ajmcforester

175HR14 which from what I've been told equates to a 175/80R14 Some tips for getting your backspacing right to put 90's Honda rims on a 240Z you needed a 1/4" spacer any good wheel and tire shop can use that to get the correct back spacing. To play with different tire sizes hear is a good calculator to use: http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.dos On my first Z, I put on Colorado Custom 15" rims with 195/55R15, the next tire size up I had clearance issues with the front tires and the frame rail, but fit fine in the rear.

So when are you going to become a parts dealer you got your work cut out for you again:D Well I hope this one works for you if not you have yet another parts car. If you are going to see if it starts you can hook hose to a pump and stick it into a gas can you don't need to use the fuel tank. Besides if it sat that long in a field the tank will more than likely leak. or just fill the float chamber with gas

I'd didn't think of Hoosier for tires for my Z I love every time on the website when they are DOT tires a warning pops-up stating they are not attended for road use. Well after Firestone with Ford who can blame them.

Do you have some suggestions for a good performance tire in a 185/75/14 preferred, or in the 195/70/14. The more performance tire is better, tread life really isn't an issue.

The 185/75 size is more than likely what I'll put on, I have the vintage American Racing wheels for my 71. One thing I did on my last Z the 72 that gave a more classic look was to paint the lettering. The 72 I put custom rims that where 1" taller then stock so a Honda size would fit well and open a lot of tire selections for the car. I went with a Yokohama AVS tire, a modern directional tire, with great traction. I wanted a more vintage look so I bought a tire pen and painted the AVS and Yokohama lettering in, it looked great

I'm a 240Z guy, but I haft to agree I don't think they make them anymore. What I'd do is clean it inside and out as good as you can and take it to someone with a dip tank to remove any rust. Good places to find a dip take are some radiator repair shops or a restoration shop. Then see what you got. If you got Swiss-cheese, and the holes are small a exterior sealer paint might work. If the holes are in one or several small areas consider patching the tank with new metal. The tank liners work for a while then start to come apart over time personally I have 2 good tricks to keep rust out. If you need a new tank look in Arizona usually the tank stay solid their. That Arizona Z car source might be a good bet, I don't use them much anymore their prices when up a lot over the last 2-3 years My tank anti-rust tricks: Anytime the car sits fill the tank up, full tank = less oxygen to oxidize metal. When I change the oil I ad one court of non-detergent straight weight oil to a half tank of gas and take it for a short drive (make sure you are sloshing the tank) and then fill it up. Do not use any oil that has detergents it will cause major problems. The little bit of oil has never caused a problem I've done this on every vehicle I've had with a metal tank including fuel injection cars. When I talked to my cars original owner he told me his mechanic would do this (he found out when he asked about why he got blue smoke the day after he got it back from him) the original tank does not have a drop of rust in it and the fuel lines I can't see any internal rust the metal is shinny like you want to see. The only downside is you get a little blue smoke for a tank of gas, but I really only see it when the choke is on. Burning a little oil like that isn't bad Honda designed their engine to leak a little oil onto the pistons to oil the rings for cold starts.

The Mikuin carb set will more than likely be on someones car to rare to pedal. You might find them pedaling the Webbers the flea markets is were you need to look the website will be covered now. The Saturday after we had someone steal from a company I worked for three of us went to the flea market in Colorado, we got all but two things back that were sold before we got their. The four different vendors that had your stuff stated they bought it from a guy that matched a description of a guy I fired the week before, I love inside jobs (this reeks with sarcasm). We did prosecute the former employee. I know I have had problems with your company that were never resolved, but I have no tolerance for stealing someones stuff. I'll keep an eye out on the east coast.

I'd look at who has been in your shop in the last month or when you got the last carb set. I know some webbers have serial numbers anything like that on yours and did you log them somewhere

I can agree with that one. Also the plastic parts on the linkages. I'm just waiting for one of them to brake on me even though it hasn't happened yet. For a car with a lot of plastic I sure see a lot of aftermarket plastic parts for it better than a lot of other cars

being a piece of chromed plastic, maybe someone needs to find an NOS and start making a mold of them. They should cost less than $100 each to make and you get $100 easy. The other is the fuse/ashtray thing. Does anyone work with a company that molds plastic chrome toys or car parts? What ever happened to the ads coming soon for this and the ashtray on several of the Z parts stores that are online? Who was releasing them? I know we can use them on the market. I need a new fuse-cover/ashtray and the heater-control-bezel was cut to fit a modern radio with some pealing of the chrome at the bottom.

That is why I knew I wouldn't get it as soon as I saw it on the forum, some people will pay too much for one I've seen nicer ones go for less. Just shows the right hype and you can sell everything for a lot more. Just like pet rocks.

Your going to become a Z junkyard at this rate, you might need to go into business. Is this one as rusty as the last two?

They will polish bumpers Great trip, I moved across country Arizona to New Jersey and had a good trip, the only problem I had was in Ohio when the vacuum lines closed from to much vacuum. No wonder my car was setup for 10,000 feet not 300 feet. I'm glad that I had worked the bugs out before my trip when you get her running well you need to do another trip these are one of the best cars to tour the country side in. Thanks for your story, but we can also use pictures from your trip with the car

Their is a plastic ring inside that usually brakes keeping it from retracting. I could not fix it in my 72, if it is broken in your car you will need a new belt. If you take it a part you will see what I mean. I can agree about getting new belts, but the key is the strapping material I'm looking at replacing the material it may cost more but it will look original. I did this with my cars first harness it was always cheaper than buying new ever couple of years, for racing

Why is it always paint I have brought back panels to near new that were nearly white from aging back to black. And even harder to do take yellowed panels and make them white again. Like I stated before some polish and heat go a long way in the plastic world. You might ask why heat, heat softens the material allowing the pigments in the inside the plastic to come to the surface thus removing the faded area. It's a neat trick, try it before painting you might not paint any more.

I've used Mothers plastic polish with a buffball mini, if its a little oxidation it will clean it up. Also try a heat gun, just heat enough to soften but not distort the plastic sometime this will rejuvenate it .

You and I seem to bid on the sames ones and not get it, someone seems to have richer blood than you and I. By the way Jerry Purcell if you have 5 do you mind sharing at a good price? I've not had good luck on getting parts that meet their statement on ebay

the 8-9,000 is a great price I'd question the 3500 job I don't think you can really do a great job at that price. I'd work out the details at that price. My car is in better shape and I'm looking at the 10,000-15,000 to get her done. So I might consider at that price shipping my car to Texas

I don't know why it was in my watching list before this post, what junk

Unfortunately, I didn't have that experience 2-3 years ago with them and have never used them since. That was a shame how that went, my experience when I had my first 240Z was great, I used them whenever I could, no real problems if the wrong thing was shipped they got the right one out ASAP. Then in the time after the first Z was totaled and I got my second Z they changed. Not one order came correctly out of six, they fought me on every part that was wrong even when the number on the invoice didn't match what they sent me. The first of the six was over $1,500 and only 60% of the order was the parts I ordered, I knew they had some problem going on. The last order was the one that ticked me off, I ordered a radiator, and had it 2 day mailed, because I needed a replacement right a way, it was damaged, so it was sent back. They refused to send the replacement 2 day (now I have pressure to get the car moved from my apartment), I fought with them and they did after arguing over the phone for over a half hour. That one the mounting brackets were on backwards, so we argued again, and they sent me another replacement. By that time I rented a U-haul to get it to my garage. They asked me to send that one back to them with the receipt for shipping in the box and repacked by a shipping company which I did. That next replacement was good. However they never paid me back for the shipping so I called about a week later and they told me the radiator had the brackets mounted backwards and they will reimburse my account. I did get any reimbursement in about a week so I gave a call to see what was going on and the same guy I talked to told me that we don't owe you any reimbursement their is no notes in the computer about this. I have had several phone calls over the next several weeks, faxed documents, and several times I was told that we'll pay you for that then the next time I'd call we have no record of that or any faxes from you. After about 2 months of this I decided I'll only use them if they ever send the money they owe me, and they never did. I hated that but they didn't leave me a choice. Over the years I spent well over $5,000 in parts with them and spoke highly of them comparing them to Mid-America (for Corvettes). One of the nicest things about them was you could put a large order of parts and not use 3-4 companies to get those same parts like I do now. All I can say now is I hope they have changed back to the company I liked again.

My first Z was in for a week for under body work. What I think your trying to gage is how long it will take fr your car? That is a hard question how much work is needed depends on how long to rework a shell might take 1 week to a year on the shell alone. It depends more on what is needed, but I'd plan on at least 6 months, and if they are doing the whole restoration 1-2 years minimal for an average small shop.

Rust is a funny thing you can photograph rust and it always looks better than it is and it hides so it could be a rust bucket, I don't know from the pictures. I think the problem is you went to a body shop not a restoration shop. Yes restoration shops cost more but they are setup to do repair from rust and you usually get a better result at the end. Rust is time consuming to get rid of, a restoration shops should hunt all the rust down, and you will pay for it, but rust never sleeps. I'm going to be a little hypothetical here. If the restoration shop costs $15,000 and they found the rust and made the car sold and to your specs in the long run it could be cheaper, because the $10,000 bodyshop job they might miss some rust, bondo over holes instead of patching the metal. . . Now when they come out of the shop the look or quality may look the same, but what about 5 years down the road, you might need to redo the $10,000 for maybe another $10-$15,000. Or in 10-15 years you think the car needs a freshening up so you send it out for repaint it will cost more if their is rust and/or bondo that will need fixing before they paint. The old adage will always hold true you get what you pay for usually pertains in the realm. What I'd do is go to some car shows, look for quality work on a car and ask the owner where he got the body work done or the paint . . . people are happy to tell you about good experiences with shops. Then start contacting these companies, go their with the car interview them this is a job interview you are hirer-ing them and their equipment. Make sure you tour the shop talk about cleanness of the shop, how they deal with surface contaminates before painting, and how do they control dust, what type of ventilation is in the paint booth make sure the paint booth is spotless, no dust. With your car it's great if they will ask to put it on the lift to look at it with you, wright down your expectations for the car, talk to them about what you are looking for be realistic, how are you going to handle parts, how would they like the car before dropping it off. Find out their concerns. If they want your business this will take about 3-4 hours, atleast it has with me. This is a major investment, most people won't buy a car with more than 2-3 hours of research, why would you pay for work major work that costs almost as much as a new car without invest some time into it. In other-wards big deal if one shop didn't want to do the work keep looking until you find the right one

One of the best systems I've seen is a custom plug that cuts power to the ignition system. It's simple and easy to use you wire it in so the clock still gets power, but nothing else can without this plug like key. You can turn the ignition nothing will happen until this key is plugged in. Their are several manufactures with different names for this product. Another system and might be the one I install is a pass-by shut-off. This works like above, but instead of a key you can a chip in-beaded into a key-fob that you swipe over the sensor that can be hidden better like placing it under a piece of vinyl. I've seen this done on some cars when you take the key out of the ignition the switch turns its self off until you swipe the fob, this would be nice so if someone saw you get out of your car you just didn't show them weir the switch is. One of the best system ever made was on the Corvettes 4th gen. They had a computer lockout system that required if the alarm went off to use the key to unlock they system, you couldn't cut the battery to unlock the car. What thieves figured out was to stab the battery so the power would go before breaking into the car then you could slide it into neutral and take it. Now to keep people from getting in the best thing is to lock the doors a good thief will find cars with aftermarket car alarms and come back later that week and steal the alarm. If you install an alarm, do it your self and be creative most places put the parts in the same place, so the thieves know where to go to deactivate it. Also don't keep anything in sight they will break a window for a dime, so if it is worth more that a penny, hide it or better yet don't have it in the car. I've helped friends at junk yards and told them they can't leave the tools in the car carry them with you, I've lost count of how-many broken windows I've seen from this.

You can add power steering if you want their is a kit out their for that. Adjusting caster will help with that, but caster also what makes the car track straight, and pull into a straight line, to little caster the car will be drifting back and forth. The manual setup in the Z, once you are comfortable, it gives great feedback and can help you fell your way through the corners. My first car I converted from power-searing to manual system a lot like the one in the Z I knocked 20% off my tight track time once I got a fell of the system.