26th-Z

I can't believe I don't have a nice picture of good Hitachi AM. It had automatic signal seek and would be correct for a 1970 car. In shape like the second picture, expect to pay around $175. The second picture is the Hitachi AM/FM with the antenna switch on the top of the face plate. I see these go for a little less, but every now and then they reach $200 on eBay.

Thanks, I have been using "Superglue" for the harder plastics like interior panels, ash trays, face plates. They don't seem to be styrene and I have yet to find anything that will soften the material. I'm going to try this.

Thanks for the Plas-T-Pair reference. What is your experience with it, John? Does it bond to the hard plastics like an ash tray or radio face plate?

I'll probably be there. Swap meet? Cool! I have a ton of stuff.

Unkle, Got a bit of sticker shock? An 'A' quality Hitachi AM radio with the face plate and antenna switch is worth far more than $128. I was surprised to see the owner's manual go so high, but I know who bought it and there were three other guys moaning about loosing that auction. That was a 1969 published manual - seriously rare. I'll bet I have talked to four or five people who were interested in the clips. Those headlight assemblies came with brand new cans, wiring, and the gaskets. Try to find just the gasket!!! There seems to be quite the demand for the very early stuff in 'A' condition. Prices are beginning to approach what it would cost to restore an old original piece. As I write this, I just got out sniped by a fellow member on an item I haven't seen in a long time and need. (Congratulations, you dog!!! :classic: ) The demand is out there and as much as I hate to say it, parts just aren't appearing like they used to.

The going rate for new OEM headlight covers from a private sale was around $500 a year ago. I have seen them recently for $600. They seem to be still available in Japan for 55,000 yen plus shipping. If you really want them, put out you feelers, ask around, and have your check book ready.

Whoa...! Guys... The steering wheel is compsite resin. Matsuo (actually Chiba) wanted a wooden wheel, but because of crash safety standards they were made of the composite resin. The wood graining is a stain. Check Humbles; "How to Restore...". All of your suggestions are great and I see no reason why any of them wouldn't work. Mine are lightly sanded and coated in polyurethane. 27's wheel is quite bad and I will probably use the stain - prefering the light mahogany (yellow) to the dark auburn colored ones. EDIT: In your pictures, Carl, notice how the "wood" is not splintering. What the photos show is the graining in the composite. Notice how the "wood" is molded around the metal spoke. Not cut and fit as a piece of wood.

I was told by Chloe many moons ago that everyone is selling the TABCO panels. They are all the same. I have TABCO panels to replace and they seem first rate to me.

I avoid the fumes by not driving the cars! But seriously, the back end has to be sealed. If you are smelling fumes, its not sealed. Fuel line vents, tail light gaskets, deck vents and deck lid gaskets are all suspect. This is a common problem and takes quite the effort to resolve.

Welcome Mr. Lowvin! Always good to see an early car!

Hey there Unkle!

When the whole inspection lid clip thing started, I wondered how many cars remained that would use such an obscure part. Evidently a bunch. Stay tuned, Dave. I'm gonna dog this because I have some other "obscure" parts in mind, as you know. I think some of what we are seeing is a realization that the obsure stuff is getting harder and harder to find. One of the things no one has discussed with respect to the hub caps is WHAT hub caps they were. Sure, they were 'D' caps, but WHICH 'D' caps? Anyone pick that up? When was the last time you saw such a nice set of those? In the scheme of things $1,200 might not have been so bad. Would love to hear a clip report from you, Gavin!

I wondered about them being made by Datsun / Nissan myself. I don't think so, but you know how it goes. As soon as I stick my foot in my mouth someone comes along and laughs at me.

The very early cars have inspection lids with slotted brackets for these clips to fasten the lid to the fender. They break because they are made of plastic. Later models have a metal spring clip that screws to the inspection lid bracket. E-mail Carl and encourage him to make the repros. He has a pretty good plan going. Edit: Edit: Burp: I'll take a picture!

Beck got dooped! Somebody didn't get the memo that Beck was buying these and tried to snipe them. Carl says he is going to make repros with them. I guess, as of yesterday, the price of the repros will be fairly steep! What can I say about Burt, huh? He's drowning in his own inflation! Poor guy.

I read that add as some guy's mom trying to get rid of it. I feel for her. Port Charlotte is a wreck. The Aircraft Edition has to do with the blue / silver paint and T-tops and corresponds to the red / silver / t-tops "Santa's Ride Edition"? We need a 280ZX guru around here. None of us know nothing 'bout no damned ZX!

I have heard about a baking process that burns everything off and I think someone in the club has done it. The dip process is a real godsend for me. Wauchula is only an hour from here. I think there is a dipping place in Jacksonville, about five hours from here. Dipping is the only way to get 100% rust free inside and out and I really want to be able to say the car is rust free. This process is going to take out all the body sealer and if you look at how the body was welded together (some spot welds are 3" apart) replacing all the seam sealer will pretty much seal up the inside metal, but I still plan to spray some sort of sealer inside what I can reach. I think the garden sprayer is the way to go. The wand will bend and the spray can be adjusted. Just throw it out when you are finished. Let all the primer / sealer just drip out of the seams and make a big mess. I'll have about three weeks to seal the car up before the metal starts to surface rust. The "alkaline electrolytic" solution dries to a white powder that covers the metal for a while. Thanks for your comments, Enrique. Gives me some new ideas about this.

Absolutely. I agree with everything above. Buy an old Z. Try to find something in the $3,500 range - the price they were new. Spend all your earned money on it and work on it all the time. It is a real easy car to work on - extremely simple - and will teach you the good old basics of car wrenching - great skills you will use the rest of your life. You will aquire tools you will have for the rest of your life. And you will gain a deep appreciation for performance automobiles. Your fingernails will become permanently black and you will develop wounds on your hands that will scar. You will be proud of this. All your guy friends will think you are totally cool yet crazy. Your girl friends will think you are wierd and mumble something about POS. You have developed a taste for crashing and you must understand that hitting anything gets you disqualified and thrown out of the game. Driving is about control - it involves feel - and crashing demonstrates that you don't know what you are doing. The 240Z is an excellent example of car balance and will teach you one of the basic control feelings you should have for above average driving skill. Again...this is a perfect car to teach you the basiscs - simple yet sophisticated. A 240Z is a sports car. Sports cars are expensive. That is just a fact. One of the reasons a 240Z is so popular is that it is the cheapest sports car around. There are tons of aftermarket parts available and plenty of people get creative with their cars. Its quite fun to see some of the things people do to their cars. If you want a cheap daily driver, buy a pick-up truck. Buy a pick-up truck anyway. You will need it to haul car parts, tools, and tow the Z. This could be the great experience of your teenage years and give you fond memories you will carry into your future. It could also be a disaster, but it depends on how you approach it. Hang out on this site and you will learn a great deal about these cars. Have fun and don't hit anything.

Hey Bill- We have these little humped back bridges over all the canals and waterways around here. Years ago, I got 26 completely unweighted over the top of one and put her backwards into somebody's bushes in their front yard. Didn't hurt the car. Mowed some bushes down, though.

Yep. Of all the low VIN and early car guys I know, the crowd leans to the side of guys restoring parts rather than buying new replacements. People like me tend to buy a couple of each item with the intent of selling the spare when we finish the restoration. I will re-chrome several sets of bumpers, for example. Bumpers I bought for $35 realizing what the re-chrome effort was going to be. It won't be very long (5 years) before there aren't any new parts and the resto parts are going to be this expensive. At least for the early cars. I also want to say the eBay is NOT the only place to find this stuff and that it tends to be the most expensive solution.

I'm with you Enrique. The trouble is that a new part at the high price is still less expensive than restoring the old part. I have just a little less than $300 in each of my restored hub caps.

I didn't think to save pics of the lighter. It was 25330-E4100 in the old red-white-blue box. I can take a picture of the clips I bought from Chloe for $6 if you like.

Evidently, supply IS that short Carl. I don't know what spell has come over some of my low VIN friends, but I'm glad to see my reputation as "Richy Rich" fade into the sunset. Did you see the $250 cigarette lighter? Or the $200 inspection lid clips? If they don't wear G-strings to hold the dollars, where do you "stuff" them?

Thanks - I'll discuss it with them. At the moment, we were thinking of using a garden pump-up sprayer with the long plastic wand to spray primer / sealer inside some areas similar to the "Zeibart" process. I recall Escanlon talking about long spray gun wands some time ago and I hear Eastwood sells something. I don't expect to get it all, but I should be able to get a little better protection than original.

Greetings! I thought I would tac on to this thread to share my experiences. As ya'll may know, I am dipping Her Majesty the 26th to remove the rust and prepare her body for restoration. There is a business in Wauchula, Florida that dips car bodies and parts in an alkaline electrolytic solution to remove rust. An electric DC current is passed through the tank (with submerged car body) and the "ferrous ions" - rust - are separated from the metal - completely. Her Majesty is there awaiting the magic spa and I expect her nude return in March. Revivations is charging me $1,391 for the body shell - priced at 158 inches long. Here are some pictures of the facility. You will see a 1600 body shell in line ahead of me along with a T-bird, Jag, and some trucks. Trucks seem to be quite popular these days. The car will be placed on a cradle and lowered into a tank full of degreaser and paint stripper for approximatley two weeks. Then it will be pressure washed to remove the seam sealer, insulation, glue and other goo. This process does not harm the lead filler or some of the plastic coatings like around the wiring harness ties. Then the car is submerged in the alkaline solution and de-rusted. It sits in that tank for another week. Ed, the reason I am doing this is because 26 is rusting from the inside out. There is no coating of any sort in the "hard to reach" areas you are talking about. Looking inside the rockers, fender wells, roof, etc. you will see bare metal - no coating. I have seen some signs of zink plating in some areas of the rockers, but the rest of it is bare steel. Well....rusted steel. We are going to try a process to coat the inside of these areas using a primer / sealer, but I put this to you - it took 35 years to get this bad. I don't really worry about coating it. Should last another 30 years, easily. The last picture shows a VW pick-up next to the electrolytic tank. There is a cradle in the tank. I don't know if the VW is going in or coming out. There was also a Pantera and another Jag in this building. So here we go! Big step for me and the project. Wish me luck!