87mj

I bought an early 240 a few years ago (a 6/70). One thing led to another and much of the underneath side needed replaced. Both frame rails and both floor pans. It is still at the body shop. The underneath side of the car looks fantastic. I think it will look factory after painting. My car is in the final stages of metal work and priming will begin by the end of the week. The early cars did not have any undercoating. My body shop is strongly encouraging me to have them apply "raptor". Apparently, it is clear and they would add color tint to match the paint work. They describe it as a thin layer of bedliner type coating. It will match the paint almost exactly. I see why it would be a benefit but I hesitate because I wanted the factory look. Can anyone offer advice on whether they would go ahead with it or stick to paint? They are prepping the underside for paint so they are not trying to hide shotty welds. They are just making a strong recommendation. Anyone?

if this deal falls through, I have a set of 14x7 slots that you can have if you come to Indiana to pick them up. They were freshly resurfaced by a professional wheel restoration shop and have a coat of clear over them. They look new in every respect except you would need to find center caps.

I should mention one more thing. I said if you are restoring car, don't throw anything away. I have a low mile car that I am not restoring. Dont throw anything away period. I violated one of the @Mike rules and installed poly bushings in the steering rack of my 60k car. But since I tossed the parts in a box and didnt throw them away, I am able to recover and reinstall my rubber bushings.

I see that you installed sound deadener. What kind did you use?

If you are restoring a car, take a lot of pictures. Even then, you still didn't take enough pictures. If you are restoring a car, never throw anything away. No matter how poor the condition. You will need it for reference later. Oh and when you are young, become thick skinned when your wife refers to your car as "that stupid Datsun". It will enable you to follow Dutchzcarguy's suggestion "Buy more 240z's".

If it were me, I would get some seam sealer and remove the inner plastic panels and seal as far up the wheel arch as possible and along the back to the other side. I would also check the antenna grommet hole and caulk that. I would also remove the rear panel on the hatch and buy some of that over priced foam sound deadener (the name escapes me now). Remove the adhesive only at the contact areas of the panel and stick that to the rear hatch. Then any fumes making their way past the rear hatch gromets and rear hatch latch have no where else to go. Then put the hatch panel over the top of that. You will not be able to see the sound deadener. Then if I still have fumes, I would know they are coming from the rear hatch or the taillights. Then I would probably unbolt the rear hatch piston so the hatch would receive equal pressure on both sides against the weather strip (just as a test). Then if it goes away, you found the leak. Please give us an update. 🙂

Below is the link along with screen shots of the photo and description. They really dont do a good job of describing it. 😞 Left Side Steel Door Skin For 1970-1978 70-78 Datsun 240z 260z 280z | eBay

I have some rust on the lower section of one of my doors ('70 240z). The body shop said they can fabricate a piece for it. But I told them I can get a new lower section of the door (I assume they are made by Tabco). The door also has some minor dents in it and holes for the non factory side mirror. So it needs a little additional body work done to it. Instead of buying the entire lower part of the door skin, I have thought about buying an entire door skin instead. The body shop liked that idea but I have no idea how good they are. Has anyone ever purchased those entire door skins off Ebay? I think they are the same ones that zcardepot sold but are out of stock. In the Ebay ad, there is no mention of the gauge of the sheet metal, fit, accuracy, etc. Does anyone have any idea how good of quality they are? Thanks

My first car was a '73. I bought it back in '79. I remember looking at the labels on the jack that depicts the jacking locations. I dont remember if it was the front or rear of the rocker but I remember using one and the rocker started to bend. It was unable to hold the car up. I never tried that again on any of my z cars. 😞

I have never looked inside the rockers. Is there a reinforcement in the rear of the rocker too or just the fronts?

Regarding the splash pan, I read a comment on BAT (I dont recall the auction) that the splash pan on an early cars did not have any holes in them including the 5 holes on each side. I have seen only 2 types of splash pans. The ones with the 5 holes on each side to the rear and those that also had holes at the front. I have never seen any splash pans that do not have any holes in them. Has anyone ever seen a splash pan that has no holes including the 5 at each side of the rear of the pan? Did the early cars have splash pans (6/70 or so). I have heard comments both ways. Absolutely yes they had them and absolutely no. The dealer could have easily tossed them too and the buyer would not have known. What color were they from the factory? I have seen them in silver (paint or clear zinc). I have one that appears to have the factory finish on it that is chassis black.

I always assumed the inner rocker reinforcement was due to the rockers being a jack point? Anyone?

Exactly. I firmly believe that is the reason so many of the heads on the carbs, hose clamps, etc are so screwed up (pardon the pun). It is because someone used a Philips head screwdriver. JIS fits the head.

I prefer the later style too. It might bother me that they are the wrong style. At some point in the life of my car, a series 1 hinge broke and allowed the door to hyperextend. It dented the door skin. 😞

I am in the process of restoring an early car. I have some later 240z door hinges on it now. One of the early style were broken. One of the pins on the folding bracket broke at some point and allowed the door to extend back too far and bend the sheet metal. The early series 1 door hinges do not look too reliable. I am debating on whether I should fix and install them or just stick with the later style. Does anyone have an opinion. Are they as unreliable as they appear to be?

I see so many "restored" cars that have grossly overdone the zinc plating. I have even seen cars with the hood hinges plated. It was nice to see a lot of the fasteners painted like they were from the factory. The fender bolts and rear hatch are a good example. They went through so much effort to get the underneath cleaned up. I dont understand the black paint either. You were right about the radiator support. In addition, the brackets that hold the grill should have also been flat black to match. With the exception of the black underbelly and wheel wells, I thought it was a great car.

I realize this is sort of an old post but at some point, I thought the general consensus was to use petroleum jelly on the dash?

Thanks for the feedback. I also already had the Tabco rockers. When I look at them, visually I cant tell how accurate they are or are not. But I just received a pair of the KF full rear quarters. They looked pretty good all the way to where they join up with the other parts of the car. The quality of the KF quarters made me question whether I should expect my body shop to use my Tabco rockers. I have begun a mission impossible journey with my car and a couple hundred dollars in rockers wont make a cost difference one way or another. I am thinking of buying the body shop the KF rockers now.

I bought some replacement rocker panels awhile back. They are the Tabco version. Does anyone have any opinion on how accurate they are? Are they better or worse than the same version made by KF Vintage? Thanks

I have watched several BAT auctions and numerous fb posts where he interacts. Somehow, he has convinced a large percent of the 240z community that he is the great watubie of 240z. I am not sure how he sold that idea. For the longest time, any time someone posted a car for sale on fb or bat, he would reply with a veiled sales pitch that started with "That is why all our cars that we sell have a ...". He was always stepping in front of a potential sale for someone. There was even a book published recently that referenced this guy. I never bought the book just because I assumed the author must not have done any research. Google his name. Pretty interesting stuff. Remember. After all he is a used car salesman. 🙂

I agree with you. When they painted those strut housings, brake lines and all, that was when I concluded it was cut rate job.

I had a similar problem with a '70 I bought a few years ago. Both springs were connected to the heat shield and the spring at the pedal was good. I found that the linkage that was clipped to the post at the firewall had too much resistance and would not move freely. To compensate, a previous owner added an extra spring at that linkage. I disconnected it and ground down the post and it worked fine. I suspect my problem was extra paint.

I had a '73 back in '79 as my first car. After it heated up, it would vapor lock if I clutched/downshifted during a turn. it was recommended that I get the carbs (flat tops) rebuilt. I did but no change. It would idle all day long. But if I drove it and clutched it, it would die. After I got the car hot enough that I knew it would die, I disconnected the fuel supply and return from the fuel rail and connected long hoses to both ends of the rail. On the other end, I put the hoses in a glass jar of gas. When the vapor lock occurred, it didn't draw gas from the jar. For my POS '73, that eliminated the tank as the culprit (but not the rail). It didn't draw gas from the can. Then eventually it magically started drawing fuel. I never figured it out. About 5 years later, I bought a '72 and never had any trouble with it. I always wondered if the design of the '73 fuel rail had something to do with it. Reading about vapor lock really frustrates me to this day because I remember the pain I went through. In hindsight, I know I should have replaced the carbs on the '73 instead getting them rebuilt but I was stupid and listened to the datsun dealer. Have you tried something so simple as to use alcohol free gas? In my area, we have something called "Rec gas". I think it is 91 octane. We have many small lakes in the area and boats dont like alcohol in the gas since according to marinas, it can introduce moisture to the lines. We also have racing fuel too but it but using that would be illegal.

I am curious how you made sure the welded nuts on the front of the rockers aligned with the mounting holes at the rear of the front fenders? If those nuts don't align with the holes on the fenders properly, the fenders might not align with the rest of the car. In my case, the body shop didn't align them properly. Now the lower fenders stick out much further than the front of the lower part of the doors. Now I get to start over with another body shop and fresh paint. 😞

Small world. I live by columbia city. I used to work in Upland/GasCity. I have a low mile factory '71, a tore down restoration project '70 and a ~'71 that had it's vin was messed with in an earlier life (but she is a little rough). If you need to see anything, let me know. 🙂