FricFrac

Cut off depends on the design of both the reflector and/or the lens. Review the thread and you'll see reflectors with extremely sharp cutoffs. Bixenon H4 HID kits with bulbs, ballast and harness can be had for under $100. Knockoff of the Phillips design and for the cost its worth experimenting. A good set of H4 bulbs can be close to the same cost.... If you already have H4 lenses try out an HID H4 setup. If the cut off is poor there are known good reflectors.....

My stock 280ZX has been deflowered - I knew it wouldn't last long.... - Urethane sway bar bushings - K&N CAI - Ceramic coated header, MSA mandrel bent turbo exhaust, Cat delete test pipe and Walker Ultraflow muffler - awesome sound! - Stainless brake lines - Short shifter - New custom molded carpets - Tokico HP255 struts and springs - H4 5K HID Bixenon headlights - Tinted headlight covers - Rota RB-R 17x9.5 ridding on Yokohama 235/45/17 and 255/40/17 S-Drive tires New rad should be here within the week and the 30th Anniversary air dam is here ready to be painted....

First off a big thanks to Yasin first for the inspiration with his gorgeous white S130 and secondly for answering my landslide of questions.... you saved me a lot of grief on picking these wheels/tires out and getting them installed. Right now I'm running 235/45/17 and 255/40/17 Yokohama S-Drive tires on RB-R 9.5" wheels. I tried the 255 on the front and they looked fantastic but even after I rolled the fenders I didn't want to put my finger in between the fender and the tire when we bounced the car up and down - too close. I ordered in a set of 235's and while they are a bit streched on the 9.5" rims the lip guard built into the tire transistions with the curve of the tire/rim nicely. I'm not a big stretched tire fan so I was worried about the look but it worked out fine. A couple of tips. Use the right tool for the job - you can use a pipe/baseball bat or even a rolled up newspaper apparently but for those who have tried it I'm sure they'll recomend using a proper fender roller. The Tire Rack has them but expect to spend about $275ish on a good one - I rented one for a day for $40 locally. Start with the rear fenders as they are doubled up. Its slow going but patients will pay off. I set the day aside to do it so I wasn't rushed. It takes a while to get the inner lip to fold over but do a small section through whatever arc your roller is set up for. Once that first section rolls over its a lot easier to get the next portion or arc to fold over. Don't try to roll the whole thing at once as it takes a lot longer. There are lots of good instructional videos. Remember to use a heat gun to warm the paint up - not cook it. On my '83 the paint is original and still quite flexible. The car with the stock wheels and before the Tokico HP255 kit was installed (lowered) (and no its not a JDM - I just mirrored the picture so it matches the following pictures for a better comparison ;P ) New RB-Rs installed on the 280ZX

It can take a week or two. Don't forget this is less than half of what the wheels would cost you if you went and bought them retail. Rota is doing this as a favor to us so be patient he will get back to you. As has been posted several times its best to e-mail him with your exact specs. He will need to reference your e-mail as he gets a ton of phone messages and e-mails and its impossible to remember ever single one. Its not uncommon either to have his voice mail box full.

Lol - its hard to find something that hasn't already been figured out already here on the forums Good luck with your lights - let me know if you need any help! I had the 240Z out last night and its awesome not having to worry about if you can see at night or not.

I posted how to do an HID upgrade on my 240Z ( http://forums.hybrid...e-the-easy-way/ ) and after driving around with HIDs in the 240Z and 370Z it was a no brainer to do the same to the 280ZX. The install itself is fairly straight forward. I use the same H4 housing since they provide excellent cut off to prevent blinding oncoming traffic. I opted to try out the cheapo China lights as they look to be identical to the Philips designed ballast at a fraction of the price - so far so good and I run with my lights on pretty much whenever I'm driving. The issue with the 280ZX, however, is the system fault light on the dash. Without drawing current through both headlights you'll get an error on your dash warning you your headlights are out. You could bypass this by adding resistors to draw enough current to get the sensors to pass. I chose instead to figure out how the sensor for the headlights work and modify it to give tell the system fault detector that everything is OK. Here is a picture of the head light detection circuit. It is right beside the radiator overflow resevoir NOTE: I bead blasted and painted mine black - stock is golden colour (cad plated). Simply remove the two mounting screws and unplug the harness from the bottom. You can also see where I mounted the relay for the HID harness and the fuse going to the positive terminal on the battery Once the head light detection circuit is removed take the four screws on the top off and open the unit. You can see they use a coil which current passes through when the head light is on. The circuit is duplicated twice on the PCB - one for each head light. This switches a little reed switch (magnetic) on to tell the system that the lights are working. You can see the reed switch inside the coil. To fake the circuit out we simply short the reed switch so that the detection circuitry thinks there is current flowing through the lights and everything is working fine. I just used part of a resistor lead to make a jumper but you can use a piece of wire, etc.

I'm just in the process of rolling the fenders. Here's a quick picture of the difference between the stock wheels (car is lowered with the Tokico HP255 kit) and the Rota RB-R 17" x 9.5 -19 riding on Yokohama 255/40/17 S-Drives (the 275's are on backorder) on my 280ZX.

Congrats on getting another S130 on the road - they are starting to get pretty rare now adays... Get a set of Tokico HPK255 struts/springs for the S130. If there was only one upgrade I could do to my 280ZX that's the one. John carries them at a VERY good price, he's excellent to deal with and he's a fellow HybridZ guy - its win/win! http://www.betamotorsports.com/products/products.php

Happy B-Day bro! I'm sure my wife is hoping I don't get ALL my inspiration from you ;P

Standard "I searched!" disclaimer on this one. Couldn't find anyone who had used a Maxima 810 radiator on 280ZX - is it possilble - same size? Thanks

Found one for the 280Z - looks an aweful lot like its for a ZX..... http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/nvn/pts/1631644295.html

True but you can get the same effect for performance by closing it off with sheet metal/CF, etc and paint it black to give it the wide mouth appearance. Good point though...

What rad are you using?

....and thus the disclaimer to ignore the bumper - its hideous! I do like he air dam as its more open mouthed like the S30 front end. I've been leaning towards the MSA 30th Aniversary but still looking.... Thanks for the info. I'm assuming then that its one of these..... http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?showtopic=87000 Thanks again - you guys rock!

I'm not sure but I think the TPS is taking you down the wrong path..... I would hook that fancy scope up and see if you are getting a signal to the transistor module from the ECU. I think you said you were getting your signal from the Dizzy to the ECU so check to see if the ECU is hitting the transistor. Did I read right that the transistor was $137? I could see $1.37 or a way overpriced one at $13.70.... but $137 is insane unless I'm missing something here.... unless it diagnoses all your electrical problems and washes and waxes your car weekly....

Glad you fixed it - good to check with a DMM to see what the voltage is on both sides. Bad connections are common and can cause some painful intermittant problems - including fuse block terminals. With a DMM you can also check the resistance of the fuse to see if its "bad". I've seen lots of voltage related issues due to resistive fuses....

OK pretend the front bumper doesn't exist - does anyone know what air dam this is? Or is it a custom job? I don't recall seeing anything like it before....

A Pillar gauges would be quite popular Dash I wouldn't bother with unless its something new and unique - we already have complete dash caps Interior body trim would be nice - esp CF... someone had the door panels done in CF and they looked really nice Tail lights - I'm in the process of making up a set for my S130 similar to the G37. They look agressive - I'll probably do an LED brow along the top curve as well. Something like that would be pretty slick esp on a Hybrid S30 The stock tail lights are the least appealing aspect of the S30 IMHO....

There is a thread on HID conversions over here for my S30 http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/83396-the-ultimate-hid-headlight-upgrade-the-easy-way/ I just did my S130 last night..... I'll do a write up if anyone is interested. Works great especially with the tinted covers

Hmmm Tectronix scope, Fluke DMM, Kim Tuff wipes and an alcohol squeeze bottle..... Electronics tech? ;P

You just need some inspiration....

Just checking something on the thread and I noticed this link was broken - found a new working link for now.... =wmi|/phpThumb/watermarks/vxusa-watermark.png|C|60|0&f=jpg&q=95&hash=888443482dc616260014c8a4a65b33bb"]http://www.visionxusa.com/oscthumb.php?src=lLzczdrZ3JLVxd7Q6Nfd1pSb0Nji287RlKbUzd_ZzaXKtNybvcSuqpSpx5mqxq3CloHZ3No.&w=1000&h=&fltr[]=wmi|/phpThumb/watermarks/vxusa-watermark.png|C|60|0&f=jpg&q=95&hash=888443482dc616260014c8a4a65b33bb

Is there a new way to upload files? I've tried both the simple and advanced for attached files to post pics and it always says upload failed. Tried multiple resolutions way below ones that use to work on here. It also says I've used 12.8MB of 500K global????

That's entirely possible but in the last 17 years that I've been into Datsuns I've never met a single Z31 enthusiast - not one. I'm sure there are lots out there but none in my neck of the woods. The day after I had my S130 on the road (last week) I had someone run up to me who was getting an S130 shipped out to him and was wondering where to get parts, etc. Picking up a jug of milk in the Jeep is a 10 minute return trip - its at least a half an hour in the S30.... by the time you pop the hood and answer 50 questions Lol every time I drive by another Z I wave - only the Z31 drivers give me a confused look (because subconsciously they know....)