240tom

Thanks everyone for the great advice and opinions. I'm going with the USA bumpers, you guys told me what I needed to hear. Plus, looks like I talked them down to $100!

I'd like opinions on my options for getting bumpers back on my 1971, Series I 240Z. I've spent the last year and a half restoring my Z to as near-original condition as I can. My original bumpers were not salvageable. I've been so close to buying the futofab JDM bumpers at around $350 apiece, plus shipping of somewhere around $60.00 All in, I would be paying around $760 or so. They look great and I think that going with JDM bumpers would be alright. However, I've just found a decent set of '72 bumpers, (see pictures) they do have a couple of small dings and will need to be rechromed, and new rubber, but they are solid, with overriders. I can get them both for $150. I've priced rechroming here in Knoxville and that's going to run me about $350 per bumper, but this shop (Knox Chrome) has a great reputation and there's no shipping. I would consider other shops within a day's drive if their reputations are good. That means around $850 for American-style bumpers (plus rubber). So for more money I can get "really correct" bumpers, or for less I can get new, JDM style that are "correct" in the sense that the Japanese market got them that way. What do you think? I am leaning toward American-style, for the originality issue, but knowing the depth of experience and knowledge I've found on this site, I would really like to hear from you guys and gals. I do like the JDM style as well, nice and neat and simple. Thanks all!

Give it a shot, you've got nothing to lose. I bought a full cap and figured that was the route I would go, then started reading the resto threads and thought, why not give it a shot? If it ended up looking like crap, I still had the cap to put over it. Anyway, I'm very happy with the way mine turned out. Just be patient, sand and sand and sand so that your fillers and repairs match the base, then cover with bumper coating and paint. Put back all the foam that you can, but I think you'll be pleased with how the expanding foam stuff will fill the remaining gaps and how easy it is to sand it down and match what's left. In the end, if you can't make it right, I've got a dash cap I'll sell you for CHEAP, and you're done, but I honestly think you can do it.

PM sent

Jeepers, wish he had been over here in Maryville.

That is an awesome car. What is her VIN and build date? Thanks for sharing this!

Not a link, but I do have a pretty spotty resto thread on this site. I really need to post some more pix and videos.

Great to see you back at this! I just restored HLS30-13158, I'm over here in Maryville, if I can do anything to help please contact me.

For anyone interested, I have a set with the Datsun logo, I pulled them off my 1970. However, they are very rough, rusty around the screw holes. Hopefully I've successfully attached some pictures. Happy to try to sell here (hope that's OK!) for what folks might bid, (pm me) otherwise I'll put them on ebay. Thanks.

My Dad used to take me, my brother and sister (ages 12, 10 and 8) to school every morning in his '72 240Z, two of us laid out in the back for the ten mile trek into town. Seatbelt laws be damned! Actually, that memory is one of the reasons I bought and restored this dad gum thing.

I pulled all four of my five slot mags and took them to my friendly neighborhood shine master. Will post pix when they are back.

I think that restoring one of these babes teaches all kinds of good life lessons, especially ones that involve dealing with other homo sapiens. Glad that you feel better about your engine and hopeful that it's a screamer for the awesome car you've been rebuilding. Just think, you could become a UN diplomat now! Keep doing what you're doing and you'll have a sweetheart. Press on!

I just realized that I hadn't bragged on myself for (also with Blue's awesome write up) replacing both rear wheel bearings. The left one had been making a pretty annoying noise, but now it's fixed. This job was TOUGH though! Those peened nuts are on tight, and there's hardly any room to turn a breaker bar on them, and on top of that just keeping the wheels from turning so you can unbolt them is a trick. It took me the better part of two weekends two get it done.

Thanks to Blue and my friend Roger Schmidt, I now have a working tachometer. I should also mention Carl B. and John Huff for their wiring diagrams (that Blue showed me) that finally showed this electrical no-nothing how to wire in the tach with the pertronix ignition and 3 ohm coil. But not only do I have a working 240Z tach, ALL MY GAUGES ARE NOW FUNCTIONAL! Even the old clock! I took the clock out, took it out of its can, jiggled around and sprayed it with PB Blaster and lo and behold, it started ticking again. Ran it a couple of days on a 12 volt source until I had the speed adjusted, and back into the dash it went. My fuel gauge hadn't been working, but that was just a matter of using a blow dryer to heat those damn nailhead rubbers until they were soft enough to get the connectors hooked up (again, based on advice from this forum). Then, my Ammeter and temp gauge were squirrelly, (they had worked at first, but quit) but on closer inspection I saw that the faceplate was loose and was pinching the needles. Simple matter of reattaching the faceplate and it is working fine. Now I get to put the heater panel back in and hook up all those damn control cables. My map light works, my glovebox light works, all instrument lights work and the dimmer works. Same for headlights (high and low), turn signal, emergency flashers, side markers, brakes, reverseThe AM radio works, even the auto-tune still works, and the only thing not working now is the antenna. I bought a new electric antenna and the old switch does work, but I'm going to need to put a relay in to make them work together. The windshield wipers are SLOW but it's the original motor. The washer tank and sprayers work too, but not great, it's time for a new pump. Oh yeah, my inspection light works! OK, sorry, now I'm starting to brag, but any of you that have spent any time chasing down electrical gremlins know what I'm talking about. Thanks for the advice on how to get to the gauges too (I found removing the heater panel to be the way to go). I really need to post a video showing her out on the road. She runs great, sounds awesome and looks beautiful. Just waiting on bumpers (from Futofab)!

Originally, it was chrome.

I've always loved those green-eyed girls. Beautiful.

Thanks everyone! You know the saying, you can have something done well, quickly, or cheaply, and even pick two out of those three. I went well and (relatively) fast, but don't let my wife know! Madkaw, nope on help from Gas Monkey, but Roger Schmidt, who used to own the Zbarn here in Maryville, Tennessee (and is known to many members here) has been a huge help. A friend with body and paint skills who was looking for extra money did all that for me, took him about nine months but I'm happy with the results. In hindsight, I do wish I had taken the shell somewhere for a total media blast and maybe even an acid dip before putting on the new rear quarter panels, passenger side rocker, floor pans, hood, hatch ledge, spare tire well and fenders, just so I could know now that I really did get ALL the rust I could have. I'm very happy with how the engine turned out! I'm still not done (are we ever?), but I should be getting new doglegs from Mike McGinnis this week, and with those I can put back in all my interior panels. I may have to pull the dash, at least some, to get at my tach and fuel gauge, which aren't working. I'm trying to get Roger to go for a ride with me so he can tell me if any of these sounds are worrisome (like the howling rear end) and if my gearshift is too sloppy. I've pretty much decided to get new chrome bumpers from Futofab, as my stock ones are too far gone unless I wanted to blast and powder coat them (which I don't really). I didn't start this resto thread way back when I started the project; I think I was just too into taking her apart, getting her engine and body fixed, and working on all the other things I could do myself to try also to keep as good a visual record as others certainly have (HAZmatt!) and try to do a blow-by-blow here as well. I did (and still do) visit the club daily, usually more than once, for advice and just to see how other restos are going, and I'm really going to try to show more of the work I've been doing the past year-plus, it just won't be as it happens. I'm certainly following with interest the recent discussions about values, and what looks like a heating-up market for these cars, but I didn't restore her just to try to make a buck. I've got more in her than I think she's actually worth, fmv-wise, but as Tim Pitts, (the guy who rebuilt the engine says) "it's just money." Now, if I'm driving her around or at a car show and some rich fool wants to give me a bunch of money, I may just have to do a background check on him or her and see if he or she is worthy, but I have no plans on listing her or trying to sell her. I did this because: my Dad had one when I was a kid; she was just sitting down there behind that building rotting away!; I needed a project to keep me out of trouble; I figured out pretty quickly that she was a Series 1 with a matching engine that had not been molested (except for being left outside) and I love working on cars. Hopefully I can get some pictures up of the completed interior soon, and a video of her on the go (sans bumpers though). Thanks for all the support and encouragement!

You guys are awesome! My headlights weren't working, I found this thread, went out there and opened up the column switch, jiggled the switches, and BOOM, headlights!

I hope this works. https://vimeo.com/109864502

Here's some pictures of the engine when I got it back from Tim Pitts at Performance Tuning. The crank and lower end were in good shape, and he had the head rebuilt. We had to hone the cylinders (it was frozen) and Roger Schmidt got us new pistons too. All new gaskets, freeze plugs, timing chain set, waterpump, plugs, wires. Ztherapy carbs. I've put in a pertronix ignition system, new 60 amp alternator with internal voltage regulator and 3 ohm coil. Tim wants me to bring it back to him for the initial "firing up," and it is pretty much ready for that. I'm too afraid to do it myself, although I have gotten everything put back together and the old girl's lights, signals, radio, etc. work. I'll video the actual resurrection!

Thanks, Carl, He's been invaluable, and of course the pans are from Charles Edmondson. BTW, I'm having a difficult time registering on the IZCC site. I submit but I don't think my info is getting through.

Thanks Robert! Roger is doing great, he's busy playing keyboards and being a roadie these days, when he isn't helping me out. He looked at the car early on and said that he believed it was very restorable, that the frame was straight and no serious rust on it. He got me NIB two factory fenders he still had, and also cut me both rear quarters from his graveyard. Too may other parts and advice from him to list! Here's a few shots of her on the rack with new floor pans.

Here are some more "before" shots, rusted out floor and engine.

Hello All! I signed up here last September when I found, and bought, my 1971 240Z, and I have been an avid reader of this site ever since. I'm one of those guys that keeps quiet until the light at the end of the tunnel starts to show, and I haven't been posting anything about my project over the past year. Still, I couldn't have made the progress I have without all the information I've gotten, mostly from this place. My car was in terrible shape; in hindsight, it would have probably been considered a parts car by many. Ignorance was bliss, because even though it has been a lot more work and expense that I anticipated, it has been worth it. I'm glad I didn't know enough to part it out! She had been sitting outside for fifteen years when I found her; I wish I had taken pictures before I hauled her to my garage. Anyway, here is what she looked like a year ago. She was originally painted 920 Orange; the guy I bought it from was the second owner, and he says he bought it from his college roommate, the original owner. He said it was the first 240 registered in Tennessee, but I have no idea if that is true. Its build date is 11/70, and surely there had already been some of these here by then. He had gotten frustrated with it in 1998 after spending a good bit of money on a paint job and tuneup, only to have someone run into the car in front of his store where he had parked it. The damage was minor, but he hauled it down behind the shop and left it there. The passenger floor pan was just about gone, and the driver side was bad too. The dash was badly cracked. The engine (matching number!) was frozen and I couldn't get it free. The driver seat was torn up and rotten, and the passenger seat wasn't much better. The carpet was mostly gone or rotten. The good news was that the frame was straight, the vinyl was in decent shape, and no one had molested the radio or dash or electrical harnesses. I have a friend who does bodywork and paint as a hobby, and he agreed to fix the rust and paint it. I took the frozen engine to Tim Pitts, of Performance Tuning, because I knew he had serviced the car for the prior owner and would know about it. I had the great luck to know Roger Schmidt, of the old Z Barn fame, who lives a couple of miles away from me and who is probably tired of my questions, emails and visits to his place! He gets one of the first rides when she's done. I'll post more pictures over the next few days or weeks showing how things went this past year, and how things continue to progress. She's almost ready to fire up (I'm taking her back over to Performance Tuning for that) and start road testing. I'm almost done with the interior, I hope my fuel tank job works, and I hope that pertronix ignition works. I do have all the wiring harnesses back in, the dash is done and back in, and most everything electrical seems to work (except the damn clock); even the auto-tune on the old AM radio still works! Thanks for all the support, even though you didn't necessarily know you were helping me!

Chuck, I hope I typed in the right email, did you get it? Tom