KDMatt

Heheh.. yep, I'll get to learn by doing. Well... another quirk has developed with the car today, one that's going to take higher precedence than the other things listed here. The starter seems to be getting selective about cranking. Most of the time the starter will crank, and the engine will start, but sometimes when I turn the key in the ignition, all I get is the infamous "click." So, first on my agenda, I'm going to just buy a new or rebuilt starter, before this "quirk" develops into a "problem." After that I'll get some tuneup stuff and get to work on making my Z run a little bit better. The auto parts store I usually go to doesn't stock the NGK ignition wires, only Autolite (and for a bit less money too), but I can at least get NGK plugs there, in addition to a new distributor cap and rotor from...some brand I can't remember... Then after that... it's just onto the speaker wiring and shifter bushings... ah... so many quirks, so little time. I'm actually trekking down to Chicago tomorrow with my mom. We're not takin' the Z though, we're going in her Civic. However, she said that if the Z were conceivably quieter, and had a working air-conditioner, we'd be driving in that, just because it's so much more cozy inside. Gotta love them GTs! I'll be back on Sunday.

Thanks Jared(?), I'm glad someone agrees that the shift knob needs to go... though, I have to say, I'm not very smitten with the stock one either. I'd like to avoid wood, it's already causing my hand to callous a bit. I'm probably going to go with this one from Too Intense Restorations. It matches the interior better and looks a bit snazzier IMO. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=4534583478&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT Thanks for pointing out the missing fusible link covers. I don't have the little idiosynchrosies of this engine design down yet, and I'm very grateful that someone does, and can point missing stuff out to me. Oh, on that note, a question, there's no danger in my driving in the rain is there (should it happen)? I would hope that the engine compartment is waterproofed enough where I can't really short those buggers out, eh? Also, can you give me the website/phone number for Courtesy Nissan? ... or is it possible I could order the stuff I need through a Nissan dealership? ... and yeah, it looks like that exhaust/brake shop is like a half-way point between my house and yours. I might just have to have the car professionally tuned for now, until I find someone a bit closer, I hope you're not offended, I just don't feel like spending an hour driving to get help with my car from, essentially, a total stranger (even if it will be a learning experience). Sorry. ...In other news with the car, today I discovered that the rear speakers don't work. The rear right does... sort of... ya know, putting out a fuzzy, low volume version of what's going on up front, but the rear left puts out nothing but fuzz. I'm planning to use some 14 gauge speaker wire to just bypass the wiring, since I'm assuming that's what's wrong. The speakers in the back are less than 5 years old, and the PO just probably wasn't enough of an audiophile to notice they weren't working (heck, it took me 48 hours to notice, and only because I was messing with the stereo with the car parked in the driveway). Yes... that's right, it's in the driveway now (shadier, which is good, since hatchbacks are essentially unrated solar ovens). I also tossed in like three of those pine-tree shaped air-fresheners in the new-car smell. After only sitting for about 3 hours, it was already smelling a whole lot better inside... I'm not partial to 'old car' as a scent. I would get out of the car smelling like it, which I didn't like. Heh, and I finally noticed someone looking at the car today too. He was a stereotypical guy on a motorcycle (full beard with shades), and his head just followed my car as I turned past him at a four-way intersection. I gave him the customary hand wave out the window (thanks for looking! nice bike!). Anyway, that's a good feeling.

Picture Descriptions: 11 - Shot of the rear, note the missing 280Z badging on the hatch 12 - The odometer, reading 83k miles. 13 - My CD Player... still loaded with a Van Halen CD from the trip over. 14 - Generic side profile. EDIT: Thanks dogma, I'm actually getting it down a lot more now. Third, for whatever reason doesn't feel directly centered... it seems just a wee-bit off the right on my car for some reason, ah well, at least now I know where it is. Yeah, my parking brake woes are pretty much over too, I'm just pumping it a few times now, and that seems to be keeping the car in place pretty good on a good incline, but like I said, I've still got that wooden block under the tire... juuuust in case. Thanks again for all your support guys!

^^^^^^ Picture Descriptions (forgot to add these): 1 - I think you know what this one is... 2 - This is a closeup of where a Datsun emblem used to be. 3 - This is some paint bubbling and peeling on the hood on the driver's (left?) side. 4 - This is the only visible major rust damage on the body directly in front of the driver's side door. 5 - Some minor rust near the door handle and lock on the driver's side. ----------- Picture Descriptions (of below) 6 - The fugly aftermarker shift knob. 7 - The worn-out aftermarket steering wheel. 8 - Generic shot of the engine compartment 9 - Battery tray, with little visible rust. 10 - From the driver's side, look down the engine bay to the ground.

Thanks guys! I actually ended up spending between 30 to 45 minutes driving around my neighborhood getting a good feel for it. On top of that, I took my mom to the grocery store, and she was very surprised at how comfortable the seats are! She's as converted as I could have ever have hoped for a middle-aged mother to get, being quoted as saying, "Your car's awesome." Anyway, between that and driving out to my friend's house, and hanging out and cruising, I have not killed it once since my last message. My clutching has definitely improved. Some of my shifts are still sort of rocky, but at least I'm not throwing her into first when I'm really aiming for third. Both my mom and my buddy's mom were sort of amazed when I told them I could cruise along at 20 mph in third gear, and 30 mph in fourth gear... of course, neither of them have a car that generates the kind of power mine does, so... :laugh: *bragging rights* I love driving my car now! :knockedou Hey, Z's rule, I'm going to be setting up an appointment for my car to get into that exhaust shop I mentioned. That's over in East Saint Paul, Zip Code 55101, is that any closer than my home zip code, 55421? Maybe we could arrange a meetup or something? It would be great to have someone close by that knows these cars well to help me out, and perhaps even willing to help me 'get my feet wet' with engine work? I think I've said it before, but my car needs a tune-up pretty badly. Anyway, I snapped a bunch of pics today too, so, behold!

Heh, I need to get one of those CD's and t-shirts. Well I drove it around again today, but I'm still not very adept with a stick. It's just too bad that nobody else in my family has a manny tranny, because then I could at least work my way up to my car. Not being too skilled with the stick is a major disadvantage at this stage, because after I get done driving, I feel all nervous and jittery, pretty much because the car still feels alien to me. I'm going to set aside some time to just drive on the residential streets near my house (stop signs, almost no traffic) just to get the whole thing down. Ugh, and sometimes I still accidentally shift into first when I'm aiming for third (on the highway, when I'm accelerating no less)... ugh... and that usually scares the hell out of me, when I do it (say, going 35/40 mph) the engine goes into high rpms and the tires squeal... and a wave of smelly exhaust hits me up front. It'd be cool if I was doing it on purpose... but yeah... It sucks to be a novice. I just hope my car is patient. In other news, my neighbor across the street, almost immediately after I brought the car home today came over and complimented me, and gave me a card for this shop about 15 miles away that does brakes and exhaust. The guy there quoted me a cool $120 to replace it (cat-back), so that makes me happy. It'll look like an old car, smell like an old car, but not sound like one (and that's good).

Ah thanks! I'm definitely going to look into fixing that shifting action... that and probably get a different shift knob... The one I've got is wood (and no, it's not stock), and it's, as my sister would say, "fugly." The best part is though, a Haynes Repair Manual came as part of the deal.

Cheap Alternative = Cinderblocks

Ahh... the check went through, I got the cashier's check made... and... well now there's a 280Z parked in front of my house. :laugh: It's really weird though... it's a 1976 model, but it's still got a 5-speed tranny, I was under the impression that 5-speeds didn't make it into Z's until 77? I mean it's quite possible that mine is just a late, late production 76, but still, weird eh? (VIN: 286119) Anyway, my shifting has greatly improved. Once I got a fair sense of where the gears all were, I was home-free. When I test drove it, I never had to go beyond 3rd gear, but today I had to take it on the freeway to get it home, so I had a chance to cycle her all the way through. The steering vibrates a little up near 60, but I suppose that's not a huge deal, right? It was funny though, one of the first remarks my mom made about it (after "wow, that guy really took good care of it") was, "hey, this car doesn't have any airbags does it?!" ... and what could I do? I just sort of shrugged and glumly said no... I had to, of course, explain to her that this car was made back when cars were still solid hunks of metal, and it is therefore, more rigid, and less liable to get crushed and fall apart in an accident than her Civic (which she, ironically, also just picked up today). It took me a while to figure out that I have power mirrors too. The only thing I have left to figure out is how to open up the hatch in the back, and I'm pretty much set. Is there some kind of trick to getting the key to turn? I stick mine in but it doesn't want to turn. Heh, I also had a bit of a close-encounter with the parking brake too, I put it up all the way, and the bugger didn't want to come back down (button was stuck). I tore off the cruddy boot and did eventually get it down... but, whew... I was worried I'd have to have a pro look at it with less than 30 minutes of ownership under my belt. Now I just put it up enough where the car doesn't want to roll freely, and I put a wooden block under the rear tire... Hey, maybe it doesn't look great, but it sure beats having a stuck parking brake. Only thing I noticed is that the shift action is sorta sloppy, that's part of the reason why I was having a hard time shifting into the right gears (accidentally putting her into first when I meant to put her into third, that sorta thing). I'm just glad it's tough to find and get into reverse... all hell would have broken loose if I'd been aiming for fourth and'd hit reverse instead... sayonara tranny. Anyway, I'll have some pictures for you all soon!

Also, you know, most good alarms with shock sensors are adjustable to the kind of sensitivity you want, that way if it's thunderstorming or what not, you can turn the sensitivity down so that you don't wake up the old ladies down the street.

I'm sort of partial to the one Bond had in "Tomorrow Never Dies." If you touch the car you get a powerful electric shock. Hey, it's kinda hard to steal if you can't even stand to touch it! :squareeye A killswitch sounds like a good plan, but like it's been said already, nothing is as good (or cheap these days) as a good, loud alarm to let passersby know that the person jerking around with the car is not its owner. A starter immobilizer probably can't be too bad an idea either.

suhweet :bandit:

So is this going to be like the Z-equivalent of Frankenstein? You take the parts from two, essentially "dead" cars and recombine them to make one good one? IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIIIVE! IIIITS ALLIIIIIIIIVVEE! ...well... not yet I suppose... heheh...

It feels really good to have my logic validated. Thank you! With any luck I can pick the car up on Monday night now. I have to wait for the checks I deposited in my account on Wednesday to clear before I can get a cashier's check made, so yeah. Maaan... this is gonna be awesome.

, neither have I... but if you're referring to ZMax ... jk Yeah, that's what I was worried about... think ZMax is capable of that? Hey now.. I umm.. meant that in a good way... toe-tall-ee! :stupid: :classic: :rambo: :eek: EDIT: Fergot to say thanks! :nervous:

I actually am not getting a winter car. I'm going to be living on campus while in college, and for all intensive purposes I won't need a car (besides parking is too damn expensive). The point I was making to my dad during the 'deliberation' process was this: That fact that I should only drive it in the summer doesn't matter because no matter what kind of car I have, it makes no sense to take it to school with me, so therefore I might as well have one that is intended for summer use only. All I've gotta do is make sure I'm storing it someplace before November hits, since that's when winter officially starts here as you and I well know... then, depending on when the snow melts for good (mid-May?) I'll juice her back up and take her on the road once more. Anyway, I'll just play it by ear, and replace stuff as the need comes. I'm a paranoid driver; the minute something even sounds 'off' I check it out or have it checked out. I've got tons of buddies who are more engine savvy than me that I'm sure are more than willing to come and do a checkup on such a cool, classic car. My only 'breakdown' concerns are from a safety standpoint, i.e. master cylinder, clutch master cylinder, parts like that. So yeah, I'm not too worried about this car being a major headache. I'd probably be facing a bigger mountain of problems if my grandfather had had his way and I'd gotten a Buick, Lincoln, or Cadillac.

Cool, I did not know that about octane ratings. So it's actually related to compression eh? Fascinating... All this time I'd assumed that a higher octane gasoline was more pure and more flammable than a lower one... Ya learn somethin' new every day!

Well, unless I've missed my guess, an octane booster would make the gasoline in the car more... shall we say, "volatile?" ... making the car perform better and thus making the owner feel like the stuff he added is actually doing something. Hrm... maybe I should try an experiment with the Zmax... ya know, measure compression before and after using it (they say it's supposed to give you better compression), if doesn't do much of anything, then we know it's crap, eh? ... some valid points against it though... My only concern is, is it safe to use anything like that in an engine almost 30 years old? Zmax has been commercially available since the 80's but... yeah... I'm not gonna be pissed if this stuff doesn't do anything... I just don't want to hurt the car. Anbody else take a thorough look at the official site?

Wha? Mwa? Z-fevah? Nevah!

Ahh... soo much to respond to... Thanks Gary, Yeah, I know, I was all worried for a sec... but hey, maybe it's a Minnesota thing? Snow makes us paranoid about our cars (regardless of make, model, or year). My Z is never going to see snow if I have anything to say about it though... Speaking of which, DatsunZsRule: Whereabouts are you again in MN? I think I remember you said it before, but now I can't remember. It'd be cool to try to get a cruise organized between the MN people here and on the ZOOM forum. Not a cheap hobby eh? I know plenty of other young(er) guys (and gals) with less money that have cars that are (supposedly) older and less reliable. I think I'm probably gonna end up getting off pretty cheap. I guess it's only "uncheap" if ya can't live with a lot of minor flaws in your Z, eh? Yours is pristine, mine's not... and that's the way I plan to keep it for a while. Wow... it feels so good to say the word "my" in context with "Z" ... After saying it so many times... the reality of it is finally hitting me... I'm so excited! ... going off-topic... When I go back and think about it... it's a pretty interesting story to think of how I got into Z's in the first place. Every year I go up north to a lake resort with my extended family, and for a few years running, it was my yearly tradition to build a model. Well, the local hardware store has a pretty imfamous reputation of having a rather 'dry' selection of cars to build... so, one year when I went in there I was getting very depressed because it seemed like there weren't any interesting looking cars to build, but, suddenly an orange looking one jumped out at me, the box read "Datsun 240Z." I looked at it, intrigued, "Datsun 240Z? What the heck is that?" Well, seeing as it was the most interesting looking model they had, I bought and starting making it... Ironically, I thought Silver was a very becoming color on it, and decided to paint it just that, not knowing that just a few years from then I'd have a Z in that color. The model came with a little booklet that very briefly explained the history of the car... and then of course I realized that Datsun was actually Nissan... and suddenly everything had a little more perspective. Anyway... long story short... the weather got crappy and I never finished the model (it's still sitting unfinished somewhere in our house... I need to find it for sure now!)... but after I came home, I told my dad that I really liked the 240Z, and that some day I'd like to have one. He considered that for a moment before suggesting, "Or, how about a 280Z?" Now, this was before either of us knew anything about these cars, and he only spouted '280' because he basically figured that since 280 was a higher number, a 280Z was therefore "better" than a 240Z. Well after that... my serious interest in Z's sort of tapered off, but a 280Z remained on my huge list of "Cars to Own Before I die" ... it wasn't until March/April that my interest in Z's was re-aroused... I was then stunned to see a red one for sale near my school... and the rest is pretty much history, I immersed myself in everything I could learn about Z's and then decided I was ready to have one... So there ya have it folks, that's KDMatt in a nutshell.

I was sucked in by a TV infomercial for this stuff years ago. Here's an ebay link that basically gives you the lowdown on what it's supposed to do. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4559991153&category=6755&sspagename=WDVW and for those of you who want the official skinny, here's the manufacturer's website: http://www.zmax.com/ Okay, now, I've already gone through and seen some threads about people thinking about using oil additives in engines that are potentially choked with carbon on the inside, and I've seen that those people are generally deterred from using 'cleaning' products in their engine. I'm to understand that there can be some pretty serious consequences for trying to 'clean' an older engine in such a short period of time (i.e. 15 minutes). I've used ZMax before in my mom's '94 Tracer, and it certainly did make a difference (better pickup and smoother shifts in the auto trans.), but I'm wondering, do you more knowledgable car guys believe this mumbo jumbo would work on a Z? In other words... could ZMax take my Z to the max? ... just so there's no confusion, this isn't a commercial post; I don't work for ZMax and I'm not trying to advertise the stuff. I've felt the difference this stuff can make in a newer car, and I just want to know if it's "safe" for use in our Z's. In fact... I'm wondering... has anybody else tried this stuff? (In their Z or other car) If this stuff is safe for our 30+ year old cars, it could be an easy way to put some 'zip' back into 'em.

Yeah, I was just so convinced, , oh well, live and learn something new everyday (mash-up of clichés )

LMAO! Damn, all of a sudden, "Christine" doesn't sound quite so far off. O.O ... she's not gonna throw a fit if I take a woman out is she? (i.e. make her choke on a hot ham & cheese) Of course... along this line of reasoning, I'm gonna guess that some Z's are prissier and more demanding, while others are more laid back and complacent, neh? I'm buying her from a married family man, and he hasn't had any problems... so... Though... the fact that the passenger door doesn't open from the outside could be an indicator that despite its having two seats, it's a one-person car. Man... now you've got me all worried and paranoid. I'm worried that the car doesn't like me.

Lmao, I will definitely have to limit my spending on her a bit then. Sayonara vinyl seat covers. :dead: I'm still gonna replace the shift knob for sure though... It's wooden, and it doesn't match... I think the spirit of the car will thank me for that... as it surely will for putting a Datsun emblem on the hood where there isn't one right now... I simply must make my peace with her. She'll understand that... right... RIGHT?! :squareeye Could be like that scene straight outta Gone In Sixty Seconds (the new one), "Okay Eleanor, you take care of me, and I'll take care of you..." 'cept she's a far cry from a Mustang, and I'm a far cry from Nicholas Cage. BTW: I think I'm gonna try out that 'ethereal money detector' ... ya know, just leave a five dollar bill in my wallet, then put it on the console for half a day... I wonder what'll happen.

I concede my argument... :surprised :hurt: