Darkstar

Some of my panels (especially the one behind left rear strut tower) are cracked, which leaves me with two possibilities - 1) repair them, 2) throw them out and buy a nice black interior. I will change the exterior paint from original 113 green to racing green, which means that the correct interior will be black. Thanks for your suggestions, I'll write to ClassicDatsun.com to find out if they can ship a full interior package to Europe.

Hi guys, I've decided to change my Zed's interior, because the original plastics were showing signs of wear and were simply to tough to clean up - it seem that the previous owners left it as-is from the factory. I heard that there is someone who makes reproduction plastics, vinyl and those funny rivets, but I don't know if it's true or not. Maybe I should search for such kits on eBay? Any piece of advice would be great. Thanks in advance, Tony.

Oh man... Nismo N1 block, JUN crank, Crower Rods and Wiseco pistons - now THAT is a PROPER motor. Congrats!

Restore it! Too many Zeds have already become parts cars, PLEASE try to preserve at least some of them.

Can you possibly rip it to your computer and upload it somewhere? I don't have History Channel...

It's a shame that there are so few Z owners over here - I'd call a few people and arrange a group buy. I see so many parts cars out there on eBay, and I can't get any of them, just because they're so far. I've only seen one American 240Z at the German eBay, but the price was just too high for a car in such bad condition (it cost more than the 5 in the American auction). I'm just wondering, how many of the original 240Z's are still running? Looks like they're likely to become scarce soon...

I was planning to put these on my car. Did you have them made, or maybe you just bought them? They look great.

And btw: what kind of primer did you use?

Mull, I've been following your project for a year or so, and, to tell you the truth, every time I watch the videos I have to pick up my jaw from the floor... I just can't imagine myself doing all that, the body looked impossible to be repaired. I'm restoring my Z now, but rust in my car is NOTHING compared to your Z. It almost looked as if it was a machinegun target or something. I'm just glad that there are so many Z's in Sweden, here in Poland there are around 4 or 5 - and it has twice the population of Texas. I'm going to Sweden during the next year's vacations, can I drop by just to touch the car? Please!

Talk about parking problems... My car used to have the orignial steelies with a bit of metal welded to the outside (!) making them a lot wider. The tyres were Dunlops with so few tread that they looked like slicks, there was absolutely no pressure in front tyres, and their width was 225 front and 245 rear... On a stock car. Now THAT was tiring. 225's at the rear shouldn't be that bad, after all there are Supra guys who run 285's or 305's at the rear and don't complain about the ride quality.

I hope Jay won't mind if I ask another question in this topic - are there any companies that make vintage-like seats? I want to change the seats in my car, but I don't think that modern buckets would look good inside. I'm searching for something that looks as if it was designed for the Z.

Damn... Stupid things like that happen too often. Well, at least it was nothing serious, so nothing happened to you or your girl. BTW: How's the project going?

In my opinion even a nice car can be turned into a ricemobile, it just depends on the owner. Take the Zed for example - I've seen too many S30s with huge, unnecessary rear spoilers (bigger than in 911 Turbos), with stock brakes beneath huge rims and tires, awful-looking exhausts, horrible low-quality plastic bodykits (I'm not reffering to the ones that really help the aerodynamics), and - what's worst - a shedload of ducktape from WalMart. I understand that some people don't have money to build concours-winning Zeds, but at least they can try to preserve them instead of making them what the manufacturer didn't really intend it to be (ie: a shed on wheels). I don't know if it's about a lack of taste or something, but I just don't understand the people who put huge aluminium wings, lots of stickers, hundreds of cable ties and pop rivets just to keep it together, on cars that could be beaten at the lights by my mom's old Subaru with my grandma driving. I've even seen a C5 Vette with silver stickers everywhere, and a poor 993 Porsche at British Motor Show with so much plastic, filler and paint around it, that it was almost impossible to recognize what kind of car it was (fortunately there was a specification list). The worst thing about it is that after the ricer gets bored with the car, he buys another one (in my country typically an old BMW), and sells his old "ride" to another ricer, because nobody else would buy it. After several crashes and repairs, these cars usually go straight to the junkyard. Sad. I'd prefer these cars to be driven in peace, and then simply go to a junkyard, possibly providing parts for the ones that still do well.

And to think I was afraid that my car would sound plain with factory SU's... It's just plain awesome! I'll record it and set it to play whenever I start up Windows.

They look like ATS Classics... They're quite popular in Europe, but I've never seen them on an American car.

Guus, it should be something around 42cc... 42,4? :beard:

240ZX, Euro spec cars came with 5 speed 'boxes from the factory, and my car has the "B" type (overdrive 5th gear) transmission, and, as far as I know, 3,90:1 R180 diff. I'll think of the electronic ignition. I will certainly change the flywheel and clutch - despite the fact that I won't be pushing the power over 200HP, the car will need to be durable enough to cope with more stress, as I will run it in rallies. EFi seems to be a good idea (I've seen the ITB's on TWM site, are they only for the L28 heads?), but unfortunately the budget I can spend on the engine is quite limited - first I would like to tighten the handling a bit and make it go faster without touching the L24, and that's why I began to search for a good diff, gearbox and so on. Anyway, I'll keep looking in the carb section, hopefully I'll find something useful. Thanks for the replies. Regards, Tony.

Hi guys, it's been about a month since I last posted here, as I didn't have much access to the Internet. I made a brief search in the Carbs section, but unfortunately I didn't found anything. Sorry if there's a topic like this. I want to modify my engine a bit, and I've been considering various parts to use. First, I'll have to do a general rebuild with factory-specified parts, in exception of camshaft, which I would like to be a longer duration one, thinner head gasket (without raising the CR it wouldn't benefit much from longer duration), a better-flowing exhaust system including the manifold and small (but obviously imprtant) things like better plugs, wires etc. As far as I know, well set Hitachi carbs (round tops) would be sufficient for fast driving, but triple twin-chokes like Dellorto DLHA or Weber DCOE would result in better performance. BUT there's a drawback in form of more troublesome maintenance and worse fuel economy... Thus making it difficult to run every day. I thought of different carbs, and after leaving an idea of a 3 Hitachi setup fabrication I was left with nothing. My question is - will a set of bigger bore carbs, like 2 inch Jaguar SUs, result in better performance? They should be able to handle the power, plus there's the advantage of possibly use the factory intlet manifold. Best regards, Tony.

Okay, so how many sale offers did you get? Even with my battered HLS30 on the trailer, I got five overs over a 300km trip when I trailered it home, and another two during my road to the workshop. It's rare to hear that somebody actually got his/her hands on a genuine C10 GT-R, but the fact that somebody GAVE it to you is simply unbeleivable abd it leaves me speechless... Dr Shimizu must really be a great man. Anyway, congratulations on owning such a special car. Cheers from London, I'll be staying in the UK for a week or so.

Looks stunning! The flares look quite like the ones from Samuri race cars, just get a set of Minilites or Panasports.

It depends what you like. Both motors can bring you difficulties during the installation, but other than that, they're two different worlds. Everybody will tell you that the V8 is about raw power and torque, while the SR20 with its aluminium block, which is shorter than the L28's, has less outright power, but could help you transfer more wight to the rear, if that's what you want. When I was new to the Z world I was surprised how easily the V8 could be transplanted there, in comparison to other small sports cars, not necessarily Japanese. In contrast, the SR20 and the Z can be a great combination in terms of handling, because the iron block V8 are just much heavier (if it's not a Buick/Olds/Rover aluminium V8 or any member of the Chevy LS family). If I were you, I wouldn't take any of these motors - the FJ20ET is a nice older motor with an indestructible iron block and magnesium head, and has a turbo thrown in for a good measure. The parts availability is another thing, there just aren't many around.

My car - Euro '73 240Z, 113 leaf green with tan hide, now black, HLS30-52689.

Bushy, as far as the gearbox is concerned, I think you should go with the Borg Warner T5. The 280ZX and RWD Sierra Cossie should fit without any problems, but you'll need to fabricate a new propshaft or modify the original Z unit.

As far as I know, Goertz was hired by Nissan in 1963 to design the new 2000GT, which was a joint venture project of Nissan and Toyota. Here's a picture of a finished model, which was planned to go on sale in 1965. Nissan was somehow dissatisfied with the engine idea that Yamaha came up with. It was a twin cam, 2 liter inline six, which was similar in construction to the later S20. After making up an initial agreement, Yamaha went to Toyota to show them their concept. Toyota agreed to produce it, and it all ended up with 306 (correct me if I'm mistaken) built 2000GT's. After that, Nissan partially used the Goertz design, and launched the Z project. Funny how it works - if it was Nissan building the 2000GT, we would probably be driving Toyota Z cars... I hate to admit that, but IMO the Z cars kept losing their character from the second generation on. The 350 is a nice car, but still, it will never give you the same pleasure from driving as the rough 240. It's just too easy to drive it fast... An old car gives you simple signals that warn you not to push it too far. I miss this feeling whenever I drive anything newer than 1980...

I'm a fresh 240Z owner (I've had it for about a month now), and despite the fact that it's my first car, I've noticed a few things that make it quite unique among other classics. First of all, it was surprising for me that I could just jump in and go straight out without any hesitation. It may be a 33 year old car, but it really can be daily driven, without the need to tune it up every time you start it, as hls30.com pointed it out. My dad has a '68 Mercedes Benz 250SL, and in comparison, they're two different worlds. Whereas Benz needs a lot of care and attention to keep going good, the Zed can be easily maintained and it keeps on pulling hard every time you press the loud pedal. It's easy to work on it too, since there are all those HLS30 fans around, there's lots of useful information here and there. A may be a bit biased (since it's my first car), but I just love it, and I don't think I'll get anything else quicker than in a few years. It's just so fun to work with. I drove an Austin - Healey 3000 (BN7 chassis code) a few months ago, and it felt a bit... Primitive, or should I say basic. It was basically a stripped out racer, but nonetheless it felt different than the Z (I have no carpets inside either). Dunno why, but I love it's spirit. Hope you'll find a nice car, post some pics when you finally get it! Tony