z2go

Oh, overlooked that small detail. Yea, if yours is an auto, it's gonna be an r180 most likely. Like sticky said, check under the car, and in the FAQ.

Glad you enjoyed it! Here's another update... Finished the dash just now, textured it with this stuff made in Canada called Sure Tex instead of the SEM brand texture. It came out really nice, didn't have to do anything to it, and it created a really nice looking texture. painted it with SEM trim black, and now it is just waiting to dry and be reassembled.

And here I was thinking that guys were wearing bandannas as a fashion statement. Dammit. I've never charged mine, just let it sit where it can absorb light and it seems to do alright. You're right, it's probably just the batteries.

Can't beat Harbor Freight! I've only had mine for a year or so, but it has worked well. My only complaint is that the headstrap tends to get stuck on my hair and pull it out, one strand at a time... What did your HF one do when it started to die?

Beside the driveshaft flange and maybe the halfshafts, it will essentially be the same diff. The differential FAQ should give you a lot more info too about the differences.

If you have tried contacting the guy who owns it, that is going to be your best bet. Give him a day or two to respond. Otherwise, this is all just conjecture of what everyone's computer monitor can somewhat reproduce to them in their poorly lit rooms.

I agree. Sue the bastard. He has no record of it being stolen, if it were stolen there would have been a police report. The dude is a moron. He needs to pay. He put you through this, it's time to put him through something of equal pain. Otherwise he's just going to be this dishonest with the next guy...

You should ask the guy who owns it. Reverse engineer your search where you found the picture in the first place. I know for a fact that the owner is a member of this forum. I just don't remember who it is.

That's not a bad deal. Not sure on the scooter, looks to be very high mileage for a bike, at least. Might need some engine overhaul/maintenance at that point. Only way to really know is taking it to a qualified mechanic... which I am not. That's pretty decent on savings, if you can stand to ride every day (rain or shine!) It's probably a decently comfortable ride, and the storage is convenient, for sure. But, who knows, gas prices might not stay high for that long... it may just be a spring/summer thing. Or, they might never go down past $3.00 again. The reality is that gas prices never went up with inflation, so they are catching up with us now... they did in Europe, which is why they get to pay so much. I try not to let it impact my life... I just budget for it. But, I commute with an F150 Supercrew, that gets 16mpg average. Hey, it's just money!

Motorcycles are dangerous. There's nothing between you and another vehicle, or the road. If you could dress like the michelin man, you might be better off. There is definitely a huge risk involved in riding... you must always maintain full 100% concentration on riding, always looking for obstacles, avoiding potential hazards, and being defensive all the time. No stereotype about it. Motorcycles are also a ton of fun. Nothing like riding through the hills on a bike on a nice day. Pure freedom. I too crashed once, luckily just a near concussion and broken wrist and some road rash. I bought a new bike and rode again. Yes, it is worth it. If you are wanting to get a motorcycle for the gas economy, don't do it. I honestly don't know why, but popular position on the way to save money is to buy a new vehicle with better mileage than the current vehicle. If you sit down and do the math, it takes years to be economically advantageous. Think about it, if you can get 50mpg on a motorcycle, and your current vehicle gets, say, half that, (you might get less on a motorcycle, and possibly better mileage in your Frontier) you can assume a 1 to 2 ratio of dollars spent on gas. If gas gets to say, $6/gallon, with your commute, 21 miles one way, five days a week, that puts you at 10920 miles in a year (52 weeks) at 50mpg, 218.4 gallons of gas. That is $1310.40 in gas, which you could say is also your savings. So, if you buy a motorcycle, you have to consider the cost of the bike itself. If you buy a newer bike, say, for $6000-8000, it will take you about 4.5 to 6 years to break even on the purchase of the motorcycle. By then, you will likely be tired of riding to work every day for 6 years, not having a cup holder (or ashtray cup holder in a z) and avoiding having total idiots run you off the road. At least I would. It's really a total adjustment of your norms... riding to commute is business, and business usually sucks. But, then again, if you aren't having a great time at work, the time on the bike might be what gets you out of bed. Just don't do it because of the money. Do it because bikes are awesome!

Man, this makes me happy that part is a long time behind me. Fun times!

Agreed. But don't you mean Trojan??? Really though, that thing looks like the automotive equivalent of what would happen if you tried to breed a giraffe with a table saw.

I bet your L24 isn't stock... you probably re-jetted your carbs and took off the emissions equipment. Cheater!

Keep this in mind, when looking at ads for cars. This should help you translate what someone says about a Z, and what is really going on. If they say there is no rust, there is some rust, just not on the outside, affecting paint. YET. If they say there is very little rust, there is some rust that needs to be repaired to make the car visually and mechanically 100%... expect paint, body work, welding, etc. If they say there is some rust, and there's a picture of it, expect this to be your main concern. If they say anything about rust being a problem, forget it. Unless that car has sentimental value to you, or is a serious collector (i.e., JFK owned it, or it's number 2 off the line), the body is probably too far gone. The reason I say this, is because of the unibody construction of the car, you can't just pull a shell off of the frame and substitute one for another. It's a huge PITA to fix a big giant rust bucket. And like everyone has said, if you have a car that needs engine work, that's a whole lot easier and cheaper than a car that needs body work.

Here, save you some trouble. I bought this one from Rockauto.com. This is straight from my invoice. It came with everything, beautifully rebuilt and brand new reservoirs, caps w/ wires, right down to the original style clamps to hold the reservoirs. This took me SEVERAL tries to find. Be sure to search for a promo code, there's always one for 5% off out there. Search by this string: 1980 NISSAN 280ZX 2.8L 2753cc L6 MFI (H) [L28E] SOHC Or this part: CENTRIC 13042604 (130.42604) Master Cylinder $ 155.79 Discount $ -7.79 ShippingGround (FedEx or UPS)$ 10.43 Order Total $ 158.43 *EDIT* Formatted table didn't come out right.

The older the car, the bigger money pit. That car might look OK on the surface, but I can tell you now... that rust, if you are going to tackle it CORRECTLY, will prove to be a huge project, cost thousands of dollars, hundreds of man hours, both things that a college student does not have. This might sound crappy right now, but save yourself some heartache and if you need a car, buy a newer (less than 10 year old) reliable car, and play with it a little bit until you are more financially prepared for a Z. Most guys who care enough to take care of their Z's will tell you, it costs more than the monthly payments on a new car to keep a Z like that on the road. Think of what you see as an iceberg... anywhere the paint is bubbling means that the metal is so far gone, that it has come in from the other side and eaten a huge hole. Who knows where else the rust has gone. Take it from a guy who has owned several Z's, one that I had to scrap completely because, like this one, it looked manageable at first. I started looking in to things, and it was like Pandora's Box. I ended up stripping what useful parts I could from it, and gave the shell to a wrecker. I was out more than $3000, and the car looked better than this one. If you really want a Z, and want to have fun with it, look at spending at least around $6000 on it initially (guys, help me out on this baseline price, it's been a while since I seriously priced a Z). What you save initially on a cheap $1800 car will come to bite you a month later when things start to fail.

Miles, I REALLY like your door panels. I know it's off topic, but can you tell me about them? Shoot me a PM if you can so we don't muddy this thread.

Wow. That is ridiculous. At the least I can say we aren't tag-teaming deployments... just doing twice the work with half the people we had before. They wonder why first termer's get out without looking back...

Wait, you guys have that kind of OPSTEMPO also??? I thought we were the only ones getting screwed like that. Any end in sight?

I like the instrument cluster picture with the ironic "Service engine soon". Looks like a pretty nasty hit, what I have found with accidents like that is there is a whole world of damage from the domino effect of different parts crashing into each other, that's what I would be worried about. If the transmission/engine was hit by anything else in an accordion style, it could have done some damage to who knows what on the inside of the transmission, and maybe the engine. At the least, a lot of the things attached to the engine might be toast. It's hard to tell until you get in there, though.

The problem is people don't think about the wording. It's Smog exemption FROM BIANNUAL TESTING. The only vehicles that don't have to have smog equipment are those that didn't come with it from the factory. Which is nothing in the 70's.

Maybe. It's not that big a difference from the others, it's still a Z, just kind of a 240, and kind of a 280. It's just one of those that you have to pay special attention to the microfiche and know what month yours was made.

Exactly. Wait, I mean.... Holy crap! How has this thread become so popular?!?!

Just finished it today, kind of proud of it. 2.5" off the headers, followed by a flex joint and 12" resonator, to 3" behind the transmission, and out of a Dynomax Ultra Flo muffler. How does it sound? Hopefully good.

More progress... after a few setbacks. The muffler I ordered with offset inlet and outlet did not work. Today was the last day I had to finish welding (using borrowed gas), so I tracked down a center inlet/offset outlet muffler of the same type, after an hour and a half of driving. I was able to finish the exhaust, and grind down some of the welds. I also was able to finish up the front Toyota 4x4 brake upgrade, since the Earl's braided brake lines came in today.