datsunlover

No no no, taco hell is about 6 hours AFTER you eat that stuff.. ussualy in your bathroom...

Dude, you are gona have some battle scars fixin that one! Doesn't look as bad as, well... MOST of the cars I've had! I'd definatly do a subframe, and make sure those strut towers aren't rotted too bad.. aside from some clean up though, its not too bad for free! Are those panasport rims on it!?? Heh.. good luck man, have fun!

and how it looked half way through.. (sorry, I seam to have lost the pics betwen te 'gaping hole' and here, which is almost finished..) I didn't want a 'line' right from the tail lights to the roll pan, and decided to build it so it had the ilisuon of a molded bumper, hence the little radius out from under the tail lights. I hand formed and welded 3 pieces to make that first, and left some to rivet the roll pan to. I than got a piece of metal (ment for door bottom repair) that has a nice straight 'lip' bent on one edge, (about 45 degrees.. I guess you wrap it around the door bottom and pinch/weld it.. ?) and cut it to roughly the lenght I needed. I riveted it on in the middle first, and slowly worked my way out towards either side, bending it slightly as I went. By the time I got to the ends, it had a nice subtle curve to it side to side, and a gentle 'arc' along the bottom. (Im not an expert but I figure the bent lip helped to keep the piece from deforming too much as I bent it around) I cut/trumed it at the ends, and smothed it in with fiberglass and a thin coat of bondo/filler to smooth it all out. Here's how it turned out aftre the car was painted..

Well, here's how bad mine was when I got it.. yes, thats almost ALL bondo, over a thin skin of rust... I actually riped it off the car with my bare hands... and what was left to work with... a gaping hole... You can see where I did a few patches on the sides/quarter panels first..

I have to go in a minit (lunch is almost over) but I built my rear roll pan out of a piece of "door bottom repair" patch panel I found at the local auto parts store. I have some pics taken along the way, and finished. I'll try to give you a run down and post some pics later this afternoon...

Hmm.. maybe? Anyone know what the rear dif size is in the Exteras?

OMFG.. I think I'm gona be sick... Why god why...

Well yes, a lot of my 'theory' on this is from my personal expireance in my 280. I have some pics somewhere.. I'll see if I can post them up.. does your bar look like that? With the bar on the back, there were improvments in body roll during lane change or winding roads 'spirited driving' for sure.. Unfortunatly, the design of the 280z uprights are slightly difrent than the 240z, causing clearance issues. In my case, a long hard righ hand turn pushed the bar enough that it hit the drive shaft and rode on it for some time.. killing the boot, and damaging the shaft. After I took it off, I actualy liked the handeling better to tell you the truth.. A bit more 'roll' in the rear, but the thing would squat down and take off much better, and sudden application of throttle coming out of turns felt very smooth and in control. With the bar on, it wanted to kick the rear out a lot more, and felt... twitchy. I should point out, I was only running a basicaly stock drivetrain; L28 with SU carbs and slightly better (no cat or proper muffler) then a stock exhast. I can imagine what an extra 100 or so horse would do..

heh heh.. I feel your pain on the dash removal.. I swaped dash boards in my old 85 200sx (changed whole interior from faded blue to nice clean grey and black) and WOW what a rats nest of wiring and screws holding evrything in... After all was said and done though, evryting worked except the power mirors. Meh.. I lived with it. The really fun part was when I fired the car up afterwards.. I changed the carpet to, and in my rush, I put the drivers side piece right OVER the throttle pedel. (yes, mashing it right to the floor) Turned the key and the thing reved to 7000 rpm before I could kill it!

So what does autometer just sell a 'plug' sensor that fits in a chev or ford tranny? (where the mechanical one went) I know a lot of the older stuf was mechanicaly driven spedos.. I just got to thinking, if I got an autometer sender I could probly modify it to work on my tranny as well..

I'm not an expert, but from what I've read and worked out in my mind, it makes sence. Figure an LS1 (or any mild V8.. or heck, probly a higly moded L6) is going to put down WAY more torque to the wheels than stock. In a corner, the sway bar is trying to 'level' the car, therefore not allowing the rear suspension to compress as much as it could. This disturbs weight transfer to the rear of the car, and insted of 'working' the suspension, it works the tires. IE; it spins them. However.. if this is wrong, someone please correct me..

well neither do I to tell the truth.. but I was under the impresion the 5 lug rotors were a difrent diameter.. I seem to recall a previous post here stating 'there isn't enough 'meat' on the rear hubs to drill out to a 5 bolt patern' and this leads me to believe the 5 lugs would be bigger than the 4 lugs (diameter wise) but hey, I could be wrong...

weeelll.. se, I don't know where to look for starters.. I dohj't have a particular name brand in mind yet.. Who makes electronic spedometers? And has anyone used on? Opinions?

Heh.. that looks EXACTLY like the 81 I had a few years back. I think it was the front air dam, and the black paint/tint/lights that made it look so mean..

Thats why I thought it would NOT work.. I can't see the dimensions being the same between 240z rotors and 300zx, which are gona be thicker and vented.. Come to think of it, will the vented rotor even fit between the caliper on a 240z?

Heh.. I cant wait to take my car to get the exhast in the spring... I'm gona drive acros town with nothing but a manifold dumping into a 2.5 'Y' under the drivers side.

I don't think that will work... and.. why? If youre gona have 5 lug 300zx hubs, why not run 300zx rotors!?!? and.. I can't see the point of moving the caliper out.. you're still gona have stock clamping, so it wouldn't be much of an upgrade..

Not sure if this will help you.. I had an 89 Pathfinder and from what I can tell, it is a very similar ECU. There was actually a tiny togle switch on the side of my ECU.. Normal running, the lights (red/gree) would come on and stay on with the key at 'ON' position. To check codes, you flicked the switch over and waited for the lights to flash 3 times, then switched it back. It would then give you codes (flashes in spesific sequencees) To my understanding, there are 4 or 5 'modes' and to get into on, you have to switch the toggle back to the normal position after the correct number of flashes, hence 3 flashes was 'code reading mode'. Oh and as far as I know, BOTH lights should be on under normal conditions (IE; key in 'ON' position) and will only flash when giving fault codes..

The bolts that are being 'ground' by the sway bar.. are you talking about the rear most bolts? (close to the diff) If so, sounds to me like someone has put on a rear bar from/for an earlier Z, say a 240. I tried using a 240z rear sway bar (aftermarket, not sure of make) on my 75 280z and had.. bad things happen. My guess is it's not the right bar for your 280, or it's instaled compleatly wrong. I'd say remove it and run without a rear bar..