Tweeds

I'm nowhere near as well versed as most people on here, but it sure looks like a gem. Correct me if I'm wrong here - that's the original paint? If so, I'd keep it that way. Still looks phenomenal after all these years, and if you resell it one day, that'll add a good amount of value. An old car with original paint in that good of condition is an indication that the rest of the car is also well maintained. Besides, it's way more badass to say you've got the original paint even if a new paint job in the same colour looks 'better'. I'd swap it for a 5-speed, no doubt. That's just personal preference though - I couldn't do without a manual on a sports car (especially a classic sports car), but if it doesn't matter that much to you, then who cares if it stays automatic?

Had a few hours of Jurassic Park rain in Florida yesterday - wasn't but 50ish degrees though. Best of luck to the Northerners, Winter's a knockin'. On the bright side, at least you guys get to have a 'White Christmas' 🙃

The trouble with picking out a colour online is how many variables could potentially misrepresent the colour in real life. The screen you're viewing the pictures on, the lighting when the picture was taken, the camera's settings (particularly the white balance), potential colour correction and picture touch ups all come into account. I think online is a good way to ballpark it (i.e. dark blue vs. light blue), but when you really want to narrow it down (to the point where you're picking precisely which shade of dark blue), I think it's best to see it in real life. Sort of like how you'd want to write with an ink, or test a can of paint before you decided what to go with. Maybe order some paint swatches printed with the exact colour code and specfiications, then envision what it'd look like. Or, go to a car meet (I know there's bound do be some in Germany) in hopes of finding a colour you like. That's just me though.

Yes they are! I'm going to replace the hoses once the calipers are back on, do a flush and all that but I needed to keep brake fluid from leaking everywhere and completely draining the master cylinder while doing everything else. Vice grips did a damn good job of it.

Victory! With about 30 mins to an hour of careful sanding, testing the fit of the bearing on the spindle and repeating until it was perfect, I finally got everything to seat properly. I strayed away from the FSM a little, using a socket wrench rather than a torque wrench. Tightened the nut while rotating the hub until it became both hard to tighten the nut and rotate the hub. I then gave one more strong (but not too strong) go on the nut and then backed off the nut until the hub rotated freely, finally tightening and loosening the nut to get it as close as possible to the point where the hub starts to drag a bit, for lack of a better word, but still allowing smooth rotation. It has been a trying endeavor, yes. I'd never done something like this before, and, going into it, it seemed like it'd be a relatively straight forward affair. I kept getting thrown curveballs though, and what I figured would be a couple days work turned into about two weeks. I'm not complaining though, it was a good learning experience, and now I'll be that much more proud if my car doesn't fall apart next time I take it out. All I'm really complaining about is the fact I haven't driven my z in two weeks 😢 Thanks everybody for your invaluable know how! Cheers!

Went to the auto parts store to pick up different bearings - same problem as before. This time I got National's. Must be my spindle, not the bearings. I'll go ahead and do what some of you guys recommended earlier - lightly sanding down the spindle enough to fit the bearing. What I find odd is that both spindles are too large for the new bearings, yet the original bearings fit just fine. I'm curious as to what's gone awry here, and if anyone else has run into this issue. If one spindle was off that'd be understandable, or if one brand of bearing was a bad fit. I wonder if the original bearings have been 'worn in'. Beats me.

That counterfeit bearings is an actual problem, and relatively big problem at that, is surprising to me. Bearings aren't too expensive all things considered, so it seems odd people would make fakes. Fake Rolex's, Mont Blanc pens, and luxurious handbags make sense, but wheel bearings? Odd. Though if there's money to be made, somebody will do it. One thing I'll point out is that the I'll shoot zcardepot an email.

Sorry, I could have been more specific. I meant reuse the old bearing and race. I still have them lying around, cleaned up, repacked and everything. I broke the original outer bearing following the FSM's procedure for tightening the nut where you torque the nut down to around 19lbs +/- a pound, then back off the nut about 45 degrees. Something like that. I thought my wrench hit the ground, when in reality it had clicked, so I ended up over torqueing the whole thing - the inner and outer race of the bearing itself became dislodged, and all the rollers came free. In short, the bearing fell apart. After doing all this, I realized that whole tightening procedure is somewhat unnecessary, and you can pretty much tighten the nut by hand, as Zed Head said, or else just use a regular socket wrench if needed, but, oh well, figured that out too late 😕

Since the old bearing fits on fine, do you think I'd be better off reusing it rather than tampering with the spindle to fit on the new bearing? I plan to clean all the excess grease once everything is in order - the grease manages to get everywhere so long as I am still moving things around.

Timken LM67010 is the part no. Cleaned the grease off, and as far as I could tell, everything was intact. The only thing of note were a few small gashes I imagine were made by a screwdriver when I had to pry off the bearing.

Boys, I've ran into another snag. This time it's on the other side of the car. I broke the outer bearing when torqueing down the nut, but that happened long ago and isn't the issue here. I got this bearing kit from zcardepot, and figured I'd go ahead and replace both bearings, not just the broken one. The inner bearings for this kit, however, have given me nothing but problems. As shown in the picture, the bearing gets stuck on the stub axle each time I put the hub on by which I mean when I pull the wheel hub off the axle, the bearing stays on the axle rather than staying in the wheel hub. The bearing won't go any farther down the axle than it does in the picture either, and even to get it to that point requires a bit of force and wiggling. It's not a problem with the axle stub (it being bent or something) because the old bearing still fits on without issue, and both bearings from the kit have the same fitment problems on both sides of the car. Because the hub doesn't seat correctly with these bearings, the nut can't be tightened enough to leave room for the cottar pin, as shown in the second picture. I tried manually positioning the bearing farther up the axle (where it ought to be) by lightly hammering it farther up, then putting the hub over top of it. Even so, the nut couldn't be tightened enough to insert the cottar pin, and the hub, when rotated, made terrible noises, and rotated unevenly by which I mean it would rotate smoothly and freely 3/4 of a turn, but then have have a bit of resistance for the next 1/4 of the turn. This problem may be with the bearing, or because part of the dust shield was somehow bent inwards (shown in the last picture), or a combination of both. I did my best to bend and grind the dust shield back to where it's supposed to be. I may not have done a good job of it, and may need to do it again a bit more precisely, but I'd like to rectify the bearing problem first. My z is a '71, so my only thought is that maybe there is a slight variance in the hub/axle assembly from later z's, making these new bearings ever so slightly too small. Either way, the bearing kit was advertised to fit all z's from 70-83. Worst comes to worst, I can just put the old bearing and race back in the hub and hope everything works out, but I don't think that should be necessary. That would mean I bought a full bearing kit for one of the bearings.

Cheers everybody - it worked! No weird sounds, and the hub rotates silky smooth. @AK260 For future references, is the metal guard from your picture on the hub itself, or part of the axel? I couldn't seem to find what you were referring to either way.

I'll get to grinding tomorrow (it's much too cold once the sun goes down right now). I take it a Dremel with the proper attachment will do the trick? I thought grinding might be what I'd have to do, but I wanted to know it was an option before I spent several hours fixing something that was, in fact, unfixable. The races are placed properly, but you're right Zed Head, I don't know why I took them out either. I realized after all was said and done that the races would only have to be removed if the bearings were replaced. I did replace the bearings on one side, but that's not the side pictured. At any rate, following the FSM's protocol and the various videos I watched, all removed the races though this was the intention of replacing the bearing, and thus the race. I should have thought first, but, oh well, I learned the hard way.

Recently started doing some brake work, figured I'd go ahead and re-grease the bearings and wheel hub while I had everything off. When putting the races back in place, I guess I dinged up the sides of the inner hub. Should have bought a kit to reinstall the races, but thought I'd save some money and use various sockets and tools lying around. Once everything was back together, I put the hub back on the axel stub and was spinning the hub to tighten the locking nut and settle the bearings, but I was hearing what sounded like metal scraping. I imagine these dings on the hub's wall are what caused the scraping sound. I also imagine that the pieces of metal I broke off are caught somewhere in the grease, too. My question is, are these hubs effectively ruined? Is there something I can do to fix it? Or, must I buy new ones?

@CW240Z72 The shape seems pretty good - would you mind uploading a picture of it installed? It doesn't appear to have any flocking on the inside, has it worked well without?

The topic of this thread occasionally popped in my head the past few days, and while driving the z, I came to a realization: We're quite possibly the last generation(s) to have access to and appreciation of the older generations' ways of life. Maybe I could have said that better, but let me explain. This realization came when thinking about the z, but applies to a whole lot more. While owning the 240, I've had a lot of people from older generations come up and say something to the effect of, "Oh, I remember the z, that was my first car," or "One of my buddies had one, boy was it fast." Point is, the history books will tell of the various epochs of the older generations (the music, social change, technological advancements, and so on), but we're the last ones to hear, first hand, what they have to say about their time. The principle applies ideologically as well - a lot of us have parents or grandparents from the old days, and so we were raised with the sentimentalities of their times to varying degrees. These values will fade into the vague representations of history with them. Just as we hardly know anything tangible, mundane about how people lived and thought in 1900, so too will our children seldom know anything about the way people were in the 70's. All our children, worse yet grandchildren, will know is from books and how their schooling represents the old times, which is hardly the truth. History makes the unclear reality of human existence appear black and white. I've gone on long enough and probably bowdlerized the meaning of all this. Much like music, driving the 240 is a time capsule for me, where I can imagine I'm back in the 70's or 80's. We're close enough for the 70's to still feel real, but the same can not be said for the generations to come. When electric cars become commonplace, people who never drove a petrol engined car won't know the enjoyment of sitting in it as it shakes while idling and howls at high rpm's. This appeared to me like allegory for the everyday lives of people from the past. We're quite possibly the last generation(s) to have access to and appreciation of the older generations' ways of life.

@Pilgrim Good argument, I had completely forgotten that fossil fuels will inevitably run out. Oil is projected to run out in something like fifty years I read if we continue at the rate we do. When the reservoir is alarmingly low, I can't imagine how the world is going to adapt. It'll force the governments' hands, sure, but what they'll do is beyond me. I'd be interested to know what entities consume the most gas - is it the conglomeration of all gas burning cars, or everything industrial such as shipping vehicles? Consumers shifting to renewable resources seems a whole lot more feasible than industries. I just don't have enough faith in the US, China, or India beginning the shift before they absolutely have to. Too much money's involved. Who knows though, maybe technology will advance enough that renewable resources are so widely available, it wouldn't make sense not to use them. Funny, when it's all said and done, the only thing left green on this Earth will be a US dollar bill.

You make an interesting point, but I don't see gas availability or taxation becoming a problem even in our lifetimes. In order for the government to ween us off of gasoline, everything that relies on gas must become electric - that includes boats, cars, bikes, and, most importantly semis (lorries for the Europeans). In such a case, we'd see gasoline transition from an essential consumer commodity to a luxury item. If it were a luxury item, then they could tax the dog wizz out of it like cigarettes, weed, and booze. But, even then, the government would have to be comfortable enough to make such an egregious decision knowing they won't wizz off the whole nation and, more importantly, Wall Street. A government's laws ought to represent the sensibilities of its people, and most people like their gasoline cars, or are otherwise impartial. Also, most of our society own gasoline powered cars, and therefore have a vested interest in the supply of gas. To cut us off would not fly well - nobody anytime soon would vote for someone who runs on a platform which conspires to suffocate petrol cars, and no politician is dumb enough to champion such an ideal (except maybe an extremist or third party politician would, but they'll never win anyways). It's only when the majority of US citizens daily drive electric cars, and no longer see their gas engine as a necessity that 'gas as a luxury' will become a reality. At that point though, I hope I'm long dead. Lastly, and most importantly, the global economy runs on gasoline, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Planes, freight ships, and semis need gas, and if gas is phased out, how will international commerce continue? Maybe the government will pitch it as, "gas is a necessity for commercial use, not private use (i.e. cars)." And if that's their argument, and the American people are dumb enough to buy that half assed reason as a means to save the penguins, then I really hope I'm dead.

If I remember correctly from when I first started down this rabbit hole, the 510's chrome trim is very similar (maybe a bit shorter?). I could be wrong, but I think they're cross-sectional designs were the exact same.

@Freez74 I agree, $200 is steep. However I'm afraid it's the best I can find. The stuff @heyitsrama linked to looks very similar to Skillard's, if not identical. Take a look at the pictures Dave WM posted earlier in the thread where he compares the stripping he bought with OEM, then look at the links to the Skillard stripping as well as at the VintageRubber's. You'll notice the OEM/Dave's stripping have a very defined 'S' shape to them, whereas the VintageRubber(from what I can tell in the picture) and Skillard are more or less flat - they also seem to thinner in the rubber's physical girth, and wider top to bottom (top to bottom as in if we were to imagine their height while positioned on the door). The reason they're wider is mainly because they're flat, so they need extra height to make good contact and in turn a proper seal with the glass. Also, the OEM/Dave's stripping have a felt sort of material on the side where the stripping meets the glass, allowing the window to move smoothly and not allow the rubber to 'catch' the glass and bend inwards while rolling the window down - neither Skillard or Vintage have this felt stuff. Catastrophically, the added width (in my opinion) looks totally unnatural when affixed to the door, and detracts from the overall aesthetic of the car. Again, that is only my opinion. I recommend you look at some pictures of the installed Skillard to form your own view. That being said, if you don't mind the way it looks, then by all means go ahead and buy it. It's entirely my taste here, and I don't want to make them sound absolute. At the end of the day, nobody except me and an enthusiast (so all of us) would think, let alone notice, that the Skillard looks strange, and it'll only look more natural the farther you are away from the car. The real point to consider is whether or not Skillard's stuff looks bad enough to justify $200.

@heyitsrama Yep! From what they told me, you've got to ship your chrome to them, they'll install the rubber, polish the chrome, and ship it back. Should take a couple weeks they said, and the price was about $110 per piece of chrome, so over $200 for both. More expensive than if you could buy the rubber alone, but still way cheaper than an OEM replacement.

Stringent regulations on classic cars would be one of the last boxes to check along the logical progression in the war on climate change. As someone said earlier, classic cars are a very small percentage of cars on the road. There are far bigger problems that would need to be assessed first, and to regulate classic cars right off the bat would be like spraying a burning house with a water hose thinking it'll make a difference, or to restore a crumbling building firstly by painting it, that way you at least won't notice the deteriorating walls. The only reason I can imagine classic cars would be regulated prematurely is so a politician can look like they're making a difference or an effort when in reality they hardly accomplished anything substantial. At any rate, I live in a small town where large trucks blow out black smoke (roll coal) and while this, too, is a minor problem in the grand scheme of climate change, it is marginally bigger than classic cars. I'll begin to worry we're next once these trucks are put under the political and ecological microscope. Until then, I'm more worried about ethanol ruining my car than I am about the government regulating it.

Finally found some time to hunt down these rubber pieces. Unfortunately, I came up empty handed. The only standalone rubber I found was by Skillard, as well as some reproductions of the entire assembly (chrome and rubber). Here's the zstore's reproduction and zcardepot's. I think what I'll have to do is send ZCarSource my chrome, and let them install the rubber they have lying around. However, if anyone has access to the rubber Dave WM ended up using and could get the dimensions, I could continue my search for general purpose strippings, one's not made specifically for the z, that is. I installed door weatherstipping by McMaster-Carr, and their stuff fit and sealed perfectly on my 240, so there's a chance a company manufactures window trim which coincidentally work on z's.

Called ZCarSource - the manufacturer of the rubber piece alone no longer makes it and such is the reason it no longer shows up on the site. However, ZCarSource still has some stock left, and for the price of around $110 a piece, you can ship your chrome to them, they'll install the rubber themselves, polish the metal, and ship it back. That's over $200 for both sides, but is still cheaper than buying an entirely new assembly. I'll do some research and see if I can't find another avenue. The rubber alone would have cost around $20 a piece, which is significantly cheaper. Hopefully things work out.

Any updates? Did it keep all the water out? I just replaced the door weatherstipping only to find out water was coming in through the window as well. My window belt strips are hard as a rock, and they don't even put pressure on the window to make a good seal. Now I'm in the market to replace them, but finding the proper part is proving surprisingly difficult. I sure don't want to fork over a several hundred dollars to replace everything (the chrome molding and the rubber), I just want the rubber. Anyways, the stuff Skillard makes seems like it'll do the job, but it just looks silly to me. The link posted earlier in the comments to the rubber you got on zcarsource didn't send me to the actual listing. Maybe it's no longer available? Either way, could you send me a link to the listing, or give me the part number, please? And, if it's not too much to ask, I'd be interested to see a picture of what it looks like on the door. It looked pretty high quality in the other pictures and video! Thanks!