MikeW

Since it worked before it's likely just a connector problem. I'd start by pulling the headlight fuse in the fuse box and bridging the gap with a multimeter set to amps (use the 10A or 20A setting to be safe). When you switch on the lights you should see a small amount of current flow (less than 1A as I recall - just enough to actuate the relay). If you do see current then the problem is between the relay and the headlights or with the power source if you ran a new wire directly to the battery when installing the upgrade. If you don't see current then the relay is not able to operate and the problem is likely in the combination switch itself but certainly somewhere between the fuse box and the relay. Doing the above will at a minimum narrow the problem down but you may well discover the problem just by examining everything again as part of the diagnostic process.

As you stretch the headliner by hand how difficult is it to make the wrinkles disappear? When installing the headliner you end up stretching it a bit anyhow since it's cut as a flat piece of vinyl but needs to conform to the curved roof. Since I ended up having to redo mine about 3 times I'll provide a bit of unrequested advice: use more spray-on glue than you'd possibly imagine necessary and carefully adhere to the instructions that indicate that the glue needs to be tacky before mounting the headliner. If not you'll likely find yourself in the sticky situation of having the headliner sag away from the roof in the very middle at which point you have to pull the whole thing down and try again.

A partially clogged fuel filter can exhibit those symptoms. Enough fuel gets through to idle fine but not enough for more throttle. It's even possible that the clog of debris shifts as you drive such as when going up a hill.

Anything made from metal will lose in this contest. A pair of carb needles doesn't weigh much but that's still not good enough. I'd bet that a reproduction air cleaner decal costs more per weight than NOS headlight covers.

How much does it cost to get all four tires filled with nitrogen?

http://zclocks.com Specifically: http://zclocks.com/pricing.htm

It shows for me but it would have been better just to post it as an attachment.

The answer here will depend on your plans for the car. If it's otherwise perfect and you're planning on winning trophies at car shows then you probably want to keep the original paint and try to repaint the minimum amount needed to restore it. You'd probably want to match not only the color but the type of paint which is not anything close to modern base coat/clear coat paints. Normally when paint is applied an entire panel is painted such that the edge of the new paint falls on an existing seam. If the hood is not also affected this would likely mean painting the whole left fender as well as the inspection panel. I don't know if it would be possible to just redo the missing paint leaving the rest of the fender original. I'd also be afraid of using just the original paint code as the original paint has likely faded. You'd be better off getting the shop to match the existing paint. On the other hand you might not even like the original color, plan on using the car as a daily driver, and aren't at all concerned about originality. In that case I'd have the whole car painted at some time in the future. How long you wait will depend on how much danger there is from rust forming. Chances are you're likely somewhere in between these two extremes which just makes the decision harder. Go ahead and post some pictures if you can which will help the real experts here provide proper advice.

I suspect you're right but either way we don't have all of the information from the original poster. However, gnosez seems to have inside information that isn't part of this thread. Based on that I still think replacing the frame rails will be a problem. I'm not aware of aftermarket rails for an S130.

We call that a "bench grinder" because they are typically bolted to a work bench and are used to grind things with a grinding wheel. I replaced one of the grinding wheels on mine with a buffing wheel for polishing up small parts.

Clearly the original poster said it was a "79 j-spec fairlady z 280". I'm the one who first used "280ZX" since that's what the S130 was called here in the states in 1979. Since the original poster is also here in the states I was hoping that would help him distinguish between the two completely different body styles and realize that the aftermarket frame rails might not fit. Since his follow-up post offered no clarification we may never know. I suspect the car in question looks like this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Nissan/Fairlady/auction-201810128.htm

He's really talking about the original speaker panel, i.e., the left side plastic interior quarter panel trim.

I'll give it a shot tomorrow at the office where I run Vista 64. I have to admit that when I recently installed the Nissan Fast program at home under XP I immediately thought it was an absolutely awful program and I briefly considered creating a modern application using their data files. Further investigation showed that the data files are a random mix of text files and binary files with numbered extensions in numbered sub-folders that presumably were used to get around an ancient windows limitation on the number of files per directory. There are files with bmp extensions that aren't actual windows bitmap files. It's really a mess and is quite shocking if this application was actually used by Nissan.

It's not clear to me if this car is an S30 280Z or an S130 280ZX. If it's an S130 then the frame rails from baddogparts won't fit. Can you post some pictures of the car along with the rusted rails?

In early 1984 I went to an SCCA race at Roebling road with a girlfriend's father to "work" as part of the pit crew for a local doctor who was racing. This was before I bought my 240Z and as a senior in high school I didn't really know anything about Datsuns. When walking around the infield someone pointed out to me that the car in the attached picture was raced by Jim Fitzgerald. I didn't know who he was but they said he raced with and was friends with Paul Newman. I knew who he was so I took a picture of the car. It's in black and white because at the time I was processing my own film. I'd completely forgotten about it until this thread came up and had to dig through a box of old pictures in my crawl space. As an aside, here's just one of the cars that the doctor owned at that time: http://www.ferraris-online.com/pages/cardetail.php?reqcardir=FE-250GTO-3387

I would say it would be only be dangerous if you tried to paint it while still attached to a running engine. Presumably you'd take the air cleaner off to paint it. If things get so hot that the air cleaner paint gets burned then you've got bigger problems. The carbs are insulated from the head and have water passages that should keep them from getting hotter than the water temperature itself which, even with antifreeze, is way lower than the temperature that would burn paint.

Perhaps you could post some detailed engine pictures and let the experts here identify which specific components you have. Since it's possible to mix and match just about everything there's no way to be certain.

Sorry, I didn't know that. I wonder why they stopped that practice?

Of all of the 280's entered by people in my online spreadsheet that's the biggest number so at first glance is most likely not from an earlier car. Did you check the engine compartment plate to see if the engine is original? In other words the engine number on the block matches the engine number on the plate and the VIN on the plate matches the VIN on the dash and on the door jamb plate and on the firewall?

What's the serial number of the engine? It should be on the top of the block just below the #5 spark plug.

He already posted several photos of the spare tire well that show possibly #110 red. I'd look under the ash tray and up under the dash at the firewall to see the paint there.

What color is the smoke? What made it necessary to replace the head gasket?

It's hard to tell from the picture but from my experience, yes. It all depends on how good you want the finished product to be and what your starting point is. It's easy enough for you to determine without getting in over your head. Go get a bunch of grades of sandpaper and simply start with the finest grade. It won't cost you much. Pick the worst area of your valve cover and sand it with the finest grade paper (say 1500 wet/dry). Did that leave you with a perfect finish? If so, you've got it easy. If not, try a little 1000 and see what happens. If you find you're not really making a dent then keep working your way coarser. I'm fairly certain I needed 80 or 120 to truly remove the defects that I wanted to remove. Once you've removed the defects you move to a finer grade and use that to remove the scratches left by the previous grade. It's a long, dirty, and tedious process if you're starting with a poor finish. The biggest mistake is to not be aggressive enough and to use a grit or polish that is too fine. Sure, any polish is going to remove a small amount of material and you could probably get an awesome finish if you polished it for years. You'd eventually get the finish you want. Using different grades of sandpaper is effectively taking big shortcuts.

If by lower window molding you mean the trim piece that has a squeegee that goes against the side windows I'd have to say that the black dragon aftermarket piece is junk. I bought theirs because the rubber squeegee on mine was dry rotted. While the chrome finish was very shiny the metal was much thinner than the original and was basically straight compared to the original with is shaped to fit the door. I ended up removing the rubber and attaching it to my original trim and throwing the remaining part out. I also got door handles from them which seem to be much closer to the originals. I can't comment on their ignition switch.

That certainly sounds like a "poor man's" 2+2. The first time I ever rode in a Z car was in high school in the hatch of (I think) a 260Z. I know I've carried people like that in the past but without the fancy cushion or seatbelt. I've never seen anything like what you're describing. It certainly wouldn't be legal.