EScanlon

Swoop; You'll hear this time and time again. How much do you have? If your maximum budget to invest in this car is $1000 then you can't even afford to get it repainted, without doing it yourself, and then that's about all you're going to do. In this case, then how much rust is too much? Any that you can see, no matter how little or how big. If you can see it, then you're already more into it than $1000, once you include the paint and other items to finish. If you're talking $1k now, for this ONE repair, and then, more later (and more later, and more later, ad nauseaum) then, it becomes, how much are you willing to cap it at? If you were Bill Gates and said, sky's the limit. Then with $5k you could get a very clean respectable unit. For more, you could get an even better unit. Have heard of always garaged, never driven units going for $15 to $25k. Rumors claime a $30k unit recently on e-bay. Sorry to sound so negative, and not offer more support, but the truth here is that you're fooling yourself if you think that it's only going to be $1k. A good brake job, where they replace all the pads and lines, turn the drums/ rotors, flush and bleed the lines, and generally do a complete restoration of the system, can easily run you $1k. So, if I were to suggest anything here, I would say, first get a body shop estimate, then get a mechanical estimate. If between those two they add to more than $5,000 then you're better off finding another car.

I responded to this yesterday but computer bombed just after I posted, so I thought it had gone and apparently not. Each of the magazine's issues has had a "centerfold" picture of a Z car, with the car's specs on the left. Don't know if the specs are those cars ACTUAL specs or if they are the specs of what the car would have had for the configuration of the vehicle sold. At the bottom you have tidbits as to other things that happened in the same year as when that car was brand new. Generally a pleasant format, although I would agree that a larger photo would be nice, I'm not displeased with the current size. Ladies in bikinis on the cars? Hmmm, I think I would rather see a pictorial on that car, and maybe in some of the other photos have ladies in different styles of dress. Although men make up the vast majority of the subscription base of the magazine, I do know that there are some avid lady Z enthusiasts, so insert men as props also. I would personally prefer they left the centerfold as is. Just the car, it's specs, some facts and a nice shot of the car. If they added more pictures to it's pictorial, then maybe go ahead and add photos of ladies in various outfits: 1) A gorgeous leggy woman in a seductive evening dress in dark hose and stiletto heels, stepping out of the car, but the photo still gives a good look of the interior of the car. 2) A young lady in an Izod shirt wearing a denim mini-skirt with tennis shoes is waving at someone while she's pulling something out of the hatch, and the photograph gives plenty of space and visibility of the rear end (of the car, although the girl's would be cute too). The concept being, this is how the car is IN USE, not the typical posed cheesecake shot of some busty blonde with a set of wrenches in her hand a dab of grease on her nose in a butt floss bikini leading you to believe she just got out from underneath the car where she just replaced the oil pan. Not saying the cheesecake shot is bad etc, just that if that's what I wanted, then I can get the Mac, Snap-On, Proto, Bud, Miller etc etc calendar and get a ton of cheesecake. I personally like the Z car, it's lines and it's many configurations in the hands of it's owners. THAT'S what I think should be on the centerfold. But hey, just my 2¢ worth.

Don't think their circulation is yet up to being available on the newsstands, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. At least in the US. Don't know what they would be doing in other countries. That might be a thought, if you know of a vendor who would buy it and make it available to other interested people. Check with them at their website.

You can also subscribe through the internet, go to http://www.zportzmagazine.com I think you can also get & request international mailing information from them. Good Luck, hope to see your car pictures in there.

As a matter of fact, you want to stop looking at it immediately, don't go near it, stop thinking about it, in fact consider it gone. Now, in order that the guy selling it not feel like he got messed over, give him my e-mail address: escanlon@worldaccessnet.com I'll just take it off his hands so that he doesn't have to worry about having to sell it. Heck, I'll even fly out and pick it up and take him out to dinner to boot!

The magazine is excellent! Being a 240 owner I'd rather they covered the 240 more than the 300's but I'm just being selfish. They have had some excellent articles that have saved me chunks of cash. I've personally addressed the steering wheel restore and it worked great, the instructions were extremely helpful. I'm currently doing the fuel vent lines replacement and that's also saving me a chunk. The ads are specific to our cars! Yes there are a few generic type guys, but the BULK are specific! That makes it better all the way around. I'd get it even if it were twice the price.

Definitely drain the gas tank! And what's more don't just use the hose syphon method and hope that that got all the gas out. The gas tank has a drain hole pretty much at it's lowest point. If you have the car up on jacks or on ramps then IT IS NO LONGER THE LOWEST POINT. Like you found out, gas can be heavy, and when you are finally lowering the tank it's easy to think that, geez the tank is heavy. Only to discover that OH SHEET! as a gallon or so of gas suddenly spills all over your garage / driveway.:eek: I won't ask Kmack about his 8 gallons of gas if you promise not to ask about how the carpet in the garage smells. (A note aside, do you know how long it takes to get a gallon of gas to dissipate out of a garage?? Especially when it's cold?? NOT FUN!! And no matter how much you like to work on cars, there's something about the overpowering smell of gasoline that just ... :sick: ) As it is, you know you're going to have some spillage, but not more than a little bit. So keep this in mind. By the way Mike, the later 71 and 72 recovery tanks were metal, unless you are going for concours restoration, get the metal one, also, unless they pop the panel, how are they going to know?

RIGHT HERE! Here's the URL for it, don't know if it will show up as a click through, but here goes: This is the URL for the page that describes and allows you to order the CD or get a Demo http://scarab.240z.org/cdrom.htm However, after getting a message from Mike, he lets me know that if you want to down load the Demo you need to use this link for the time being, he'll have it fixed in a couple days: http://www.240z.org/zcarcd/z-demo1.pdf I personally have the true blue Microfiche that requires the viewer. Although I used this for years while in the service, I will admit that it is a major PITA. I'm waiting for the accounting part of my marriage:rolleyes: to approve it but I'll be getting one on CD too. From what everyone says, much much easier and clearer.

There have been numerous reports on the little plastic bearing holder underneath the distributor base plate getting old, brittle and eventually cracking. This is true whether the distributor is point or electronic. The problem usually begins with a sticking advance as you are reporting. The new plates are available from Nissan. Sorry don't know the part number, I'll have to check the microfiche later, but the garage is currently in upheaval. Maybe someone else with access to their microfiche or if you have access to the cd microfiche available here then you can call Nissan and get the part new. If you let it go until it breaks, then you'll think that your car died and needs a complete engine overhaul.

In their Premiere issue Sport Z Magazine had an excellent article on replacing the fuel tank vent hoses. The author even went to the trouble of providing the part numbers from a McMaster Carr catalog. I found you can get all but one of the hoses from NAPA. The only hose you can't get is the 1.25" hose that goes from the top of the filler neck to the vapor recovery tank. The biggest problem you may encounter is in getting a couple of the hoses to effect the tight 180° turn. You can however, get metal springs in the right diameter to fit snugly inside the hose which will allow you to bend the hose without kinking it. It's most important to remember that the tank has three vent orifices that connect to the recovery tank. The recovery tank has 5 orifices. The extra two go to the filler neck and to the return line from the engine compartment. By plugging the lines at the recovery tank you've made it so that only so much gas can get into the tank before it starts compressing the air bubble above the gas. Additionally, you've also plugged one of the vent lines from the engine compartment. Don't know what that could / will do, you'll have to ask one of the engine guru's but you're taking a short cut that may lead to trouble down the road. Yes it is a pain to have to drop the tank to get to the hoses, but the end result should be a better smelling vehicle after filling your tank, and it will also allow you to clean under the rear deck and avoid any rust problems later. Hey, it's just my 2¢ worth.

Turbo Boxer: You didn't mention your abilities with regard to bodywork, mechanical, electrical etc. This, in my opinion, is a strong factor in deciding whether or not to get a less than perfect car. If you are totally ignorant on body working, I would pass on anything requiring pulling dents, replacing metal, repairing rust, broken doors, etc etc. The amount of money you would have to spend to get these items taken care of piece by piece in a body shop would put a nice down payment on a house, maybe even in the SF area. If you were to pick up one of these, I would recommend you take it right to the best body shop you can find and give them lots of money and carte blanche to effect whatever needs repairs etc. Expensive, you bet, but not as much as doing it a little at a time. Granted, if your budget doesn't mind $1k every other month for the next couple years, as opposed to $8k right now, then go for it. Mechanical and Electrical ability, again the same advice applies. Although with mechanical, you can find a good mechanic that will fix your car to what you want. However, if you are planning on doing an engine transplant, turbo install, Nitrous, oil cooler, etc etc, then you might have the same problem as with the body work above. Electrical experience? Sounds simple, well, unfortunately the Z cars are notorious for their electrical problems. Look at some of the posts here and at zcar.com and you will see that even some of the so called "guru's" are also baffled about some of the problems reported. Granted some of the people could use a course in how to write, let alone how to describe their problem. (Descriptions such as: Yesterday I got in my car, put the key in, turned it real SLOW, and all of a sudden PSSSSST!! and smoke came out of the fuse box area and the ignition. Now the car won't start, any ideas as to what could be wrong?) LOL The kind of experience you have will determine if you need to look at a car that has already had someone spend the time and money to get it past the trouble spots, or if you want to tackle a frame that needs metal replacing along several rust lines, a wire harness swap due to a bad stereo install as well as fixing an aborted turbo swap into a 240 while still maintaining the original 240 tach but yet using the 79 distributor. If you're looking to get into a Z quickly, and be able to drive it all over the place in a relatively short frame of time, i.e. like buy it now and be done with it this summer, then I would suggest you look around and get a car that has had a lot of work already done to it. The amount of money and TIME you will save in the long run will definitely offset your investment now. If however, you don't mind having it be a Garage Queen for weeks / months at a time, then go for restoring one.