FricFrac

I'm just messing around right now so I'd like to be able to resize, etc to personalize it for myself. I'm not looking to have a clone.

Does anyone have the fonts they used on the BRE Datsun cars (or something close) as a vectorized font? I want to play with my paint scheme so I thought I'd get some stuff printed in vinyl to see how it looks on the car.

My dream car was a 280ZXT with the Digital dash. When I picked up my '83 last year with the Digital dash I modified that dream car to a 280ZXT with the Analog dash.... First interior mod I do on my ZXs is to fix the saggy vinyl in the back. I used the Super 77 by 3M and its good but it's not quite strong enough and I'm going to have to redo a couple of parts again....

Maybe in your part of the world but it took me 17 years to find the one I found for an affordable price in the condition its in. Rust free in the Pacific Northwest - good luck I did find 'er though..... Good luck on your quest. I'm glad my first car was a 280ZX - try to find one a little less rusty than mine (although I did have 'er for eight years ) Here's a cruddy phone pic of my new Rota wheels we were playing with....

I think if you could find a ZX that was in very good condition as far as being relatively rust free they are IMHO a very reliable car. The engine is extremely tough and reliable. The drive train goes forever. Most of these cars rotted away and the drive train pieces are still plentiful. Most of the ZX is fairly basic and I think its a good car to learn on. There is a ton of info, parts are relatively plentiful and inexpensive (relatively speaking of course). As far as a 25 year old car goes if its rust free its probably also in relativly (generally speaking of course) good mechanical condition. My dad took all his vehicles in to get the oil changed - I have no mechanical background. I do have passion and an intrest in learning as much as I can about these cars so I'm learning the mechanics. My first car was an '81 280ZX I bought about 17 years ago. It was two cars made into one. In the eight years I had it (aside from rust issues) I had to replace the rear brake calipers/e-brake cable, pads and rotors, battery, master clutch cyliner and clutch and two sets of tires. For eight years of ownership I'd say that was fairly low maintainance. The tough part is finding one that isn't rotted out. They do make good parts cars though

I have a 280ZZZap - but it probably looks a little different than the one's you guys have.... More info over here.....

Not sure if you've noticed but 280ZX's aren't a hot ticket item. Granted intrest is starting to pick up on them but with the 240Z they never were in the spotlight. There are plenty of deals out there that go passed up for quite some time. When the market stinks its a great time to track down a good deal. I wouldn't necessarily blow this off as not being a good deal because it hasn't sold. It is, however, quite a bit of money IMHO. I found a nearly mint 280ZX for $2500 but it was one of those unseen gems. Point is there are plenty out there but there is a lot of sifting to do. The general rule with the 280ZX in my experience (and I'm sure there are plenty that don't follow the rule...) is that if the chasis is in excellent shape the drivetrain and the rest of the car follows. Finding one that isn't rotten is the challenge...

Dash cap - they are pretty impressive in their quality and you won't have to worry about cracks again. You can get yours patched but it WILL crack again.

Matt have you looked at getting parts from Australia? There it tons of stuff over there that hasn't rotted away and they never seem to crush anything. Shipping from Aus to Canada is fairly reasonable so I'm assuming it would be similar or better to England...

OK I've posted a thread on the HID upgrade over here. Pictures with beam widths, comparison to my 370Z lights, etc.

Between digging up the back yard (the dirt gets softer when it rains but no matter how long the rocks soak they are still - well hard as rocks... maybe acid rain isn't so bad) for the sprinkler system and setting up a star ground, fuse panel, MSD Ignition and HID H4 Headlight conversion I was finally able to get the 240Z out this weekend. MSD is amazing.... back on topic - HID's. Wow. If you don't have a vehicle with HID's you can get away with sealed beams or better yet Halogens. Once you've gone HID's its really tough to go back. The light output is outstanding - low beams don't get in people's eyes but on the back roads with the high beams you can see WAY off into the distance - not just 10 feet from your bumper. HID's are running at 35W instead of 55/65 and probably produce at least twice the light. System I got plugs right into the headlight harness so I didn't need to hack anything up (its just a standard H4 connector anyhow). That being said if you don't want to go down that road for sure do the relay upgrade. Its fairly easy to do and like others have mentioned you can scrounge up relays but at $5.08 for a new Bosch 30A relay why bother

I've got a stock(ish) set up on mine. Well the ignition is stock. Just added a MSD 6AL mounted on a plate so I can mount the 6AL on the fender well without drilling holes. I used a 5.5 ohm power resistor so that the current triggered Tach we have works. Seems to be OK until about 5K RPM - its possible its not drawing enough current. A 4 ohm power resistor would probably fix the problem by drawing more current at higher RPM or maybe I could build a constant current source.... Seems to be working great but I don't think my stock coil likes getting hammered with 450V instead of the stock 12V. I picked up a MSD Blaster SS coil. I can easily go back to the stock system if there are any issues.

Good point - I guess it does depend on what condition the connectors in your system are like. Its possible that the wiring itself is deteriorated enough that its causing resistance but if that's the case that wiring needs to be replaced. If you are getting full voltage at the end of the circuit then you can just use the LED bulbs. You can also use LED bulbs at less than 12V depending on how the LEDs are set up. You don't "need" 12V - you need the forward biasing voltage of the diode which is anywhere from 1.5V to 4+ V. You also need some sort of current limiting which can be as simple as a resistor or a switching current source. You'll find many of the more expensive bulbs will have a switcher of some sort built in so variances in voltage will not affect the output. My point again is that you don't need to relay these circuits. You may need to replace wiring or connectors (major source of resistance). Relays draw more current than the LEDs do....

While that's an excellent sales pitch and you provide a fantastic service to the Z community I did point out several times that yes this has been done before. I also made several points that you didn't mention in your other threads. My points (again) are this.... - There is no need to upgrade your marker, parking, etc, etc wiring harnesses if you use LED technology. The current draw is a fraction of an incandenscent bulb. There is also no need anymore to have custom LED lights built as there are several aftermarket LED bulbs that plug directly into the sockets for your car. Not only do you not need to upgrade those harnesses you are also drawing less from your alternator reducing the requirement for upgrading it at all. - The headlight harness is a great idea and I will be making my own as well. HID lighting is an excellent alternative by providing not only brighter lighting but also almost half the power draw of sealed beams and H4 bulb. Just by upgrading to HID you are cutting the strain on your column switch by half (although I would of course recomend a relay as well).

So I've been reading for the last five hours sifting though countless threads so if someone who actually knows can you verify this information for me. This is what I understand.... I have an MSD 6AL that I am installing in conjunction with my stock ignition system on my '72 240Z. I haven't done the 280ZX dizzy upgrade yet. Our tachs are a current trigger tach which will no longer work once the 6AL is hooked up. The 8920 and 8910 are tach adapters - the 8920 is for Magetic pickup like the Pertronix 1761 setup and the 8910 is for voltage triggered from the negative side of the coil. In order to get my stock '72 Tach which is current triggered to work I need to use a Chrysler Dual Ballast Resistor and run it between the origninal +/- coil inputs which now go to the MSD 6AL Red and White wires. It sounds fairly straight forward but after five hours of research my mind is numb. I probably won't spend as much time fabing up a mounting plate and running the cabling... sigh....

Here is the road I'll be going down.... I want to be able to revert anything on my car back to "stock" so here is my plan of attack to reduce strain on the system... 1 - Interface to the stock headlight harness. Have the harness trigger a relay system for the headlights so that power is not run through the 36 year old switch but direct from the battery through the relay contacts. The relays I picked up from the automotive store draw 140 mA (tested). I think the stock column switch will be happier with 140 mA instead of 10A I realize this is what has been done before many many times and there are kits available (including a very cheap one from Black Dragon for $30 - the MSA one is $150) but I'm and Electronics Eng so I like to do my own electrical stuff and over-engineer it 2 - LED lighting. I know its not to some people's liking but you can do some pretty cool stuff (literally) and there is a huge drop in current draw. Using red LEDs in red marker lights is more efficient than a white light since the red lens is basically filtering out all light except red. My light over my console is 9 leds that consume 1/3W instead of the 10W from the stock Festoon bulb. Using LED lighting greatly reduces the current draw and does not require adding additional relays and harnesses and allows reduces the load on the 40A alternator so you don't need to upgrade it. There are plenty of places that sell drop in LED bulb that fit your stock connectors or you can make your own. 3 - H4 conversion with a twist. I've purchased a good set of H4 MSR assemblies to replace the sealed beams. Mine are aluminum reflectors/glass lens - beware of plastic lens/chrome plated (its actually aluminum but you get the idea) plastic. This conversion of course has been done before LOTS. My change is that I'll be runing a Bi-Xenon (high/low beam) HID H4 kit. You do need to be careful with HIDs as your H4 Lens assembly may not work well with the bulbs because there my be a lot of scatter if the focus isn't correct. That being said if you have a proper set up you will be drawing 35W on high and low beams with a much brighter light output. The H4 Bi-Xenon works buy running a full power (35W) but the low beam shields the bulb to reduce the lighting output via a solenoid. Just running HID alone is almost half the power of H4 bulbs on high beam with a brighter light output. Not all HID kits are created equal and you do get what you pay for. The kit I'm getting is a Philips designed balast with water tight connectors, etc. You can get kits starting around $90 but the kit I'm getting is $330 CND and well worth the money IMHO.

I'll be heading over with Greg M - not sure if he is bringing the red 240Z or the green 510 wagon. I'll see you there if everything goes according to plan

I've had the car appraised by a profesional appraiser with 37 years experience at $24,680 CND for those who were curious. I'm still looking for others that have bought/sold a restored car to add to the portfoilio - extra info never hurts when it comes to insurance.

Yea that was what I was thinking - there are a few other ism's with the story that don't seem quite right like the 4 wheel independant pozzitraction suspension

I purchased the car here in Victoria, BC just north of Seattle. I've had it for a grand total of one week tomorow. The car was sold to the restorer in 2006. Here is the E-Bay listing description of the car when it was purchased before restoring in 2006. "My father purchased this car in 1977 from the second owner. The first owners were two race car drivers famous in the local racing circuitof the time. They purchased 6 1972 240Z's with the intention of tricking them out and racing them. This car has a rare 5 speed manual transmission, 3 double barrel Solex carburetors, 4 wheel independant pozzitraction suspension and aluminum wheels. They also had the car painted Corvette Silver and replaced the original black plastic tail light surround with a chrome tail light surround. Of the 6 cars originally purchased two were completed and ready for racing, (this one and one last known to be located in Bellvue, WA). The two men were apparently sped demons of every kinds and before completing the other 4 Z's for racing decided to fly a single prop airplane underneat the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. One of the wings of the plane hit the water and they both perished in the crash. The two completed Z's were used as pace cars for a memorial race in 1973 in their honor. There is a plaque on the center consol to commemorate the race. It was clocked at 165 MPH." I know the original owner was Douglas A Mouat whom I've tried to track down but haven't found any info yet. The memorial plaque is still in the car after its restoration in memory of Phil Boersig and Terry Sweet. I'd love to learn whatever history of the car I can so if anyone in the Seattle area knows anything about this car please let me know.

How about these?

Yes it was from Downtown Datsun. It was painted Corvette Silver and was one of two of six that were actually built.

Uh there are a bunch of pictures there - are they not coming up for you?

Before the flaming ensues I have searched on this topic and come up with very little info. If you are privy to this info being somewhere on the forums, etc please be helpful and point me in the right direction instead of telling me to use the search function.... I have recently purchased 1972 240Z that has been restored from the ground up. It is, however, somewhat unique. Regardless of it being unique I'm having a hard time tracking down numbers for a declaired value for insurance purposes. I have had the car into an Appraiser but I know the majority of his research will be on E-Bay and I suspect it won't be an accurate estimate to the value of the vehicle. Has anyone had a ground up restored 240Z appraised and if so did you do any of the homework yourself? What values did you come up with? Did anyone use the cost of a restored 240Z when Nissan was doing the Vintage Z restoration project in 1996ish? There are a few unique items on the car as well which I'm unsure if they increase or decrease the value of the car. The car was one of six bought to be built to race - two were completed before an unfortunate accident occured and two of the drivers died in a plane crash. From what I can tell the car was only raced as pace cars in a Memorial race for the two fallen racers (the restored car still has a plaque commemerating the race). The car was modified in 1972 with triple Mikuni carbs, ported and polished, cam, header/exhaust, 5 speed and LSD. From what I've been told by others is the tranny and LSD are made from Unobtainium. I'll have our Z car expert take a look at the tranny to see if its a comp tranny or one from a Fairlady. I suspect since the LSD is a comp part the tranny likely is as well but I'm just guessing until we get the expert to take a look. The car has been restored from the bare sheet metal (which was in amazing shape when stripped down) with great attention to detail. All the engine parts were measured when the engine was machined and rebuilt (new valves, etc). All of the braking system is new as well as many other parts such as the rubbers, etc. The car was restored to its original racing build. I know there was a local car with a partial restoration done that sold for $18.5K and a ground up resto that was $23K. Are these numbers in the ball park? Would the different parts make the car more/less valuable? I realize that there is a ton of variables to value the vehicle but are there any real life examples of what a car like this would be worth? I've been hunting for numbers for 240Zs that have had ground up restorations that have sold but I haven't found anything yet. Anyhow, thanks for your time. I do appreciate any help on this one as I would like to make sure this car is covered properly. The only info I really found on the site was the nightmares people have had getting insurance to cover the cost of some of these cars. I hope I never have to worry about insurance and I will be taking the best possible care of this car that I can. I've been a Z car enthusiest since I was a little kid and I realize how lucky I am to have such a beast. Thanks again.