I am looking into getting a 240 to replace my 280ZX that was recently taken off the road. And I just wanted to know what colors the dash's came in. Most of the pictures i have seen have been black. from what i can remember thats all i have seen. did they have any other colors.?

Thanks

dashes are all black. you can get a dash cap and repaint it though. interior upholstery was offerred in red, black, tan, or white (that last one is quite rare)

sounds good. I was hoping actualy because I wanted the black dash. Just to match the paint i am going to paint it. Thanks for the info. PS is there any good placed to get more info on them. One thing, from what i have read they only came out with a 4 speed, and the 5 speed didnt come out till the 280z's. Is this true?

thanx

correct. 5 speed didn't appear until the 280.

as for dash cap parts and such, check www.zcarparts.com and order their catalog

So are you saying that US and Canadian 240z's only had a 4 speed manual? Australian and English 240z's had 5 speeds right from when they started exporting to these countries. I didn't realise that US had four speed's, but having looked in my datsun 240z book that has reviews from old car magazines, i notice that all the us mags list 4 gears. Well you learn something every day.

It's alos got a great story on the development of the 240z with some interesting prototype and clay model photos in it, including some very sodgey looking front ends.

Mr C.

That should be Dodgey. and Also.

Can upload the photos if anyone wants to see them. I'm sure it will break some copyright laws though!

Mr C.

I may be completely mistaken but I thought that I once read that a 5 speed was available for the 240Z in the US as a dealer option.

Anyone heard of this or I may have my wires crossed.

Yes the rest of the Z world had a better gearbox.

A 5 speed was available as an "option" depending totally upon the dealer you were buying from. You could drop in a 5 speed gearbox one of two ways. By taking a 2L roadster gearbox and swapping the Z bellhousing so it would fit an L motor - but this only worked on early Z with 3 piece gearbox or if you could get the bellhousing. You could also buy 5 speed from Datsun comp catalog, which is what I did for my then new 73 240 (used up and long gone). It was costly, but going fast is never cheap.

Most of the local dealers here in No Va didn't bother with this as they were selling every car they could get and didn't care about doing this type of thing. They made more $ installing stripes, bumper bars and other junk. I got mine by knowing the parts guys well and I did it myself. Of course a 5 speed swap is nothing special today - they are everywhere.

Nice bit of nostalgic info there Dave.

Yes, nowedays nothing new but I guess back then it must have been real special.

Must have been great to buy one from new