motorman7

Yes, it really is a big help to have a second (and third) for reference. Would be difficult without them. I am running the stock distributor with points. My initial findings point to a short in the green/white wire that attach to the ballast resistor. I get 13.4 volts on the Black wire side but just 2.3 volts on the green/white wire side. Ballast resistance was 1.9 Ohms so that is good, but way too much current passing through to have that large of a draw down. Hope to work on this a bit more later on this week.

Well, I kinda got the car running today. I say 'kinda' because I had to hot wire the car to keep it running. Looks like I may have an open circuit on the Black/White wire that goes to the coil. The car would run when the starter was turned on, but died when left in the ON position. Looks like I will have to track down the electrical gremlins on that one. Otherwise, the car ran absolutely great with the hot wire. I set the air flow and adjusted the fuel mixture on the carbs. Also, set the timing so it is running nice. It sounds great with the original exhaust and the motor just purred. Very thrilled about that. If the 'ON' would have worked, it would have been a perfect day. Oh well, I will have to tackle that in the next couple day. Oh, also had a major oil leak. I think I put a roadster oil filter on the car and not the a Z oil filter. The gasket on the roadster filter is a smaller diameter and never sealed. Fortunately I had a number of Z filters available (Thanks Bob!) and was able to put the correct one on. Also had two small water leaks when the system pressurized, but just had to tighten the clamps on those. So, I will be testing circuits here and looking through schematics. Fortunately, I have other Z's to reference here, so it helps with the trouble shooting. Will keep everyone posted. Rich

Will print this up today

Thanks for the Face Plate Pics. I may try and 3-D model that and print the part. I cant make the texture, but I can do the rest.

ABS, Dark Gray in color. I put a single coat of satin black paint over it. Probably wouldn't hurt to primer and sand first to hide the small ridges.

So I 3-D printed a Radio Faceplate Blank. I will probably leave this in for the short term until I can figure out what I am going to do with the Radio. I may try to print one that looks like the original radio faceplate. Won't help me much without the radio though, but it does give me some options.

Whoa...totally freaked me out! I thought someone was selling my car.

I got mine at Motorsport...just the rear shock towers and wheel arches. About $53 per side

My daughter lives in Charlotte so would be easy to pick-up, but probably have to let it go. I do have the antenna switch and some off brand Radio. I may try and replicate a close copy of the faceplate with my 3-D printer and see if I can get it to look close to original.

Yes, would love that! Thanks so much. Will send PM with address.

No, this console has the early choke set-up. There is a large aluminum colored plate and a guide plate underneath. Unfortunately, I do't have any pictures. I do however have a spare large aluminum colored plate along with a bunch oother random parts.

Just a small rant here: I am just amazed at the high cost of 240Z parts today. 5 years ago parts were way cheaper. Prices seem to have increased 5X. Of course the pricey ones are the items I need to finish my Z. What am I referring too? Radios: Yikes! these babies are listed on e-bay from $700 to $1100! Wow, that is out of my league and the audio quality is terrible. Those bullet shaped engine lights: 5 years ago you could pick them up brand new for $25 in the box. Today the cheapest one is $75 and I have seen them listed for over $200. Was fortunate to find an old one laying around that I could re-zinc. Plastic Battery covers. Motorsport used to sell them for $37 but they are out of stock. Cheapest I can find now is again over $200. Rear License plate lights: They used to go for $15-$20. Now they are $75 and up. So, just had to rant and rave here for a bit. Will have to save up a bit or sell more Z parts to afford this stuff. Grrrrrr I can drive the car without these items, but sure would like to have it complete.

Made a lot more progress this weekend. Should be ready to turn the key in a week or two here. Very excited about that. I bought the wrong year light/wiper lever on ebay. My car is a '71 and the light/wiper lever is for a '74 or later and had a nine pin connector. The harness coming from my dash is a large 6 pin connector. So, I had an extra vintage connections 6 pin shell handy and set up the switch so it has only 6 pins, with wire colors matching the dash harness. The 'spare' wires were a red wire and two yellows. Hopefully they don't do anything important. My guess is that they operate a buzzed if you leave your lights on when ignition is off, but I could be wrong. I got the hood release cable in from ebay/Thailand. It is lame, but it works well. Lame because the handle looks cheap. I will have to get a correct one and replace it. So, now I can close the hood. I also adjusted the hood gap at the wiper panel so things line up well. Now I can take pics of the car with the hood closed. I got the wiring in the passengers foot well are about 95% complete. The engine harness did not have any connector shells on it, so I picked up the necessary shells from Vintage Connections. I thought the wiring would take several days to figure out but it was incredibly simple and only took about 30 mins. The PO had tagged and grouped the wires that went to each connector. All I had to do was get the correct shell and insert the wires int the shell matching the mating color. Such a relief that is was so simple. Got the vinyl in on the shock towers. It came out OK. It was a bit challenging as the material seemed to be a bit off on the pattern shape. Also, the hole in the vinyl was no where near where the center shock nut should be. So I used scissors to adjust the cutout, and also cutout around the 3 nuts that secure the strut. I also had to remove the panel around the rear quarter window to get the material in. So, things are moving along. Pics are below

Hi Walter, Glad you are OK (for the most part) and so sorry to see the car damaged like that. That is always my fear when driving my '70 is somebody running into me, so I try and keep my distance. But, you can never predict what other drivers will do. Looks like a lot to repair, so maybe you will consider another Z in the future. Keep us posted on your health and how all works out with the car. Best regards, Rich

Without even seeing pics, I would guess that it's way under priced. People are selling horrendous rust buckets for more than $2K, especially if it is a '70.

More progress made over the long weekend. I got the new shift boot for the center console, so I installed the boot and the console. The console looks great, choke is hooked up, now it's time to start addressing the electrical. I did get the alternator cleaned up and installed. It is the original alternator, so hopefully it still works. I did opt for a new voltage regulator as those seem to be a bit more critical. I got the final fuel hoses attached to the fuel tank. Also got the fuel gauge sensor cleaned up, checked out and installed. The breather hose is from zcardepot. It was $16, way cheaper than Motorsports $75 tube and looks just the same. The braid is very similar to the radiator hose braid. Also attached the front bumper, but only temporarily. Still waiting for the bumperette rubber to come in. Here are the pics

Very cool! Love it.

I find it hard to believe that you would need a gear reduction on the starter for more starter torque. The stock starter already has an insane amount of torque. How do I know??? I was once dead stopped on the 5 fwy in traffic, going uphill, when my clutch went out (severe fluid leak). The only way to get the car out of traffic and off the freeway was to turn the car off, put the car in 1st gear and try to start the car. No problem, the car moved uphill in first gear when I turned the key and started running, much to my amazement. I was able to get to an off-ramp while grinding a few gears and to a gas station. Never again will I worry about the torque of the stock starter.

Got the center console in today from e-bay seller. Such a deal, center console with choke cables and choke plate and defroster switch for $160 after shipping. Console was in great shape. Just have it temporarily installed because I need a new shifter boot/cover. The one in the console was torn. Got the muffler secured by making a small right angle bracket and attaching to diff strap bracket. Nice and secure installation.

Got the heater box and hoses installed yesterday. Got the dash installed today after the third try. First try didn't work because the steering column was installed. Had to undo the bolts before dash would go in. after second install, noticed the defroster ducts were not installed, so took the dash out again. Third times a charm, got the dash in. Also got the vent ducts installed and the drain ducts installed. What a pain. Hate working on my back like that. the seat adjustment lever dis into your back when installing that stuff. Anyway, started connecting some of the electrical harnesses. That is a small mess and will take some time to sort out. Here are the latest pics

Thanks everyone. I am reaching that desperation stage now where I am ordering the final parts I need and burning the Paypal credit card on e-bay and other sites to make it happen. Will soon start listing some of the surplus parts I have here to offset things a bit. It is funny looking at some of the items that the PO collected that were in the boxes. I have a bag here that must have about 30 of the red and yellow rectangular turn signal lenses, enough for 7 cars.

Really made a lot of progress this week. Got the rear bumper installed except for the small 'bumperettes'. Rubber for those should be here tomorrow. The large rubber on the bumper is NOS rubber in perfect condition. The bumpers look awesome and great on the car. Will put on front bumper when the 'bumperette' rubber comes in. Got the carb pistons working well and most of the rubber hose installed in the engine bay. I need some vacuum hose and breather hose but otherwise the engine is pretty complete. Got the door panels in. Real happy with those. I had to order some parts to complete the build. I have a center console coming in that I got off of ebay. It had choke cable with it, so looking forward to installing that. Also got a light switch/bar from ebay. They were missing from all the parts i got from the PO (or I will find them after the ebay parts come in, you never know). I put the original CA blue plates on.....it works well with the orange paint. Here are some pics. Also, If anyone has the license plate light for a cheap price I am interested. I have the right paint so it doesn't need to look good, just not cracked.

Z cars doing well in the rally so far. http://www2.endurorally.com/pp2016/results.php Scroll down to pre 1975 model cars

I know...so close I can taste it. I am hoping that I can have the motor running by the end of July. That would put me in good shape for getting to the JCCS (car show) in September. I have just a few fuel lines to put in, and hose clamps coming in. Then I just need to finish out the carbs and get the dash/electrical in. Interior is partially in and won't take much to complete. So, hopefully I get enough time to get this all complete in the next 3 months. We will see how it goes.

Thanks Zedyone. It's the details that make the car. Makes everything go slow, but it looks nice and is easy to work on when it's done. I put the starter in along with the Battery cables. Did a bench test on the starter using the bench vice and 12 Volt battery charger. Both motor and solenoid worked well. Finished the smog parts, hoses and clamps. Will finish up the carbs over the next week or two. I threw on the air cleaner just for the pics. The air cleaner was powder coated and decals applied. Got the weather stripping in on the rear hatch. Went in easy enough, but I still hate doing weather stripping. The only part I like about doing the weatherstripping is peeling the glue off of my fingers. Cleaned up and painted the bumper support brackets and just picked up the freshly chromed bumpers this AM from West Coast Plating. Will attach those in the next week or two. Also got new rubber strips for the bumpers. They should look nice when done. Attached are latest update pics.