ConchZ

Bought lots of stuff recently from motorsport. All positive. They sell a nice seatbelt kit that bolts right in. I have it, but haven't installed it yet. It seems high quality, tho. Very heavy and solid mechs.

Key West does have some interesting people, especially during Fantasy Fest on the last week of October. I was Grand Marshal of that parade a few years ago. What a rush. Let me know if you come down again, and we can visit. As for rust protection, the shop seems to really like Ospho. They seem to spray it everywhere, all the time. I hope they are right. Corrosion protection is a way of life down here, so maybe they know a thing or two.

Picking a body shop is obviously a big deal. The work is expensive, and if you pick wrong, you end up paying a lot for shoddy work. Here's how I did it. I took the car to four shops. I brought them a list of what I expected done, and what I would do before bringing the car in for work. Mainly, I was willing to remove the interior. I was not willing to remove the bumpers or other exterior parts. More on that later. I also brought them a list of parts and the sources I had found for those parts, listing the obvious parts I knew I would have to buy. I wanted all exterior trim, bumpers and glass removed. I then wanted all rust to be cut out and replaced with new metal. Its important to show them what is available to buy vs what they will have to fabricate in the shop. For example, you can get replica floor pans, weatherstripping and rear quarters. I'll comment on parts quality later. While they are checking out your car, check out their shop. I like to talk to the owner about his other projects. Is car restoration even part of their normal business? Some shops don't like doing it. Can you talk to some previous customers? I got lucky and ran into someone who used the shop I picked to restore Fiats and Volvos. He was bringing his third car to the shop I picked. He was very happy, to say the least. At another shop I ran into someone who was getting his El Camino restored. He was happy with the work, but warned me that the shop low balls estimates. One shop had a lot of high end classics sitting under tarps. They did beautiful work on them, but it soon became clear that they were all 2-3yr projects, and the owner was a perfectionist who would make my car into a museum piece, although for a reasonable price. I thought 3 months was a reasonable time frame. He thought 3 years was more reasonable. The shop I picked had some cars that had obviously been sitting a while. I asked them what the story was on those cars. Turns out that he was storing those cars for customers who were basically dragging out their projects due to finances. He was doing a little work here and there as the customer got the money. On my second trip, I noticed that some work had been done on some of those cars, which was a good sign. It showed he wasn't just collecting jobs, and not finishing them. Its important to tell the owner what you expect. In my case, I'm expecting the car to be preserved. I don't want to mess with rust removal for another 10 years of frequent driving, and I live in a coastal area and will drive the car in the rain. I will put the car in some local shows and parades, but I don't expect it to win any contests. I mention that I heard of the shop via a local car club that I joined. All of this lets the owner know that his work will be visible and I will happily tell people who did it. Finally, understand that the estimate you get is a pretty loose estimate. Nobody can tell what's going to show up once they start stripping your car. Don't accept an estimate unless they put it up on a rack and look at it from all angles, though. If they don't do this, assume they aren't that interested in your project. In short, find a shop that regularly does restorations, gives you as complete an estimate as possible, and will let you talk to previous customers. Help them out by being willing to do the stuff they don't like, such as removing the interior. Also bring them cataloges of parts to show what is available. That's the best you can do. Now, to see if I picked right, we'll have to wait a few more weeks.

Hi all, I've been hanging around here daily for several weeks, gathering information for my refreshment project. I've started a blog to document it, which will hopefully help others out. It won't be too technical, but instead should organize the technical information and parts sources that I've been using on my project. This should be some help to others doing a similar project. Thanks go out to everyone who participates on this and other Zcar forums. Your contributions make it easier to preserve and enjoy our cars. Keep writing. Matt

This blog will be about the purchase and refreshment of a 1973 240Z. I had been searching off and on for a classic car to drive on a semi-daily basis. After about 2 years, I settled on the 240Z. It met most of my criteria, which were: 1) Low enough cost that I won't feel bad driving it around. 2) Parts and technical information are easy to find. 3) Somewhat rare. 4) Somewhat practical. I found that because Nissan used a lot of the same parts for many years, you can still get almost anything you need. The 240Z has a great car club following, so technical support is easy to get. The cost of buying one and getting it to nice daily driver shape is less than 20k, and I haven't seen another one driving around South Florida in over a year. The car can be taken on trips, because its fairly comfortable and has luggage space. Nice combination of things. I sometimes wish I had a convertible, and sometimes I wish it had four seats, so I could share the ride with more people, but you can't have it all in my price range. So...I bought a 240Z. I've driven it around for about 6 months, deciding if I like it, and deciding what to modify and/or repair to make it the car I want. Basically, I want a car suitable for limited daily use. I want the AC to work good, the seats to be comfortable, some better heat and sound insulation, a decent stereo, and remote power locks with an alarm. Other than that, I want the car to be fairly stock. The car I bought was an almost completely stock car. The only modifications it had were a switch to 72 round top carbs, a Crane 700 ignition and matching coil, and a new AC compressor mounted where the old air pump used to be. The previous owner had recently replaced the brakes, master cylinder, clutch, struts, and cooling system, including the radiator. In short, mechanically it was in great daily driver shape. It helped that it was very well maintained and had only 95,000 miles! The engine compartment was spotless. The interior was all intact, although there was a small crack in the dash. It also came with a box of receipts for nearly all work done to it, and the previous owner kept nearly all the old parts when he upgraded them. For example, the original ignition and hose clamps were saved, although he didn't keep the old flat top carbs or the emission control stuff. I also got the original bill of sale, all the original warranty and manual books, 4 books of gas mileage logs, and the original window sticker. If these 240Zs ever become highly collectible, my car will have all the stuff that is important to collectors. This makes it worth putting money into it for refreshments, or so I tell myself. I totaled up his receipts, and found that he had spent $13,500 in upkeep over the years, including one repaint in 1985. Not bad for 35 years of ownership. So now I've got a project. The car needs some rust repair and a repaint. Its got a good passenger side floorboard, but a hole beneath the seat on the drivers side. There's rust in the dog legs and on the passenger side rear wheel arch. The battery tray is rust free, but the left front shock tower has a patch of rust bubbles. The frame is very rust free. The interior is intact, but the white vinyl and plastic has yellowed with age and sun. I'm somewhat handy. I can replace a clutch, rebuild a carb, and rip out and completely redo a bathroom. I can't do body work and paint, though. I decide that I will hunt around for a body shop to do that, but I'll do the interior refresh myself and much of the mechanical upkeep I can handle. While hunting for a body shop, I also have been researching various websites, including CZCC for tips on the interior, and sources for parts. Later posts will describe what I've found. Hopefully this blog will be a resource for folks in my situation. Someone who has enough money and time to refresh a car, but not enough to completely strip and restore it, should find this useful, especially if your goal is to make the car a semi-daily driver. If I stripped and restored the thing, I'd be afraid to drive it. Status as of this writing - I've removed the interior, except for the dash, which WILL come out once I can park the car for a while. The car is in the body shop for its makeover. The bumpers have been shipped to Les Cannaday at Classicdatsun, who is getting them re-chromed for me at his favorite shop. I've ordered a bunch of stuff from Les, including OEM style real leather seat upholstery. I'm currently cleaning, repairing and replacing various interior parts. Most of that is done, so with luck I'll be able to start re-installing the interior as soon as it gets back to me and I remove the dash to repair that crack.

A less noticable alternative that I briefly considered was MSA's Aero Lip. I decided to keep mine stock, because I have a complete front valance on an amazingly original car. However, if I didn't, and wanted some "spoiler" effect, without as much risk of cracking it on a curb, I'd go with the aero lip. I'm sure its better than stock, but not as good as a full air dam or spook when it comes to aerodynamics. Here's a link to some pics of a car with one installed. It appears that its a direct replacement for the stock pieces, and even accomodates the turn signals. The little lip should disturb the flow under the car a bit, which is the goal.

I called Courtesy to have them check the availability of 62650-N3300. The gentleman said that part is NLA, long gone. So...back to boxing it up for shipment to the chrome shop.

Where do you get the part numbers? I need front and rear bumpers for a 73, no holes. Point me to the part number list... Thanks!

My seats are pretty much like Arne's. They were redone back in 1985. I've always like the gap in mine. It provides a little ventilation.

I figured out where the problem came from. On the underside of the cowl panel on the passenger side, I found a rectangular sticky spot the exact shape of the foam that was stuck in my AC vents. I don't think I'll glue it back on there. I wonder why it was there in the first place.