Ricklandia

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/events/florida/default.asp South Florida Expo Center in Palm Beach, FL. Wish I could get up to watch John bid on that Z, I met him once and if I read him right he's gonna be itchin to get it Looks like that Z is scheduled to cross the block tomorrow morning :/ Where if FL are you?

Hey John, that sure would look sweet next to your orange baby

I did mine with just a fork, I'm pretty sure they were the original ball joints too, seeing how bad they were. Just get yourself a good sized hammer and go at it, they'll break loose with enough steady clobbering.

If you want reliability and drivability, get a set of the 70-72 round top SU's. The 73-74 flat top Hitachi "SU"s are junk from what most folks that have (had) them say. 260's also came with first gen electronic ignition, not horribly reliable from my experience, and I will bet hard to find repalcement parts for these days. I swapped mine out for a 240 dual point distributor when I had my 260 (25+ years ago). Seeing as your's already has had an engine swap, you might need to just take inventory of what exactly you have to begin with.

Just a quick update - I did finally get a decent shine out of the final sanded area, it just takes some time. After a little wax, it actually looks pretty damned good! Next project is the mower, see how it handles being outside.

I know this'll draw a few sneers, but take a peek at this: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1 It's a long thread, but covers quite a bit. I've tried it myself (http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20410) and it has a lot of potential for those on a very slim budget. I'm trying to decide now on which of my cars needs the first "full out" attempt, my daily driver or my Z.

Anyone who says they don't have a similar story is either a liar, or they haven't raced very much. I'll give you a more embarrassing moment: I had a '72 Chevelle Convt. that I'd just replaced a starter motor in. It's Spring Break, Ft. Lauderdale (my home town) so a few friends and I decide to hit A1A for a little Saturday night cruising. the place is rockin, people everywhere, when suddenly the starter motor decides to engage... and not stop. I mean it's just GRINDING AWAY... LOUD as $H*T. I quick pull over and turn off the ignition, and the car wont stop! I mean, it was loud enough to wake the dead! Folks are coming out of thier hotel rooms onto thier balconies, the bars are emptying out cuz it sounds like a buzz saw on methamphedamines, folks are screamin to shut the damned thing off! :stupid: I pop the hood, which only makes the damned thing LOUDER to see WTF is goin on, and all I can see is friggin blue arc as thick as my thumb going from the starter solenoid to the block. I'm thinkin "F-ME!, I'm gonna get electrocuted trying to fix this!" I had a tool box in the trunk, so I figure I gotta do something - I grab an old T-shirt, wrap it around the wrench and head right for the battery terminal, hoping I don't get the jolt of a lifetime. Meanwhile, my "friends" have abandoned me, stepping from the car and mingling into the ever growing - and HOSTILE crowd, acting like they never seen me before in thier lives! Nice, huh? Well, I got the battery cable loose without getting shocked, the engine finally dies, and I get a rousing cheer from the crowd, not to mention a beer can thrown down from above somewhere above. After my adrenaline comes down, I hook it back up, fire up the car, and everything worked fine. Total weirdness. I had a few choice words for my "passengers" to say the least. Never did figure out what the problem was, next day I yanked the starter back out and returned it to the shop I bought it from. Ahhhh.... memories...

Okay, goofy question... I inadvertantly changed the wallpaper on my garage 'puter without realizing I hadn't saved the image that was on it. So here goes - I know I found it here but cant find it now :stupid: It's a beautiful 112 Yellow 240, black/graphic Rewinds, the car is obviously from up north as there are lots of fall colored leaves on the ground (taken after a rain I believe). I somehow remember the car's owner was from Canada? Ontario maybe? The shot was from rear driver corner, a really beautifully composed image. Anyone recognize the description? Is the owner still around? I would love to have it back on my machine to ogle over! My 240 was originally 112 Yellow and love contemplating returning it to that color.

I'll play a little devils advocate here on this one. Do you NEED one? No. Is it a good idea? Yeah. the whole idea of vent canisters is for keeping gasoline vapors from escaping into the atmoshphere - a good, no great idea, especially if you want to think "green". Every "modern" car has them in one sense or another, a sealed fuel system. It doesn't effect performance in any way and personally I think it's a good idea to keep it in place if you already have one. If you don't, and like many here do you only drive your Z for pleasure, you can "justify" not needing one simply because if the fact that not too many still drive old cars like we do. OTOH, it's a good thing to do for no other reason than to realize that having gas powered "toys" to play with is a luxury we may not have for too much longer, and we should at least try to do what we can to extend what time we have to enjoy this luxury as best we can. I know it's a very "PC" attitude to take, but there it is. JMHO

There must be something in the air... all these new Z owners popping up all of a sudden. Way coooooooooool......

Welcome aboard! MY first Z was a 260, it's been a love affair ever since. Your best friend here on this site is the forum search function, lots of info on every topic under the sun. If you cant find what you need after a few searches, don't hesitate to ask - someone here will have "been there, done that" before! Add some photos to the gallery, we always love seeing new additions to the family!

Smoking on DEcelleration is classic for worn rings. :disappoin

Yes and no. If you look at the "before" picture, I think you'd agree that it now looks significantly better. Is it perfect? No, however I am not finished yet (still need to buff out the doors). The areas that have faults are generally in the areas that I first started with, the best areas are where I finished with. The learning curve was not steep, but was apparent - I learned as I went. Am I satisfied? Absolutely. Am I ready to paint my car with it? No, not yet. for a few reasons. On the areas where I did best, I think the paint looks terrific - as good if not better than your average "economy" paint job coming from your local paint shop. It's a bit hard for me to tell if the minor orange peel texture was from the paint or from the original paint surface. I sanded down the doors significantly more than the sides as the doors had minor rust. The surface on the doors now looks very smooth, much less "orange peel" than the sides. I chose not to final wetsand the sides simply because the final coat looked so good, very glossy. I did however, do a final wetsanding of the doors to clean up a few mistakes. I gave a quick attempt with buffing it out but with little success, I'm afraid it's going to take significantly more to bring back the gloss. I'm also not convinced yet that it will work on an auto for two reasons; 1. This was done with the "consumer" grade paint and not the "professional" and 2. the paint still feels "soft". I cannot scratch the paint with a fingernail as some have claimed (the final coat is one week old) yet I can still tell that it's "new". I guess that's to be expected. I'm willing to wait a month or two let the paint fully dry/cure before making a final evaluation. My biggest concern at this point is getting the final wetsanded coat to shine like the unsanded sides. I will say that if I have one more lingering concern. it would be my attempts to paint around taped off areas (door handles, badges). The originator of the "method" described using a foam brush for tight spots, deep angles, etc. My experience with it was that it was very difficult to keep these areas from running or dripping paint. That's not to say that it cant be done, it may just be my technique (or lack thereof). I would say that anyone thinking of painting thier car without totally stripping it down (windows included) might struggle as I did.

Ian, I think you'll find that the vast majority of guys and gals here are doing just as you are. I know I am. Honestly, there are few who are either lucky enough to find an original, unmolested/modified, rust free car out there without paying a kings ransom, or are lucky enough to have the time and money to do a full out restoration. I've never done one myself, probably never will ...unless I hit the lotto. But in our favor, Datsun/Nissan were successful enough in designing this car that they were able to sell tons of them, and although they are now pushing 30+ years old, they are still relatively commonplace. That being said, I have no guilt in modifying or patching mine up when needed. When all is said and done, there will be plenty of "perfect" examples out there for everyone to drool over and appreciate what a brilliant car it was right out of the factory. Will they ever reach the insane prices some of the muscle cars have? I seriously doubt it.

Thought I'd post some picts of the progress. Taped up and laid down the stripes, but I think I needed some different tape. I got a tiny bit of bleed under the tape in a few spots but I think I can sand them down before the final buffing.

I'll second Kenny on his comments. When I bought mine last tear, the brake fluid looked like mud, and the rubber hoses from the hard lines to the calipers were dried and cracked. The P.O. hadn't seriously driven the car in a few years, just around the block occasionally to keep it fresh, but frankly that alone was a frightening thought for me. First project on the list before taking it for a spin was to address these issues. It's one thing to have the motor sputter and die on you out on the road, it's an entirely different situation to find the brake pedal go to the floor!

My admittedly unprofessional opinion: I agree on pulling the plugs - personally I would squirt in some Marvel Mystery Oil and let it soak overnight before turning over the motor. Even then, I would give it a few turns by hand just to let the oil get in/on/around the rings before going with the starter motor. After sitting for 20 years, I would change ALL fuids - brake, clutch, coolant, oil, transmission, rear end, and of course gasoline. As to needing to drop the tank, it may not necessarily be needed. A trip to the local autoparts store might find you a fuel system cleaner. As ZSaint suggests, drain the tank first, them with some fresh fuel in the system, combined with the fuel system cleaner, disco the line and let the electric pump run and flush this fuel up through the tank and line and see what you get. If you get mud or sludge, or any sign of rust scaling then dropping the tank is probably a wise idea. Regardless, even if you drop the tank, you are still going to need to flush out those lines anyway because if the old gasoline has varnished up in the tank, it surely will also have in the fuel lines and injectors. I don't know a whole lot about old fuel injectors, it might be worth pulling them and soaking them as well? JMHO Rick

Thought I'd update - I posted a few progress photos over on the Mopar forum/thread in more detail, but so far I'm havin fun and liking what I see. I'll attach some photos here from before and up to date. Sorry, most pics are on the other CPU. I've finished 6 coats and it looks decent. I still have the final wetsand ahead and stripes to paint. Which brings up a question - old school stripes or new school stripes? I had an inclination to paint them old school - one wide, one thin, both off-centered - picture late '60s. I know it dates me a bit , but WTF. pre1.bmp untitled 2.bmp

Jim, Just outta curiousity, what car is that in your avatar? Don't think I've ever seen it before! Rick

Anyone here in the South Florida area have a BRE painted 240 that looks similar to this? http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=16841 Saw one on the Sawgrass Expressway Sunday afternoon, thought it might be someone from here. It sure looked great from the glimpse I got as I motored in the opposite direction

Project Beer Fridge - Part 2 Well, after a good nights sleep and an exhausting day at the office, Project Beer Fridge entered phase two. 1. Wetsanded down the fridge concentrating on the drips and runs from my poor cut-in work last night. 2. A wipedown with mineral spirits afterward began to reveal the potential. 3. Mixed up another batch of paint - a fairly strong dilution as was the second coat last night. Approx 25% would be my guess, possibly too thin but after seeing the results of leaving it too thick last night I wanted to see the results if it was diluted too thin (if indeed it was). 4. Application went on VERY smoothly tonight. Rolled out well, and was even able to attain the magic "light touch bubble removing technique" as described by 69Charger. Interestingly, what I found worked equally as well, if not quicker, was just a slight puff of air. The "air" technique was able to un-bubble as much as 1.5 sq. ft. of painted surface at a time. I think this may be an indicator that the mix might be just about right. 5. Took a brief break while waiting to coat three to dry. Things are starting to look good. Other than a few very small spots, the paint has now coated thick enough to hide the original color. The bottom door looks much improved from last night, the top doorlooks good other than some sag along the top corner that I failed to sand down enough. :/ 6. Coat 4 goes on. Again, smooth and easy and things are really starting to take shape. Doors look better yet - Left and Right sides look... great! Top as well! 7. Have learned that "Beer Fridge's" best friend is... no, not the one that feeds it with a constant supply of ice cold delicious liquid heaven. No, Beer Fridge's best friend apparently is Dog Hair. Note to self: Shave the dogs 8. Clean up and assess; Tonights lessons learned are unknown. Certainly the thinner mix works much better for the rolling, but the trade off is that applying it with the foam brush yields very poor results. It's so thin it basely wants to "fill" or cover as traditional cut in painting does. I have several areas where I taped off that just dont seem to want to hold the paint when brushed on. Again, when painting an auto all these parts would be stripped off, but it does make me wonder how painting tight spots will go ( ie vents slots, door jams, rain rails, etc) It's late, I'm tired. Time to think on it tomorrow.

For Project Beer Fridge I'm using the consumer variety. The local Home Depot had a a few color choices and the wife picked out Sunrise Red. While we were there, however, she also spotted two gallon cans of the 7300 Masstone Base Tint tucked behind everything on the floor. There are the Industrial Enamal. I snatched them up even though I have no clue what color I might be interested in. What I DIDN'T remember to do, however was to find out if the same store could tint it for me. When I got home I hit the Rustoleum site and it says that paint can only be tinted with Rustoleum tints (Rustoleum 2020 Tint system I think). After the first go round with this technique, it seems to me that there's little difference in the paints as to how it goes on, at least from what I'm reading with other peoples experiences with both varieties. The real question is if there's a durability difference between them.

Project "Beer Fridge" notes: (Project "Beer Fridge" is an unabashed, untainted and totally foolhardy attempt to see if this painting technique will work for one woefully underfunded, underskilled but enthusiastic artisan - myself! The goal: repaint the garage refridgerator - refererred lovingly as simple "Beer Fridge" with an sexy coat of Sunrise Red Gloss, and if all goes as planned an even sexier set of white racing stripes using the technique described in this thread... oooooh, can't you just see it now!) 1. Project gets underway today. Cleaned the fridge well, wiped down with mineral spirits and let dry. 2. Wetsanded with 400 grit paper to give the paint something to grip. 3. Wiped down again with mineral spirits again and let dry well. 4. Mix Paint: It's a warm Florida day (~80 degrees, but dry by S. FL standards) so I mix the paint with ~10% mineral sprits. Seems pretty darn thin to me. 5. Of note, although the fridge is clean, there are a significant number of surface rust spots, most noticably on the top from condensation when opening the freezer. Beer Fridge has been living a very comfortable life in the garage for several years now, but as it is S. Florida, it does get VERY humid in here. I chose not to sand down the rust spots to clean metal because A. I'm lazy and excited to get going, and B. because I wanted to see just how the Rustoleum would handle these spots. 6. Main Door - Okay, here we go... BUBBLES! More bubbles, and more bubbles. They are not going away, not after a light pressure re-roll either. A good stiff blast of breath pops them and the paint starts to lay down. Whew! Half way thru the door and I'm beginning to think the paint is too thick - or is it my technique? I press on. 7. Top door - trying to work a little faster and the results are better. Loading up more paint on the roller and trying NOT to reroll so much (causing in effect a second coat). This is where I realize I'm starting to make a mess of things, not with the rolling but with my brush technique. Cut-in is not my strong suit and it shows grossly here. Drips and sags from too much paint, then I remember 69Chargers advice; roller in one hand, brush in the other. Getting better... you are wise, oh Master 69Charger. 8. Left Side - Load roller more, roll faster. Hmmm, this is starting to work better. Still have lots of bubbles but by now I'm huffing and puffing away to get them all popped, and the results are starting to look much better! Note to self: quit smoking cigarettes... SOON! 9. Top surface - MUCH easier to do a horizontal surface! Even with te considerable rust up here, I can see much better results. 10. Left side - Ironically, this side comes out best. Ironic because "Beer Fridge" sits up next to the water heater and there's no manuevering room on this side. Because of this, I take the tact of REALLY loading up the roller and working very fast. Get as much on as I can and get it spread out as quickly as I can. Huff, puff, and the paint really statrs to lay down nicely. Lesson learned? By going quicker I'm not "pulling" the paint up with the roller as much. First coat done, time to assess: Time for my "WTF AM I DOING!" moment! Standing back, the fridge looks... Horrible. Verging on frightening. BUT... It admitedly did a rather nasty job on the first door, and looking at the final side, things look much better. Wait an hour and re-assess. Okay, it STILL looks bad but I'm ready to press on. I SHOULD really stop here and sand down what I've done, but I decide to press on. 11. Mix Paint for coat #2 - I basically doubled the mineral spirits to ~20-25% this time. MUCH thinner, really starts to feel like water this time around. Yes Master, Grasshopper is learning. 12. Second Coat - what a world of difference! Still getting the bubbling but only for a few quick seconds. Even the slightest breath disperses them and the paint really lays down quick and smooth. If not, a very light pressure re-roll and slight puff is all it takes. 13. Entire surface takes half as much time as coat #1 and the results are much better. Clean up and done for the night. Evaluation: learned quite a bit. First and foremost; THIN THAT FRIGGIN PAINT! Even while mixing batch number two I thought to myself "this will never work, it's too damned thin..." WRONG! I can definitely see that coat number one was too thick, and that it will take at least 3-4 coats using the thinner batch to completely cover the underlaying color (white), but the benefit is that the thinner coat goes on MUCH smoother with less trouble. Less trouble, and less sanding, which is what I will be doing ALOT of after that first coat mess I made. But I had the wife give me an honest opinion, and looking at the final LEFT side with two coats - unsanded - even she saw the potential. Gonna take some photos but hold off posting them until I get a chance to wetsand first (don't want to scare off anyone just yet).

Any photos to update us with? I picked up some of the paint today and will start experimenting with it either tomorrow or next weekend.