powershotnt

The drivers side floor was really hard..i guess the exhaust running thru there makes it bond harder. Had what I thought was a minor hole in the driverside floor..turned out to be huge. Also took steering column covers off and lower dash panel and found a wiring mess.. Now it is just wait for my bonus check and drive it to the body shop for repairs. Then I can start on redoing the suspension front and rear..that should take me a year or two. Look at the gaps in the aftermarket front fender!!!!

I forgot..I jumped ahead a little bit. I decided to go with the MSA bumper and lower skirt option Because I cannot find any decent bumpers as replacement for mine. I decided to go ahead and take off the rear bumper to see how it is. I didn't mention that the car came with a FSM did I? Anyway the rear valance and bumper are guess what??? rust city. It was funny as i was banging away and tapping here and there..chunks of rust was falling off the car. The driverside rear quarter behind the wheel you can put your hand thru. The body guy seen this and the underside part of the repair is part of his original repair estimate. The outer quarter panel is another story though. I did some sanding and found some bondo on the rear corner by the tail light also. I am just tinkering around with the car for now. I do need to get the floors and hatch area stripped of the rubbery stuff before it goes to him for repairs. Once he gets the floors and frame rails repaired then I can bring her home and finish stripping everything off of her...look at the rear of the car with no bumper and look at the underside of the bumper.. By the way..i need a decent rear bumper reinforcement for the MSA install....that is a couple years away anyway.

I have read about using dry ice to remove the rubberized sound deadener in these cars. Today was a very cold day so I thought..hmmm maybe??? Yep 1 hr of tapping and scraping and I got the passenger floor area done..and guess what??? more rust!

Took out all the interior trim peices..alot of them are broken. The carpet was trashed. Also somebody tried to redo this car before and gave up. the interior used to be blue but they rattlecanned the plastic black. Put carpet on the doorpanels and headliner. The passenger door would not open..or unlock. Sprayed WD-40 on the mechanism and after awhile it opened!!!!! Each time I work on this I get discouraged because I found alot of big problems. I have told my wife 5 times at least it is going to my buddy's recycling yard. I have used this forum to learn so many things..including there is actually a shift key on my keyboard!. I have searched and looked at dozens of websites and the parts I need for the interior and exterior are not available for the s130 or it is available for the coupe only!!! Here comes HybridZ. I have found so many very very good solutions to all my problems here.

Found some more body rust as the day went on. Also while the car sat in the parking lot for 6 months..somebody decided to break the quarter window and steal the stereo

Here are pics of it coming home on the trailer. And some rust spots

Got the car for free from a friend. Got it running..poorly but it goes down the road..kinda. The body guy/fabricator wanted it running to do the frame and floor repairs. My daughter (12 yrs old)and I spent the 1st weekend pulling the interior..and getting horrified by the rust we found. Took it to my body guy and he is going to fix The frame rails/rear suspension front mounts and floor pans for $500.

Do not get aftermarket fenders or hood that says this part is from overseas. It means "aftermarket" and the fit is crappy to say the least and the metal if you can beleive it is thinner..i have a "aftermarket" Fender on mine just leaning on it dents it. It sticks out about 1/4 inch from the door skin and there is no more adjustment available.

Doesn't black dragon sell aftermarket selfadhesive sound deadening foil looking stuff??? After you remove the OEM stuff clean up the rust and paint..wouldn't that stuff work the same as the oem gooey..rubbery stuff? Sorry Root canal..major pain good drugs..muddled mental capabilities

I have some ideas kicking around to change the front end slightly. First would be the hood. Since I am going with the V-8 I was thinking about cutting the hood right by the radiator brace and having my buddy fabricate a brace modification to mount the hinges there. That would leave me the ability to make the old lower part of the hood a fixed body panel. This would allow me to make modifications to that new staionary front peice..opening it up to look similar to a cobra type front end..not that radical but similar...Still playing with the idea and doing all kinds of searches on this site for interesting and new ideas. I wish I knew a good artist that could do some drawings!!!! Hey Mr. Foose..you got a few minutes?

Very good point.

You get what you pay for. I do not work for them but in my business they have a great reputation..deliver as promised with a damage rate of .023% our company hauls only new cars,rental to auction,and dealer transfers. Our copmpany demands a damage rate from its drivers to be below .021% mine stands right now at .008%. I have found that in doing business with anything. Furnace repair,roofing,auto repair..on and on and on. A very large % of the time a cheaper price costs you more in the long run. All JMHO of course. By the way... the more I search this site the more impressed I get.

Just my .02 worth. I have several years car hauling experience. Your car was in the #8 table position which is suseptible to #1 the most bounce and undercarriage road debri. The damage on the hatch is absolutley table damage. It was either raised up into the deck above or the deck above was lowered into it. "bounce" would get little dings and broken glass. Those are "gouges". When they picked up the car there should have been a conditon report???? We rarely haul used but when we do it takes me 15-20 minutes per car to go over every sq. inch to document scratches/dings etc. For future reference if anybody needs their car hauled D.A.S. is a nationally reconized excellent carrier that specializes in cross country private owner cars. I am impressed with your personal control. Me... I would be in jail and he would still be in the hospital.

The picture with the system check light in the center of the dash..when it is all lit up with red dots that means a system fault. electrical...alternator..maybe..IMHO that is a $500 car..but I am a cheap son of a gun..just look at the hood.

I am just glad to hear that the s130 is getting some props here.. I think that both the s30 and s130 look good...minus all the rust that is:icon56:

I also had a "flat battery" problem in the past and I'm sorry but i cannot remember what it was. I assume your temps are celcius? I would flush the whole cooling system. Pull your spark plugs and look at them..are they really black and sooty? That is a pure sign of running rich. Have you tried adjusting the air/fuel ratio screws onthe holly? Should be 2 screws front and center lower part of the carb. Screw them all the way in gently do not bottem them out hard..just let them "touch" the bottom. I adjust 1.5 turns out and see how it runs. The max i have set mine is 1.75 turns out. I think he is right it is a 450cfm carb..should not be running rich. If that doesn't cure it try replacing the plugs or perhaps you have a weak plug wire. Good luck

The black smoke on start up is a pure sign of running rich. Had a 350 that did the same thing. I had a 750cfm carb on it(was that way when I bought it). No matter what I adjusted it would not fix it. Changed to a 600cfm edelbrock 4bbl and it cured it. I tried hotter ignition system(wires,coil and plugs). The only thing that worked was the carb change. Now as to the internals(cam/valves) other stuff I have no idea about matching those up to make it work. There are some guys on here that are incredible on making sure you have the right cam etc.

I do not want to hijack this thread but you mentioned old gas. My car has the same gas from a year ago in it. does modern day gas go stale within a year? I had a full tank now I am down to 1/2 and it runs rough at lower rpm's.

I washed my engine down heavily with degreaser when I first got the car. The boots on all the connections are rotted. I got water into the TPS plug and it went into limp home mode. I will disconnect each sensor 1 by 1 and clean them..thank you. I really like the non $$$ tries at fixing it.

Thank you gentlemen. Took it to my buddys late sunday afternoon and he took his stethascope and told me #3 and #4 valves were ticking..so I am going to adjust the vavles this weekend..o.k...I know a ton of abreviations but I have searched this forum for TTS and cannot find it.. Throttle position sensor? I have the worst luck..One day I find the full list of abreviations and the next day could spend 2 hrs and not find it!(on this forum) I realize this thing has got 217k miles on it but it is going to be years and trips back and forth to the body shop and various other places so before I do the V8 swap and complete the restoration I need to drive it. I will ask around for a leak down tester. This weekend find true TDC and check my balancer. These are easy tries and cost me nothing..Too bad I have to tell my wife "sorry dear..honey do list is gonna have to wait." Thank you for the ideas.

I pulled the plugs when I did the compression check. I have to redo the compression check because I did it on a cold engine.My buddy told me it should be warm to get accurate readings? The plugs looked really good. I did have to change 3 different vacuum lines because they were bad. I will go thru and check all of them. Thanks for the list of sensors to check.

I did find minimum and standard compression in manual. 171 standard and 128 minimum so my engine is towards the lower end. My question still stands on engine running problems that I have.

1981 280zx 217K miles Car is hard to start. When warmed up under no load it revs good and smooth. Slight blue smoke. When in gear driving it coughs and hesitates till over 3000rpm. When cold after a few seconds of idling it coughs and back fires thru air cleaner when rev'd and smokes more than when warm. My test results when using starter only removing 1 plug at a time. #1. 141# #2. 143# #3. 143# #4 141# #5. 135# #6. 137# I have searched this forum and googled and looked thru shop manual. What is a good compression for the L28E (non turbo)? Any Ideas on cold start and under 3000rpm issues? I have changed fuel filter,cap and rotor.

hurry up...I'm waiting!!!

yes resto mod..the S130 2+2 is not an overly desired car I have found out..so I have to make mine unique. This forum has given me more i deas than i could have ever dreamed of.