Carl Beck

would be great if someone took a video camera along - so we could all enjoy the ride! FWIW, Carl B.

Perhaps DeskTop Screen's could all be put in one Directory or File...so they could be located and downloaded as a group. We've had a lot of really great images Posted throughout several Threads.. Just a thought.. FWIW, Carl B.

$550.00 is "reasonable" if it's an NOS part and not damaged. I also agree with ConchZ.. if yours is in pretty decent shape, and if you have a good facility near you - then the rechromed bumpers can look better than new. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Ben: Welcome to the group and the Classic Z Car world. Lots of helpful people here and I'm sure you will enjoy your experience with the 240-Z. 12 years with Ford... hummm... I may have to pick your brain. I have a 91 Super Coupe with 9K miles - and the Radio (Boise Sound System) and Odometer both stopped working at the same time. Really odd... but so far I haven't found anything that ties them together... Maybe an off-line discussion there... Post some pictures of your Z when you get a chance and fill in a little more details... mileage etc. That would give us a better over-all idea of the condition of the S.U.'s and the distributor... Should we guess that the original Flat Top's have been replaced with the earlier S.U.'s?? FWIW, Carl B.

Was high school in the "70's" or just last year? At any rate, glad to hear you finally got your Z, I'm sure you will enjoy owning it. If you have been here for a while, you already know that we want to see pictures!! and hear your "Z Car Story".... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Zak: The hard line for the 73 is pre-formed, and it is made to fit the inlet on the 73 wheel cylinder. Off hand, I can't remember the routing of the hard line... I do know that some time ago the 70/72 rear wheel cylinders were NLA - and the only way to get replacements was to use the 73 wheel cylinders with the 73 hard lines. Seems to me that the last time I tried to order the hard lines one or the other side for 73 was NLA also... FWIW, Carl B.

The short answer is "Yes". If you are going to use a stain, you have to get the original top finish off. FWIW, Carl B.

Yes, you want the rubber warm. The Installer that did mine, used a spray bottle with soapy water as a lubricant. He also had a couple of nylon tools. One had a rounded point, and the other had a flat blade with rounded edges. Kind of reminded me of Tire Iron's only very small. Took him every bit of six minutes to put the metal trim in... Of course he has most likley done hundreds if not thousands over the years... I remember seeing the special tools advertised somewhere.. you might want to google it... FWIW, Carl B.

If the part numbers on the box - end with N3001 then they are for a 1973 Model Year car {10/72 forward}. To use them you would need to get the hard brake line for the 73 Model Year for the back of the drum... FWIW, Carl B.

With gas prices on the way UP - I'd Put $3,695.00 on the window. 22 is way too cheap for a small pick-up with 56K miles... FWIW, Carl B.

"Jewelry"..???? Agree - that is a great picture.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hello cc2. Welcome to the group. It is rare that a 240-Z stays in the same family for 36 years!! Glad to hear that you were able to retrieve it from Texas. V8 swaps into the early Z's are pretty popular, but for the most part they are Chevy based. So it will be interesting to see how the Mopar works out for you. Any plans to run Hill Climbs with it?... You are in the right part of the Country... Looking forward to seeing some pictures - good luck, FWIW, Carl B.

I completely agree with Steve. This 280Z is worth twice the asking price - as it sits. If it were anywhere close to me, I'd grab it in a heartbeat.... FWIW, Carl B.

See: http://ZHome.com/Classic/240ZFloorboards/ChrisFloorboards.htm This may help.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: Yes - there were 10 cars done, for the average the paint work alone was around $4K to $5K for a single color. The Parnelli car and a couple others had paint jobs that ran $6K to $10K.. but that was three or more colors with lots of custom graphics etc. If you use the best materials, it's easy to spend $1,000.00 on materials alone. Then you have the costs of overhead for the environmentally friendly paint booths etc... As I recall the "House Of Color" supplied the paint for several of the cars. Apply several base, color and clear coats and you spend some serious time and money on the paint job. FWIW, Carl B.

$200.00 Or Best Offer....Good part to have as a spare if you can buy it right and if you are in the area.. FWIW. Carl B.

You are never done.. pull the fork back out.... Now you just have to get rid of that black undercoating over-spray on the lower radiator support. Or black out the radiator support area altogether... When you are really "done" - then it's time to get another one to work onROFL Looks Great.. Carl B.

I think it was a model car that blew up...

If you find that your odo matches your speedo - - ie that your speedo is OK. If the speedo is reading 59 at an actual 50... then you need an 15% decrease in the speed at which your speedo cable is turning - to make the speedo. indicate your true speed. 59 mph x 0.15 = 8.85 mph 59 mph - 8.85 mph = 50.15 mph The stock rear end for a 4 spd. 240-Z is 3.364:1 It calls for a speedo gear of 16 teeth (yellow) So IF THAT IS WHAT YOU HAVE - you would need a speedo gear with 15% more teeth. 16 teeth x 1.15 = 18.4 teeth - - So you need an 18 tooth speedo gear to correct the error. A 18 tooth speedo gear happens to be the speedo gear called for use with a 3.7:1 ratio rear-end. On The Other Hand: If your speedo was reading 60 mph when you were doing an actual 50... then you need a 17% decrease in the speed at which your speedo cable is turning - to make the speedo. indicate your true speed. 60 mph x 0.17 = 10.2 mph 60 mph - 10.2 = 49.8 mph 16 teeth x 1.17 = 18.72 teeth - So you need a 19 tooth speedo gear to correct the error. A 19 tooth speedo gear happens to be the speedo gear called for use with a 3.9:1 ratio rear-end. 3.364 rear gear calls for a speedo gear of 16 teeth (yellow) 3.7 rear gear calls for a speedo gear with 17 teeth (Blue) 3.900 rear gear calls for a speedo gear of 19 teeth (white) Take a friend to watch the GPS and do the recording - so your eyes can stay on the road. Run the car at 60 mph and 70 mph according to your GPS - then record what you speedo is indicating. That way you can more accurately dial in the % correction you really need. That is to say that difference between the 16 tooth, the 17 tooth gear and 18 tooth gear will be large enough to overcome rounding errors... and relative positions of the speedo indicator needle etc. Then simply get the correct speedo drive gear and put it in the transmission. The bonas is you will have a good idea of what rear gear you have as well. NOTE - pull the present speedo gear out and count the teeth FIRST....Make sure it is a 16 tooth gear - - You may simply have the wrong gear in there to begin with... so you may need to apply different correction factors... FWIW, Carl B.

You may have a floating ground. Can't hurt to try. I'd remove and clean the battery to body ground, making sure you have a bare metal contact between the two. - - and I'd add a good ground between the body and engine. good luck, Carl B.

Hi Martin: You can rebuilt the top end about three times before you need work on the bottom end - if the engine has had any care at all. If the rockers are worn - then you might as well plan on replacing everything with a new cam kit and be done with it. The cam to rocker interface will never be as quite as it should be with mix and match cam lobes and rockers.. Did you stop by Jaremko Nissan in the Valley? Paul and his son still race a roadster, and the Parts Manager used to own a 240Z - {don't know if he sold it or not}... at any rate they might be able to come up with something for you... If you do stop in, tell Paul I said hello... FWIW, Carl B.

Complete replacement of floorboards, frame rails, inner-fenders and exterior panels seems to be routine during a correct restoration of almost any cars from the 50's, 60's and early 70's. It seems that Mr. White has a very highly regarded reputation, that has been built over decades. So I'd have to guess that any rust issues were dealt with properly before the cars leave his shop. Hard to boil down three or four weeks of work, and still show all the important aspects in a one hour show. A friend of mine here locally has "restore", "street-mod'ed" and "refreshed " many late 60's and early 70's muscle cars. Several have been National Show Winners. He is simply a "master metal man". Looking at the job Arne's guy did on the roof of his car, it seems Arne has found another. In my experience, these guys simply can not bring themselves to sluck bondo on anything to cover it up.... With decades of experience, and the personal skills they utilize, they find it easier and faster to simply replace entire panels, or do what ever metal patching is necessary - than it is to try to shape bondo. Nonetheless - there are always lots of shops turning out shinny paint jobs over rust buckets that have not been properly nor completely repaired... it is always "buyer beware". FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Stephen: Nothing. What was impressive about this series, was the fact that they kept track of the actual hours and cost to complete the body work and paint etc. on all of the cars - - and shared that information with the viewers. Like I said, amazing how often we hear from people that have had their cars in shops for 6, 12, 18 or more months - to get couple of weeks of actual work done... FWIW, Carl B.

There was a very interesting TV series that ran last weekend here. Barry White and his crew set the goal of restoring/refreshing or building restro-mods out of 10 more or less junk cars -and completing 10 cars in 10 months. Then taking them to the various high profile auctions around the country. Did anyone else watch that series? What I found very interesting about it - was that they told you how many hours of labor went into each major step, of each car. They also kept a running total of the costs... Keep in mind that this crew has lots of experience, and they were working to a goal, for a TV show.. The cars came from junk yards, or private owners. Most were purchased for a grand or less. Nonetheless, it gave a good idea of just how many actual labor hours it takes to do a very complete body prep and high end paint job. Quarter panels replaced, metal patches made, car stripped to metal and put in epoxy primer in most cases.... Most took between 60 and 80 hours of labor to do the body work, panel replacements or metal patching. These were done right - not sluck bondo jobs. Once the body was ready for paint -they sent it out to a local shop for the actual paint job. This was a one to two day process. The show quality paint work was $5K to $10K... that's for the paint job... 80 hours is two men working on the car full time for five days. The labor rate was about $37.50 per hour. When the cars went to the auctions - most sold for between $40K and $60K, as Super Muscle Cars.. One was a recreation of the Mercury that Parnelli Jones drove in NASCAR circa 64 as I recall.. All had upgraded brakes, suspension and high performance engines etc. http://www.racingjunk.com/category/71/Pro_Stock/post/1478085/1964-Parnelli-Jones-Nascar-Mercury-Marauder.html At any rate - its a far cry from having a car in a body shop / restoration shop for a year or more... just to get the body and paint done... FWIW, Carl B.

It certainly looks "restorable". Pretty early car too. Take your time and enjoy the process... BTW - The tires look like they have been on the car since before 87? I think I have a set like that..from the 70's. best of luck, Carl B.