Chris83zxt Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 So I've found a pretty solid, not running S130 out in a storage building that I'm about to acquire. It's some weird burnt orange color with spots of chalky fade and bits of surface rust. I couldn't put my hand through the floor pans so that's good. Anyway, I didn't notice a whole heck of a lot about the interior outside of it being red and the seats being in surprisingly good shape, but I did check out the dash. It looks to be mint. No cracks, not even any swollen spots. How can this be? My 1983 which has old guys flirting with me at stop lights (according to my wife) every time I take it out doesn't even have a nice dash like this (I tried to do resto work on it once but ultimately failed). How is there still an S130 on the planet with a perfect dash and, more importantly, what should I do (or not do) to keep it that way? Is it some freak of nature that is impervious to damage like Bruce Willis's Unbreakable character, or is it actually waiting to spiderweb into a million cracks the next time it's breathed on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FricFrac Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 I live in Canada - most every 280ZX I've come across has very good if not perfect dash. Just depends on how much sun the dash got. I have two from WA - one is mint and the other has some spliting on the dash. My FL car has a mint dash as well. Both US cars with mint dash lived in a garage. I keep a dash cover on my WA car as it doesn't currently live in a garage. Remeber plastic has a UV inhibitor typically from manufacturing but it tends to off gas eventually so you want to use a quality UV inhibitor/cleaner like Optimum Protectant Plus, etc (NOT Armourall). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 2 hours ago, Chris83zxt said: I did check out the dash. It looks to be mint. No cracks, not even any swollen spots. Even my $80 Android phone has a camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris83zxt Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Ask and thou shalt receive. Now that I've had a chance to poke around under the hood -- holy hell, this thing is a fire waiting to happen. The wiring under there looks worse than my 280 did the afternoon I threw the MS3 into it and got it running (which was just a lot of wires running on top of the motor with wirenuts). Mystery wires coming off the positive terminal running into the crack between the fender and the door (one of which is black, nice). Ground strap replaced with a big red wire. The fusable links cut and wired directly onto the positive terminal. So the dash is tan and digital. This is a 1980. The glove box cover is black. The top panel of the doors are black and the bottom 2 red. The trim pieces are mostly red with some black. This car has a lot of personality. I wasn't sure if I was getting it to possibly make it nice or to prep for a 24 hours of lemons 'race' car. Edited August 10, 2020 by Chris83zxt speelling correction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokuzumi Posted August 18, 2020 Share Posted August 18, 2020 Is it a dash cover? They are cheap-ish on Z Car Depot, and match the factory colors really well. My 1980 has the original dash pad, but it's been garaged the whole life, so no surprises there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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