Comrade_Charlie

Hi, im looking to buying a 82 280zx turbo(engine was swaped in). any way the guy that is selling it said it ran when he parked it last winter. but he now cant get "a spark from the ignition" he said. I dont really know a whole lot about cars, as this would be my first car, im 17. The car is out of state so I havnt seen it, but its so cheap and looks good body and interior wise that i dont care. but what I wanted to know is what could be the problem of not getting "a spark from the ignition" and he has also put a lot of new parts on the car as it was his "project car" but he said he ran out of time and money so has to sell it, as i have read about all project cars that are beind sold. I would have about $1500 after buying the car, so I dont want to buy it then have it cost 2000 to fix it. and I have a cousin that is basicly a machanic so me and him can do the work to fix it if its anything major...

also what is N/A on this forum.

EatmyDust

I wounder if it has somthing to do with an ignition module. could be that, or a bad coil. It dosn't sound serious.

SHADY280

im wondering if he remembered to put the rotor under the cap, sounds stupid, but ive laughed so hard when i see that happen in person, if not test your coil lead, and just get a spare iggy module from the scrapper, you can get them cheap, dont worry, you wont have to spend 2k on getting the ignition working, at the absoultute most 500 bucks if you replace everything brand new. and welcome to zdriver.

Comrade_Charlie

Thanks. I just got some new info, this car was the owners daily driver before he parked it in the winter and it was running fine before he parked it I think.

thxone

So far on my car it has been silly, little, cheap, things to fix but even with broken stuff the car it still runs...they may not be the highest HP engines out there but they are tough.

jfairladyz

If you cousin knows his way around a car then most likely he will figure out what the problem is. These cars are silly easy to work on and fix. None of the parts that fail the most often are really all that exensive. Typical mainanence stuff usually. They are however VERY old cars and will most likely need attention as time goes on. More so then a newer vehicle as most of the parts are likely over 20 years old. But the simplicity of them makes it worth it, not to mention the fun factor. If you want to learn about fixing your own car then this is a great car to do it with.

If you can get the car cheap and you've got someone on hand that can help you with fixing it then go for it. Unless you need to have a shop replace the engine for you with a freshly rebuilt motor, it's not going to cost you anywhere in the neigborhood of $2k to fix anything on this car.

Comrade_Charlie

Thats good, I figured it wouldnt be any thing serious seeing as how it ran then he parked it. But he said he put in seats from an Eclipes(I dont know the year, ive seen a couple of other 280zxs with those seats), and "he also said the floor pans were rusted out". What I want to know are the seats connected to the floor pans? And would he have done any fab work or modification to the floor to put thos seats in there? I'm not sure how much it would take to fix that but I dont car because the car is so cheap.

jfairladyz

The seats do, in a way, bolt to the floor pans. There is extra material and a crossmember in the floor where they bolt. Bolting in the Eclipse seats is only a matter of modifying the seat rails, not the actual car. Someone on here just recently completed that swap as well.

Fixing rusted floor pans isn't too difficult if you can take accurate measurements and weld. And if you do it yourself it's free. But work like that isn't cheap when it comes to paying someone else to do it. What it would cost though depends on the extent of the damage done by the rust.

EatmyDust

are you wanting a fix it yourself? If so what kind of fix? you could put the restor floor pan kit in, or you could do what has been sugested and cut som mesure som and weld up a sheet of metal of your own.

Comrade_Charlie

I'd like to fix it myself, But I have no welding equitment, but! my High School has a welding class and I could probaly get them to do it for me but im sure I'd have to get every thing preped for them so I dont know. My dad has been a Welder for almost 20 years but he is on a job 1000miles away that will last for about 1 more year. so I could either wait or try to get it done.

And ive never heard of "restor floor pan kit in". Im guessing thats just where you fix the rust and put metel over that and protect it from rust.

280gty

Thats what he says...

Have a mechanic check it out before you buy it.

Its a better idea to buy a car that actually starts and runs... cause then you'll be able to see & hear how it runs and whether there are OTHER problems.

EatmyDust

oh come on man how yung are you man? you mean to tell me you have never heard of floor pans? all it is, is floor board. meatal in the shape of your floor board ment to replace your rusted floor pan. MSA has them for restoring your floor pans(floor boards) Gees there are some goobers out there man

jfairladyz

I think it was just the way you typed it Dust... sounded a little confusing. Not to the point where it wasn't descernable though

EatmyDust

Point taken. I appolegys my yung friend I I should have learnd how to spell befor joining this web community.

Comrade_Charlie

haha, yea I know what a floor pan is. What I would want to do would just weld another one in. Just didnt know what you were saying.

EatmyDust

I would defenatly have the car runing first thing befor jacking with the body.
but of cours you would also see me driving down the road in a z that is very potent, but has 5 gallon buckets for seats, and bungy cords for seat belts.

Comrade_Charlie

Oh, yea. But I just want to see what my options were.

I drive a 80cc dirtbike up and down my road(for no reason) that has transmission problems, bottums out because shocks are like broken and has a airfilter hose that is made out of ducttape and paper.

Comrade_Charlie

Man that floor pan kit from MSA is 359 bucks. Id rather flintstone my way around town.

EatmyDust

thats what I was talking about. what kind of fix do you want? You should make your own floor pans.

Comrade_Charlie

Eh, a fix that works, thats cheaper than that^

jfairladyz

If you buy the metal yourself and shape it yourself it will be a LOT cheaper than that. Those kits are so expensive because they're preformed/cut.

Comrade_Charlie

Ill just duct tape the floor up like I do all things. Duct tape the lifesaver!

EatmyDust

Yea I remember when I used to work on motorcylcles. One of my old budys had a 72 honda trail bike 250 that wouldn't run, it wasn't getting spark so I checked the fuses under the sear, and one was blown. I didn't have any fuses so I tied the wires just to check to see if they were the cause, and the bike kicked over and ran. well my budy was so happy it ran he jumped on it with no seat and took off, forgot and sat down shocking himself in the *****. that was the funiest thing I think I have ever had part in. long story short he never replaced the fuse he just kept the wires tied and duct taped them and made sure his seat was on.