Polarity

2 here First car I ever owned (paid for and bought myself when I was 16) was a 79 280ZX, cost me $1000. It was pearl white and I loved it. It became my first project car. I took a new job that involves alot of travel when I was 20. The car was stripped pretty far down and I had no time to fix it, sold to car to a friend for $300. Now 5 years later I found an 81 coupe with an LT1/4l60e swap already completed that just needed some money thrown at it to complete. I still have the job that makes me travel ALOT (I relocate with my wife every 30 days to 6 months depending). Goal is to have this one complete before I move again. -polarity

I still haven't got the speedo working, completely clueless as to what the problem is, but at least mounting it worked. -polarity

Here is how I mounted it. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=137928 -polarity

Glad to hear your car was returned, I hope the person who took it had a 10 mile walk home and got hit by a bus along the way. -polarity

Deja does the VSS wire (green/white) also have voltage? -polarity

Hey all, back for another round of questions. While pulling out my interior and trying to get it back into shape I noticed how bad of condition the headliner was in. pulled it out http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/headgone.jpg Took a look http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/head1.jpg http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/head2.jpg http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/head3.jpg I had 2 ideas for how to go about making this better and I'd like input on which you think would A) Look better Be more achievable C) Possibly give more functionality The 2 ideas are to simply try to recover it with leather. I've never worked with leather but there would have to be a way to stitch it and make it look very nice. The other idea was to fiberglass it. I have never in my life touched fiberglass but I've really wanted to learn. I was thinking if I was going to fiberglass I could also make a spot or two for tweeters to mount. My concerns are fitment (don't think that's actually a word), but with the added thickness of the fiberglass would it actually still fit. Second concern is would this be too tough of a project for someone who had never worked with fiberglass. Thanks for the input -polarity

Just a quick update, alot of rain here lately and more fun coming from Ike so not that much work. I ordered 100sq ft of B-Quiet mat for the car aswell as a book suggested by DavyZ How to Paint Your Car on a Budget by Pat Ganahl. I continued pulling out interior pieces and getting them repainted. Also contacted a member on the hybridz boards and am buying a new(er) dash from them with only 1 crack. Also my dent removal tool (The Ding King) arrived in the mail. It worked well and I was able to pull out some dents however it seems like it's not made for hail dents so it's back to the drawing board on that one. That's about it for now. -polarity

It definately works at pulling dents, just not all types I guess. It pulled a couple larger dents out no problem, but back to my same issue with the smaller hail dents. It pulls them out abit, but still damage there. I ordered the book you suggested, should be here in a few days. Also if you use this the glue is fun to get off the car. It's basically some cleaner (smells like alcohol) to prep the area. A glue gun and the little tool you see in the commercial. Then some solution to help get the glue back off. All in all a cool toy, don't think it's going to work for my problem though. Ah well, back to the drawing board. -polarity

And more than anything else, if you do have to go to court go prepared. Copies of the police report, pictures if possible, a copy of the estimate submitted to the insurence people. Bring anything you can get your hands on that is relevant. Better to go with information and not need it than to need information and not have it. Good luck -polarity

I thought it was a great attempt and it even did work some. Also davy if you need to borrow the Ding King let me know and I can ship it to you =) -polarity

I am about to install some B-Quiet mat in the car, it says to make sure the floors are clean of any dirt/grime/etc. My question is what did you guys use to clean the floors before installing this stuff or carpet. -polarity

Fair warning, I don't know for sure if it's the heat or the compressed air but it definately messes up the paint. Also got my Ding King in last night didn't get a chance to try it, I will find out tonight how it works. -polarity

+1 on the what seats are those, they look amazing. -polarity

Bump. Still looking for an answer =) -polarity

Just to let you know the hair dryer thing didn't work. It didn't make the metal very hot. I did however have a kitchen torch (ok, so I cook too) and I used that, it did pop the dent, but still not perfect. It now pretty much looks like a small crease. Any tips on getting that out. I have the Ding King in the mail on it's way to me, still not sure if that will get this out. What about things like body filler. I really need to find some good reading on body work. -polarity

Don't have a scanmaster close but I did have an idea. I have a "Car Chip Pro" in my daily driver for work (just records driving times, speeds, rpm, braking, basic stuff). So I hooked it up in the Z and took it for a drive. Unfortunately the laptop to read it is at work so I won't know if it received anything until tomorrow, but I thought it might work. Also I didn't see two green/white wires coming out of the PCM which means one must be run somewhere and in a loom already, I'm heading out to the garage now to see if I can track that little bugger down. Can't thank you enough for all the help Deja, wouldn't have made it this far without it =) -polarity

Hey all, update time. Traced out the wire that went to the sig input on the tachometer, it comes out of the PCM (white wire just like you said) but has been spliced, looks like that came loose. I removed that piece of wire, put in a new one and ran it to the tach and presto the tachometer started working again. The speedometer on the other hand, still no luck. Ran a wire from VSS output to SIG on the speedometer. Hooked up 12v and ground, lights come on (nothing in the odometer box except the backlight is on) but needle doesnt seem to move any when I drive. Checked transmission to make sure that connector was there, everything looked fine. If I get a program like tunercat can that tell me that the PCM is sending the signal by recording speeds or? I've kind of run out of ideas here if anyone has one please let me know. -polarity

Just looked that up, looks crazy. I'll try it tonight when I get home. -polarity

I would kill to see infected mushroom.. The messenger may be the single best song ever, unfortunately I wont be there so have enough fun for those of us who can't go. -polarity

Just wanted to say thanks for the tips, ordered the Ding King today with an extra pack of glue and remover =). As usual I will update when it's here for everyone. -polarity

Thanks davy =). I did a couple more pieces last night after that one dried abit. I'm VERY happy with the color and how it's coming out. Going to order my new carpet and sound/heat deadener today, still have questions about that if anyone knows. How well do the molded carpet sets work? Do they still work well on top of dynamat? Looking at the Motorsports 280ZX Coupe molded carpet kit (about $259 I belive). I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for, so if there is a better kit I should be looking at let me know. Otherwise today I guess I'll just order it and see how it works out. -polarity

Thanks for the input guys, went for the SEM paint couple pictures up under my project thread. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=137928 -polarity

Update: Neither the tachometer nor the speedometer work, fantastic. Took a look at the wiring that was already run, think it needs to be redone. So that's something I am going to look at. After some input from some forum regulars (thanks DavyZ, DudeBoy, KasbeKZ) I decided to go with SEM Landau Black. Placed the order and it arrived pretty quick. I also purchased the Plastic/Leather Prep (SEM 38353) and Sand Free (SEM 38363). Using it was about as straight forward as it can get. 1) Clean with soap and water 2) Clean again with the Plastic/Leather Prep (change rags alot while cleaning) and let dry 3) Use Sand Free 4) Spray with SEM paint (it said to spray while the sand free was still wet, so I did) Below are a couple before/after pictures of one piece just to show how it worked. I also take painting tips =) http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/tools.jpg http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/before1.jpg http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/before2.jpg http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/after1.jpg http://www.lineageclans.net/zx/after2.jpg Going to let that dry completely before I do the next piece to make sure I like it. -polarity **Edit: looking at the pictures I can already see a spot that didn't get covered, need to go touch that up real quick.

Curious if anyone has used the Motorsports 280ZX molded carpet kit and if they felt it was worth the money. Anyone got pictures of one installed and info on how it went putting it in. -polarity

Just an update, wife and I are great, no serious damage in my area, looks like we have another 8 inches of rain or so coming tonight but it looks like the worst is gone. Our thoughts are with all of those dealing with the damage from Gustav. -polarity