26th-Z

I had an e-mail exchange with the Merlin, the site master, after cruising his site this morning. I recommend it. :classic:

Sean, We had a location poll some time ago. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5916&highlight=Location I know there are owners in your area. Welcome to Florida!

Thanks Andrew. I made tracings of my old jute for patterns. I have the tunnel jute pattern as well. Your photos will be valuable to me as I compare what I was able to salvage to your "pristine" examples. Has anyone found a proper replacement material? I received a sample from LeBaron Bonney and it is not the same material.

Moved to Sarasota in 1969 from Milwaukee. One of my first new friends went to the New York Auto Show with his father who came home and immediately ordered a 240Z from the Datsun dealer - Her Majesty the 26th.

I thought this discussion was about rust !?!!??! Sorry to jump in so late. I was racing SCCA in the mid '70s and the C Production class was dominated by the Z. Don Kearney was the local hero and I watched him blow off everything regularly. The Z always did best on the shorter tracks where the nimble suspension and light weight played to advantage against big powerhouse cars and Sports Racers. In later years, Sharp, Newman, and Fitzgerald kept the fire breathing with their famous drives and win records. Those cars were really tube framed chassis looking like a Z rather than the good old BRE Datsuns. The Alfa GTV ran in a different class behind Datsun 510s in B Sedan. Probably the best comparison race I ever saw was the 1971 runoffs between John Morton and Bob Tullius in a TR6.

I think the Datsun headlight covers are as sexy as a lace bra on a porn star and had to have a set. (headlight covers) I looked around and at one time, talked with kats about arranging a purchase from Datsun Freeway. Then, a member of this site offered to sell me a set and we have been friends ever since. We discussed the deal as though we were trading a fine bottle of wine. During that time, two sets sold on Ebay in that $500 range. I didn't get any great deal, but when you are talking about something that sexy, who cares? A guy at the Mitty had a set on his Z and they looked just great. Keep in mind that the chrome rings attach through the headlight bucket and holes are required for installation. They also fog up in the rain. At the Mitty, I talked to a retailer selling clear vinyl stone guard material to cover and protect the lens. I don't know if he had something for the complex shape, but it is a thought. The same material is used commonly to protect the front end of fiberglass on race cars. I see it frequently at vintage events. Applied properly, you really can't tell and it works. I have the stuff on my BMW headlights.

You come up with some of the best questions! :classic: I will go take a look, but I think the emblem on my glove box door is on the top. I don't know if I ever saw a low emblem. Pictures?

Yes, metal fender emblems for the early cars. In fact, all metal emblems on the early cars except the hatch grills which I have only seen in plastic. "kats" has the best info site on this stuff. http://www.geocities.jp/datsunz903/ There have been discussions over the "240Z" on the hatch and the quarter panels. We commonly see the Z filled in white. Early emblems came in metal with white Zs, but the earliest Zs were chromed. The emblems are also hollow cast and kats does a great job describing the different castings. I have one (the only one I have ever seen) quarter emblem 240Z that is solid cast. The metal fender "Datsun" emblem looks the same as the plastic ones. The Datsun is filled white and the background is black. Here is the solid quarter emblem. I got into a big eBay battle over this baby.

Just so that you don't faint and hurt yourself I want to tell you that the last four sets I have seen sold for over $500. They look real nice, but they are expensive. This place in Japan may still have them. http://www.datsun-freeway.com/index.html

I didn't get into a very long discussion with Mike nor did I dip down on the wet pavement to look at the suspension. Our conversation was limited to the time it took to start raining again! I only noticed the unmistakable gearbox bell housing casting along with other bits - front damper, distributer / electronics, oil filter and cooler. The radiator appears hand fabricated. We discussed briefly, the upper suspension pick-up points and the stabilizer bar, but the conversation turned to that famous nose piece and how the original hood must have been shortened to accomodate the fit. Then we looked at various mounting holes drilled in the front end to install it. What I do remember about the casting plates on the tops of the carburetors was the Mikuni / Solex name only. No part number or other identification. Mike said he obtained new gaskets by sending a xerox copy of the old gaskets to a fellow in Japan for replacements and thus the 44mm. With respect to the IZCC website, I suspect that the information was posted from a contributing writer as many of the other atricles are. Just wait until you see the brief I am going to write about Her Majesty the 26th when she is complete! :D

I was quite surprised to find those pages in the parts book I just received. To the best of my knowledge, tools did not come standard with North American delivery cars. My quest to find them begins at once! The hold down straps for the wheel chocks and clip for the jack is particularly difficult and the ones I have seen on eBay usually come with the complete set of jack and tool bag.

Hi Alan, I was hoping you could tell me some more about the Mikuni / Solex carburetors on Mike's car. I highly suspect they are competition part # 99996-E1020 which would reference 16010-E4620, the Solex 44PHH. I didn't recognize the intake manifold either. But I did see a lovely transmission 32010-E4151 or 22055 depending on which parts listing is referenced. Mike was very proud of his ride and remembered talking with you about the chassis. A quick look at the fabrication of the roll cage and rear deck indicates the shell started life as a road car. Mike was pretty convinced that his car was not "factory prepared". He seemed to think that the nose was fabricated by those who built the chassis. We briefly discussed fabricating a replica, but Mike thinks it was ugly to begin with and sees no point spending money to fabricate something that would look god-awful. Even though Mike does not know much of the Japanese side of the story, I was pleased to see it - finally after all our discussions! Steve, Try this site www.racingsportscars.com You may find the car from an old IMSA event. I have never seen it before.

You guys aren't "stuck"!!! I'll be there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday because I bought an airline ticket. Great idea, huh? If you get the urge and want to crash in my room, you might be welcome if you can behave. The Tampa crowd will be well represented, but I still haven't heard what Beck's plans are. Katayama celebrates his 95th Thursday at the track event. We're going to visit Les at Classic Datsun and hit the secret California junk yards. Kats, you can hang with us - we're going to have fun! The mousetachio bar looks great and I can confrim all kinds of little details like the part number marks throughout the car. One particular area has me puzzled - the back plate of my differential has an area where there was obviously an adhesive label. Does anyone know what that looked like? The back plate has a nice rectangular bare spot in the original black paint.

Ok, twenty photos all loaded up along with a little blurb about the picture. Hope ya'll like 'em! Mike, the rain sucked, frankly. At one point, turn 5 was flooded and cars just went straight off into the gravel. I saw lots of wonderful cars and I want to emphasize how well the Zcrowd turned out with many cars in the Zcorral. They all looked like they were having a great time. I talked to several guys hoping to find someone I recognized from here. Zowners came from as far away as Texas. My drive was only seven hours! For those of you who have never been to Road Atlanta, it's a great course set in the rolling hills Northeast of Atlanta. I always thought it was a roller-coaster ride, with many places the car was completely weighted or unweighted. Turn 3 is a bit of a downhill slide between 2 and 4 as is the hill from the bridge down to pit straight. Changes over the years have added safety and several great spectator areas. There is a new chicane just before the bridge which looks exciting and I can see how it was needed to slow the cars down from the back straight. Atlanta is about as far North as I get, 2ManyZs. I have some friends who get up to VIR with their Porsches. I would love to see Summit Point. The historic races are pretty cool. Cars show up that you would never dream of seeing and the amount of money being spent will stun you. Some guy showed up in a Benneton F1 car painted in early Schumaker livery and promptly stuck it in the gravel. The rain kept a lot of cars inside though. I saw Jim Downing and talked to him for a while. He is selling HANS devices, now, and maintains a stable of vintage cars. This is Jim working inside the NPTI cocpit.