mdbrandy

Ok, so I'm undoubtedly going to feel really stupid when someone tells me, but how do you disconnect the light fitting on the back of the clock? Pic attached with the one I'm talking about pointed to by a red arrow. I didn't want to pull too hard, it just spins around so it doesn't unscrew, and I poked around in the little recess (under the arrow) seeing if that was a release, but couldn't get it to come off. What silly thing am I missing? Thanks.

PLEASE don't do anything that hurts your car! If you can get a pic of the attachment without damaging ANYTHING, then great, I'd love to see it, but it is NOT important enough for you to tear up your interior. I figured there's probably somebody out there that already has it apart and might be able to take a pic of the attachment. I really appreciate your attempts, though. :classic:

Cool. Looks just like a metal lip with a thumb screw. If I can't locate one off a doaner, it doesn't look too hard to make. Thanks! If anyone has their car apart, and can get a pic of how this bracket is shaped and attached to the wall without the vinyl, I'd appreciate seeing that too.

On the caliper, the way I get the pads to retract is to use a BIG pair of channel-lock pliers. One jaw on the tab of one of the pads, and one jaw on the outside of the caliper. Usually a good squeeze (or ten) and you can get one or the other pad to push it's piston into the bore. You might also try a Clamp of some type (C clamp maybe?), doing the same thing if you can get one of the jaws on the pad tab and one on the outside of the caliper. If you don't care much about the caliper and/or pads, you could try a pry bar down there, trying to push on the upper part of the pad(s), again trying to push one or both of the pistons back into its bore. Good luck.

No problem. Finding specific stuff in these catalogs can be a real pain sometimes. The reason I know where it is is because I also need one. Maybe I ought to order it so if they really have it, I'll have it when I need it...

Have you contacted MSA? On page 118 of their catalog, they list part 40-3351 as the Glove Box Compartment for a 70-73 for $17.05. Doesn't mean that the REALLY have it, but it isn't listed as unavailable.

Request: Someone that has intact tool compartments and the brackets that go with them - would you take a picture of the bracket that attaches to the vertical wall behind the drivers seat, that I assume the tool compartment attaches to? I've attached a picture of what I have and circled the area that I'm talking about. My compartments are gone. The brackets attached to the floor appear to still be there, but the ones where the top of the compartment probably attaches are gone. There are two holes where the brackets probably were. I'll either have to find a donor car, or try to make new brackets. I know I can get the compartments themselves from MSA or VB, but not the brackets. Anyway, if one of you guys could let me know what they really look like, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

As you drag it, be prepared for the brakes to break loose and the car to roll. My '78 parts car, after sitting for about a year, wouldn't roll (by pushing) due to the rear brakes being frozen. I started it, put it in gear and tried to move forward. With a fairly loud "snap", the brakes broke loose, and the car moved forward fine. Wouldn't recommend that for any car whose brakes you wanted to keep intact, but the same might happen as you drag yours. FWIW.

Its nice, after all these years, to have a Z that is not my daily driver, that I can spend as much time as needed and do the job right.

Is that rusted-off flat metal piece the bottom of part 6 from the attached screen shot from the fiche?

So, the part under the rear quarter is still on the car, and I haven't figured out how to remove it without removing the dogleg. Given that there are no signs of rust on the dogleg itself (the rear quarters were replaced by the PO about 12 years ago), I'd rather not dig into them if I don't have to. From the pic attached, you can see the the inside of the rear rocker is rusty, but not as bad as the front was. There is a rust-through on the bottom, and there is some kind of flat metal piece (with the paint running down it) that is about half gone. So, the question is, I'd like to sand blast it out, weld a patch over the small hole in the bottom, POR15 treat it, and leave it. Good idea or bad? I'd then cut the replacement rocker and butt-weld it to the remaining part that I've left. All opinions welcome :classic:

Ok, so now I've got the left rocker off (mostly). Drilled out the spot welds, and it wasn't too hard. I haven't, however, removed the part of the rocker that goes under the rear quarter dogleg. I cut it off with an abrasive cutoff wheel as neatly as I could. General picture attached. My question deals with the picture attached to the next post...

I only saw one or two other positive responses, and no one near a major airport volunteered.

Tiny screws that hold the fuel and brake line clamps are 7mm. Rubber brake/clutch line fittings are 17mm. One of the Rocker pivot nuts is 17mm (the other is 14mm, I think).

An interesting message board whose subject is all auto body work and painting is: Autobody Message Board . I'm trying to learn about painting too, and it seems to have some professional body and paint guys answering questions (not that our board might not have people that know the answers too, but ... ) Good luck.

I guess your first statement was what got us asking...

My early (11/69) car has keys like those being sold.

You could try http://classicdatsun.com/new/240Z.html . Don't see shock tower specifically, and don't know about colors, but they sell the vinyl. EDIT: the link didn't work because I got a period after html, and it became part of the URL Sorry.

In my younger days, I had a 71 240Z with SUs and then a 75 280Z with EFI. I had the normal fights with the carbs on the 240, and must say that the EFI on the 280 was WONDERFUL in the cold Illinois winters when it worked right. However, when problems ensued, they were MUCH harder to diagnose. Cost me $600 once (in 1981) to get someone to find a short circuit under the dash caused by a PO's wire rigging. Another time, while working on the car, I SOMEHOW managed to allow coolant to get sucked into the intake through the airflow meter. Filled up the bypass and it took me quite a while to figure that out. But when it worked (which was most of the time), it was nice!

You purchased a battery tray new? Or was it off a doner car... If new, where did you get it? I think you'll find that the inner fender below the battery tray is unavailable. Everything I've read indicates that you have to fab the parts yourself. Even the frame rail behind the T/C rod pocket (and just below the firewall there at the battery tray) is unavailable and has to be custom fabricated. Mark

Sounds like too much. About 9 years ago now, I bought a '78 280Z in Maryland that was in a little better shape than you describe for $900. It had a bit of rust here and there, a few patches done previously, but no collision damage. Back then the "books" listed the cars value in average condition to be $1800, and I got him down to $900 by listing the things that would need to be fixed to get it to pass Maryland safety inspection (rear brakes, exhaust system, small [1"] hole in drivers floor pan). Unless you can do the work yourself, and like it, you're in for an expensive time if you want more than just a beater Z to run around in. Even then, the rust will accelerate if you don't fix it, and you won't even have the beater Z very long . I let mine sit for 9 years, most of the time in a garage, and it's now cheesecloth. FWIW.

Good to get the prinicple people involved in the discussions! I know that 26th-Z has expressed interest, and I'm interested. Anyone else? Anyone that is near a major airport interested in coordinating (maybe free shipping for them paid for by the rest of us as an enticement?) ? I'm in the "middle" (kind of) the country, and so somewhat centrally located, but I'm 200 miles from O'Hare, 120 from Indianapolis, and around 200 from St. Louis. Our little airport here in Champaign probably doesn't do much freight handling . Anyway, if there are enough people interested, we should investigate it.

Luckily, I have pictures of just about everything I've taken off my car. Attached is a closeup of my fuel sending unit, and the two wires. I intentionally pointed one of the connectors toward the camera, since I was very surprized when I took it off. I figured that the plastic cover was covering up a nut, kind of like at the alternator. Anyway, the connectors are kind of like a spade, as kmack suggests. The posts fit up into the connectors, and are trapped between the two edges. Hopefully the picture shows it better than words...

Wow, that's cheap! I wonder if the discussions of over $450 from them were because of shipping from the US? I've got no knowledge of how much it costs to ship things around the world. Maybe I'll have to dissasemble my dash and get this done sooner than I thought... Thanks for the pic.

Hmm. I guess I missed that... Still probably a bad idea, for similar reasons .