MikeW

Whoever took those pictures need to buy a better cell phone.

If you go to the Napoli web page at http://www.napoliclassics.com/ I think you'll find that it's actually this 1974 Datsun 710: http://web.dealer123.com/web/br/?ID=44980

I wasn't speaking about the specific car in question but from more of a general point of view. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear.

In an effort to hopefully get us all on the same page here's a picture from my car. You will notice the aluminum "sill plate", which, in my case, says "Datsun". Courtesy calls this a kick plate. Inside of that is the "scuff plate" which Courtesy calls a "skuff plate". Mine is steel with a textured black vinyl glued to the top. The "scuff plate" has a hump on it which goes over the door weatherstrip. Normally there would be a thick piece of what I think is vinyl that goes under the "scuff plate" and is glued in place. This piece normally extends down to the floorboard. I obviously removed mine when I installed a full carpet kit. Finally, I included in the picture an original "scuff plate", upside down, which shows just how much it had rusted.

Agreed. I do, however, consider it fair game if the description obviously misrepresents the car, for example, if it states "rust free" when there's clearly rust in the pictures provided.

Any chance you can post a picture of the polished aluminum plate? That might help others identify it.

If you really can't wait to drive it consider that it takes several minutes for the car to reach operating temperature. A quick spin around the block won't hurt you but as Stephen says you risk a lot if it does overheat.

Welcome. http://www.georgiazclub.com/ Also, you might consider this event: http://www.themitty.com/

I did the back side of my bumpers with POR-15 silver. Of course, it helps to have a Z car where you can easily see the back side of the bumpers without having to remove anything.

I was thinking the same things. I still have the original radiator which I had re-cored 22 years ago.

JN stands for Japan - Nissan; for an explanation see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number My daily driver is a 240SX but other than roughly the same displacement as a 240Z it has nothing in common with classic Z cars which do not use the modern VIN standard that was introduced after 1980.

How about a Google Spreadsheet? That way it's all online and anyone can edit it simultaneously. I've started one here and published it to the world. You'll need a GMail account but they're free: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pgfGtZfjS1MhXEV8zDxh9Lg I'm not sure how this works, however, if someone else wants to edit it. I may need to give permission to each user individually. If so, just PM me with your GMail address.

There's not much to it. You first remove the black plastic shroud that encloses everything. There are screws from the bottom that hold the top and bottom halves together. At that point it should be fairly obvious but the combination switch on the right and the turn signal switch on the left are fastened to each other with screws that effectively clamp both units to the steering assembly. Each switch has its own set of connectors; just be sure to label anything that's not obvious when you disconnect them.

Where the power come from? You obviously will tie into the existing door plunger switches so that the step lamp will only be illuminated when the door is open. However, this will require running at least one new wire (presumably the black lead can be grounded inside the door). My concern is how that new wire will be routed. You'll either need to find or create a hole in the body near the existing switch or run the wire such that it interferes with the weatherstrip. In either case the new wire will need to be of the type that can handle constant bending from opening and closing the doors.

The super easy way is to follow each of the 4 control cables down to the vent controls they attach to. It's very easy to disconnect those cables at the far end - one screw each. You may want to label them first. At that point the whole heater control panel will come out as a single unit with the slider controls and cables still attached. You then only need to be concerned about the map light and the rotary fan switch. Years ago I did this job the hard way which is leaving the cables attached and I wish I had known there was a better way. It's very easy to crack the fragile plastic frame. Now that I have a NOS heater control panel I don't plan on even looking at it funny.

... unless you had your dash restored in which case the newer, thicker vinyl prevents those two from going in far enough from the front. I had a real struggle installing those from the back.

I'd try using a magnet to determine where the filler is. You might also be able to find the hole from the inside of the door; I don't remember how much room you might have to work with there, however. Once you know where to drill I wouldn't worry too much about the paint as it's going to be completely covered by the mirror base. We had a similar discussion here recently about finding existing holes for emblems. It was suggested to cover the paint with some tape to help prevent chipping. There was other good advice in that thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24604

To do it right you'd almost certainly need to take the dash off. It will be far easier and quicker to work on the wiring with the dash on a bench. Just think of all of the small wires that have to actually go somewhere, not just the main bulk of the harness itself. Besides all of the instruments and instrument lights you have to deal with the ignition, turn signals, wipers, headlights, blower, cigarette lighter, radio, glovebox light, etc. Getting all of those right with the dash out will be tricky. Trying to do it while still in the car will involve a lot of cursing and blood rushing to your head as you're contorted up under the dash. Before getting started you should carefully examine the original harness for cut wires and burnt connections. There's probably a reason that the previous owner decided to switch it out - even if it wasn't the smart thing to do.

I think it just depends on who's looking for that particular item at that time and how bad they want it. If only one person is interested it will go for the starting price. If two people both can't live without it you'll see a crazy bidding war. That's just the way auctions work. Those are the extremes, of course. In the middle you have to take into account those people who are reasonable about how high they'll go as well as people who don't really need the item but are purely buying it on speculation.

After market manual antenna switch?

An advantage of keeping the color original is that often cheaper if you can get away without having to re-spray door jambs, under the hood, and other hidden places that may still have good paint. That assumes of course that those areas weren't painted a non-original color previously. Another advantage of the original color is that people consider it more valuable and certainly more authentic for show cars. On on the other hand if you're that worried about winning a trophy then you'll want to use the cheap original single stage acrylic paint. A disadvantage of the original color would be if you don't like it. When I bought my car in 1985 it had already be re-painted twice and I had no idea at the time that it was originally #113 green, a color that I don't particularly care for. When I refreshed my car a few years ago I decided to go with a color that I really like instead of restoring it back to the original color. It's not even one of the original Nissan colors and it is a high-quality modern PPG base coat/clear coat. I don't know just how much having the original color would affect a sale price but I certainly wouldn't want to spend $5000 on a color I didn't like only because I was afraid that if I ever sold the car I'd lose $1000 for not staying original. I don't ever intend on selling my car anyway so it doesn't matter.

It's 27mm although post #3 above mentions that 1 1/8" will also work. According to Google: 1.12500 in = 28.57500 millimeters so that might be a little loose but at that size it probably doesn't matter much. Good luck at the hardware store.

My '72 FSM is already cut loose and 3-hole punched. Of course, you probably don't want the oil stains on the engine overhaul pages.

Some engines have a single pointer with multiple marks on the crank pulley. Others have a single mark on the pulley and a sort of timing ruler with multiple marks. Which type of pointer do you have?

Makes sense. When you said "pick up their car" I didn't realize you were being quite literal.