mgood

It was a nice clear cool Saturday an I hadn't taken any new shots of my car this year. Here are a four. Hope you like. I did some PS work on them using a plugin called Lucas Art. Made them snap a little more.

Julio that Datsun sun shade on the front window looks great. The whole cars looks great also.

I had a shimmy in the font end for 30 years, it was a bent aluminum wheel I bent when I hit a pot hole bad enough to blow the tire. That also caused the outer race on the outer bearing to start to slip and cause the hub to grind away, I had to get a new hub and bearings for that side. At the time the dealer said it was a bent strut axle so I replaced that. That was not it, I found the slipping outer race myself. I also moved the bent wheel to the back and all is well now.

A question about authentic paint verses repaint on the bolts that hold the finders on. Should they be painted the same color as the finder? This cars bolts are painted the same color as the finder.

My 76 has screws in the engine bay and rivets for the door jam.

This info came from Mike W online spread sheet. http://www.editgrid.com/user/mlwilliams/Z_Car_Registry. This car HLS30- 293976 with engine # L28-077303 is late 76. Your car HLS30 - 297637 with engine # L28-084935 looks like a late 76. This car HLS30 - 299271 with engine # L28-079786 looks like an early 77. Your car is in between the two but your engine is some 5000 number outside the numbers. Looks like it's not the original engine either.

Welcome, nice looking car, it looks like it was originally 302 Leaf Green Metallic like mine, seems to be a rare color.

It also could be the lip of the dust shield (? name) on the inside. I refurbished my rear suspension and the lip of the dust shield was slightly bent down and was doing the rubbing on the drivers side.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell, the whole album, long drive.

Andy welcome to Pittsburgh, there is a big car show this weekend in Shenley Park in the eastern part of Pittsburgh. I know of at least 3 other Z that will be there if it does not rain. You can look at the details here. Hope you have time to stop by.

I am in Pennsylvania and have 'Classic" plates on my 1976. No emission test but safety test is required once a year. The "Classic" plates does have some limitations on driving like less than 7K miles per year.

I finally had time to do mine, spent about 1 hour on it, most of the time was removing the old one. Had to use a razor blade and lots of water. Here is the before and none and after pictures. Looks much better, cleaner and not faded. The differences in the numbers are minute. A big thanks to you Arne for you commitment.

Jeff, have you tried Massey in OK I got mine (for Appliance wheels) from them at about $4 each. Phone number is 405-239-2010. They are also on Ebay under Massey1946.

I had the same problem, I used Shoo Goo on mine on the little ball the others are talking about. You could probably use any silicon caulking to give it the extra holding power in that area.

Sam, I know my car is a 280 but I put 205 - 70 / 14 on mine. They are BF Goodrich TA Radials, I think they look good and fit nice, A little taller than the 195-70/14 stock tires, from 24.7 to 25.3 so just .6 inches taller.

Carl, I fixed the lettering and made it a BRE - 370Z, I used Photoshop. http://photographictrends.com/CAR/370Z%20composit.jpg

Mark Bouducies took some great images of the BRE - 370Z, I combined them to create a composite of the car. I used them with his permission, here it is. http://photographictrends.com/CAR/370Z composit.jpg thanks Mark.

I had the same problem, I completely redid my rear suspension and found the the nut attaching the cross member to the diff mount was bad. See the picture attached. The stud is pressed into the mount, not a good design for access or strength.

Here is a thread for the ones I used today from Speed Bleeders. Look at post #8. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33916&highlight=speed+bleeders

Stephen here is a tread about a new hold down. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29889&highlight=optima+red+top

I ordered one from Rockauto.com for around $8.80 with discount of $.44 (code # 30533151278239) and shipping of $5.23 received it in 1 day. Put this code ( VS 26070 A )in search area at Rockauto.com it will go to the part.

Here is a before, wire brushed and after plating picture of some of the bolts, nets, washers I have been working on for the last couple of months (I am slow because I work on it 4 hours a week). I finished my last few nuts and bolts last Sunday and will start to reassemble the rear suspension next weekend. I plated mine with a kit from Caswell and I did buy the rectifier for the electrical supply as well. The whole process was enjoyable, I used a wire wheel on a drill and a vice to hold each item. Once you get in the flow of the different dips (chemicals and baths) it will go fast. Rick, the amount of zinc added seems to be very small, and the amount of material removed by the wire brushing and the acid dip seems to equal the zinc added.

Julio, it looks great, I cant wait to get mine on, I have both Datsun and 280-Z. I am going with the 280-Z one like my old one. If I don't screw it up I will have the Datsun one left over for some one else.

Welcome, good to see another car in PA, where in Pa. I'm in south hills of Pittsburgh. Very nice looking car you've got. Get some more pictures up.

Here a few pictures from the inside of mine, the 280z's did not have diamond pattern vinyl, and the carpet was not on the shock towers. The vinyl was like the back of the seats. As you can see there is carpet on the trany tunnel.