zKars

Just happened to have a friend who had a battery explode with long term storage hot storage with a trickly charger on it. He heard that old batterys have an issue with plates that warp, then eventually touch and go BOOM. Sounds like you got generally lucky. Good lesson about aging batteries.

Send me a PM and I can send you a phone # or email me at z240@shaw.ca

Yes it's for sale. It is in excellent condition. 71.5-73 wheel with the holes in the spokes. With horn button. Asking $300 shipped.

If you PM me we can discuss options. Gotta pay for this resto somehow, right?

Yes, two different VIN's on the one car. The dash from from a 71 and has the non-matching 25xxx VIN.

Since the dash was changed there were several questionable things done to the wiring from the dash to other components. The tach was wired with new wire to the coil, but it didn't work. Well, it pegged out when you turn the power on. They scavenged a tach harness plug (likely from the original dash! Bastards!) and used it to wire the tach "their way" to the coil. I was able to re-attach the tack to the stock dash harness plug. Several other combo switch and area wires were left dangling open, with duct tape lovingly wrapped around each one "just in case". Flashers, washer pump, and one of the brake switch wires was cut clean off. Others had wire spliced into them mid run. The turn signal switch had a new connector spliced on. Need I say that all splices were merely twisted and wrapped with electrical tape? I have that all opened up and under repair.

The underdash wiring is a bit of a mess. The PO's added the usual assortment of goodies. There is a fog light switch in the blank hole above the hazard toggle. It was getting power from wire soldered into the fuse box. there were other power wires for who knows what soldered in as well. At least the fuse box is not melted at #3 right position. The plug ends are good with the usual exception of the high current white terminals. They were either totally burned or spliced and missing. Easy fix.

One seat in. The old ones were mounted unsafely. They used the stock rails, but the rear adapter "bar" to convert the seat spacing to car mount point spacing was two layers of maybe 20 gauge tin. Way too soft and flexible.

I haven't noticed the water pump yet. The front of the engine is covered in grease and goo. I will look!

Some progress with wiring and seating today. Also got the front brakes working well. Speaking of brakes, seems I have some original stuff up front. I know the slotted rotors (the old way!) have been discussed before, but check out these dust backing plates!! Don't remember seeing these before. Look Ma, I'z got air flow cooling race parts on ma Datsun!

Just a quick note about what's happening at Auto Parts stores, at least in these parts. While out enjoying a good slide in the Ford truck today (shopping too), I stopped into Parts Source (wholly owned by Canadian Tire) to pick up some 3/4 heater hose for the above aforementioned under-performing (and sealing) hose. Guess what? They don't stock heater hose any more. Yes that's right. When I enquired why, the confused partsman mumbled something about "there are so many hose types now they are afraid of selling the wrong kind to a customer"... What a load of BS. If there is no demand, fine, I get you're a business, but really? I had a similar experience with them and muffler hangers. They only carry a single type of generic hanger, and it wasn't the type I like. They do have the usual section of change it yourself stuff, but be forewarned, support for the older cars and their independant maintainers (us) is going nowhere good. So I've written them off the list for good and told them as much. Auto Value still sells heater hose and continues to be my choice in Alberta. LordCo in BC also continues to supply the right stuff. End Rant

When you're raised in this climate, it's just another day in the frozen north. It was high 80's low 90's most of the summer, unusually hot but I didn't mind. My shop is heated. There is very little suffering going on here. And there is a certain joy in having infinite drift capable tarmac at your finger tips to make what suffering there is all worth it.

Went out to the shop this morning. Found a fair good puddle of anti freeze on the ground. Seems one of the frayed crusty 47+ year old heater hoses didn't have the decency to stay together after one little spirited run last night. Coward. Now to it's benefit, I have to mention that every hose and clamp in the car was original, with the exception of one heater core to "T" hose that had a chunk of modern hose spliced into it.

Parts list of things I need but don't have. Series 1 specific Stock front valance sections, all three. A VIN plate for the dash with correct #. Correct Dash! (Yikes...). I think I have the right speedo somewhere, could just fill in the cig lighter hole. Cheating... Series 1 hood, the one with no holes either side of the latch on the underside. I could fill the holes but that's cheating. Ash tray cover. Of course..... Drivers side tool bin lid. Whatever else is missing I think I have. Mostly. Oh, and a boat load of $$. Someone buy my 73, problem solved. Oh rIght, been there, NOT done that..... And tomorrow I'll wake up and realize just what I've done and offer it all up for someone else to carry on with....

Tomorrow will be more electrical clean up and get those damn ugly (here is the "ugly" part) seats out of there and some proper Z seats in. There is this mess of duct taped electrical mess under the dash Im just itching to get into. Maybe I'll get the front brakes working and get them bled tomorrow. Anybody got an hour? I'll take you for a snow slide! Anybody want good condition 80's sport seats? The driver side is even power! Free, no shipping. Pick up only. Oh yeah, and trade those flat spotted ancient winter knobby's with the wrong offset for some proper All Season radials. and maybe more than two nuts per rim...

So far, here's what's been done. Fuel system clean up, which was drain the 2 or 3 litres of that lovely smelly 26 year old fuel left in the tank, blow out the fuel lines (nothing there), change the fuel pump, clean up the SU's a bit, new fuel filter. Add battery, clean up primary electrical supply and grounds. Put 15 litres of fresh hi-test in tank. Change wires and plugs. Sand down arced points, replace coil. Change oil and anti freeze (which was still clean and good to -20F). Turn key. Fight to get pump primed (cheap can style pump, crap) Start car. (Chokes work just fine). Warm up. Good oil pressure, temp stable. Replace clutch hydraulics. Clutch works fine on first try. Rear wheels are stuck on rusty drums. Drive it back and forth in garage until the wheels turn. (Have cute drag marks on floor now!) Get drums off (heat and BIG hammer) and, oh god, thats disgusting,... just take it all apart and replace with new hydraulics, lines, shoes etc. Yeah! Rear brakes! Oh for heavens sake the e-brake works just fine! Hummm. Clutch works, engine works, have some brakes, drive?? Hell yes! Open garage door. What the hell is the white stuff in the lane???? Snow!!!?!?!?!? YES!!!!!! Go for drive. Not always in a straight line, foot on floor quite a bit,. Just around the lane, really. It's already rusty, driving in the snow (and sluch and salt tomorrow) how is this a bad thing! My wife was out cheering me on, if you need feedback on what did she say.....

"Cut out", perfect yes, cutting out of rust and schmegma.

The Bad Rust. Dog legs, battery tray, rear arches, front of floor pans, nothing really serious. Wheels and tires are from an early 300 zx. Nice + offser... not. Winter tires! Seats from some 80's sporty thing. The dash is from a 71, VIN 25xxx. Wheel has spokes with holes. Thus no idea what the chassis mileage is, but at least 100K. The clutch pin is about 1/2 the diameter it used to be. The hood, inspection doors, cowl, head light sugar scoops, are all not original. Likely from the 71.

The good, the bad and the ugly. First the good. Series 1, (Sorry), Canadian import, no air pump, no air injection holes in the exhaust manifold, super smooth balance tube. Single groove harmonic balancer Been stored inside for 26 years. Not started. Not heated. Fired right up with only simple fuel system and electrical system clean up. Runs stronger than my damn stroker. Well, not quite... Engine number match engine bay tag Spare is original 4.5 rim with a lighty used original spare.

I swore I was done with big restorations for.a couple of years. I was even going to simplify things around here and get rid of one long term project (remember the 73 I have, I mean, had, for sale? Yeah that one). Well along the way of selling the Z, one of the potential buyers says to me, "I'm interested in talking to you about buying your Z, but want to mention I have an older Z that I've been sitting on for a few years. Maybe you'd be interested in looking at it?" So I ask a couple of important questions like "What's older mean?" And "whats the VIN". Took hime a while to go to it, an read the VIN's. One he says reads 25401 or something and the other says 03798. Ok, now you got my interest. Ok, I bet you already know where this story is going. Yes I went to see it, yes it followed me home. The VIN is 3798, 5/70 build date. Rusty old dog, few things missing, but hey, it has a cool sun roof! (See other recent thread about SEMA and Sun Roofs and being cool).

You may remember my recent thread discussing a sun roof repair / patch method that I was proud of. Well, It seems I've wasted my time. It turns out Sun Roofs are back in style and cool again. Looks what's all the rage at SEMA this year. And guess what my new project car has? STYLE, that's what it has, STYLE, not a dreaded, hated sun roof. It's in great shape (the sun roof, not the Z) works fine and the roof is stiff as anything around it. Real happy I don't have to repeat the whole cut and patch on this car. How could I DARE to spoil such a special vintage, highly coveted (well it will be once the SEMA Car pictures are spread far and wide, right?) feature. BTW, thanks to Datsun Dave for making me aware of this break through styling development

good news!

Ok, I give up. A guy can only take so much. I've heard everything from "too many changes, what if something goes wrong" to "there is too much undercoating and sound deadening, so I can't tell what rust might be hiding" and everything in between. So, I'm keeping it. None of you get to experience its greatness. In fact I'm going to drive my overly complicated, too modified rust bucket like I've never driven it before on this last nice day of Fall. I may even get some winter tires and alternate between the 510 and the Z all damn winter. Because I can. Bitter? yeah, slightly. I'll get over it.

Aside from the obvious size discrepancy, is that light I see beside the cable where it passes through the grommet? Doesn't the grommet throat seal to the cable OD? I mean, why have a grommet at all with that?

Just another dealer "value added" improvement. Datsun supplied no embellishments, only purpose built options and performance improvements. There are a couple of threads here about modern suppliers of these strips. You can get a near perfect replacement if your rubber parts have shrunk. These things happen with age you know.