cbaumy34

Hey everyone

Well im slowly restoring my 280zx, I took the dash out to look at the vac lines and cant find any bad ones. My question is would you change them anyways or leave them?

MurphyEF

Depends on what is important to you. Do you want it to be a running/driving restoration? Or are you going to garage it untill, it is 100% complete? Does the climate control work flawlessly? Thinking about replacing the seals -inside- the climate control? Me, personally (not restoring) I plan on ripping everything out and installing a Mojave Heater instead. I also plan on custom fitting my sterio into the place that the climate controls are at now.

cbaumy34

Hmmm thanks for the input... its gonna be worked on until the winter is over but im not sure yet how on how hard core of resto im going to do. I may check out the heater your looking at. My big dilemma is its a really clean z zero rust so im not sure if im going to molest it or do a oem restore. Also forgot to mention im pretty sure id have to put a seal kit in because its definitely not working flawlessly.

FricFrac

When I rebuilt mine I cut about 1/4" off all the lines where the vacuum lines attached. The get stretched and hard so they don't seal well.

cbaumy34

I think i like that plan of attack. I just feel like changing all of them will be a pain...

gswillia

I personally believe you should replace them as well as the foam that seals the connections for the ducting, and while the dash is out replace the little speakers. But if all the gates open and close correctly i would probably leave them. - Greg

FricFrac

I recomend replacing all the lines as well but you're probably good for quite a few years before they harden up again at the connections. I also replaced all the foam on the doors, etc as well as all the ducting under the dash with the open cell foam (picked mine up at Home Depot). Changing all of them is just as easy and pulling one end off at a time and trimming them - replace one at a time till they are all done. Check the solenoids - just get a extra piece of vacuum line and suck on it - you'll see quickly if it works or not. It's all easy stuff to do - just takes some time.

The speakers in the dash are junk and the placement is horrible - if you're spending money on dash speakers get some speaker pods made and put in 5 1/4" or 6 1/2" in the doors which will give you better imaging and better sound.

cbaumy34

Yea I will definitely replace the foam and im leaning towards replacing all the lines and for the speaket it would be sweet to move them to the doors im going to look into that! Thanks for the suggestions

WildmaN

Don't hack up your door panels to put speakers in. Just put some 6 inch ones behind your seats in the stock locations. And a couple in the rear hatch with a nice box. It is plenty for me, and it looks cleaner. My '81 had speaker holes cut out in the panels, so I tried to put speakers in the holes. Then I ran into a problem. They interfered with my power windows. Probably because the magnets were too long. Which is a pain to find speakers with shorter magnets. All aside if you can leave the stock dash speakers to keep the talking lady active. That is all I use those for. It becomes handy sometimes. Especially with my lights being left on.

cbaumy34

Yea id miss the talking lady!! But thanks for that it would be bad to hack up the super clean z!

FricFrac

Talking lady is easy to keep - mount a speaker right beside the voice box in the rear hatch spare tire area or just hook it up to the speakers - either way.

There are lots of door panels around and even if you have to hack one up you can easily repair it to look decent again just with new carpet on the lower portion. You do need pods to mount the speakers into for the doors because of the deepth for sure but it's well worth it. Front speakers give you way better imaging and clarity of sound than the rears.

cbaumy34

Very nice. I have the winter to think about which route im going to that gives me plenty of time! I just wana make the interior super clean for now then deck out the suspension and finish with an l28et along with a sweet set of wheels and call it a day! But we will see how it all unfolds I suppose.

MurphyEF

I currently run a pair of 6x9's behind the seat with an amp between them (hidden between the buckets) and a 12 inch sub built in to the spare tire cover (amp is by the storage box, under the carpet). Made sure to mount the sub so that it looks like it belongs there. Tossed in some expanding foam around the edges to help seal it and viola!

cbaumy34

Pic?

MurphyEF

Sure, I'll post one a little later today.

MurphyEF

Took the grille off the sub for clarity, and don't mind the glass, I had an accident while removing a quarter window for tint..

cbaumy34

Very awesome man!!

MurphyEF

Certainly gets the job done. Not so much bass that it rattles everything (did put some weatherstripping between the rear licenseplate and the body) but it enough that it bumps. Plus, if you position it correctly and trim a little off of the ears on the spare tire clamp thing, it still fits!