Hardway

I vaguely remember seeing these on cars in the early 90's. I suspect they are some sort of factory wheel. Look around on Google Image search for wheels from the 80's and 90's. It may take awhile but I am sure you do not have the only set in existence.

Good job Nix! Only 8 hours to get them out, you beat a lot of us by many days! For any pin that is stuck a press seems to be the only way to get them out. As shown in my thread that EuroDat posted above I bought a 20 ton press and that combined with some heat and a mix of acetone and ATF mine finally came out. They are truly a right of passage for any Z restorer. Keep us posted on the rest of your project.

I am just now seeing this thread. It has been said before and I will say it again, WOW! That is a lot of top notch work there. The end result should be astounding! We look forward to your updates and pictures.

I am sorry but I have not had time to pursue this any further with the Harrington Group. They had wanted me to measure the bumper-ettes I have but for accuracy sake I wanted to ship them a pair. While looking for some to buy and ship to them I picked up another set of chrome bumpers and really have not put anymore focus on this. I really wish there was an American company out there that could start reproducing more sheet metal and bumpers for our cars. Unfortunately, seeing that they stamp out repop panels for Chevelles and Camaros in China I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Finding a battery tray to cut out to use as a donor will be very hard as so many of them have suffered the same fate as yours. Lowe's carries sheet metal in 22, 20, and 18ga. If you have never done any metal forming before there are plenty of videos and sites on the net that discuss the topic. Buy several sheets and be prepared to do it twice or 3 times before you get it right. If your freezer metal is truly 20ga or better that might be an option but the time you would spend just prepping and cleaning it may be worth more than just starting with a clean new piece from the store. I too am all for recycling old metal when I can but when it comes to bodywork you may end up making a lot more work for yourself trying to use old metal.

I agree with Leon. Ebay would give it the most exposure. If it had a 4spd in it instead of the automatic it would be very desirable. Don't get me wrong, its still desirable with the auto. trans., just not as much with a 4spd. As it is your 240z should bring $10K - $15K all day long. Just a great looking car!

Your progress is very motivating Chris. Don't feel bad about the bump stop, we have all been there and tools have become victims of frustration in the process. Keep up the good work and great pictures as you move along. We all love your thread!

That orange Z in San Mateo looks like a great deal, especially considering all the work that has been done. In the picture showing the hatch you can see a little rust off to the left. Still, definitely worth a look. Hopefully a member here buys it and reports back on it.

I had seriously thought about investing in a sandblasting setup but between the initial cost, $150 for the blaster & hopper, $200 - $300 for a cabinet, and then more money for blast media, from a financial stand point I could not swing it. Plus I dont really have the space for a blasting cabinet. If I had a bigger garage and was doing some of this to make money I might take the plunge. I agree, sandblasting would be optimal but for now my $200 rotary tool and $5 wire brush attachment does pretty good.

I used Rustoleum satin black rattle can paint with no primer or anything. I just wire wheeled them a lot to knock off all the dirt and old paint followed up with a rub down of acetone on a wrag. Once a few minutes had passed I laid down 2 light coats of paint and then a slightly heavier coat to finish them off. Satin black is a very forgiving color. As long as you don't put it on too thick and you have no runs its easy to get a great finish out of it. I had considered using Por-15 on everything but I think the satin black spray paint has a more factory look in my opinion.

Picked up this little guy off Ebay. It was listed as restored and I would agree with that about 95% The metal and finish looks great but the switch is original as well as the lens. They are are in good shape but not great and not "restored" However for $29 shipped I could not pass it up. With these now being NLA from Nissan I think we may see more of them pop up like this. Thoughts?

After dinner tonight I decided to put in a little time with the Z. Now that the half shafts had their new u-joints in and a fresh coat of paint I wanted to get them assembled so I could cross them off the list. It took me about 20 minutes per half shaft since the boot takes some work to get it on. In the end persistence pays off and everything came out looking really good. I take a lot pride and happiness in getting these done on my own. A local shop wanted to charge me $300 per half shaft to press in new u-joints and paint them. I nearly passed out when they told me the price on the phone and repeated the price back to him a few times just to make sure I heard it clearly. They said the solid u-joints were hard to find and very expensive, and they were getting them directly from Dana for $75/each. A few phone calls and two trips to Advanced Auto Parts yielded me some Brute Force solid u-joints for $17/each. I ran in to an issue of my outer yokes being slightly crushed but after a little time being pulled back with my bench vise they were back within spec. All in all between the u-joints, boots, and paint I have around $80 in the pair and 5 hours of my time. Sure beats dropping $600 and I learned how to swap u-joints. Progress and an education, can’t beat it!

I got my Ron Tyler diff mount in from Technoversions.com. I must say it is a very nice piece and well made. Once I had the parking brake lever assembly bolted back in I followed that up with the mount. Since the parking brake cable puller looked as bad as the lever assembly I treated it to the same level of attention with the wire wheel, a good cleaning, and some paint. Unfortunately I do not have a before picture but trust me, it was very sad looking. I also did some various clean up on bolts and other hardware. So for the most part it was a good and productive weekend.

When I had removed my parking brake cable I noticed the rear lever assembly was pretty crusty. I did not realize just how bad it was until I had it on my work bench. It appeared to be a mix of under coating and mud stuck everywhere. Given the level of work I am doing there was no way this was staying on the car in its current state. I could have taken a lot of time to completely disassemble the lever mechanism but found that just by removing the cotter pin on the end I could get to everything I needed. Plus I found a new way to use my Makita rotary tool. This allowed me to get in to every corner that I needed to. Have I said how much I love this tool? Once I done installed a new cotter pin and hit it with some light coats of silver paint. Its not perfect but it is definitely MUCH better.

With the beautiful Austin weather this past weekend I was in the garage working on the Z and determined to get a lot done. I started painting some more parts and moved things around once they were dry enough to spray more or flip them over.

I had thought about stepping up to $2500 but seeing that the mileage was so high $2K is really top of the mark. I really want one but I know there are some out there with half if not one third the mileage for reasonable money. Plus, I don't need one today and can be paitent in finding a good deal on one since I have my 240z keeping me busy. Thanks Ksbeta. I emailed the guy to get more info.

Yep, hear it all the time. I am looking for a good one that I can enjoy now and do little things it needs here and there as I drive it. I offered the owner $2K for the 267K mile one I looked at since it needed tires, headlight motor attention, an AC compressor, bushings bumper to bumper, and some interior attention. I thought it was a fair price but the owner is firm at $4K. Sad because it is just sitting in her driveway slowly rotting away.

Good looking car from the back. Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the club! I will try to check out the other pics on your site. Its amazing that even in rough shape and in need of tuning these cars are still exciting to drive. Years ago I looked at a 240z that was VERY rough with lots of rust, 1 year old gas in the tank and barely any of it since the seller did not want to put any gas in it. Given all that the test drive was a lot of fun and the car had plenty of power. We barely made it back to the seller house before the tank ran dry.

This is good stuff guys, keep'em coming. I guess I should post what I am looking for, a 1988 Shiro 300zx. I know these pop up from time to time and there is a nice one on Ebay but I am looking to pay $2K - $5K. I test drove one a few weeks ago with 267K miles on it, the current owner put the majority of the miles on it and had made several coast to coast trips in its life. It was rough around the edges but ran shockingly well. Still looking for the right one though.

I know where there is a P1800 coupe, not a hatch, sitting in someones drive way. If you are serious about finding one let me know and I will go knock their door and share your info, just PM me. There is a lady that has a GTO replica made from a Z car with a Jag V12 in it. Just Google it and you will find it.

I dig the mirrors. I think they fit the style of your car very well. Good to hear they perform as good as they look.

With the various threads of what else is in your garage to other cars you are working on I wanted to start a thread on what are members on the look out for. Who knows, maybe one of us knows where such a vehicle is that a member is looking for and would be able to put the member and owner together to strike a deal. Looks like a lot of us have a second or third project going in addition to our Z or Z's. I have seen BMW's, Porsche's, various American muscle cars, and old motorcycles just to name a few. So, what are you on the look out for?

The Ratsun write up looks great and I see no reason why the LED strips could not be used in the 240z gauges. I think the biggest challenge will be that there are 5 separate gauge holes to fill and light. Running the wiring to each gauge pod may be a little tough. If your install goes well Ninja I may try this on my 240z when I tackle the interior later down the road. Thanks for taking the time to do this and sharing it with us!

I will second E-tek's advice and I know where you are coming from theczechone. Its tough when you are renting to really be able to work on a car and get things situated the way you like. If it were not for meeting my wife I would still be living renting an apartment and a single car garage that was 2 buildings over from my place. What you have listed off that is still needed will require lots of time and effort and only you can decide if it is worth it to you to cut your losses and move on. However I think taking a break from it is best. I have had to take time off from my '72 240z since I would run in to problems, get frustrated, and spend the rest of the evening wishing I paid 3x more in the beginning for a rust free car that needed nothing versus what I have sitting in my garage. I would come back a week or two later, get the problem figured out, get a few projects wrapped up, and the light at the end of the tunnel would start shining again. On the flip side your time is worth money in the form of opportunity cost. If you really want to be out driving a 240z around the cones instead restoring the one you have then maybe it is best to sell what you have, save your money, and buy someone elses loss. Seems like a few track Z cars are always up on Ebay and Craigslist around the country. Hobbies are meant to teach us, entertain us, and more importantly make us happy. When the focus of your hobby is no longer doing that, its time for a change.

You continue to impress with your skills E-tek. I love watching this thread as it provides motivation and confidence that I can do my floors one day soon too. Keep the pics and updates coming!