Wanted to say hello...

[Kaz]

I've been lurking for a while searching for an older Z (I've been a Zer since I was 16 and learned to drive on my father's '76 280Z 2+2 4spd 10 years ago) and I've finally purchased one and I'm on the fourm more and more searching for information, so I thought I'd introduce myself and say Hi!

Anyway, I just picked up a '74 260Z (early model) from a guy in Phoenix, AZ and drove her home to Virginia Beach, VA. Logged over 2600 miles doing it too, and my wife and I had a blast! I'd post some pictures, but I haven't had a chance to clear her up yet and get some pictures.

A little history:

Learned to drive on a '76 280Z 2+2 4spd

- Drove from '95 to '97 while in High School

First car was a '85 300ZX Turbo 5spd (Maroon on Maroon)

- Owned from '97 to '00 while in College

Third car was a '91 300ZX Twin Turbo 5spd (White on Charcoal Leather)

- Owned from '00 to '05

Fifth car is now a '74 260Z 4spd (soon to be 5spd).

- Just purchased last month

260Z will be a hobby/fun car, and I'm driving my '97 Maxima SE daily... we attended this year's ZCon in Syracuse with the family and wife really had an eye for the older Zs and I was missing my Twin Turbo after having just sold it back in March... so we compromised and I picked up the '74! Should be fun bringing her back up to snuff (she is excellent mechanically, just a few bits and bobbles, but she needs a paint job as most of her paint is original and the fenders and hood were swapped out recently and don't match). Interior is all original, as is most of the exterior. Nice rust free West Coast Z! =)

See you all around the forum!

Kaz

[zhead240]

can't wait to see the pics. do u have the early bumpers or the late ones?

[Fun_in_my_z]

Nice way to go. Welcome home

[Kaz]

can't wait to see the pics. do u have the early bumpers or the late ones?

Yes its the early model... has the skinny bumpers with the rubber bumpers and the rubber trimming, which has aged fairly well, but I think when I have it painted I'll bring the bumpers in more as the 240Zs were... =)

[Kaz]

Nice way to go. Welcome home

Thanks! Its always good to find a home with fellow enthusiast (I'm on a few other Z forums, mostly dealing with the later model Z32s and Z31s) and I'm a bit of a shade tree mechanic... so its always nice to have a good resource like this one... I printed out the SU Carb Adjustment tech someone posted in the Tech forum and used that to slightly tweak the carbs before I left Phoenix the day I bought it... but she is still running a bit right. Only casulties from the trip were the exhaust manifold gasket (last bolt closest to the firewall was either missing when I bought it or fell out during the trip and I blew that corner of the gasket out, d'oh) and one or both of the U Joints in the driveshaft (car rumbles badly when I accelerate hard or cruise, but goes away completely when I decelerate). No biggie. Transmission also grinds third, which requires double clutching to get it to shift into 3rd from 2nd, which is no biggie... but I have an '84 200SX Turbo transmission that I'm going to swap in when I get a free weekend (has ~74k miles on it, compared to the 159k on my Z). I've already been checing out the parts on that, and it looks like it should be a fairly quick swap... I just have to take the front half of the transmission case off and install the current one onto the new transmission and of course change out hte fluid! Oh yeah, and I pretty much killed the shiftknob too (was loose when i bought it, but it pretty much falls off now from 2600 miles of shifting getting her home, ).

[ChrisA]

Welcome Kaz!

[Dreco]

welcome to the forum