xa1973 Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Hi all Im xa1973 from QLD, Ive been a long time watcher of the site and thought why not join Ive refurbed and modified a couple of 240, 260 and 280zx's with mates over the days ( mainly for their wives to drive ) and have enjoyed the simplicity and ease of working on the cars, not only the mechanicals, but also the paint and panel ( made from real STEEL ) all of which I do myself. I bought a 79 280zx 2+2 for myself to tinker with in my spare time, she was a bit of a SHI ER, plenty of rust, good interior, reco engine ( 2 out of three aint bad ) Full strip down including engine, retinned panels ( no bog ) many, many, many, many, new parts, some from the USA, colour coded charcoal gey interior, respray in straight black tinter and shes back on the road, a tidy runner. Now many of you say a 280ZX!!!!!!! WTF, their a cruiser and I like a car with a bit more weight in it, I can modify and balance this car with virtually any block I can get my hands on and make a ball tearer out of it, or spruce up the L28e which is a good solid base for heavy mods more than capable of giving many modern V8's a run for their money on any Sunday The price and availabilty versus value for money and condition of the 240 and 260's is getting up there, I saw a 240 full resto posted for $37 k the other day, the 280zx will come into favour as the others become unreachable or disappear into collectors garages as many already have, never to be seen again. Anyway thats my lot... Cheers XA1973 Quote
Mr240z Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Welcome to the Nut House xa1973 hope you have a good time here. There a nice bunch of blokes not sure if there's any girls here. Anyway how about some more pics of the dato and some of your other projects. Sydney boy Mr240z Pauly Quote
Lynton Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Yay throw up some pics I agree with that!! I also agree the 280ZX's are great cruisers and before long they will be in short supply. I can remember 240Z's not that long ago being picked up for $500.00 but not now!! Any Zed with a decent body and mechanically ok for a couple of grand is cheap in my opinion compared to any other enthusiast type car on the market. Enjoy the discussions on here all good fun really....welcome Lynton Quote
lightmaster240z Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 a warm welcome from down south were everthing seam to be on fire. :o I look foward to see some pic of of your prid and joy soon regards Bruce Quote
Mick280zx Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Yeah welcome mate- good to see another 280zx fan around. Is your XA a coupe or sedan? I saw a coupe the other day and thought to myself "why the H___ didn't they keep making those sexy beasts"? What a piece of machinery! ... But yes... the fat zeds have got to be the best choice out there for guys with fewer dollars to spare. Quote
xa1973 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Posted February 1, 2009 Hello Mate And thank you and others for the welcome. first time on a forum for me, so far so good, seems to be a lot of good blokes with knowledge and points of view that dont mind sharing it around. My kind of guys. I have the sedan as these were the cars benchmarked to meet the 200 production output for the homog regs for Bathurst. Four Phase IV race units were made before the Government of the day canned all production of high powered production road cars by FORD @ Phase IV Sedan, GMH @ 308 XU1 and CHRYSLER @ 318 Charger citing they were death missiles on wheels. The Phase 111 at that time was the fastest 4 door production car in the world at well over 130MPH out of the box under the whip, the Phase IV reported to be in excess of 140MPH ( too fast for the general public ) combined with soaring fuel prices and the rest is dust..... Funny though........look at the production cars of today, even the four cylinder jobbies!!! Ford had a LOT of Phase IV parts to move so they put them into what they called the RPO 83 sedan, a slightly tamer version of the Phase IV, the easiest way to recognise an RPO 83 was the tacho which went to 8000 instead of 7000, with parts also finding their way into the Coupes and the top of the line Landau. I like the Coupes, but find they suffer from far to much rust, which if really bad, is time consuming to fix due to the huge rear quarters on them, there is also a lot of dodgy units out there, the Yanks love the Coupes with many of them being shipped to the USA by a couple of companys here that restore them and ship them as SPECIAL orders. A bit off the track in a Z forum, but for those such as yourself who are interested its a bit of a talking point This bought us to the affordable, fuel lean, swift and light Japanese cars, the Z's, Corollas, Mazda RX and the like. I like all the Models, but find I prefer the 280ZX being a bit bigger and heavier, which suits my driving style better, Ive rebuilt mine to basic specs, prothane bushed through out the whole car, complete new front end steering components,front and rear suspension, front and rear brakes, the engine had been reco so the bores, pistons, crank etc were in very good nic, replaced basic items ie: new bearings, welsh plugs, timing kit, water pump, gaskets, injectors etc, the gearbox is auto which is tight and smooth. Ive removed all the water traps in the body, ie: the rear quarter windows have a channel of sorts under the seal which " should" drain the water, Ive reformed these sections of panel so the water does not sit in there, Ive done the same with the fuel filler opening, the windscreen scuttle and the tail light sections, Ive also slotted under the lower front guards, rails and rear quarters for better drainage. NOS and GSH interior, seat belts, refurb seats, dash and gauges, light mirror finish tint on windows, plexyglass head light covers, HID 6000 candle Blue light with ballast conversion, new body seals, new glass wear that I could get, transmission cooler, ram pod filter, 10 stack CD changer with amp. I did find a point of concern though, when I changed the tie rod ends ( inner and outer side Rods ) that the passenger side set were a lot shorter than the drivers side with a LOT less thread going into the adjusting tube, the same for the new set I was installing, I machined a new adjusting tube which was longer than the standard one and packed the center section with thread bar to extend the overall length of the rods and make it rigid, is this the norm? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Deciding on type and style of wheels, probably 15 x 7 alloy's all round at this stage. Im toying with a 4.4lt alloy V8 with turbo 400 tranny, all in all she should be good for another 30 years Cheers Quote
Mick280zx Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Haha good stuff xa1973... Sounds like you really like to get into the cars and play around! I guess being a fitter/machinist helps too. I'm one aswell but have no access to much at all in my current job except loctite and rags! Yeehaa.. I can understand the yanks wanting to get their paws on the ford coupes... but c'mon don't they have enough to play with already with their awesome Chevs, dodges, plymouths, pontiacs, mustangs and not to mention easy access to L28ET engines and parts! I too have looked (very briefly) into the leyland/Rover 4.4L alloy donk- and I didn't find much! But what a nice conversion it would be.... being so light. As for the tie rod ends- your way ahead of me- I haven't looked at them yet, still got to bleed the brakes, change pads/rotors, fix some of the small gauges, find a new battery tray/clamp, and then I can get her registered and begin tracking down some interior stuff like you did. Quote
Mick280zx Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Oh yeah and (hopefully) throw in a Chev- or failing that anything that isn't run by a computer, has a strong following, is reliable, and has an abundance of parts. Quote
RBZ 260 Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Oh yeah and (hopefully) throw in a Chev- or failing that anything that isn't run by a computer, has a strong following, is reliable, and has an abundance of parts. ECU's rule set it up once and forget about it. not to mention fuel economy and extra power. (had to get that of my chest sorry ) Welcome Xa1973. good to see another FORD fanatic. as someone said XA coupes (i personaly preffer the XB coupe) are such HOT cars. my old man was a Ford fan (classic ford) hence i guess it rubbed on me. though ive only owned 2 fords 1977 Fairlane with 302 but was short lived as my insurance company didnt like my age and the small V8 in the 2t fairlane. other ford was a rebaged Mazda or FORD Telstar TX5 V6. though in the days that telstar cleaned the VR/VS Commonwhore V8 SS of the line and sure stoped lot quicker too. Currently a Nissan nutter and own few of them. but still love my Fords. not to mentioned the last bunch. BA, BF et...... Now to Z stuff. PICS PLEASE! love to see some work in progress pics ie the body work expecialy etc.... now 240/260z VS 280zx topic. When i was just about to get my liscence i was so in love with 280zx. it looked like the early one but had all the comforts of modern car. loved it and still do. though dont own one but maybe in few years ill try and pick one up for a resto job. love to get the 2 seater one but 2+2 have they appeal too. even now bit of a s30 nutter (3x in garage) but i do have a soft spot for the s130. hopefully one day. so i say Go the 280zx. it may be fat and stretched but lets face it who doesnt like power everything. Quote
Mick280zx Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Yes- chevy Impalas are fat and who would knock one back? Quote
xa1973 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Posted February 1, 2009 Yep This is what its all about Good and varied responses on anything that comes to mind, thanks Guys XA 1973 Quote
sco_aus Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Welcome mate. I note in your first post you say WTF to people not really liking the 280ZX. You obviously come from a V8 back ground where they mostly weigh a lot more which is fine, i like V8s, but to say WTF to people who generally like Japanese imports that are traditionally lighter cars which make them nimble and quicker without needing capacity seems a bit odd to me. Everyone likes different things... I don't mind the 280 and I can see that appeal too. Anyways, not having a go and again welcome. Quote
Mr240z Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Hey Scott you know its coming, Look below Quote
xa1973 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Posted February 1, 2009 Welcome mate. I note in your first post you say WTF to people not really liking the 280ZX. You obviously come from a V8 back ground where they mostly weigh a lot more which is fine, i like V8s, but to say WTF to people who generally like Japanese imports that are traditionally lighter cars which make them nimble and quicker without needing capacity seems a bit odd to me. Everyone likes different things... I don't mind the 280 and I can see that appeal too. Anyways, not having a go and again welcome. Hello Mate Thank you for the welcome, all good here I think you have mis read the paragraph where I say WTF.. followed by one of my follow up posts to a question asked by another member I have been led to believe over the years that the 240 is the most desirable, naturally being the first of its kind thats understandable, followed closley by the 260 with the 280zx being the ugly duckling coming in at a long third If you read through my posts you will have noted that I have a 280zx that I have refurbed as a daily driver NB: No offence given or taken Thanks again Cheers XA1973 Quote
sco_aus Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 Ok cool, just seemed like a little dig at people not liking them All good. Quote
yellazed Posted February 1, 2009 Posted February 1, 2009 sco_aus: I think if you read his post, xa1973 said: "Now many of you say a 280ZX!!!!!!! WTF, their (sic) a cruiser ............" which is quite right, most Z aficianados turn their nose up at the matronly 280ZX, claiming it is fat, overweight, middle aged, etc, etc. I have a 260Z, but recently added a 2-seater 280ZX to the stable. It fills in a gap and is a nice piece of Z history. Far from dissing the 280, xa1973 was simply pointing out that a lot of people do. I am not a fan of the S130 2+2, but then again I don't like the S30 2+2 either. That's just my opinion. Quote
Mick280zx Posted February 2, 2009 Posted February 2, 2009 Sorry for the naivety- but did Australia import the 280zx 2 seater or have ppl imported them themselves? As has been said earlier- I think the 280zx will be sought after in a few years. Quote
zzzzed Posted February 2, 2009 Posted February 2, 2009 unfortunately no but i think newzealand did though am i right? Quote
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