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The Master Cylinder piston seal is leaking. That causes it to leak at the interface with the Booster. A rebuild of the MC is in order. While you're at it, purge the fluid lines and rebuild the rear wheel cylinders and front calipers too.

My 1973 FSM shows a Rear Window Defroster Relay in the Body Electrical (BE) Section, pages BE-5 and BE-6, for Manual and Automatic Transmission, respectively.

Hard to go wrong with powder coating. Do the sandblasting yourself, or find someone who will, and save a bunch of money over what some powder coat shops charge. Some shops have in-house blasting, while others outsource it and make a little profit on it.

Search eBay using "datsun paint" and you can find Les' auction for a can of his paint.

Have you measured the engine vacuum when idling and when the brakes are applied?

With the car running at idle, spray Starting Fluid around the engine vacuum hoses. If the idle increases where you spray you have a leak there.

The issue of "salvage title" on a collector car is an interesting discussion by itself. How much would it matter to a collector who made a "barn find" of a 1971 HemiCuda convertible with a salvage title? After a certified professional rotisserie restoration, would it really matter on the auction block? I also wonder if you can't appeal to the State under those circumstances and get the salvage title scrubbed and a new one re-issued.

It's not really "chrome" on plastic, it is vapor deposited aluminum "dust", which is then clear coated to protect it and make it shine. I would suspect that some high quality clear urethane would be a good way to go on pieces which have not yet been damaged.

Inf, I strongly recommend you have someone from a restoration shop come and give you an estimate on your repair, as it sits. Most autobody shops today aren't interested in classic car work, since owners are too picky, and also since they make a killing doing insurance work on late model cars where door skins are peeled off and crimped, or glued on, and they just throw aftermarket fenders and plastic bumper covers on. Rarely do body men work metal these days like they once did, and few are around who know how. If you don't mind getting your car back out, I'd also recommend you take it to a top notch frame alignment shop and have them put it on their machine to see how bad it is. This might dictate your next decision. Doesn't cost much and the insurance adjuster would probably order that anyway. Don't worry about the parts acquisition. Most insurance and body guys know how to dig up salvage parts values for fenders, bumpers, etc. I think eBay has made that a lot easier for all of us.

Chaztg, One thing I learned from my recent "total" is that insurance companies are compartmentalized and the guy processing the claim initially has no clue about what goes on in the appraisal, or total department. I got handed off to at least 4 different people during the process, including an independent insurance investigator who had to get audio testimony from my wife and the other driver in the event the other driver were to file a lawsuit up to 2 years later, claiming injury or financial loss (yes, in Texas that's the law, even if the other party got the citation!). So while I appreciate that you work in the insurance business, I have no problem offering my recent personal experience to Inf, who resides in the same State as myself, and is under the same policy umbrella.

Jim, Do you make them for the '73, or are you thinking about doing it?

I'm truly sorry. We went through this experience two months ago when my wife's car was hit. No one was hurt, the other driver was cited for the accident, but her "baby" was destroyed. Our insurance company took care of the rental car, because it's part of our policy (check yours carefully), although we had a maximum per day and maximum total, which covered about a month's rental of an economy car (we got a Nissan Versa), anything beyond that we'd need to deal with the other insurance company. We were told that once the estimate was agreed upon by us, the other driver's insurance company would reimburse ours for all costs accrued, so it wasn't like our company was going to be out any money. We had to tow the car and I demanded it be taken to an OEM body shop, since there was clearly engine mechanical and electrical damage done to it. The insurance adjuster determined, through fairly rigorous means, that the car was totaled. We still owed some on the car loan, and the lien holder (bank) has the final say-so as to what becomes of the vehicle. In most cases they want to total it, since that way they get their money back on what they now consider a "value compromised" vehicle. We loved the car, but since it was a daily driver, and I already have too many projects, we decided to take the settlement and buy another vehicle (and this time, when I insured the new car, I added "Gap Insurance" to my policy!). I see your case differently. I believe you should claim this car is a collectible classic, which it is. Demand your insurance company use a qualified antique/classic appraiser to get the value up as high as possible. You should do your own homework on determining your car's value just in case. Kelley Blue Book is not as good as NADA, and use eBay and other auctions to build up your value list. And don't be afraid to threaten court action if they resist you anywhere along the way. Court is something insurance companies are deathly afraid of, since you've paid premiums faithfully all these years under the assumption they'd take care of things like this, were they to ever happen. There's a legal term for that, but I can't remember it. By the way, any improvements you've done to the vehicle within the last 60 days, for which you have receipts, will be reimbursed 100% in the claim, should you decide to total it, or those items were damaged. In our case we'd just installed a set of Pirelli tires one week before the wreck. They paid for the tires, but not the labor. If the other driver has insurance, and it's still active (trust me, in our case we were sweating that), then your insurance has no cause to give you any grief regarding the value. Personally, I think they want "reasonable" valuations of totaled vehicles in the event they get into a pissing contest with the other company when the day comes to write the check. IOW, your company may get stuck with any difference if they have to go to court to settle the damages (by then you're out of the picture). Since you probably own the car with no lien against it, you can tell them you're keeping the car and want it fixed. They will hand you cash for the damage done. My recommendation is to find the best, top-notch, rotisserie employing, classic car body shop in the Austin area and demand only they do the work. No Earl Scheib for the 240Z! Since this type of repair may take a month or more, you may have a battle on your hands with the other insurance company over the rental car duration. Sometimes a "friendly" letter from your attorney can make things move a lot smoother for you. Good luck!

POR-15 is the same price anywhere you buy it.

I think I know the shop you're referring to and it is an impressive place. http://www.classicjaguar.com/index.htm When my brother and I were in high school/college we both had old cars. He had a '64 Jag XKE 4.2L coupe (you could get them cheap back then). Beautiful car with a great sounding motor. Nothing could touch it... we thought. Late one night in '72 he came home from a date in a state of shock. He recounted a story of a car that began following him and wouldn't stay off his bumper. As he sped up, the other car would speed up too. He punched it harder. The other car kept up . He tried some high speed cornering. The other car was even more agile. Eventually, the two cars ended up side by side racing through the darkened city streets doing what boys like to do... race. That other car was more than a match for his racing legend, XKE. Listening in disbelief as he finished the story, he said, "I've never seen one of these cars before. I think it's Japanese... something called a Datsun 240Z."

It's not Cadmium plated. The plating on the 240Z is Zinc Chromate, Yellow and Silver/Clear.

I've heard of sawdust in the transmission and differential to quiet noisy gears, but that's a new one on me.

All I can say is, oh buoy. (sorry, couldn't resist )

You might check over at the HybridZ... http://hybridz.org/

Move to Texas.

When your car dies I assume you have sufficient fuel in the float bowls that it doesn't take a lot of cranking to get it started again? I knew someone who once battled a problem like this on his car (not a Z) and it nearly drove him crazy. The car would start/run fine and rev OK sitting still, but would die once he got going down the road. He'd wait a minute and it start up and do the same thing. After a whole lot of parts swapping and troubleshooting, the problem was eventually solved. Someone had thrown some uncooked (hard) beans into his gas tank. When the car ran the velocity and fuel flow would pull a bean onto the fuel line, clogging it enough to starve the engine and kill it. With the engine dead and the car stopped, the bean would drift back away from the fuel line and allow fuel to flow unimpeded to start again. I looked for some internal pictures of the Z-tank where the fuel line outlet goes into the tank, but couldn't find any. I'm not sure if something like this would be possible on the Z, however it could be a chunk of rust/crud that broke away and is floating around in there. I recommend draining and flushing the tank and blowing the lines out with compressed air.

If I were you, I'd just call a competent auto glass installer and pay them $50 to do it. Tearing up perfectly good weatherstrip, scratching the paint, or worse yet, breaking the glass isn't a "learning curve" worth riding for that savings.

You can use a heat-gun on the weatherstrip to help soften it up, but avoid leaving it in one place too long, as that might de-laminate the safety glass. It's best to just hack it out with a sharp box knife, however.

That's an aftermarket ARA brand a/c control. I believe they were dealer installed. My '73 has one just like it. It has little value to me, since the new Vintage Air, etc., systems are much better than those old ones.

I've spoken with Les several times over the past several months about this. When I first called him he had just sold his last Butterscotch interior set. What he had been using was based on a large roll of vinyl he had obtained from one of the original aftermarket suppliers of Datsun seat covers, which he obtained for the Datsun 240Z Restore Program in the late 90's. He then told me he had a couple of possible sources for the Butterscotch vinyl and to check back with him. I called back a month later, but he still hadn't checked his sources. At this point I'm resigned to changing the color altogether to go with a Black interior.

There are epoxy type materials that bond to metal to give a very good repair, even on a floor pan. In fact, new automobiles are more likely to be glued together than welded. The materials aren't cheap and the applicator gun is pricey, but compared to replace/repair by cutting/welding this might be a more attractive solution, especially if you need to use the car. You might try cleaning and bonding some metal patches to the floor pan using one of the 3M Automix Panel Bonding Adhesives, Medallion RS-7160, or a similar SEM, or Lord product.