year and model. I think your's may have been the 517 beige that looks like light gold, if that is the original color on your car.

Depending on how you drive and if you spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic, 18-20 is probably pretty good. Do you spend a lot of time on the freeways at higher speeds? If you do look at the tach, it's probably on the high side of 2000rpm right? If you had an overdrive it would probably help a little. It has been so long since I had a street car on the road and drove it regularly I was just guessing at the mileage. I'm not even sure I ever checked it when I did drive a Z on the road a lot. I just had too much fun driving it, and probably with the way I drove it, my gas mileage would have been a lot lower than yours.

Figure about 20 for an average. Depending on how and where you drive you could get as low as 18 to a high of 25 or more. Also depends on the condition of the mechanicals.

Well, you could use a pair of 280 side mirrors. Or you could just buy a set of aftermarket mirrors. Not sure about using a factory drivers side and doing any modifications. Not hardly worth the effort if you buy a decent pair of aftermarket for very little. IMO go with the later 280 mirrors, they are not chrome and could be painted body color so as not to be as noticeable, unless you want the chrome ones. In which case you could probably find a pair of chrome ones at the local auto parts store that closely resemble the originals.

If the car came with A/C from the factory it should have a position on the vent control on the far left for A/C. It should be right above the temperature control. If not this is probably an aftermarket add on A/C system. If it is there then perhaps someone wired up the control direct to save money by not bying the factory switch. I think A/C was an option in 77, not standard equipment. 1850 sounds like a fair price for a 77 if it is in good mechanical condition. It sounds like you have looked the car over pretty well, in terms of rust. Be sure to check under the battery tray for rust, and check the strut towers. If the outside of the body looks good, you should take a small refrigerator magnet with you and try to stick it on the rocker panels, and around the wheel well lip. If it won't stick it is a sign of prior rust that has been fixed(?) with bondo. Also check the lower front fenders. Also, look at the back of the bumpers as these were prone to rust out from the inside. I believe there was a tan or gold factory color but I'm not sure of the true color name, or the paint code. Other than rust, take it for a long test drive and check for any noises, funny handling traits etc. Good Luck.

Pecan shells and walnut shells are usually used to clean up engine components as they are less harmful if a tiny piece is not cleaned out of the engine block or wherever. They usually don't work well on heavy rust, or not as well as glass bead or plastic media. They can also be used on plastics without too much trouble. Plastic blasting media and glass beads can be used on metal and will not generate the heat that silicon carbide does. Silicon carbide is usually used on really bad rust as it is much coarser and is sharper than the rest of the medias.

You can try www.pegasusautoracing.com This is where I bought a lot of my racing goodies from in years gone by:(

No Jeremiah, I didn't just make that up. Dzus fasteners are the quarter turn fasteners that racers hold body panels on with. A simple flick of a tool and they are spring loaded and pop out releasing the panel. I want to put the solid ones on mine, so if I get pulled over I can take a dime and pop them off. If a Corvette can run around with flip up headlights that don't always work, maybe I can say manual release is the better idea, and not get a ticket. This remains to be seen though, stay tuned another year or so till I get the car done.:mad:

I guess there are at least a couple possibilities as to why the hood is sitting too high. Could the hood be bowed? It may have been pushed back in the accident and it bowed against being pushed back against the hood latch. You didn't say if the hood was hit so this is just a guess. Not sure why you had to drill new mounting holes if you got it fairly straight, but this could also be a contributing factor. The second thing might be the tension springs. Are they in the hood hinge correctly? They could be putting too much tension on the hinge causing it to not fold up correctly and therefore not let the hood drop down. If you can push the hood down to the correct height with your hands and then it pops back up, this points to the hinge/tension rod. If neither of these is the problem, perhaps you should take the car to a body shop with a frame machine and have the front snout pulled, it may be buckled around the radiator support where you can't notice it. All they would have to do is clamp on to the area of the hood hinge and do the measurements, probably would not be very expensive as it wouldn't take an experienced frame man more than an hour or two. This might be the best solution, just in case there is hidden damage.

I never tried to take the trim off the panels so I was just quoting the book. Not only that, but I always preferred to paint mine a satin black. Just looked better to me than the original grey. In fact of all the cars I have had I think only one was still grey by the time it got to me anyway. Guess I'm not the only one that prefers black over the grey.

Jim, the only problem I can see with the Maxima swap is finding an early Maxima, they didn't make that very long before they changed over to the 3.0 litre V-6. Might make them kinda hard to find since I think they only made the first generation for a couple years wasn't it? BTW Jim, if you want the parts for a manual swap, I'll be stripping a 72 for parts this summer ( if I ever get caught up on all the other work around here) so let me know and I can save them.

Can you post a couple of pictures?? There a few members looking for cars, and a picture is usually the first thing they ask for.

While you are working on the suspension don't overlook the brakes, no sense in going fast if you can't stop!:tapemouth

According to the book on how to restore a Z by Wick Humble, the panels can be stripped using a stripper as it won't hurt the moldings. They can not be removed without damaging them so just mask them off before painting. I do not know of any replacements for the moldings unless you get the whole panel, and then I'm not sure if the molding comes with them. Might want to check on that first. If you use a liquid stripper make sure you get it out from under the molding or it will seap out and ruin the paint. According to his book they can be painted in a Grey laquer with a suede agent to duplicate the original finish. Originally it is a silver-grey with a rough texture. It also says you can polish the trim using very fine steel wool before you re-paint. BTW, an Argent wheel color would probably be a close match to the original color. And you could bead blast the panels but I think I would mask the molding so as not to make any more marks that will need to be polished out later.

The swap will not get you much improvement unless you change the cam and update to a better flowing exhaust. At the very least you would need to change the cam, install a header and larger exhaust and then you would probably need to modify the ignition with a hotter coil or go to an electronic ignition. You will gain just as much by making these changes with the stock SU's without the hassles of trying to synchronize and jet three carbs. IMO if you want the performance without the hassles, stick with the SU's.

Nearly all the Z parts suppliers have the headlight covers, MSA, VB, and I believe Strictly Z has them too. Just a matter of finding the right price for your budget. Check out the web links to get catalogs from MSA and VB, or check on strictly Z's web site. There are probably a lot more places to get them, these are just the ones off the top of my head.

The part I like best about Paul's car is that he made the trunk lid big enough to allow acess to the rear struts. Most of the kits and all the other home made trunklids I have seen have been to small to allow acess. Therefore they had to raise the panel behind the seats to allow you to get to the strut mounts which IMO doesn't look as good as Paul's. Great job! I guess even if you put a panel across the strut towers to close off the "trunk" you would still have room for a couple small suitcases or a golf bag. Probably have as much room or more than a Miata or Honda S2000. If you ever decide to sell, can I get my name near the top of the list??

If I read your description right you may be talking about the metal under the door weatherstrip. If it is, it definately is structural as this is where the outer quarter panel is welded to the chassis. If it is just flaking without any major holes it could be repaired, but it is hard to say without seeing it. Is there any way you could get a picture and post it?? If there is, we could give you a much better idea if it is something that could cause you major problems. I have not seen too many Z's with rust in the door jamb area except for the bottom where it meets the rocker panel. If it is on the bottom of the door jamb it is likely that the rocker panel is the culprit and they are relatively easy to replace. However, if the rust is too bad it may mean the rust has gotten into the inner rocker panel which will be more difficult as this would be a structural problem. When you say it was covered in vinyl I believe you are talking about the bottom of the door jamb as this is the only place that would have been covered in vinyl, in the door threshhold area. It's difficult to give any accurate opinions without seeing it.

I had the same problem with the strut bar I got from Motorsport. Mine is the one with the half moon mount that mounts to two studs on the strut. I just dimpled the hood a little for clearance since it was on my ITS car, I figured if I raced it long enough it would probably get more damage than that anyway. That is the only one I have on a car so I don't know if there are any others that fit any better. I also had a problem with it not having enough clearance over the valve cover and had to put a slight bend in it to clear the cover. I believe Motorsport sells a different one now with a circular mount that mounts to all three of the strut studs, so if anyone has one of the newer style maybe they can let us know how it fits. Anyone else have the newer style???

See Jim, here's a question I had no idea how to answer. I was wondering one thing, if they had the automatic in the turbo ZX, it seems it would have a higher stall on the converter which might help (depending on the cam he has in his engine) and I'm also wondering if they might have had different gearing in the Turbo? Since the Turbo was kinda weak until the boost came on they might have had a different set of gear ratios in the tranny to help offset the turbo lag. Since I have absolutely no experience with an auto in a Z, and have no reference material, and I'm not even sure they offered the auto in the 280ZX Turbo ( I think they did) maybe there is an alternative.

Well, you can use regular hoses in some places, but there are a few that you will find need to have the original type hoses because of the bends in the hoses. There are a couple coolant hoses that have different sizes on each end that are going to be almost impossible to find in a regular parts store hose. The coolant hoses on the intake and the vacuum hoses to the Master-vac are just two places I can think off right away that are going to be nearly impossible to use a regular hose unless you cut and sleeve them. My advice would be to use the pre-formed hoses where you cannot use a regular parts store hose, unless you want them all to look the same.

Well, if it is the original trans you have the A type transmission. Unfortunately the A type has the worst shifter, it is a very simple swap to put the later B type model 4 speed in or you could swap to a later 5 speed. Of course you could just re-build the shifter on the A type, not sure the complete list of parts you need as I have taken out the A type from my car and am going to replace it with the B type. The internal shift rail on the B type gives a much better feel to the shifter. Not as much slop, and it is a bit stronger than the A type.