We have style and performance topics in these forums but I don't see anything for car audio. I was hopeing to also throw out some ideas and get some ideas for our little Z's. Is there a forum in here that I am not seeing or is this not a topic of interest to anyone?

 

Audio stuff can just go in the 280zx main forum... or in the "OFF TOPIC" area ( https://www.zdriver.com/forums/lounge-off-topic-219/ ) . We mostly talk about the car itself & not audio. My personal opinion... I have a CD player, rear speakers & a component set... that's about all my Z needs. I can't really hear the music when I'm cruzin anyway.... My Bimmer gets the Audio / Video lovin.

 

This brings a question; is the original stero/speakers any decent? I still need to get a new front speaker and maybe speakers. I'd like to keep my 280ZX as original as possible, so I was hoping to use the same car stero system that came with my ZX

 

Thanks, I will see if I can get something going on the subject. Music and cars go hand and hand for me and now that I finally have a 280zx coupe' I want to of course put some sweet sounds in it.

 

Right on homie... just don't go to the rice rocket side by droppin in four 12's so you can watch the hatch jump off it's seal.

 

Well nOOblar I have actually started some work on my stereo replacement and of course listend to the factory radio first as a starting point. I think the factory radio is cool and will do fine for factory sound. My friend and I went silly on his 1980 2+2 puting in new dash speakers and rear side speakers. The Factory dash speakers were old and rotted and did not produce good sound as well as the rear speakers were shot, back in the day I think they may have been good. In my 82 coupe the right dash speaker was perfect as well as both rear 6 1/2's. The dash speaker on the factory 82 radio/tape deck sounds good and actually put out some mid-bass. The rears are IMO are pretty decent for what they are. I would say replace the dash speakers with some good 2-way's and replace the rear what should be 5 1/4's in the 2+2 with some shallow (low profile) 2-way speakers...we had to modify his car for his JBL 5 1/4's (big magnets).

The dash is a pain to remove if you have not done it, there are screws under the A/C controls that I had to remove and the speedo cable had to be disconected from the rear of the spedo, all other bolts and screws were easy to find. The factory dash speakers were held in by three screws. the right dash speaker is easily removed through the glove box (remove glove box) and its right there. Be carefull of the A/C vents, mine fell out when I pulled the dash to me..OH the steering wheel TAKE IT OFF saves a world of time just watch your wiper switch when reinstaling the dash. Hope that helps.

 

I am sorry to say Nismo..thats kinda what we did to my friends 2+2....I tried to talk him out of it but thats what he wanted so I said lets do it right! It hurts sometimes to sit in it but he is going def anyway..lol

 

Just don't go makin' the hatch rattle like some of the ricers stereo's do. I had a nice stereo and speaker box ripped outta my car about a year ago, so recently I decided to go with a stock stereo unit and just use a personal CD player with the cassette looking power hook-up for the stereo. Who's gonna want to rip a stock stereo outta the car?? LOL!

Anyways, Wildman had a stock stereo and the same speaker box I had and it sounds pretty dang good to me!

BTW: thxone, good lookin' car, bud...

 

Thank's CarlsZ Guess how much I paid for it. Nothing when you come down to it. My brother-in-law gave me his 92 RS camaro for free and I worked on it a bit, drove it for two years until I found this just sitting on a lot with $1,500 on the windshield. I love these cars and to me they are worth more then that. So I traded my Camaro for it even up. Here are some pics.

 

IMO the factory sound system is crap. The speakers are crap, the head unit is crap. It's all crap and it could all benefit from an upgrade. Mine sounded so bad I just ripped it all out. Since then I've installed an audio system twice and it was stolen both times right in front of my apartment So now I'm without music. Been that way for a while now too. God knows there is plenty of room for customization of a sound system in these cars. Lots of hatch space. Not my bag of beans to go all crazy but the platform is there.

 

I swear I've seen that interior before.... I was talking w/ a guy online one day like 3 years ago... bought his son a 280zx & swapped some of the interior to be red & black just like that. I swear it's the same car.

 

It is totaly possible, I am in Largo Florida and got it from a used car lot. I did a quick carfax on it and it tells me there are 14 listings for it but I am not paying to see them. But I guess a few people have had this car so like I said it may be the same one....sure is fun to drive!

 

damn that is a clean z. you got a hell of a deal there.

 

i had a 15" sub in it but i took it out to avoid drawing attention. thxone your car is super clean, keep it up man looks good.

 

Finding one with an interior in that good of shape is pretty hard. And you got it for free.

 

Very clean. How many miles are on it? 14 owners?! Holy Crap! That's more than one new owner every two years! That thing has been passed around like a $2 hooker!

Hopefully it didn't get VD...

On my 1980 280ZX, before the subs, amps and T-Tops were stolen, I had a killer component system with Linear amps and Stillwater Designs tweets custom installed in the A pillars, two 3" mids in the dash, 4" mids custom mounted in the kick panels, 2-way 6x9's and amps in the storage compartments behind the seats and two 8" subs in custom enclosures with concealed amps in the storage compartment on the driver's side and the spare tire well on the passenger side.

Ahhh... those were the days... I would pull up to the beach at the lake, open the hatch and it would funnel the sound down onto the beach.

That thing had serious power for the day... It's barely a beginner's stereo system by today's standards, but it was hella bad *** when you consider the stock speakers are rated for 8 watts each and this baby was puttin' out over 2300 watts RMS.

 

Yeah, I am not sure how acurate Carfax is, I think they just want me to pay them money so they can tell me "well we did say the vin match was close..." Anyway it has just turned 93,000 miles on it. I was suprised to see it for that price with those miles till I drove it..what a dog it was, stupid crossed spark plug wires! Man you were bringin up some old school names with that list of car audio stuff Linear and Stillwater (Kicker) I don't care what people say about the older stuff..it kicked *** and still does today but then again I am a dirt rocker from the eighties so in the early 90's I got to watch it all come in to play and had fun with alot of the old stuff. I still have a pair of 10 inch punch from 1994 sitting on my floor, like my ex girlfriend they are old and broken in but they still make me feel good.

I really want to remove the red dash and replace it with a black one, upper part and lower radio part. The red dash is all greasy and I cant clean it off! I used 409 and it just started turning black..ish but is still greasy. I also found a nice black steering wheel fom MSA that I want with the Z logo horn button, some black Z logo floor matts and I am done. I like a black and red interior...Just like my 92 Camaro. I have toyed with the thought of painting the car a light silver or mirror like Super Super dark black, but thats still up in the air and down the road.

 

14 hits on carfax does not mean 14 owners. it just means that there were 14 items listed on the report. these include transfers of ownership, services, emissions tests, etc... considering the cars age, 14 hits is not that bad. my 1995 slicktop had 3 owners listed (a dealer was included as an owner), and it had 17 records found. none of these were bad, just info on the car.

 

Good point entropy. I forgot they listed everything including smog checks!

Yeah, I actually went to school in Stillwater, OK so I had easy access to all their gear. Since several of my friends worked there, I got it for practically nothin'!

The balck interior is all the rage now, but, unfortunately, it was not desirable back when these cars were new, so not too many of them came with it after 1979. It'll be fun tryin' to track all the pieces down, but I know several that have gone down that road.

My interior was originally red, but has been converted to black, of course this all happened BEFORE I found out someone on this board in my town was converting their BLACK interior to RED! We could have just done a straight swap!

Anyway, for any of the parts you can't find in black, SEM makes an excellent interior polymer paint that works wonders and is pretty durable too, especially if you keep a rattle can in the car for those odd moments when you spy a hint of red poking out from underneath your black...

Here's a pic of my interior and my two girls. As you can see, I went with a primary black with red accents theme:

 

I used to have a page on the 280ZX stereo setup in my car. The front speakers are horrible on location and size. Likewise, the best quality setup has good full range sound from the front. You don't want all your music coming from behind you. I think some 6 inch components in the doors is the best you can do. I'm planning to put some 6" 2-ways in there. I was considering some 6x9's but that might look a bit odd and I want my window to still roll down.

My idea for the speakers is.
1" tweeter set in the top left corner of the dash, wire going through the vent.
1" tweeter mounted inside the dash where the right side factory 4" was.
6" round speakers in the doors - lower front corners.
6" round speakers in the middle of the car (factory location)
single 12" sub in back mounted in a custom fiberglass box in the left side so I can maintain my spare tire
A rear panel in front of the tail lights with a pair of speakers pointing forward. 6" round or 6x9

So 8 channels and a single sub. I want to be able to hear the music loud and clear with the t-tops off at 75mph.

I've found that a single 12 is the best bass sound for the size it takes up. I don't see the need for two or four subs when you can buy a single sub that handles 1000w. anything in excess of 600w (real wattage, not fake poor quality stuff) is just a waste and belongs in a lowrider.

 

I have two ten inch Polk Audio subs in my 280ZX "low rider"

Rod.

 

i have a black interior for sale. the rest of these guys know it because theve all heard me trying to sell it. its a complete black interior for 600 plus shipping. its in the marketplace with like 60 hits and lots of promise from people but no takers

 

If only I could spare that much money right now

 

Get some wire wheels on that whip!

 

sum hundered spokes with the gold spinners pimp