2ManyZs

This is after 10 hours of labor... and it's still not as good as I'd like.....:cross-eye

It took me about 10 hours with a buffing stand, 4 different compounds, 4 different wheels, and 4 grades of sandpaper to do mine.... scratches will require sanding. Before you can get a shine, you have to have a smooth surface. Any small pits or scratches, forget it. Even oxidation will leave just enough small pits to make it nearly impossible to get a good shine. If you don't have the right tools, it's an even tougher job..... Mother's and many others you find in an auto parts store will only work to put a shine on something that is already polished, but hasn't been taken care of, from my experience. Here's a before pic.....

Remote filter housings and plumbing associated with either it, or an oil cooler is allowed in IT, no dry sumps though. I ran a remote filter, and an oil cooler on my 280 in IT, but didn't plug the by-pass, as I used the screw on type adapter for the remote filter.

Hmm, if I still lived up on the St. Lawrence Seaway, I could turn that into a floating casino..... Anyone caught cheating gets a free ride off the catapult....:devious:

Not sure what you mean by alternative....do you mean alternative style rotors or suppliers? I've used rotors from the local Napa store for years.. even while racing they held up as good as any others.... and were quite a bit cheaper. I've also used them from Advance Auto as well....

I'd try Carbotech or Hawk first, to see if you can find either a replacement pad or have your pads reman'd with new material. You might be able to just send them a tracing of the backing pad and they might be able to find something to replace them. http://www.hawkperformance.com/ http://www.carbotecheng.com/main.htm Porterfield used to do pads with new material, but since I believe they use Hawk material, you might be further ahead to try Hawk themselves first, and Porterfields web-site is down at the moment.. I recently saw a set of the FIA pads on Ebay, but they aren't listed at this time, I think he's asking a bit much for them and having trouble selling them....

George, all I can say is, any class you will be running against the 3 series Bimmer, you might as well be ready to run behind them..... especially in any class where they are able to legally get inside their ECU and modify it... those cars have better brakes, stiffer chassis, and they can put more hp to the wheels than a 240 can put to the crank.:disappoin The 325's hav pretty much dominated road racing in ITS for the last few years in my region.. in fact, no car other than a 325 has won a race in the last 3 years at Summit Point...

Maybe you shouldn't be such a "bad little boy" Mr. Cruiser...... :devious:

Be careful of what you are looking at when you use that line again... we may have to raise a toast in your memory..... Sounds like "Mrs. Claus" was good to you...... only bad thing is, tool boxes are like our garages, they always need to be bigger....:tapemouth

Full race L-24's such as the BSR and BRE C/P cars had in the 70's were rumoured to have 250+hp.... It's not hard to build one to 200hp with all the parts available now, but it won't be exactly cheap either.:cross-eye Building a good solid street engine with 180+hp at the crank is fairly simple and can be done on a smaller budget. Actually, I think the guy with the TR-6 was pulling your chain, as I'm pretty sure the TR-6 had nearly as much hp as the 240's, or quite a bit more than 96hp.... they were a very similar engine, right down to the SU's.....

According to the copy of the window sticker on ZHome, that was particular car was a 4 speed. I'm thinking it was probably offered either in a 4 speed, 5 speed or automatic. Since it was a Special Appearance Package it probably was available on any of the models. If it were a special option package or had something to do with a performance package it might have had certain options that were only available with the package. So, the 5 speed would make it more desirable in my book. Now, whether the dealers had a choice of which trans was shipped to them, or if they were able to pre-order the cars is something I don't know....Or, perhaps the whole number of cars produced might have been split evenly between the 4,5 and auto's? What some of the manufacturers are doing today, when they have a new model on the market, every dealer will get a vehicle that is exactly the same as every other dealer gets, and the dealer had no choice of options, or color even...:cross-eye

I did what I could with the sandblaster and put a heavy coat of paint on mine in the recesses..... Acid dipping might be OK, but since I have no place local to do it, it was out of the question for me....

Hehe, forgot you were a member here Tom.... I usually see you posting over on "Taters" forum....

Sounds like it may be coming from the bleeder by her description... either they are loose, or possibly stripped... Either way, if you remove the bleeder to replace it, you'd be best to re-bleed the entire system while you are at it and check for any other possible leaks. Just be careful when you check them, since if they are tight and leaking, they may snap off, and cause you even more work....:cross-eye

White and blue are the two interior colors you won't see very often. It's odd that it's originally orange though, as most often the white was used with the red exterior and orange cars are predominantly a black interior... You should be able to find white interior panel from a specialty shop, but the hardest part might possibly be the white interior rivets that hold the panels. I thin CDM has the interior panels available in colors other than black. But, it worse came to worse, you could always use SEM dye on the panels. http://www.classicdatsun.com/ I believe all the cars had black carpet originally, but Too Intense has carpets in other colors available.

MSA has them listed in their last catalog, but that doesn't mean they still have them available....Looked in their online catalog and all I see for electrical is their replacement fuse boxes.... 72 headlight switch Part number 45-4053... $97.80

Well, we've got a few road racers, and few that do open track events and Vintage, but no serious auto-x'ers that I can think of.....

Tom Holt and a couple other auto-x'ers frequent the racing forum over on ZDriver. http://zdriver.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=14

Recognize the wrinkles in the fender when you see the rest of the car? http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5489&password=&sort=7&thecat=500

I was referring to the lack of limted production cars in the US prior to the 280's in the late 70's, such as the Black Pearl Edition and the Zzap variant. Now, if we had the low volume 240's such as the HS30-H's and 432R's imported to the US, I think we'd see all the 240's gaining more in value, since people would be interested in the low volume models, and when they find they couldn't get one, they'd "settle" for the base model instead.... Unfortunately, we got one model and that was it until 77 or 78. Then we did get the 280ZX-R's and the Anniversary Editions later, but they don't do much to increase the value of the earlier cars as they have their own following.... Of course, the lack of any other limited production cars prior to the Zzap and the Black Pearl, the values of these cars is substantially increased.

I've seen a couple of the Black Pearls on Ebay besides the one a week or so ago that was in pieces, and most seem to go in the 7500-12K range as far as asking(Buy It Now or sold) prices. All depends on the mileage and condition. I guess it depends on whether or not you could resist the temptation to modify it to suit your tastes, as these cars really ought to be kept as close to stock as possible. Unless of course it's just a set of wheels or something that can be unbolted easily. Shame we never got any of the limited production 240's like other markets did, as I think those would certainly add to the collector values of all 240's in general.

The FI and electronic ignition can be a pain, but if you have a Factory Service manual, it is fairly simple compared to todays electronics....I'd rather work on a 78 than I would the Z32 or Z33....at least with the early cars, they don't have a multitude of programs in the computer working in tandem with other systems.:cross-eye Sounds like it might only be the pinch weld at the bottom of the rocker that got bent... as long as it doesn't show in the rocker face, it could be something that could easily be repaired. I'd make a list of what the car needs, and try to negotiate a lower price on the car..who knows, he might go for 2K less when/ if you offered it...

Is it worth it? Looking at the pics, I'd say it's worth a lot more than a plain 280 in the same condition..... It's one of the few true "limited editions" from the factory that were sold in the US....Shame it has some damage to the rocker panel, but overall, I'd have to say it's worth close to his asking price. If he's asking 10K, wonder if he'd settle for 8500 or 9K.... I believe the Black Pearls had standard 280 hubcaps on plain steel wheels. OK, it's not a 240, and if the mileage is correct and he can prove it.....I'd be tempted if I had the money.:cheeky:

Well Alan, you know how we are about forgetting about the S-20, so I thought I'd make my statement a little more clear....It's hard to remember things that are as rare as an honest politician.....:cross-eye As far as there being any S-20's in the US? There's at least one that I've heard about. In one of the old issues of Z Car magazine (Spring 97) there's a short article by Wick Humble and Steve Petterson(who at one time lived in Japan and drove 4 different cars with S-20's, GT-R's and 432's) about the S-20, and a picture of Steve holding the head of an S-20.... The last paragraph of the article states, that he "brought back" a complete S-20 engine for his Fairlady Z project car. There was supposed to be a follow up article when the car was completed, but, I don't think that article ever made it before the magazine went under... I'd imagine there could be one or two more in the US, in the hands of the serious collectors with the means and the contacts to get them...Perhaps someone like Bob Sharp, Don Devendorf, Les Cannaday or perhaps even Carl Beck might have one (or parts of one) stashed away somewhere....and if they did, would they tell people they did?

You could shoot Chloe a PM now and get an answer even sooner... her username is: mwz Oh, BTW, it rained cats and dogs all day then they turned into frozen poodles... I'll get out to check the parts car tomorrow... it's supposed to be rain and snow free for a day....:cross-eye