New member here. First post.

Here's my (quite abbreviated) story.

My mother purchased a 1981 280ZX (non 2+2) for me to have when I turned 16, which was in 1994. The car she bought was 13 years old and a bit dated at the time, but still faster -- and cooler -- than just about anything at school. I drove the heck out of that thing, no doubt about it, and probably didn't appreciate the short amount of time we had together. My mom ended up selling it from under me in less than a year's worth of driving due to my heavy accelerator foot; she then bought me a dumper 1985 Ford Ranger pick-up on a four-banger that was rusted to hell and back. BIG-TIME downgrade! Obviously I love my mother, but she really busted me that time. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and what it meant to appreciate things/privileges given to you.

Ever since she bought that car and had it ready for me to drive, I've been a huge Z fan. I was so into it at the time that I got my license at 8:30AM on my birthday; I even left school (got to miss biology!!!) to go get it! I became an even bigger Z fan as I have gotten older and as more time has passed since I had her. When the 350ZX concept images dropped in 2001/2002 (whenever that was), the Z fever reached new heights. I really love the 350ZX -- sorry if that seems like blasphemy to the aficionados -- but at this time in my life, I don't make enough money to have a 350ZX AND a 2006 Acura TL, the latter of which is my daily driver.

So, for now, I'm in the process of selling some of my dad's estate property he has back East, and when I get rid of some of it, one of the first things I'm going to do is find myself another 280ZX and get it up to tip-top shape. I'm not sure if I'm going to "go for it" and turn into a show car, but I might. Ideally, it would be a turbo, but it's not a necessity. I'm not going to get it "track-ready" or anything close to that, so the more I think about the turbo thing, the less imperative it becomes. It must be a manual, though, and unlike the one I had back in the day (due to financial inhibitions that most 16 year-olds encounter), I will trick-out the interior and exterior as much as I can while keeping it classy.

I just joined today to get myself in the right frame of mind and to develop some ideas for my own Z when I do finally get her. It's been far to long since I've had my hands on the wheel of a Fairlady...

 

welcome to the site, forget tricking the TL its a honda and is just a really nice car as it is, start focusing on something that was meant to be modified.

 

welcome to the site... if your looking to get a 280ZX and need all the info you can get... well you came to the rite spot... turbos are harder to come by now a days but you can still find one every so often.. well anyways.. welcome to the site and good luck when you get your Z

 

The key here is going to be to take your time and find the best one in as good condition as you possibly can. Your natural tendency is going to be to jump on the first halfway decent one you stumble across thinking you can 'fix it up'. That will be a mistake. You'll be better off starting with a $5k 'excellent' car than you will with a $1k fixer upper. You'll spend WAY more than $4k replacing or refreshing all the interior/exterior and mechanical parts to bring it back to life.

Anyway, welcome and good luck!

 

lww is right. i have spent 5 years collecting interior parts from local junkyards, and i'm still not done. i would also suggest going with a 82 or 83 for the power rack and pinion, i think that is when they came out, i could be wrong. power steering kicks a.

 

joining the best Z forum was the best way to start out. Welcome.

 

Thank you! That is good advice, and not something I would have necessarily thought about. To be honest, I was kind of just thinking about getting something that basically just wasn't rusted out -- that was my only criteria really. Now I have to think about it a little more carefully.

 

iceice9, I have seen your car (the 280) on the internet before via Google search. That thing is smokin'! I dropped a comment on it a few years ago; it was pretty long and basically said how much I loved Zs and what you'd done to yours! Funny that we "meet again".

 

Hey man welcome to the site! You came to the right spot as far as 280zx advice goes. And it's just as the guys said, take your time and find one that is in really good shape. Don't buy a fixer upper, it'll just be a nightmare. And as you say a turbo is not really a necessity. These cars still have plenty of get up and go in NA form. Anyway these cars are all about handling, not straight line speed.
Here's some pics of my car to furthur wet your appetite, have fun!

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/280zx-s130-forums-77/some-recent-pics-few-questions-%2A56k-hell-no%2A-22954/

 

welcome brett, there is a member here that is getting outta his 280zx turbo, his name is apollo, check out his name, there is even a thread aboot it. may be a good car to start from, hes a good guy too, so you wont get ripped off. would be nice to see a car like his go to a asipring zdriver like yourself. hes done the hard work with the turbo swap, you just have to do some paint and tiddly wink things.!!1

 

Welcome to ZDriver.com

All I did was go for a spin in my friends 1980 2+2 5-speed and I was hooked on Z's.....now I have 3...soon to be two but one is a Turbo. I agree, buy one that doesn't need much work...Apollo's would be a good start. Poor Apollo

 

Do you guys really think I'd let Apollo's Z get out of the Bay Area? Come on... Really?!

 

so are you saying you now own another Z?

 

You don't need a turbo to break the law...or beat a Honduh. Welcome to the forums!!!

 

You bought it? Do tell.

 

This is awesome, guys! Thanks for all the feedback so far.

greyfox, thanks for sharing your Z pictures with me. I'm actually thinking about doing mine up in black, or possibly navy, so your look is definitely a very sweet one in my eyes.

To all: is there a "photo gallery" where I can just go look at tons and tons of Z pictures? I'd really like it if there was something like that. I went through the member gallery and got some good ideas there, but an official photo gallery where people can ***** out the threads with endless pictures is what I need!

Also, I have a couple questions/concerns while I'm at it. The first one is: I remember when I drove my Z back in the day, when I would "really get on it" it would kind of do a wheelie. Back in the day, I thought it was because it just had so much power. Looking back, I'm guessing its shocks weren't stiff enough. I'm also guessing that this isn't the best thing in the world for handling. Is this something that you guys address when redoing your Zs? I'm guessing stiffer shocks... Also, the wheels on mine seemed like they were pretty dang small, with mushy, pillowy, super-tall profile tires. That was just the look back in the 1980s, but I know for sure that I'm going to want a larger rim with lower profile tires. I'm wondering what sizes of rims look good on the Z, and what kind of allowances there are as far as what will fit (rim diameter, width, offset, etc.). I've also read here and there that people are doing lug pattern conversions to make it so more of the modern rims are compatible. Is this necessary; is it that hard to find good, large wheels for the Z nowadays?

 

...oh, and another thing.

I would really like to customize the tail lights so that the lenses are red (and white) only, instead of having that amber strip on the top. I think that would look really cool. I don't think I've seen that before, so if anyone has done it, I'd love to see pics of that.

 

there is a place to look at all our Z's if we posted in it. scroll up and look for "Zgarage" and click it. vuwala

 

Here, follow this link to see some killer Z's

Killer Z's

 

Thanks to the both of you. I've checked out the Zgarage before, but I was thinking/hoping that there was some other type of gallery. That'll do for now, though.

The pictures from Canby were pretty sweet, too! I must say that I didn't see too many ZXs, which kind of bummed me out a little.

Anyone have any advice on all-red tails?

 

http://klearz.com/products.html

hope you have lots of cash on hand

 

HOLY COW!!! Those are gorgeous!!! Wow. Stunning. Thanks a lot for that find. This link is going directly into the Bookmarks folder.

Anybody doing any sort of HID or Angel Eyes for their headlights? Obviously this would require some significant retrofitting, but it would probably look pretty cool, especially the HIDs.

 

yeah there are a few, its not so hard, but do a search they cam up in some recent threads should be able to find tehm pretty easily

 

I'm going crazy on eBay and Craigslist right now trying to find me a nice-ish ZX.

Is it just me or is there a bit of an anti-Honda sentiment here? Just out of curiosity... Or is it just all for fun? I love Hondas/Acuras as well as Nissans, so I'm all good. Hopefully I'm not pulling some sort of Montagues vs. Capulets thing here!

 

^ Maybe with some guys, but I do like Hondas. I cut my teeth working on those cars and when they are done right, damn do they look good. I'm just a sports car fan really, anything two door and rear or all wheel drive from Europe or Asia is my interest. With the exception of the WRX, that's the only 4 door "sports car" I would own. But some guys are a little more hardcore in what they like and don't like I suppose. And Hondas do represent the worst of what a ricer can do to a car so I guess that is where the sentiment comes from.