MikeW

I don't know what kinds of temperatures fiberglass can withstand but the entire exhaust system can get very hot. I think you're very much in danger of melting the fiberglass. It doesn't seem like there should be any contact, however. Why is the bumper so low? Can you upload a picture?

Thanks. I do have <a href=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1855203952/ref=lib_dp_TFCV/103-2336276-2040601?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader#reader-link>this book</a>. It's a complete collection of reprints from just about every US and UK motoring magazine article on the 240Z and 260Z. Many of the articles contain typical comparison tests amongst similar cars of the day which I find quite intersting. It was published in 2000 and has several Road&Track reprints but doesn't include the page I was referring to. It sounds like you probably have many of the magazines already but it might be worth getting if you don't have it already.

When I was looking for my first car in the mid-80's I was considering trying to find a Porsche 914 (because it was a Porsche), a Fiat X1/9 (because it was mid-engined and designed by Bertone like the Countach) or an Opel GT (because I thought they looked cool). I then read a one-page "used car classic" in the then-current Road&Track magazine on the 240Z. Their praise for the car is what caused me to buy a 240Z instead and I'm sure glad I did. I can't imagine how hard it would be trying to maintain those other cars today. I'd love to get a copy of that particular page ...

I just saw it and was pleasantly surprised after this discussion prepared me for the worst. I was expecting to see a bunch more on Goertz. Fortunately it was a small clip that really didn't give him much credit other than state the fact that Nissan brought him on temporarily in the early 60's. As others have pointed out there was quite a bit of footage of the same street cars driving. I did find the racing portions interesting as I've never seen video of those cars, only photographs. Mr. K was featured prominently and it was interesting to hear him speak on the subject. I had never realized that the Datsun name was chosen for America because Nissan thought the export program might be a failure and didn't want to hurt the Nissan name. After seeing some of their early US market cars it's not a surprise. I do wish they had gone into more technical detail with engine and interior shots. Most of the interior views were simply pulled from television ads of the time. The copyright date was 1996 so the ending was understandably sad as people discussed an uncertain future for the car.

I paid $1.25 today for 87 octane

Are you sure MSA doesn't carry it? The current catalog lists that part as [M] meaning that there are multiple versions and you just need to call them with proper car model information. Only the sending unit itself for 79-83 280ZX models is listed as [A] or not currently available.

You probably won't get an unbiased answer asking here. The general consensus among members here is probably that 1st generation Z cars are a) reliable easy to repair c) inexpensive to repair. There is a good supply of both aftermarket and OEM replacement parts. The mechanical stuff has always been easy to deal with and the L series engines are regarded as very solid. The biggest problem with early Z cars tends to be rust. I'd read all of the old discussions about where to look and what to look for as well as what's easy to repair and what's not before even considering making a purchase.

1) While the master cylinder cap does kind of lock on with a twist (wouldn't want it coming off unexpectedly) I don't think the cap is supposed to do anything more than keep dirt out. The cylinder shouldn't be under pressure. I suspect you might need to replace the whole thing or at least find out what's causing the problem. 2) That sounds about right

Yes, that's the only place I've seen them. Their web page actually says "colors, add 10%", but doesn't mention if any other colors are available and if so, which. At this point I'm thinking a nice blue exterior with a grey interior might be nice. Here's the Infiniti color that I like; how do you guys think it would look on a Z?

EScanlon, Thanks for the input. I think you're right. I'm keeping things mostly stock for sentimental reasons. I got Jasper to rebuild my engine and send it back to me even though I could have gotten another on exchange. I somehow am more comfortable with that. As far as a show quality type restoration goes I don't think I'd ever want to do that. Sure, I'll polish things up here and there. However, if the only disadvantage of going with a non-original color is losing a few points at a car show or a few hundred dollars on a resale then I'm not going to worry. It looks like the people at <a href =http://www.datsunrestore.com/catalog.html> Too Intense </a> offer just about all of the interior components in lots of colors (including non-stock colors). The only thing missing there are the plastic panels.

Interesting. It looks like the only stock colors with a black interior in '72 were orange, red, and yellow. Unfortunately black seems to be the only easy interior color to get now. I'm starting to have second thoughts about making things original. I may keep but refresh the current black interior and go with an exterior something like the Carribean Blue that Infiniti offers on the new G35 coupe. I test drove and came close to buying that particular model with the 6-speed but decided to instead put some money into my old 240. I figure there's not much point worrying too much about originality, certainly not because of resale value. It's not like it's an early '70. I've had the car 18 years and am putting way more money into it than it would be worth to someone else so I might as well just pick a color that I like. Painting it #115 with the extra cost of trying to do a white interior would probably not make up the difference in a resale anyhow.

Interesting ... that means the previous owner(s) did more to the car than I thought. I plan on replacing those anyway since they're all cracked and otherwise damaged but now I'm wondering ... what else is wrong? I assume that the non-black interiors have non-black seats, inside door panels, platic trim panels and the diamond vinyl stuff. Am I missing something? Headliner? I plan on painting the car again (paint job number 5 if you're counting) and may be leaning toward an original color this time (but not the original #113). The metallic blue is close to what I have now and I like it more than the other original colors. Does that mean I'd have to switch the interior to white to be original? Were any 240Z's custom built?

I've thought about registering but wasn't sure what to put for the colors. I appears as though my car was originally a #113 green (which was apparently introduced in 9/71). When I bought it in 1985 it had already been repainted twice and needed another paint job. Being a poor and naive college student I personally strippped it to the metal, primed it from spray cans, went to the paint shop and picked out a nice blue Imron from the samples book, and paid a guy $200 or so to spray it. It actually turned out fairly well. Looking at the paint codes list at ZHome it makes it sound like the green cars only came with a tan interior whereas mine is black. The interior plastic panels in the hatch area are black but are also a brownish color on the back side. Is that standard or did someone dye them black? The seats are also black so I'm just not sure.

September or so seems to be the switchover month. My '72 HLS30-47431 lists a 9/71 production date and is therefore one of the earliest 72's. You just happen to have one of the latest. Strangely enough, ZHome lists HLS30 48863 as the earliest reported '72 yet other sources claim the starting number was 46000. I think it's safe to say that there is a certain amount of overlap in there. While your carbs could have been replaced (as many '73 owner did) I doubt anyone would have gone through all of the trouble to replace all of the other '73 changes (dash, metal headlight buckets, etc.).

Yep. That bad news is they do it because lots of people will watch it. There are also lots of people who buy stuff they see in TV infomercials. There are even some people who respond to spam e-mail. The best answer is to ignore all of that stuff.

That will be interesting to find out. Insurance companies are certainly weird about such things. A 4 door car will have lower insurance than the same car in a 2 door model. A red car will be more than a white car. Big luxury cars and minivans don't have high liability costs because people who buy them are safer than those bad sports car people. As a sad side note to us Z-car fans, the 7-passenger 2003 Honda Odyssey can do 0-60mph in 7.7 seconds. Ouch. As a teenage male, you can thank your predecessors for demonstrating that certain groups of people are more likely to have insurance claims even though you've personally never done anything wrong. It's not fair. As I recall, the 240SX has an electronically limited top speed of 115 mph specifically to lower insurance costs. Who decided that 114 is safe but if you're doing 115 you must be dangerous? In any case, even though it's a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder it actually puts out slightly more HP than the 240Z (155 vs. 151). It also weighs a good bit more. In my earlier post I mentioned that the 240SX would be easier to maintain. That's not what I meant to say. After all, you can change the 240Z oil filter with your bare hands. What I meant to say was that the 240SX, being newer, would probably require less maintenance. Let us know how the insurance works out as that may be the determining factor.

Even though I haven't seen it yet the show is actually a re-run that's several years old. You can even order the VHS tape from their web page (although for North America only, sorry). Users in Australia saw it a month or so ago so I guess you'll have to just keep checking your local schedule. I would have missed it had someone here not noticed it.

What your TiVo finds is hopefully on what cable you have. There's a second history channel (TV guide online calls it "History International East") which does appear to be running the Z show twice on Friday the 18th (11AM and 4PM EST) as well as once on Saturday the 19th (4AM EST) as well as the 10AM EST showing on the regular history channel. You can search for it yourself at http://www.tvguide.com

I keep seeing this talk about it being just about oil. Do you really think oil companies want more oil? As recent gas prices have shown the oil companies simply charge more for gas when the oil costs them more. They probably make a bigger profit when oil is expensive. If the US really cared about the supply and cost of oil why have we had an embargo on Iraqi oil for the last 12 years? It's true that we wouldn't want a madman like Hussein controlling a majority of the world reserves (which would have happened in 1991 had he taken control of Saudi Arabia after invading Kuwait) because he could cut us off completely. That would be bad for US consumers, not oil companies. Oil companies will do what it takes to get oil. However, the US currently gets more oil from Canada than even Saudi Arabia. We also get a lot of oil from Mexico and Venezuela. Bush's Texas oil buddies are actually hurt by cheaper imported oil since in makes Texas oil less desirable. It's not just about oil.

I'm in a unique position to answer you're question based on the cars I own. I've only purchased 3 cars in my life and still own all of them: 1972 240Z (purchased in 1985 when I was 18) 1990 240SX (purchased new right after college) 2001 PT Cruiser (family car) Since insurance is a concern you should check into that before doing anything. When I was in college the 240Z was on my father's Allstate policy with me listed as the primary driver. As soon as I bought the 240SX and got my own insurance on it Allstate realized that I was no longer living at home and dropped me immediately from the 240Z. To get my own insurance was outrageous (I seem to recall $2000/yr in 1990). I consequently stopped driving the Z and only used the 240SX. After letting the Z essentially sit for over 10 years I finally decided to do something with it last December. I cranked it up (first time in years) and drove it to a shop where it's been ever since. They're almost done with it to the tune of about $7000 (professionally rebuilt original engine, new suspension bushings, new brakes rotors, calipers, etc.). That doesn't even count the body work and paint that's coming soon followed by replacing much of the interior. I realize that you're probably not interesting in refreshing the Z (which is what I'm doing - I'm not actually restoring it which is a lot more money). Many on this forum may disagree but at your age and budget I'd recommend the 240SX. It will be cheaper to insure and easier to maintain. I've got 140,000 miles on mine and it's in much better shape than the 240Z was in when I bought it at about the same age and mileage. Nissan really improved their fit and finish over the years. The 240SX probably doesn't have a cracked dash. It may have ABS and airbags (which is probably a good thing for a first car). It's certainly safer and has a small back seat. The A/C probably works and it has 4 speakers for the stereo (instead of just one for the Z). The rear defroster probably works (I see you're in Colorado). Perhaps you should consider getting the 240SX as a reliable daily driver and when budget allows pick up the 240Z (or a different 240Z) which you can work on in your spare time. The insurance would probably be cheaper if the Z wasn't your primary car. Hope that helps ...

It may just need a simple tune-up. However, it could be more serious so you should always get a car checked out by someone knowledgeable before buying it. If the owner has nothing to hide they won't mind. You might want to look at the number plates and see if the engine is the original. The engine block number is below the #5 spark plug. The id plate that contains both the car VIN and engine serial number is on the passenger side inner fender where the strut is.

http://www.datsunzparts.com/start.htm

I spent 6 days in Paris 2 weeks ago (yes, after the war started). I thoroughly enjoyed my stay and was treated with respect by everyone I saw. The only sign of anti-Americanism I saw was a Nike poster in the Paris metro that had graffiti on it saying "USA go home". Of course, that's probably been there for months.

You can a little 3oz metal squeeze can of 3-in-1 20 weight oil (blue and white color on can) at many places including hardware stores. It's not like you need a whole gallon of the stuff. That's what I've always used and it's what was recommended by Nissan. A quick froogle search turns up this ad with an image: http://tinyurl.com/95tf

Looks great!! I started to ask which car is more fun to drive but decided that I probably wouldn't want to hear the answer... Instead of attaching pictures to messages you can upload them to your personal gallery which makes them easier for others to view.