Gollum

I've wanted to build a FFR since I was 13 ( so that's almost 6 years now) and over those remaining years I've debated long and hard on witch car I'd build first (since one is never enough) the coupe, or the roadster. Although, now they have the GTM... :drool: so once again all pervious ideas are thrown out the window. I really like the coupe, and I hope someday my ZX will be my own interpretation of it. Not ideantical, but inspired. I just love that car man. But if you go out and get one I guess I don't want to just fallow the crowd. I'll have to build a roadster first Only issue is that registering in CA is a PIA. You need an SB100 and they only give out 200 a year and they're usually gone with 2 days after the 1st of the year. So do your research and find a DMV that knows how to handle a SB100 and get there as early as you can new years day. Maybe even camp overnight, beucase the DMVs that are known to be able to take care of SB100 vehicles tend to get crowded.

My cable flies compared to the max speeds of DSL and it's still not fast enough. There's a company that sells fiber 20 megabit up/down in the bay area for $150 a month. Once I move out I'll be looking specifically for a locaiton that they offer thier service. That's the ultamite net connection right there. Congrats on the DSL. Yes you should have done it sooner, but at least you really appreciate it. I've met lots of people that can't tell the difference becuase they don't really do video steaming or file downloading.

He has a good point. The 350Z has been doing pretty well since it's debute in the JGTC series and they use the VQ motor, so there's definately reliable power to be found in that motor.

you also have to remember that not all weight is created equal. It's much more valuable to shave 5 pounds off the roof than 8-10 off from the door, becuase shaving weight off the top lowers the CG producing results that you'll see in more places than the drag strip. It's the same principal as trying to get the weight on the inside of the car not the outside. Example being removing the bumper being better than removing the passanger seat. This makes the hood and hatch prime canidates for weight reduction. It would also be nice to remove some weight off the roof but that requires alot of work and some pretty insane engineering/fabricating. So I'll leave the roof to the real insane people here that actually have skills, in wich I'm left in the dust... gratefuly of course. I'm just glad to be here to watch

when I say corner window i mean the window above the corner panel, behind the side door windows. That is the line that worries me. Beucase it's square in all directions exepct tilted in a bit towards the middle of the car. I personally like a really round wide body look and I think that would clash with the lines of the roof.

I wasn't trying to make you look stupid wing, I was trying to make your computer look stupid, IT somehow casted the blame onto you Thanks for the input so far guys. You're really helping me brainstorm. Keep the comments coming if you can. Oh yea, blue oval Z. I still love the look of your car. So don't consider your opinion wasted on ones without ears

It's official... i'm painting my ugly stainless trim... Gawd that's purrty. If you black out the side you really need to black out the top and windsheild trip as well. I'd probly also have to tint by quarter windows. But man does that look worlds better.

Did you click on the picture wingnutthehut? It's a thumbnail that I posted, not the actual pic. So here's the full size since people seem to be having problems with it. http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/9890/280zxwindshieldmod4cu.jpg I agree long hood lines are grea, but if you painted a ZX yellow it would be a flying bannana... Actually, I was working on the car some today in between rain sessions and I got an idea for the front... Think of the daytona coupe. I'm thinking what if I dropped the hood down just after the radiator to give it more of a 60's race car look, maybe even a little jaguar ish? I think with a widebody this would look great. I still don't know if I'll like the square lines of the rear window... I'd love to tapper it back a bit to give the upper half of the car more of that teardrop shape.

The more I think about a widebody the more I'm worried about this one thing... The corner window comes up at a certain angle and the rear window is square. I'm worred that you'd end up with this nice curvy quarter panel and a boxy upper half that you couldn't change unless you put in midified pillars, windows, and roof. Do you know what I mean? I think the roof lines need to tie in with the widebody and I don't know how well it will work. I'd imagine either you'd have to keep working on the widebody till the lines matched or get the widebody to the look you want and then midify the roof to match.

Ok, there have always been things in the back of my mind that really hinder me from accepting the stock lines of the 280ZX cars, although the 280ZX is closer to my ideal 'Z' look than the S30 cars. Many of the things I don't like I can't really figure out. Example: The front looks too long. But I started looking at other big engine 2 seaters that look great and the 280ZX isn't actually all that big (or misproportioned). It's just so much of the car serves to elongate the look of the nose. So, the other day it came to me, move the windsheild forward and draw the eye to the roof line. This would also put the dash a little bit farther forwards and where it should have been from the factory (in my opinion) for perfect comfort. So I did some photoshop work to envision some lines. Give me feedback. I've always wanted to chop the ZX but thanks to the widebody sketches done here on this board I can tell that with a widebody the 280ZX would look rediculous with a chop top AND a widebody. I plan to bring the rear out about 3-5 inches and the front out 2-4 inches. I'd try to go for as smooth of a look as I can, so think supra. I'd try to blend it as much as I can and extend the body work to the door if I have to. The bumpers will be gone, the back will be nearly flush with a lip spoiler on the back and the front isn't finished in my mind yet. The front is the hardest part for me. Beucase if you take the bumper off the car screams muscle car and I envision eleanor all over it but that won't really flow with the way I see the rest of the car. I want to go for something smooth looking but not pointed like the stock look. So use your imagination I guess. Ok, so the first top pic is stock. The second is if I miraculously found the perfect windshield in the perfect dimensions and radius that allowed me to move it forward and rake it back to use the stock roof with a modified A pillar. The third is if I took the stock windshield and A pillar and placed them farther forward, and in this senario I'd have to do some fab work on the roof. I'd probly try to make one from scratch and omitt the T-tops. I personally like the look of this better as it's a bit more natural looking. Ok, so start talking. Obviously this won't happen over night, and I understand that this is a HUGE undertaking. I'm not looking for people to tell me how hard it is. I want people to brainstorm WITH me and see what else should be done or done differently. All comments welcome though

I was away from the board a couple days, due to enjoying the good rain free times! Hope you got some work done cozyzcole. I was out having a blast think maybe I should do some work on my car and then BLAM rain strikes again. It seems to overall be getting warmer so hopefully we'll have a good long break of sunshine in the near future.

I get 19-21 solid on a stock 280ZX manual. So you're right, somethings up. Wish I could offer some advise but it seems everything has been covered. Good luck with getting it fixed.

well, it looks like speeder did a one pice fiberglass front end. Fab'ed up hinges and all. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=108846

I KNOW!!! New record everyone. This is the most days of rain we've ever had in march (SF bay area). I like to drive in the rain and all but this is just getting sick. From what I can tell it's been a heavy drizzle since yesterday afternoon with intermiting pourings. This is just discusting march weather. I feel ya man, I could use some sunshine.

I'm having trouble finding the info but someone from this shop did a green RB25DET swap into an early Z and told me that he was going to offer a swap kit. Sounded pretty promising. They also own one of the few R34 GTR Vspec cars in the country. Pretty cool guys from the ones I've met. http://www.zcargarage.com/index.htm Good luck with the car! Hope this info helps.

Cheep import + wanna be other car + modern culture = THAT Not much of a suprise to me. You should see the stuff I see around my house. Similar ideas, much worse execution. At least this car looks well done for what it is.

hehe, sorry for that typo. I'll go back and fix that. Yes, they're running heavily modified motors. I'm just saying there's potential in the L series.

Ok, I'll say it, since it's been said to me my fair share of times. Search... Like it's been stated before earlier in this post: "A stock L24-28 properly tuned will probably only net you about 18 -20 mpg around town" This is true until you get into stand alone EFI setups, or go turbo. If you check out some of the recent nissan L6 threds there are guys running 11s that get up to 28 MPG highway. 25 city is easily reachable with many motors. But I'll leave the recomendations to people that have done swaps and would like to represent them. It also wouldn't hurt to search. There's probly more info on this site than most of the forums out on the net. Definatelly one of the largest banks of Z info.

mmm, good freakin' point. My suspension is still all origonal and squats and pitched BAD. I totally understand your point jon. I admit I need alot more practice testing my limits in the rain. I know my turning abilitys very well, but don't practice braking much because there isn't too many safe places to build speed and stop near my house, while there's plenty of big and open turns . Maybe I just don't look for the things I don't care about. But now I really want to practice after that experience.

Well... I had room, wich is the only reason I had time to think about changing lanes 'after' already sliding and letting off. I probly had at least 10-15 lenths before I started braking. I try to never tail gate.

It's changed now. But man! My car has half that amount of miles and I could only hope for it to be worth half of 68k 6,800 doesn't sound too bad though. If I could get that much for my unrestored low milage ZX i'd sell it and but another $500 Z and have money for mods

Still raining a bit here. So washing a car consists of wiping it down a bit in the morning... Looks go though

The one major slid that I'm talking about just the front slid. And it wasn't a slam. I'd started braking lightly due to brake lights then I noticed they were stoped so I kinda pushed hard and then a little harder, then it slid. I let off then it was fine but I didn't have much time to stop and I'd just slid so I merged into the carpool lane as some guy in a brand new sti going 80mph had to slow down to 30 or so while I accellerated to get out of his way (oh no, I took 30 seconds out of his day). He was the one that I really ticked off but I thought it was my best option at the time, and probly was. I made him mad instead of possible hitting the person in front of me. Ok, now you have the drawn out explaination to what happened. My brother was just mentioning that he never had problems in his cars without ABS and that maybe my brakes are "old and suck". I'm leanding towards maybe I just gotta get used to a lower threshhold in the rain. But now that you mention it my rears have never locked. Only my fronts have ever slid on me. So maybe my proportions are off. But my car is 100% stock. Maybe I should try flushing the entire system before buying a proportioning valve. I should also invest in SS braided lines.

Ok, I see what you guys are saying. But I've already got 195s. Is the problem the tread design? What I guess I might end up doing is evetually upgrading to a wide body and such for a motor swap and then using the stock rims with some expensive winter tires. Does anyone think it could be my brake system? Any other ideas of what it could be? Anyone else had these problems in the rain?

I'm so jelous. 11's and 28mpg vs. my assumed 16's (stock... maybe 17's even...) and 19-20 MPG. I need to put some money into my car. Good job guys. Always nice to see some times from a board full of "while I'm at it" people. Not that I should complain though. I've spent over 1k on my computer this year already, wich could have bought be a motor + some parts. So I have only myself to blame.