Livin' Z Life - Historical Archive

[Arne]

9 Mar 2008 - Maneuvering Parts

Still more of the same going on around here. I remove parts, take pictures of them and offer them for sale, and frequently I sell, pack and ship them. It has all gone much easier than I expected, partly because the yellow car truly did have a fair number of decent parts, and a number of them were/are somewhat rare parts that were only used on the first year or so of production.

Not all of the parts get sold, however. As I continue removing parts from the yellow car, I noticed that the worn spots on the vinyl seat covers was quite different than that of the red car. The backrests of the yellow car are worn, tattered and ripped open. But the seat cushions looked pretty good. In contrast, the backrests of the red car are very nice, but the vinyl on the lower cushions was brittle and split open in the pleats. I do know that the red car's original owner was very tall, well over six feet, and apparently having the seat adjusted back that far has prevented wear on the seatbacks as he got into and out of the car.

Oddly enough, even the vinyl on the lower cushions of the yellow car appeared to be factory original. So it seemed to make sense to combine parts to see if I could improve the red car's seats. So I used the lower vinyl from the yellow car with the original red car's seatbacks. I swapped the lower vinyl side to side to optimize the wear, and used both of the foam cushions from the two cars' passenger seats. This worked out quite well. The seats are much nicer looking without the splits in the seat cushions, and the driver's seat is a bit more comfortable as well with the better foam. Admittedly they aren't perfect, and at some point I'll end up replacing all the vinyl and foam in both seats. But this swap did make a nice improvement, and has moved seat work much farther down the priority list.

I'm making plans to attend a Datsun swap meet in Wilsonville at the end of the month. I'm going to try to sell a few of the larger items that are a pain to pack and ship. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.

[Arne]

30 Mar 2008 - Preparing for Summer

I had originally planned to take a bunch of parts to a Datsun swap meet in Wilsonville yesterday, but as last week progressed and the weather forecasts continued to deteriorate, I was leaning more and more towards staying home anyway. Then, while driving the red 240Z to work on Thursday, I thought that there seemed to be more road noise from the rear than normal. I drove it again on Friday and paid attention to it, and no question about it, there was a lot of noise coming from the left rear. Sounded like the wheel bearings were bad (again).

So instead of driving to Wilsonville, I went into the garage Saturday morning (while it was still snowing outside) and jacked up the left rear wheel. Pulled the wheel and brake drum off, then unbolted the halfshaft and spun the hub. No doubt about it -- the hub was stiff to spin and very notchy feeling. I had replaced these bearings a few months ago, so I must have got something in one when I did it, either grit, or maybe a chip from the hammer or drift.

So I need to do it again. This time, I won't cheap out, I'll take the strut/hub to a machine shop and have it pressed together by them, instead of by me and my hammer.

In the mean time, I decided to keep the car useable by temporarily installing the left rear strut/hub from the yellow car. Since I have had the spindle pins out of both cars recently, I was able to pull them back out fairly easily, no puller was needed. So the red car has the LR strut from the yellow car in it for now, and the red car's strut is on the floor of the garage awaiting new bearings. Started this at 9:00, finished about noon.

On the test drive, I went down to my local Nissan dealer to pick up parts. I'm starting to gather replacement pieces in preparation for paint. Today's load was some of the rubber parts that I'll want/need to replace. Things like wiper shaft boots, rear bumper end pads, hood rail bumpers, and fuel door flap. I am tentatively scheduled to take the car to Salem (~50 miles) at the end of April to have the roof re-skinned. The rest of the paint will hopefully happen later this Spring.

Up next, the new wheel bearings, and dropping the transmission to look for a leak, probably the input shaft seal.

[Arne]

28 Apr 2008 - In for Surgery

It's been four weeks since I last updated this page, but up until this last weekend there hasn't been much of interest to post. I did replace the rear wheel bearing I mentioned in the last update, and also dropped the transmission to replace the input shaft seal (again). Both jobs went well, and I used a Nissan seal in the transmission this time, so hopefully it will do better than the generic aftermarket seal I used before. (So far, so good.)

Other than that, my main car activity has been selling parts. Until this last weekend.

Saturday was the true point of no return for the yellow car. Up until then, it could still have been salvaged, although it would have taken a huge pile of cash to repair it and replace the parts I've sold so far. But on Saturday, the axe finally fell. I used a reciprocating saw to cut the roof off.

Then on Sunday I prepped the red car for a roof skin graft, which will eliminate the aftermarket sunroof. I removed the stainless windshield trim, drip moldings, and a associated interior parts around the roof.

Today, I drove it to the body shop in Salem for the work. Scott will drill out all the spot welds on the two roofs and weld the yellow car's roof skin into place on the red car. And now back home, I wait. I'm hoping to be able to go pick it up on Friday, assuming all goes as expected. Stay tuned...

[Arne]

4 May 2008 - Back Home and Disassembled

Well, it's back, and it's good. I drove back to Salem late Friday afternoon to retrieve the car. And was very pleased once I started looking it over. Scott did a great job.

I'll admit that despite all the great word of mouth, I still had some fears that it wouldn't turn out as good as I wanted. After all, it's a bit scary to let some guy you've only met twice open your car up like a can of beans. But in the end, his work was - if anything - better than I had hoped for. Perfect contours with clean and smooth seams (can't see or feel them). He did a great job re-adjusting the hatch, it fits better than it ever has. And he stripped all the old glue off the underside of the roof and sealed it with a gloss epoxy in preparation for re-installing the headliner.

After driving it home and really looking it over, I'm thrilled. I really don't see how it could be much better. For a skilled body man, the job is fairly straightforward. Drill out all the spot welds on the donor panel to remove it intact, cut the bad roof off the car and grind down (not drill) the spot welds on the car, and re-weld the new panel into place. I'm certain that any competent sheet metal guy could do it, but I'm glad I picked one who has done it on these cars before.

But good as it is, it doesn't look great in primer, so rather than put it back together, I spent yesterday and today taking it the rest of the way apart for painting. Since it doesn't need paint under the hood or inside the car, I don't have to strip it to a bare shell and can leave some stuff on the car. In fact, it will still move under its own power. I'll drive it to the paint shop, and pull the tail lights and rear plate once I'm there. Looking into a new windshield while I'm at it.

Deanna pointed out that just last Sunday, I had a really nice looking 240Z. One week later, and look at what I've done to the poor car.

The painter is still saying 2 weeks, and since it's really a fairly simple job, maybe he can do it. Still pushing it for Canby though...

[Arne]

25 May 2008 - One is Gray, One is Gone

This weekend's topics, paint and farewell. The red car was delivered to the paint shop two days after the last entry. He was a little slow getting started, but progress has really picked up over the last week or so. As of last Thursday, virtually all of the bodywork was complete, and the car was about ready to be blocked out. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress to that point.

 

I plan to go visit again Tuesday afternoon. If all goes as planned, by that time the car should be red again. Although it's getting tight, we are still on track for getting it back on Friday. That would give me two full weekends to get it reassembled prior to the show in Canby. It might work.

I'll be going to Canby even if the car is not ready to drive, as I have a few last parts to deliver to some other Z people, and one of my friends from Tacoma will be bringing down his freshly restored 240Z, which I can't wait to see in person rather than pictures.

Speaking of Z parts, my moonlighting as a 240Z parts supplier is pretty much over. The yellow car's shell was hauled off this past Friday. It was a good car for me, even if it wasn't feasible to repair it. It got me started with Zs, found me some new friends, was the reason the red car found me, was an invaluable learning and diagnostic tool, and supplied needed parts for a whole pile of Zs around the world. And now what was left when I was done with it went to another gentleman who plans to make use of what remains. Goodbye, HLS30-12746, it was fun.

[Arne]

2 Jun 2008 - Yes, It's Red

I picked the car up last Friday. It's red, glossy and straight. The results look to be just what I wanted, not a showroom or concours job, but a very sharp refresh of an original survivor.

I started reassembling it Friday evening, but didn't go too far, as I wanted to make certain that I was fresh when I worked on it. Picked back up Saturday morning. By the end of Saturday, I had all the glass and door hardware re-installed, and had begun working on the lights. On Sunday I completed the exterior: lights, trim, bumpers and emblems.

I still have to clean all the dust out of the interior before I re-install all the soft trim, but have all of next weekend to get that done, as I had hoped that this would all come together in time to make it to the show in Canby on Father's Day. Turns out that wasn't tough at all. The whole project came together very smoothly.

Yes, during the reassembly I've found a few very small and mostly inconspicuous flaws, but no one (and no car) is perfect and on the whole, I'm very pleased. It was a good looking car when I tore it apart five weeks ago. Now, the roof is right, the color is far less 'orangey' (but is still a rather 'warm' red) and is uniform from top to bottom, and it is not covered with door dings and rock chips. In short, it is an even better looking car now.

[Arne]

15 Jun 2008 - Public Exposure

Today was the second day of the Datsun get-together in Canby, which is the best day to go if you are not a member of the sponsor club, or can only go for one of the two days. This is the day that the cars are all there, and all on display. And yes, we were there.

I pretty much finished reassembling the interior last weekend, other than the headliner (which will take at least two people and some advance planning). Spent a couple evenings just looking things over and some final prep. Last night, I loaded a few odd parts, checked the tire pressure, oil, and suchlike.

Then this morning, Deanna and I met up with another local couple in their 280Z and took off. After 90 minutes or so on the road, we stopped at a freeway rest area that many area Z owners had designated as a gathering spot, so that we could all drive the last 10 miles or so in a group. We ended up with ten, maybe eleven early Zs (one each 260Z and 280Z, the rest 240Zs) and a 350Z bringing up the rear caravanning our way to the fairgrounds. I was towards the end of the train, saw nothing but Zs in front of me, and more in my mirrors behind me. That's a rare sight these days.

The show itself was great. Good weather, more cars than last year, lots of friends to talk with. As always, I get to visiting with friends and looking at cars, and I forget to take pictures. You'd think that I'd be reminded by the fact I have the camera hanging around my neck. But no, that doesn't seem to help. But I did take a few, and here's a couple of them.

Highlights? Well, I was very pleased to get my car on the road again, and it did garner numerous compliments. I was also thrilled to see Jim's car in person after his single-handed restoration over the past three years. (His is the orange 240Z in the picture above, parked directly in front of my car.) Also, 240Z #32 was down from the Seattle area, and it was interesting to see all the subtle differences between this very early production car and the run of the mill 240Z like my own. And of course, visiting with all my other Z friends that I really don't get to see very often.

All in all, it was a very good day.

[Arne]

30 Jun 2008 - Moving to July

Very quiet around here on the Datsun front since we got back from Canby. The car has only been out of the garage a couple of times since then, since I've been busy on non-Datsun projects at home. I don't see that changing in the short term, either. I've made plans to drive the car North in late July to meet with a few friends and install the headliner, and I'm hoping for a not-too-hot weekend day sometime in July for a picnic drive, perhaps with friends. But I don't expect much else of note to happen in July.

Longer term, there are a few things I have in mind now that the paint is done. No set time on any of this, but these are the items I'm thinking about, in no particular order.

• Carpet. The original carpet is badly faded, and the driver's floor piece is threadbare. New carpet is definitely on my short list. The only problem is that I haven't quite found a supplier who makes a replacement kit that is close enough to original. So no firm plans on this yet.
• Front suspension rubber. No real problems here (yet), but like the rear, all these rubber parts are 37 years old. That can't be good. Might not get to this until over the Winter.
• Exhaust. I do like the way the current exhaust sounds, it has a nice, mellow note. But that's about it. I don't like the construction (welded one piece from manifold back, hard to remove for service), the small pipe size (1 7/8 inch), the rust (due to mild steel construction, not aluminized), or the appearance (odd looks with no rear muffler and cheap bolt-on chrome tip). This will definitely need some help at some point.
• Maybe wheels. I still like the look of the wire mag style wheels on the car, but now that the paint is done, the current wheels (with their pits, spots and surface imperfections) are not up to the standard of the rest of the car. This is probably the lowest priority of any of these things. So I will keep my eyes and ears open for a better set of wheels. But they will need to be period-correct, no more than 6 inches wide, and have a lot of surface for polishing (the bright red finish really needs a wheel that stands out). So some of the usual suspects for a 240Z won't do - like Libres (and the Libre-clones), turbines, Minilite/Watanabe-style, etc. I'll need to stick with things like the wire mag style I now have, perhaps a nice set of slot mags, or other styles that have a lot of flash when polished.

That's about it for Z news today. Check back for updates soon.

[Arne]

11 Aug 2008 - Wow, It's August Already

OK, so the last sentence in my last entry was more than a little optimistic. It's been a bit longer than "soon". Oh well, sorry. (As if anyone really cares.)

Got most of the non-Datsun projects at home wrapped up. Still some maintenance to perform on the other vehicles, but nothing particularly major. We did get the headliner installed in the Datsun a couple of weekends ago. And I took a couple of new pictures, one of which is below.

Yesterday, I left right after breakfast and drove to Portland again. Actually, to Blue Lake Park just East of Portland. The NW Datsun Owners' Association held their annual Show there. I decided that even though I'd rather drive somewhere other than up the freeway to Portland again, I wanted to meet up with my friends up there bad enough to justify the trip. (Next trip with the Datsun will be over roads that are more fun, I've promised myself that.)

It turned out to be a pretty nice show. Well attended, a wide variety of Datsuns and a few more modern Nissans, good weather - all in all, a pretty good day. Chatted most of the day with friends, and even came home with an award, even though I did no preparation, and didn't even clean off the bugs from the 125 mile drive to the show.

Nothing much else to report on the car itself. I'm still looking at carpet suppliers, and doing a bit of research on more wheels too. But that's about it for now.

[Arne]

25 Sep 2008 - Another Road Trip

Welcome back! There's been no changes to the 240Z during this website break, but I did get it back out on the road again. And this time there were no freeways involved.

I've been looking forward to this last event since I missed it last Fall. (I was rebuilding the transmission at this time last year.) Datsuns NW once again held a cruise and BBQ outside Corvallis. They meet at a rural park, drive from there to another park at the top of Mary's Peak (highest point in the Oregon Coast Range), and then back to the first park for a BBQ. Last year's event sounded fun, so I wanted to try to go this year.

As I made my plans and chatted to my friends about it, a couple of them also decided to go. Jim even drove down from Tacoma to come along, and spent the night before at our place.

On Saturday morning we headed up the back roads to Corvallis, and then on to Fort Hoskins Park. (No freeways, remember?) That in and of itself was a pleasant drive. There we met up with a group of Datsuns from Salem and farther North. It was a well attended event, with a good mix of vintage Datsuns. Unlike many events from the two NW Oregon Datsun clubs, this one was a bit lighter on 510s and pickups than most, with a higher than normal percentage of Zs and Roadsters.

After a while, people started breaking into small groups and leaving for the 25 mile run to Mary's Peak. There was a small miscue with the maps provided, they directed everyone on to a gravel road that was gated at the far end. Oops! Luckily, most of us figured that out in short order and took the paved roads instead. Said roads are all reasonably well-paved, pleasantly curvy, and had relatively light traffic this weekend. A good time, even for those of us not willing to drive as hard as some of the group does. (No, the burn-out tracks in the picture were not from any of our group, we were all better behaved than that.)

After photos and chit-chat at the top, we all drove back to Fort Hoskins, where the club barbequed ribs and burgers for all of us. Finally around mid-afternoon, the group began to break up and trickle back home. The drive home (back roads again) was also quite pleasant. A very good day.

[Arne]

26 Dec 2008 - Another Year Ends

Guess what? I haven't dropped off the face of the earth after all! But I will admit that there hasn't been all that much going on that's newsworthy. But since the end of the year approaches, I'll recap a bit.

The first thing to note is that the second anniversary of the red Z was about a week after my previous update. And this second year saw another 3000 miles pass, about the same as the first. It has seen its share of changes this year, too. Most obviously the absence of the sunroof and the new paint. It was a nice looking car before, and it's even better looking now. Add in a few of the minor additions (FM radio, better headlights, etc.) and the end result is a great looking, nice driving 240Z. I enjoy driving it, even to the point of not worrying too much if I'm getting it dirty.

I have spent some time lately working on one of the remaining areas that still bug me - the wheels. Regular visitors may remember that when I had the mags polished, two of them didn't turn out all that well. So I've spent several hours with fine sandpaper and polish working to improve the two worst wheels. And that has gone pretty well. I've been able to make a noticeable improvement in those wheels, enough that they no longer attract my attention every time I walk by them. Admittedly, most other people never noticed the problems before, unless I pointed them out. But now they're not even as obvious to me, so I think this will do - until I happen to stumble upon the perfect set of wheels at some swap meet somewhere.

And lastly, I think I've been able to finally pin down the ignition. I've gone back and forth several times between the original points ignition and a later electronic ignition from a 280ZX. The original points worked fine, but there are advantages to electronic that I wanted - primarily less need for choke on startup and quicker warmup. The ZX ignition gave that, but I found that the ZX advance curve is just too aggressive for my car with its higher compression and early combustion chamber shape. With the ZX ignition the car would ping under load even with stock timing and premium fuel. So I went back to the points some time ago, and that's where things sat, until today.

Today I installed a Pertronix Ignitor conversion into the original distributor, along with a matching Pertronix coil. This should give me the results I want. Since I'm still using the original distributor, the advance curve is unchanged, it's the same curve that has worked well all along. But I still gain the hotter and more consistent spark from the electronic trigger and the new coil. It's all in place, timed and running. Now I just need to start driving it.

[Arne]

15 Feb 2009 - Into the New Year

I left off the last entry saying I that now needed to drive the car. Well, drive it I have. The car has actually seen a fair bit of use over the past six weeks. Nothing special, just driving. But there have been a few recent changes, too.

For one, I finally got around to putting a pair of speakers on the back, in the factory locations. This allowed me to remove those big speaker boxes I had 'temporarily' mounted under the seats. The factory only put one speaker in 240Zs, but there are mounting holes that match in the opposite side. So I installed an inexpensive pair of Kenwood single-cone speakers there. Nothing fancy, after all, that old Pioneer is not much of a stereo by today's standards. But the sound is better (now that I'm not sitting over it), and everything still looks pretty much original.

Last weekend I removed and rebuilt the fuel pump. I've got what feels like a touch of fuel starvation when running it hard through the gears, above 4500 RPM or so. While I suspected all along that the float levels may be a bit too low in the carbs, I wanted to make certain that the fuel pump was in optimum condition before I start on the carbs. The original pumps are put together with screws and the critical parts (diaphragm and check valves) were available from the dealer. Rebuilding the pump did not affect the fuel starvation problem, so I'll be looking at the carbs at some point. As it turns out, I heard from other 240Z owners shortly after the pump job that Nissan has no more check valves. I may have got the last ones.

Today I installed new carpet in the car. I bought a complete set (5 pieces) from Classic Datsun Motorsports. Very similar to the original, and I'm fairly pleased with it so far.

I've also spent a fair amount of my spare time over the past couple of months working on another set of mags. Same brand and style as the ones now on the car, they had some cosmetic damage around the lug area that I have repaired and am now working to clean and polish them up. When I got them I wasn't sure I could make them look as good as I wanted for my car, but the results are looking good, and chances are they will go on to replace the current set later this Spring. Pictures and details to come later.