Walter Moore

Try the things listed in these threads: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4519&highlight=hood+latch+cable http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36191&highlight=hood+latch+cable http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34026&highlight=hood+latch+cable

Beautiful, I love the styling of those cars. I don't think they were ever sold in the U.S.

My wife and I will be there.

Interesting swap.

I think that I understand items 5, 9, 14, 15, 19, and 20. I am not personally interested in any of them... The rest of them are a mystery to me.

Get a meat thermometer. Put it in the top of the radiator. Start the car and let it idle until it gets full up to temperature. Check the temperature of the actual radiator fluid. You will feel better. Trust me.

Talk about no headroom...

My 71 doesn't have a buzzer, not that I intend to do anything about that... But the key does pull right out of the ignition any any position. Someday I will replace the ignition switch, but I will wait until I can afford to replace or re-key all of the locks at one time. That day is far off at this point.

I am not sure about the 180 degree out issue, but the mounting base for the ZX distributor is different that the one on the early cars. It isn't possible to get the timing right on the ZX dizzy without pulling the oil pump. Now that I say that, I think there is a difference in the alignment of the rotor between the distributors as well... (old age is a pain. What was I talking about again?) In any case you will have to pull the oil pump and put the drive at an angle that makes the new distributor work before the car will run. The ZX dizzy was designed for a different car after all.

Sorry, I am not that familiar with the 260Z. On the 240 the power for the ignition goes through the tach (sort of) and that is how it senses the engine speed. The 260 must be similar. I wonder if a previous owner jumpered around a bad tach to get the ignition to work...

You will not really know for certain until after you get the car running. If you have driven it already and it shifts easy all is OK. On the other hand, I didn't rebuild mine and found that the 2nd gear synchronizer was bad. After driving it for a year I swapped it with a 5 speed from a ZX, and then two years later I pulled the transmission to replace the clutch. (Cursing my lack of foresight for hours has I squirmed under the car to pull the transmission yet again...) I will let you make the call.

1. Is the frame (uni-body) straight and solid? Measure the wheel hubs front to back on each side and diagonally across. If the numbers do not match from left to right or diagonal to diagonal, walk away. 2. Is there obvious significant rust damage to the main frame rails or floor? 3. Is the drivetrain complete and intact? 4. Are the windows all present and in serviceable condition? The Windshield is probably easier to purchase than the side windows. (That is true on most cars.) Obviously some of this depends on the area of the world where you live. Most "restorable" cars in the rust belt wouldn't be considered worthy of parts car status in California, regardless of the brand or nation of origin. But be realistic. If you start with a parts car, at least don't pay a premium for the thing. Oh, and starting with a rusted hulk that needs lots of work is the easiest way to end up sinking thousands of dollars into a failed project.

I think someone should clarify that the Opyland Hotel is the city of Nashville's main convention hotel, but not the hotel that the Z convention is using. The Z convention site is well South of Nashville proper. The flooding is tragic, and our hopes and prayers go with those affected.

17 degrees static timing is only for the "Euro" spec points distributor, part number D606-52. (Which unfortunately is the unit listed in the dreaded Haynes manual...) If you are running the early U.S. spec points distributor (D612-52) the static timing is 5 BTDC. That distributor has 24 degrees of centrifugal advance and setting it to 17 degrees of static timing will cause major spark knock. Most of the electronic first generation distributors were set to 7 or 8 degrees static timing, while the ZX distributors nearly all are set to 10 degrees. Go to Xeons30 and download the real factory service manual for your car: http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html That is the real source of information.

One of the Mopar guys at work had an interesting idea for an auxiliary ground the other day. Since most newer batteries have both top post and side post terminals, he used the top post terminals with his Mopar style battery cables and ran a smaller side post cable from the negative of the battery to his frame mounting point. I think that I may do the same thing later this spring because my current battery cables are getting really beat up from being connected and disconnected so many times in the course of various updates. It seems like the smallest side post cable available is about a #4 AWG, and that has to be a better frame ground than the #10 wire I have spliced to the negative cable right now.

If you daughter is helping you fix the car now, does that mean she gets to drive it to school in 6 or 7 years? (I only ask because neither of my girls will drive my car, even if I offer to loan it to them. Something about the manual transmission and the fear of wrecking something that I spent a large portion of their lives rebuilding.)

I used to have a hand pumped vacuum style brake bleeder until the pump died. (I can not remember the brand.) Then I bought an Air Vac from Harbor freight, which is really intended for AC work. I changed some fittings around and use it with the brake fluid jar from the hand pump style bleeder. It works great. (You do need an air compressor however.) Mostly the vacuum bleeders work by pressing a rubber hose over the bleeder valve's nipple, so basically any bleeder should work on any car. (So long as the bleeder valves have a hose bulge, which nearly all of them do.)

The body is straight. The paint job is marginal. The seller is being honest with the rust issues. I have no idea if it is worth what they are asking, but I have seen worse Z cars.

Looked good to me. But the I am not a racer.

I know that most of the suspension bolts are 10x1.25, which is why I have a box of those left over in the garage. But the "standard" 10mm thread on the high strength bolts is 1.5 mm. I don't think that I have encountered the 1.0mm thread anywhere yet, but I will take your word for it.

Must be different in this part of the country. I have no trouble getting NGK plugs at any of the local parts places. Advance, O'reily's, etc. In fact when I replaced the plugs in my Chevy last year the only plugs Advance Auto had in stock for that vehicle were... NGK.

That whole date thing is so over-rated... ;-)

I actually saw that sentence on a bumper sticker on a Triumph Spitfire an a SCCA event at Raceway Park in the early 80's. Now the part about the TR6 having a frame is interesting...

Good luck finding a donor car that doesn't have the same problem. The rear wheel arch is rust spot #1 for these cars from what I can tell. If the body shop is going to weld in the new piece I would check with MSA and others to see what kind of repair panels they have. Did the body shop have a recommendation for a source?

I refinished my steering wheel. It wasn't a big deal. Just sand off the old finish, stain it with walnut or mahogany stain, and then finish with several coats of a good furniture type coating. I used tung oil, but I hear that polyurethane works well also. With tung oil you have to let it dry for a day or two, then use steel wool between coats.