ConchZ

They also required frequent work.

The car has been in the body shop since the first week of January. Its getting close to done. The floors have been replaced. The right rear quarter has been replaced. Its been stripped, sanded, blocked, primed, sealed and then sprayed with three coats of 115 blue, with three coats of clear. Problem is, the clear has some little specks in it that wet sanding didn't take out. More wet sanding, then more clear coats. Happily the shop didn't even think of passing it off to me, they just called and said they had to redo it. It'll get done next week, hopefully. I know the rule, you can do it cheap, good, or fast, pick only two. Meanwhile, Les at ClassicDatsun has been helping me put together my pile of parts to go back on the car. He has a chrome shop next door, so he was nice enough to handle rechroming the bumpers for me. This chrome shop still has its copper-cyanide tanks. They first welded shut all holes in the bumpers (no more rubber strips or bumperettes), then layed down some copper. After it was all done, they painted the backs. Hopefully they will not corrode in this salt air down here. They look great. I bought all new interior vinyl from Les and white leather seat upholstery and new foam cushions. You would think you could put the seats together yourself, but I couldn't get it to look right. I took it to an uphostery shop. They look great now. I got to sit in them today, and they felt great. I had to put the drivers seat in the car in order to test fit the MSA chrome Bullet II mirrors. Good thing. If you mount these in the old mirror's location, they'll be too far back on the door to use them easily. They need to go forward as far as possible on the door. Not too far forward, or they'll bump the fender when you open the door, though. Once the car is resprayed with clear, it should be given back to me for interior work. I plan to Raamat and Ensolite most of the interior, with the goal of getting it quiet enough to listen to the Alpine stereo without having to crank it. I had a hard time deciding what color to paint the grill and tail light panel. The car is a high gloss metalic blue, with excellent chrome trim and bumpers. Most people seem to paint these some version of black. The shop did a motorcycle tank in Hot Rod Black, and I knew that was it. It's black, but a bit different than usual. See attached picture. The bumper isn't on it yet, but I think it'll contrast nicely with all the shine on the rest of the car. So I wait. Shouldn't be long now...but I've been saying that for a month. The good news is that my birthday is coming up, and my wife wants to by me some new wheels. Probably going to get Konig Rewinds, but am open to suggestions.

A bit off topic, but body painting means a whole different thing here in Key West. Especially now that its spring break. Hope these aren't too risque.

same here. Charlie Osbornes panels didn't go far enough back, or far enough forward, but it wasn't too hard to fab up the necessary panels, especially since it wasn't me doing it You have to think of those panels as patch panels that will get your floors looking fairly original, because they have the right stampings. The pedal box and rears of the floors are not included.

You tease. My center and right ones are fine, but I'd like to get a new left filler. Thanks for all the input guys. I'll keep watching and checking around. Meanwhile, here's a pic of the car in its sealer coat. Color should go on next week.

I've been told that the 73 front bumper is not the same shape as the earlier bumper. It looks the same, but its off enough that it won't look right with the earlier brackets. Has anyone used the early brackets with a 73 bumper?

Hi all, As I get closer to putting my car back together, I'm balking at putting certain old parts back on it. The bumper fillers on the front bumper, for example. They are intact, but faded and scuffed. Some people call these bumper packing. They go between the bumper and body, behind the front bumper, on the ends of the bumper. Its a 1973, which has unique bumper fillers on the front. MSA and BD sell the right one, but not the left one. The left one is the worst one, and its the side I'm going to see most often. Does anyone have any ideas of what to do? Will it look ok without these parts (I don't think it will)? Can you somehow refresh the parts? They have a metal inner frame, with molded hard rubber surrounding that frame. Thanks.

The leather upholstery will hopefully go on the seats this weekend. I've been too busy to work on it, but I set the seats in my living room to remind me to get back on it.

Don't know about the double floor. Seems like if you ever got moisture between the two floors, it'd cause more rust.

The printed portion is 8.5 x 11, but then on the left and right side there is an extra half inch strip of adhesive that makes the entire paper 8.5 x 12. The adhesive looks sorta brownish yellow in my scan. It must of been how they stuck it to the window.

I liked the sound of this "slightly" modified Z. I don't recommend the stunts, though.

Well, my AC no longer has its York compressor. It now has a rotary sitting where the air pump used to be. Thanks for solving my curiosity.

Here you go. Mine came into Seattle, and was sold in Wichita. I'm the third owner. I've got nearly every piece of paper that came with it, like the sales brochure, warranty and service books, Hitachi stereo owner's manual, Datsun AC owner's manual, and the original Quaker State oil warranty card, not to mention 35 years of gas mileage logs and oil change receipts. Over the years, I and the previous two owners put about $13,500 in upkeep into the car. Its interesting that the AC manual says its a Datsun 240Z AC manual. I was under the impression that the AC was an aftermarket dealer installed system, and indeed the original bill of sale has a line item for adding AC. Its just strange that they printed up a Datsun 240Z specific manual for it.

New poly bushings made a huge difference in how mine drives. The slop and vibration both are gone.

I forgot to ask about the supercharged Z your friend had. Nissan never made a supercharged Z. I've seen a few threads about supercharger kits for Zs, but I don't think it ever became even the least bit common. In the late 70s onward they offered turbocharging, but not supercharging. Lots of earlier Zs have engines and turbos transplanted from a newer Z. Maybe that's what your friend had.

My floors and support rails came in from Charlie Osborne at Zedd Findings. Bruce the body wizzard calls them patch panels, and not replacement panels. He's got them in, but they didn't cover enough of the drivers side floor, in front. He wishes they would cover more area, but comments that they are good heavy steel, and are a correct match if you want the factory look. He just fabbed up some more metal for the areas they didn't cover. Go Bruce. Luckily the passenger side barely needed any metal, only a 1x1ft patch. He also put in the rear quarter patch panels from Tabco, which makes the ones sold by Black Dragon and MSA. I bought mine directly from Tabco. Good service and shipping. Bruce wished they matched better, though. He couldn't use the part that wraps around the door opening, or the part under the bumper, as they weren't correct. Bruce seems to want the entire car to look like it came from the factory, and he didn't like these panels. Luckily all I needed were a bit of dog legs on both sides, and the right side rear wheel arch. I've been collecting material and information for my do it yourself interior refresh. When I get the car back, I'm going to have a lot of work to do. Les at Classic Datsun has been a big help on the phone, although I've yet to actually receive any items from him. I've ordered all the interior vinyl, and some real leather seat upholstery. He told me the leather is on its way, and I'm anxious to get it. I need to match the color of it to the rear plastic panels, which I'm going to redye, and I want to be doing it now. The original off-white is now yellowed by the sun. I ordered all my leather and vinyl from Les to ensure that it'll match, so hopefully I can dye the door panels and plastic panels to match. Since I'm doing the interior myself, I really want it to be close to perfect. I'd love to be able to do the body work and paint, but I can't. Even before the refresh, people would ask me if I did my car myself, as it looked great, although there was hidden cancer eating away. I at least want to lay claim to the interior and most of the mechanical work when they ask again. There's something about being able to say "I did it myself". Every body shop in the area tells me that there are no local chrome shops worth a darn, so I've shipped my bumpers off to Les on a wing and a prayer. He's got a neighborhood chrome shop that he uses. If it's good enough for a professional resto guy, its good enough for me. I decided to have all the holes welded up and not replace the rubber stripps, overriders, etc. I like that look. It'll probably be a toss up as to the cost. There's some savings in not buying new rubber, but the welding can't be cheap. I still don't have a price estimate. These bumpers are the one part of my refresh where I've taken a big chance on cost and quality, so I'm very nervous. There's so many stories of poor chrome work, and I live literally on the ocean down here. The salt eats everything, so the chrome has to be good, as does the paint and body work. Some of my friends want me to leave off the back bumper. The car really looks neat without it. I've decided that if I ever have to repair or replace the back bumper again, I'll just leave it off. Speaking of paint, Bruce says it'll go into the paint booth next week. He's two weeks behind, but then my bumpers won't be back until who knows when, so I keep telling him to do it right, not quickly, reminding him that I never want it to rust again. He gets a funny smile when I say that. My job involves supervising the upkeep of lots of high dollar, critical outdoor equipment that seems to rust no matter what you do, so I know why he smiles. Even before I get it back, I'm resigning myself to another rust removal refreshment in 10 years, maybe less. If you've ever lived on the ocean, you'd know. I probably should have bought a Corvette, but the Z got me.

www.baddogparts.com for the frame parts in front of and behind the floors. http://www.datsunzparts.ca/ for the floor pans and the support rails underneath of them. Any decent body shop can put them in, but it'll cost over a grand. My shop says that they could fab up the floor pans and support rails slightly cheaper than I paid Charlie Osborne, but they wouldn't look like original parts. If you do it yourself, I wouldn't cut out both sides while the car is on jack stands. The floors are part of the frame, and the car might warp if they were both out at the same time.

A good start is to watch prices online for a while, and read for a while. You can get a combined listing of Craigs List and Ebay, filterable for years and location here. Just change the years and location at the top. I bought mine in July, and prices have fallen since then, from what I can tell. The good news is that body shops are hungry right now in my area. After watching prices for a few weeks, you'll get the feel for what it'll cost to get what you want. I've seen some nicely done cars go for around $15,000 lately. You can't buy one and refresh it for the price of one already done, although if you buy it right, you can get close. A solid starter 240Z seems to be bringing about $6,000 these days. Its hard for me to put a value on a completely restored 240Z, as originality becomes important, as does the level and depth of the work. Maybe someone else can take a guess. Probably over $20k, but not $30k. While I'm no expert compared to others on this site, it seems to me that buying it right involves getting one with as little rust as possible. It might cost you up to $2,000 to replace the floors, for example. The other trick is to find one that hasn't been hacked up. Finding all the trim and interior parts will be expensive, so if you find one with all its parts still on it, you can tolerate more rust. Just be sure there's no rust on the frame rails in front of the firewall, or under the battery, as those are very expensive repairs. Luckily they are easy areas to check. Be prepared to pay big time for bumpers if you want them to look new. Even decent looking bumpers will look pretty sad on a newly painted car. Expect to spend an easy grand to $1500 on bumper re-chromes and rubber parts that go on them. There are much cheaper fiberglass and urethane bumper options available if you like that look. Interior-wise, you can recover the seats with new upholstery for about $300. You can't hardly get new door panels. You can get new carpets and all other vinyl. In fact, you could redo everything but the doors, dash and rear hatch plastic panels for less than a grand. New dashes are nearly impossible to find, but a dash cap doesn't look too bad for about $150. You can also search this site for info on how to repair a cracked dash, but be prepared to completely remove the dash to do it right. Removing the dash is time consuming, but doable yourself. You can still get those plastic panels around the rear hatch. While not the cheapest place, here's a comprehensive place to get many interior parts. Oh yea, that center console is probably cracked around the choke lever, but you can repair it. It will be hard to replace it. Under the hood, I looked for a fairly original engine bay. I didn't want to sort out someone else's mods. I liked that mine had been upgraded to an electronic ignition, though. It also had working AC already on it, as that'll cost you another grand if you need that. My 73 had already been "upgraded" to 72 carbs. Do a search on flat top carbs to learn how to identify and avoid them. I bought mine site-unseen, but had a friend in the seller's area check it out for me. It turned out ok, although the car has more rust than my friend found. I suspect the difference in expected rust vs what I actually got is costing me $2500 in cutting and welding at the body shop. I don't think I would have recognized how bad the rust was had I looked at it myself, though. Much of it was hiding under 20 yr old paint and undercoating. All you can do is look carefully, and then take a chance, I guess. Good luck.

Now that you mention it, we do have a Nissan dealer on my little island. I'm so used to shopping online for just about everything that I haven't even tried the local "bricks and mortar" store. I know you can order from Courtesy Nissan online, but since I was buying some stuff from MSA anyway, I just bought as much as I could at one time, combining the shipping, etc. I'll have to try the local Nissan dealer. It might be fun to bring them the car and see if they even know what it is.

You are in luck, those are round tops. You appear to have all the pollution control stuff still there, which was often removed when a 73/74 car was upgraded to older round tops. Is there even an air pump, and is it connected? Its belt driven, down low on the passenger side of the engine. Here's a picture of my 73, after being "upgraded" and de-smogged. Pay no attention to how rusty the darn exhaust is...

Ahh, there's even a section for MSA parts. I'll start adding some into the list, and post more thorough reviews as I install and/or use the parts. I hadn't intended to do formal reviews this time around, only to point out a couple things: 1) MSA does carry some unexpected OEM parts. Their prices are much, much cheaper than you pay for these on Ebay or some other online vendors. 2) Some items aren't on MSA's website, but they might have them if you call and ask. 3) Speaking of prices, MSA gives a 10% discount to club members. A comment on the review system is that posts to it do not show up when you click "New Posts" on the main menu of the website. As a user, I'd like to see reviews show up in the New Posts listing, so I'd see them. If its possible, I'd even put new classified adds in the New Posts listing. Maybe I'm just lazy, but click conservation is environmentally friendly

Using tin snips, I cut a 1 inch deep V shaped notch into the middle of a 4 inch wide metal putty knife. The result looks like a wide bladed weed puller. You can slide the blade underneath the panel so that the clip slips into the notch. The width of the blade will distribute the pressure so that you don't break anything when you pop the clip loose.

Since I'm buying so many little goodies from MSA during my refresh, I thought I'd start a thread to provide reviews on them. Feel free to contribute your own parts reviews. Here's mine so far. I have other parts, but can't comment on them yet. All of my parts are for a 1973 240Z. Of note, I can't believe how many of them were actual Nissan parts. 1) Bullet II Mirrors - very high quality, made of metal. The tension on the swivel mechanism is adjustable, so you can tighten them up if they get loose. They are fairly small diameter, so you'll want to carefully mount them for the best view, as the field of vision is smaller than normal. They look great, though. 2) MSA racing style mirrors - These are plastic, and the tension isn't adjustable. They'll end up flopping around when you close the door, or at least that's what happened to the old ones the PO put on my car. 3) Engine inspection light - I was expecting a repro, but its a real Nissan part. 4) Inner shift boot - this isn't on their website, but they have it if you call. Its a real Nissan part. It only cost me $17.55, which is so much cheaper than other online sellers. 5) Wooden shift knob - again not on their website, but they have it, and its a real Nissan part. Was only $53. 6) Threshold plate - a real Nissan part. These are very flimsy things, and mine got scuffed and bent upon shipping. I may be able to buff and straighten them quicker than sending them back for a replacement, though. 7) Carb float gaskets - seems fine, made of cork. Stopped the smelly fuel leak I was getting from the rear carb under hard cornering, acceleration or driving the car up a steep incline. 8) Rear quarter panels - these are made by Tabco, which also sells to Blackdragon. My body man didn't like them at all. He used them, and made them fit, but they were not exact replicas. The resulting work looks fine, but has more filler in it than he'd like. Two noticeable differences were where the dog leg wraps into the door frame the tabs weren't right, and they don't have any indentation underneath the ends of the rear bumper. He just cut them before those problems, as the old panels were ok on the both the front and back edges at those problem areas. Parts I haven't installed yet include: Weatherstrip kit, carb air horns, seatbelts, alternator upgrade, and the headlight relay upgrade (made by one of our club members). Will update this thread with a review of those as I get them done. I'm still waiting on my interior leather and vinyl upholstery from Les at Classicdatsun. Wish list items that I'll eventually buy include new wheels/tires and some rear deck carpet. I think I'll go with Konig Rewinds, although those seem common on 240Zs today. I could use suggestions on carpet and alternative wheel suggestions. I'm not a fan of slot wheels... Don't forget that club members get 10% off at MSA.

The 73 240s had flat top carbs, too, so watch that you don't buy a set of original 73 carbs. For more info on carbs and just general tips like repairing a cracked console, replacing a differential mount, adjusting your valves, etc get the Ztherapy Tuneup video. http://www.ztherapy.com It helped me learn a lot. Don't know if that thing is on DVD, but get that if it is. Searching through VHS is a pain.

Any idea how much HP you gained with your exhaust upgrade? Can you post your dyno results on this thread for kicks?