Patcon

E-tek, the way I heard it was you "there is good, fast and cheap, you can have any two..." or "...you can only have two of the three..." Charles

That sounds like a good nights work, congrats Charles

I did some googling on this and didn't come up with anything. How would you go about making a VS grinder/ buffer? C

Sean240z, How tall are you? I have often wondered if I could even wear a helmet in a 240z. The cars have a tremendous amount of room for a car of this age but I am 6'5" so was just curious... Charles

Be careful where you throw all the sparks they damage glass and interior panels... C

I agree with Leon. The last engine I built was a 350 chevy which is fairly cheap to rebuild and I had $3500 or so in just the long block, no injection , exhaust or ignition. I did all the assembly work, motor removal and install. The guys at Rebello build a good motor and they can back it up with numbers, experience and history. If you are good at what you do you aught to be able to charge a reasonable price for head work, machine work , parts selection, precleaning, assembly, start up, break in, crating it up and shipping it to your door ready to go into your car. There is no free lunch... As for the swap it seems cheap up front but take Zed Heads advice and sit down and add up the nickels and dimes. That's where the swap gets expensive. New fuel lines, line adaptors, electric fuel pump, pressure regulator, fabbing mounts, cooling, exhaust work, etc. It adds up quick. $50 here $75 there before long you have spent some real money. This is not a critique or your notion to make a hybrid Z. Most guys do it for shear power but I doubt many do it because its dramatically cheaper. As a matter of fact many of the really cools hybrid swaps I have seen cost a lot more than 7k plus there are tuning headaches, unique problems to your swap etc. My 2 cents... Leon the paragraphs are for you...

Did you find any flares while you were there? C

Very nice as always. Steve, do you know up to what number car these would have been on? Charles

I agree with John, the price is too low to be able to take your time and do it right. It took me 40 hours to do my first floorboard all sealed and painted. I could do it faster on the next one. Bondo is a terrible sealant, it is not waterproof and will wick moisture to unprotected metal. If you decide to fill it and the gaps are too wide for a good body sealant, fiberglass "cat hair" would be a better choice than bondo. If it were mine I would think anything over 3/32" was a big gap, just my opinion. I hate it that you are in this situation, it can be hard a pain to fix a sloppy repair... Charles

I think some of that is regional. CA,OR & WA tend to have a good number of these cars just from reading the "I spy" thread. Here in the deep south I very rarely see them on the road and the projects tend to be very rusty. I suspect the Northeast and the Midwest is even worse... Charles

"What are you doing????" That made me laugh, I could see one of my girls saying that... Charles

I believe there are a number of guys here who have used this kit. They might be able to give you some tips if you need specific help. You might want to add Caswell in the thread title to catch someone's eye... Charles

I second that. It may be a truly low number car and I am not sure beating it up with cones would be my first choice...condition translates not only into money but time, if you are going to do the work yourself. I am 5 years into one of my restorations currently... Charles

Madkaw, why brass? C

I have tried to do some plastic buffing with buffers that run at those speeds and have found it very easy to melt the plastic. I would like to get a 2 speed buffing wheel like Eastwood sells but the initial investment is getting in the way. I guess the main point is anything above 2000 rpms will melt the plastic quickly use caution... Charles

The VIN is a great place to start. If it is a 1969 car it is likely a low number car and would deserve special consideration if its not a rust bucket. A stroker project is not a cheap endeavor, even in the most econo minded setups that I have seen. If you could afford Rebello that would be a sure fire way to end up with good useable power and reliability. Building your own motor takes some attention to detail and what works on a 2jz does not necessarily translate to a 40 year old Nissan motor. 2jz is a dual cam cross breathing engine; a totally different animal than a Nissan L6 type engine. That is why many of the people on Hybrid Z do the swaps they do is because many times it is easier, cheaper or both to just swap or swap and turbo for significant gains. The VIN is the right place to start and some pictures would be good, especially the rust prone areas: battery tray, rocker panels, rear wheel arches, floor boards, dog legs... Charles

I learned my lesson with angle grinder last year. I was using a 4" grinder with a thin metal cutting blade. At the time I was nursing some blue finger nails and the grinder slipped. When I went to catch it, I triggered it by accident. The spinning blade bumped my leg ( I was squatting down) and layed my quad right open. Went to the urgent care waited 2 hours holding my leg closed, got fed up went to CVS, then home and did the medical work myself. Painful but effective. I guess its fortunate my tetnus vaccine stays current. I now have a nice permanent black scare on my leg where the blade tattooed me. Happened amazingly fast. I hope you are ok... Charles

I love that color and may try it on a Z I have sitting around here. I painted my first Z from bare metal up and was shooting for a color like that but ended up much darker. I prefer your color... Charles

I would love to see someone on this forum take the project on. I just can't do it. Zedyone are you listening...:laugh: Charles

Is this car sold or not? I found a craigslist add posted today advertising this car, did the sale fall thru? Charles Serial number 201 1970 datsun 240z, 1969, $ 3,900.00

If I had more money I would buy the qtr for the next project. Those are some great leads... C

Looks great. I love the way new hardware looks Charles

I thought the red interior was rare also. I would think it might be better to acquire black panels and send the red ones to ebay and be money ahead. Just a thought... Charles

Very cool. Nice, simple and repeatable I like that. Charles

Steve, So you are molding covers that go over the existing steel tabs. How tight are they? Do the tabs have to be really straight to get them back on. Is an adhesive required? Charles