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ConchZ

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Blog Entries posted by ConchZ

  1. ConchZ

    Moved

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    Been a long time between posts, due somewhat to relocating to Kansas City, MO for a job transfer. Miss Key West, but KC is nice, and most of my family are here. I can also afford suitable housing, with lots of garage space, making it easier to work on the car and store parts. I just noticed it has been two years since I got the paint done. I had a few initial problems with the paint, but once those were fixed, it has held up great for two years now. I just removed the gas tank to solve a leaking vent hose, and was very pleased with how rust free the underside of the hatch and insides of the quarters and rear panels looked. I don't think the car will ever be finished, though. Seems there's always something needing fixed, or at least improved upon. I guess that's why I bought it, something to do for a hobby. Interestingly, the car came from Wichita, so its much closer to its original home. Maybe I should look up the guy I bought it from. I never met him, as I bought it from Ebay. My friend checked out the car for me and handled the transaction.
    Time for new tires, as they are about 7 years old and hard as rocks. Good tread left on them, just old. Time to make a final push to solving the mysterious rear end clunk, too. Replaced bushings, mount and u-joints already. Wish they would have come up with a better design. Speaking of design, what the heck were they thinking on that fuel tank? I think there were 7 fuel and vent hoses on it, none of them the same size.
  2. ConchZ

    Got car back. Things to do with dash out.

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    Got the car back last thursday. The paint and body work turned out great. Its not all back together yet, so I don't really want to show it off. In fact, its further apart than when I got it back. I took the dash out to fix the one crack in it. That came out well. While I had it out, I've been working on a few things. I've lubed the HVAC control cables. I found that many of my duct work connections weren't really connected anymore, so I've cleaned and refitted them. I've taken the lenses off all the instruments and pollished the cloudiness and scratches out of them. I've been insulating the car with Ensolite and Raammat, and have installed new vinyl on the transmission tunnel and luggage riser. I've wired up an alarm with a well hidden electrical cutoff. I replaced my shifter bushings and boots. I've fixed a crack in my console and followed the ZTherapy video's advice on reinforcing it so it won't crack again. I've replaced all the instrument light bulbs, and installed the headlight wiring harness upgrade. I plan to put the dash back in on Saturday. There's so many electrical connections, duct work and those four HVAC cables, that I don't know if I'll get it done in one day. If I do, I may get the rest of the interior installed on Sunday, or at least enough to drive it. Meanwhile, here's a couple pictures. My right headlight cover wasn't on straight yet when the left one was taken, though.
  3. ConchZ

    Making progress on all fronts

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    Well, I got the little rust issues fixed to my satisfaction. I also got the headliner problem solved. The headliner I bought had an issue where it separated from the foam that was attached to it, literally falling on my head. The foam was sorta greasy feeling, so I didn't want to re-use it. I searched all over the darn island for some foam. A fabric shop(one of two we have) directed me to a Nicaraguan guy who does upholstery work. I ended up paying the guy $180 to put up new foam and a new vinyl headliner from stock he had on hand, plus recover the sun visors. The foam he used was thicker than the foam that came with the headliner I bought, and it cuts the noise and solar heating a bit vs the other one. After sitting the car in the sun a couple of days without the headliner falling, I am calling it good. Today, I put in the rest of the interior, except for the panel on the tail gate, which I'm still trying to figure out how to attach without drilling holes in it. Took it for a drive, and must say its significantly quieter than without all the interior panels! Imagine that.
    Am not happy with the MSA/Retro Belt seat belts I bought. I just don't like how much room the retractor takes up. Heck, I can't even push the seat all the way back without the back of it rubbing on the retractor mechanism. I'll figure something out, or maybe I'll go back to the original belts. Speaking of belts, I still gotta install the luggage straps.
    It's nice to have a dome light again!
  4. ConchZ

    two steps forward, one step back

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    haven't been writing as much as I thought I would. Hurricane season snuck up on me. I ride hurricanes for a living, and there's been a lot of new stuff to keep up with. Anyway, the car came back from the body shop in late May. The paint job looks great. However, it may only be skin deep. They cut a lot of rust out, replacing it with new metal. However, they somehow missed some rust in a few places. The rust became apparent under the paint very quickly. I've got some rust bubbles on the rear hatch ledge, where there was never any rust before. I've also found a rust hole on each side on the inside of the rocker panels, behind the dog legs. The dog legs were replaced with new metal, along with some of the interior metal of the rockers. I don't see how they could have missed this rust, and I don't see how I missed it as they did the work. I was there every day, watching. I feel like I missed something obvious, as the rust holes are so large that I can poke two fingers through them. You can't see them until you put the car on a lift and examine it closely. Anyways, I brought the car up to the shop today. I took my time bringing it to them, as I wanted to see what other surprises would present themselves.
    They will probably fix the problems. This is a small island, and I'm well known and well connected in the community. Being as the car is also a standout car, I think they'll want to protect their reputation and fix it right. I've put the car in two small shows already, and I drive it a few times per week. It gets lots of attention, and serves as a great business card for those who have helped me work on it. My show display includes cards from those who did the work that I couldn't do myself.
    One thing that makes it a standout car is the interior. I love it. I've not been able to finish it yet, due to problems with headliner glue, but it's going to be great. I love the white leather seats and the white leather shift boot.
    Gave the car its shakedown cruise, putting 300 miles on it during a trip north to Miami last week. Passenger side headlight quit, and the AC quit. Will look at those after the body work is corrected. Otherwise, the shakedown cruise went well. The speed limit on my island is 35 mph, so I enjoyed driving fast in Miami. It cruises smoothly at 85 MPH. You can't believe how good it sounds as you stomp on it under a freeway overpass. Those twin carbs with K&N filters scream, and the twin vertical resonator tips howl. On wet pavement, it's a blast to tease through the corners. Given that I drive a bicycle or a pickup for my daily drivers, it was a kick to pilot something with soul for a change. Will start posting pictures as soon as I get it done, but I've held off for some reason. Want to be able to show it as I intend it to look, I guess. Gotta get the interior finished up, and also need to do something about the wheels and tires. I love the old Keystone wheels that came with it, but need to do something with the rusty center caps. More later...
  5. ConchZ

    Still Waiting

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    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.
  6. ConchZ

    Body Work Status

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    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.
  7. ConchZ

    How I picked a body shop

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    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.
  8. ConchZ

    Introduction

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    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.

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