Patcon

I think the bigger the panel and the longer the seam the more chance for problems. Small patches are a great way to learn because they are reasonably forgiving

I agree with the whole rant! I too have found that section of the pin deformed and it takes very little of that to make the pins really hard to get out. That little lock pin is really not designed to be driven in or torqued to silly values...

Charlies floor pans don't have the curves on the inside to match the tranny tunnel. I cut into them until I can shape the petals of the floor pane to match the tunnel. Then I zip screw it in place. I take a cut off wheel or body saw and cut through both layers of metal in one area. That makes it exactly the right size. Tack it and move on. When it's all tacked, dolly it to a nice shape and weld it off

I have found that cooling with an air hose will cause excess shrinkage and warping. It is a technique used by body men to remove dents and oil canning.. Don't get me wrong, I use to do it but I ruined several panels this way and simply let them air cool now. Sometimes I dolly them along the way to prevent the weld bead from warping the panel

I slot the floor pans every 2"s or so on the edge. This allows me to adjust the edge to match the tunnel. Then seam up the slots when it's all tacked in Look at Whee's thread where he's doing floor pans (like page 200 out of 600 )

I am not a pro welder and sometimes I struggle but I don't really judge my welds by the back side. For starters your seam of buttons looks pretty good. I have found though if the gap is too tight my welds aren't as good. I want a skinny 1/16 or so to bridge, not butted up tight. Also your test piece has a lot of splatter. Are you running shield gas? are you close enough? Is thee flow high enough? Did you clean the test piece first?

I predicted six figure Z's a few years ago when we started to see $50-60k cars. I was told I was crazy. It actually happened faster than I predicted it would. Now $310k is hard for me to fathom but evidently I'm out of touch... I've always wanted a low number car (sub 1000) and almost pulled the trigger a couple of times. I don't really want that anymore and am starting to lean towards 260's and 280's because I don't want to run errands in my $60k 240z. I would rather leave my $15k 260 in the parking lot unattended... This all assumes I ever own a running Z again...

Are you welding your patch panels in with little 1" long segments of weld? If you are, I have found that's too much heat. When I weld in panels, I make a small bead weld 1/8" to 3/16s diameter. Spaced about every 1" to 1 1/2". Let them cool, then add more. Keep adding beads until it's seamed up. Then grind and fill any pin holes that show up with more beads

The centering nut was loose on the one carb. You will need to get the needle centered in the nozzle and then tighten that up. Otherwise the needle will drag on the nozzle, wearing it out and causing things to hang up

Ztherapy might sell you the linkage I have found the reason they hang up is usually the wrong fuel lines to the nozzle or the long bar is misadjusted and is pulling the nozzle to one side, jamming it in the carb body

You always need extras!! That's why we hoard stuff... You're missing the choke linkage bar. The part that moves is the fuel nozzle. It moves down as a choke to add more fuel when the car is cold. They both need to move the same way when on the car and relatively the same amount. Pay attention when you get them on the car, they can stick in the down position and cause idle issues

You are so close! You've really made good time...

I agree with zKars. If its not broke, don't break it. There are a great many recommendations in the FSM, some I do, some I dont. Our modern head gaskets may not require it, the new headbolts might not require it. I can think of a few reasons it might have been SOP in the 60's but not now. In my might there is no upside to retorquing, only downside...

The cars that bring serious money are clean original paint cars for the most part. If you paint it, I think you lose most of that. Motorman7 might be able to help you bring it up. He has a very good body man. It can be a nice car but I'm not sure you'll be any money ahead to paint it versus the way it sits. Zed is right, the more paper history you have the better and one owner helps too. The poor paint condition really discounts it IMO

Thanks site, I will do some more looking at those

@240260280 Can you hoover up any leads on generic clips?

Very clean looking

Did you fab the bracket from scratch GK?

If Jim has spare ones, that would be great. Part of my thinking was to find a suitable replacement wouldn't require removing them from a possibly functional part...

You can get a new data tag the car is titled to you

No idea!! Amazing some of the numbers these cars have brought this year

There are several really good build threads on the site that should have enough pictures to walk you through. Look at some of "motorman7"s build threads

and you either have an exceptionally large bladder or you peed outside a lot!!!

Its a datsun 510 heater I dont believe these are on any of the Zs Thanks, anyway

I thought about Zkars He's bailed me out many times. I thought somebody my have a line on an aftermarket source