geezer

Congrats! Did you question the missing VIN tag? The previous owner may have set it aside during some resto work? I hope that won't be a problem for you. You have been getting great advise and the only thing I could reiterate is, keep your priorities straight. Make it safe, make it reliable and everything else will fall into place. It looks like a fairly solid car that will clean up nicely. Good luck with it!

That car is an unrestored survivor and was given to the seller as partial payment for work done on the advertizing campaign for Nissan of the USA. That is the story given to me by the seller. He in turn gave it to his father as a gift in 1977 and his father treasured and babied it until his death. The seller then kept it stored in his hangar until offering it for sale last year. I have many more pictures of it. If I remember correctly, it did not have A/C.

It just seems inconceivable that anyone would pay extra in order to get a yellow car. I like the color, but not that much. Also, the overwhelming abundance of 411 Starburst Yellow cars makes it seem unlikely, that so many people would have payed extra for it. I could be wrong, but it would take an elusive window sticker to prove it to me. It is a different thing though if you wanted the SAP also. In that case I would pay extra for the 411 Starburst Yellow as a part of the package. The 638 Black Pearl paint was in itself somewhat special though even if the SAP wasn't ordered and a "saleable" option. Just my opinion. PS - esprist, this low milage 411 Starburst Yellow example was for sale here local to me last year, but the seller took it off the market when he could not get his price. I think he wanted $10,000 at the time.

The Black Pearl metalic paint was an option that you had to pay an additional $90.00 for. That wasn't the case for 411 Starburst Yellow, was it? 411 Starburst Yellow was also used on other models. It was not a color exclusive to the ZZZAP marketed package, whereas the Black Pearl metalic paint was. Have I got that right?

Was the battery disconnected before any welding was done? When you used the screwdriver to jump the starter, did the engine start? If not, was the ignition key in the run position at the time? Do you have a wiring diagram showing the starting circuit?

Well, I think you will eventually come across the correct antenna for the car. It deserves no less in my opinion, so meanwhile just use one of these cheap manually operated ones. Heck, I'd give you this one if the shipping wasn't more than its worth.

Randy, if you wanted to go the re-chrome route, I have a few gas door knobs on hand. I was planning on re-chroming one of them to keep as a spare, but have no plans for the other. If you can't source a respectable one suitable for 797, keep me in mind, I'm sure we could work something out. PS - Not sure what is causing your gas door fitment problem, but I have extras also.

Dan, I know you wouldn't want to reshape it, I was thinking of sanding it, if it needs refinishing. It is so much easier to sand while it is being spun then it is by holding on to it by hand. Good luck with it!

Dan, if you enlarge the pic in post #5 you may see the glue on the button end that has formed sort of a mushroom shape. This is where I concentrated the heat. Once that was softened, it tapped out fairly easy. I did apply heat on the other end also, but I'm not sure if it was effective or even nessesary. I don't know if you happened to see the thread where I chucked a shifter knob in my electric drill to turn down and refinish. I was thinking it would be easier to do this first, before removing the plug. Just a thought. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=313403&postcount=24

Yes, it is one piece. Here is another view of it. You can see how the glue was liberally applied. I used more heat than nessesary to soften the glue, but not enough to melt the plastic. The piece was not deformed or damaged at all from heating and removing it. It was in poor condition and split to start with. The shift pattern insert couldn't take the heat at all before it was damaged from the heat. Be careful with it. Edit: Great results Mike. It's too bad your plastic chrome guy went out of business.

I had one with a shift pattern button that was not worth saving. The plastic base ring was split with no chrome left on it. The wood is in good condition and can be refinished. I used a heat gun to reconstitute the glue that was used when these were assembled. In these two pics, you can see what it looks like with the shift pattern button removed and the 1 piece plastic plug that was held in place with the same glue. After applying heat. I used an appropriately sized rod and tapped it out with a small ball pean hammer. I did use too much heat and the button didn't fair well. The glue is fairly brittle with age.

Couldn't agree more. If I may, I would like to interject a few thoughts on this topic. Lets view this from the perspective of a corporate structure. It is true that anything done at the factory (which should refer to only a manufacturing facility), is done so by directives from Nissan’s Headquarters. Nothing outside of any manufacturing facility can be “factory approved”. It has been my experience that the decision making process doesn’t flow in that direction. The responsibilities/liabilities of anything added, modified or altered on the vehicle after being certified to meet the required safety standards of the export market, in this case the US, were assumed by the NMC in the USA. That is to say, once the dated conformance tag was attached, the factory’s job was done, with no further input. I can understand how the NMC in the USA was perceived as an all encompassing entity in itself, but in reality took direction from Japan in regards to all matters. I certainly would think this included what options or accessories would be available from Japan. This proved to be not much, not to say, without good reason. NMC was left to set up their own accessories line as well as a performance parts catalog and authorize dealers to install the parts. Any parts installed by the dealer required a NMC Accessory Installation Report to be filled out in triplicate. I have one of these forms, although for a different model, as well as a copy of a directive from NMC’s Technical Communication Department concerning unauthorized modifications. These documents seem to relegate the responsibility of accessories & modifications squarely on the shoulders of the dealers under the tutelage of the NMC in the USA, not the “factory”. I find the parts catalogs interesting. They were works in progress that were never completed. The assignment of Nissan part numbers for parts that essentially double as and started life as aftermarket parts is an interesting subject in itself. The lines of jurisdiction are divided in terms of model and market as well, affecting part number assignment. These are great topics to explore and discuss, but not worth arguing about because of a disagreement of terminology.

I remember from this thread, it's all about the box it came in. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28074&highlight=amco+ski+rack

Sheesh! I must be on webdawg1's ignore list.

"up to Dec'74" Part number 18121-E4600 Assy-bell crank accelerator is shown. The nylon bushings were a part of this assembly, with no separate part number shown for them. Not too difficult of a job for a machinist to make a few up if you can't source them.

Excuse the poor images.These are color inverted pics taken of the microfiche. This is identified as being "from Dec '74". I will take another look to see if there is any other info prior to '75.

http://www.highplainsraceway.com/

If you hit the lotto, I think it would be more fun to travel the world, and run a variety of tracks and racing venues, but your the guy with the imaginary money.:laugh: I remember following Darrel's thread on the development of High Plains Raceway. It is not only the money required, but also the bureaucratic process that can take years. Even here our local track finally succumbed to escalating real estate values and community pressure. I don't think it is an easy thing to do.

For the record, the auction ended without the reserve being met. The high bid was $4050.00.

I bought this electronic digital caliper ($12) that has the added benefit of doing measurement conversions as well. Just open to the desired measurement, then press the mm/inch button.

If it helps here is a good illustration of the stock exhaust system up to July '73. We have a thread somewhere that had details of the changes made and dates, up to '78. PS: Found the mounting thread. Some good illustrations also. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29320&highlight=exhaust+mounting

Hi Peter, this is a very interesting project and I know if Stebro did design and produce components or complete systems for our Zs, they would be first rate and there would be a great deal of interest. The major stumbling blocks I see, are creating the number of components that will be needed to fit the various applications while appealing to most peoples taste and keeping the prices realistic enough to make it feasible. Looking at their web site put me into designer mode instantly. I think it is a great idea, hope to see it come about, and wish you luck! PS - Sorry, I can't help you with a Z with stock exhaust.

Just thinking out loud: -Check for an electrical system by-pass into another circuit. A common problem caused for a variety of reasons. Corroded, wet, mishaped light sockets, or weak, damaged springs. Those are the easiest to find but a by-pass can be caused by chaffed wires, or burned insulation or a number of other causes, anywhere in the circuit. I usually leave the battery terminals disconnected and then supply power to the questionable circuit, then check the other circuits for a by-pass. -Bad grounds can cause some pretty funky things to happen also, that have left me scratching my head. You guys are probably much more familiar with the Zs circuitry than me. I'm just dreaming up scenerios. I used to go to sleep at night with an electrical mystery on my mind and wake up in the morning with a fresh idea that solved the problem. PS - It is helpful to have a helping hand to activate switches while checking for a by-pass. It is a process of elimination. I doubt I told you anything you don't already know or won't think of after sleeping on it.

The door tag can also be called a conformance tag. This tag was not fitted to the car until it passed the final federal inspection which was done to ensure all mandated requirements of the importing country had been met. It was a common occurance for the cars to be shuffled according to what we refer to as VINs by the time they were shipped. They were held up in various stages of production for any number of reasons. The date of build specified on the door frame tag is the best indication of when the builds were completed and that doesn't narrow it down to more than the month. That's the simple explanation for that. A VIN can be more closely associated with the beginning order of the build. There were many instances of cars being delayed in the system, especially early on.

I could understand if the seller just had difficulty taking clear close up pictures but it seems to be more than that. Even after specific views were requested he seems to have responded the same as he did to the questions asked. Very vague, sideskirting what we wanted to see. Not having the plate verifying the correct engine is the real deal breaker for most of us and even if the seller is just an unknowledgable honest seller, the reserve is more than likely set higher than I would be willing to pay for a car with a mediocre refresh done years ago with not enough attention paid to maintaining the originality. It is impossible to make any definitive assessment from the pics we have seen but the pic showing where the battery tray is mounted looks pretty crusty and a poor view at that. I hope someone does go see it just to confirm or deny that the bottom is about to fall out of this car or not. If it is considered fairly solid, it would be a nice project and it is a '69 build, numbers matching or not. Myself, I am holding out for HLS30-00009 to turn up. I will call her Clementine and you can call me Huckleberry.