280z1975

Ah, thanks ...

I can't post to the for sale thread (or the my ride thread) ... I have never been a hugely active member here (mainly a lurker) and posted mainly on ClassicZcar. Anywho ... after a two years of inactivity on my Z front I'm selling my Z (located in Europe) and wanted to let the HybridZ forum members know. Why can't I post? All the best, Gregg

Ok, so I have been a bad Z owners as of late. Back in the summer I was driving my car and it suddenly lost power. It just started to choke and no matter how much I hit the accelerator there was no power. It will turn over and start, but after just past idle the car just has NO go what so ever. I put the problem to the side as I had a crazy few months with work, switching jobs and now saving up for a new house and business. Today I fired up the car and shot a video of the problem so I can show everyone here and get an idea of what I might be dealing with. My best guess is a vacuum leak, possibly with the header or value cover. I would LOVE to get this sorted in the next two weeks before we move to make things a bit easier on me. So any ideas on where to start and what I could do? BTW: it's 1975 280z with FI L6, forgot to add the cars year... Here is the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79a6WT5J6Gc -Gregg-

I am thinking about getting a steam cleaner to help with the underside cleaning of my car. I've heard some people say it works well, others not ... any opinions out there on this type of cleaning? I am looking at a steam cleaner that is originally a Wall Paper Remover but has cleaning attachments. I also like the idea of doing it house cleaning with it and not having to use chemicals. http://www.wagner-group.de/portal/color_dts_5800_en_wag,98471,365.html Does the steam cleaner need to be sending out pressured water to work for cleaning? Thanks for the opinions. -Gregg Germer-

I had set up for a friend to paint my car at the body shop he worked at over the weekend. When the shop manager saw my car he was like "I won't let that be painted here (referring to the roof and some 'minor' imperfections). This was even though he said he it wasn't a problem before. I guess he was expecting a show car, when mine is a daily driver. To me it wasn't a big deal, but for him it was (even though it was being done after hours and not "through his shop" officially ... wasted a full day of my time and pushed my schedule back two weeks. But it did give me time to repair the roof more ...

Those photos bring back memories ... baning out as much of the wave as possible ... then filling with body filler, sanding, more body filler, sanding ... I came out of the garage covered in dust ... http://gregggermer.com/photos/280z/album/During/slides/during_photos_04_13_2006%20006.html Yours looks great, good luck with the project.

I will be semi-daily driving my car once it's registered on the road here. Stupid people wanted the tie rod boot changed for it to be road legal ... went to change that and the inner tie rod stripped! ... so it's been 3 weeks of searching and waiting on parts to arrive ... man I miss driving my car for real. I had it insured for the day two months ago to get it cleared through customs and I forgot how much fun it is to drive ... I can't wait. The way I see it is these are cars, they are meant to be driven and even if they do deteriorate, they are well worth any wear and tear in their fun value. Paint and dashes can be fixed ...

The won't fire right up once the glow plugs have been 'warmed' and the light is out. The smell of fuel is from the exhaust I believe ... which I tend to think is the extra fuel not igniting. I have a manual for the car, but it's in German (which is hard to read with all the technical names being very different). The wiring diagram has it going through a relay. When I measure the voltage at the one wire which directly connects to all the glowplugs it's only 1.4V, way off even from the 6V it might be operating at ... I think today I will take one glow plug out and turn on the system to see how well it lights up and gets hot. -Gregg-

I know this isn't a diesel engine forum, but this is more a general question about glow plugs and the voltage they usually use. I am not on any other forums for cars other than ClassicZcar and this place seemed better to ask the ?. Right now my 1993 Mazda 626 is getting only 1.43 volts when measured at 12v on my multimeter ... this seems quite low to me ... I suspect that they are not lighting up properly to combust the fuel. I can smell fuel and also there is a good puff of white smoke that comes out of the exhaust. At the moment I suspect the relay might have gone bad. BTW, the glow plugs are all new and the battery is solidly connected. -Gregg-

Back in 1996 when I was 16 I was looking for a car after my first truck went to the crapper ... my friend had two 69 Camaros at the time (I think his dad paid in the 7,000 range for them) and I found a nice 68' RS for only 5,000 (non-original engine and a lot of mods)... I so wanted it but my parents talked me out of it ... looking back it would have been impractical a lot of the time, but it's value would have been WAY more ... I looked a year ago at the prices of Camaros, nothing under 10k that wasn't complete crap and cars like the one I almost bought, more than 20k! ... I like my Z, it's cheaper, drives the corners better and it was free! ...

I have thought about how to make the race interesting and I came up with only one conclusion .... Before they start racing, each driver gets to drive the OTHER car ... they get to see what it is really capable of, no sand bagging, no worries, just burn the rubber and see what it has ... also the Nitrous or no Nitrous before the race is another good idea. When you drive the other car everyone knows the place it's in ... then negotiate the car lengths and do a best of 3 ... As stated before ... the participants need to have their cars sorted out before hand, it's miserable to watch guys fix things on the track. Just ask "One Fast Z" about ill-running cars. He will tell you that he won simply cause the other car was running like crap. It was a faster car, but his was a better prepared car and he won. As a friend of mine said, a Geo Metro can win against a Ferrari, it's just a matter of negotiation. What's the logic in that?

You know ... I just love the look of these old Datsun Roadsters ... I think when I am a little older I will have to pick one up ... they just look so damn cool ... will never replace my Z, but for a weekend cruize with the top down on the beach ... oh yea -Gregg-

Pimp my ride for my crappy ass daily driver ... sure ... I strip it of all useful parts, ebay them, sell the car and buy something better ... Overhaulin' and a Z car ... would love to see what Foose would do ... he's always doing some super nice stuff, keeping things in the sprit of the cars and owners desires. Just seems these days you need to be the poor slum friend of someone famous to get your car on the show (at least the ones I have seen recently).

Not in San Diego, but have some experince in recovering stolen things. 3 out of the 4 times I have had a bicycle stolen I went looking with my father in the "not so nice areas" of the city we lived in and found the bike. Maybe get together as soon as possiable and do some driving around the areas you think it's been taken to and you might get lucky ... with a couple of guys you can cover some decent ground. I really hope you can recover it in decent shape.

Consider upgrading to a internally regulated alternator ... that will eleminate the need for the voltage regulator and you can use the cost of the new voltage regulator towards your new alternator. Z-specialties make a great bolt on alternator 105 and 120 amp ... but the ZX is a great second and cheaper bolt on alternator that is internaly regulated, at 60 ro 65amps IIRC. Use the search feature to find the how to's for this upgrade/project.

Fast car ... but take to the track and keep it there. The streets are no place for racing.

You should try contacting MULL http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106731 He's over in Sweden and might have some contacts with Nissan there ... He's putting an Modified RB26 N1 block. Good luck with it all ... I gotta get my Z legal for here, but it's got a stock (yet overbored and rebuilt) L28 in it. The car is starting it's two week trip here today!

Why in the world would you want to wear a Gillie suit in the city? Aren't those things camoflage and the like? I guess if you have some trees or schrubs it would be good? -Gregg-

The owner in question is "Kats" over on Classic Z Car. You can check out his gallery ... there for more Datsun Porn. http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=3193 I can tell you he is one of those guys who loathes details. Also, being from Japan, has been able to find some super nice factory accesories those of us in North American can't find these days. I love the cars ...

After seeing the ingenious way some other HybridZ members have reused and recycled household things in their work on their cars I thought I would start a thread with things we have used for various work. Could help some of us save a few bucks for better things later on in out projects. My first one is a dumpster dive treasure of a bakers rack that I used for holding various parts of my Z when I went to paint it. It's been used an abused for many other things. Solid steel and built to last. The second are standard desk lamps which my mother uses for her business and I borrowed last winter to light up the Z in the garage. Hooked them all up to one power strip and BAM, instant bright light and very adjustable. They were clamped to the cross members of the garage. The third is my paint mixer for Por-15. I took those coffee stirrers from the local corner store and attached them to my drill. Instant throw away paint mixer! -Gregg-

I love it! now that is a great way to reuse what you got ... it actually makes me think about painting my car in a similar set up (but I have been lucky enough to make friends with a guy here who does car repair and painting ... so I will probably use his booth, and help, I hope) I always like re-using normal stuff we have ... all the parts like the front air dam, rear spoiler, cowl etc were on an old bakers rack my parents had ... we abused the crap out of that thing, using it for so many projects. Never would have thought it would come in so handy. Dumpster diving is fun!

Along with Z cars, my other passion (job) is cycling. There are a lot of bikes that come out of China, but they are all sub-standard ... read, what you would buy at Wal-mart. They are great for the kids, even someone who goes every once in a while on a bike ride with their kids, but they won't hold up under full time use. Now as far as bikes, the best "cheap" ones come out of Taiwan. There are about 4 factories which produce most all of the bikes that come out of there. Of course there are about 100 different cycling brands all putting their sticker on these bikes. If you know what to look for, you can tell which factory certain frames came from. Even Colnalgo (the "Ferrari of cycling bikes" which btw produced a limited edition of Ferrari licensed bike a couple of years ago) out of Italy has contracted their lower end bikes to Taiwan. The high end stuff is still done in Italy, but I really wonder how much longer. So many of the same tools are all produced at the same place, just bought at wholesale and repackaged. Same goes for computer parts ...

Careful what you wish for ... theoretically it can be done.

I was thinking the same thing ... after prep of the car, the background is the next most important thing, you need a good clean simple background, no visual 'noise' to distract the eyes. I've already been scoping out some nice area's around here to do some photos when my car arrives. Edit: re-read your post ... industrial look ... I get it ... another great shoot I have seen is with the car in front of a large set of transformers at a power station. All the steel made for a cool background, but the shoot was also to busy. If you can get the focal lenght right, the background 'fades' and the car (subject) will really pop while giving you that same feel you were going for. I would think about having the background blurred to help draw the eye to the car and not the background. Same thing as if he used a shorter focal lenght when shooting (forgive me if I am wrong, haven't been behind a camera in a couple of years). Still, that is one nice 911. Great car!

My younger brother was seriously into this game last year ... but then again he was fighting off cancer at the time, stuck at home with my parents (he loves his freedom and being away at college). So for him, it was a nice escape and a good way to pass the time when he couldn't (or really shouldn't) be out in public with his white cell count low. Now he is back at college, cancer free and still plays, but nothing close to what would be considered addicting ... Now as far as Counterstrike ... my best friend went outta college after the first year with a .9 GPA ... the guys is super smart to; top 10% of the class and all that. Beer and computer games ... not a good combination when put into excess.