FricFrac Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 (edited) Finally found a 280ZXT 5 speed. I've wanted one for about 18 years now. She's a little rough but not too bad. I was going to use her as a test mule for my NA to Turbo swap on my NA S130 and that's still the plan but I got a little carried away on not fixing her up. Here she is when I first picked her up. Rusty in the strangest spots - below the rear tail lights but solid in the spare tire well. The bottom of the hatch is really rusty but not a big deal - hatches are easy to find and a simple replacement. Edited July 30, 2011 by FricFrac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 I was just going to rip the carpets out of the 280ZXT since the interior was in shambles. Unfortunatley I didn't get a lot of great pictures before I ripped everything out. You can't really see the grey household carpet they used inside the car or the grey household carpet glued to the back panels, etc. The seats were grotesque under the covers. It was pretty musty too and there was a lot of green stuff growing on the outside of the car. I think she sat for a while. Anyhow ripping the carpets out lead to taking the underlay out. Then the sound dampening material. Then all the body panels.... then the well I guess I should post some pictures so you can see how I got a little side tracked with the interior.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 A little crusty in the engine bay. Now she has new plugs (rust free!), wires, cap, rotor, PVC valve, MSD coil, refurbished J-Pipe with DMS BOV until I get the intercooler setup installed. The "security" starter switch which was wired to the solenoid on the starter is a safety issue so that needed to be fixed (you can see the wires going from the battery through the firewall to a switch below the steering column). Turns out they were trying to bypass the broken ignition switch. New ignition switch installed. The reverse lights weren't working but the NC portion of the tranny switch was working so I hooked a relay up so the reverse lights work for the safety inspection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 (edited) The defrost wasn't working properly though so I ended up pulling the dash and spent about eight hours completely rebuilding the climate control unit. Reuel gave me a spare one when I was down in Portland so I used that as my guinea pig. Its hard to see but the vaccum lines are colour coded depending on what "circuit" they are on (sorry electronics guy's view of a pneumatic system). There is a "schematic" in the FSM that shows you how the whole thing works. I figured a quick little trick is to cut about 1/4 inch of the end of the vacuum line where it gets all hard and push it back onto the fitting for a nice tight fit and no more leaks. I used a lot of open cell foam to get a better seal between units and piping now it blows like a hurricane! I was showing my brother how all the vacuum relays work with the dash still off and he was standing a few feet from the back bumper with the hatch opened and the wind was still quite strong all the way back there. I cleaned the evaporator up inside the car and vacuumed the pine needles, etc out. Took a while to get the greasy fuzz out as well but she blows good. Not sure about the other side of the AC yet though. I think the belt is missing IIRC... We'll take a look once the interior is done and we get 'er up on the hoist. Edited August 3, 2011 by FricFrac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 The worst of the rust. The frame rail was dented and instead of rusting the actual rail it ended up steaming the floor and rusting a small hole through. Conquest, Rust Killer primer, enamel paint and temporary patch. Mostly surface rust and the odd bubble. Also I cleaned everything with vinegar to kill any mold so any bare metal would turn to rust almost instantly. The biggest killer on the S130 was the seam sealer ironically enough. It's poreous and absorbs water once the paint cracks. Water follows the seams and they rot out. Simple fix is to remove the seam sealer BEFORE it all rots away and put in a modern urethane based seam sealer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 If you don't know about the seam sealer on the S130 then it's something you need to do if you are planing on keeping your car. As you may or may not know the seam sealer is poreous and absorbs water. It esentially does exactly the opposite of what you want it to do which is seal the seam and keep the water out. It's fine until the seam flexes and the factory paint cracks allowing water into the seam sealer. Once the water gets in it stays there and follows the seam bringing rusty destruction along with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 (edited) Playing around with modifying the door panel carpets. Before: After: Ok not quite before and after - just mirrored the picture of the other side for comparison.... you get the idea Edited August 3, 2011 by FricFrac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 I hated cleaning up that seam crap. Looking good though. Just finish removing the rest of the tar crap, and sanding down the interior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 Thankfully I had read about the dry ice trick before I started. The trick is to wait long enough for the tar to get really cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slownrusty Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Congrats Kurk! Happy for you, good luck on the rust repair and glad the car has made it into you caring hands and home! This car will be sweet once finished (are they ever finished??) Chat soon! Yasin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 ...and a few updates..... Completly refurbished climate control system.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordon Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 This looks cool man, cant wait to see more, keep up the good work (: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 Please Resize Images to: 1024 x 768 MAX Pics larger than this size will be removed. If you upload them at www.imageshack.us there is an option to resize them right on the website. Thank You Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 So it turns out the axel on the driver side is toast. Saved again by Mark with an arm load of rear end pieces. Put the new bearings in. Driver rear passenger caliper is on its way out so I'll have to replace that once the pads/rotors are done. Went to put my Tokico spring in and they won't go over the spring pearch. They are an 1/8" too small - weird. I picked up a set of used S13 Tokico springs/struts. Took the top hat for the rears off and put the Tokico springs and the 280ZX top hat on and it worked like a dream! Passed safety and importing is completed. Insured and on the road. We'll she's on the road and the 280ZXT is pretty impressive even out of the box. The Tokico springs take a lot of the mushy stock suspension out but I think I'd be a lot happier with around 350lb springs in the car. Did a cat delete and a crush bent 3" cat back into a Magnaflow 3" - a recycled exhaust from another car. The turbo cars are pretty responsive to an exhaust mod so not only do you get more power but it come's on quicker. I'd probably be happy with no muffler - the Magnaflow is pretty much straight through but quieter than I'd like. I'll do a Mandrel exhaust for the NA when I swap in the turbo and I'll use a short Walker Ultraflow round can for some more volume. A few interior pics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Updates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 Replaced the front fenders with some I pulled off a parts car. The parts car had side skirts welded to the car so I sawzalled the fenders and left part of the side skirt on the fender. I've got another set of fenders I'll put on the car but for now I've thrown the black fenders on and front air damn to see what the car looks like black and silver. Oh and I threw the hatch on from the black car as well since the shower of rust every time I closed the rear hatch was starting to get annoying. That didn't look too bad so I started doing some vinyl wrap on the doors... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwdawg2 Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 What all did you do to get the MS3 wired up and started (maps, etc.)? Do you have any upgrades on the motor (turbo, injectors)? Do you have the 3X extension or any add-ons? Looking good btw. -Lindsey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 I made an adapter to plug the MS3 into the stock wiring harness. Right now I've got the stock harness and all my rabbit runs for the Wideband O2, etc pulled out and I'm building a custom harness for this car, my NA and Yasin's car then I'll also be offering a full harness kit that will plug into the stock body harness and allow you to plug and play with Mega Squirt on the S130. The stock harness is poorly engineered as far as I'm concerned so the new one will be very robust to EMI noise, etc with proper grounding, etc. I've spent a LOT of time developing it and I'm getting close to a final product that will support a stock turbo setup as well as the option for sequetial injection and crank fired or distributorless ignition as well. I've got the MS3 and the 3X daughter board for sequential. I've got a full set of LSx coil packs as well as the stubby Magnecore wires for a CNP setup. Motor is stock. The intake and exhaust (crush bent 3") are about all that is modded. I'm fabbing up a down pipe and a full mandrel 3" stainless but its a major pain. I wish we could get someone to make a mandrel exhaust for the S130.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSM Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Going well. I notice in your sig you've got quite a few cars. You must hate the yearly registration fees! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil280zxt Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I was lucky to get in on the group build for Jeffp's 3" SS mandrel bent system a few years back. Loving it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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