Deja Vu: 1971 Restoration

[motorman7]

  Seems like I just finished restoring my 918 orange 1971 240Z and now I have another one to work on.  This one however is a friends car and not mine personally.  And coincidentally, this one is also 918 orange.  They are virtual twins, although my friends is the series III 1971 while mine is an earlier Series II, so there are a few differences.   The serial numbers are off by about 9000 units.   Anyway, The car is in pretty reasonable shape and I think it would start with very little effort.   It has not run for about 5 years so I definitely will need to go through the fuel lines eventually.

The plan here is to document the restoration  so that my friend can watch the build as it progresses.  The goal is to have it look as nice or better than the one I just finished .  

 

The car arrived last Friday and my friend and I went over the vehicle and took a lot of pictures.   I will post some of these as time permits.  I charged the battery to see what condition the electrical was in.  The running lights and headlights were operational and most of the dash lights worked.  The engine was able to turn over and the heater fan works.  Electrically, everything seems to be in very good working order.  It will be nice to not have to mess with the electrical on the car.

 The next step is to strip the car and prep it for paint.  There are a few small dings on the body that will be easy to fix.  The underside will be a bit more of a challenge.  The frame rails and floor pan are pretty deeply dented in several spots.  Also, the back hatch area has some deep rust.  I will fix that before it gets sent off to paint.

So, I started pulling off parts today.  Attached are some pics of the progress.  I will post pics as the process continues. 

 

[madkaw]

Make some $$$ for your car - sweet. It's also nice to have a copy handy to reference !!


Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[siteunseen]

Nice looking car!  Looks almost identical to mine so I'll be watching this for some ideas/tips. 

I sure was happy to get rid of my Yorx a/c compressor and that pulley bracket, it was inop anyway and a huge pain in the butt.  

[psdenno]

What's the build month on the new '71 project?  The picture of the interior shows a later style center console than my April '71 Z.

Dennis

[motorman7]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

Nice looking car!  Looks almost identical to mine so I'll be watching this for some ideas/tips. 

I sure was happy to get rid of my Yorx a/c compressor and that pulley bracket, it was inop anyway and a huge pain in the butt.  

Fortunately, the owner does not want the A/C in the car car, so I will be removing the compressor. I didn't realize that it was a Yorx compressor...I thought it was a Briggs & Stratton .  The weight of that compressor and bracket has got to be near 30 pounds.

12 minutes ago, psdenno said:

What's the build month on the new '71 project?  The picture of the interior shows a later style center console than my April '71 Z.

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

   I will check when I get home on the build date and get back to you.  I know that it is later in the year.

 

[7tooZ]

Has this car been converted to a 5 speed. This console looks like it is from a 72. I have two series 1 consoles, but they would require trimming to be used with a later 5 speed conversion. Are you in need of the chock lever cover, ash tray, and the defroster switch?


Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[Zed Head]

12 hours ago, motorman7 said:

 They are virtual twins, although my friends is the series III 1971 while mine is an earlier Series II, so there are a few differences.   The serial numbers are off by about 9000 units.

Weird, I've been observing the 240Z's indirectly, since I have a 280Z, but I never noticed anyone refer to anything but Series I and Series II (and there have been arguments over just those two labels).  But now I see that maybe they go all the way up to IV.  And there are actually two Series I's, a 1969 and 1970 version.

Is this generally accepted labeling or is it just a certain club's?  I found Carl Beck's page when I searched "240Z Series III".  Somehow I'd never seen it before.

http://zhome.com/History/DesignChanges.htm

[motorman7]

17 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

Weird, I've been observing the 240Z's indirectly, since I have a 280Z, but I never noticed anyone refer to anything but Series I and Series II (and there have been arguments over just those two labels).  But now I see that maybe they go all the way up to IV.  And there are actually two Series I's, a 1969 and 1970 version.

Is this generally accepted labeling or is it just a certain club's?  I found Carl Beck's page when I searched "240Z Series III".  Somehow I'd never seen it before.

http://zhome.com/History/DesignChanges.htm

Carl's page is what I would use as a reference.  I don't know enough of the history otherwise.  The serial number on my 71 is 40498 which falls in the series II range.  The series III 1971 Z is in the 49000 range which fits with the reference.

The center console and fuel tank door are the two most obvious indicators of the different series.

1 hour ago, 7tooZ said:

Has this car been converted to a 5 speed. This console looks like it is from a 72. I have two series 1 consoles, but they would require trimming to be used with a later 5 speed conversion. Are you in need of the chock lever cover, ash tray, and the defroster switch?


Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

The car has the standard 4 speed and the console is complete and in very nice condition.  The choke light and rear defroster lights also work, very nice.

[Zed Head]

Don't want to hijack your thread.  Just trying to figure out who decided.  Seems to be the IZCC, I guess.  Internet Z Car Club. 

Carry on.  There's probably a past thread out there about it.

[wheee!]

Very solid car to start a resto on! Good luck and keep posting pics!

[motorman7]

I just had to post this picture of the spare from this car.  I think this is the most perfect original spare that I have ever seen.

[Captain Obvious]

Wuss. Post a pic without the hold-down plate installed so we can see if lug nuts were ever torqued down and smeared the paint.