1980 280zx "Red Zed"

In reply to The_Jed:

Stiff as hell. I actually have no idea bought them used. Almost completley eliminated the squat on acceleration though and there is no more brake dive.

Took a cruise to the local lake for some pictures. Itching to get back to track driving soon.

Still love it. If you ever find you don't anymore, give me a ring, lol..

Good looking S130! Slicktop. 2 seater is the way to go on those cars.

Replaced balljoints and front wheel bearings about a week ago in an effort to tighten everything up and get rid of a clunking noise.

Got the girlfriend to help

Now the front end is definetly tighter but the clunk has not gone away.

Clunk went away after some driving. Guess everything just needed to settle.

Time to align it before track day in 2 weeks.

Maybe double check on that clunk. I helped a friend with his Z, he had a clunk in his front end as well. It turned out to be the nut that holds the shock insert into the strut tube had backed off and was allowing the shock insert to clunk around inside the shock tube a bit.

In reply to BA5:

It came back. Guessing its the strut bearing as thats where the movement is coming from. Everything else is tight.

Ive thrown in the towel. The Z will be going to my uncle's shop this Friday to hopefully find the noise.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Turbs out the noise was a stripped and failing saaybar bracket. Everything is good now. Also pulled hubs to begin the 5 lug swap.

Hopefully more updates will be happening by soon. Been busy with classes and moving to a new house.

Small update:

Took Zed on a nice long roadtrip to a friends wedding.

My friend snapped a pic after we did a fun run down Highway 80 (highly recommend if you are ever in eastern Ok. Awesome road.)

Now its time to get it ready for my first SCCA autocross on sunday.

That is quite the 80s wing/wheels combo!

Cool car, though. I've always wanted an S130.

Well big plans for this build have appeared. Probably wont make much progress until the winter but here is the plan, at least suspension wise: S13 knuckles up front S13 rear subframe Ground control/koni yellow all the way around Wilwood 4 piston front brakes Z32 rear brakes 17x9 wheels

Got the car in the garage (miata had been taking up the spot due to lack of a top). Time for the biggest build Ive ever done.

Sounds exciting! This thing will be pretty slick with a wider stance and a well balance suspension.

In reply to Ironsides:

Thanks! Been wanting to get started for awhile,just didnt have the space for it.

Some progress photos from yesterday:

All the shocks/struts are removed now.

Found out that when I bottomed the front out a few months ago I did more damage than I thought. Both front struts:

Notice how one looks odd? Well I really berkeleyed it up:

Not sure if the weld failed or the metal tore. Either way, glad I stopped driving it after that happened.

Removed the strut bar to make room for a rollbar with a proper harness bar.

Finally I test fit an s13 front strut to see how much wider the front of the car will be:

Answer (when the spindle is also in place): alot.

If you're replacing the rear subframe, go s14 - it has a little better geometry. It is also a little (10mm?) wider than the s13 for better or worse

In reply to jfryjfry:

Already have an s13 subframe I got for super cheap, otherwise I would probably try to fit an s14 one.

On the topic of fitting the s13 front spindle: I need to somehow extend the control arm so the ball joint sits correctly. The 3 choices I have in mind are:

Make a plate to hold a 3rd gen maxima ball joint (has correct taper and angle)

Modify an s13 arm by extending around 1.5-2"

Create a tubular control arm that has the correct angle on the end and is the correct length

Seeing as how I don't have the best welding skills, option 1 seems the most viable but also the weakest choice. What says the hive?

Alright you engineering types, I need some help. Someone posted this as a way to adapt s13 spindles to the stock 280zx control arm.

To me this looks like it would be failure prone. It might not be but Im no engineer. If it is as bad as I think, what are some ways to improve it?

Is it just an extension plate? How thick? I did some back of the napkin calculations and came up that you'd probably want it at least 1/2" thick. I'd throw thickness at it. May want to even bump it up from 1/2 because you've got that bolt hole (a stress riser) right at the base of your cantilever.

Not to mention that you want it nice and stiff so you're not introducing another little spring into your suspension.

Beautiful car!

I really don't like the look of that adapter plate. Was that design used on a car that actually saw the track, or just on a show car only driven on nice days?

In reply to Sky_Render:

Its on a car that sees autocross but Im not sure on anything beyond that. Id like the daily this car once its done so Im trying to find a method that will work.