Carl Beck

Hi Roger: Words Of Encouragement: I encourage you to cut your loss at this point. You have now learned how to disassemble a 240-Z, as well as what to look for when you inspect another one in the future. Looking at the rust damage on that body - Cut your loss and find a 240-Z with a far better body. A project that should be fun and enjoyable - can quickly turn into a project that is simply frustrating and disheartening. Not to mention quickly becoming too expensive in terms of both time and money. Keep whatever useful parts from that car - and find a better project car. FWIW Carl B.

Before you take parts out for plating - - lay everything out in rows of like parts... Then take digital pictures of everything. That way you can lay them all out when they come back and see if you got everything back. If you didn't you will know what is missing and/or what you need to replace. Small parts like washers, small bolts etc have a way of getting lost when a bunch of them are sent out for plating... FWIW, Carl B.

"no motor" should not really be considered an alternative in Idaho - lots of L28's in Idaho. Tell the guy looking for an L28 to call Idaho Z Car 2913 Garrity Blvd. Nampa, Idaho 83687-3629 (208) 466-0004 FWIW, Carl B.

I'd buy this body styling - forget the electric motor etc... Put a 3.0L, in-line turbo six in it. Give it a standard steel roof with a good hatchback... and keep it under 2650lbs... Like the Datsun 240-Z, beautiful styling should not be held only for cars above $50K. If Pontiac could sell the Solstice with a Turbo4 for under $29K... Nissan should be able to mass produce something with styling like this for under $29K... FWIW, Carl B.

Digital camera's and digital displays are quickly replacing the mechanical/glass rear view mirrors on cars. This would have been a very practical application for the less expensive digital technology.. and it would have eliminated the typical "blind spot"... Car companies today need to LEAD.. not follow, if they want to stay competitive. FWIW, Carl B.

Typical... The Cube is a "me too" vehicle coming to market years behind Toyota/Honda. IMHO Nissan would have been FAR better off bringing the BEVEL to market... with greatly enhanced performance. http://www.nissannews.com/newsrelease.do;jsessionid=1E944926E14E3EC7FED681BF54818D70?mid=171&id=425 FWIW, Carl B.

There must be at least 1 in the USA, but I doubt that anyone would tell you about it before they bought it themselves. You might have a better chance of you looked for a "mostly" rust free example. 36+ years after they were produced I'm convinced that any car needing re-conditioning will need attention to common rust area's. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mark: The speedo pinion gear has to be matched to the rear end ratio - if you want your speedo to indicate the correct speed. Giving the transmission type and year to the Dealer - will help them find the part numbers in the Parts Catalogs. Nonetheless, you want to order the speedo pinion gears based on the rear end ratio you have in your Z. That means matching the number of teeth on the speedo pinion gear to the rear end ratio. Color can be useful - - but it is easy to confuse the white gears with the yellow gears after extended use in a transmission. The 81-83 280ZX's with 5spd. came with 3.545 and 3.9 rear end ratio's. However your 240Z could have it's stock 3.364 or 3.545 if it was an A/T. Or your 240-Z might have had its rear gear changed along with the installation of the 5spd. tranny. 16 Teeth, Yellow, 3.364 rear gear 17 Teeth, Black, 3.545 18 Teeth Blue, 3.7 19 Teeth White, 3.9 20 Teeth Red 4.11 FWIW, Carl B.

The first things I'd check would be the wheels/ tires, followed by front end alignment. Only the toe is adjustable, but if it's out ie. 0 to negative it will cause the car to wonder/hunt. This can be even worse with wide tires. These is also the possibility that a strut is damaged/bent or other damage to the front end has been done - throwing off other alignment settings... If you have a good front end alignment shop - they will check the condition of the front end parts when they do the alignment. Alignment can not be made correctly with worn parts... FWIW, Carl B.

Mike: Post a higher resolution, larger image. That one is too small to see. thanks, Carl B.

Actually the front frame rails carry very little weight. The weight of the engine is carried by the front cross member to the to the strut and strut tower. Most of the weight of the body on the front suspension is carried by the upper fender horns. The front frame rails main load, other than at the strut towers - is fore/aft. So strength is needed primarily in the area between the front frame rail and the strut tower. Again, I see no reason a properly welded in sheet-metal section, to replace the original - would pose any problem at all. I wouldn't recommend a butt joint - but rather a piece of metal welded inside the frame rail where you have solid metal - overlapped with the new exterior piece. That way you would have the needed strength with acceptable cosmetics. Just be sure to tie the frame rail to the strut tower - by fixing the inner-fender. Should be an easy fix for experienced welders/metal workers. FWIW, Carl B.

Great - thanks Roger! Carl B.

Lets not talk about "Restoring" this car, but rather simply doing a very solid quality "Refresh"... we won't worry about braided hoses, nor correct hose clamps. We won't consider having all the original Cad. Plating redone etc... Instead we will just put this Z back to a sold, function and stock condition - aiming to make it an "excellent 240Z" to drive and enjoy, without being ashamed to take to local car shows or club events. Also make it ready to drive a cross-country if the mood strikes.. What it will "Cost" depends almost entirely on how much of the work you would do yourself, and how much of it would be out-sourced to professionals. BODY WORK $6K to $8K: The Body Work is a disaster... So first order of business is to strip the car to a bare shell. If you then took the bare shell to a good body shop - you would most likely spend $5500.00 to $7500.00 to properly fix the rust damage, properly fix the floorboards, replace whatever sheet-metal is needed and strip then repaint the car. Bare Shell means that everything comes off - including all weather strips/seals, all glass, the interior comes out including the dash... you can cover the diamond vinyl and leave it in the car - to be re-dyed later. The body shop can pull the hood, fenders, doors and rear deck etc - MONEY YOU SPEND REFRESHING OTHER STUFF: $5K to $7K While the shell is in the body shop - you'd be cleaning and detailing the appearance of the engine and all the components. Cleaning the gas tank out and refinishing it. Re-dying the plastic interior panels and seats etc. Re-dying the carpet binding - etc etc. Then you get the car back - you would drop the front then the rear suspension and refresh all the suspension components, re-core/refresh the radiator, So if you start with $4,500.00 then add another $11K to $15K during the "refresh"... you would have a very nice 240-Z. Easy enough at that point to convert it to a 4spd. or 5spd... just add another $1,000.00 for a rebuilt transmission, the clutch components etc. Do the bumpers need to be re-chromed? Add another grand. Depending on how much time you have to spend working on the car, what facilities you have in terms of garage space, tools and talent... and experience working on 240-Z's it can take six months to a year to complete... All of this also depends on how bad the hidden rust damage is... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Hogie: I may be looking at the pictures all wrong - but it seems that your Frame Rail is fine - it is the lower part of the inner-fender, that forms the outside of the "box" to complete the structure of the frame rail - that has rusted away. I'd certainly clean the rust out of the frame rail itself - and treat it to prevent farther damage. Then I don't see any reason why you could not just cut the inner-fender back to a point where you have solid metal, then weld in a patch. Replacing the frame rail with a new OEM part - still would not correct the damage to the inner-fender. FWIW, Carl B.

$4,500.00 FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Stickerman: I was really looking at and commenting on the relative market value of 240-Z's associated with condition and mileage. Loss or gain by different owners is really another train of thought. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Roger: Do you have a side view of the rotisseries? thanks, Carl B.

Hi Arne: There is a write up on the Z Car Home Page by Mark Ross, that tells how to wire in the Euro Spec tail lights.. See: http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/TailLightsEuroWiring.htm FWIW, Carl B.

Exactly how were they "tested"?? A battery can test out fine with Voltage - due to a surface charge in the plates - - but when put under a heavier load they can short out and go DEAD. That is why I ask if the battery had been "Load Tested". You can put these batteries on a charger and they will take a charge. They will hold a charge over a 24/48 hour period just fine. The only way you find the problem with them is by putting a progressively heavier discharge load on them... At the very least make sure your battery terminals, and cable terminals are clean and shinny, as well as being tight. Wire brush the terminals down to shinny new metal... You can not trust how they look. This is a very simple electrical system - so you can bet something simple is out of wack... FWIW, Carl B.

Were any of the Batteries you tried - new? If not, were any of them load tested? Did anyone already say - replace the battery cables/terminals? FWIW, Carl B.

Do these reproductions include the chrome strips? The reproductions of the US versions did NOT... if they include the chrome strips - then $835 per pair seems reasonable to me. Too bad they did not reproduce the North American versions... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Julio: Because the supersonic line along the side of the 240-Z actually is the farthest point on the body from the centerline of the car - applying a body side molding there actually does save the body from most door dings. Given your use of the car - it makes sense to replace the body side molding. The body side molding that uses an aluminum channel to hold a vinyl strip - was replaced in the aftermarket by vinyl strips applied with the double sided tape. This eliminated the aluminum channel - so that the extra weight & cost could be eliminated - the reduction in weight made it possible to hold the vinyl strip on the car with just the double sided tape. I would have two concerns using only double sided tape to hold the aluminum channel/vinyl strip on the car. First it might be too heavy for the double sided tape to hold alone; Second if you were running down the freeway at 70mph+ and a section came off - how would you ever find a replacement for that section of aluminum today. You might try the double sided tape - but also include at least a couple rivets in each section. One thing is for sure - if you use double sided tape both mating surfaces have to be very clean to start with. good luck, Carl

Looks like a very nice example indeed. If I wanted a "nice" 240-Z and I liked the color, I wouldn't be afraid to pay $15K to $18K for it. No pictures of the undercarriage and only two pictures of the engine compartment. Looking at the undercoating in the engine bay - I can understand why. That is a mess that would drive most of us nuts. Nothing that a month of work wouldn't correct... under the hood. Hard to say what it would take under the car. First thing I'd do is pull the engine/tranny and correct the front oil seal, clean up the engine compartment and refresh the engine's appearance. This is a $15K car that it would be easy to wind up spending another $10K and a year of work on. Or it might be a $15K car that the next owner can turn into a $10K car as it is driven the next 30K miles... In 1990 this was a $5,500.00 example... had it been retained in the original condition with 36K miles and simply detailed - - it would be a $25K example today... Wonder what the future holds for it... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: I was looking at the BRE2.net site - and other than a couple Posters and inexpensive Decals, I was wondering what BRE historic items that were expensive and difficult to obtain you were thinking of? The new car cover can't be confused with the original IMHO... the BRE Spooks and headlight covers have always been reproduced or otherwise available. The BRE remote oil filter blocks and BRE/InterPart catalogs are about the only thing that comes to mind as having been expensive and difficult to obtain. What am I missing? FWIW, Carl B.

Buy-It-Now is $4000.00 and he is taking offers... http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Nissan-240k-auto-coupe-1973-Datsun_W0QQitemZ280350004739QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Cars?hash=item4146299603&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50