Hello Folks,

It's been quite a while since I've been on the board or worked on my Z, but I've had my 240z sitting in my garage under a car cover for the last 10yrs.. I recently retired and now have the spare time to spend working on the car again...

When I left it parked in the garage it was running and drive-able... but having been sitting for the last 10yrs, I made up a list of the items that I'll probably need to do first on the car..

My current List
Drain gas, Drain coolant, Drain / replace oil, Replace clutch slave, Replace brake and clutch fluid, Replace coolant / heater hoses, Replace radiator, Replace tires

Once i get to this point then I am considering farming out most if not all of the major engine and suspension work to a shop.. The car has a few modification that I and or the previous owner (a high school buddy)l had done...
Roll cage, Recaro seat, upgraded stereo, recovered door panels and carpet, MSD electronic distributor, MSD 6A digital ignition control, 5sp tranny, re-painted, rust areas taken care of.. I'm currently in the process of restoring the stock seat with the seat rebuild foam and covers from the Z store

Other than this the car is pretty much stock, I'm at a cross road as to weather to keep the car of sell it. I've kept it because i think it such a cool looking car.. the other thing is that I can't find a shop of mechanic in my area that I would trust with working on my car.

The Z as it sits is in my opinion in very good shape, it's not a concourse car by any means, If I keep the car, I'm considering putting in another 20-30k in fixing it up, but I'm not sure if this would be a wise move. Pictures of my Z are in my profile

I would assume if you're on this board you're some what a Z-fanatic.. So what do you guy's think?

Dust it off, get it running, evaluate how much you enjoy owning and driving a 53 year old Datsun, and then decide if it's worth tossing more money at it to revitalize it.  Consider the $20-30K you mentioned putting into it as an investment in driving/owning pleasure rather than future financial return.

Congratulations on the retirement, hopefully I'm only a few years behind you.  There is a list of things you should do to wake up your baby from its long rest, someone will be along shortly with a link no doubt.

Once you start driving it I don't think you will want to sell it, there is no other car that I can think of in the $20-30,000 dollar category that is as much fun to drive than these Z's

Good on you for keeping it.

Here's a good thread, slip on down to post #8 from Carl Beck for some great starting points.

 

Gent's

 

Thanks for your input thus far...

@psdeeno I think I''ll probably be following your line of thought... I'll get the car into running shape and re-evaluate my situation again... Most of what I have on my to-do list won't cost me very much in parts, and my time is obviously is gonna be free..

@grannyknot. thanks, retirement has been great so far, but than I've only been fully retired for only about a month... looking forward to summer, as I got a house paint project I need to get done... I have to admit part of the thrill of driving the Z was all of the looks I got driving around town... and it doesn't help that I have images  of Sung Kang's fugu Z dancing around in my head... I swear that car is so dam sexy looking

@jfa.series1... Thankks for the link to Carl's post... looking thru that thread and all of the names I recognized brings back good memories of the old timers from way back when....

Good opportunity to do a "will it run" pictorial.  Let's see that fuel tank turpentine.

58 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

Good opportunity to do a "will it run" pictorial.  Let's see that fuel tank turpentine.

Funny you should mention this... I was looking over my to-do list, and I was thinking since I'll be draining the gas tank, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to drop the tank and send it to a radiator shop and have the innards hot tanked, and then pour some gas tank sealer in... Then in the mean time I can replace all of the old fuel lines... I'll have to contemplate on this a bit.....

All comes down to how much they charge to fix a 40plus year old tank versus buying a new one.

If you cover the valve train with oil, charge a couple of batteries and change the fuel filter you can bypass all the gas tank stuff by taking the pull hose off the fuel pump and put it in a new gas jug with fuel then bungee cord it down in front of the radiator, pull the coil wire off and spin it over. I think I'd take the plugs out for easier rotation to get new fuel and oil throughout the motor then new plugs and it should at least sputter. That's all I had to do to get mine running then I tore it all apart and replaced with new parts from bumper to bumper.

Edited May 23, 2024May 23 by siteunseen

58 minutes ago, Yarb said:

All comes down to how much they charge to fix a 40plus year old tank versus buying a new one.

I was unaware that someone was reproducing the gas tanks for the early Z's.. I did a googled search and found that s30.com(?) was selling them for about $700USD I believe.. I don't expect my tank to be in that bad of a shape.. there aren't any dent that I could see on the bottom... what it will look like inside could be a different story..

The Z has always been stored inside a garage since I've know the car when i brought it from my school friend.. and I've always taken it out when it's been dry and or sunny, so I'm not expecting it to cost me all that much to have it hot tanked.. probably a couple of hundred bucks... what I expect to kill me will be the cost of the misc. replacement hoses and possibly a new filler hose and sending unit.

When I did a search for a new filler hose just out of curiosity.. that was like $275, and i think the sending unit was $75

Yes S30.World

You won't know what it needs until you get in to it.  The quality of the garage will be important.  How you prepared it for storage will affect its rebirth.  Did you dran the carb bowls?  Add some stabilizer to the fuel?

On the fuel tank, a lot will depend on the gas cap seal.

I'd take site's advice and just crank it up on new fuel.  It's carbs so not much to lose.  See how it runs and decide if you have a huge project or just some minor work to do.  

I'd be careful pulling the chokes on also. The nozzles haven't been moved up and down in 10 years so maybe loosen the wires and pull them down by hand. Get those loosened up so you won't break the choke lever mount on the console. Also feel the "J" hoses from the nozzles to the the float chambers and make sure they aren't hardened. 

Good luck waking your baby/beast?