XYZ

Hey Dragon- may be too late, but there's a Z for sale on this forum for 1K and it looks like it's in good shape (exterior). No info about the engine or interior but pretty low mileage. This might be a good car to restore. Look for the post from SeattleM. Another member has shown interest but who knows. Good luck with it.

This thread was supposed to be part of another post about general car questions. What a dork! Man where am I today? Sorry people for the extra thread.

Hi 2many- I've done that legwork on the NADA stuff, kelly bluebook, Edmunds etc. and have a fair idea of the trade in value of the vehicle. My assumption on a lease vehicle bought by a dealer at auction is they get if for less than blue book or the yellow NADA value. Is this a bad assumption? In my example if my trade in is worth 20K is an auction price say 18K? I know there is a black book for dealer pricing at auction and that guides the buyer but like anything else it's supply/demand. Reason I'm curious is I want to make an offer on a vehicle asking or know what they have in it plus 10% for profits. Hopefully this gets them their profit and gets me as low as I can w/o the overpays and extra crap. Whether the dealer will go that route is unknown. No one wants to pay anymore than they have too!

Sorry this isn't a specific Z question but I think it's a good genereal one to ask. I'm wondering if there is a rule of thumb for what the auction purchase price of a vehicle might be relative to a trade-in value for a car at a dealer. For clarification - if I take a car into a dealer and get $20,000 in trade value what would that same vehicle go for at an auction, roughly. Is it the same, a few thousand less...? I'm looking at buying a used car that was puchased by a dealer through auction and I'm trying to figure what the dealer has into that vehicle. Another question - What is a reasonable profit for a dealer? Is it 2%-3% over their cost or 5%, 10%? I really hate buying newer cars but its a reality we all face. Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks!

For those interested, there is a pretty lengthy article on the new 350Z in Sport Compact Car. It's pretty favorable. They even broke out a 240 (silver) to photograph next to the 350Z. You can see similarities. They go through the specs, some interior shots, engine and a picture of the undercarriage, control arms (double wishbone and dyno tests. There's a follow up article where some guys have a 350Z for one week. guess what they do? Change wheels and tires, new coil over suspension, brakes and exhaust. Sound familiar? Sounds like half the people on this site!

I have more saturns try and race. Don't know why but these are some of the idiots I speak of. Reflecting, I don't really drive crazy either, just fast.

Idiots!!!!

No offense, but if I start donating to 2many I'll have all ya' all asking me to donate to your projects and then I won't have any money for my project. I just can't do that!:classic: If it's just peer pressure your looking for I can do that. Come on 2many buy that car!!!

Thanks guys for the responses: 1. Strike plate is original have not tried another 2. Shims are in place and I have not actually pulled the mounting bolts all the way out. I've just loosened them enough to slide the plate around. Move it to where I think it should be tighten and close a few times until it closed right, tighten real good sit in the car and the adjustment is lost. 3. I opened the door and tried to move it up and down ie... check for any slop in the hinges. Pretty hard to tell. Lifting up moves the car. When I did just try closing it again I had to push down on the door to get it to close. I've also had minimal luck lowering the actual latch slightly and then close the door quickly. Sometimes that gets it to close. This seems to be my little grimlin. Could be alot worse.:cheeky: I'll try messing with it a little more I guess.

My driver's side door latch is continually catching or not allowing me to totally close my door without slamming it. I have adjusted, readjusted, re-readjusted this f*&%ing thing (strike plate on car body jamb) and tightened it as tight as I possibly can and it still moves. I've been using a large phillips screwdriver and a vicegrip on the handle to get extra leverage while leaning or pulling as hard as possible on the screwdriver once I think I have the strike plate aligned. I can get it adjusted for maybe 5 good, clean closes and then all bets are off. Sometimes it seems like if the window is rolled up it will work but if the window is down it won't work. What's up? Any suggestions other than readjust the strike plate would be great. I'm kind of at a lose. Thanks

No offense GuyGeo but I think Mike's post will smoke anyone else's front view (see the 'boobs' link but be discreate).

I agree with Beandip on this one. Yeah people don't alway get the lingo right, we even see it here on this site. Maybe they feel the sunroof is rare because most Z's didn't come with one. Mine came off the lot with a dealer installed sunroof. Is it rare? Seems like its kind of a rare occurance for Z's. Is it technically correct in the world of Z's maybe not. That second one about the 3.1 litre or whatever. The previous owner could've said that was what was in it and not knowing any better believed them and not having enough interest to research it maybe thought the info was good. There are people that will say anything to make a sale but..... I don't know, seems like this isn't something to get that wound up about.

Kordell is a pretty good quarterback. Don't know if he can win a superbowl though? Kordell needs a couple of veteran receivers to throw to. He's got some young receivers if I remember correctly. If they can sustain a running game that will help him a lot just like most teams. Kordell will always have a place in my heart. Afterall, he's the one who threw that hail mary against michigan to sink them a while back. Biggest throw in recent college football next to Flutie's. Being a buff fan I have to root for Pittsburg otherwise known as CU, east campus.

Just surfing!! I still can't figure out how I got here when I was looking for porn, though?! Kidding!!!!

If you can't source this part at an autoparts store, maybe you could get one from a junkyard off a similar vehicle. Not certain about this but I would guess this line is the same for 240, 260 or 280's. Good luck!

There's only one way to find out..........:stupid: Where's folsom prison relative to you? Kidding!:classic:

I have not changed my stock master cylinder and everything is working fine. Of course I have nothing to compare too since I don't know what the brakes feel like with a larger cylinder but mine work great as is. I imagine the SS lines help with the line pressure though. Tin snips work really well for cutting the back dust plate and the 'S' shape line is not too hard to bend. You probably need about a half day or so depending on your competance in working on cars. Another thing I did was upgrade the brake fluid to Dot 4. When you remove your existing calipers you can let your cylinder drain out and then refill with the higher rated fluid.

What's 18K australian in US dollars? The thing that comes to mind for me is do you want a car you (hopefully) don't have to do anything to and can just drive. It might be worth the asking price. If you look at what it cost to start from scratch ie.. a $800 dollar car (US) and put all of the upgrades on it, the time that it's on blocks, in shops, the hours you'll spend researching, calling, discussing, worrying, speculating blah, blah, blah it's probably cheaper just to buy the thing as is. I know I've considered the possiblility of dropping in a new engine (V8 or Turbo) in my car and I ask myself this vary question. I've decided it's not worth it. I'll buy one on ebay for 3K-4K and deal with the smaller issues rather than go through the brain damage and expenses. YOu have to ask yourself if it's worth it and do I want to spend the time it will take to do it? Only you can answer that. I paid more for my car than a lot of people here have but I'm also not posting pictures of cronic rust syndrome, and all that goes with it. Some people like to go through this process, it's a hobby or obsession. I like to work on my car but not that much (at least yet). Again you will have to decide if this is your bag. I can tell you that I'm glad I spent the extra money on my car. I've made mod's to it and done every project in a weekend and had my car back on the road to drive. That's why I bought my car, to drive! I didn't want something sitting in my garage for 2 yrs or whatever like my brother-in-law with his 50 something jag that's in a gazillian different pieces, unrecognizable. Sorry to ramble, almost done. The car your looking at looks pretty nice and it's definately tricked out. With all of the engine work, interior upgrades, paint, wheels I bet you'd be hard pressed to do it from scratch for less. There are plenty of people here who have a lot in there cars and will never see that money back and that's because they do it for themselves and their personal enjoyment. You just need to put a value on convenience vs. time, sweat and money. I'm done, thanks for your patients and sorry to go on & on &on &...

smg1404- I called the parts store this morning and found out that toyota did not offer 6 cyl. engines until '86 and newer. The caliper I have is from an '85 4 x 4 pickup, 2.4 cyl engine. It bolted right on.

Good question! When I bought mine I think I said 6 cylinder but I honestly can't remember. Perhaps the thing to do is call Napa or Checker etc and ask them to check the parts number on the caliper for a 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder and see of they are different. I don't think it matters but....? I'm trying to find my receipt so I can see if it said. Sorry can't be more help right now.:disappoin

You should probably check with MSA first in regard to ZX lines working on just a Z. I looked in a catalog and noticed different part numbers for different year brake lines. The reason you would want SS brake lines is that they resist the hydrolic pressure better than the rubber lines. They're basically stiffer and you get better pressure. New rubber lines would be better than nothing and someone here could probably elaborate more on this. I've ready that you should even upgrade the Master cylinder and feeder lines to slightly larger diameter to help with the larger valves in the calipers but I didn't as have other here and it works pretty well. I have SS and I'm not really sure what the difference would be with just rubber. Hope this helps.

Hi Seanh- I did the same thing when I did my caliper conversion, bought unloaded calipers new. At least your trying to locate the springs and things first. I thought they would come with the pads and I was wrong.:stupid: I ended up buying the loaded calipers so I could get the springs as no one carried the springs by themselves and just swapped out the pads. I used porterfield racing pads in my setup, no shims. Sounds like your looking for something other than the stock pads that come in the loaded calipers. I would try going to a parts store and asking to look at a set of loaded calipers so you see how the spring holds the pads in. Can your source order or supply you with the springs? I would think so but..? There's not much to them just the pads and springs. There's no shimming or spacers so long as you are using the stock rotor. If stock pads would work for you it would be a lot easier to by the loaded calipers. It's more expensive but a straight bolt on. As for the SS lines MSA has a set for $60-70 for all four corners. I'm not sure about the disk brake conversion to the rear but if you get the MSA lines hopefully you could use them on the rear. I would guess it depends on the connection size on the caliper itself and the supply line size. MSA could probably tell you if their lines would fit a 280ZX brake setup. BTW, MSA sells a caliper kit but it's pretty pricey. I would just buy the SS lines and toyota setup its less expensive. Good luck! MSA - 800.633.6331

Tough opening day! Good Luck!

God bless the Dead! My dogs are named after the dead. Bob and Jerry.

XYZ? When I decided to join the only thing I could think of that had a Z in it was the end of the alphabet and it's simple. If I could choose a different name it would definately be more obnoxious and not necessarily related to Z's. BTW, I love my Z and it's definately not stock!! I didn't buy it as an investment necessarily just to have some fun in and I couldn't afford the early 60's vette I covet. I do like the idea of keeping the L series engine and looking stock but not when it comes performance! Nothing wrong with stock but if you can improve on something , go for it!:classic: