uk66fastback

I'm in the process of doing my seats at the moment and have finished one so far. I had two original seat covers on my car when I bought it and shipped it over to the UK. One was badly split but the other was fine but dirty. I didn't want to go to the trouble of just buying replacement covers for both of them so I managed to get from another Z owner, an original seat cover form '72 with the same grain as my one good seat. I also bought and shipped over two new foams from the US (Z Car Depot) ... THe foams are much firmer than my old foams for sure, and much sturdier, the only thing is, they're not exactly the same shape! They're good but probably only 95% accurate, but with a bit of leeway and another wrap with some wadding, I have managed to get them to fit the original covers okay. Now I have two decent seats, albeit one is butterscotch! I too have fitted heated elements in the seat and back part, the back was fine but the seat was more trouble as of course the heated bit goes OVER the part in the foam where the cover i drawn through and held with he rod and the hog rings to keep it taught. I did some work with some cable ties and managed to get it pretty taut. So would I recommend getting new foams? Yes I would!

Lovely looking car before the paint ... The bronze will suit this shape very well and besides, there's too many 918 orange cars about!

My car, which is a US '72 model has the seat belt warning light on the passenger seat - ie the RH seat as you sit in the car - it is pretty original, so I am thinking that is correct.

Woody, I've messaged him, he's on some pseudo world tour at present, UK, France, Scandinavia, then Far East I think, before returning home. I've asked him as to what he's got, let's see what he says. Very knowledgable guy where these cars are concerned. And good and straight. I can put you in touch with at least two other guys who have bought and imported. He did advertise a rust-free 240z a month or so ago which went pretty quickly (to mainland Europe) ... I'm sure you'll be okay with some mods, but maybe not others, as regards getting the car imported under BTI. i'd make it look as stock as it could for importation purposes.

To get a decent one is not cheap though in Aus and it's pretty expensive to ship literally halfway round the world ... But you DO get RHD!

Hey Woody, as well as here you should sign up on the UK's Z site. I know a guy in Sacramento who has several 240s currently ... I can give you his details if you like. It's not that far from San Fran. I have had parts off him in the past and there at least two Z owners I know who have bought cars from him and imported them over. He has a 918 car that he races as well, full cage etc, and it's a beast on the roads. I would have bought a car off him last year but had just sealed the deal on a 72 110 colour car in Texas which I imported to the UK. One thing to bear in mind is that when you come to import the car, you'll have to value it as it would be valued in the US at the time of export. You could bring it in under the BTI ruling where import duty to the UK is currently zero I think with 5% VAT (from memory). What I'm saying is, you can't value it at the $3k or whatever you paid for the car after you had $27k of work done to it. See this http://www.shipmycar.co.uk/2011/04/bti-scheme-for-30-year-old-imports/ There are many, many Z cars in your part of the UK, and many on the UK site ... Cheers Mike