MikeW

That was an old episode. From what I can tell the 280Z belongs to Scottie Chapman. I think we've talked about it here before. Much of the work is done in the shop at M5 Industries in SF. http://www.m5industries.com/html/MAP.htm They seem to go over to Alameda when they need a lot of space.

For years I have used a free personal proxy server for windows call Proxomitron: http://www.proxomitron.info/ Not only will this prevent a lot of bad stuff from getting on your machine it also makes web surfing a much better experience. It can automatically kill popups and can strip out embedded ads from within web pages. Because it's a proxy server it examines the HTML content that arrives from web servers and manipulates it before it even reaches your browser. Don't like flash multimedia? Kill it. Don't like animated GIF files? Freeze them. Don't like images that are loaded from a different domain? Remove them. It's highly configurable and very easy to use. Since it's a proxy server it will work with any web browser.

I've used SEM as well but at least on the door panels - which were originally tan but changed to black by a previous owner - I at least tried to remove as much of the black as possible using cotton balls and acetone. This was because the old black was cracking and flaking in places and I didn't want to just cover that up with new dye. I suppose it all depends on the condition of the top layer.

So where can I get one for $5-$10? If you're talking about an aftermarket blank then never mind. I think that people are only paying big bucks for an original Nissan key.

John Washington: http://www.reactionresearch.com/rrhistory.html

I'm afraid you might find that most places wouldn't do this kind of work for liability reasons. This is the sad result of a litigious society.

The TIR web page specifically says: NOTE: Product will be ship January 11th 2006 and we will pay the S/H within the USA for International purchases please inquire on the S/H charges

My usual advice to prospective first-time buyers: update your profile on this site to include your location. You should be able to find someone in your area who can help you go over the car. You may be able to find a local Z car expert who you can pay for an inspection.

It's a tight fit but you can get the bumpers on and off without dropping the tank. This is a good place to use ratcheting combination wrenches. Of course, I'm still missing the metal triangular plate that covers access to this area through the wheel well. Bambikiller sent me a paper template a while back to reproduce this part but I still haven't gotten around to it. If you unscrew this plate you'll find that you can get to the right side bumper bolt.

Unfortunately I think you'll find that rust is by far the biggest enemy of early Z cars as well. Putting salt on the roads certainly doesn't help so the best examples tend to come from the warm and dry Southwest US. If you already have a car you're looking at in your area you might consider posting pictures here to get some opinions.

You might want to update your profile here to include your location. It would be a good idea for you to find someone who really knows these cars to inspect whatever car you might be looking to buy as well as possibly give you a chance to check out a finished car to make sure you know what you're getting into.

No, that only lasted until the end of September. That caused another mad rush on stations in the days before the tax was reinstated. Stations were once again depleted. The other bone-headed thing our governor did (in my opinion only and I did vote for him) was to cancel school for a couple of days in order to save diesel fuel for school buses. I'm guessing that one school bus equals about four SUVs in terms of consumption and all of those parents had to take the kids somewhere for those days.

If it really is leaking only when driving you should see evidence of the leak on the engine itself. There are only so many places oil can leak from: oil pan gasket, head gasket, front cover gasket, oil pump, etc. You could always take it to a car wash for a good engine degreasing and then after it's good and clean take it out for a long drive.

Leaking and burning are the only two possibilities, although it's possible to have oil leak into the cooling system in which case you might not notice it right away. My guess is that it really is burning the oil and that it's not completely obvious. Back when my car was burning oil I really only noticed it when driving at night with another car following me. On hard acceleration I'd really see a lot of smoke in their headlights. You might want to look at your spark plugs for evidence of oil fouling.

I paid $1.94 today. It's funny how dropping back below $2 suddenly seems cheap compared to a year or so ago when it first went over $2 and that seemed so expensive.

Perhaps one solution to all of this misinformation is a collaborative effort by people who actually have the facts. It's difficult and expensive to get something properly published and the inevitable typos and other mistakes become rather permanent. I believe that technology can help solve this problem and a popular mechanism for dealing with this is a Wiki. For those of you've who've never heard of a Wiki here's a brief explanation. Perhaps the most popular Wiki currently in existence is the Wikipedia, the "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit." As an example, here's the Wikipedia entry for "240Z". There's are probably mistakes in this article. For instance, the discussion of hatch vents is wrong. They were changed in 1971, not 1972. If you're sure you've found a mistake just go ahead and fix it. Want to add something? Feel free. While using the Wikipedia itself for this effort might not be the best location, I think the idea is sound. Anyone can host a Wiki, perhaps even ClassicZCars.com. As more information is unearthed the Wiki could be updated accordingly. In the long run you end up with a living information store that represents the best information from the most knowledgeable people. For all of you who will never go to the trouble of writing and publishing a proper book, here's your chance. Who knows, some of the original designers might even be willing to make small contributions or corrections.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=scranton+from+pittsburgh

You have to remove the front cover. I don't think you'd be able to get to it through the oil pan any easier than you could get to it from the top.

http://www.hybridz.org/

Just keeping the chain from falling down isn't good enough. Unless you wedged something down between the chain links you're out of luck. When I was 18 and tried the same thing you're doing I did wedge a block in there but I must not have gotten it tight enough. The tensioner popped out a little bit because I then couldn't get the cam sprocket back on the camshaft without a bit of force. A few days later while driving the tensioner broke, the chain slipped, and all of my exhaust valves got bent.

http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=7106

The choke should only be pulled back to start the car and drive while it's still cold and then pushed all the way forward once the car has warmed up.

The '73 bumpers stick out a little further. The bumper on eBay appears to be an earlier version to me. If the '73 bumpers really did use the shock absorber type mount as you say then clearly the eBay bumper uses the earlier simple bracket.

I've been thinking of doing this myself. One thing to consider is you apparently have to let the stuff dry for at least 7 days before driving on it. If that's truly the case I was thinking I might have to do a portion of the garage at a time and relegate one of the three cars to spending the night outdoors for a while.

I once had the rear driveshaft connection to the differential come loose and experienced horrible clunking and vibrations. As I recall three of the four bolts came out and the fourth was loose. While I wouldn't want the rear of the driveshaft to drop at highways speeds I suppose that would be better than dropping the front. I saw the MythBusters episode where they caused the front to drop right into a carefully prepared pothole ...