dkd021

What's the price range that you're looking at? Please don't take what I'm going to say the wrong way, I'm not trying to be a jerk or negative in any way. The car in Jackson, GA that I offered to go look at for you would've been a wreck. That's why I was asking you if it were going to be a parts car. If you're really looking for a 240Z with very little rust, unless you're extremely lucky, I'd guess that you're going to have to spend considerable money in this region of the US. I say this because in the initial post of this thread you mention about having to be cognizant of shipping charges & gas prices. Those two expenses should practically be ignored if you're looking for the "right" car. If you're looking to spend in the $2000 range here in the southeast, I'd expect it to have issues. For example, it's going to have some rust, or if the body's in great condition, it's going to be in pieces & parts. My friend was VERY lucky buying a superb, & I mean superb, 280ZX for only $3000. But again, he searched for almost two years & was very lucky. I can't give an honest opinion of cars outside of this region. I've never been car searching in AZ or CA so I can't say with any certainty how well those cars have or have not been preserved. But you may want to get in touch with someone out west because I would assume that would be your best bet to find the type of car that you've described. But I don't know if that would be outside your price range. Believe me, if you have a prepared set of expectations, buying something just to buy it may not be satisfying. If I had it to do all over again, I'd have found a list of cars in CA or AZ, flew out there & spent a few days in a rental driving to all of them. Then I'd have paid to ship it back. Something like that could cost you less than $2000 total, a small amount when it comes to finding the right 240Z that you're going to keep for a while. But then, if you're willing to do that, then you may be in the $5000 market, & in the southeastern US should put you into a different class of preserved 240. Again, don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to be rude or anything like that. I'm just offering my opinion.

Now Steve, let's not misrepresent the seller's statement. He didn't say "good leather," he said it was in "ok condition." Well, except for that gaping hole of "leather" in the passenger's seat. Since I began working on my 240 some years ago, I've learned a lot about people selling things in a format such as Craigslist, & Ebay for that matter. Some people have treasure but view it as trash, hence it's price is very low. Unfortunately, too many people have trash & view it as treasure. Hey Toxic, are you just looking at this car for parts?

I got my loop carpet kit from TIR about a week ago. It's um, ok...I guess. It's a little thin & the backing is glued on. I don't fault the seller, & it wasn't overly expensive. It just sounds like there's limited options when it comes to purchasing reproduction carpet for S30s. I'm guessing that maybe there's only one manufacturer of this repro carpet, with only a few more resellers.

Are you looking at this for a parts car? If it's been sitting there for several years I'd expect the rails, pans, everything to be rusted from sitting in leaves like that. I saw that car advertised, along with that other junker. I'm not too far from Jackson, but I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks. If no one's helped you & you're still interested in a couple of weeks, hit me up & I'll try to help you out. But, I'm speaking of a time frame around, say, 1st of March when I get back in town.

From my experience, many of the bolts are still available. My advice would be to purchase the CD microfiche at some place like here. Once you're familiar with navigating the CD, I'd take the part numbers to the dealer. The other day I went to the dealer & bought four new caliper bolts. Whatever you do, don't buy new bolts off of Ebay. The folks that sell them do exactly what I've recommended, with a hefty profit at your expense of course. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, they're offering convenience. But rest assured that if you're in the market to buy new bolts & washers, the $35 or so expense for purchasing a CD will pay for itself quickly.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd have just waited & overpaid on one of the Nissan sponsored restorations. Even if I'd overpaid for one of those cars I'd still be "ahead" of where I am now. Another avenue I should've went was to just buy one of those $15,000 cars you see on Ebay. I could've flown out & inspected quite a few myself, bought it if the condition was good, & still had a ton of money left over. It's taken me several years & I'm still several months away from being done. Even when I finally drive it, I'm not sure I'll ever enjoy it. All of the work I've put into it, I'll be paranoid just driving it down the road. A real restoration is a lot of money. A whole lot.

I think I've got an extra one in my parts car. I'll give it to you. What's your address, or send it privately.

I had my three dash vents done by Gen Unger & I was happy with the results. I was going to go back to him about a year ago about doing the tail light strips but had a hard time getting them out & kinda forgot about the idea. This post has renewed my interest about my lenses. I still have an extra pair that I might try to work on to ship off to Mr. Unger. My thinking is that I would have the chrome strips replated & then buy some of the aftermarket Euro lenses from someone like TIR to have some "new" Euro tail lights. I still have my NOS tail lights but I like like the Euro look much better.

Alright, I have to admit it, the town that I live in has a little Dukes of Hazzard following. I think they flimed part of the shows here. They even had the Dukes of Hazzard car show here a few years back. I remember that there was this guy in town claiming that he had one of the few remaining General Lee's out in his barn. The local paper went & did a big write-up on him with a photo of him leaning against the car. Front page news if I recall correctly. In the end, some Dukes of Hazzard expert called him on it & it ended up that he was lying. It's really not that hick here, I promise. http://www.angelfire.com/ms2/corndog05dukes/newspapers/newton061904.html

Well, I just ordered a 5-piece loop pile carpet set from Too Intense Restoration on Wednesday so I expect to get it sometime in the middle of next week. I can post a few pics if you want when I get it. If you'e a zcar member then he offers you 10% off.

It's a picture I took of two donkeys fighting for food when my daughter & I went to a local petting zoo.

My experience purchasing newly made ones wasn't/isn't a good experience. Mine didn't fit worth a darn. And cheaper? Not in my opinion. I got my car-length fuel lines & all my brake lines plated for $100. If memory serves, the brake line kit from CT will run you at least $200 plus shipping.

Are you talking about the metal lines in the engine compartment? What about the fuel lines? Would you leave those as they are? But to give you my opinion, if you're only doing the brake line & the line from the clutch master to the clutch slave, that's pretty easy. I would find you a decent plater in your area. Take the lines out & media blast them with a pretty fine media. Cover the ends & also make sure the ends will move freely to go back into place. Then clean them with some kind of water based cleaner. If you get them replated, they'll look like night & day. I would think that sanding them or using steel wool would potentially show scratches that otherwise wouldn't be seen because of the gunk.

Having just finished this last night, I can attest that it is no fun. It took me a few months to get it right. Personally, I'd buy a parts car. Unless you're absolutely certain of the routing of the lines, I'd take a ton, & I mean DOZENS of pictures. I took a few but it never sufficed. I had to look at my parts car. The other thing is that if you're going to remove them, remove everything first as stated by Walter. Don't think, "I can get by without removing the rear end, driveline, & transmission" because it's a frustrating job. You want all the room you can get. You could just drop the rear end & not remove it but I'd just go the little bit extra & take it out. Properly lube the 7mm bolts before trying to remove them from the bracket. Be patient. Don't let them break. It happened to me on one. It's no fun tapping a hole while underneath the car. Be patient removing the rubber/now cement insulators. Don't let them chip or break if possible. I soaked them for a couple of weeks in some engine stop-leak. I left them out for a couple of days to dry off & they were pretty pliable for several days. Have someone help you as well. I can speak from experience that this is not a one person job. So basically, in my opinion, find a junker & remove the drivetrain & parking brake. Take a couple of days lubing the bolts & insulators while removing the lines. Then do the opposite to install them.

I believe Charlie Osborne's 240Z is blue on blue as per his comments at datsunzparts.com

Well Steve, I'm still working on the fuel & brake lines. My father actually came over today & helped. It's much easier with two people than one. Now, I've still not found the right size inverted flare that I need for the top brake line. I'd prefer finding a fitting rather than reflaring it myself. I'm confident I'll find something. I'm determined to get this right myself. I took all of the lines back out of the car last month. We started at the front today, working our way back. We've got everything in the engine compartment to the slot behind the parking brake in place. Also I've got to find two more of the four-hole, angled insulators. I'd like your opinion if possible. Are the last two brackets in the rear of the car the most difficult? The one that curves from the middle of the car to the passenger side above the rear end, & the one with the fat three-hole rubber insulator that go to the fuel tank area. I need to get the brake tube problem fixed first, & if I do then the top brake line will be out of the way as it's attached up high. How much line twisting did you have to fight in getting this done? I'm just trying not to bend them if possible.

That's it Walter. I have a spare, but you're right. I just spent another three hours or so on it tonight. It's darn near impossible to do by myself. This one thing has delayed me for months. Partly because of laziness, partly by buying used OEM parts elsewhere, and by waiting on parts to arrive or for the plating to be completed. But in large part to trying to get them aligned just right. I've spent a lot of hours on this one part of my project trying to get it just right. Having the wrong Classic Tube parts hasn't helped because the lines aren't as straight as I wish they were, so after I had it done except for re-routing one more line & they being a little off, I started all over. I didn't spend this much time/money/effort to go halfway on this part. Maybe it's the 1AM thinking in me, but my dad's friend owns a small shop with a lift, so I'll probably just take it to them. They won't let me do it myself because of insurance reasons, but I can lay the fuel & brake tube routing out for them on a napkin. They can also just drop the rear end easily so it should be a cinch for them. I'm just not making progress & it's time to admit that I just don't have the facilities at home to get the job done right.

I can't send them back for a couple of reasons. The first is that I bought them about 18 months ago. It's been too long. Second is that I had them cad plated. I wouldn't take it back if I were them. But yes, the thread is too large. I've worked with it for a while & it's pretty obvious it's the wrong size. I'm going to just re-hang them tonight & try to figure it out in a couple of weeks. Would ou mind if I pm'd you some questions I have about this? I think you & I discussed these line issues in the past & apparently you're moving at a much better clip than I am.

I apologize in advance for being long-winded. It seems like I've had problems with almost every part I received from Classic Tube. First, both lines from the brake master were too long. The brake line running down the passenger side frame rail was awkwardly made. Those problems were fixable, but I've got one that I can't figure out. Today, I'm tightening everything down getting ready to put my motor back in. Under the car, in the rear where the brake line connects to the brake line valve by the rear pass. wheel (don't know real name, sorry) I try to screw in the brake line. After several minutes I take it out & make sure the threads are good on both the valve & the line. The male side of the threaded nut on the brake line appears to be a size too large for the valve. At this point, the only other option I know of is to flare the brake line to get it to work. Can anyone give me a reference point as to where to get a good kit to do so? Or any type of suggestions or questions about info I've omitted would be appreciated. Thanks.

Are these the same ones in Southern California that were for sale a while back in the $10,000 range? I forget the guy's name who was selling these that I am thinking of.

I used my original fuel lines but got the brake lines from Classic Tube. After getting them cad plated, the fuel lines showed flaws than I expected. I should've just went stainless steel for both from CT. Live & learn I guess.

Good luck getting those in. I'm in the process of doing mine. It's a bear for me because of the binding in the back of the car & the position I'm in. What have you done for your fuel line insulators? I tried to get some new/repro ones but couldn't find any. I checked everywhere. What I did was take some engine stop leak junk & put my old ones in there. After a few days in the stuff & another halfday sitting out, they've become surprisingly pliable & easy to use. They're a little oily, but not nearly as bad as I expected.

A got a lot, & I mean a lot, of electrical work done by this guy a long while back. He is good, very good. At the same time, & this is my own personal opinion, is that he's a questionable business person. All I'm saying is he gave a quote, said xyz needed extra repairs & that it would only be a "little" more. When it came time to pay up, the price doubled. I would not & will not deal with him in the future. But I will give credit where credit is due, he does do some excellent work.

They're my old brackets. I also had accumulated an extra two sets of them from my old parts cars. I had them all done so I could pick & choose which ones looked best to put on the car. Now the rubber insulators, that's a different story. I've been soaking them for a day to see if I can get them a little more pliable. The shop that I had them done is at georgiaplating.com. I just picked them because they were 10 miles down the road from me. Usually I get a guy who frequents the Datsun boards to plate my items but the fuel lines were just too big to ship. Frankly, he took a little longer a couple of times than I wanted (keep in mind mailing), but I think his quality was a little better than the local place here.

Those shots were precisely what I was looking for. Thanks again! I got the brake lines, fuel lines, & two sets brackets & screws replated at a local place here east of Atlanta. They charged me $100. I had new OEM style brake lines from Classic Tube & the old fuel lines. The fuel lines were a little pitted & had some scratches, but they're ok, not the greatest. I did have to have them redo a couple of lines because they were saying how the small diameter makes them difficult to plate correctly. The second time around came out good. I started to try to get some new tube & make my own fuel lines. After about an hour I had to decide to use my old ones or get new ones. When I was told a month's wait for new ones I decided to go for replating the old ones.