greyfox

Hey guys, here are some pics of my all original 40,000 mile 1981 280zx. This car was purchased by a guy in his 60's back in 1981 and ended up using it as a grocery getter untill he could no longer drive himself around. The car has sat garage kept for about 15 years and had never left Nebraska where I purchased it, I brought it down here to Colorado. The car is in wonderful shape and everything works as it should and I mean EVERYTHING. I only had to replace the badges on the car becasue the gold color had faded away over time. Bought those from MSA. It's cool to follow the original maintenece schedule on this thing in this day in age! It really is like it has been stuck in a time warp! I only have mild plans for the car, and most of what I want done is in the works.

With jfairldayz and shady280's help I fixed the idler arm bushings, so now everything really is in perfect shape! The first set of pics are from thursday before I installed Tokico springs and Tokico HP shocks. The second set are from Friday after the drop. The ride is AWSOME! It is not harsh and is nice and comfy but when you wanna corner the setup will easily get the job done with minimal body roll. I think the car looks great as well, the drop is 1 inch and that rear end squat on acceleration is gone.

Mods so far:
-Basic items to get the car roadworthy again-sparkplugs, belts etc.
-Taylor Thundervolt 50 sparkplug wires
-Sylvania Silverstar headlights-I had been wanting to do these but was discouraged when local shops told me they did not exist for my car. With thxone's wonderful discovery of the unit's at Checker Autoparts I was able to install them. As soon as I read your post I was on the phone with Checker and went and got them, GOOD FIND MAN!!!
-Tokico HP shocks and Springs from MSA
-MSA headlight covers
-MSA floormats
-MSA badges
-20% window tint

Future mods:
-Konigs rewinds from MSA, Dark graphite color. Should look sweet with my color car. Or should I just roll on the stock wheels?
-Yokohama, or other high quality Japanese tires
-exhaust, any suggestions?
-Air intake
-possibly headers, last on my list

The pics, Thursday before the drop:





Engine, obvously cared for, look at what the gentleman I bought it from wrote about the oil filter on the valve cover:


Odometer, bought with 38,000 miles, just turned over 40,000:

Interior, I will take better quality pics for you guys, other than the dirt from my feet on the driver side mat the car is clean. No stains anywhere:

greyfox

Friday after the drop:




New shocks and springs, not the most appealing color combo but certainly get the job done and ya don't see em:

Pic of the 25 year old springs, these are in great shape and if I did not want to lower the car and make it handle better than there would have been no reason to replace these. 25 years old!

Same deal for the shocks, great working condition. Check out the Nissan stamp and guess what, Tokico made these shocks 25 years ago! No wonder the new set fits to well!

Well that is all the pics for now, hope you guys like the car!

entropy31

holy damn.!!! that baby is clean. i personally think the wheels it has would be the best choice, hell, i would keep that whole car looking stock. but thats just me.

chinesekid

damn... interior is so new... wish i had it stock and as new as that...

thxone

Hey some people think winning the lottory is about money, but I think you hit the lotto good on that find!!! Hell it might as well be a brand new car with 40,000 miles on it, it's just now broke in!!! The drop looks perfect, now I know what shocks and springs I need for my 82 coupe. Oh just so you guys know, I use to work for Advance Auto Parts and just because some parts store person says they don't make something for your ride doesn't mean it's true and they tell you that and I have been told to say stuff like that so you wont take your business somewhere else to look for it...one of the reasons I quit. Just FYI.

lww

I freakin' hate that! And it's more common than you would imagine.

The Sylvania Silver Star's are available from a LOT of different parts stores. I actually confirmed they were at my local Kragen's yesterday.

That is a REALLY sweet ride. I haven't seen one in that good of shape since the 1980 I bought with 26,000 on it back in 1984.

SHADY280

is that leather or super nice orig. vinyl. that is sweet ride.

SpeciallySpiked

Wow, I wish mine looked that great, I only get to see it in shape like that in pictures of it from the 80's.

I'm gonna have to say, that is a beautiful Z! and sweet a colorado-ian(?)!

are you going to the "mystery z drive" on may 6th? I've never been to one before and I hope to go to that one, I'd imagion if you went (if you wanted to and etc) everyone would drool over your z!

icice9

wow that car is near perfect condition.... you got real lucky man to get that.. very nice

WildmaN

Yeah man, that is a clean well preserved Z. And I would personally keep the iron cross wheels on it. They go well with the paint scheme of the car. And that black and gold does the trick. And I am not a big fan of gold, but it looks great on your ZX. Good find bro', keep that thing looking ****.

greyfox

Thanks alot for the comments guys. I really appreciate everyones feedback on the wheels. Right now I am still at a loss. The stock wheels look good....but so do the rewinds, lol! Knowing me if I buy the rewinds I will be switching back and forth between wheels on different days of the week or something ridiculous like that. Speciallyspiked, awsome to see another coloradian on this board! I have never heard of the mystery z drive. Got details on the event? Thanks again guys.

nismo619

dude its a brand new car !!! i think if u were to resell it or even sell it to a private collector u should get a big sum of money... i would hate to let that one go.. ..

jfairladyz

Well it's all been said already. So I'll leave it at nice Z Especially now that it's lowered.

280gty

Hey, really nice original car... if its not too personal, i'm curious as to how much you paid for it...?

Purty S130

Beautiful!! That interior is just out of control.

Graphite konig rewinds sound pretty cool. I think a gold or bronze color would really set the car off. Its your car, do whatever you want, I think the rewinds would look very nice.

rebelgirl2828

That car is in awesome shape!!!!!!!! What a sweet deal!!!

n00blar

All I gotta say is.... woah!

SpeciallySpiked

I'm still waiting on the newest news letter from the Z club. This is all it says since it was the April one.
"Mystery Trip for Saturday May 6th by Larry and Patty
Where are we going? How long will we be gone? What about lunch? These questions will be answered during a mystery trip on Saturday, May 6th. Further details will be in the May Odometer.."

Hopefully they post it on their website BEFORE May 6th hahaha, here's their page
www.zzzc.org
and the page with the news letter thing called Odometer
http://www.zccc.org/odocurr.htm

For the last trip it says that they met at University Boulevard and Dad Clark Drive in Highlands Ranch (haha lucky for you, hope it's there again) at 9:00 am and then they drove south...

Well sorry for making that so long, hopefully their May Odometer comes out soon.

I also like the original wheels, but I don't think I've seen what new wheels you are talking about

greyfox

Yea man that would be sweet to meet at Dad clark and University again, haha I live like ten minutes away from there! Well I will see if I can get off of work and attend, sounds like it should be pretty cool! Here are the new wheels: http://www.thezstore.com/store/merch...ory_Code=WWC19