Zedyone_kenobi

When I was 16 I certainly remember how I laid in bed every night and had dreams about driving my car to school, and on dates, and just cruising around town making all my friends jealous. You are at a great age Anthony. If you are serious about taking the advice of folks you have never met on the internet then I am taking your question seriously and will try to impart my wisdom of what I did when I was 16, and what horrible mistakes I made, and what it taught me. But can you answer a few questions first that would help me give you the best advice I can. First, you mention that you are not mechanically inclined. Does that mean you are not mechanically inclined as in "I cannot change oil or spark plugs" or does that mean I am not mechanically inclined as in "I can do the basic stuff, but I have never rebuilt a cylinder head on a bench" Second, Does this car need to work every single day and not have any down time longer than a weekend? Will it be your ride to school? Do you have a job currently or will you be getting a job where this car will be your only means of transportation? I lived half my young life making sure I had a car to drive the next day to school and work. If work had to be done it meant parking my car and spending every waking second and every last dollar making sure it would run so I could get to work or school. While this taught me a lot about making a dollar stretch, I lost out on lots of things other kids my age were doing because I 'had to work on my car'. That may sound fine to you now, but I have some regrets about all the parties I missed things I could not go to because I was either broke or my car would not make it there. Just keep that in mind. Your cars reliability effects every aspect of a young mans life. Third, are you going to college in a couple of years? If so do you plan on using this Z as your daily driver in college? In college you will most likely not have a garage, the car will be left in the open, and will degrade every day as your head will/should be in books rather than working on your Z. I had to sell my beloved 74 trans am when I went to college. The gas mileage and upkeep was just too high. And all it was doing was sitting in the parking lot rusting. 16 is a fantastic age Anthony, enjoy it. As much as high school seems like your whole world now, I promise you, life gets even better. If your future leads you to college, and by your well written question, it seems it will, you will find that it is probably the greatest growing time in your entire life and the most fun you will have until you meet Mrs Right. Let us know what circumstances you are under. Give us some insight. With that being asked, I will say this. When I was 16 you could not stop me from buying an old camaro. It was my dream car. I ended up getting a 77 Berilinetta. What junker. Everything that could break did. But it was my baby. I learned a lot working on that car. If you would allow me to give you some advice that I wish I would have taken when I was 16, I will. A car is a wonderful thing, but never forget that an old car, even a Z is an old car. It will have problems, and demand your time and your money. You will sacrifice many things if you decide to get an older car. If you really want a Z, then save up and get a good one. It is easier to maintain, than to restore. If you cannot afford a good Z, then wait. I know patience is in as short supply as money at 16, but I promise you if you can wait to buy a Z later in life, when you have more funds at your disposal, you will be rewarded by a FAR more pleasurable ownership experience.

I replaced a fuel line from my frame rail to my fuel pump... two hose clamps and 10 minutes... I feel so inadequate.

LOVING that look on your car Arne... looks fantastic! How do you like the sound?

eeewww, that looks particularly bad. But anything is fixable. Take your time, read some literature, and do it right. I have no idea how to fix that but to cut it out and weld some less eaten metal in it's place. Good luck.

THe micro bus was a hit, much like an alfa romeo was a hit. It just did not have have enough market saturation to really get credit for starting a new genre. The caravan came out and saturated the market. It sort of defined the segment.. like Vice Grip, Kleenex, Ipod, etc. None of them were the first to do their job, there were lockable pliers, facial tissue, and MP3 players before all of these versions came out, but they never got everything just right at the right time. I think this is why the caravan gets the nod. I would take a VW minibus in a heartbeat over it, but the fact remains the caravan

Good advice, so you would recommend the velcro strips if anything then. Easy removal and cleaning I will be applying more POR15 before I do anything anyway, but I will take your words to heart.

Go optima red top Frank, they are sealed and do not off gas or corrode our precious thin sheet metal.

My front carpet is in really good shape. I have no complaints save one. While the carpets are in dandy condition, with the sound deadening foamy stuff glued to the bottom of the carpet, they are not attached to my floorboard. Is the sound deadening foam suppose to be glued to the floor? If so, is there a recommended way to do this? I have thought of spray adhesive as the obvious choice, but that could get messy. then I thought of using super strong velcro strips. Less messy, but may be noisy. But it would allow me to periodically clean underneath the carpet and check the floorpan on the inside. Curious as to what others have done.

I have only had one... DRAT.

It is standard pedal configuration... Just on the 'wrong' side of the car.

Pics my new Z friend.. need pictures.

Oh, man, I will be VERY careful.

clay bar and rubbing compound have been tried, worked great on the dirty bits, but the parts I want to fix now feel like rough overspray, not just dirty paint. They are not just visually dirty, they are tactile and rough.

I think you are doing what all the great historical DIY'ers do. You are making the best with what you have. Good for you. Keep up the picture updates! I wish you great luck.

Well I have bought a large handful of wet automotive sandpaper, and I want to give my engine bay a go to try to get the original color back. All my surfaces feel like overspray and are relatively rough. I think if I knock down all of this it will get the grime out and feel/look more OEM. I have tried soap and water and that did help a tad, but some of this stuff is just too set in to come out. Can people give me a few basic 'do no harm' wet sanding techniques that I can try? I want to get the engine bay in a more detailed finished look. Thanks!

Gillette Mach 5 baby!

INF I think your car looks spectacular. And you are completely correct about why I changed to 195/60/15's. The 205/60's had a slight rub. I think if the car is at stock height, it may not have rubbed, but I have no way of knowing. I can speak to the quality of the 960AS Bridgestones. I had my first track day and they performed wonderfully. Not as sticky as a dedicated summer tire, but my gosh, they proved to be quite nice with the right air pressure. 35F/32R is what I found provided a really nice cornering feel. Feel is what I want to stress. While they give up something to dedicated summer tires for stickyness, you more than make up for in feel. I am not a fan of all seasons at all. This is my first pair in fact. But I found these provide a good ride for our aging cars, while giving us lots of grip. So not be scared to go to a 195/60 profile. It is only 10mm narrower than 205 and it is a really good match for the 7" rim. The smaller contact patch also livens up the steering, and makes the car a tad more nimble in my opinion. I am an autocrosser by nature, just getting into track days, and these tires are well capable of handling the power of a stock 240Z. If I could find a max performance summer tire in a 195/60 I would get it, but these 960s took an hour of abuse at the track with repeated 85-90mpg sweepers and they never really gave up. I think part of that is their quality construction, part is due to the light weight of our cars, and part is due to the relatively low power of our cars. Good luck and let us know what you decide.. here is a picture of my 195/60's if it helps you out.

I know they did some VIN moving around at the factory, meaning they did not all get released in chronological order, but his 71 looks a lot like my 71.. what am I missing

I hear ya, but I may look into getting them painted. I think I can probably do it myself as well if I am careful and really take my time. You are right on all counts by the way.

LOVE the tire and wheel combo.. you are really making me want to sell my panasports VERY much now. I want gunmetal rims, always have. I can speak volumes about the pole positions. I just ran a track day with mine and they took 1 hour of beating and still look great. Are they as sticky as summer tires... NOPE, but are they darn good for an all season. Yes... they allowed me to enter corners way faster than I thought they would and were able to communicate so much to me through the wheel. I was leary of all seasons as this is the first pair I have EVER bought, but the 960AS pole positions are a very good tire. I think your setup looks spectacular INF. The tires are the perfect size IMHO. Having tires straight up and down or just BAREly wider at the rim than the tire is a very good way to ensure a nimble feeling car, as that geometry tends to give a stiffer sidewall. I may want to sell my panasports again!!!

I hear ya... I LOVE my ZT carbs. Really made my car drive like a whole new machine!! Next I am going to get the Distributor recurved!

Porsche club of America. blue Pearl Soul, he did answer your question with the facts of the Z car. And he threw in the 911 and 325 as well for good measure. The fact is you cannot pigeon hole the Z into thinking it oversteers/understeers/neutral by its very nature. You are obviously not going to leave it stock so he was unable to tell you how it may react. He told you that it was light, and that the chassis will need to be reinforced. Those are true no matter what suspension you decide to go with. He mentioned that good reliable power is around 240 HP, which is true as well, when the L24 is heavily modified. All depends on how the car is set up and how it is tuned to run. It can oversteer or understeer or both. It depends on how you build it. Stock, it is very good. He also told you about the brakes, they are adequate for the stock car with stock power. You can enhance its ability with lines and pads, etc, just like you can with other cars. I will take issue with the assumption that aftermarket is 200% better. Some of the fastest 240Z's used all OEM parts just properly assembled and combined. You forget how many performance parts are available in the form of interchangeable parts from datsun. The engineering that went into this car was not trival. What you need to know is that your talent will limit you more than any car you should choose. Also, if you are serious about being a race car driver, I would recommend driving schools before you ever buy a car. Then I would recommend a miata, not a 39 year old car whose parts are starting to become harder to find. It sounds more like you want a fun toy rather than a race car. Canyon runs have nothing to do with prepping a race car. If what you want is a canyon runner, then buy whatever car you want and have fun. If you are serious, then improve yourself first, then look into buying a car later that suits your style, location, budget, etc.

Keep it up Davey! One day at a time, and one small improvement at a time.

Frank, you are right, when I looked at all 30 min of footage I noticed that I usually ran the straight all the way to the left, allowing me an early turn in and I could carry lots of speed through the corner. However on my spin, I was in the middle of the track and could not get the nose pointed enough to the right, so I ran out of asphalt. Live and learn man. Wish you could have been there Frank!

Okay, I manged to upload a video to youtube...this is the one with my spin. It is much smaller. I must warn you. PLEASE TURN DOWN your speakers. I had the audio sensitivity of the GoPRO too high. It is pretty bad when I get on the gas. I think that in one hour of driving one spin is not so bad. A few guys came to me afterward and said if you did not spin once on your first track day, then you were not trying hard enough.. haha