Pop's Z

Since I bought my car last year(it had 69,980 miles on it) I've driven it 3,000 miles mostly on sunny days. Because I live real close to the mountains these trips are canyon runs usually early in the morning to avoid traffic. In fact just yesterday I drove up Poudre canyon(Colorado Highway 14) to the top of Cameron Pass. I only had to pass 4 cars and wasn't real concerned about the speed limit...great grins. Not a daily driver. Cheers, Mike

Hi all, I'm about to store my Z for the winter. I would like to disconnect the battery and have been looking for a disconnect switch as I don't really want to take the terminal off and on if I want to go for a cruise on those really nice days. Any suggestions? What do you all use? What's the good ones...what's the ones to avoid? Thanks in advance. Mike

Blaine, Carl Beck knows of which he speaks. I bought a "perfect" 73 in Denver last year for $8,000. It had 69,000 original miles(real) and I bought it from the first owner who had kept it garaged all it's life. It had NO rust and although I felt I probably overpaid I have very few of the issues others have had with their more "used" cars. Then came the fun...had to get rid of the white vinyl roof(dealer installed and beginning to peel, that required a new paint job. Then a few rubber parts, then a new exhaust system, then new struts,and as long as I was doing that,new bushings, ball joints, tie-rod ends. I was unable to tune the 71 S.U.s so off they went to Ztherapy. Then the seats were saggy and my 60 year old butt just needed some new foam. Then, of course I needed some tunes.......you see where this goes. I'm now into the car for a lot more than I paid for it and I will never get the money out of it, BUT, I don't care. I'm having so much fun with this car that the money just doesn't matter all that much. I can do 90% of the work myself which is very satisfying and then I can do like I did on Monday and take the Z for a spin in the mountains up to Estes Park and over Peak to Peak down to Boulder and that is really a blast and a great stress reliever. It really doesn't matter how much you pay, you will pay more as time goes by. As Carl said when I was first looking..."get the BEST car you can afford and go from there". Check out my picture gallery to see what I have been talking about. Good luck with your search and remember these cars are not an investment that will make you money. They are for fun and that's worth a lot. Cheers, Mike

Richard, That console is repairable. Go to www.ztherapy.com. and order the 240Z tuneup video. Not only does it tell you how to tune up your Z, but it also tells you how to repair your console and strenghten your choke mount. Really good stuff. I followed their directions and repaired the console on my 73. At the same time I lubed the choke wires and it is very smooth and puts no strain on the console. It was not very hard to do and you have to look real closely to tell it was broken in 3 places. Cheers, Mike

Ian, You can add my name to the Ztherapy band wagon. They did my S.U.s and even jetted/needled them for my altitude(5000 ft.). They made a MAJOR difference in the way the car performs. they were definitely worth the $$$. FWIW you can't know how many miles have been put on the carbs...my car only had 69,000 miles on it, but because it is a 73 the old flat tops had been replaced w/ 71s and I had no idea how worn out they were. I know that $600 sounds like a lot, but believe me it is a bargain. Cheers, Mike

Bryan, Here's what I did. I could not find a plug to fit the strange thread/taper in the exhaust manifold so I removed the air gallery and pulled the tubes out of the exhaust manifold, cut them off flush and replaced them( they seal like a flanged fitting inside the manifold). Then I cut the plugs off of the air gallery flush with the tops of the plugs and had them welded shut including the remainder of the tube. Problem solved and they don't leak and will not blow out. Good luck. Mike

FWIW, I took mine to a machine shop. Cost $25. Worth every penny. Also , you can rent a ball joint separater from Autozone...you will, however tear up the boot so get some new ones. Mike

Hi guys, The brackets are very close to the original size. The O.D. is close to the same, however the I.D. is "cut out" to accommodate a larger speaker. To use a 5 1/4 speaker the bracket would have to be modified in some way. I agree on the shallow speaker comment. Mine are right up against the hoses for the vapor recovery tank and there is not much room in there. I wire tied the hoses as far to the outside(away from the speaker) as I could, but it is a tight fit. Mike

FWIW, I installed these brackets and some cheap Pyramid 6 3/4 three way speakers. I did this to avoid changing the appearance of the (mostly) stock car. Be aware that many speakers won't fit the already mounted bolts and you will have to fab some mounting bolts for the right side. If you get speakers with tweeters built in they will be in contact with the plastic panels and will buzz and rattle. I actually cut openings in them around the outline of the little holes as the panels were covered with a velour material(installed by the PO). The sound is ok, certainly better than the stock speaker in the car. I agree that they are not placed for the best sound(facing each other). If I had to do it over(and I just might), I would get or fabricate the speaker box for 6X9s that replaces the rear taillight panel (avaiiable from MSA and some other sources). The $145 price tag is a bit steep and you could fab one up yourself for a lot less. Several people on the site have done so. In short these brackets were a great idea, but one that doesn't work as well as I would have liked....just my opinion. Mike

FWIW, my 73Z came from the dealer in Denver with a white vinyl roof. The PO was very proud of it. I thought it was very disco era and as it was lifting in a few areas, I removed it. It had been applied over the original paint(114 metallic brown) and the paint underneath was in pretty good shape except for a inverted "V" of surface rust from the hatch push-button. Unfortunately the PO had had the car painted and it did not match so it went to the body shop for a paint job. I was fortunate in that the rust was only surface and was easy to repair, AND there was no other rust(lucky me). The holes left by the removal of the chrome strips near the vents were mig welded shut and finished off. You can't tell there was ever a vinyl roof on the car. For me that was a good thing. Others might not feel that way...personal preference.

Excuse me for asking, but what does this topic have to do with classic Zcars? Isn't there enough dissention in our country right now without bringing it to a place where we should be yakking abour our cars. I'm sure our friends in other countries are not too interested in this topic so why don't we move on. Peace, my brothers, Mike ps before you all jump me on this: USMC 1965-1968, Vietnam 1966-1967. I earned my right to disagree with this topic.

Arne, My 73 has the original wheel and tire. The wheel is flat black on the outside and silver on the inside. Get out the spray can. Cheers, Mike

You GO girl!!! Mike

FWIW, I have found a good selection of stainless hardware at(surprisingly enough) my local ACE hardware store. Another place you could try is www.westmarine.com. I used to work for them and because they are a marine parts outfit they have mucho stainless stuff. Look under fasteners. Hope this helps. Mike

Try shox.com. I bought 4 KYB strut inserts w/ boots for my 1973 Z for $242 delivered to my door in 3 days. They weren't too hard to install...check out the "search" feature for help. Cheers, Mike

Mathew, That middle muffler was(note I say was) an 18" glass-pac turned around to "maximize the flow"(so the muffler guy said). I had it put on in the first place as I had read many threads here and on other sites that if I didn't I would have the dreaded resonating boom at 2000-3000 rpm. I had it removed after a week because the system was too quiet. I do not have any resonance and the system is still quiet, but you can tell there is a high-revving six under the hood(and I don't wizz-off me neighbors). Ed gave you really good advice. I asked the local hot rod guys who they took their cars to and went there. Cheers, Mike

Mathew, That system is NLA from MSA. I called about it in May after I had seen and heard it at the MSA show in April. The end pipes are still available in two sizes. FWIW you don't need a header if you're stock. You won't get much out of it and it's much more noisy, and HOT. As far as an exhaust system search under "exhaust system" to see what I did. I went the local muffler shop route and am very happy w/ the outcome. See pics in my gallery. Cheers, Mike

FWIW, for $100 more, ZTherapy carbs are the be-all and end-all. It was one of the best things I did to the car. $600 is a lot of dough, BUT my car was transformed! No stumbles, no hesitation just revs right up to 6500 and I live at 5,000 ft. Steve even changed the jets and needles for my altitude at no extra charge. And they just bolt right up so you can do it yourself. As you can tell, I am a very satisfied customer. Also on a spirited drive last week in the mountains I got 24 mpg, too. You can't go wrong with ZTherapy. Cheers, Mike