MikeW

The 3 middle gauges come out from the back but the larger speedometer and tachometer go in from the front. By the way, anyone thinking of a new dash should take a look at the prices from everyone's favorite Datsun vendor, MidwestZ: http://www.midwestz.com/Z_Interior.htm Makes my recent dashboard restoration plus shipping to and from Australia look cheap by comparison.

Which one? I've got their 50-1411 on my car and it's just a matter of un-bolting the original front valence panels and bolting the air dam in place.

There's no way a magnet would be used to keep the seat belt locked. I suspect it's just a magnet that keeps it latched - possibly in addition to the typical spring that's used for this purpose on most cars.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3552&highlight=wheel+lock+socket

I'd try getting a wiring diagram which will show you (hopefully) which wires go where based on the color. I'm not sure if the 240Z diagram that's available on the downloads page matches your early 260 but for the 240Z a solid blue wire is used for the antenna switch.

What size wheels and tires are you running? That's the key here.

Yes, I've already read some of the threads and was planning on getting the Q-Pads that you mentioned in at least one of the threads. What do you recommend going between those and the carpet itself? I notice that places like MSA sell the aluminum coated fiber insulation and was thinking that might be a good option. It wasn't clear from the earlier posts ...

I notice some waves on the rear deck (they're easy to see when fluorescent tubes reflect in them) but I'm hyper-critical right now because I've been looking for similar flaws in my new paint ... I'll certainly agree that this is awesome work.

Will do - once it's done. I've got the seat covers replaced and the dashpad restored. I've dyed the door panels, inside dogleg panels, and pillar vinyl. I've got new carpet ready to go in but want to put down some insulation first. I've got a new headliner that needs to go in. Finally I need to find some plastic panels and then dye them for the back. You can see a little bit of the dash and seat covers in the lastest picture in my gallery: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=9999 Oh, I see you've already seen it and commented. Thanks ...

That's my impression as well. Now that my dash pad is gray I'd like to paint the finishing panel to match. EScanlon's suggestion of Rustoleum is probably just what I need.

I don't think that's how it works. I think if you have car insurance on one car and buy another car your new car is automatically covered on your existing policy for 30 days. If you have an accident in those first 30 days your insurance covers it and your rates go up just as if you had told them about the new car on day one.

Yes, the connectors are the same. I verified that my original turn signal/high beam switch worked and then replaced it with the one I bought on eBay which also works but looks better. If you're sure your problem is with the switch and not the wiring or flasher you can PM me with your address and I'll drop my old switch in the mail to you.

Can you post a picture of yours with the connectors? I bought a turn signal switch and headlight switch combo on EBay. The turn signal switch half is in better condition than my original and the connectors match properly (unlike the headlight switch half). I'll test the replacement and if it works I'll let you have my original (assuming it works for your model which is why I asked for a picture).

Hey, sometimes you don't have a choice. The one time I couldn't get my clutch engaged was when I was about 20 years old and was 250 miles from home. I popped the hood and knew barely enough to check the clutch master cylinder reservoir. It was full of a black sludge which I attempted to clean out with the nearest paper towel. I then remembered that I just happed to have a container of brake fluid in the car. I had no idea if that was the same stuff but figured I'd pour some in and see what happened. It did the trick and as I recall I didn't touch it again for many many years.

How do you know that it's running rich because of the needles?

It sure was. The beginning was "Hey man, you left your lights on ... I said, you left your lights on. What the @@@@, are you blind and deaf"

I didn't use the word "disengage", Stephen did. When you're driving the clutch is engaged. When you push the clutch pedal in it becomes "disengaged", i.e., the engine is disconnected from the transmission and therefore the drive wheels. In Stephen's case pushing the clutch pedal in failed to disengage the clutch so he nursed the car home the hard way. This could happen if the fluid is low since the system is hydraulic. What your friends used to do is shifting with the clutch intentionally still engaged (and yes, that's how Stephen got his car into higher gears without using the clutch). This can be done only if the engine and transmission are moving at the same speed which means you yank it into neutral and then give it just the right amount of gas for the engine to match speed of the gear you intend to go into. I wouldn't recommend that either ...

In addition to SBlake01's story here's one that may actually help you someday: if your battery or starter ever fails you can bump start the car. I used to do this on my gently sloping driveway. Turn the ignition to "on", push the clutch in, put the car in reverse (if the road surface slopes backwards or 1st if it slopes forwards), push in the clutch, and finally take the emergency brake off. Once the car gets rolling quickly let the clutch out. If your car is in reasonably good tune it will crank right up at which point you quickly push the clutch back in to keep it from stalling. You can use this same trick on a level surface providing you have someone else to push the car fast enough to get it cranked.

Probably so; you'd have to ask your insurance agent. In general you can get a multi-car discount, a safe driver discount, a theft deterent discount, a defensive driving school discount, a low mileage discount, a homeowner's discount, etc. ... It all adds up but sometimes you need to ask for these discounts. There may well be other advantages to having both cars on the same policy that I can't even think of.

I just got mine insured on my existing Allstate policy with an agreed-upon value from an appraiser. All I had to do was fax them the appraisal and I was covered on the spot. There are no driving restrictions other than the fact that I'm getting the <7500 mile a year rate. I think it was about $150 every 6 months but I ended up dropping the comprehensive on my daily driver 1990 240SX at the same time since that car is now worth a small fraction of the 240Z. The net effect is I'll be paying less now for insurance than before. My daily commute is about 15 miles so even if I started driving the Z full time to work I'd still not come close to 7500. As it is I'll only drive it to work occasionally when the weather is nice.

My very early '72 (9/71) came with non-retractable belts but already had the pockets in the floorpan for the retractors which were added later in the cycle. One of the two bolt holes in each pocket had a rubber plug. I have since removed the plugs and added some retractable belts that 2ManyZ's sawed out of one of his parts cars. To be safe I'll probably get them restored by the place mentioned above.

Perhaps, but the philips screws go into small square captive nuts inside the plastic lamp housing assembly.

I agree, it does look nice. Other than the dash the things mentioned (wheel center caps, bumper strips, oil cap, etc.) are very minor to correct. I don't like the speakers in the doors but even that's not too bad. If it truly is rust-free I'd say the current price seems reasonable but we'll have to see what the reserve actually is before deciding that the seller is nuts.

If you're concerned about the engine you might want to simply get it checked out by a reputable shop where they can do a compression test. Keep in mind that the engine on these cars is easy to deal with. In the absolute worst situation you could simply drop in a new engine and you're done. More likely it might just need some minor tweaks. The body, on the other hand, particularly rust, is something to be concerned about. You could easily eat up thousands in rust repairs. From what you say it sounds fairly good but you might want ot check it out a little more thoroughly. I'd particularly look at the floor pans under the carpet as well as the frame rails which run beneath the floor pans. If you search old messages here for rust you'll find out that it has a way of hiding and a lot more information about where and how to look. $3800 may well be reasonable for this car. If you go to http://www.nadaguides.com/Values/ValueCategoryReport.asp?UserID=52071F82B81C2&DID=38089&wSec=2&wPg=1207&CategoryId=7&MakeId=1254&VehicleId=24918&Year=1971&ColorId= you'll notice the price range for a '71 goes from $5225 all the way up to $16,500. For some reason this site is operating very slow today but you'll find a wealth of infomation from some very knowledgeable people here.