ZXR_KiD

the digital/analog uses the same sending unit, the only real difference other than the dash itself is the harness to the dash, wich will direct swap. should be just fine with plugging it into the car and going.

Well Gentle men life has its ways of messing with plans... I think just about everything that can happen has ended up happening to us over the last year or so,from deaths to births.. but we've got to the point we're setting the equipment back up to start messin around with this stuff again... and with that its time to ask... Is there any real interest in these parts? we need to know if we'll be able to recoop ANY of what we've already got spent on the equipment before we bother purchasing the equipment needed to actually pop the larger things like tail lights... We've already blown well over a grand, and we KNOW we're not going to see much of a return on that part of the equasion. personally I have no interest myself in clear tail lights, therefore we have no desire to spend the $$ without knowing we can sell enough of them to make that part back. I'm still lacking a good right side tail light to pull a mold from, at present we have perfected the molds and process for the marker lights as well as front turn signal lights., also out of random boredom we've cloned the "280zx" emblem tab for the center console (popped in clear then painted around the lettering and an LED under the peice makes a pretty cool glowing letter effect. Keep in mind these parts do not HAVE to be clear, we have the ability to color impregnate them just about any color imaginable and still retain proper translucency.

'79 280ZXR primes for 8 seconds '79 2+2 primed for 5 seconds '79 with unknown yr turbo swap 5 second

took a good look at the left side tail light in my zxr and discovered no cracks and the existing scratches are repairable. so just about as soon as we can figure out a safe way to remove them from the housing we'll have tail lights in the works

we are crunching numbers trying to figure out how to get the costs down to a more affordable level. I think if we had a good set of people who would be on kindof a committ to buy type situation it would help us crunch numbers. as we sit right now we've dropped nearly $1k into just the equipment needed to make this work properly. aswell as close to 200 man hours worth of learning expirience. in other news a lucky break at the junkyard has yeilded a good pair of front turnsignal lenses and a good right tail light (now to figure out how to remove lenses without breaking them) still on the lookout for the left side tail light, I would also like to mention that we did attempt to contact Klearz before we sunk that kind of funding into this. Possibly due to fire related issues I suppose but I was never able to actually speak with anyone, only an automated answering service for wich I did not have the patience to follow through on our information hunt. I'm not in any way shape or form trying to claim bad buisness or anything like that, just simply stating what little information I have.

We've got our production mold for the marker lights ready to rock. the turnsignal mold showed us we have too many imperfections in our original peice to use for a perfect part but we'll see how well the parts turn out from the larger size molds. also for the fun of it we picked up some dye's and now have the ability to smoke or fog them in nearly any conceiveable color. we have a smoked peice made that I should be able to get a couple shots of here shortly As far as pricing, goes... with the time/money we've got into the setup to build these we'd have to end up close to $100/set of 4 for the markers,

Very nice find. it appears to be a somewhat rust free car. and might I point out that those Swastika wheels are worth almost what you paid for the car.

We've got the first mold for the front turnsignals made as well as a 100% production ready mold for the markers. we still havn't started to do any math to figure out actual costs of anything so I still can't give any prices... and Shuttle, I'm not sure of a good way to remove the lenses from the early light housings yet, I started to expiriment with taking apart a bad one but quickly discovered mine was already cracked all the way through and therefore obviously didn't come free cleanly. all parts that we cast molds off of are 100% unharmed and unmodified. the only thing we do to them is a VERY thourough cleaning.

as promised... I still havn't seen the part in person, knowing its still out of the same mold I know it still has small imperfections in the surface but all bubbling is gone.

we've got our system components installed and are pleased to announce we have our first 100% bubble free casting , or atleast I am told, I'm not with the system at the moment to see it for myself, but I should have pics very soon.

rest assured they have not been forgotten, we've just had personal matters to deal with. next update should be thurs/friday we'll likely be making a new mold to try to get the bottom edge flashing to cast better with less trimming aswell as we should have the equipment to properly deal with the bubbles in our hands by that time, if not we'll still go ahead and cast a bubbled peice to properly check our mold. in other good news our test have proven this material to be EXTREMELY durable as it took nearly every ounce of my strength to break a test peice of 1/8"thick material over my knee. I assure you at the point that we will soon be at these will be the REAL DEAL and TOP QUALITY lenses. I will also add that we are having dificulty locating a set of GOOD tail lights to attempt to reproduce lenses, if we want good parts we have to have good parts to start with. so anyone wanting clear tailights may have to help source a set for mold making purposes... the lenses will have to be removed from the light housing but otherwise will be completly un-harmed,un-altered and un-marked availible for return if needed

well we have finally been able to get things back up and running... this is the first casting out of our first actual lens mold we know we have some flaws yet, our current syestem wasnt able to hold proper pressure for bubble removal however the remedy is on its way. I know its hard to see because its clear but if you look hard enough the original number printing is perfectly reproduced

with a dremel and cutoff wheel you can put a straight cut across the middle of the head and easily remove the screw with a flathead screwdriver. if done carefully you won't damage anything. and the original screw can easily be re-installed

Alternator failing... its happened to me a few times, typically you'll have around half hr till the battery is too low to keep the injection pumping and the car will die

we've made a lot of progress learning the materials and building molds, we've been learning using micro machine sized objects to use as little material expirimenting as possible. we think we're ready to start with the actual project soon but a death in the family has slowed us down. we should be back at it soon

hate to state the obvious, but have you made certain the head did not warp with the gasket faliure? usually you would see other issues if your head was warped though. I agree with compression tests, if you attempted to do your porting with the valves in place maybe you hit one? I've done it before you can really goof somethin up like that. another possibility could be similar to an issue I had with the turbo car I had for a short while it would do similar falling on its face when I got it and discovered it was an issue with the waste gate actuator.

don't know if anyone has other than like the GTO type smoked or blackout covers... however once we get our molds for the clears done it could be very easy to run some tinted ones through...

If the S130 lenses come out good we MAY start S-30 parts as I have a '78 I can use for mold purposes but that doesn't entirely help the guys with the early cars... more will be determined later as we're still awaiting the arrival of the goods before we can really start.

***UPDATE*** Materials have been ordered and should arrive around next wed. The OEM parts have been cleaned and prepped for mold making proceedures. This IS in the works guys.

when/if I find it I'll be able too. I can tell you there isn't much of an artcile, they really are pictorial magazines, most of the cars only have 1 picture and maybe 1 or 2 lines of text basically telling what the car started as and who owns or built it. not a whole lot of information in them.

have not been able to find the Z I remember seeing in the old mag, it would have been "HOT ROD SHOW WORLD" either '77 or '78 annual. I've got 6 of them but only found 4 the other 2 must be in another box. back to the point... It reminds me more of the Greenwood corvette than the batmobile... for that reason i have to say I kinda like it.

I seem to remember seeing something VERY similar in an old Hot Rod & custom car Pictorial from the late 70's maybe early 80s that I'd found in an old dresser my mom bought... I think I still have it but I'll have to find it.

we'd be building and perfecting our personal parts before we even try to put a price tag on anything so there will definatly be plenty of pictures availible when the time comes

A friend of mine stumbled upon something interesting that had us thinking. thinking led to research, research lead to questions. and now the questions must be asked. are there clear markers/turnsignals availible for the S-130. MSA's page says 70-83 but when you get to the page that actually has the lights its only S30s listed... next question... Who would want some? We've found the materials and equipment to make them from scratch, but the cost effectiveness/amount of materials well exceeds whats feesable for making only a couple sets. If there are a few others out there who would be interested in the possibility of buying some, we'll go ahead and make the investment and begin the mold making process and see what happens. I can tell you the cost would be lower than the $100/set that MSA has theirs listed for as we're just looking for a little help cusioning the wallets, not trying to make money. we're definatly planning the side markers and turn signals, as well as the possibility of full tailight lenses (early) in clear (euro style). if no one is interested, or if the parts are availible somewhere please dis reguard.

X2 everything he said thats a pretty car too. the '79 2+2 auto car I had for a bit only made about 22-23ish. my 79 2 seat 5 spd was making 29-30 for awile but it had the tall gears in it. so if you know what your doing the car can be very economical to drive for the performance that it has. and the rear seat of the 2+2 oughta fit that lil guy decently well for atleast a few more years. nice find. and welcome to the community known as Z guys