26th-Z

I'm curious. How heavy is that shell? How many guys to lift it?

I was visiting some of my Z buddies a couple of weekends ago and the discussion came around to finding and buying parts. They contend, as do I, that the 240 Z is a collectable classic by all understanding at this time and that there is an urgency to obtain what is available as soon as possible. There are too many people out there looking for parts. The supply is limited. Many, many new parts don't exist any more. The time frame searching for a particular piece can be long. Although I contend that anything for the Z can still be found, the probablility is declining. Look at what people are paying on eBay. This is a money talks, first come, first served market. No doubt. As I tell my father, "If you don't want to buy it at the stated price, move over and let the five people behind you argue over it". Asking someone to hold something is ludicrous. My best deals involve money transfers within hours of the original posting. You gotta drop everything else you are doing and go get the stuff or it is going to be gone. Ya snooze, ya loose. That's just the way it is.

I forgot about the picture a couple of threads up. Your car and a couple of others has me convinced that early cars came equipped with strange combinations of pieces not commonly found as an "American Import" version. Our fuel recovery discussion is a good case in point. I had a hand throttle in an Alfa Romeo years ago and it was quite handy. I would love to equip my car with the hand throttle and fill in that extra space on the console. My trip to re-chrome land has been the education let me tell you. Start talking to some of these businesses and you will get the picture. There is a copper plate layer, a nickle plate layer and a chrome layer involved and all with nit-picking buffing and polishing and filling. They can take dents out too. Seems money is the key factor and you get what you pay for. I haven't decided what to do. I'm still "interviewing"! The new vents will work, of course. It all depends on how "original" you want to present your car. Serious Z "purists" will recognize the difference and you will get points for having the original as opposed to everyone else who will think you are way cool just for having a clean Z. I'm in the middle of another road of research. Plastics molding and casting. EVERYONE has broken or missing plastic pieces. My radio face plate is damaged and I have been given the big good luck from several people. From what I am learning, molds can be made from original pieces - repaired with modeling clay - and cast in plastic resins. "Rubber" can be cast also. I may consider casting at least the flanges for the vent pieces. I just ordered some chemicals for new radio face plates. Stay tuned.

You may have a broken switch. It should stay down until the steering wheel rotates back.

Can't bear the thought of drilling a hole in your car? You can patch a hole. Buy an extra set of headlight buckets. I don't know who MSA is kidding...tape. Who wants to make me a great deal and sell me a set of Nissan chrome ringed headlight covers?

Hey y y Nice. Congratulations

I have been collecting parts - and searching - and looking, as you know. I have accumulated a bunch of stuff. The whole process of collecting parts before I started on the car has yielded several different directions of my restoration plan and many, many considerations I didn't think of. What do I want my car to look like when I'm finished? What parts should I buy? Should I buy new or restore? What will I need? And the big one, are the parts still available? You are dealing with a couple of issues, Mark. The hand throttle was really not a standard issue piece for your car, but it can be easily argued that it came equipped with the extra throttle. American laws restrict the throttle device as a safety issue, and indeed that throttle could get you into a lot of trouble real fast. It does make for a uniqueness and contributes to what you want your car to look like. Because the device is not native to America, you will have best luck looking overseas for the knob. Our AU and UK members will be able to help best probably, but Chloe has good contacts. I think bumper parts are all over the place. You just have to look around. And here comes the real discriminating part. Those two big pieces of shiny chrome hanging off the ends of your car make a big difference in appearance. You really have to decide what you want your car to look like when it comes to bumpers. For me, after I spend all this time and effort (and $$$$), I want the chrome to look brand new. There are plenty of places around to rechrome for you. Do a web search "chrome restoration". You send them the piece. They look it over and discuss what needs to be done - price, and you either have it done or send it back. Chrome shops are EXPENSIVE and it is still cheaper to buy new pieces rather than rechrome, however, we are not talking about equal chrome. The original piece is very inexpensive chrome. It rusts through. It fades and thins through. And it scratches easily. In terms of time, the Nissan piece has probably 20 minutes in a chrome tank where a rechrome piece is going to have and hour or more. The rechrome will be thicker, have a higher luster, it won't rust through or thin, and scratches can be polished. You get what you pay for. Rechrome shops actually restore the piece including filling and dent removal. You can expect a used left rear guard to have chrome damage from the exhaust. Probably all used bumper pieces have rust inside. OSPHO will take the inside rust off, but the bumpers just turn to crap over time. I think rechroming is a good idea. Listening to the chrome and restoration people, all chrome shops are not the same. Take some time to educate yourself on the plating process. Like painting, the prep work is critical so ask a lot of questions about how the most particular detail is going to be repaired / filled, what plating process is done, what mil thickness of plating each layer is applied, so forth. I was recommended "Paul's Chrome Plating" in PN www.paulschrome.com and they want $75 - $125 for each guard and around $550 for the bumper bar. That's probably the highest price for the highest quality. I found a place as close as Bradenton, them some places in Miami. You will find a couple of places in Ohio and I'll bet there is a place within 200 miles of you. I even found a do-it-yourself kit for $675 - five gallons. I'll have to send you a picture of my one surviving air duct. I'll bet mine is worse than yours! Do you still have the mounting rings? As long as I have looked, I have not found the early series. Now as soon as I say this they will pop up on eBay for $80,000..... I was just planning to creatively adapt the later style and this gives me another idea for my research with plastics molding. GE Silicon seal (black) is great for glueing the duct in place. It will seal it too.

I have been doing a little research on this subject and buy a bunch of stuff from http://www.carcareonline.com/ EScanlon makes a good point about the rubber flexing. Rubber needs to flex or it will "dry rot". The chaulk you are talking about, Mark, is dry rot. Turns out, silicon oil and formaldyhide are the two worst things you can put on rubber, or vinyl for that matter. Petrolium products will turn rubber to thick jelly. Most nationally advertised / marketed products contain at least silicon oil. Vinyl materials develop white spots because of silicon oil and rubber dries unevenly because of the stuff. Go to this website - Car Care Specialties, Inc. - and read what this guy has to say. Do some web searches for "rubber restoration" and "vinyl restoration" and you will find similar discussions. A product called "Black Again" is very controversial and may be worth a try. Evidently, it is not the same formula as everyone loved years ago, but try 3M products, One Grand products, and Mequiar's products. Take the rubber off. Clean it up real well with soap and water and soak it with something like "One Grand Exterior Rubber and Vinyl". While it is still dripping wet, put it in a ziplock bag and spray some more in the bag for good measure. Seal the bag up and let it sit for a week. Let me know what you think.

I have two indents on the dash - typical early series - and one indent has the hazard flasher switch. The upper indent is just closed off, but has the frame for another switch behind it. I also have provision for a hand throttle next to the choke. My console has two switch locations with cover plates - one for the rear glass demister, and the other for fog lamps - as the icon images indicate. The plastic tool lids are not the same size BTW. I would love to see a chassis with both tool doors and lids. What say you 240znz?

This is the best shot I have of my deck. The rear deck wall with the tool lid tabs is just below and out of the picture. But, you can see my rear deck has simple cutouts and no tool doors. I sent some photos of the tabs to mdbrandy some time ago, but must have erased them. What does yours look like?

I would love to see a photograph of the tool doors in the rear deck AND tabs for the tool lids. Fascinating. Better yet, install the tool lids AND THEN take a picture. Now THAT'S rare! Congrats.

I had a good look at a pair of headlight covers today. They were chrome rims and plexiglass covers. The rim screws to the headlight bucket / scoop and the lens sits in a rubber seal. Check out the other thread about headlight covers. It got me on a quest.

I have a current? Fujimi catalog and the 432 is supposedly NLA. Just putting my feelers out.

Good advice, JEFF. A car that has been sitting that long will have lots of little problems and you will end up doing all these things sooner or later. Lubricating everything is essential. I wouldn't be surprised if the clutch and brake hydraulics will need some help, also. If that car has only 50,000 miles on it, there is no reason to think that all this work would result in a very dependable, fun car. Datsuns have that reputation, don't they!

I have to agree on the Lotus. I would love an early Elite with the TOHC Coventry Climax engine. You can see my taste in cars runs about the same as the Z.

Hey E TRAIN, I just started taking my Z apart for the restoration. I think I know the $9000 Z you refer to. Don't know if it sold or not. It has been advertised in Hemmings for quite a while. There are not many Z's in Sota. I just saw two older ladies cruising down the road in what appeared to be a 72 or 73 with air conditioning. Really surprised me. I'm looking for a 432 model kit in 1/24.

Some of the pictures show prices in Yen. I can't read the text either, but if the number figure IS Yen, a simple conversion will tell you what to expect. For instance the headlight covers convert to $468. I don't know if that's for one or two, but shipping must be considered. I'm surprised someone - especially you guys out in California - doesn't know someone who could translate. Great site!

I encourage patience and keep looking. Some will turn up. The painting idea works really well. Make sure the plastic is clean for painting.

The operating manual for my BMW says to not use the cruise control in wet and slippery conditions. For what it's worth.

Alan, I think price and marketing in North America had a lot to do with the initial American spec. The American market had costly emission requirements too. I suspect Datsun was completely unaware of how successful they would be and sold the cars as inexpensively as they could. It's all speculation, but I suspect Americans would have gladly paid more for the 240 Z optional equipment, had they known what a great car it turned out to be. Datsun seemed to have had a treasure chest of parts from which to construct many variations of the basic S30, as you point out. What they chose to sell in America had a lot to do with the way they saw themselves in this market. Brian Long references popular British cars as the predominant competition, however the American muscle car reigned at the time of the Z's initial introduction. First marketing campaigns emphasized economy and style whereas we look at the Z now from a performance aspect. I don't think anyone realized the potential of the Z until a year or two later with the race results from Brock, Morten, Fitzgerald, et.al. Most Americans I talk to about my car didn't even realize the Z was first sold in 1969. Most talk of their '72s or later when the components we are discussing became available in the States.

Indeed an interesting Mod if that's what it is. The door panel has the correct indentation. The seller mentions a broken door handle. The butterscotch looks very faded. The steering wheel is correct. Do I detect an incorrect air cleaner? Early cars did not have the cold air damper on the front.

I turn 50 today and live in Sarasota, Florida. I have HLS30-00026 built in November of 69 and I am restoring her. I'm an architect, single and have a daughter in college.

Hello Viper, Going to restore one, eh? So much of what you spend depends on what you have to work with. Or, what you start with. Pick up a copy of "How To Restore Your 240Z" to get an idea of what you are getting in to. There are a couple of active members right in the thick of it and have been posting great discussions and photographs. They have been dealing with everything from rust to nuts and bolts. So cost is relative to your expectaions and what you have to start. My Z is fairly complete, original, and in need of a thorough restoration. I have all issues from worn out car to rusty chassis. Mine is a low serial #, so original is key for me and I want to drive the car occasionally and show it, but not compete. I'll give you some of my estimates, experiences, and let the rest of the members comment. I budgeted $1200 to strip my chassis clean to bare metal. I'm going to dip it. Cleaning the doors, fenders, hood, deck is extra and I don't need to do that. Allow $4000 for paint and body work and throw in another $1000 for the hell of it. That brings us to a new, bare, painted body $5000 to $6000. The engine will be thoroughly rebuilt and I'm allowing $750 for the E31 head, $500 for the engine (rings, bearings, timing chain)and $900 to send the carbs (complete manifold and air cleaner)off to Z Therapy. Clutch - $300. The transmission is fine as well as the rest of the drive train, but I'll probably spend $200 just taking it out, cleaning it and putting it back in with new mounts. I have $600 in brake parts already and have another $400 budgeted for the brake system. If I replace all my suspension bushings while I clean and paint everything, I'll probably spend $400. I had to buy an original set of 4-1/2" steel wheels and 'D' hubcaps and tires. I already have $570 in parts (beat that!). I had a quote of $3500 to upholster the interior in leather, but so far, I have $750 in all new diamond vinyl (butterscotch), headliner and door panels. The dash - check out that forum - was around $500 to restore. I have anothr $300 easily in other interior do-dads. My seats are fine. Carpet kits are around $200. Replacing as much rubber as I could, I have around $500 in rubber parts at this time. Replacing tail lights and other items can get pricey. New tail lights are $500, I think. Bumpers are expensive. Rechroming is not cheap either. I have estimates for rechroming that make buying a brand new bumper on Ebay look like the easy way. Ok. I didn't address everything, but that's what my picture looks like. Figure in the tools you'll need and rent on the space to do all this work, and you really get up there. What am I at - $15,000? Sounds horrible, but that is probably what taking a car completely apart and re-assembling it is going to take. Restoring pieces is usually less expensive than replacing. I've made a big pitch for the blessing of available parts; parts are available. You just have to look for them. I would love to hear other comments from other projects. Hope I helped. Good luck to you. I'll finish with a brief story about my father wanting a convertible 356 Porsche and talking about cutting the top off his. I told him it would be less expensive, less hassle, and greater satisfaction in the long run to sell the hard top and buy another convertible. The best advice I can offer is to buy and pay for the car you ultimately want to have up front. Restoration ain't cheap.