obxtrainman

This is her when I first bought her.

Hi All, My baby has been setting outside since I bought her several years ago. She was in storage for 12 years prior to me getting her. I put somewhere where around 10 grand into her, counting initial $3000 I paid for her. Now she is starting to look the worse for weather wear. Rust in all the usual places. I had replaced all the struts, complete new master bushing kit, new windshield, the old one was pitted, Ztherapy carbs, balance tube, heat shield. Too many NOS parts to list here. I do have a folder full of everything I bought. New u-joints all the way around. My mind boggles at all of the parts I put on and under her. She only has around 68,000 original miles. She needs a home worthy of her. It's breaking my heart to see her set outside and rust. Recently the plastic molding the choke is attached to under the console broke off. Oh yeah, the BS paint job "Mr. get it done rite the first time" that's this Fooks actual catch phrase on his advertisement; Is not holding up worth a dam. My problem is I don't know how much to ask for her. I know I will never get near what I have into her, but I don't want to give her away either. I had the original title in my hands. I bought her from a dealer that bought her from original owner at car show. She's definitely a keeper to the right person, a true Z person. But alas she needs an inside home, and a owner with a budget to restore her properly. My wife would divorce me if I had her painted again:devious: UMMM! No, as much as I would rather keep the Z than the Chinese warden;) Anyhow, any comments or remarks on what I should try to get out of her would be welcomed. The Z, not the wife fellasLOL

Hello, Just to give a heads up. My brother that builds roads just called me. He can't swear to it, but he thinks a 390Z just whizzed past him near Jacksonville NC. Camp Lejuene is there. He said the car passed close enough he could have reached out and touched it. It was moving fairly fast through the construction zone; but he said as it passed he was fairly certain the numbers were 390, not 370. Anybody heard of one comming out yet? I just did some research, I couldn't find anything. Have a nice day:cool: OBX

First off, Thanx fellas:classic: I took the float bowl tops off, borrowed a used douche bag from my wife, then proceeded to give them a good douching with carb cleaner. As I had said earlier, I knew I had gas to the end of fuel lines. When I removed the bowl tops, ta da, no gas in the bowls. The old girl started right up after the douching;) It's been hotter than hell here with matching humidity. I've been having carb trouble on my mower. I here carb trouble on every mower on the street. Everybody's boats are having carb troubles. From what I've been reading, it's the ethanol. Apparently it readily attracts moisture. The new Sta-Bil has ethanol treatment in it. Mechanics across the country are reporting carb problems. They're mostly referring to small engines. I'm sure no one is thinking about older cars with carbs. I just purchased a stihl weed trimmer. It had a big orange warning about the problem, as a matter of fact, the warranty is void if ran without sta-bil ethanol treatment. When I took the bowl off of my mower, there was moisture clinging to the bottom of the float. Anyhoo, just giving you guys a heads up the the soon to be scourge of ethanol:mad:

Hello everyone, It's been awhile since I've posted. I parked the 73 240z with 2 year old rebuilt ztherapy carbs about 2.5 months ago. Its been hot, I've been busy. I started it a few weeks ago and let it run for awhile. I have been putting off driving it untill I change the oil. I just tried to start it to change the oil. It wouldn't start. I have gas up to the top of carbs. It will start for a second using starter fluid. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanx in advance for any replies. obx

Thank you very much for the information and the pics. I found the one spring clip on my main tray of extra fasteners. As soon as I saw it I knew it had to be one of the clips, just didn't know which one. I'm also sure as soon as the ones I bought from the fellow out in Arizona arrives, I'll find the others. Any way thanks again for your patient replies. Damn it's hell getting old and fat:(

Hello everyone, A week or so ago I put a post on the Help Me forum about my heater cables. I read every post in the search about heater cables. I still haven't seen anything about how they are actually routed at the end/ mounted on the mechanisms they operate. I weigh about 280, and I'm six feet tall. I have to lay on my ear to see up in there. My shoulders are very wide, I can't lay on my ear, and get both arms where I need them to be. Trail and error on this one might very well get the best of me. I've ordered the cable clips for a mere $18.00. However I still haven't figured out whether they slide onto the long stud at the top of the mechanism or the short bit at the bottom. I swear the short one at the bottom feels like it has been grooved over the years by the double round end of the cable. I would certainly be very appreciative for any help. Ken

A year ago last weekend I installed my new stereo. A year ago next weekend I dropped off my car at the body shop. I didn't have time to hook the heater cables back up. At this point, I only have one of the little clips/clamps that hold the cable sheathings in place. I've looked everywhere.:disappoin I can't remember the exact way to hook them back up either. Most look self explanatory. A pic or two would help a lot. I've been trying to hook up the longest one with the one clip I had put somewhat back in place. But it is hard to move the vent/heater lever all the way left. I've looked at it more closely. There are slots, and screw holes in two places/ positions. Should the cable go on the short stub on the bottom, or the long one on top? This is a '73. has anyone got a pic or two of how the cable ends are actually routed? Does anyone have any of the clips/clamps that hold them in place? Any suggestions are much appreciated. By the way, when I was searching this topic, Escanlons long explanation of what the cables do was very helpful.

I only have brake lights since my car came back from paint. I had put Daves headlight harness on earlier last year. I had no problems. After I took off the front bumper, and valance, The head lights stopped working, this was expected do to lack of ground. I still had other lights at this point. I replaced all of the side marker lights after recieving the car back. I have finally had some good weather, everything is in place. Still no lights other than Brake lights. The fuse for the lights is good, the fuse in daves headlight harness is good. ANY THOUGHTS?

Holy cow!!! The Z will be ready for pickup tommorrow!!! I will have a few odds and ends to finish myself. If I don't get the old washer dryer swapped out tonight for the new stack job; I'm going to have to wait till Monday to pick her up:cry:

I thought that it was metal. I got a little confused when they started talking about Krylon paint:stupid:

Here's a link to photobucket. I'll put more pics in it later. http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg66/obxtrainman/

All of the body work has been done for a couple of weeks now. There were a couple of pin holes on the hood, and on the door flat where the trim meets. Other than that it was only surface rust. They started finding surface rust forming under the original primer. So, in the end, the Z was taken down to bare metal. The whole exterior of the car, that is. They had been building the paint back up. As of last week, the main body man was having medical problems. Anyway, they're supposed to start spraying today. The glass man using my seals and gaskets, removed all of the glass, and reinstalled with a new windshield for $366.00. I could have reused the old winshield, but was pitting, and had a BB mark on it. My original estimate was $2500. But that was before deciding to completely strip it. Complete job counting glass, $3166.00. This shop is new here, and trying to get started. He said the job is more closer to a $4500 restore. He wants to use my car on his web site for advertisement. He knew I wasn't rich, and I would be patient while he knocked out the insurance work. All in all, I feel like I'm getting a good deal. I've been taking pics along the process. I will eventially get around to posting them.

More cool stuff than you can shake a stick at:rambo::love:And with luck, I'll convince the wife to let me trade in the beer fridge for a kegulator full of Bass Ale:cool:

Hello, Did you ever buy that front bumper from BD? I bought one several months ago. I've had it stored untill this last weekend. My paint job is nearing completion:love: My '73 had the 260 bumper on it. There were spacers added on the mounting brackets. It had the rubber bumper fillers from the 260 on it. First thing, the new bumper has a licence plate bracket on it,,mounted to the left side of center. As in European, or maybe asian. Secondly, my bumper had two mounting brackets spot welded on the inside of the bumper. The BD bumper doesn't have them. I'm going to have to do some serious rigging to use my new shiney bumper

Did you place it horizontally rightside up, or rightside down?

Yeah, what he said:smoke: WD40 is also great for removing tar from the road off of your paint job. As a matter of fact, these are about the only purposes I have found WD40 good for. As far as lubrication,,two words,,,Fluid Film,,,a bit pricey, but worth it.

Did all of these Zeds have the plate around the tail lights painted black? Was it a flat black? Thanx for any replies. OBX

Well, my sweet baby's finally at the paint shop. They have all the lights out, all the glass also. After about two years, this project seems to be finally comming together. I'll try to post some pics soon. Good luck to everyone else that's trying to restore one of these love hate relationships :stupid:

I live very near the Atlantic ocean .DON'T BET YOUR PAY ON THIS THOUGHT.

I hear it mostly after the car has sit for awhile. It seems to rear it's ugly head when I try to back up after the car has been parked for awhile. I just put that theory to a test though. I can hear it going forward, and backward. Only at very slow speeds. As in just moving a little from a complete stop. As per SBlake's question,,,no, I didn't change the strap holding down the top front of diff,,,,,If indeed that was what was inferred by arrester strap.

At this point in time, I've changed all of the bushings. That includes the mustash bar, and the rear diff. front mount. I've changed the drive shaft U-Joints, and the half shaft U-Joints. One of the drive shafts was starting to go bad. The two lower half shaft U-joints were getting a little bad. Guess what? I still get a lower decible, low pitch CLUNK:mad: I can't believe it. A complete master bushing set. And lately, all these other parts, and still a slight clunk. Could it be one of the carrier bearings behind the oil seals, that were also changed in the diff??? Could it be something in the rear brakes??? It's diffenetly behind me. I noticed the slightest amount of oil seapage behind one of the oil seal in the diff. So while changing the u-joints, I had the seals changed also. Oh, yeah, a new clutch while I was at it. New front oil seal, and gasket in the tranny also. Oh why, oh why :disappoin Is it too much to ask for, to have a clunk free car:cry::disappoin

I didn't change the tranny oil. I knew all a long there was a leak there. While I was cleaning the engine, I scraped a lot of dried mess off of the front of the dust cover and just under the front of the tranny. I guess the mess was keeping it from being so obvious a leak. Anyhow, I just came back from a great little test drive. The new oil pan gasket stopped that leak. Now my engine block is pontiac blue, the oil pan looks new also:love: It really cleaned up in there. I am now ready to let someone fix the floor pans, and paint my sweet baby. I didn't see the tranny gasket listed in BD auto. The seal looks to be about five bucks.