ModernS30

I love it. My 280z had nothing in it. No carpet. No nothing. I had stripped most of the sound deadening. It wasn't really any louder. I saved a bit. Never really took count. Your car is a 77-78 that has the extra press board crap to. You hear the rocks and crap. My exhaust was already loud enough I didn't hear it. No fart cannon or anything, just a stocker with 2 1/4 exhaust, no cat or anything, straight back then the muffler. All solid one part. I think its better that way anyway.

That is a very good point. I should have included this information. The 240z stuff is from a 72, not sure of the build date. The 280z stuff is from a 4/77. I haven't gotten to the smaller gauges yet. The 280z does have a volt gauge. This will vary from model to model at least a little bit. Sorry I do not have every year to confirm, wish I did.

Me too. They think that you have to have like a barrier between what they are smoothing. There is a weld line where the new quarters were put on my car. Not 1/2 inch of bondo worthy.

Ok, here are a few pictures. I will do my best to explain and go back for an edit later on. I am tired, have work in the morning. Then race track after wards. Here are the 280z gauge housings, I will get pictures of the 240z ones but they are already installed. On these note the large 'arm' as a mounting tab. The one on the bottom is the speedometer, top is tachometer. The 240z housings have bolts on them that wing nuts attach to to hold the gauge in the dash board. There is only one major difference other that that I found about the housings. The 280z speedometer has some sort of relay. You will need to find a place to mount this. I used the actual gauge mount. On the 280z speedometer housing there are 3 holes (right side in picture, under mounting 'arm'). The middle hole has a single red wire going through it. The 240z housing does NOT have this hole. That was the only modification I had to do, you just need to drill a small hole. Doesn't affect the operation, just allows the wire to pass. These are the 240z gauges out of the housings (Tachometer left, speedometer Right). The main eye to eye difference is that 280z speedometer has that earlier mentioned red wire attached. All the mounting in the housings is the same. The connectors on the 240z gauge and 280z gauge are very similar, you may be able to splice or make adapters. It seemed like this was easier. Ok, this is the 240z speedometer laying in the 280z housing. The removal from either gauge is universal. You remove the two center screws where the speedometer cable attaches, the trip reset cable, and all the wiring (MAKE SURE YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHAT GOES WHERE!). Then the assembly will just pop out of the front. Install is just the opposite, the main thing you will need to do is drill the hole for the red wire on the 280z speedometer. Other than that reverse your install. You will have to mount the Relay from the 280z wiring and the ground. I just used the gauge mounting bolt. I had to bend the relay bracket and enlarge the hole. It wasn't very difficult. Here is a picture of the hole I drilled with the little red wire I keep mentioning. This the the 240z tachometer laying in the 280z housing. Again the Taking apart and putting back together is the same. This will require no drilling just a screw driver and a 5.5 mm socket, you shouldn't, but may, need a ratchet. Remove the few small nuts that hold down the plastic clips on the housing. After that just remove the 2 screws that sit diagonal from each other. The tachometer will be pushed out of the bottom. Be careful as I managed to crack the little brown board under the connectors. The 280z and 240z gauges are very similar but have a few minor differences in the connectors. I hope this helps. I will try to do better later. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I will answer to the best of my ability. I am not sure if any of this was necessary but I felt it was so I went for it. It was not nearly as hard as I expected. Just little screws. No little gears in the speedometer and crap that I expected to fall out. Kinser

John only one of your images seems to be working. Interesting, Fiat huh?

Thats perfect. I personally like Version 1. I think if I do it and then make the little extra black line above it it would look pretty decent. Maybe just on the door and then make the back a solid black as well as the front. I thought the Panda 7 was the closest example to any car that wasn't an AE86 that was panda.

Eh, Black is to high up I think. Plus it doesn't have the stripe. I am not very skilled with photo shop, plus I do not have the program. The Panda 7.

That would be what I meant. Really not sure if it would look right or not. Just don't know.

I was looking around and didn't find any pictures. I honestly wonder if it would look good. I like the Panda AE86. Seen a panda FC RX7, looked alright. Do you think it would look good on an S30?

Dream car. If somebody offered to trade a shell of one that was in 'decent' shape for my z. Even if it was running, I wouldn't think twice about it. I want a 68 ss for sure. 67's have the wing windows. Only year that did, if you like that get a 67, little more money. There is a strait six one for 9800. Look on Indianapolis Craigslist. Its a 76, powerglide auto, 3 owners is what the ad said.

You have so much going on there I don't even know what to say. You have some skills. You could probably sell that stuff too. Cant wait to see how it works.

I will take some pictures in a moment. I am using my full 280z wiring harness in my 240z. The 240z came with a harness but it was all hacked up. I am going to be putting the 280z dash harness in the dash as well. This is all a big huge pain in the you know where. The reason you have to do this is the 280z gauges use different wiring as well as mounting. Basically I wanted to help some of the people that might not know how to do this, as I didn't till I started messing just a little while ago. You have to remove the 280z and 240z gauges. To start, remove all the wiring, DO NOT FORGET WHAT GOES WHERE! Then you need to remove the 2 gauges from the dash board. After you do this there are 4 screws holding the black plastic 'housing' onto the gauge. Remove the screws and then remove the 'housing'. You will be left with the little metal part of the gauge. There are 2 studs that the wiring hooked to on the back that are also bolted onto the metal housing. There is a white plastic part under these. Remove those, remember though this entire process to keep track off all of your hardware and what goes where. There are going to be 2 screws left on the gauge at this point. Remove those to. At this point you need to be very careful. Don't just pound on the gauge to get it out. You will be removing the entire assembly. There are 2 small screws you could remove that may make it easier. I didn't try this. You can use those screws to sort of press out the gauge, just be easy, they are going to be kinda stuck in there. You will get the entire assembly out and then you just reinstall the opposite. The above process was with the tachometer. I haven't played with the speedometer but I am not looking forward to it. I will post pictures of all of this when I finish.

To be totally honest. It will be much easier and cheaper to pay attention next time you buy a car (not trying to be discouraging) I made this mistake already. I got mine to the point where there was no rust left in that same area of the battery tray and everything left. But I just had a huge hole. Not enough skill to fix it and not enough time or money.

He has lots of work into that car. Its not horrible looking. Its pretty ricer.

That is the hottest car with a new design I have seen in a LONG time. If they came out with one, even if it doesn't have the 600hp. I would buy one.

Did the parts come from a 77 280z? If so I have rear suspension parts from the same car on my 280z.

You could build a custom exhaust for under 400, especially if you can do that to a header.

I said the same thing! Pretty sweet little vehicle there.

Its a good choice! I've never been a smoker but I won't ever be. I think you will always have those things to replace the cigs but if you think about it we all have the things we do as habits when we aren't smokers. Good luck!

Looking good, come quite a ways.

Pictars

If you come across a 79-83 RWD maxima with rear disks. Pay for the brackets. If you get them cheap enough I will buy them off of you. I just need something to take to the machine shop. I don't think I can get them cheap enough if I don't make them 100 at a time. Which would be around 2000 I don't have out of my pocket. Finding the maximas is a rare happening.

A kid at school that knew I had a 240z and loved old z's had the mag and brought it up to me the day he got it. He has a sub. I was like, yep, seen that car before on hybridz! haha. Way to Rep the right way to build a proper hybridz.

Not back home just yet. I feel the OBX will be just fine after I put the new washers/bolts in it and go through to make sure it will work alright. Biggest deal right now is the fact that I have no money. I could have the car done, or at least drivable where I could have it down on a day or 2 basis to do things to it. Daily Driving a project is a PITA. I already learned that. I took pictures just haven't posted them up because I haven't been home to do so. I went by a guys shop to ask about a fuel safe cell, he is a dealer, said they would cost me 1200-1400 so it looks like its gonna be the summit cell. Still gonna be looking for a used one. Craigs list hasn't got me anything good yet. Just have to be patient.

Cool, flat black helped me out. I know that they aren't always backwards. Like I said, I looked through the threads. I am going to do the washers and maybe the bolts. I don't know if its worth it for the bolts or not. As flat black said better safe than sorry.