Zedyone_kenobi

I have tried Les several times, with no luck. He does not return my emails. I can try again though, cannot hurt.

That will probably be my next upgrade to the 1985 calipers. I have already added new wheel bearings and new disks. Not really sure the slots or cross drilling does anything except remove material and make it worse of a heat sink. If you get pads that do not off gas much and are low dust, you are just fine using solid disks.

I totally agree with that statement forester. I noticed going from a 205 to a 195 that my car felt livelier and crisper. On a side note, if you are talking about rubbing on the front end of a Z, when I had my MSA front air dam, I had none at all with my 205/60/15's. It is only when I switched to my OEM front with the spook I had some rubbing. I thought about ways to fix it. I loosened all the bolts and moved parts around, but no joy. I still had the slightest rub on the passenger side. Since your tire moves on an arc rather than a pivoting around a point, you can solve the tire rubbing in two different ways. You can either reduce the aspect ratio, like going from a 205/60 to a 205/55, OR you can reduce the section width, like going from a 205/60 to a 195/60. BOTH reduce the tires overall diameter by a different amount. One shrinks the sidewall while keeping the width the same, the other reduces both a little bit. I wanted to keep my overall diameter close to what I had, and the 195/60's were a very nice fit.

THat is a good point andrew and definitely another way to look at it. I knew my limitations when I bought my car. I wanted one with 99.5% rust free, as I am not a body man. I can replace parts and install and rebuild things with the best of them, but I have never honed my skill as a body man, and quite frankly I do not really want to. I just do not have the time or space for a proper spray area. So when buying my car I knew the body had to be near pefect and that was going to cost me. I also knew I wanted a near original car, with the original interior and no engine work done for all the reasons you listed above Andrew. That all came down to looking at many cars and talking to the owner. You can tell quite a bit about a car if it has a good history, and a current owner who will talk to you about it. Sure there are sleazy people out there, but I find that a good car with a careful inspection will 'talk' to you just as well as a person. I had to fly to another state to get my car. It was the right combination of car, owner, detailed records, and originality. I think jrecee has the right idea and is going about this the right way. I think that for 3000 dollars you can get a 280z in the condition you are looking for,but you are going to have to look, and be very cautious. Andrew is right that these cars have lived a long time. Some have not been treated as well as you would hope. For 4000-5000 dollars you can buy a daily driver that you can work on every weekend and get to a point where you can be proud to show it off. You may have to travel to get it though. When you do, BRING MONEY. Be ready to pounce. A buyer is willing to budge more when you show up with cash/certified check, etc. You are never bothering anybody with your questions jrecee. Please feel free to ask as I get the impression you have a very level head and have realistic expectations. The Z community would be thrilled to have you.

Nothing is a pipe dream, but I have more questions for you that need answers... Like how do you plan to use the car? Is this a daily driver, a first car, or a project car You mentioned you have never worked on cars before, so that is a key point. You also mentioned something that I think I need to correct. You said you could save up 10-11k and buy a grade A car, but that would defeat the purpose. I assume that means you want a project car. Well I saved up for several years and bought my Z, It cost around what you listed, and I have not stopped working on it since. Every weekend there is another project. Even a grade A Z is a 35+ year old car, with 35 year old rubber, 35 year old electrics and climate controls, and plastic. But buying a grade A or B Z will allow you to enjoy it every weekend while you work on it. You have something to drive around, something to take to car shows, something to admire in your garage. You are working on actually restoring it and making it new or better than new, rather than spending hours of sanding and patching, and rewiring. Also buying a great condition car means lots of that 'tedious work' has already been done. Which is a huge bonus. I just want to be honest, and straight forward. Myself along with many others here who are FAR more knowledgeable than I am will be here for you. What do you expect from the car? Think about it and be honest with yourself. In the end, the old addage is true. Buy the absolute best car you can afford.

Sure am. I love the look of jokers car, I always have. I think those rims would look great on my car. I know they are not panasports, and if I could find somebody who carried gunmetal panasports, I would get those, but they are like trying to find a unicorn in a leprechaun factory, owned by dragons. They may as well be imaginary. But I am definitely serious Frank, if your interested. Shoot me a PM an email and we can talk about it.

I had 205/60/15's on those rims. And I had a tad of rubbing Frank. That is why I went to 195/60's. If you were talking to me.... haha

jrecee, I do not really want to be the spoils sport, but its in your own good interest. So, let me say that with 100% confidence a good 3000 dollar car will be save you FAR more than 1500 dollars over a 1500 dollar car. Meaning that it may take 2500 dollars to get a 1500 dollar car as good as a 3000 dollar car. Patience will reward you for years to come. Just keep that in mind. There were 10's of thousands of 280z's made. I promise you, that you WILL find another one, and with 1500 dollars more added to your budget the quality of cars will surprise you. You hang in there!!!!

I guess it is in the air to want new rims. I am looking to sell my 15x7 panasports. I am looking at you FRANK. I just bought some new rubber so I will probably be keeping the tires, but I will sell the panasports for whatever the new Konigs cost me if your interested Frank. Let me know here they are in all their wonderful glory.

Currently running 195/60/15's... 24.2" or there about in height. I was actually thinking of parting with my 15" panasports... Looking for more performance oriented rubber. 205/60/15's rub on my front bodywork, just BARELY, and I refuse to bend it or cut it. The list of quality tires is just about 0 for 15" rims in the 195-205 section width. However, if you go to 16" the world opens up, and it rains valve stems and fords and chevies get along... all is right with the universe. However, I have also been thinking of going to a 14" rim, as I can get more race tires in that size in a 195 to 205 section width (thank you miata owners of the world) Something to think about if your car is a good weather only garage queen like mine.

grandsport speedway south of Gulf Greyhound track

Wow, this is a very interesting build! Loving the progress

I find the words in this post above to be very true... I THOUGHT I could drive fairly well until I got into autocross. Many seasons later, after improving enough to finish in the top three regularly, I really knew I COULD NOT drive. The more I learn, the higher my expectations get. I really have to make myself not drive like I am at an autocross. I cannot allow myself to push that hard. The car has 70400 ish miles on it. So I think I am fine in that department. My rear strut bar came in today...Not sure if that will help, but it will provide a nifty camera mount!!

It will, I promise you. Just keep looking, getting better educated and saving money.

Marty and Jon, THANKS, that is what I am talking about...good advice. I have used a similar technique in autocross with the tires, but I will try your idea Marty. If I have an off, it is good to know keep her straight. It sounds like common sense, but it was worth confirming.. those tidbits help guys, I sincerely appreciate it.

A bunch of good advice on how to drive the car, much appreciated. I am already with you. I have read countless books on solo racing, and track days, the benefits of late apexing, traction circles of the tires, minimizing weight transfer, keeping the wheel pointed straight as much as possible, etc. Techniques, I think I am pretty solid on. Braking from high speed is the great unknown. I will resist the urge to trail brake like I did in autocrossing. Will try to get all my braking done in a straight line. Not the fastest but easily controllable. I was looking for car advice more. Tire pressure recommendations...does the 240Z have any funny handling characteristics, (snap over steer, bad understeer). Again, in an autocross things happen at a much lower speed. Track days the physics are a bit different. Momentum and kinetic energy are exponentially higher. Is there a recommended car set up I can do at home other than the things like brakes, seat belts, etc. Much appreciated though! The track day is march 13th, so I have time to make some car changes should I need to.

I am taking my Z to a track day here hosted by the local Lotus club. Looking forward to finally letting her stretch her legs. I have bled all the brakes and slave cylinder. Installed new shoes in the drums and checked to be sure I have good pad left on front. The car is idling and running fine, pulls great, and is really in pretty darn fine shape. I want to go push it a bit and see how she goes, but I was looking for any advice. I am an old school autocrosser, and have done that to death, but never any high speed track day stuff. This will be my first. I will be filming it all with my new GoPro wide angled in car camera for your viewing entertainment. Any advice to an autocrosser about taking his Z to a track where speeds will exceed what you see during an autocross. Hoping to do many of these type of events and the bang for my buck is far better than at an autocross.

Love the idea of installing a mild cam, just enough to get the car to really pull to 6500, rather than limp to 6500.. may have to look into that if I ever get around to needing a rebuild.

Just ordered this part from Rock Auto...23 bucks with shipping...pump itself looks identical.

You still have to get a safety inspection.. horn, lights, wipers. It is about half the price of a regular inspection. Takes about 10 minutes

New tires installed. Showed up at the dealer today and said I am not leaving until its done. They were finished in 1.5 hours. New tires feel good. Less slop. Looking forward to getting them broken in. And on a positive note...got my inspection sticker while I was at it!

Okay, as good as Grand Prix was, I have to nominate LeMans

exactly...great customer service was more of a fluke than the norm... I can forgive a mistake or two. But when you are genuinely disinterested in doing anything to help me out, and you waste my time three different times, my trust fades quickly. It has more to do with keeping your word. I hate being lied to repeatedly. Dishonest people do not deserve my business. Lets review.. They said, come in any time, I always have those 960's in stock, I will swap them out for just labor - I came in, said they had to order them - LIE They said they will order them friday - I called they said they had not orderd them -LIE They said they would definitely order them Saturday - I called, they had not ordered them - LIE They said that for sure Sunday they will get them here, and I should come in Monday morning, and they will be waiting for me - I came in Monday morning, and they had not ordered them - LIE They said can you come back in a couple of hours I will get them in for sure - I called to check and they said they will not get them until the afternoon, I should come back after lunch time - Miscalculation, or borderline LIE I came back AGAIN after lunch, around 1 and they said NO way I can get to you today, can you come back on another day - LIE There is only so much I can take of this. If you cannot run your business any better than that, then you do not deserve my business. There is a Discount Tire around the corner that will take my tires off my hands... they even said they may give me up to 80% of their value if they are in like new shape. The saga continues...

not really Frank, they were very good with my Z the first time I got these tires mounted. THey were very careful and was not a scratch to be seen. 195/60's are far from low profile, so they should be an easy install.

THe local tire shop forgot to order my tires. For the second day in a row. Then they said I could come back after lunch. So I did, then they told me that they are too busy to do the swap. This is the third time I have tried to get them to do this...I think its quite apparent that they really do not want to. Sort of ticks me off. As I just dropped 889 bucks on some RE-11's for my Mazdaspeed3, and 8 weeks before, 411 dollars on these tires for the Z. I think I am done with them. I will just live with the mushy sidewalls.