ta240

I'm torn on the plates. On the drive over to look at the car I was alternating between figuring it was way too good to be true and then planning all the things I'd switch off my current Z onto it, including the vanity plates I have on my other Z. Then when I got there and looked at it I didn't want to touch anything. We'll except for the flattop carbs. I have an almost new set of Ztherapy carbs on my other Z that will get swapped onto it. I do think the old plates add a touch of class to it. I'm not sure if I'll even be able to talk myself into swaping out the factory radio now. I've never been a purist when it comes to Z's but this one is so un-messed-with that I don't want to be the one to mess with it. The drivers seat needs redone but there are plenty of good kits for keeping that stock looking (maybe with a hidden adjustable lumbar support added)

just drove this home today:

Granted they don't take them and crush them but if it is, poluting they will at least tell you that you can't drive it anymore here

what if they establish that 60% of the interior walls were stolen from a house down the street? An engine and/or transmission is a bit more of an integrated part of a car than a chair is part of a house. Should the police have to remove the stolen engine and then return the rest of the car to them? Actually my Z gets better gas milage than a lot of new cars, including my 2003 Tacoma. As far as polution goes it is probably worse but even my old beater 280 had pretty low numbers on its smog checks. And if you compare parts per mile for polutants rather than parts per million it should stand up much better to the much larger modern engines.

now who can be expected to remember a complex concept like that?

Even if the major components on the car are stolen? I agree, if due process is missing then something is definately wrong. They should not be officer, judge, jury and executioner all in one. There should be a trial somewhere in there between taking the car and smashing it. Otherwise I can see a day when people are cheering because they are crushing old Japanese cars that were caught on the street missing some of their smog equipment.

sorry to wander even more off subject but: No, Buick sold out and helped China's economy. In order to be able to sell cars in China Buick gave them car building technology and now China is making similar cars that are competing with Buick there. Companies are so hungry to get a piece of that market that they all cave to Chinas requirements that they get the how to along with the products. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/GMsChinaPartnerLoomsAsRival.aspx

Since all cars 'can' be weapons isn't it just the ones that are being used recklessly that are the concern? Much the same as you can own a gun and keep the gun but if you go out in public just randomly shooting they will take it away from you. I haven't read any of the details on the story and although I'm all for punishing them I do agree that you can give too much power to the police. I've read plenty of stories on cars that were seized and sold as being involved in drugs where the people involved really did seem innocent. At least here there isn't a monetary incentive for the cops to seize the cars. That being said, we've already established that they weren't crushing the cars because they were modified or racing but because they were composed of stolen parts and they caught them because of a crackdown on racing. They just highlighted the racing angle because it made for better press. If their reasons for calling the parts stollen are legit then crush away. and what exactly is a "vehicle identification sticker"? I've heard of Vehicle Identification Numbers but never seen one on a sticker before. and also can we impliment car crushing for those drivers where they think the entire world wants to listen to what they are listening to on their stereo?

Interesting writeup on the whole US vs Non-US cars: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114731076341249773-vC7NDlPLXotsdDHpLbpm5Ewbo9E_20060610.html?mod=tff_article > "What's better for the American economy?" Mr. Doyle asks. A GM car "built in Mexico with 147,000 jobs back here in America or a Honda built in Alabama with 4,000 or 5,000 jobs in America?" > Farmington Hills, Mich., research company CSM Worldwide, show only 65% of the content of a Ford Mustang comes from the U.S. or Canada. Ford Motor Co. buys the rest of the Mustang's parts abroad. By contrast, the Sienna, sold by Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., is assembled in Indiana with 90% local components. All I know is my Z keeps a fair amount of american parts counter guys working

One of the old 240Z reviews I read said something like "We may have won the war but it is beginning to be clear who will rule the roads" I was happy they were punishing them for racing but they mention just for a second that all the cars being crushed had stolen engines and or transmissions in them. So they weren't being crushed just for racing. Shouldn't they have been watching them get crushed from behind bars if they had stolen engines in them? -Trevor www.Geocities.com/z-car

Nikon should pay you a commission. With pictures like that you are likely to sell a few cameras for them Looks sharp.

granted I like the looks of the Solstice and Sky better but the Miata has beat it in every reveiw I've read (at least with the non-turbo models). On edmunds.com they had a comparison between the two at the track and ended up with the Solstice just sitting parked while everyone lined up for another turn in the Miata. Something with HP ratings like you list, between the base model and the GXP might be interesting. It would be nice if they'd come out with a car with those specs and price AND rear wheel drive. Why is it that they only seem to try to make 'fun' cars as convertibles? BMW and Porsche came out with coupe versions (after the fact) of the Z4 and Boxter. Both of those are beautiful cars, just a bit more than I want to spend for a fun car. Something around the performance of the Miata and the Solstice/Sky would be fun in a coupe. It would give them just a bit more practicality. Heck we used to bring home a 7'+ Christmas tree in the back of the Z. The car makers seem to think that if it is rear wheel drive it needs to have 400 HP and cost around $30,000+ Although the 350Z never really grew on me from some angles it does look pretty sharp. I love the shot of it in the Autoweek article: http://autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070427/FREE/70425006&SearchID=73283771805721 The Altima 2dr looks like 2 different cars from the front and the back. The back is so sleek and sporty and the front is so blah

tryin to shine it up a bit.

kinda like the MSA twice pipes setup but with one pipe going back to them?

I wasn't able to locate any reliable rebuild services when I was shopping, well any rebuild services at all. The places I contacted were happy to sell me a rebuilt one but weren't interested in rebuilding mine. Having gone through 2 rebuilt ones from local parts places in the past I wasn't interested in going that route again. Both were sloppy from the start the last one was terrible. I was going to rebuild my own but ran into a lot of problems trying to get parts for it, some were no longer available and some were on back order for months. The inner tie rod ends were worn and there was a noticable amount of play around the rack end bushings. I had my old rack completely torn down and the bushings out of it but finally gave up on getting parts. A search when I was shopping turned up not a lot of hopefull information: http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21142&highlight=steering+rack+rebuild http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7440&highlight=steering+rack+rebuild Since I'm sure others will run across this thread later when searching for info on them post up good sources for rebuilds

update, monzter was right. The rack is great. Very glad I got it.

and that is much less than a new car would depreciate in a year.

The best part is just driving it. Mine sat for almost a year and I was leaning towards getting rid of it. Got it back together enough to take out for a test run. Not a fast run, just a drive to make sure it was up to the 100 mile commute for work the next day. We headed out on some back roads outside of town. The roads weren't 'fun' roads, no hills, no real corners but we just cruised around into areas we'd never bothered to check out before. It wasn't until I noticed that the sun had mostly gone down so we couldn't see the mountains in the distance to use as a guide for which direction we were going that I realized we'd been out there for longer than I'd planned. There is no chance at all that we would have just driven around for fun in either of our other newer vehicles. They are comfortable, just not as enjoyable. Of course even with the test run it still tried to leave me stranded on two separate days on the commute. I don't get much sympathy when I'm late because of car problems with it since I work at a Honda dealer :paranoid: Even then there is something empowering about getting the car back out onto the road and finishing the drive. When I bought the car it had about 140,000 miles on it and is now close to 330,000. We've driven it to Seattle, LA, Tahoe, Monterey, Las Vegas and just about everywhere inbetween (my parents drove it out from Tennesse to Northern California when I bought it). It had apparantly been rescued from a field by the person that had it before them and I really don't want to know how it got so many dents in the floorpans (too much dukes of hazard?) Up close it is rough but at 10-20' back it looks sharp It needs minor body work and paint badly, the engine leaks oil at several different places. It has one of those rubber expansion plugs in the side of the block that replaced a rotted out freeze plug and that is just the start of the things that need fixed list. To be honest I'd be embarrassed to have someone take a close look at much of the car and my attempts at repairs. But mostly it needs a good strong AC system so I can continue to drive it during the summers (usually 5 months) here when I have to give up and switch to my Tacoma for the AC. I've yet to see a car I like more for less than about $60,000. Can someone please make an reasonably priced fun to drive RWD car? It doesn't have to have 500HP, just make it fun! -Trevor

http://www.ztherapy.com/ some of the best money I ever spent on my Z

I've been through more waxes than I'd want to count ( I probably have about 6 different kinds in the garage now ). I have used the Klasse and it does seem to hold up pretty well. Didn't give the car the depth I really wanted, had a very hard looking shine for lack of a better definition. I wouldn't recommend it on old paint as it really wanted to streak on my Z. On our newer cars I've used it without the streaking problem and followed up with a coat of a carnuba to add depth. The latest stuff I've been using is from image10finish.com It has what I think is a good combination of depth and hardness in appearance. And you can layer it up as long as you wait between the coats. image10 - Currently my favorite, looks good even on my Z with its 15yrld Macco paint job, held up over the winter on the other cars better than anything I've used before. Pinnacle - Used before switching to image10, lots of depth, not real clear though, I had done the cars with Pinnacle just 2 weeks before getting the image10 and it comes with a cleaner to strip old waxes. As I went around the cars the areas that I hadn't removed the wax from looked a bit hazy. I still use their polishes before putting on the image10 though. Zaino - Liked the fact that it could be layered but it never got to the depth that the image10 does Liquid Glass - overall happy with it, not as good as image10 in my opinion but still good. Meguiars NXT Tech Wax - Easy to apply, average performance Meguiars Liquid Gold - Good depth, not bad to apply once I read the instructions, rich carnuba like shine Eagle1 Nano Wax - Nothing Special I still want to try some of the stuff from Griots or the Omega Glaze stuff but I should really use up some of my old wax first. Definately recommend the clay bars. I used to think dragging clay around your car was odd but it really does make the surface smooth. ( following it up with 3 different polishes doesn't hurt either ). I need to get my Z painted so it would be worth waxing again -Trevor

given the hit counter stats on the page I don't think I've had the opportunity to mislead too many people . But I do always appreciate input on improving it. -Trevor

It's been so long since the page was done, I don't remember. I think something like 10 years lapsed between setting up the pages and finally going back to delete some dead links recently. Nothing taken personally, although I don't take these cars as seriously as some either

For anyone that is interested I managed to find the Nissan brochure that Courtesy Nissan sent me way back when. My scanner is dead so I had to take pictures of it so sorry for the poor quality.

actually he did cut and paste, unless they really did replace "busings" on the cars Typos, the watermark of the web artist -Trevor

To be honest I don't remember where I got the text from when I setup the page so he may have gotten it from the same source but it appears to be a cut and paste from my site: http://geocities.com/z-car/rebuild.html Right down to the large bold first letter for each paragraph. Of course he didn't put any of the parts with typos so I can't be sure! I'll have to dig through my old paperwork to see if I find anything like it. -Trevor http://geocities.com/z-car/