2ManyZs

According to the book on how to restore a Z by Wick Humble, the panels can be stripped using a stripper as it won't hurt the moldings. They can not be removed without damaging them so just mask them off before painting. I do not know of any replacements for the moldings unless you get the whole panel, and then I'm not sure if the molding comes with them. Might want to check on that first. If you use a liquid stripper make sure you get it out from under the molding or it will seap out and ruin the paint. According to his book they can be painted in a Grey laquer with a suede agent to duplicate the original finish. Originally it is a silver-grey with a rough texture. It also says you can polish the trim using very fine steel wool before you re-paint. BTW, an Argent wheel color would probably be a close match to the original color. And you could bead blast the panels but I think I would mask the molding so as not to make any more marks that will need to be polished out later.

The swap will not get you much improvement unless you change the cam and update to a better flowing exhaust. At the very least you would need to change the cam, install a header and larger exhaust and then you would probably need to modify the ignition with a hotter coil or go to an electronic ignition. You will gain just as much by making these changes with the stock SU's without the hassles of trying to synchronize and jet three carbs. IMO if you want the performance without the hassles, stick with the SU's.

Nearly all the Z parts suppliers have the headlight covers, MSA, VB, and I believe Strictly Z has them too. Just a matter of finding the right price for your budget. Check out the web links to get catalogs from MSA and VB, or check on strictly Z's web site. There are probably a lot more places to get them, these are just the ones off the top of my head.

The part I like best about Paul's car is that he made the trunk lid big enough to allow acess to the rear struts. Most of the kits and all the other home made trunklids I have seen have been to small to allow acess. Therefore they had to raise the panel behind the seats to allow you to get to the strut mounts which IMO doesn't look as good as Paul's. Great job! I guess even if you put a panel across the strut towers to close off the "trunk" you would still have room for a couple small suitcases or a golf bag. Probably have as much room or more than a Miata or Honda S2000. If you ever decide to sell, can I get my name near the top of the list??

If I read your description right you may be talking about the metal under the door weatherstrip. If it is, it definately is structural as this is where the outer quarter panel is welded to the chassis. If it is just flaking without any major holes it could be repaired, but it is hard to say without seeing it. Is there any way you could get a picture and post it?? If there is, we could give you a much better idea if it is something that could cause you major problems. I have not seen too many Z's with rust in the door jamb area except for the bottom where it meets the rocker panel. If it is on the bottom of the door jamb it is likely that the rocker panel is the culprit and they are relatively easy to replace. However, if the rust is too bad it may mean the rust has gotten into the inner rocker panel which will be more difficult as this would be a structural problem. When you say it was covered in vinyl I believe you are talking about the bottom of the door jamb as this is the only place that would have been covered in vinyl, in the door threshhold area. It's difficult to give any accurate opinions without seeing it.

I had the same problem with the strut bar I got from Motorsport. Mine is the one with the half moon mount that mounts to two studs on the strut. I just dimpled the hood a little for clearance since it was on my ITS car, I figured if I raced it long enough it would probably get more damage than that anyway. That is the only one I have on a car so I don't know if there are any others that fit any better. I also had a problem with it not having enough clearance over the valve cover and had to put a slight bend in it to clear the cover. I believe Motorsport sells a different one now with a circular mount that mounts to all three of the strut studs, so if anyone has one of the newer style maybe they can let us know how it fits. Anyone else have the newer style???

See Jim, here's a question I had no idea how to answer. I was wondering one thing, if they had the automatic in the turbo ZX, it seems it would have a higher stall on the converter which might help (depending on the cam he has in his engine) and I'm also wondering if they might have had different gearing in the Turbo? Since the Turbo was kinda weak until the boost came on they might have had a different set of gear ratios in the tranny to help offset the turbo lag. Since I have absolutely no experience with an auto in a Z, and have no reference material, and I'm not even sure they offered the auto in the 280ZX Turbo ( I think they did) maybe there is an alternative.

Well, you can use regular hoses in some places, but there are a few that you will find need to have the original type hoses because of the bends in the hoses. There are a couple coolant hoses that have different sizes on each end that are going to be almost impossible to find in a regular parts store hose. The coolant hoses on the intake and the vacuum hoses to the Master-vac are just two places I can think off right away that are going to be nearly impossible to use a regular hose unless you cut and sleeve them. My advice would be to use the pre-formed hoses where you cannot use a regular parts store hose, unless you want them all to look the same.

Well, if it is the original trans you have the A type transmission. Unfortunately the A type has the worst shifter, it is a very simple swap to put the later B type model 4 speed in or you could swap to a later 5 speed. Of course you could just re-build the shifter on the A type, not sure the complete list of parts you need as I have taken out the A type from my car and am going to replace it with the B type. The internal shift rail on the B type gives a much better feel to the shifter. Not as much slop, and it is a bit stronger than the A type.

Well, it seems I was wrong in my assumption the plastic rim wouldn't take a stain. If it does that's great, now you can make your rim any color you want. I was thinking it wouldn't be porous enough to take a stain. Now, if you don't like the color you can choose a different shade. Just one question Marty, what type of stain did you use?

Motorsport Auto has the hoses you need, and the price is not too bad. Victoria British probably has the same ones for about the same price. Some of the hoses are very expensive, others are not. The most expensive ones are the vent lines to the gas tank, most of the underhood hoses are fairy reasonably priced. I would suggest you replace the check valve also if you replace the vacuum hoses to the vacuum booster at the same time. Be sure to mount it with the arrow pointing towards the booster or you will not have any power assist on the brakes.

My opinion of them is that look good on a Z. But, are they legal in Kentucky? Here in Virginia they are not, don't ask me why, but they will not pass inspection and you can be ticketed for them. Stupid law but one you should check into before you buy them. The only problem associated with the headlight covers is that they can fog up. I don't care what the law says but when I get my 71 back on the road I'm putting a set of the fiberglass ones on it, painted to match the body, and am going to use Dzuz fasteners to mount them so that they can be removed at night. Not that I plan to drive the car at night, but it might save me a ticket. If cars can come with hidden headlights like Corvettes and older Miata's I see no reason for them to be illegal. Just because I have to manually remove them shouldn't mean they are illegal. Or maybe I just like fighting city hall.

I don't know the name for the appropriate tool, but I normally use either a cotter pin puller or a pair of long needle nose pliers (whichever I can find first) and have used a small pick with the hook on the end. There is a bit of room if you push back on the door panel, enough to get a pair of long, thin needle nose pliers in there. They also work well to re-install the clips as you can hold it firmly without it popping out of the groove on the handle.

Probably not. The drop was probably when the thermostat opened for the first time. If the temperature then stayed at the normal reading the thermostat is probably OK. BTW, nearly all thermostats when they fail will stay closed, causing a boil over. There are new thermostats on the market that if they fail they will open and stay open preventing overheating. A drop in coolant level indicates that there was air trapped in the system somewhere and when the thermostat opened and circulated the coolant the air escaped through the radiator cap. Simply add a little more coolant and re-check it after a short drive.

Well, when you take off all the smog equipment you have no place to run the vent on the valve cover. On a stock engine it is run back to the intake, to "recycle" the gases from the crankcase. Some people have been known to use a filter like this on the rear diff. vent and some even put a filter on the transmission vent too. The main advantage to put a little air filter like this is that not only will it keep any sludge from being pumped out of the crankcase it will also keep any dirt or dust particles from entering the engine and contaminating the oil. If I'm not mistaken, during deccelaration you can pull a bit of vaccum in the crankcase so it is possible to pull contaminates into the valve cover. Besides, they look cool.

Are you talking about the air filter he has on the valve cover?? Instead of running the vent line back to the block he just put a short section of hose and used a filter on that.

I'm not sure what you mean by the thermostat not opening up. I can guarantee that the thermostat opened up if you ran the car for an hour. If the thermostat hadn't opened up you would have fried the engine. The themostat is closed when the engine is cold, then when you start the engine it begins to heat the coolant in the block. When the coolant reaches a certain temperature (governed by the temperature the thermostat is supposed to open) the thermostat will slowly open to allow coolant to circulate through the radiator. The thermostat will then begin to slowly close up to slow the flow through the radiator so that the coolant doesn't cool off too much. A thermostat is constantly fluctuating the size of the opening in order that the coolant remains close to the temperature that the thermostat is set for. In stop and go traffic this keeps the car from overheating and also over cooling. The engine needs the heat to allow for complete combustion in the cylinders while not over heating and ruining the engine. The thermostat will stay at the same opening while cruising down the interstate at a steady speed, but any variation in terrain or throttle opening will cause it to start varying the restriction again. If the thermostat were to open fully then close fully, the temperature of the coolant would not remain near a constant temperature. It would hit a peak, then drop very sharply to a low, then gradually rise to a peak again. This is not how an engine is designed to operate. It needs the temperature to remain at or near a constant temperature to run at peak efficiency. Older engines like the L-series prefer a cooler temperature(160-180 degrees) while todays newer engines are designed to run at higher (180-200 degrees,some may be higher) to promote better combustion to meet todays emission standards. I just thought I would add a little here since it seems there may be a lot of people who think a thermostat opens and closes completely. I had a "mechanic" at the local Dodge dealer argue the point with me when my last pickup started having a problem with a large fluctuation in engine temperature that I said wasn't right. His "explanation" was that the radiator was so large to cool the Cummins engine that this was normal. I promptly explained that I had been driving tractor trailers for almost 20 years and this was not normal. Needless to say I got a new thermostat and the problem was solved.

The spokes should be a black semi-gloss according to the resto article in Sport Z magazine. The rim is a molded plastic with the color in the plastic, it's not actually wood so a stain probably wouldn't work. After sanding the rim smooth it is covered in a semi-gloss clear lacquer to give it the right amount of shine. The issue is the fall 2001 of Sport Z, you might try to see if it is still available to be ordered as a back issue.

I can't say for sure since I can't seem to find my 280's stock wheel, but I think they all mount the same so it should work. The shape of the pad I think is a little different though. If it's cheap enough I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

As far as I know it should work, might be quite a bit of work trying to remove the old vinyl from the 240 though. Most people put the later carpet sets from the 280's in their early cars so I see no reason why the opposite won't work. It definately will make your 280 unique. Good luck.

Well, I don't know about shops in your area, I'm up here about 60 miles north of Staunton. You probably could find out through the Tidewater Z club, or if I'm not mistaken, I think there is one in Richmond isn't there? You could try the Z Club of Northern Virginia also. I personally like the idea of the POR-15 better than undercoating as it is not as thick and it is a designed as a rust preventer, and it is harder and probably less prone to let moisture in and trap it underneath. I just got some but it sounds like it may be difficult to do without making a mess in the garage (I'm good at making a mess, bad about the clean-up). Eastwoods has a product now that is very similar to POR-15 so that might be an alternative. I guess the main deciding factor will be how much you are planning on driving the car. If you plan on driving it a lot then I would suggest at least doing the wheel wells, it all depends on how much work you want to do. My car is going to be mostly a garage queen so I'm not going to put any back on, the original undercoating is in good shape for the most part so I'm just going to seal and paint over it. I'm wondering how much might have been left on your car, or if it was taken down to bare metal before it was painted. jcdozier, I don't know why you follow my posts. Maybe it's because I sit here and spend too much time on the site waiting for the weather to improve to where I can go work on mine again. From your posts I've read you can take my place, you have just as much good info to share as I do. So, crack your knuckles and get ready to type a lot, summer's gettin close.

If the paint on the underside is in good condition without a lot of chips and you don't drive the car daily I think I would leave it alone. If the car is stored inside and only driven occasionally it would probably be a waste of money. If you do drive the car quite a bit you might consider putting some type of coating inside the wheel wells just to make sure you don't have any surface rust popping up from rock chips. You could brush on some POR-15 and then either wet sand it down or use their primer and re-paint the fender wells in body color. Or you could get some of the brush on bed-liner coating and put that in there. In fact, I think I just saw some advertised you could mix your body color paint with to color match it to the car. Now, if I could just remember where I saw that advertised.:tapemouth BTW, I found where I saw the tintable bed-liner kit. It's in the newest Eastwood catalog. It's a bit expensive, but it might look fairly decent since it could be color matched. It's made by SEM.

I guess there are points for and against a re-build. Are you concerned about keeping the car original? Is the engine the original numbers matching engine?? If the answer is no to either question the next logical thing to do is find out what is wrong with the one you have now before making any plans. Oil consumption is most likely worn rings. However, there could be other problems associated with it such as cylinder bore wear and/or scratches. Perhaps the best thing I could say is do a compression check and/or leakdown test to determine how bad the engine really is. It could be you could get away with nothing more than a cylinder honing, new rings and bearings and a gasket set. In this case you might only pay half of the price for the reman (or less). Or it could also mean the engine is so far gone a reman engine is the best alternative. If it is not the original engine then the points I made are moot, if they will give you a decent core price for what you have, get the reman with the warranty and get back on the road.

A V-8, even a stock 305 Chevy has as much hp and more torque than you could get out of a Z engine. Torque is what you need for acceleration, hp just keeps it moving. Jags That Run has a V-8 swap kit that will give nearly 50-50 weight distribution, and yes the V-8 could possibly end up being lighter. If you really want V-8 power the only way to get it is with the V-8. You could use a 300ZX Twin Turbo engine, but it will not have the torque of a V-8 and the cost will be astronomical compared to a V-8 swap. There are millions of V-8's sitting around, you can pick up a reman long block Chevy 350 for about the price of a good header for a Z engine.

Well, as for the parts take a look at www.strictlyz.com, www.zparts.com for a catalog, zparts.com there are many suppliers where you can find the parts you are looking for. Many of them are listed in the web-links here. The only way to use a 300ZX transmission would be to use a 300ZX motor, they are not compatible with the inline six. A 280ZX transmission will work with little trouble though.