280ZX_factor

What's up, guys? I know its been awhile, and for that I apologize (not that any of you noticed, I'm sure ) but I'm back in the US and having a great time so far. I left the Z at my dad's house, and he got a bit overzealous with it, so now the car has a bra and a set of autozone foglights, but on the plus side, the air dam and light bucket got fixed from my crash, and it has keyless entry. All the new stuff was wired through the driver's side headlight though, so I've been blowing a fuse here and there, but whatever. I've been snooping around on the site over the past few days, so I thought I would say what's up to all of you. Oh, I almost forgot. When I got back, I drove the Z from LA to San Fransisco and it ran like a dream machine. I drove all over up there over four days, and when it was all said and done, I only used 2.5 tanks of gas. After eight months of total Z depravation, it was seriously an awesome time. I'll be around on the site researching and whatnot, so I'm sure I'll see you guys around. Thanks for all the help you've provided so far. Later on.

Good question. How 'bout one? Seriously though, if you want Z models, the hobby store near my house has a great selection. I saw a ZXR model there once.

It's got later s130 tail lights and hood, but early B pillar covers. I can't get to the eBay site, though. It's blocked for me. The DoD sucks. I've never seen an s130 slicktop in person. For a long time, I thought it was sort of an S2000 affair, where true hardtops weren't even available. That's pretty sweet that some of you have been able to find them, though.

^ Got a decent laugh out of that one, Woldson. A Japanese Betty would be alright, but I'm sort of spent on all these "JDM hardcore" riceboys, so I sort of try to stay away from that sort of stuff. A German one would be cool, or French, like you said. "I woulda smoked ya'll with my Hon'Civic, but my V-Tec took too long to kick in. A new intake'll fix it."

When I was in high school, there was this chick who was half black and half asian of some kind. Her name was Zelda, believe it or not, so I figured that was the perfect name for an 80's black Japanese car. After high school, we were so in the habit of calling her that, it just sort of stuck.

So each individual Betty unit can be toggled between multiple languages? This is a bit of a stretch, but what languages are available, do you know?

AWD isn't really inherently RWD's superior, it's sort of a matter of preference. If it's worth the time, effort, and cost, you could make anything AWD (within reason, obviously, so none of the "What about a BMW Isetta" sort of ball busting). Keep in mind that when you're done, it's more than likely going to be a maintenance nightmare that no one will really know exactly how to work on. It's a Frankenstein car.

I was going to say the same thing. My dash and glove compartment door haven't matched since I've had the car. They're made out of two different materials, so the only thing I can say is maybe one oxidizes more quickly. I've seen more that don't match than do, so it doesn't really bother me, I guess.

Even though the injector cooler sort of "dates" the engine compartment, I think it might be cool to find a way to keep it and make it look a bit better, sort of a "sign of the times" type thing, I suppose. Something to do with a really boring afternoon, I guess. The look of the stock unit is cheap and rough. Has anyone seen this done?

Betty is the recorded, hot librarian sounding voice that chimes in and lets you know when something is awry with your motoring experience. She comes and goes with my ZX, but some error messages I remember are: -right/left door is open -parking brake is on (if the vehicle is in motion for a set amount of time while the PB is engaged) -lights are on (if you pull the key out of the ignition and open the door without turning off the lights, or if you just reach in and turn them on while the car is off) -Fuel level is low I guess I would have to say the best thing about her is the genuine concern in her voice. I actually kind of miss her.

Thanks, Derek. That thread is exactly what I was looking for. I should've been more clear about what I was looking to do.

Those rims are really poplular with the lowriders, espcially the guys who cruise those 80's bustle-back caddies. They call rims like those "swangas". Maybe that will help you get more replies when you list them.

Cool deal. How big to you plan on having it made? And on what media? Potential for serious badassery.

This is actually a really cool idea, I think. When it comes to the wheels and tires, you could get away with bias radials and white walls, or at the very least, turned-out white letter tires. Since it's an s30, you could even rock those Moon brushed wheel covers. Round headlights mounted on outriggers in front of the tires would be cool, too. Of course, there's a million ways you could do this. Just a few thoughts. Cool idea, though.

The new air dam I ordered has brake cooling ducts cut in it, but they don't tapir into a round hole (not that I was expecting them to or anything). What would be the best way to go about modifying them to accept the hoses? Something ghetto like shoe-gooing the top half of a 20oz pepsi bottle around the outside of the little flange on the air dam would most likely work, but I'm looking for a slightly cleaner approach. I've looked elsewhere for this info and come up empty handed, so I figured I would go night of the living thread on this old thing. Thanks for the help, guys.

I got my '82 280ZX 5spd in the summer of '03. My dad and I were looking for a car we could both live with me driving, and after some convincing, I got him to take me out a few towns away to see it. It was black with a butterscotch leather interior, gold cladding and tan/ gold pinstripes. It had about 60,000 original miles. It was being sold by the original owner, an old man who had slowly lost his eyesight to the point that he was declared unfit to operate a motor vehicle in the early 90's. The car had sat since. My dad and I went halves on it and bought it for $4,000. Apparently this guy was really particular about who he wanted to have it, and I guess I met the criteria. I was thrilled, let me tell you. Since then, I haven't had a spare dime on account of this "bargain" car!

I used to have a Nitro 4Tec RC car that could go over 80, and it's 0-60 was probably around 2 secs. Considering they're usually 1/10th scale, that would be like having a car that went 800MPH. Little off the original topic, but I think we covered that one.

This seems pretty sketch. 600HP is getting pretty hardcore, and generally somewhere along the line between stock and that kind of performance, most people work on aesthetics. Whatever suspension setup it might have, it's working against one hell of a center of gravity. Also, I can't feature being willing to part with an investment like that for 8 grand, either. If he's being straight, he's dropped some serious money into that thing.