Arne

Mr. K's car. Same Appliance Fine Wires as I had on mine.

Here's mine with a set of 14x6 Appliance Fine Wires on it, as it was when I bought it. Like Mike, I didn't like them, and removed and sold them shortly. Wire wheels can look good (if you like that look), and have a lot of visual pop. But they are also heavy, not always round & true, and often have an offset that is inconvenient for a Z. They're hard to keep clean as well.

Moved to 240Z forum from 240K forum.

Mixed results while I was gone. Only 4 checks, but most were for multiples. Up to 38% as of today. Still hoping, and still possible.

The flasher unit for the hazards. Can't recall exactly where it attaches, off hand. But somewhere on the right side of the car.

A '72 should have come with 5.0", yes. The size will be stamped on the face of the rim, under the hub cap and near the valve stem.

I'm going to be out of town for several days this coming week, so no mail updates until Thursday or so. Cross your fingers, everyone...

Yup, I can't wait. This will be the last period accessory that I think I want for my car. And it's been the hardest to find. I'm still hopeful that it'll happen.

Ack! No checks in today's mail at all!

They attach using one of the bracket to body bolts. The outer ones, IIRC.

A good mail call today. Now at 23%.

The first checks arrived today. Let's all hope that enough people respond. About 8% of the way there. Need to get to 65-70% to get to where I can cover the rest.

I did the shower curtain thing on one side of my car a while back, also thanks to E. for the idea. Buy the cheapest, thinnest one you can find. Works well.

Yup. I rotate mine every 18 months or so. Takes about 20-30 minutes. No big deal, just part of regular maintenance. I've got 10k in three years on my Toyo 195/70-14s now (14x6 wheels), still much life left. Several more years. Indeed, I'll probably replace them due to age long before they wear out. I'm sure you can find Yokos to fit your narrow steelies, one of the two sizes I listed above should do it. Don't know if they'll last longer, though.

Yeah, I did it. You want a laugh, google his username and "empire covers" and see how many forums he has posted that same spiel on...

No obvious wear patterns there. Front looks better, but might show a bit of toe-out, looking at the wear on the inside shoulder. I'd probably have the alignment checked just because, but it doesn't look terrible. Looks like you never rotated the tires, which would have tended to equalize the wear some. But that only means that the rears would be a bit better and the fronts a bit worse. Not a deal breaker either way. Larger issue is your expectations. While I have no personal experience with them, those Vreds are not known as being a particularly long lasting tire. I would not have expected to get more than 30-35k miles out of tires like those, at the very most. Add to that the fact that you are driving a light-weight sports/GT car, and maybe 20k might be all they'll reasonably go. Light cars are hard on tires. Too much slippage due to light weight. Same problem that causes a rear touring motorcycle tire to wear out in 4-6k miles. I actually got much better rear tire mileage on the bikes when riding two-up. Even though my wife only weighs ~125 lbs., it's really noticeable on tire wear. I know that Vreds are about the only true 175-14 tires left these days, but your experience doesn't make it look as if they are very durable. Probably no incentive for them to be better since they are about the only game in town. If longer lasting tires are a priority for you, consider looking into P185/75-14 as replacements. Much larger selection to choose from, a touch wider, but still narrow enough to fit comfortably on stock steel wheels. If your car has 14x5.0 wheels you could also consider 195/70-14, but pinching them down to fit a 5" wheel isn't going to help either the handling or the mileage.

Yeah, 0103 = first week (01) of 2003 (03).

Different R. The Vreds aren't even H rated (130 MPH, 210 KPH), they are only S rated (112 MPH, 180 KPH).The R in a typical tire size merely indicates Radial. What you are using on the 5er are "R Compound" tires. Race rubber, more or less. Different thing entirely.

I'm not sure that I'd call the Vredestein a long life tire. So 50-60k might be a bit of a stretch. But I'd certainly expect 30-40k, so you may have a problem. Can you post a clear picture of the wear pattern on the rears? Might be best to post the better of the two, easier to diagnose from one with a little left rather than one that's way bald.

Actually, no, it hasn't. Pretty boring, what?

I have emailed and PM'd the interested Canadians, also. Canadian prices will be US$42 each, and the Canadian order form is at: http://1971.240z.home.comcast.net/temp/CZCC-BT-Canada.pdf I should also note, I don't think I'm going to be able to get away with declaring these as gifts, due to the large number that I will be mailing. I'm afraid I'll need to declare them at a value of $32US per unit. I don't know what that will do to you folks as far as duties and tax. I will attempt to ship multiples in as few packages as possible, on the assumption that any handling fee that they charge you for collecting the duties will only be charged once.

Fulda is and was a small subsidiary of Goodyear/Europe. Not common outside Europe in the '70s. I recall seeing them now and then on old Audi 100LS and such. I can't imagine that they would have ever been used as factory equipment on any Japanese cars. I replaced many original Z tires while working in the tire industry in the '70s, and all I remember was Bridgestone and Toyo. Yokohama was added in later years...

A quick reminder that you need not have gotten in on this earlier (with the original poll and such) to participate. All are welcome!!

I've got a spare early 4 speed - but ironically it's here in Oregon! Not much help in getting you out here. Since your car (IIRC) is a '72, you can use any 4 or 5 speed from '72 through '83 except the ones out of the '83 ZX Turbo. All others will simply bolt in. To save possible headaches use ALL of the clutch parts (incl. the clutch fork and release bearing) you have in the car now, not any parts that may come with the replacement transmission. And while the ratios may be inconvenient, I think you might be able to also get by with a manual tranny from some of the older Datsun/Nissan pickups. Maybe someone else can verify that one way or the other?

Is this an ebay head? Who's the seller?