MikeW

And by paint it he means use to something like POR15. Of course, it's really hard for us to tell by pictures alone. You have to poke at it with something pointy to see how bad it is. We've all see far worse and the fact that you're in Arizona makes you in better shape than most concerning rust. If it's mostly below the battery that's more of an indication of acid leaking and eating paint than moisture-induced rust.

You're planning on removing the entire intake manifold and not just the carbs?

Have you tried a timing light?

The deep scratch kit uses colored abrasive pads that take off a lot of glass. The second part uses a hard felt pad and a powdered compound that you mix with water until it's like gravy. I bought them together as a kit but unless the scratches are deep enough to feel with your fingernail you only need the polishing kit. I don't have any experience with the other kit. It may not actually remove any glass but rather clean it really well and then fill in the low spots with the sealer, whatever that is.

I've used the eastwood kit to remove deep scratches from my winshield where a PO must have run the wipers with no blades. Water spots or etching from acid rain would be trivial compared to that. Edit: this kit may be even better if it's just acid rain: http://www.eastwood.com/diamondite-glass-cleaning-system.html

It's not that difficult but you have to be careful with the tensioner as mentioned. If you're just replacing the head gasket then the timing won't change because you're not going to mess with the timing. With the tensioner properly fixed in place the chain itself won't move and when you pull the head as long as you don't turn the camshaft it will go back on exactly the same as it came off. You're right to be concerned with broken head bolts and manifold studs. Those can be a real headache. One option would be to find a fellow enthusiast in your area who's done it before and is willing to help out. The head itself can be a bit heavy for one person to remove by themselves.

I believe there's more to it than a color formula. The rear finisher panel also has texture that needs to be matched. See here for the proper paint already mixed: http://www.classicdatsun.com/new/240_misc-parts.html

Well, what do I know. I park in the garage and never drive in the rain.

I suppose you could always make sure you've got plenty of wax covering the paint in those corners. Unless you're going to be at a car show no one is ever going to see it anyway so you could probably add lots of wax and not even bother to wipe it off.

What did the gauge read before? Slightly over half is normal. However, you'd have to measure the temperature with something more accurate than the dash gauge to be sure.

I remember that being discussed before but somehow I thought it was for cars in other markets. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Hopefully this will clear it up a little: on an HLS30 the VIN should appear on the driver door jamb tag, on the dashboard tag, stamped into the firewall, and on the engine compartment tag on the passenger side near the strut. That last tag also has an engine number, L24-XXXXX (or L26/L28). If that engine number matches the number on the engine block itself you have a "numbers matching" car. Presumably the 4 different VINs all match each other as well otherwise you've got a worse problem.

Driving a Z that has overheated can warp the head. What was your temperature gauge doing during this?

So the question then becomes how does the silver paint compare to commercial products specifically made for spraying head gaskets?

Looks great but I'd be worried about surface preparation. Our taillight chrome tends to get pitted. You'd have to somehow fill those pits in or smooth things out in order to get a nice finish. I'd think you'd need to treat this like any other kind of painting where preparation is everything.

That sounds about right but I thought that the diff was more like 3.9:1. It's definitely a higher RPM than you'd expect and I often want to shift into 5th when I suddenly remember there is no 5th. It's actually quite easy to calculate the speed in a given gear at a certain RPM. Here's the first Google hit for a "speed in gear calculator": http://www.kabamus.com/garage/gears.html

I could understand it if this was talking about using a copper head gasket spray sealer. However I wouldn't call that paint. Is it perhaps talking about painting just the edge that is visible between the block and head to match the head color?

The bottom of the front left fender looks bent from improper jacking.

I'd put something smaller through the hole first to try and figure out how much clearance there is. It's possible that the spindle pin itself is slightly rotated and the slot is not completely vertical.

That looks like a different part for another model. Did you get a part number?

Bad URLs

Perhaps you could get some cheap ramps instead.

Very nice. Please post more pictures either here as attachments or in your gallery.

I also went that route but had them pick up, rebuild, and deliver my original L24 to keep it numbers matching.