Thoughts on the 280z/S30 line?
My friend just bought one and as much as I've always loved the look of them it turns out the electrical gremlins, vacuum lines and other assorted bullshit was no meme. It's a piece of shit but I want to help him fix it up.
Any owners have any advice/resources that they'd be able to share? Stories and greentexts welcome too.
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I know a guy who's been coming to cars and coffee since forever, and also goes to a luxury car show with his 280z. All he's kept is the body, he's practically gutted the thing out and remade it. He's tried to maintain the inside as best looking as possible, but he switched out the engine with a 300zx twin turbo. Your buddy should've expected all these problems from a 30+ year old car. To be perfectly honest with you, unless you're planning on becoming like one of the mid night club members and spend at least 10k+ on the car, then you're SOL.
Best of luck.
Thanks. Yeah he should've. My aw11 is 30 years old now too and I swear these datsuns are in a league of their own when it comes to shit breaking and one rusty connection making the whole thing undriveable. At least he got it for cheap though and I'm making sure he's patient and doesn't impoverish himself by overpaying when he doesn't have to. What I'd really like now is a website that has all the diagrams and part numbers for the different systems so we can get to replacing what's broken.
Probably andy's auto parts, and if not, just look around junk yards desu.
This is basically what I did. Everything is just old and tired. I just slowly replaced everything in the car as it went with more modern upgrades. Starting with:
>L28e swap and bay harness
>5 speed swap
>Toyota brakes, braided lines
>Weld-on coilovers
Man I miss this car more than anything I have ever owned. I want to say I will build another but realistically I don't see that happening.
i want a 240z soo bad but they are non existent where i live
people always post that car when talking about 240z's and it bothers me
mostly because of those garbage replica wheels
they look like XXR's
basically replicas of these RS Wantanabes
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I think they're Rota RBs, which are replicas of Panasports, which are styled after Watanabes.
Anyway, OP, there isn't really a viable online source for Z car parts. Rather, there are but they're fucking expensive. What you're going to have to do is scour ebay and find local hoarders. I know a guy in Eugene that has about 50 S30s that he uses for parts and/or restoration projects. (Use five cars to build one, sell off the rest) if you're around that area he'll be your best bet. Another thing you'll want to do is google "Datsun 240z upgrades" and you'll get a website of the same name. This guy builds relay harnesses and other little electrical bits to upgrade key failure points in the electrical system. You may have seen S30 electrical upgrades on MSA's website, this is the guy who makes them and he sells them directly for about 2/3 the price. He also rebuilds headlight and turn signal switches. I've yet to find a definitive online source for repair info. Your best bet there is to get a good old fashioned manual and parts book off ebay. Proper Datsun manuals, none of that Haynes bullshit.
Last but not least, join every Datsun/Z car forum you can. You can find pretty much anything you need to know somewere on any of them.
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good v8 swap platform
I don't have the means (both time and finances) to get one, but god damn I love the 240z. Please Nissan, bring back the babe
>DEV1L Z
>not Midnight Blue
>I think they're Rota RBs, which are replicas of Panasports, which are styled after Watanabes.
Which are all replicas of minilites, those were the originals.
If it's a 240z, with carbs, then rebuild kits are plentiful and vacuum lines are easy to replace. If it's fuel injected... Well maybe you will get lucky and just have oxidized connectors, but by this age things will most likely start to fail. I can't think of any reason to keep or Maintain a nearly 40 year efi system.
It's an old ass car. I owned one around 1999-2000 and it was already a rusty, leaky, stinky, unsafe nightmare back then. I did learn pretty much everything about wrenching over the course of those couple years though. Have fun.
zcar.com used to be my resource forum. Who knows if it's even around any more.
Zcar.com is still around but not nearly as active as it used to be. HybridZ is where most people congregate these days.
>yfw the actual Devil Z was an S130 280ZX
S30 Z is more of a wannabe anime weeb dream machine than the AE86
Ahem, shitpost aside, it's an easy to service and cheap to repair car as long as you don't have shit tons of rust. Invest in a torch, a good set of tools and lots of PB Plaster. Parts are very cheap for L28's so go nuts and have fun with it
I desperately want one, but finding one in decent condition in Australia in my budget range is impossible.
I'll just have to settle with dumping a CA18DET in my S12.