Please explain the nomenclature

[TDHoward]

New to the forum and fairly new to the technical aspects of Z cars.

I owned one 25 years ago and I'm now about to hit my midlife crisis with another!

However, some of the technical lingo used here I'm not quite understanding:

whats a mustache bar?

Whats a S30?

Every car forum has it's own language, I'm just trying to catch up on it here.

On the Corvair board I frequent you see and hear, rtfm, Read the F$$$*^& manual. ggg grins, GGG big grin. and little red plastic thingy which is an ancillary electrical connector GM placed under the hood.

What are some of the more ambiguous terms that may be used here??

[mgood]

Mustache bar is the bar that holds the back of the rear end in place. See picture.

The S30 is part of the Vin number and states that the Z car is of the first generation style verses a S31 for the ZX's.

[zKars]

Language is important, yes?

S30 70-78 Z

S130 79-83 280ZX (sorry mgood)

z31 84-89 300 ZX

z32 90-96 300 ZX

z33 350Z

z34 370Z

Others will chime in with other items. alloy wheels types and hubcaps come to mind.

Jim

[Reverend]

Watch out the zcar.com. If you even say that " hi im a new Z owner and need help" its instant "C'MON BOYS LETS SMOKE THIS NOOB, GET THE GOD***N FSM AND AFTER READING IT 25 TIMES COME ASK AGAIN!"

I even tried to suggest that (cause the site is kinda outdated) why dont you upgrade this to a bit more up to date...well the response was something like this: " YOU FREAKING EUROPEAN, DONT YOU COME HERE TO SUGGEST ANYTHING, YOU STARTED THE 2nd WORLD WAR YOU MANIAC"... and im not kidding, those are the almost literal words :/

This site however is the most kindest and best Z site i have ever come across! Have fun browsing.

[Mikez73]

Good thread. I'm dying to hear what a "dog leg" is

[SteveJ]

Watch out the zcar.com. If you even say that " hi im a new Z owner and need help" its instant "C'MON BOYS LETS SMOKE THIS NOOB, GET THE GOD***N FSM AND AFTER READING IT 25 TIMES COME ASK AGAIN!"

I even tried to suggest that (cause the site is kinda outdated) why dont you upgrade this to a bit more up to date...well the response was something like this: " YOU FREAKING EUROPEAN, DONT YOU COME HERE TO SUGGEST ANYTHING, YOU STARTED THE 2nd WORLD WAR YOU MANIAC"... and im not kidding, those are the almost literal words :/

This site however is the most kindest and best Z site i have ever come across! Have fun browsing.

Oh, stop being such a weakling. Why before the internet, we had to walk 5 miles in the snow, uphill both ways, while a hurricane was raging above us, just to get some information on our Z cars. Dang Europeans.

[Reverend]

Oh, stop being such a weakling. Why before the internet, we had to walk 5 miles in the snow, uphill both ways, while a hurricane was raging above us, just to get some information on our Z cars. Dang Europeans.

I know what you mean One veteran mechaninc trained me few years ago. I used to take my other B310 Datsun for him to repair. One day though he said (after my starter engine died on his yard) that "you gotta learn to do it yourself" I used to pay good money to the guy and he put me under the car to change the starter engine, me who has never touched engine before!

I thank that guy today.

Btw. i heard that kinda tales from my grandpa, "when i was young we skied to the school 10 miles in -45Celsius blizzard with wolfpack on our tail"

[SteveJ]

I will say that in defense of the old guard at Zcar.com, I found many answers just by searching that site. Also, I once chastised someone for asking for spoonfeeding since it took only a few minutes to search for his answer using terms from his post. This was despite the fact that he claimed he searched and could find nothing. It seems like the newbs flock to Zcar.com first, get their spankings, learn some etiquette, and find sites like this.

Note: Tony D, one of my favorite straight-talkers, pointed out that Zcar.com gets flooded with lazy newbs around the time of high school breaks (Summer, Christmas, Spring Break). I haven't seen anything there to prove him wrong on that.

[Mr Camouflage]

Language is important, yes?

S30 70-78 Z

S130 79-83 280ZX (sorry mgood)

z31 84-89 300 ZX

z32 90-96 300 ZX

z33 350Z

z34 370Z

Others will chime in with other items. alloy wheels types and hubcaps come to mind.

Jim

You forgot the S31.

....waits for someone to explain boat anchors and flat tops...

Edited March 15, 2010 by Mr Camouflage
humour

[TDHoward]

Good thread. I'm dying to hear what a "dog leg" is

One I CAN answer.

The dogleg is the area on the body just before the rear wheels immediately behind the door sills. Don't know why it's called that, I guess because it's crooked.

Generally very prone to rust because of the enclosed layers of sheet steel.

They can be dirt and water traps. my experience is a dogleg rusts from the inside out.

[SteveJ]

One I CAN answer.

The dogleg is the area on the body just before the rear wheels immediately behind the door sills. Don't know why it's called that, I guess because it's crooked.

Generally very prone to rust because of the enclosed layers of sheet steel.

They can be dirt and water traps. my experience is a dogleg rusts from the inside out.

It's called a dogleg because it resembles the angle of a dog's rear leg when it is sitting down.

Attached is a picture of a dogleg taken from Pg 21 of the current Black Dragon Automotive catalog.

[TDHoward]

You forgot the S31.

....waits for someone to explain boat anchors and flat tops...

The impression I get about the Hitachi Flat tops is they simply have a reputation that is probably undeserved.

The "Boat Anchor" name has been given to the flattops by apparently those folks who buy into this bad carb belief.

Kind of like the Chevy Corvair, the myths are generally perpetrated by those people just repeating stuff they've heard, without the benefit of experience.:stupid: