ta240

just an update for anyone that is interested. I got the drivers side belt installed. I went with the Roadster Retractable belt from wescoperformance.com with the 11" sleeve on the receiver. Used a left over seat height spacer and a couple washers to space the retractor out away from the side panel. I cut the bottom end of the sleeve off so that it could flex more to match up to the mounting hole on the car and used one of their thick 90 degree adapters from their hardware kit to space it out away from the bottom of the floor area so I could tighten it up enough. I just used the adapter as a spacer so I probably should have cut the unused half off but since it is completely out of sight I didn't bother. I wish the belt was a bit wider so it was more like stock but overall it is great. Having had retractable ones in my last 240 (later build) I missed them in this one but didn't feel safe putting the old ones I had in due to problems with them. The non-retractable shoulder belt that was in there was so annoying, either too loose or too tight. And I'd end up hitting a sharp enough bump at some point on my drive that I'd bounce up and then down in the seat and the lap belt would click down tighter so I'd have to undo and redo it to keep blood flowing. Still have to put the passenger one in but so far it is the best $180 (for both sides) I've spent in a long while on the car. Will try to snap some pictures when I do the passenger side.

when I bought my current Z it had the KYB GR2 cartridges in the struts. Replaced them with Tokicos. The Tokicos handle better but I often miss the ride the GR2s had. It was much smoother with them. Fought a shimmy like that for years on my old Z. Replaced all the suspension components, wheels, tires, steering rack. Never completely went away and it was also somewhat intermittent which really drove me nuts. As mentioned make sure the wheel bearings are tight enough, get the tires balanced on a road-force balancer. These cars seem to be really sensitive to wheel balance and some tire shops just aren't that good at it. On my old Z each bushing I 'upgraded' to urathane tended to just deliver more of the shake to the steering wheel.

I'd think it would be tough to get an electric fan to line up with the stock shroud. They tend to mount closer to the radiator. So the shroud would sit out behind the fan and not do much good. I've seen people mention fans before online out of other cars that have shrouds already on them and fit but can't remember any specifics. I went through several different electric fans on my last Z. The final one worked pretty good but I've left the mechanical fan on my current Z just because it is so much simpler. Some electric fans come with a ring around them that works as a bit of a shroud but one that wrapped all the way out to the edge of the radiator would do the most good. If you go electric let me know, I've got a brand new controller that does a partial power at one temp and full power at another temp and is adjustable that I could easily part with. I also have a single core aluminum radiator with my old fan still mounted on it but that is a bit too much to ship. It's a radiator setup similar to: http://240z.jeromio.com/camaroradiator.html mounted the fan super close to pull as much air as possible through since it has no shroud. but a good fitting shroud would do more. My old setup can be seen at: http://240z.me/myoldz.html The biggest problem I found with an electric fan on the Z is the alternator isn't so strong so the car didn't like the additional load and some fans take a lot more power than others. I forget if the control I got will run the fan once you turn the car off but I always wanted to set it so it would run for up to a couple minutes if needed since stopping for short periods of time seemed to be the hardest for it to cope with. Whenever I restarted the engine it would be so hot the fan had to work real hard. But if I kept the key on for a minute or so when I stopped it would be fine starting back out in 5 minutes or so. Not sure what a good source is for a fan clutch (maybe just Nissan) but I went through several local parts store ones on my old Z that just didn't seem to work very well.

watched an old Top Gear the other day where Clarkson was wearing a shirt with Zs all over it. Similar to the one above but with a lot more Zs.

love the Blackhawk Auto Museum. Really enjoyed visiting it last year. Did they still have the Porsche 959? Sacramento has a good lower budget one http://www.toweautomuseum.org/ but the cars aren't setup as good to where you can really walk all the way around them like at Blackhawk

When I had an automatic in my old Z I used a limit switch with a roller on the arm mounted to the firewall on the engine side that the throttle linkage would press against to operate the kickdown. Also ended up wiring the A/C compressor power wire through it so it would cut the A/C under hard throttle. Was always a little tempted to wire in a second button I could push to trigger the kickdown. The brake pedal fits from the automatic, just remove the clutch pedal. As pointed out above make sure you get good airflow through an external cooler if you use one. I got stuck in traffic around lake tahoe when I first did the swap to auto on my old Z and it started shifting real hard. After that I added a fan to the external cooler till I later had to replace the radiator and used one with a cooler built in. I did my swap at the time for a similar reason, we could only afford one car so it was convert the Z to something she would enjoy driving on a regular basis or replace it. It was funny though, I just left my center console the same with the shifter coming up through the old boot and she never had any trouble getting it in the right gear but the guy at the tire shop could not get the car into reverse for anything. I also changed the worn out 2.4 in it to a used 2.8 so can't comment on exactly how different it feels.

I thought that would be the simple solution but wasn't sure if it would affect safety or something. Just seemed too simple. And I was nervous about trying it as once I bolted them down they weren't returnable.

SteveJ, I know you said installation was so easy but I have one question. On the retractor that mounts at the top did you put washers or some other type of spacer between the retractor and the mounting hole? My other Z, a late build '73, had two retractors and the top one has a built in spacer to hold it out away from the interior of the car about a quarter of an inch since it isn't flat enough there for the retractor to sit flush against the interior. I've attached a picture of my old '73 belt retractor. thanks, Trevor

I've followed a few threads on here about it but after trying the old kit that courtesy and MSA offered in my prior Z, I decided with this one I wouldn't try to make it something it wasn't. I enjoy the Z the most with the windows down and still put 7,000-8,000 miles a year on it just driving it on the really nice days. A 110 mile round trip commute adds up. Trevor http://240z.me

that's funny, because I was going to get rid of these wheels, had them mounted on the parts car, till I saw a picture of your car on here and said 'wait, they can look like that?'

Having bought one before from AutoZone that ended up being worse than the one it replaced. My opinion is stay clear of the chain stores. A warranty is great until you have to keep replacing it. The little guys aren't going to want to keep replacing them so I'd think/hope theirs would be much more solid.

second vote for a kill switch. I prefer the alarms that also page you if you are 1-5 miles away. Lowers my pulse rate a bit at least when I'm out of sight of the car when it is parked.

It looked pretty good before from anything over 10 feet but I just couldn't get the tops of the doors and the sides of the tops of the fenders to really shine, they'd always have a dull look unless you looked at them at just the right angles. It was almost like they had a just wetsanded look that only showed at times. The other problem I ran into is the hood would chalk up pretty fast, added some insulation to it and that isn't an issue anymore. The other thing I've found is what works great on one color and type of paint doesn't always work as good on others.

Mine gets the be the farthest one away in the shot then. I don't think it stands up to close inspection quite as well as yours.

looks good. the DSCF0384 picture actually looks like it came from an old Datsun brochure

the latest products I'm using are: http://hilustre.com/details.php?productID=2 and top that with: http://www.obsessivedetail.com/wetobsession.html just got: Obsessive Detail Wet Shine Glaze: http://www.obsessivedetail.com/polishesandswirlremovers.html and put a quick coat of that on top. The wax is fairly expensive (at least compared to auto parts store stuff) but I got lucky and found it when it was on sale.

thanks, back when I first bought this one, about 3 years ago, it looked great at the guys house. Then turned out he had put something on the paint, not sure what, that looked great for a bit but basically washed off fast. Under it was fairly tired, dead looking paint with lots of little scratches everywhere. I wasn't as mad as I was bummed. I would have bought it even with the not so great paint but wasn't fond of being played. I tried all the waxes and polishes I had on my shelf (and I had a lot even then) and none would really bring it back. Some would make it look good for a day or so and only at the right distance and angle. Started reading a couple different detailing message boards and learned a bit here and there. Already had a DA polisher and picked up some Meguires M105 and M205. They did a good job taking out most of the small scratches but after a point I don't think I have enough paint to keep smoothing it without going through it. So then it was a matter of glazes and waxes with enough fillers to finish it off. I had found one good glaze and wax but then they seemed to go out of business. Kept following the boards and tried a few (won't ever tell how many) more products and finally ended up with ones that look good and last. Hadn't checked the mail before I took the pictures earlier and my latest topper glaze showed up so now the car looks even better than the pictures Long winded reply, I know, but it just feels so good to have it done when I was thinking repaint for awhile.

finally cooled down enough to take it out today. Of course ended up driving past construction where they were sweeping up concrete dust so it needed a bath. -Trevor http://240z.me

added My current Z to the MyZ page and redid the shopping page to include information on the different sites. http://www.240z.me

unfortunately finding a good tire shop can be like finding a good doctor. $600 later you find out one more shop to cross off the list. Cross threaded lug nuts or wheels scraped up or a hour and a half wait for the 30-40 minute install or wheels that are pretty close to ballanced. I don't need them to sit on a slightly used set of tires for who knows how long, just don't mess everything else up.

Thanks, I want to try to get a good list of other Z sites that people have setup on there. There is a lot of good information and ideas out there on people's individual sites. And then figure out a unique setup for the page for my current Z (wish I had taken more photos while I worked on it)

thanks! I really wish I'd had the emblem back on the hood when I took that picture but it works for now.

just started on it on Thursday so it is really a work in progress http://240z.me

interesting wording "I have seen the car" I guess they could be selling it for someone but it still sounds odd.

I've got a Honda one out of my old Z that I'll sell you for $50 shipped