Hardway

Yes, you are correct. He already has the car and has dove in to it working to get the floor pans replaced. That was going to be the next thing on my list so it is getting the attention it needs and deserves.

Its funny, this car's ad on Craigslist continues to be renewed. It shows an original posting date of 9/28 but must have been renewed last night since it appears at the top of the list for 10/5. Serial number 201 datsun 240 z 1970 I look forward to seeing more pics of it once Zinistr picks it up!

In the description it says they are synthetic leather and based on the stitching they are the same ones I put in my 240z. Even though they were described as black they are really more of a dark charcoal. Given the color and condition that car will hit $15K or very close to it.

Thank you for the compliments Ollie. Yeah, for the longest time I was always thought I would never sell it but things change. It is going to Windsor Ontario and the buyer is a Z fanatic for sure so it will be in good hands.

Thank you Blue! If my wife and I plan to head that way we will definitely take you up on your offer. We look forward to seeing you again next time you are in our neck of the woods. Be good my friend.

It is a bitter-sweet day as I said goodbye to my 1972 Datsun 240z. After a year and a half of work it still needed many more hours and lots more money to get it to where I would be happy with it. Knowing this and having it at a state in which it could be driven again I put it up for sale after several weeks of thought and debate. It is headed to Canada where the buyer plans to finish what I started. He got a great deal and it will hopefully provide him and his family lots of enjoyment once it is complete. I will leave all the photos up of my work so others can use them in the future as reference or guidance. I still have my '88 300zx 5spd turbo car and it is heading to the paint shop today to get a little work done. I still love the classic Z cars but the next one I buy will be DONE. My new job keeps me very busy and I really want a car I can just drive and do not need to restore or overhaul. I am now in a financial position to just buy a really nice one. What does the future hold? Who knows. In the near term my plan is just to save my money and be patient which is what I should have done from the very start. I have also been looking at air cooled 911's, Honda S2000's, and C5 Corvettes. In ending this car chapter I want to say thank you to all the forum members that have helped me along the way. The classic Z community is second to none in my book and I look forward to keeping up with everyone and their projects. I am not going anywhere and I will still be looking around and posting on a regular basis.

If you want to stick with the stock style calipers but not mess with rebuilding yours I would recommend looking at Advance Auto Parts. I bought their house line of reman calipers (Fenco) and I am very happy with them. They looked better than the pictures online out of the box, the piston and seal looked to be of good quality, and the pad hardware was yellow zinc plated. They installed with no fuss and have worked great. The parts numbers are below. If you order them on their website you can take advantage of their discount code and then go pick them up in person, that is what I did. I think I paid $26 out the door for each and took my old ones back for the $5 core charge. For that kind of money and considering I don't have a sandblaster it was a no-brainer. SLC8546 (Right) SLC8547 (Left) Fenco Disc Brake Caliper, Front Right-SLC8546 - Advance Auto Parts

I second that. I can get both of my 240z and 300zx in the garage and still manage to walk around them. However, the "standard" American 2 car garage has shrunk over time. My house was built in the mid-90s and despite installing lots of shelving on the walls by the time I factor in my workbench, tool box, parking places for jacks, and other stuff it is a tight fit. The house I grew up in was built in the mid-70s and the garage seemed deeper and wider. My mom parked her Olds Toranado (a real FULL sized car) in the garage along with her Ford Escort. We had 2 workbenches, several shelving cabinets, lawn tools, and even 2 large trash cans. With a both cars in the garage there was more than enough room to move around. Now a days you almost have to have a 3 car garage just to have room for the stuff needed to maintain a home and park 2 cars.

I have a small update but unfortunately no pictures as none of them turned out good for some reason. The clutch pedal in my car has suffered the same metal fatigue at clevis pin hole that so many others have experienced. The clevis pin itself had been worn down as well and this was creating 2-3 inches of free pedal play and reduced the effective travel of the pedal. I cleaned up the hole and used an extra suspension bolt that I had purchased from Fastenal for my front suspension rebuild. It was a class 10.9 bolt which is equal to a grade-8 bolt. I cleaned off the zinc finish and welded it in to the hole as a plug. Then I chopped off the ends and drilled a new hole in to the pedal using my drill press. Once done I cleaned up the pedal and shot a fresh coat of satin black paint on it. While the paint dried I worked on the clevis pin. Since it was worn down I used another class 10.9 bolt to replace it and drilled a hole in it for retaining clip. Once the paint dried overnight I greased the bushing at the top of the pedal and reinstalled it. The end result is a very crisp and precise clutch pedal. Total time spent was about 2 hours all together. Cost = $0 Another small project done! After I wrapped it up I took some time clean and dust off everything in the interior which made a big difference. As of right now I don’t have any more plans for the car in the short term. I need to put pen to paper on what the floors, body work, and paint are going to cost from a financial stand point along with personal and professional labor. From what I have read a full floor pan and seat rails replacement takes around 40 hours. I think I will get some drive time in now that it has cooled down before tackling anything else. That is all for now.

Sorry guys. Been completely swamped with work and have not been on the boards in awhile. Mike W was spot on, the header is a MSA 6 in to 1 piece. The only modification I had to do was trim one of the ears on the transmission bell housing. I highly recommend the stud kit MSA sells, totally worth it!

Saw this on CL and called the seller to get more info. Originally from CA but been in TX for several years. Has a little rust on the rear quarters but he says the floors are good. The seats were recovered in velour sometime ago and needs replacing. Says its runs, rides, and shifts good. 5spd is out of a 280zx, forgot to ask what kind of diff it has. He said the hood and right fender have been replaced from a red car and it shows where the paint has come off under the hood. Also needs a passenger side door latch. He says he is pretty firm at $4K but its been up for several weeks. Seems like a good start to a project or restoration. 1972 Datsun 240Z

Great work Git! Taking one of these cars down to bare metal is definitely the way to go to do it right. So happy to see you returning the girl to 100% stock. She is already beautiful just based on the pics you have posted. She will be stunning when you finish it. Keep up the good work!

With the air cleaner pods selling I ran the Z up to a local shop to get the exhaust coupler welded on and get it inspected. Unfortunately the inspection sticker looks like a 5 year old put it on. This is a big milestone for the car as it has not been street legal in a year and a half. On my way to the shop I even got up on the highway to see how she did at 80mph. To my pleasant surprise she ran strong and cool and tracked straight. With it being 100+ everyday right now the Z will not see too much road time. I am hoping to get it out more once fall comes around in October.

There are plenty of cars out there, you just have to know how to search. I am not sure how far you want to travel but the one below in Denver looks and sounds good. Appears to have been gone through bumper to bumper but has been kept completely stock, including the emissions equipment. I can tell you from personal experience you could not fix one up to the level that one is for the money they are asking, and that is their ASKING price. If you showed up with $11K they just might take it. 1972 Datsun 240Z

Thank you for the compliments Mike and Guaro. Yeah, attending the Z event and having Blue help me has kind of reignited my motivation to work on the car. My new job has been very stressful so getting some little things done here and there has provided a nice relief. It allows me to start and finish a project in a very reasonable amount of time, thus giving me a feeling of real progress. Plus, the seat and air cleaner stuff was already sitting in the garage and paid for so I have not had spend any real money to get these projects wrapped up. Not sure what I am going to do next.

Great pics Blue! Thank you so much for posting and sharing them. In post #12, who are you sitting with at the table? Is that Mr. K?

With it being so hot right now in Austin I have been doing small projects that I can either wrap up during the morning hours of the weekend or bring stuff inside to work on. This week I got to work on painting an original style air cleaner box that I picked up on Ebay several months ago. If remember correctly I think I paid $50 or so shipped to my door. It was in good shape and even included the hardware which I needed. The only problem, it was fire engine red and not orange like it was from the factory. So I went about the task of getting it ready for a repaint. Knowing that I did not want to drop $100 on a restoration kit for this I did what I could to save the original components. First, I gently scrapped the rubber gasket off, keeping it intact for reuse. Then I pulled out the hardened foam seal using a screw driver. There was no saving it and I planned to replace it anyway. Using my Makita rotary tool and a 3” wire brush I took off all the paint I wanted. I did not see much value in removing everything since the paint was actually in good shape. In the end I regretted removing any of it as I could have just cleaned and scuffed it and I am confident it would have looked the same if not a little better. Oh well, lesson learned. After a few wipe downs to ensure everything was clean I started laying down several thin coats of Rustoleum Chevy engine block orange. After the thin coats had setup I laid down a solid wet coat to give it a good finish. I know the original finish is supposed to be satin or flat and this color has a hint of tangerine in it based on how the light hits it. However I am really happy with the result and even like the gloss of it. I also took a few minutes to clean up the hardware using the wire wheel on my bench grinder. While the paint dried I ordered a new Nippon air filter off Ebay from a parts dealer for $23 shipped. After several days in the garage and with everything nice and dry I glued the rubber inner seal back on. I used some 3/8 inch universal foam weather stripping from Home Depot for the outer edge seal. This worked okay but it tore easily as I was installing it so I may re-do it or find something better in the near future. For now I am happy to have the stock air cleaner on the car. It looks so much better and the orange really pops under the hood. All total I have around $80 in this setup including the air filter, paint, etc. I am planning re-coup that plus some by selling the K&N pods that were on the car when I go it. That’s all for now. Stay cool guys.

Nice Supra AUE! Yeah, can't say I have ever seen a Mk1 Supra in person but there is one for sale here in Austin and looks really clean. Not sure if the owner means his is just the first Supra or is the first one every made. Either way, looks good. 1981 SUPRA TOYOTA 1ST TO BE MANUFACTURED ALL ORIGINAL 110K ONE OWNER

The specs are all over the place. If anyone did give these a try I would be interested to see the results.

I picked up an original style air cleaner box for my 240z. It was in good shape but had been painted fire engine red at some point. Got it off Ebay for $45 with the mounting hardware. This evening I wrapped up painting it and I must say, orange is just color for these things. I have seen them in every color on the net and in person and orange just nails it for some reason. Gloss and satin black look good too but you can't beat factory orange. Or in my case, Chevy engine block orange. I will post up pics once I get it all together and mounted on my car.

I stumbled upon this video when watching some other 240z videos on You Tube. Its a well done piece with lots of content, especially around vintage Nissan's but also some other very cool vintage cars. The subtitle reading is worth it because this gives the viewer a great look at the passion and craftsmanship that these Japanese car builders have. There are a few "dark moments" in the video where I assume a small commercial would have appeared but have no fear, the video comes right back. If you have the means, I watched this using the YT app for my Ipad in full screen mode and used a HDMI dongle for my Ipad so I could watch it on my big screen TV. A true joy for sure.

I see this is your first post Janitor and you are 19. First off, welcome to the site. Your observations have been noted by all classic Z car owners. Yes, Nissan is not the biggest player when it comes to parts support for their classic cars and even I get super frustrated at times with the lack of support for new parts from Nissan. I wish they would either make the parts we need or sell the rights to someone who will. However there are lots of after market suppliers for our cars and as you mentioned sometimes its rough. On the other hand a lot of the vendors offer very high quality parts and they do listen to feedback regarding parts and work to have them improved. I am well aware of the support that cars like classic Mustangs, Chevelles, Camaros, various Ponitacs, etc recieve from the after market and the original manufacturers. Also keep in mind, those cars saw a big uptick in popularity and price when the televised auctions came along. Suddenly everyone with a '69 Camaro thought it was worth no less than $30K and everyone started fixing them. Very few classic Z cars will ever see that price point so it all comes down to supply and demand. I have no doubt that Nissan is proud of the classic Z cars and maybe we will see more support for them in the near future. In the mean time be prepared to be creative and patient as you hunt down parts. If there is something specific you need that you cannot locate it, post up a want ad on the Datsun Classifieds or do a search as many owners have found creative ways to restore lots parts that to the untrained eye looked like it could not be saved. Good luck with your project!

Very nice 240z Bacarl and congrats on taking over the ownership and care of her. Looks like you have ALOT of things going for you on it. The paint and body look great, chrome bumpers look awesome in the pics, and if the interior looks as good as the body you are in a great spot with it. Bushings and ball joints are just par for the course with these cars. Luckily all the parts are readily available and not very expensive. It just takes time as you are already experiencing but the payoff will be 10 fold in the way it handles and performs. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Glad to see you are back at it Westpak. Like all cars of this vintage there is no shortage of places for moisture to build up and start eating metal away. You made a lot of progress on you own and we call testify to how long work like this takes. We look forward to more pictures and updates as your move along with the project. Good luck!

I will add to this since that is my valve cover picture. Blue and I did a valve adjustment on my car several weeks ago due to a slight rattle we heard. We kept the blue shop towels away and got everything in spec, now its as quiet as a sewing machine. My chain has no shortage of tension on it and I cannot hear it scraping or touching the valve cover when its running. Even used a mechanics stethoscope and all seemed fine. It is a very unfortunate series of events but it happens to all of us. Add to the fact all of our cars are 40+ years old, many with questionable past ownership and maintenance. All of this seems to magnify any failures we experience, weather they are created by us or by sheer wear and tear.