Hardway's 1971 240z #8011 - Build and Repair Thread

[bartsscooterservice]

On ‎19‎-‎7‎-‎2015 at 4:26 AM, Patcon said:

If he doesn't know; I don't know who would...

I think I know what it is.. this is only to 240's with factory AC.  It's the mounting bracket for the condenser/radiator.

[Patcon]

I thought that might be MikeW's Z in the background, beautiful car. As for the cost of  nix240z nla parts. for starters, they are NLA! So he has to re-engineer them from acceptable used parts. There is a lot of work and tools needed to come up with finished parts. Vacuum pumps, vacuum chambers, materials for molds and rubber for parts. When you're production volume is low the corresponding prices are gonna go up. He's not gonna get rich making low demand parts for 240z's but I am glad they are available!

[Hardway]

A small celebratory post is in order.  Yesterday marked the 2 year anniversary of owning #8011.  It has been a long time since I posted up anything about the car but rest assured I still have it and she still runs.  With the warmer weather in full swing and lots of house projects taking up my time, I have not driven it very much.  I did make it out to the Austin Cars & Coffee on the 12th.  This past weekend I got to meet a fellow 240z owner that lives just a few minutes from me.  Over the past 6 months the To-Do list has been growing and it has reached a point I need to take the car off the road for a while and sort everything out.  The biggest item of attention is the rear suspension.  The car has had a noticeable sag in the rear for quite awhile but the drive out to C&C revealed a kind of rubbing/clunking noise when the suspension is pushed down.  So this will get addressed along with getting the heater control cables unstuck, cleaning and greasing the window tracks, and possibly tidying up the radio wiring.  

One of highlights of last year was getting to meet the original owner of the car.  It was great to hear his stories and see that he still kind of cared about the car.  I made a separate post which can be seen here -> http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/52547-a-meeting-with-the-original-owner-of-8011/ 

Another small project I have been working on is the restoration of the series-1 air cleaner I bought.  It is still a work in progress but I am getting there.  Once complete I will do a full write up on it.

Be safe out there everyone and stay cool!

[Mike]

Man this Z looks amazing.  Excellent work on the car..

[Hardway]

The July 4th weekend was very productive for getting work done on the Z.  I wrapped up the restoration and paint work on my series-1 air cleaner.  The full write up can be seen here -> http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/55771-series-1-air-cleaner-restoration-lots-of-pics/

With the air cleaner on and the old valve cover off I figured I would do a valve adjustment as I had noticed a little valve train noise the last time I drove the car.  Sure enough, 4 valves were a bit on the loose side.  All in all, a 20 minute job well done.

The 2400 valve cover and new cork gasket went on followed by the decals for the air cleaner.  The new paint and decals on the air cleaner really elevate the engine bay's level of cleanliness and accuracy.  Overall I am very happy with the way it came out considering the condition it was in when I started.

The crown jewel of the engine is the 2400 valve cover.  I cleaned and polished it a little but I like the natural aged look of the aluminum.  Given the state of the rest of the engine bay I think it looks right at home.

The final detail to be added is the paint code decal.  The car is an original 901 silver car.  Since the engine bay has already been stripped and re-sprayed I wanted to add this final touch.  All of the decals are very sharp and beautiful in their own way.  Mike at Banzai Motorworks is the man!  I know the community appreciates all of the work he does to make these small yet significant parts available.

It has been very rewarding to add the last two key components that make the engine bay "more correct". Many of you already know these parts are not cheap and not easy to come by.  However, with some patience and elbow grease the final result is nothing short of impressive.  That is all for now!

Edited July 9, 2016 by Hardway

[Hardway]

It has been a few months since my last post and wanted to share some updates.  Ever since August I have been tackling 3 projects at once – heater control cable repair, AM radio install, and power antenna replacement.  Since all of these items were related it only made sense to do them at the same time.  When I drove the car last January to Cars and Coffee on a very cold morning I pushed the control levers too aggressively in an effort to get heat in to the cabin.  I knew it as soon as the cable bent behind the panel and it has haunted me ever since.  Knowing the panel had to come out at the same time to do the radio install I was going to fix it once and for all.

With the old Alpine deck out and the panel pulled out some I quickly discovered the issue.  Two cables had bent and would need attention.  Through my post in the Interior forum I learned from other owners that once the longer cable had bent, it would never be strong enough again.  Add to this, Nissan issued a TSB about the cables being too weak in the first place and provided a solution to dealerships at the time.  Based on other owner experiences I ended up buying a roll of Precision Music Wire, part# 21051 from Grainger.  The wire is 1.295mm versus the original 1.0mm wire.  It’s cheap enough at $5.76 for 144 feet.  I also purchased 6 feet of Teflon coated 1.5mm inner diameter bike cable housing from a local bike shop.  After some cutting and bending I had a new cable.  If I had to do it over I would have paid more attention to the direction of curl/arc of the cable so that it was pointing the other direction.  However, since it all worked correctly in the end I am very happy.  Now that is it in the 40’s in Austin, it will be nice to have working heat should I decide to drive the car on a cold morning.

[Hardway]

Earlier in the year I purchased an original Hitachi Signal Seeking AM Radio from a friend of mine that was parting out a 240z.  I had bench tested it and everything worked as it should.  I was surprised how well the signal seeking feature worked as it easily pulled in sports radio, news, and a local gospel station.  Since I was going to go back to an original radio I also wanted to use the original power antenna control switch.  Before getting started I decided to remove the top cover of the radio to remove the rust and paint it.  My trusty Makita rotary tool mounted in my vice made quick work of remove the rust.  The cover was originally yellow cad plated but since no one would ever see the radio I opted to strip just the top side and paint it gold.  Not too bad and anything beats leaving it rusty.

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Hardway

[Hardway]

For the part you will see once the radio is installed, I took extra care in cleaning and repairing the face plate.  The bottom right corner was cracked so used some JB Weld to build it back up and sand it back down.  I then brush painted the corner flat black to cover the gray JB Weld.  Then with a very steady hand I painted the lettering of the face and around the trim.  I used Testors Chrome Silver.  It is not chrome but a very bright silver.  It only costs me my time since I had all the materials on hand.

After some posts in the Electrical forum on the correct order to install the radio parts, it was hooked up and everything was working.  Unfortunately some of the silver paint on the lettering came due to handling it so much and the small incandescent bulb is not illuminating.  It worked on the bench both times I tested it so it either the bulb or the socket has a bad connection.  Oh well, it will have to be tackled at a much later date as I have no plans to take it all apart again any time soon.

[Hardway]

The third part of this trifecta was the installation of a new power antenna.  The original Harada antenna had never worked since I purchase the car and has been stuck at about 1/4 all the time.  When I removed it from the car I cleaned it out hoping the motor would come back to life but it would not.  I found a Harada MX-1 semi-automatic antenna on Ebay for $35 shipped.  Using information provided by other owners in the Electrical forum on how to make this type of antenna work with the factory switch I ended up using two relays to achieve the complete control of the up and down motion of the antenna.  Very few cars have this feature and it was a hit at the next Cars and Coffee I attended with the Z. The original brown paper speaker was still in the car but had a small tear in the cone.  I replaced it with a 5.25" Metra speaker from the parts store as it was the lowest wattage speaker I could find.  I deeply regret never testing the original speaker and regret even more throwing it away.

[Hardway]

As an added bonus a local Z owner name Doug Masters and I headed out together to the November Cars and Coffee.  As rare as it is to see one 240z at C&C, it was even more rare to see two and both in the same color.  We had no shortage of people taking pictures and asking questions.  We could have started a consulting business that day!  With the end of 2016 in sight it was time for an oil change this past weekend.  This is a breeze with a lift and as always I use 20w-50 Valvoline VR1 and a Wix filter.  I have no more plans for awhile for the Z other than to drive it since this time year is great for enjoying classic cars in central Texas.

[Namerow]

7 hours ago, Hardway said:

Unfortunately some of the silver paint on the lettering came due to handling it so much

See my post elsewhere on using modeler's chrome foil to refresh these details.

[bpilati]

What makes a low serial number a 1971?

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