Caretaking and progress updates for my '73

[bacarl]

Hi everyone, I'm starting a thread to document my progress and share my experiences in the caretaking of my '73 240Z.

I don't remember the first time I saw an S30 Z-car, but I've been preoccupied if not obsessed with them for several years. After taking some advice from Carl Beck and taking into account 1) that any project takes me months longer than it should and 2) my limited mechanical and fabrication skills, I decided I should shop for a running Z in fair to good condition. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to travel cross country to find such a car when I found this one while perusing random Craigslist cities in Michigan.

First to introduce the car: I bought this car from its original owner (who was also named Brian) this past May. It's VIN HLS30-151534, it was built in March 1973 and purchased in Massachusetts in February 1974. It was daily driven for almost a year, then shared driving duties with the owner's wife's car in the winter of '75-'76. In 1976 he and it moved to Michigan, at which point it was garaged in the winters. The car has 63k original miles and is almost completely original & stock, down to the spare tire from 1973, the flat top carbs (boo) and emissions equipment. For some reason, he even kept the original wheels and tires when he changed them, and wrapped the hubcaps up in newspaper dated 1977.

Picking up the car

[bacarl]

The car and I made the 150 mile drive home from the PO's house, despite tires so old they didn't have a DOT code that I could read. I drove the car all of three times on short trips around town before the left rear tire finally gave up. As I've mentioned in another thread, this happened during my girlfriend's first ride in the car

The tire shop dated these to roughly 1985!

Due to the aforementioned spare tire from 1973, a flat bed was required to get the car home. Whether it was coincidence or negligence, the key decided to stick in the ignition as the flat bed operator was pull the car off. We pushed it into the garage. Not a glamorous day.

So the car went up on jackstands so I could get new tires and troubleshoot the ignition.

With the car up in the air I got to see just how much work I get to look forward to! The bushings are cooked, the ball joint and tie rod end boots are ruptured and dumping grease everywhere, and the steering gear bushings fell apart when I removed them. I couldn't get the joints separated so I took the whole filthy assembly to a friend's shop for separating and cleaning. These pics were taken after I'd already removed a third of a pound of gluey old ball joint grease from the joints.

[clayton 260z]

Brian,

Looks to be a nice car to bring up to date. Enjoy the work to be able to enjoy the ride.

Mike

[bacarl]

Thanks Mike, I'll continue updates as I progress. I have some more progress made by now but it'll have to wait for another time.

[EhlersRS]

Welcome Brian and you found a nice looking Z! Glad you were able to find it so close to home too!

Robert S.

[motorman7]

The car has 63k original miles and is almost completely original & stock, down to the spare tire from 1973, the flat top carbs (boo) and emissions equipment.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64608[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]64609[/ATTACH]

First off, that car is a beauty! I love the color and the original condition.

Also, very glad to hear your ’73 has the flat tops and smog equip. That usually means the previous owner hasn’t messed with the car too much and you have a very nice original vehicle…sweet.

I am guessing the ‘boo’ reference to the flat tops is that you have previously owned a Z with flat top carbs and they did not perform well for you. If not, you have most likely heard from others on this site who have never owned a Z with flat top carbs, and they have bad mouth the flat tops. In my opinion, they are given a bad rap. I had a ’73 with flat tops and they performed wonderfully, even in hot LA traffic. No way I would trade them out. It is getting very rare to see a ’73 or ’74 with the flat tops, so you would do well to keep them, in my opinion. Just my thoughts

Anyway, congrats again on a beautiful find. I love it. All that baby needs now is those hubcaps installed. I love hub caps….as long as they stay on when you rip around the corners.

Best regards,

Rich

[LeonV]

Wow, great buy! You're lucky to have such an original car. I wouldn't change a thing (besides those awful wire wheels ).

[Hardway]

Very nice 240z Bacarl and congrats on taking over the ownership and care of her. Looks like you have ALOT of things going for you on it. The paint and body look great, chrome bumpers look awesome in the pics, and if the interior looks as good as the body you are in a great spot with it. Bushings and ball joints are just par for the course with these cars. Luckily all the parts are readily available and not very expensive. It just takes time as you are already experiencing but the payoff will be 10 fold in the way it handles and performs. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

[bacarl]

Thanks for the nice replies, guys.

...

Also, very glad to hear your ’73 has the flat tops and smog equip. That usually means the previous owner hasn’t messed with the car too much and you have a very nice original vehicle…sweet.

I am guessing the ‘boo’ reference to the flat tops is that you have previously owned a Z with flat top carbs and they did not perform well for you. If not, you have most likely heard from others on this site who have never owned a Z with flat top carbs, and they have bad mouth the flat tops. In my opinion, they are given a bad rap. I had a ’73 with flat tops and they performed wonderfully, even in hot LA traffic. No way I would trade them out. It is getting very rare to see a ’73 or ’74 with the flat tops, so you would do well to keep them, in my opinion. Just my thoughts

Rich, you're right, the PO didn't mess with it hardly at all. He seems to have taken great care of the car but I don't think he was particularly mechanically inclined so he didn't mess with it or install aftermarket parts. You're also right that my opinion of the flat tops has been colored by what I've read here as well as input from a local Datsun shop and ZTherapy (which must be taken with a grain of salt since they're trying to sell a non-flat top product). But also, the car runs pretty terribly and definitely exhibits the difficultly with warm starts that I've learned is common with the flat tops. The carbs need an overhaul, and I'm not sure whether to refurb the flat tops or change over to SUs. I didn't go into this intending to keep a very original car but given this one's condition it doesn't seem right to mess up too much.

...

The paint and body look great, chrome bumpers look awesome in the pics, and if the interior looks as good as the body you are in a great spot with it...

Thanks Hardway! The car is pretty solid but there are soft spots in the floors and you can tell there's rust in both rockers. I'd like to completely re-do the car eventually but I have neither time nor money for that now. Since the car is pretty solid I just want to put the suspension back together and address driveability and have fun with it.

The chrome is decent, just a little dull and slightly pitted. I haven't looked into polishing products/techniques yet.

The interior is really nice, I'll get some shots since I just finished putting it back together.

[bacarl]

Re: flat tops and smog, just look at this mess. Wouldn't you rather have a shiny set of properly sorted ZT SUs sitting in there without all that other nonsense?

I'm lucky to have a facility nearby that allows all kinds of DIY machining and fab work. I'm trying to get in to use their powder coater for my front suspension but there's a long wait to take the certification course. So the suspension has been apart for weeks. In the meantime I've been working on the interior. The passenger window wasn't working well and the driver side lock wasn't working so I removed the trim panels and poked around inside the doors. I was able to fix both issues and added a bunch of RAAMmat (Dynamat type stuff) to the door panels.

The choke lever was so stiff I could barely pull it back, so I also removed the console and choke cables, cleaned and greased them, and reinstalled the choke lever assembly welded onto a metal plate as suggested by ZTherapy. The lever feels so smooth now! Unfortunately I failed to take any photos of this process, I don't know what I was thinking. "While I was at it" I replaced the completely MIA shifter bushings, so the shifter feels much better.

Once I get the powder coating done I'll really be able to make some progress. My bead blasted control arms and knuckles are just sitting and waiting (and rusting).

Here's the before... gross.

Edited July 26, 2013 by bacarl

[Patcon]

I don't know if this product is suitable for powder coating, you could probably ask Eastwood. I use Eastwood's "After blast" on parts after I strip them. It is an acid product with some other additives it works a lot like "Ospho" but with out the varnish like finish. It turns the parts blueish gray like Phosphoric acid does and they can sit for months in my shop and not develop any surface rust. You might want to look into it... FWIW no relation with either company...

Charles

[bacarl]

Time for an update. I finished my first batch of powder coating! Everything turned out well I think, for my first time. Here are some before & during shots while sandblasting the parts:

Sandblasting is great but awfully time consuming.

Everything sandblasted!