IN-USA New 85 FB Owner.

[spoddy]

looks a really tidy example. love the photos. crazy heat, i am sure you were glad to get out of it alright.
but no better way to enjoy your new car with a nice long road trip. like ian says, the UK petrol or gas prices
make a road trip very costly for us, so it's a dream to go to the states and drive a nice car a few thousand miles.

like the mustang parked up behind your fb and the bike in front.

[codge]

Hi Ben, Welcome.

Like 25 miles maximum each trip for me and definitely no drifting/autocross whatsoever!!!!!!! NO....

Still good to hear from you.

Boring old git Codge.

[wereweazle]

like ian says, the UK petrol or gas prices make a road trip very costly for us, so it's a dream to go to the states and drive a nice car a few thousand miles.

like the mustang parked up behind your fb and the bike in front.

Gas is fairly high here now too, but nowhere near how bad you guys have it. I sold my motorcycle (07 BMW F800S) to fund the car, trip and parts as it was worth a fair penny more than the car was.

The Mustang is a friend's who autocrosses with us occasionally. I put on the Eibach suspension, but have to give him credit for the perfect matching wheels. He's yet to buy an adjustable panhard bar though, so the rear axle is off-center a bit. Looks pretty funny driving behind him. We used to be about even around the various autocross courses, but with the new suspension he's usually a second or two faster. :|


Drove the car all the way up to Chicago for the weekend. Last time I was there I was driving a minivan, having this little quick car to get around the city made it almost fun instead of miserable. Saw this on my way home.



At first it looked average, but as I got closer I realized just how meticulously perfect every detail was. Apparently it was totally resprayed recently, and the paint was fantastic. We talked for a bit, very nice guy.
This weekend new rotors and bearings are going on the front. May do idler arm bushing and a few other things while I'm there, unsure on what parts will have arrived by then.

Any tips on the bearings? Can't say I've ever had to do them before.

[Lucky]

Is that a 280ZX?

[wereweazle]

It's a 280zx Turbo. One of the guys to really introduce me to cars had a '71 240z he fully restored as a graduation present to himself, so I've a bit of a soft spot for these.

[spoddy]

it's a nice looking 280zx, i remember looking for a car after getting my first job. so off me and my dad went driving around
the local towns for something small and cheap. could have bought a red 280zx, but i had to walk away as couldn't stop laughing at the hand
painted wheels and front wing. you know onle of those turn your head so the owner doesn't see you. still makes me smile when i think of it.

but regret not buying her although i ended up with a ford fiesta lol. always loved the 240z though and they command higher prices than the
later models. looks very wet, you got a bad day that day for a drive.

[Lucky]

Yeah, 240Z prices are crazy now. It's just about impossible to find a UK car that hasn't rotted to nothing or gone stratospheric in price. Most people looking for a project Zed here have to import one from the States now, even with shipping and tax it's cheaper than trying to source a workable UK one. There was an awesome full resto 280ZX at Japshow last Sunday but I'd photographed it before so stupidly didn't take any this time round. I'd have to search them out, like

[spoddy]

yeah right about the rust alright.
a lad in my work was telling me about a mate of his who imports nissan yaris's and was saying rx7's sell fairly cheaply
at the japanese car auctions. he was saying to try an import company in my county that might be able to source an fb for me.

i'd love to get a 12a turbo fb or a standard fb. it would be worth while as it'd be pretty clean and the shipping costs/duty wouldn't be as bad
as you'd think well you'd spend it welding up a UK one that has been left lying about.

but i was thinking some folks on here looking for rust free fb's might be safer going down this route, ok if you like RHD i know.

[wereweazle]

Finally bought rotors and bearings, waiting for that to come in so I can install it.

Also have a line on a Torsen LSD out of a 1.8L Miata for around $200. From what I understand, I can drop the internals into the stock Series 3 rx7 diff housing and it's basically plug and play. Does anyone know anything more about this? I might be buying the diff this weekend if everything works out.

[wereweazle]

I've read through the LSD thread on this forum along with many others. They all mention the Series 3 rx7 as having a 26-spline axle that should mate with the 1.8L Miata diff perfectly. However, there's also some mention of people swapping to an S3 rear end for disc brakes, which has me worried. Does S3 refer to just the 84-85 rx7's as I think it does, or is it specifically to the GSL-SE. Do all S3's, my 12a GS included, have the 26-spline axle or is it just the GSL-SE?