I have been a 280ZX fan for about 28 years...saw the first one in a 1979 Penthouse magazine add for the ZX and that was it...been a fan since.
I respect all of the other Z's but the 280 ZX is the car for me.
This forum appears to be a godsend...I will have no trouble doing any work on my newest ZX now.
I had a 79 2+2 about 8 years ago and the wife made me sell it...she is now the EX-wife.
So I bought myself the ZX I wanted 2 weeks ago.
1982 280ZX NT T-Tops...I am in heaven...The engine is super strong...the body just has minor flaws to be worked out, and the interior has work to be done as well.
Glad to be here and hope to help and be helped soon.

 

w00t!!! Welcome to ZDriver!

Gorgeous looking 280zx too!

 

Nice car and welcome to the site!

 

Welcome to the site..Thats a nice looking ZX

 

welcome to the site!!!

 

Welcome to Zdriver man. That is a sweet looking 280zx! You have come to the right place. Cool people, and lots of knowledge, so you can learn and grow. I have learned a lot from this site. Good luck, and stick around.

 

Damn... That is one clean looking ZX. Pretty much what what I have in mind to do with mine.

 

Damn, thats a clean looking Z, sucks about the wife making you sell your first one

 

She's a beaut man! Welcome to Zdriver!

 

dats hot

 

And I am pretty sure, he has the ureflex bodykit from black dragon auto. It does look pretty sharp.

 

...are you kidding? He got rid of the Ex AND the 2+2 - it was win/win!

Congrats on your new ride and welcome to the forum. (And yes we'd welcome you even if it was a 2+2 ;P )

 

Thank You all for the compliments...I can't take credit for anything yet...I bought it like it sits...minus the Stereo and Visor clips. I will take some before and afters of the interior work I do to it.

I did like my 2+2...not as much as this one...but it was fun.
I pulled the auto tranny out and had a manual installed, which made it more fun.
Then i went 3" pipe no cat no muffler for a while...got tooo loud and made for real bad resonance. the + was fast but the coupe will be faster. Kids are grown so I don't need the back seat anymore.

Semi off topic...I read through the exhaust section...and my question I have remains unanswered kinda. I want to make a throaty exhaust sound on my coupe without being too loud...kind of like a Mustang with a Flowmaster sound. I want to pull the cat alltogether...

Will this sound be achievable?
Is there something you have to do, so you dont get the long pipe resonance when the cat is out?
Also keep in mind I am on a tight tight budget when making suggestions.

 

Email this guy on ebay. Tell him you need a test pipe for a 280zx. And he will make an auction available for you. This eliminates the cat convertor.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/95-03...Q5fCarQ5fParts

Also since you are on a very tight budget. Go with a Magnaflow muffler, with the test pipe. Until you get funds for an exhaust header. That should make your Z sound pretty throaty. Hope that helps.

 

The Magnaflow is the way to go. Seems to have the right design to give a good growl under acceleration without the irritating drone you get from lots of others at cruising speeds.

 

welcome you sound a lot like me & the 280zx, bought my 79 in 1984 &
loved that car, drove it till 1997 pretty much till it needed everything, divorce
and child support forced me to park it had to maintain a home also....

so after 11yrs of looking @ my z just setting there, my child support was done
I told my current wife that I wanted to fix it up, and see said you dont have time. so after thinking about it, I started looking @ what was for sale, somthing that someone had put a little love into it for around 3-4k they were all in rough shape. for that money I could have got a better start on mine.

then I saw this 1983zxt on e-bay after looking @ others all over the country
I was surprized that this one was 20miles from me. I said to (myself)
this one is mine. contacted the man & told him I wanted to see this car in person, setup an appt. but two days later the price jumped up more than what I wanted to pay, called him and he said come anyway....


needless to say, he had no contact from the other bidders about the car
so he decided to go with a bird in the hand reather than two in the bush..
a little more than I wanted to spend, but she mine now...not without probblems but mine... SO!! what about my 1979??? I sold it to a passer buyer for $400 he was happy as hell, & after he put about 6k into it he drove
to my house to show me, it looked dam good, had ground effects & all
I was so happy that it lives again.......

 

If you want Magnaflow sound then go for a Magnaflow. If you want your L28 to sound like a muscle car you're probably better off with a Flowmaster. An oval can will be more mellow than a smaller round can. So if you want lots of noise you're better off with a smaller round can.

Personally I think the Walker Ultraflow is the best peforming muffler. It has the best flow characteristics and it sounds fantastic. I'll bought the Walker as I'll initially be using my 2.5" exhaust with my turbo setup so I wanted as little restriction as possible until I go to a custom 3" exhaust.

Oval
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WLK-17218/

Round
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WLK-17230/

The Dynomax VT mufflers look interesting.... they have a bypass that is activated by exhaust presure so as you rev up the engine or load up the exhaust the bypass go from muffled to open pipe. Good for being quite around town then growly when you get on it....
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WLK-17156/