ajmcforester

I think we all know that feeling. They are a lot of fun, and wait till you fell the ride when it is all together you can fell the car it tells you what it feels without beating you up. Make sure the boots on the rack are still good you don't want stuff getting in it gets costly to repair, if the rubber is old sometimes when you start driving the car they will crack open. Hopefully you can get it safe enough soon to take your kids for a short joy ride they will get a kick out of it and it's cheaper than taking them to the amusement park (only if you were going to drive it anyways). That's one more Z out of the junk pile, well almost out:)

Not you but the ad stating original battery, of course it could be on the side of the car, but it hints the ad has exaggeration in it.

I know a 1932 ford coup V8 with all the parts it had in 1932 including the working battery. It sits in a special underground car vault to store cars in working order. So you never know what you may find, even if the ad is a little exaggerated if I lived in the area I'd look, if it didn't have the exaggerations I'd fly-out to look.

I really like the color combo that is sharp. If I knew these were the stripes you would be looking at I'd posted some ideas. That is a hard one to pull off, the hood shape makes it hard from some angles, even if they are straight it will look off. I've thought in my head with that long hood it would look great, but that bump-out causes trouble If your satisfied I'd keep it it still looks really good. Now if you want to change it hears an idea. I knew a guy with a 240z in the 70's that he raced and he did the same stripe and hated it. What he did next is what I saw pictures of and I loved the look. His car was red with whites stripes, so what he did was paint it so the stripe from the windshield forward was one stripe. then painted the top of the bump area Flat black (he wanted to paint it red, but he didn't think he would get a close enough match). Then he had it pinstriped like the Bob Sharp editions, but adding a line from the from the front of the car to the lower part of the bump on the hood with red paint, and painted 240z on the side of the bump. The Bob Sharp special editions on the 280z they pinstriped the botom edge and the top edge of the bump and painted 280z in the middle with gold leaf between the pinstripes.

Gibbs penetration oil works great to get it moving again, I'm in to mountain biking so I use cable lube on all my cables for bikes (this is hard to get a hold of bike shops use this on the cables and don't tell you so you think they did a much better job than you can, I put it on new cables and everything just moves smoother). Gibbs is a lot like WD-40, but it does not attract the dirt, helps breakup the grimy greasy stuff on the engine and leaves a great protective covering on parts that when dry looks like the part is new with no coating. This stuff was designed for Harley motor cycle engines to lube joints and keep the engine looking good.

Dates might be nice I don't know when it is so I can't tell you if my car would be ready I'll more than likely come even if it is not done. Just without my 71 Z. She is having a lot of restorative surgery and might not be running at that time. Got to have her ready for her 40th birthday in April of 71 :^)

A lot of old Z guys tell me to replace the rings every 120,000 miles, if you do that they state you won't haft to re-hone the block. I wouldn't do it right a way, but it something you might want to think about doing sometime in the future since the compression numbers are on the low end. I think finding the bugs for now is more important unless you end up taking the head off. Let me know when you do the rings I can sell them to you cheap I have well over 20 maybe even 50 sets (I'm still looking up part numbers on them so I know which set is for what bore and Z engine). Try to stay away from Bosh plugs in Z cars I loved Bosh in my old 87 Ranger, but they just don't do as well as NGK in Z cars. You will have less problems with NGK plugs you don't need the expensive ones the base NGK works great. I'd have problems with the Bosh plugs burning out I had one plug that lasted 100 miles before replacement, with the NGK I just haft to regap them every 3-4 oil changes not bad. The Bosh never lasted an oil change

It's alive!!! Sounds like you got her going. I think you might want to get new gaskets for the exhaust it sounds like a leak to me too. If that fuel pump is working check the PSI it will tell you if both check valves are working these pumps will pump with one of two valves especially if the gas is higher than the pump I know; just ask NJ state patrol when I cam over the Ben Franklin Bridge with a gas can strapped to the hood. When I bought my current Z I drove it home from Detroit Michigan when in Philly the fuel pump went so I hooked up the plastic gas can with a hose and connected it to the hood and then to the pump. When I came off the bridge I was pulled over I explained what happened to the officer and he was the whole time after the story, he let me go, because this made his day and can't wait to tell the others at the office about this.

Maybe in the future we will have other alternative, but I've only heard of using some type of resin like epoxy with fiberglass or getting an old panel. If you can find the board like material you could use steam to shape the panel I've used that to reshape panels so they fit better.

I forgot to mention you need a chemical called ZDDP in the oil otherwise you will damage the cam over time. Make sure Castral still puts it in, or better yet just get ZDDP additive. You will notice a lot of people use Valvoline racing oil for this reason it has some of the highest ZDDP mixed into the oil on the market. ZDDP is being taken out of oil for environmental reasons (it becomes wast in recycling of oil and makes it harder on recycling plants) and most cars now days don't need it.

Their are a lot of oils that help recondition valve seals like Lucas oil additive it doesn't hurt, and should keep oil from leaking past the seal. I don't have any proof it helps but if can't hurt either. You should check the valve adjustment. This is something you need to do every year. The reason why is the spacing between the cam and the valve rocker arm will loosen up over time. It is not hard to do these cars have a spot where all the valves are fully closed, sorry I don't remember what degree on the timing and seem not to have it at hand right now (I know it's on the inside of the valve cover in my car with the spacing, I etched it their so I can find it easily). From my factory manual: "Adjust intake & exhaust valve clearances" states at 600 miles then every 6,000 miles on Page EG-8 Then on page ET-4 shows how to adjust if needed a spacing numbers. It tells you to adjust them when cool and check when the engine is warm and adjust again if something is not correct. the number are: Intake 0.2mm(0.0098 in) Exhaust 0.3mm(0.0118 in) To make adjustments, just loosen the pivot locking nut and turn the pivot screw. Don't forget to tighten the pivot locking nut or you will have fun. after you lock it check clearances again. Heat the engine up check to see if they stayed in tolerances, if so your good If they are way off you can damage things like the cam, or cause exsesivw wear so its good to check. In your case I'd just see if they are close for now I would not worry about heating the engine till you have the timing down. The back firer can be caused by not having the points gaped right, timing being off one carb being much leaner than the other and several other things like sticky valves. First things first you can't time the car if the points are not gapped properly so do that first. Then time the car (I know you should do that with the engine hot, but your not that close, I'm betting) just get it running OK. Then see how the carbs are doing, are all cylinders firing? you will know at this point

Besides the crabs sounding a little out of wack, check the valve spacing it sounds like it might not be correct. Also I don't know if you have put some oil that will restore the valve seals you might want to put some in they might start to crack if they haven't yet. That was one big step to road worthiness. Fuel you probably need a new pump, it's a diaphram (sp?) pump, they tend to have the rubber harden up when they haven't been used in a while or one of the springs on one of two check valves is shot. I wish someone would make a rebuild kit for this pump it would be easy to do. I used a diaphram pump that were in use for 30 years when it finally the check valve spring broke, at the same time I found another pump that was five years old and had to rebuild it since the diphrams hardened up from sitting. If in use they are great when they sit they fall apart.

I think someone wants to use those nice shinny new carbs to make a car go vroom, instead of making the sound by himself:laugh: Well I guess you will have two Z to play with now Z-therapy is going to be happy.

OK I think I ether missed something or the logic used seams off. Why would you not use #3's body while taking the parts from #2 to make it complete? The reason I ask it would be less work down the road to use the better body and transfer the parts over, body work is very time consuming. Is their something wrong with #3 engine and your trying to keep number matching or something along that line?

I grew up in Colorado and was living in Flagstaff AZ before I came to this state about 5 years ago I lived in the Maplewood Apt for a little while and moved off route 70 now. What was I thinking, no actually I don't mind it hear I go out in the woods and no ones their, I can put a whole day in the woods at work and not see anyone (I could rarely say that in Colorado). Their is someone on the boards from Moorestown he drives a nice 2+2 and has a 240z, but he love that 2+2. He is a real nice guy. If your coming to visit your parents send a PM if you like I don't see many Z guys since I left the Southwest.

So you know these cars fairly well then. I'd suggest taking the head off even if that valve comes back up just to be on the safe side.

These are tough engines I doubt it did much to the engine. Now you know why they were not driving it. Make sure you use a block dye on the head to check for cracks, beside you have a great reason to rebuild the engine from top to bottom.

Congratulations on the purchase. It looks like a great project car. Watch thous rust bubbles they are always larger than you see. Not to be the pessimist, but a rust spot like that usually means you will find more. That was a lot of steel that rusted threw, but maybe that spot the welds were not done right and that is why it rusted. I would not worry to much about the color if your going to rebuild it more than likely you will be repainting it eventually.

My clearance issue was the sub-frame (or the equivalent)when fully turned on the front side. Just barely. Ya I've laughed so many times inside my self with people telling me they want their car to handle better so they put bigger or wider tires on or they think it might help with acceleration. Never thinking about wieght, tire drag and torsional deflection of the tire, and several other factors. The other is when people over look brakes as a performance upgrade tires and breaks are what win races on a track. Every change effects the car and makes more change a car is a package every part(or lack of) counts to how it performs.

On my first Z we had the same fitment problem the problem it is not height, but width in the front. The 205 would fit nice in the back however. If you haven't added torque to the power band stick with a narrower tire you get better gas mileage and quicker turning response.

Wasn't Idahokid selling his not that long a go. Also I thought they had a special hubcap, and I also think wheels too. A guy was looking for the hubcap and I looked up the part number for him on the microfiche for the Zap. I'd post the page from the microfiche for you but I didn't print it when I was at the library (I need to find my own reader or someone who would make PDF's of them for me).

Smart move doing an acid etch, I just might cut back the time a little. I found at 5% active acid for 10-15 seconds did well anything after that didn't do much before plating. I tried after the zinc plating a 15 second soak then I cut .25% of what Caswell recommended and for only 3 minutes and it's a lot closer, but the color is still not right. Caswell told me it would match I'll give their ideas a shot when I contact them. I didn't add the brighter because they state that's for the zink and to get the best simulated results to cadnium they state not to add. I'll let them tell me that. What I see is the color does not match and the brightener should not affect that. Now adding something to the yellow-chromate might work and make a custom blend Your fasteners look great, they look a little to bronze to match with original parts. I have a lot of NOS cad parts that I plan to install so having a near perfect match will help the overall look of the car. I do agree that part looked a little dull it just came the closest to correct color with that T, maybe because It still had some cad left on it before the zinc plating. I bet some of the flatness also came from the lack of polishing; the yellow-chromate was pitted but not the base cad so I acid etched the and removed the yellow-chromate and replated. Something I might try on the less visible parts since the Cad is far better at protection, and a layer of zinc on top can't hurt either.

OK the results look good, but not the correct color with the Caswell system for the 240z has anyone found a way to adjust this I took picture of OEM part with the newly plated T-joint. I have about 50 to 60 spare parts I plated trying to get a match this came out the closest. I'll more than likly call caswell, when I bought the system they told me it will match. These kits are not cheap so I hope they or you all out their can help.

I like the rim, I hope you get the ebay ad if it's the right size. Besides email to companies rarely works you got to call them or you get left in the background. In the 90's you would get a response with in two hours now they don't watch the emails

I know that is why I ask the tires sold in the US just don't look right, I want that classic look I'll see what I can get. I'll just haft to be careful with the cops if they are not DOT rated. Another thing I wanted to ask about is the plastic film you used to protect the car what brand and type is it? I've been having a hard time finding something like that for when I put my car back together.