Captain Obvious

That would be a small amount of theft resistance. That couldn't hurt either.

Wait... I thought the wingnuts were supposed to be at 12 and 6??? Seriously though... It's a beautiful car. Not sure it's 70K beautiful, but it's beautiful.

It's a beautiful example, and I'm clearly nit-picking, but since we're dog piling... Paint runs or something else weird going on with the tops of the front strut towers Corrosion pitting in fan guard Polished valve cover Unpainted fender and hood bolts (didn't do a final color spray with the body panels in place). Black hood torsion springs. Are they supposed to be body colored? Failed plating on fan pulley and throttle opener diaphragm. Not a big deal, but stick out in contrast to the other new plating elsewhere. Brake hard lines near master cylinder look a little disorganized. Is that stock routing? Gotta love a good nit-pick pile-on!

gnosez, That sucks. That'll certainly make for a bad day! Hope that doesn't happen often.

Theft deterrent. Theft resistance. Theft recovery. Does it do anything to help? Well it certainly can't ENCOURAGE theft, right?

So it's apparently a long standing tradition in the Great White North to have beautiful women perched atop your cars? I like it!!!

Not surprised. Most flat tops have been swapped out by now. I consider that unfortunate, but I'm clearly in the minority. Good luck with the rest of the project!

Jasonxp, Haha! Glad to help. You weren't searching in the right part of the web. ClassicZ's got you covered! So... You're going to move your original 260 flat top carbs over onto that 280 motor, right? gnosez, What do we need to do to earn the sound of one hand clapping? That'll be my new goal.

I'd even hit it with SteveJ's stick. Looks like a well cared for typical unmolested Z.

"It might make the likes of Grannyknot orgasm into his popcorn" Pics or it didn't happen.

One book, "Swedish-made Peenis Enlargers And Me: This Sort of Thing Is My Bag Baby", by Austin Powers. LOL!!

I don't even know what this is! This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby.

Clearly academic, but just in case anyone wants to know... That "400 RPM" cutout is a bit of a misnomer. They use the "N" output from the alternator to pull in the fuel cut relay #1, and that "N" output from the alternator is actually the "Neutral" connection of a three phase "Y" connected generator. The voltage on this neutral output is the normal alternator output voltage divided by the square root of three. So for example, when the alternator output is twelve Volts, the neutral wire should have about seven Volts on it: Datsun assumes that by the time the engine is spinning at 400 RPM or higher, the alternator is up and operating, and the voltage on the neutral output is high enough to pull in the fuel cut relay. So the "400 RPM" threshold is a little arbitrary, but the intent is "when the engine is running, the electric fuel pump will run". Geek mode off...

I was thinking the same thing. It also looks like that group of wires splits at the back side of the rad. Some of the wires go in front, and some head towards the distributor. I'm wondering if maybe they used a special race simplified "wire only what's needed" group of wires for critical functions. Stuff like ignition and cooling. Simplicity = reliability.

Previous owners suck. EOF.

Looking over the engine compartment pic above... In addition to the stuff you mentioned, here's a couple things that caught my eye: Special "racing tape" secure on the clutch and master cylinder caps. Multiple piece upper radiator hose? Hose clamps in the middle? Vent nipple on valve cover angled forward to adapt to different PCV system. "OIL" cap. I thought the early ones were elephant? Couple unharnessed wires up and over the left strut tower. Is that stock? "D" shaped washers on some of the fender bolts for clearance into sheet metal corner.

Yeah, I saw the mounting bolts you had threaded in, and that's what surprised me. I'm no Z genealogy expert, and probably should have tempered my statements above, but I thought the early 280's were the same as the 240/260's. Seems not... I was also wondering if you maybe had the rear mounting bolts threaded into the wrong spots, but it seems you ruled that out as well? Snap a pic or two of your seat rails when they turn up. More learning to be had!

Wait... Really? Do your seat rails look like this: Or like this: Or none of the above???

Well you used the right stuff. Maybe kiddo nicked it? Maybe they opened the box with a razor knife at NAPA? Maybe just a bad day for you? In any event, glad that it didn't become something serious, and let's hope it was a one time anomaly!

If you're going to make seat mounting brackets, keep in mind that 77-78 are different than anything else. They use different seat rails and have front mounting holes on an angle instead of straight down. I don't know if the rear bracket is the same, but I can guarantee that the front one is different than anything prior.

You didn't use regular fuel line hose to splice in your gauge, did you? You used the fuel injected variety, right? Rated for the higher pressures? I know, I know... But it's my job to ask.

Oops. I don't have that part. I was talking about the roundish part that the headlight actually mounts to. Confusion over terms. I always heard the part you are looking for referred to as "scoops" or "sugar scoops". Sorry for getting your hopes up.

I think I have a pair from a 280. I believe the metal portion is the same, but I don't have the wiring pigtail... Just the metal. Do you have the wires already?

Haha! Made ya look! My PO bead blasted everything and then clear coated the hardware instead of the original yellow coating. Not only does it look "wrong" to me, but it also rusts as soon as you chip the clear coat paint with a wrench. Looked great to sell the car (to me), but overall I think it is poor judgment. I would love to go through what you are and have all the plating redone. I think that looks awesome when complete.

Nice! I was messing with shop lights a couple months ago as well. I got tired of replacing 13W fluorescent bulb in my typical shop light, so I took it apart and modified it to use a 60W equivalent LED bulb instead of the 13W flourescent. Then I decided that I could stuff TWO of the 60W LED bulbs in there. Took a shoehorn and some creativity, but I got them both in. No more "blink - blink - blink - ON" of the fluorescent ballast. It's instant on, full bright even in sub-zero temps, and it's now like holding the illumination brightness of the SUN in your hand. AND it even runs cooler than the 13W fluorescent! I've got something like 1660 lumens of awesome warm while illumination POWER on the end of a cord!!