ajmcforester

I find as much as possible about part suppliers and get to know your salvage yards by first name basis, especially in CA. So many cars in yards with good cheep parts. If you don't look at time in the project as a waist, but entertainment keeping track of time is not bad and tells you how much better you get at tasks on the car and actually can be rewarding. Get as much research material as possible catalogs, factory manuals, microphish parts listing, old pictures, and take a lot of pictures sometimes the cluse to how something should be is on the car.

Thanks for your two picts I was looking up info on wheels and a guy had the catolog pages from Shellby which had the stipes from the green car and the silver looks like the factory one, just shows that there are many vintage styles out their.

If you are going to shell out the buck to restore a large portion of the car you might as will do it all. If not you run risks of rust out in spots under the paint. I have a car I'm restoring that you could not find the rust spots until I striped sections, I may have a low rust car but I found two spots that might have not been done on the underside of the car (under paint and undercoating) if I did a partial restoration. Now I do have areas I'm not repainting where the original paint has the hand brush strokes and has no wear, but that is because that is part of the history of the car. I believe you can over restore a car they are classics from history and removing all the history making them new makes them less classic. Don't get me wrong I enjoy like new restorations, but I love to look at great originals or mild restored cars more. I wish I could have found a nice unrestored car that met my needs, before getting the one I have, but it wasn't in the cards, besides you learn a lot about your car when restoring it if you can do it your self.

Hey I remember watching a special about the z and was stated their, but with no pictures of it happening and no pile of badges it could be a wise tale.

Thanks for confirming my earlier statement, I knew someone with one of the first originals and I remember he was contemplating not putting the Datsun side badging like the picture his dad had purchasing the car. manny1973 I've seen black stripes on silver never seen white on silver. theirs a guy in Denver with the black stripes on silver it looks good, I think white would just blend into the silver and would not look right. Beside the nice thing about vinyls is if you don't like it take it off

FYI the strips where a Datsun available add on. With the exception of the first few z cars in the US, which where sold with them on. The strips where made to cover the holes from removing the Fairlady badge from the car, the cars where sold without the Datsun side badge with a promise of getting the badges later. My 71 was sold with the strips added by the dealer.

That is a nice custom setup, with some good craftsmanship.

If no one makes what I end up wanting I'll make it including mufflers. I have a motorcycle shop that wants to help, with almost every tool I might want. On my first 240z I had a one into two straight Magnaflow muffler in the rear on a 2.25" exhaust, looked great. The sound outside of the car was mellow and as loud as stock. It did have a noise problem it had low vibrations below what you can hear, you would barely feel it, but it would set off every car alarm. My first time in Philly with the car I was setting off every car on each side of the road, block after block. My current car is going to be more vintage style the stainless steal muffler looked great, but it will not give that vintage look. Also I'm wanting to use the stock downpipe. On the over under glasspack I'm also interested in how they where fastened together and dimensions used. Also in the 70's what size glass pack would people have used in the rear and/or the center of the car?(demetions, color, was Cherry bomb and Thrush red back then?) And what other types of resonators or mufflers that would have been used in the 70'S?

I'm restoring a 71 240z with some early mild 70's style mods. One thing I'm looking for are ideas on the exhaust system, the factory system is a little quieter than I like. I'm was thinking of going with over under glasspacks, but was wondering what other types of setups that might have been used in the 70's does anyone have some ideas or pictures?

The best shows are the simplest show a bunch of car guys getting together and talk about cars. It is not about who has the best car, but what have done and what you have plan the history of the car. No awards needed, well a free lunch is nice. the KISS rule applies. The best shows I've been in is the ones that a group of guys just meet in a parking lot no rope prizes or cover just a good time, and if someone brings a grill that's a plus.

I own a 240z, a little different, but I'd get the factory manual they have them on CD and it has good wire diagrams. Also the CD comes with the parts microfiche, this is a great help in getting the right parts while at the junk yard.

When I bought my first Z I found out that one of the vent hoses leaked, so the guy left the tank really low, also the fuel pump was worn and was not pumping at compassity. So got a OEM Kyosan (SP?) pump. then the gas came out like you discribed. So I replaced the seals in the carbs since the car was not well maintained under the hood (needed to be done besides the problem at hand), still had the problem. The next thing I did was blow with my mouth air threw the return line that was hard to do so I pulled the line. What happened is all the air in the fuel tank aided in the return line to start varnishing and collecting rust that jammed in the line. What I did was use pipe cleaner and wire to clean most of the rust partials. Then soaked the line in fuel treatment to break down the varnished gas and cleaned it again with pipe cleaner until a new piece of pipe cleaner came out clean. Also if the line is not clean check the main fuel lines, the vent tank and the gas tank, you may want to have them boiled out to remove any rust. If you know a radiator shop that still boils radiators they can also do your tanks

I’m restoring a new 240Z since my last one was rear-ended while stopped at a high rate of speed. I will not tell you how fast since everyone just tells me how lucky I was. My current 240Z suffers from over tightening of bolts, and various fasteners from the former owners, and some non-matching bolts. Does anyone know of a company that is selling complete original looking bolt sets? I do not want the stainless steel I like the Cad look under the hood, the 240z engine compartment when restored properly is one of the nicest look factory original engine compartments in history.

OK take a mangnet when you look at this car some things look to smoothe not to have a lot of bondo. some of the details are missing or not a pronounced. On the rear deck-lid and the rear lower pannel you should see the spot welds check her with the magnet also feal the back panel on the inside, and see if it has the right shape. the price and the look of the car just tells me something might be hiding. The orignal seats are not to bad to find and they make the foam and vynle so all you need is a good seat frame. I'd recomend holding off, and doing some reaserch on the Z cars I'd recomend for a daily driver getting a 280z. They are not as fast, but have fuel injection and are easer to maintain and get parts. I know they look the same, but take it from me they are not as interchangeable between 240z(s) and 280z(s). The other advantage to the 280z is that they made alot more of them and are easer to get parts. I would recomend a 240Z if it is not a daily drive and more for enjoyment, they are faster, but they take more work to keep running, prone to rust out easer, and harder to pass emmisions compaired to the 280Z. Stay clear of the 260z not a lot of good things unless you need a shell to build a race car, or have a 240z and need parts that match. Not to say the 260Zs are not nice, they just don't compair to a 240 or 280 in proformence and have the same maintence of the 240. I hope this will help, also check out at the libruary "How to Restore Your Datsun Z-Car" by Wick Humble, it might help on what to look at on the car, it is not one you need to buy, but is has good diagrams of rust locations and things to watch out for when buying a 240-280Z

can you use a 240z motor and a 280z antenna mast and what is the difference between the two masts. I was once a Corvette restoration judge, and detail on cars means a lot.

Yes you can, it is a 102 class of electric diagnostics. Think of how it works you have one wire to the sensor, so the sensor is grounded to make a cercut to the block. So with the car in the on position use a wire tester unplug the sensor, place the wire on the tester and connect the tester to the block. If the light comes on that means you are getting power, if not you have a short some where. If the light came on, you need another person, well not really but it is a lot easer to test the gage do the same thing as before, but have someone watch the gage it should move if not make sure you have a lot of power and if you do and it still won't move the needle, something is wrong with the gage. If the gage is bad remember the sensor may also be bad. This is where I'd go next this way you are starting to pin the problem down; electrical can be easy if you take your time and think about haw it works. If you don't take your time with electrical problems don't mess with them you will frustrate your self and posibly make it worce.

OK I have done everything listed so far, I didn't metal polish but I cleaned them to where the metal looks new. What is happening is that the pistons are dropping at different rates with the car on and off, and when accelerating the one drops the slowest is the slowest to rise. I have rebuilt carbs on another 240Z and tuned them my self before. I have tightened and re-tighten so many times I have ruled out miss alinement. I've ruled out bad needles or needle rub by removing the needle and having the same problem. What I think has caused this problem is that when I went to reset the carbs, one carb the float was adjusted to where little to no fuel was in the chamber, the balance scews were adjust in a way that kept one of the cabs from working and delivering to the engine. IN other words the carb wasn't in use. Who knows how long it was like this. I'm thinking that the carbs now have different level of ware from this creating the unbalance, between the carbs. Thus allowing one carb to move more than the other. I was thinking to day about trying different oil weights for each carb, any thoughts

MY suction pistons are not rising or falling at the same rate. I bought this car recently to replace my Z that was rear ended. I got the car all running well except the carbs and I never had this much trouble tuning them since I learned how to do it. What is going on is the rear suction piston is moving much slower than the front one (this is with the engine off or on). I tried to adjust the oil levels, I ended up with almost no oil in the rear and the front being as full as it can be, but the rear still moving slower, but not by as much. Has any one out their fixed this problem on their car. I was thinking of adding weight to the front piston; swapping the pistons (thinking that the wheir would be equal between the stack and piston); replanting the tops and having the front dipped twice, or removing a very small amount of material from the rear stack and piston. WHat did you do? and how well did it work?

Look in your local craft or hoby store they may have a crome leafing material that you can use. I've used it on models and another car of mine but not on my Z (didn't need too). THe product isn't hard to use, just make sure you don't get the adheasion material on the stuff you don't want it on, and it uses a heat gun to adhear it. I'd try it on the worst looking panel first, sometimes the japanees parts act funy when doing things like this, I don't know why.

OK storing a car is harder than it seems. For over ten years now I have prepared cars for storage, my Dad has a Corvette and this year my 240Z. Most of it is in the prep work. Before storage: Fuel system, put fuel stabalizer in and run it for a while and keep the tank full this will keep the gas good and water out. Change oil, fresh oil protects and won't break down in storage Flush and fill coolant, older coolant will seperate more causing more corotion damage (creats blockage) and freezing in spots (cause cracking) use a adative like BG's this helps keep the coolant in better condition Blead Brakes woren brake fluid will setle and corode, blocking lines Reduce air in tires, even better remove and use old tires, unused fully inflated tire will crack and become britle add a small abount of light oil or some enegine storage stabilizer thru the spark plug hole if you are not starting it up for more than several weeks (this will make alot of smoke when you start it) Remove batteries, many fires can hapen from prolong corotion, and reduce ware on the wires from any posable short, and when starting the car make shure it has a full charge this will reduce damage and ware to all electical parts the whole car needs to be cleaned (exspecialy the underside), polished, waxed, protectent on all rubber, viyle, plactic . . . Use a good car cover perferbly a fitted one If posable dive it around for a mile or 2 ocationaly to keep the suspention & stearing system in good shape. After storage: Put a great fuel system cleaner like lucas or BNG 44K, to remove any resiens that may have formed. Check points and do a tune-up take a look at all fluids, blead a small amount of break fluid from breaks if any particls are present frosh the system again, change the oil (add BG MOA or simular oil product to clean out sedament in the oil). . . Clean the car top to butom polish wax . . . you get the point Take it easy on the car for two to three tanks, and drive it around this will recondition the suspention system (shock and springs will ware out quiker with little to no use than with daily use) and condition the systems after first run check the coolent make shure it is in good shape and now rust (don't make a road trip first time out of storage only 1-2 miles) also change the oil in 1-2 months later alot seems to setle in the oil when stored. I'm might have forgot somethings I have a 10 page check list I go thru that I made and I'm just giving a good ideas what is needed to do so, you can make a procedure.