=Enigma=

Hey Andy, my name is Adam. That post was directed at me and the post of my mollested door panels.

We want PICS PICS PICS!!!!

Thankfully my dash appears to be in like new condition. No signs of cracking, drying, etc. The car has 78,000 miles and was always garaged except for the two years I had it stored in a car port with a cover on it. I now have a garage, a sun shade, dash cover, and a car cover, so I'm hoping it will stay that way. The temp swings are usually pretty mild here in Cali along the central coast with the largest swings averaging from 34-62 degrees in the winter, to 50-78 in the summer. San Diego being a few hundred miles south of Santa Cruz obviously has averages a little higher depending on how close you are to the coast. I'm probably just being paranoid, but I thought I'd explore the available options to re-condition or preserve the dash anyway. What concerns me most is rumors or claims that changing treatments, or starting treatments on a previously untreated dash can cause it to crack. I'd rather do nothing if those rumors have any validity since I don't know what if anything was ever used on the dash. I'm tempted to try the vaseline as that seems pretty benign based on everything I've read to date. I don't mind the smell of baby oil but I'm not sure I want to smell it in my car all the time. If it had the scent of coconut oil that wouldn't be bad though. That said, I can't help feeling that any kind of petroleum based product would actually increase the level of heat the dash absorbs when it is in the sun. Any one care to toss in their opinions on that?

Yep, read that. Again no scientific proofs aside from the obvious fact that UV light is harmful to the dash. I think everyone knows that by now. What I'd like to see is a breakdown of the active ingredients used in popular dash care or other products that could be beneficial for dash protection and/or re-conditioning. I realize that some of this information is proprietary and not likely to be revealed by companys releasing products into a very competitive marketplace, but some do reveal a certain amount of what makes their products good, or better than the competition. There must be people out there (chemists) familiar with the specific attributes of some of these active ingredients used, and how they would relate or interact with plastics, which I believe are based on or comprised of petroleum related products as well. But now we're getting way out mf my confort zone so someone please edumacate me if I'm wrong. Based on what little I know, assuming that using a moisture rich petroleum product (Vaseline) on a petroleum based solid (dash) in need of moisture actually seems to make a lot of sense. However, it would be nice to modify the moisturizer (Vaseline) with some form of plastic safe UV protectant. When you start thinking like that, why not just use one of the many products out there that include UV protectant? The question like always is which product to choose and which one won't hurt my dash?........Back to square one. :disappoin

I like it. It's a huge improvement over the godawful 350Z. The changes are somewhat subtle but it makes all the difference in the world.

Excellent post. And I came in here thinking this was going to be another, "It smells like exhaust in my car and I'm too lazy to use the search feature" post.

Nice, you can see the arse end of it in the preview and the whole thing as it zips by. Now that I see this again, I seem to remember having that "Enjoy the Ride" feeling when I saw the commercial the other night.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Friend of a friend or not, I'd ask for your money back at the very least, and if the dash is ruined, or there a chance it could be ruined trying to remove the overspray, I'd ask for replacement cost as well. I'm not one to easily bring out the word litigation, but if this were me, and I didn't get my $$$$$$ back at a minimum, I'd been pretty damn pissed off and calling a lawyer.

I've actually been wondering the same thing and have seen some conversation on this before, but can't tell which comments are factual and which are just wivestales or rumors so I'm afraid to do anything. Water sounds like the safest way to go until I hear scientific proof that it's actually possible to restore the natural oils, moisture or whatever to the dash.

Based on your description the clunk is almost certainly the moustache bar (rear diff member) bushings. However, if the diff has been moving around as much as you say, and you're not just exagerating, you could also have some u-joints. I recommend taking care of moustache bar bushings first and see if that fixes it. U-joints are a pain in the arse.

There's a great pretty good list in a thread over at Hybridz: http://forums.hybridz.org/showpost.php?p=726036

Wow guys. Let's all take some Motrin and break out the heating pads.

Great suggestions Dave. Is it also possible that the tranny shake could be attributed to worn u-joints in either the drive shaft or half-shafts? More curious than anything.

Welcome to the site. Most of the info you are looking for has been covered many many times. Using the search feature will yield lots of info on this and many other things. That said, I'm feeling generous so here's my take on this..... The 81-83 280ZX 5 speed (non-turbo) is the typical answer, but there's also a 1980 5 speed with a shorter top gear making the transition from 4th to 5th a little smoother IMHO. These all have a closer ratio than the 77-79 5 speeds, with the 1980 version having the closest spread. Many prefer the longer top gear of the 81-83 for the gas mileage, however the difference is minimal. .773/1 vs. .745/1. Gears 1 thru 4 are identical from 1980-1983. Any one will be an improvement over the 4 speed, especially with a 3.70 or 3.90 rear end, but the 81-83 are probably easier to find. The turbo version is actually a Borg Warner T5 tranny, hard to find, and some say not ideally suited to a N/A car, but this is all subject to opinion. Check this site out for some comparisons: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/

This is great info. Very useful. Thanks for taking the time to do this? Now I have to go out and see what I've got.

Andy, I'm extremely jealous of your unmollested door panels. The interior looks to be in excellent condition. The PO of my car cut holes in them and mounted some cheap a$$ Audiovox speakers and they're not even flush. What a waste. Perhaps they were decent speakers at the time....... I plan on making some thin, formed bases out of MDF to better mount the replacement speakers at some point. He did the same thing in the rear. Not sure what I'm gonna do there yet. New panels may be in order but I'm not looking forward to trying to color match the existing panels. They're only available in black now and donors in this color are hard to find.

Hey, nice car and nice color! 114 Brown Metallic rocks! Good to see another local on the board. I found my 1 owner unmolested 73 in Santa Rosa with only 78,000 original miles. Luckily, the PO had already swapped out the flat tops. Good luck with your project. I look forward to more pics as you start going through the car. By the way, If you decide to put on a full front spoiler, I'd definitely be interested in your front valence panel and lower corners or whatever they're called. Let me know. Look familiar?

Happy birthday buddy!

Based solely on the Instrument Harness diagram in the 1973 FSM, it's a 4 wire. The shown are B, G, BW, GW at the connector for the tach. I haven't had to go under the dash yet thank God so I can't verify this.

Holy crap that wiring harness grommet at MSA is pricey! I guess you gotta pay the piper if you need one...

Sorry Chris, I swapped out the original dizzy and added an MSD 6AL and Blaster coil some time ago. In the process I ran some new wiring and wrapped it all up so it is no longer visible. If I recall correctly, the original wiring was as follows: BW from IGN SW (start) to Coil + B from Coil - to dizzy GW from Ballast to Tach BW from IGN SW "run" to Ballast Condensor to Coil + This is from memory so I could be wrong on this. I recommend double checking a wiring diagram to confirm. You can also check the before/after pics I took of the 280ZX dizzy and B210 coil swap. There may be some pics where you can see the original wiring with the ancient Lucas coil and the replacement from a 79? B210.

Hey that's great news. As an upside, you now know that everything else you checked is also 100%. Happy cruising!

Welcome to the site Chris and congrats on your new purchase. Let the fun begin!

I got mine out using a slide hammer of sorts as Arne sugested. Worked like a charm. Heating the outer tube slightly might help as well but don't get carried away. Too much heat transfer to the insert will make it even harder to get out. And don't forget that the insert is filled with oil and may be under pressure depending on the type of insert. Don't forget to wear your goggles.

It appears that Jim Cook Racing may still be in business. http://www.jimcookracing.com/index.old.html