Travel'n Man

Thanks for the kind words. I just freed up some room today and will be able to get my Z back in the garage on Sunday. I agree with everybody, these cars IMO are beautiful and are very basic with the 4 cyl (4 banger) engine. I don't know if any of you have every driven a Model A but it is a very relaxing type of drive. Zguitar71 - You should check out that pick up and send me a PM what it is and the condition of it.......oh, by the way, how about some revese zebra humbuckers........gotta love the 70's!!

Just a garage update and an addition to the stable. 1929 Ford Model A Roadster. This roadster was purchased from the founder and CEO of Mako Marine out of Miami (he has sold the company several years ago to Tracker Boats and Bass Outdoor). The last time she was tagged was in 1988. She has been in a climate controlled garage next to a completely restored 1957 Ford Thunderbird (beautiful car and also for sale - contact me if you are interested). I have already lubed the piston rings and hand rotated the engine after a couple of days of soaking. I have replaced the interior fuel shut off under the gas tank (inside the car) and cleaned the sediment tank and carb. I installed a new condenser and plugs. I detailed the car inside and out and it is spotless, a A#1 restoration many years ago. I did have to buy new Firestones for her and damn, they were expensive with the whitewalls but that is the way she should look going down the road. The tires I had replaced had perfect tread but had dry rotted due to the time the car was stored and the tires were on the concrete floor. This winter I will pull the engine clean it up and repaint Ford Green. If it will stop raining long enough I am going to awaken this sleeping beauty this afternoon or tomorrow. I am going to be selling my 1930 Tudor to make room for the Datsun (damn, I need a bigger garage!:mad:) The '72 Z is in one of my relatives garage until I can get the '30 sold........anybody looking for a Tudor??

Steve, I had to replace both my floorpans, dog legs, rear deck lid, rear tail light panel and that was with a car I bought from ebay that claimed rust free. That work is not cheap but the good thing is once it is finalized you know exactly what you have. If you are a die hard Z fan then I would say spend the money and do it. If this was just going to be a project with the Z's not in your blood, I would say part it out. There is a lot of money made on ebay selling good parts to us goof balls that are willing to pay the price. I wish you luck on your descision, keep us posted.

Justin- Welcome aboard. Get ready for a great adventure working on your Datsun. This project will turn into a passion. There are not a lot of these cars around and thanks for saving this one. There is a ton of knowledge on this site with a bunch of great guys that can help. I would have to recommend to do a complete search on your project before you ask for help on any one topic. Most everything you are getting ready to come across has been covered at one time or another. If not, give a shout out and somebody can give an a responce with many more to follow. Get some pictures up so we can see what you have and welcome.

All of us buy cars for different reasons. Originally I purchased mine for a project to fix up and sell. But the car really turned into a labor of love. Now I have more in it than it is worth but I am really not planning on selling it, so what do you do? Well, you keep on spending some more money on it to get it the way you want it to be. I had the Datsun out yesterday (what a beautiful day for a drive) and would have people stop and talk to me for 30 minutes and tell me their "Z" story. There are lots of Vetts, Carmaros, Mustangs from that era but you really don't see many of the older Datsuns out there any more. I had a little guy that was around 12 or 13 that was just in love with the Z yesterday and his dad got some picutures of his son in the drivers seat.......I'm sure he will be talking to his classmates in school about the Datsun and none of them will know what kind of car is is talking about. That is what this site is all about the preservation of the cars. Hopefully our car value will be increasing and the market will acknowledge the 240's for what they are. I know Haggetry Insurance has a higher value placed on them (for insurance reasoning) that is more correct for the expense that some of us go through restoring or refreshing. We just need the NADA value to increase with the expense that some of us go through. My guess would be about 10 more years for our value's to catch up. Good luck with your refresh or restore. IF you are going to fix it up, just be sure to fix it up right. You may want to take little bites. Treat it as a car you would be proud to keep (who knows, you could be like me and end up keeping it).

Welcome - Get ready for a great journey and adventure. Thanks for the link

Be sure to let MSA know you are a CZCC club member (you will have to give them your CZCC number) and they will tag a 10% discount to all your orders. All MSA needs is a product catalog that they claim they have been working with for at least 2 years now. I will never buy another part from ZBarn in Tenn. I went there (on my wifes birthday - what a present to her- right!) and picked up a few parts including a front over rider bar and coming back to my home town I dropped it off at the plating company to have it triple dipped re-plated. 6 weeks later went and picked it up and the damn thing was the wrong size(it's on ebay right now with no reserve if anybody needs one that is in fantastic shape - hell, it was never installed).The owner will not call back, NO SERVICE from my past experience.........it's the last money he got from me............just a heads up on THE ZBARN. I have called seveal times to the customer service line at Black Dragon and they are very un-knowing and all they can tell you is item description and price and on hand. I have purchased from most the other vendors above and MSA is a good one stop shop that has a complete inventory for new products. I have been very satisfied and have spent a lot with them.

I have always ordered through their customer service line. Don't ask them a qustion though.........all they know are item numbers and quantities. I would order through MSA and give them your CZCC number and get 10% off all your orders..........another benefit of being a CZCC club member.

Donna, Welcome. One thing I have found handy is to keep a Auto Diary with all edits and changes made to the car. For each date I do something I log it and keep a rolling total of my cash outlay (sometimes I'd rather not look) but at least I know where I am verses the value of the car currently. Next to each date log the mileage so in a few years you know the exact date and mileage a particular service or replacment was completed. Best of luck with your upcoming passion, the one we all share..........Z's!!

Welcome from the Carolina's. There is a ton of information and knowledge on the site and a bunch of great guys. Be sure to use the search feature and have fun with ZX!!

Daniel- Tell me about the louvers and why you are selling them. PM me a price and rate them for me (1 poor to 10 excellent). They look great on your car! Let me know if there scrapes from where the louvers came off or if they rattle while you are driving.

Wouldn't you think he would at least take the time to spray them off, oh, wait a minute, that's what the dog did..............unbelievable. People really don't care do they........

I have also been thinking about buying a rear window louver. I know MSA sells them (be sure to tell them you are a member of this site and recieve a 10% discount of all your orders - you do need to know your CZCC account number). Does anybody have any pictures they can post. I have searched and did not come up with much info at all. I know there are two different types metal and plastic and my choice would be the metal. The price at MSA is $264.95 and a discount for club members at $238.46 - being a CZCC member does have its rewards, (are you a supporting member - another reason to be one, right?) freight to my area is $28.00 and it is a two piece put together unit. The MSA is attached with metal tabs not screwed into your hatch, and they told me it takes 10 minutes to remove it for cleaning if needed. That is all I know but would like to see some detailed pictures if anybody has made the purchase recently from MSA. Thanks in advance!

Nate- I'm way up 2 hours north of Asheville in Boone. Appalachian State University, Grandfather Mountain, Blue Ridge Parkway.......beautiful area with great roads. Anyway,......Tail of the Dragon ZDayz are going to be on May 28 -31. It would be great to meet some of our club members at that fuction. My son goes to Furman in Greenville so I'm down there every once in a while visiting him (he graduates the Spring).

What reaaly bites me is when I first started ordering from them and I have spent $1,000's with them they would give me a 10% discount (not sure why but I would ask and they would except). Last year they said the only way to get 10% off is join a car club..............are all or any of us getting that 10% discount??

I hear you brothr'

Jeff- Welcome, what kinda stash ya got? Oh yea, send us some pictures!! A lot of us like to buy stuff. Let us know what you got before it goes to the auction house.

I'll be 49 in two weeks. This is my 4th and favorite Zcar. My first one was a '73 240 white/red interior, one of the best cars in my life:love: and one of my worse - (I'll never forget it) was a nightmare. I purchased the car in '78 - yeap, 18 years old and lovin' life, until I decided to replace the fenders, rockers, and headlight cases with fiberglass replacement parts. The body shop and I agreed to the work and the price. I paid 50% down and the balance when the car was done in 8 weeks (replacement body parts and exterior color change to BLACK). He had the car for over 1 year. He placed a mechanics lean on the car and locked it up because he wanted more money. By then I had paid him bits and pieces of the balance until I had paid him in full and yes, you got it, he wanted more and my car was not finished yet (I'm sure some of you are saying, this sounds familiar). So, I got pissed and one of my buddies that owned a wrecker service went down to the body shop and stole my car. We stored it in my grandmothers (Bless her soul) barn. About two weeks later the sheriff's department comes to my grandmothers house and my grandmother walked out on the porch with a .22 rifle and told them to get off her property that nobody was taking anything. They showed her the search warrant and confiscated my car and hauled it away again..........hell, I'm still making payments on it, by this time I'm around 20 years old or so. I finally end up getting an attorney and getting my (now Black) Zcar back in pieces and tryed to put it back together. The paint was so old it has oxidized and looks like crap and felt like crap. I cleaned it up and ended up selling it in pieces.........I was making payments on it for the past two years and not even able to drive it. I know - what a terrible story - it gets worse, the guy I sold it to put it all back together and then totaled it directly after he bought it. So - ever since then, after I bought a 280ZX (not the same), after a 300 (not the same) I have been determined to get back in a 240. Two years ago and two years back in another body shop this one is having a better ending..........so the story goes, at least so far it has. Hope you enjoyed the story -

Tim- I would have to agree with Johnny O. It looks like a great deal to me and I think that is the same front spoiler that is on my car as well. Maybe a little 600 grit wed/dry sandpaper on the front headlights will make those bad boys shine like new. Great find.

Yea, the Z car bug bit me pretty good. This one has been going on two years now and a lot of time and money. Every day brings a new challange and a new learning opportunity to gather information to learn a new trick. This next week my project is a steering coupler and steering rack bushings. Every week or two I try to pick a new project and get it finalized. Everybody needs a good project to pittle with. If you have restored several cars in the past then you like projects also. I guess it is a since of accomplishment taking something that should be in salvage yard and make it into a great looking, great running, automobile, and having fun while you are doing it.

Scott Welcome - Charleston is a beautiful city. My wife and I got married on the beach at Kiawah Island (great vacation or second home location for any of you looking).

Hagerty's is my insurance carrier for my collectables. Great company and great magazine.

You really need a wiring diagram and multimeter. I would begin with each item individually if the fuses are ok. Disconnect each wire from the easiest access point and clean all the connections. While you are at it disconnect the battery and clean the post and battery cables. Make everything as shiney as you can. You may have to put on new connectors, be sure to get a good crimping tool to make a good contact if you do this step. I had horn problems over the weekend. I worked on the horns for 4 evenings, changed all the connectors, replaced the relay, and still did not work properly. At the last step I started the car, let the alternator "charge the battery with the correct amps" and my horns work great now - again, that was after 4 evenings of doing everything I could think of and using the search feature of this web site to see what everybody else had done with their horns. These cars are getting age on their electrical connections. Again, the first thing I would do is to find all the connections with each item that is not working correctly and make the connections as shiney as possible. Once you know you have a good connectons put a multi-tester on it and see if you are making a connection with 12V. Somebody may have to activate a switch for you (ie brake light) to see if the voltage is getting to the tail-lights - that one could be a switch at the brake pedal Good luck and be sure to use the search feature. I'm sure whatever issue you are having, odds are, it has already been discussed. Good luck

May 28 - 31, 2009 This is the road of roads, 11 miles and 300+ curves. Come on up to the mountains. I promise, this is a road you will not ever forget. http://www.zdayz.com/ Copied from the website: Welcome to ZDayZ!s zdays This is our 6th year of holding ZDayZ at Deal's Gap/Tail of the Dragon, NC. We are excited to introduce some new events, the return of some old events, and the reinvention of some other activities. It is awesome to see the interest level in ZdayZ grow. ZdayZ '09 is gearing up to be the biggest, baddest ZdayZ yet. The event has expanded to four days instead of three, so that we could offer even more activities to you this year. For instance, 2008 we held 10 events, in 2009 we are increasing it to 16, plus we expanded to start on Thursday since so many people were arriving early in years past. We thought a Thursday night social would be a perfect way to "get this party started." The ZDayZ Car Show Event has been resurrected! Back by popular demand is the ZDayZ Car Show. The format has changed slightly, this year the car show will be a judged event rather than people’s choice. Why the change? Some folks enjoy the car show and some prefer other activities. The people’s choice format makes people feel obligated that they need to be onsite to vote in the car show. Tallying the votes is also a huge undertaking; in 2007 it took four people three hours to tally the votes, that was total of 12 man hours. This year,there will be many concurrent events, including the car show and our first ever Time, Speed, Distance (TSD) rally. It is our hope that people that want to display their cars in the car show, will jump in a friend’s car and help them navigate (they will need the help) the TSD. Registration Registration is the same as it has the previous two years, $60 for a registered attendee and $45 for a registered guest, guests must be registered with an attendee. There are options on our Registration Page that you may register for the entire weekend, or if you can only attend one certain day, we have registration for that as well. A change from past years, registration is required to participate in any event that has a prize, which is pretty much everything. Please help us police this, if you see unregistered participants involved in activities, feel free to find a staff member (we will be in the shirts with "staff" on the back) and inform us. We feel it is not fair for you to pay and others to sneak around the system. New to ZDayZ is the Upload Gallery This feature lets you upload your own pictures to our ZDayZ Gallery. You may upload as many Z/G/GTR pictures as you want. According to our web statistics, just about all the viewers went to the Upload Gallery to see what pictures has been placed in there by past attendees. We also have noticed that they returned to see if new uploads have been saved to this gallery. Please help us keep this web site a repository of ZdayZ past, upload your pictures and let us host them for free. New to ZDayZ is the Blog Want an easy way to communicate with your other ZDayZ attendees, staff, or volunteers? Well, our blog has no sign-in and no passwords to remember, so that makes it super easy to post your comments. We will have many Categories for you to read or post your comments. Want to search for a post? No problem, many infrequently asked questions will be on our blog and you don't even have to post any comments if you do not want to. Also, we will keep important updates and also encourage you to participate in the discussions. Many of you veteran ZDayZ attendees can tell the first-timers what to bring and what to look forward to. What was your most favorite thing to do, where's the best place to stay, how important it is to make your reservation before there are no vacancies left at Fontana Village Resort? We want to know if anyone has been camping? We will also utilize the blog to make announcements and changes to www.ZDayZ.com and the event itself. ZDayZ is a living entity and thusly it requires a dynamic tool like a blog to make it easier to keep you up to date and informed as to the current state of the union. We have added the following Events: TSD Rally (Time, Speed, Distance) Weenie Roast Two Concerts with Natty Boh Drop Top Cruize Xbox™ 360 Time Trial Two Bonfire Socials Two Open Cooler Socials The following Events have returned: Car Show Tech Sessions Poker Run Group Photo Drive-in Movie Exhaust Competitions Meet the Organizers Two Dinners Loud Shirt Event Digital Scavenger Hunt Premium Prize Raffle