MikeW

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

I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who finds it odd that Cubans who make it to shore are allowed to stay whereas those who don't are sent back. I'm also guessing that personal opinions within the Coast Guard may be contrary to official the policy.

Well, it's all kind of arbitary considering the <A HRef="http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/GregorianCalendar.html"> adjustments</A> that were made in 1582 by some countries and later in 1752 by others.

Well, as you know, here in Georgia you can get an <A HRef="http://www.dmvs.ga.gov/motor/plates/plate.asp?ptitle=HA">antique car license plate</A> for any car over 25 years old. That's certainly one definition of "classic". I don't think you're going to get anyone to agree on which cars are "classics" and which are not. We all know that early Z cars are classics and that's all that matters to me.

Everyone is going to have their opinion. I have a copy of Road & Track from May of 1990 that lists the 10 All-time greats, "Celebrating the 10 most significant enthusiast cars in the history of the automobile" 1927 Bugatti Type 43 Grand Sport 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B 1947 MG TC 1948 Jaguar XK-120 1963 Mini-Cooper S 1963 Corvette 1965 Porsche 911 1968 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona 1968 Lamborghini Miura 1970 Datsun 240Z I'd say that's some good company.

It might be a viable option if multiple panels were shipped together. They should stack up fairly easily and aren't all that heavy. Someone in the US could put together maybe 5 inner fender panels cut out of LHD drive cars and swap them with someone in Australia with 5 panels cut out of RHD cars. The battery tray itself may still be a problem but having an existing inner fender should be a whole lot easier than doing the fabrication. To determine the economic viability one would first need to determine what an inner fender is worth. $150? $200?

If you ever decide to drive your car in the water (like <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/04/cuba.car.ap/index.html">these</a> guys) it's a way to drain any water out afterwards.

This depends completely on your goals. Do you enjoy working on cars in your spare time as a hobby? Perhaps it's something to just get your mind off of work. If so, buying a less expensive car and working on it yourself is the way to go. If your goal is simply to own a 240Z in top condition then just go buy one where someone else has done all of the work. It's a sad fact that your car will almost never be worth the amount of time and money you've put into the restoration. If your goal truly is to do a restoration yourself but money is an issue you're still better off starting out with the best car you can afford in the long run.

I remember when MSA had a catalog with no prices and a separate price book. I never liked that but figured it allowed them to change prices as needed without printing a new catalog. At this point I can't imagine anyone really needing a catalog at all, but then software is what I do for a living. It seems like they could keep the web page up to the minute with prices and availability and full color high resolution images, etc. They must not have a good internal system (parts database) otherwise getting the content on the web (even if primitive) should be easy.

I stand (or sit) corrected. I just I just can't trust this new internet thing.

13B = twin rotor Wankel rotary 20B = triple rotor Wankel rotary We do get those over here, however, as that's what's in the new RX8.

Some people are willing to pay large amounts of money for things that have no real value. For instance, the guy who paid $3.2 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run baseball also paid $450,000 for Barry Bond's 73rd. Both are slightly used baseballs worth less than $5 to me (unless of course I turned around and sold them to someone else with no brains).

More like $101+s/h It looks like they really are slowly getting all of this stuff online. What's taking them so long? http://www.zcarparts.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=SFC04C

I don't know about Marty but it's not really possible to get a good picture of this piece without taking the bumper off. It's just a very small piece of rubber that goes over each bracket at the ends of the bumper. It only covers the small "ear" or "tab" where the bolt goes through; the bolt actually goes through the rubber and the metal. Attached is an attempted picture from the bottom side looking up at the rear bumper end.

I don't know if HS30 models in Australia are different but my 240Z has rubber pieces only at the ends of the front and rear bumpers where they meet the side body of the car. This is to protect the paint. I'm not aware of anything like this where the main rear brackets mount to the body or where the front backets mount inside the grille area.

That's wonderful!! I'd have to say you're fortunate that more damage wasn't done. It doesn't sound too bad in the grand scheme of things. Did the criminal share your taste in music or did he leave any of your CD collection?

Perhaps you could get it professionally appraised. That would certainly help convince the buyer that the car is worth what you're asking. It is a tough question because the range of values on these cars is so great depending on condition, location, originality, low VIN, etc.

The hazard lights use a separate flasher unit that is, at least on my 240Z, attached to the panel next to the passenger's right foot under the glove compartment. The turn signal flasher is up under the dash on the driver's side.

Just remember, it's 99% of attorneys that make all the rest look bad.

Are the hatch interior plastic panels still present? Is so, what shape are they in?

I think drilling them out would be taking it to the extreme. I seriously doubt that someone would have done this intentionally. It's more likely that years of crud have simply caused them to stick and a little more persuasion is needed. I would first try spaying them thoroughly with carb cleaner and if that doesn't work I'd try something a little more effective like PB Blaster.

According to a site I just Googled for: "Stainless components have a strength typically 87.5% of the same size fixing of grade 8.8 steel"

ZMeFly: Any updates on this scary story?

Octane is a measure of how easily the fuel ignites. It's not a measure of how much power is in the fuel. Higher octane is needed as the compression ratio goes up to prevent pre-detonation (or pinging). Cars that require premium fuel do so because of higher compression ratios. If your car is not pinging on 89 octane then 93 octane isn't going to do you a bit of good. You're just wasting your money. It may be that the premium fuel has other benefits (like better additives, etc) but don't buy more octane that you need. My understanding is also that AvGas contains some lead which can certainly be harmful to newer cars (but probably not our old Z cars since they were designed for leaded fuels).

I wonder why that method worked but the normal bleeding procedure didn't. It doesn't seem all that different to me - using your thumb instead of the bleed screw.