Kurbycar32

Its been my experience to look for a car with the best body and least amount of missing parts. For example if i found a car with a straight rust free body that wasn't missing any parts, but was mechanically wrecked with a worn out interior I would still jump all over it. Given you car is Canadian and on the east coast I would suspect its rusted out and not worth it. Do some searching on the forum and see some of the rust repairs. Some of the most common spots to check are the floor boards, frame rails, under the battery tray and around the rear hatch area.

I also had fitment issues with my full Z Store exhaust system purchased in 2015 on my early 260z, even with the bumper shocks removed. In all the kit was probably 4-5" too long to even mount under the car. I personally used a hacksaw to remove about 3 inches to get the system mounted but it still wasn't quite right. The exhaust sounded awesome but had a bit too much drone for my everyday usage so i took the exhaust to a shop and had a resonator added to take the edge off. My local shop cut another 2+ inches off of the length and rebent some of the pipes to fit correctly with the added resonator. I'm very happy now.

This and specially weighted goo (liquid tire balance) are popular in motorcycle tires. The gist of the idea is that balance changes as the tires wear and goo/beads will automagically adjust on the fly. I know people that have used the goo and made the decision based on the fact that goo also acts as a stop-leak in case of a puncture. Motorcycles especially like to throw the lead weights attached to the rims and lead weights are borderline useless on a dirt bike so these technologies are needed more on 2 wheels than a conventional road car, but they work on everything.

Is there a problem with EBC pads? I come from the motorcycle community and those are basically the gold standard. I also run EBC rotors and yellow stuff pads on my tow rigs and couldn't be happier. Top tip: using high performance rotors and pads on the wifes car prevents her from rear ending other cars, I've used EBC for that too. I cant say i have run EBC on autocross or a car racing application though.

Keep all of your old crap including mounting hardware until the job is done. There are rubber grommets, fuel rail insulators, hard to find tiny bolts etc. in there that are difficult to find. While you can generally get new everything, its hard to figure out exactly which version of those part you need without the original to compare against. I wish that i had redone my fuel hardlines in the engine bay. When i was in there the lines looked old but i didn't want to slow down the project and figured i could do them later. That's all true but i think it would have been easier to bend new tubes with the motor out of the way. Get some of that electrical wrap and rewrap your wire harness. Its basically electrical tape without the adhesive. Minimal investment and its like an hours worth of work when everything is taken apart. If you are planning on repainting the engine bay pull the wiper cowel and pay attention to the area under it.

Quiet ride is a great small company located just a few miles from me. The template for the 260z firewall insulator was made from my car, super nice people.

Another member asked about harmonic damper failures in non-racing applications so I figured i would post an update. First I sent the pulley out to Dale mfg and it came back as good as new. Website here: http://hbrepair.com/harmonicbalancer_018.htm Second I didn't realize at the time but the pulley bouncing around down there knocked the point off of my timing indicator so I had to replace that as well

Mine separated on my street motor just a few weeks ago while warming up in the garage. Send it to Dale mfg

Looks oh so familiar!

and i think paint thinner will eat the surface of your panels, at least the surface texture. So if you are going to try that do it on a spare panel

My panels were trashed but mostly intact, i carpeted over them and i think they look great but certainly not original. On other plastic panels i have used vinyl paint and if done correctly looks real nice in matte not glossy. Clean the heck out of everything and then mist this paint on in several coats. Its extremely thin so you dont lose the texture of the panel

Build a carb tuning simulator! Start with a 2 barrel, then progress into a 4 barrel, dual carbs, SU's, then triple webers

Pics man!

Most importantly you want an epoxy based primer that is guaranteed to work with the paint you are using. you asked if PPG was any good; it is, and you should use a primer from their catalog if you are going to use their paint. There are other good brands as well, just make sure you match the primer and paint from the same paint systems. And like Patcon said, you shouldnt be providing anything but the car to a reputable paint shop.

Time Vs Money Vs Skill I feel that anyone can sandblast a car and replace the flooring given patience and a borrowed mig welder; those are some of your largest expenses. See if you can borrow a mig welder from a friend and if you dont have any friends that weld its still going to be cheaper to buy a new mig from harbor freight. Then go down to the junk yard and buy a fender or some useless part to practice welding. Drill some holes and fill them, cut out a hole and weld it back in. Top tip: get some neodymium magnets to hold things together while welding and some copper (i use smashed 1/2" copper pipe.) to act as backing for hole filling. If you can figure out welding you can complete your body work That puts you in the position of calling a car shop and saying "hey i have this car i want primed and painted" instead of "i have this project that needs to be complete from the ground up" These cars still exist because guys like us spend the hundreds of hours required to fix them without paying an hourly rate. if you had time to learn how to paint you could do that too

If that were my car I would start by personally sand blasting and or chemical stripping the affected rust areas to see whats really under there before going to a paint shop. Like Dennis says theres rust that you cant see and you dont want to find out when the car is all torn down at the body shop because at that point you are totally committed. Treat the known rust areas and when finished spray it with some primer to protect the area until the car gets to the body shop

Not a bad theory but i think the mid-engine design would make it not a Z. Assuming the french company can make it not suck, and the american emissions/safety laws dont destroy the concept it has the potential to be a great car. It reminds me more of the MR2 and Fiero than anything else, yet its Porsche Cayman dollars.

What happened to Blue?

3. Your E-brake works with a cable and completely independent of the hydraulic brake system. In short: The lever in the car pulls a cable between the transmission tunnel and the rear brakes. Your rear brakes have a mechanism inside that stop the car when the cable is pulled. Technically this is a "parking brake" and will not stop your car very fast at any sort of speed so make sure to set your expectations accordingly. 2. DOT3 is the standard replacement for this car. You should inspect the brake components to determine what needs replacing. In your case i recommend you get a qualified mechanic to check things out

I haven't seen any solid directions on what resistance coil to use when running a 240/260z with the 280zx E12-80 distributor upgrade. I read some stuff that said to use a 3.5 ohm coil since the ballast resistor was gone, but then other forum members recommending a 1.5 ohm unit. Regardless of speed part recommendation, what resistance coil should be used?

I used a scraper blade attachment for a reciprocating saw, knocked everything out in about an hour http://www.amazon.com/MILWAUKEE-3-In-Scraper-Blade/dp/B004F5JCSW

Remove the factory sound deadener, its been my experience that its the primary cause of "old car smell". Assuming the entire shell is cleaned up, in my opinion a dedicated anti-rust system like POR-15 or RustBullet isnt necessary with "perfect" metal. A nice epoxy primer compatible with your selected paint system would be your best bet. Go with a name brand like PPG, DuPont, Sherwin or Valspar to name a few. More importantly ask the guy who's painting your car. In general almost everything is compatable but paint people dont like mixing and matching brands when coating a car.

I am also considering this upgrade and I think it makes sense for a street car. When I asked Rebello specifically about the 123ignition he stated that he saw several of these melt under race conditions and recommended the ZX dizzy. The ZX dizzy is significantly better than my 260 ignition but I think theres still room for improvement. The more I live with this 3.0 motor the more I realize that street driving is more demanding on how well a motor runs. You dont need to start a race car and drive it to work cold, and you dont need to run a street car at WOT often.

Rebello recommended the 280zx dizzy with the matchbox IC. He said he liked that unit more than the aftermarket distributors. I installed one on my Rebello 3.0 and it made a massive difference over my worn out 260z electronic distributor.

Is this car running other than the tach?