Arne

I'll be watching this one, as in many ways it is similar to my yellow car, which I will be selling later this Spring. My yellow car is better in some ways, worse in others. But overall it may help me to determine an asking price.

Well, I agree in principal, but maybe horrible is too strong. I totally agree that modern electronic ignitions are better than points in most every way. But I'm old enough to remember when points were all we had - so I had to learn to deal with them. And they will do the job.Also consider that the modern ignitions aren't perfect either. I've heard lots of problems with Pertronix, tach issues with several kinds, and they are generally all-or-nothing. They either work or they don't, if you don't have spare parts you can't limp home with a dead EI. Ask beandip about what you do when your Nissan E12-80 module dies abruptly while cruising in 105 degree heat on I-5. And finally, one of the often touted advantages is steady and stable timing - which will not be the case if the distributor shaft bushings are worn, as is the case in many old Nissan dizzies these days. I guess my main point in this thread (which I didn't express well) is that first, the ignition system is not likely to be the cause of the small pops in the exhaust; and second, you shouldn't worry about converting from points to EI until you are satisfied the car is tuned well with the points. Introducing a completely new system when you're trying to fix a problem is a sure way to get even more messed up.

Again, from experience I'd now say that the ring of crud on the broken bolt is quite firmly wedged in the head. At this point I'd try lifting the engine slightly with an engine hoist (cherry picker or anything similar) connected to brackets bolted to the head, not the block. If the bolt is stuck hard enough that the wedged bolt will support the entire engine's weight, you can do some judicious hammer action on the block to try to break it free. That way you aren't hammering on the soft aluminum head. Don't lift the engine much, just the minimum amount to get all the weight off the ground. Even 1/8" should do.

Here's a couple of pages with decent ideas on this: http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/p90.html http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/head.html

Doug, you know I still like yellow Zs. But I don't have anyplace to keep two nice Zs indoors, just one. Just a two-car garage, and Deanna wants her car indoors too. And while she's certainly supportive of my hobby, she really doesn't want the yellow car for her main car. So the yellow car will have to find an owner who will care for it, as soon as I finish a few last things on it. I actually have a couple of interested parties, one of which I KNOW is capable of finishing it right. So no fears, it will get finished, and I strongly suspect it will stay yellow. Just won't be finished by me...

This is a fine example of someone building their personal dream car, and then finding out that no one else shares that dream when the time comes to sell it. It's sad on several levels, because regardless of what we think of it, some one has invested a fair amount of time and money in that.

Looking really great, Mike. I'm looking forward to seeing both your car and a7dz's car on the Oregon and Washington roads this Summer. Very cool!

Nothing wrong with well maintained points for a daily driver, as long as you are willing to take care of them. (And I kinda LIKE fiddling with stuff like that. Takes me back to my youth.) While I do have a ZX ignition on the shelf in my garage, both of my cars are currently running quite well on original points-type ignitions.Drove the red 240Z to work this morning - the points worked fine.

Don't worry about the points, it's not ignition related unless your spark is so weak that it's not completely igniting and burning the intake charge. I'm geussing you have the emissions equipment on the car and hooked up? If so, some (or maybe all) of this may be fairly normal. The air pump and associated fittings are designed to inject fresh air (oxygen) into the hot exhaust to continue the combustion process and reduce unburnt fuel. When you back off and coast, or or release the throttle quickly (called "drop throttle" condition in emissions parlance) there is a quick burst of unburnt fuel as the carbs don't respond instantly. The mixture is rather rich for a split second. All that unburnt fuel is hot, add oxygen and the that extra fuel burns rather violently - it pops in the exhaust. I recall lots of early '70s cars doing that when I was young. And sure enough, my '71 does it as well. Now if you don't have operating emissions gear on the car, I'd suspect an exhaust leak (allowing fresh air to be sucked into the exhaust), a slightly rich mixture, or a combination of the two.

No Enrique, that's not my point. I want the shop to take as much time as necessary to do the job right. But I would like them to be honest with me and give me a REALISTIC time estimate. If the job is going to take 12 weeks, tell me that up front. Don't tell me 4 weeks, and then make excuses. Just be honest with me.

Several places will recover old ones - assuming you can find a pair of decent, unwarped and uncracked ones to start with. Seems to me that this might be a good place for a fiberglass replacement base, with new covers from CDM or TIR. Now if only someone would tool up for this.

They're listed in the classifieds here on this site, too. Man, am I damn glad I don't need 'em.

Yup. In 30+ years of car and truck ownership, I've never had body and paint work of any kind that was completed on time. Not once. Oops! The shop that re-welded the tailgate hinge plate on the red 240Z for me last Fall met the deadline. No paint involved though...

Does your car still have the original flat-top carbs? Or has it been swapped to something different?

Here's my latest thoughts: All inspection and evidence indicates that my red car's finishers have never been refinished. There is an obvious difference in color on my car from left to right. Close inspection now leads me to believe that my car suffers from both sun fading (primarily on the right side) and exhaust discoloration (obviously on the left side). The symptoms are that the left side is darker and gradually fades to lighter as you go right. On the left, the darker color is not just on the face, but also extends to the top surface where the plastic rivets attach it to the body. This would be consistent with exhaust discoloration, as the exhaust could easily get up there as well. But on the much lighter right side of the car, the same top flange where the rivets go is darker than the visible surface. Not quite as dark as the exhaust stained left side, but close. I attribute this to the inability of the sunlight to get to this area. The color/shade of protected area on the right finisher is indistinguishable to my eyes to that of my near-NOS 'D' hubcaps (which came from a car built around 4 or 5/71). Numerous people have stated that the paint from CDM is absolutely correct for the 'D' hubcaps. Which brings me back to the conclusion that - for my 7/71 car at least - the color/shade of the finishers (and presumably the grill as well) is either the same as the 'D' hubcaps or so close as to be indistinguishable. So in my case, the paint offered by Les at CDM is either correct, or so close as to not matter. This may or may not be the case for earlier or later production cars, as it is extremely possible that the shade of the paint used may have varied slightly over the production run. Frankly, that only makes sense. But I'm satisfied with this conclusion for my car.

Another thought - you may be able to break the head of the bolt off by using a drill and some high quality bits.

Since it loosened a couple turns and then seized back up, here's my take on it. I suspect a slight head gasket leak which allowed a bit of coolant to get to that seized bolt. The bolt now has a thick ring of corrosion or mineral deposits on the shaft just above the threads. As you try to remove the bolt the thick ring on the shaft is too large to go through the hole in the head, and that is where the bolt is stuck. Sounds unlikely, but I have personally experienced this very same thing on an L24. Options? There are only two that I can think of. If you can get to it (depending on which bolt it is), cut the head off the bolt. Then you will be able to lift the head off, and I think you'll find the the headless bolt will be easily removed. If the bolt is one of the ones where you can't get to it to cut the head off, you're going to have to use your breaker bar with an additional extension for more leverage (a pipe slipped over the end works well) and reef on it until the bolt breaks. (This is what I had to do on mine.) In this case, have all the other bolts loose so that no warping pressure is applied to the head itself. If my suspicion about the thick build-up on the bolt is correct, the bolt will break somewhere between the head of the bolt and the build-up on the shaft. Then you can lift the head off the block. And again, I suspect the remnant of the bolt will easily unthread once it is broken.

Only you can put a value on the sentimental part. For the rest of it, it will be far, far more affordable to replace it with a better example than it will to repair one that is as far gone as yours sounds. Sorry, but it's the truth.

Agreed. It seems to me that not many of the factory parts had the country of origin marked on them in that way back in the early '70s.

After following this thread (and ignoring the bickering), here are my conclusions.1.) The evidence for and against slightly differing colors being used on the grills, hubcaps and tail finishers is inconclusive, mostly anecdotal, and often contradictory. None of which is surprising after 30+ years have gone by. 2.) Because no firm conclusions can be made, the question is moot for 99+% of the cars still on the road - those which will never be judged at a high level. Even for the best of these cars, the paint that Les at CDM sells is plenty close enough, and will likely be considered "correct" at any venue they may be a part of. 3.) For the very few cars competing at a high level, the question may not be moot, but it may still be impossible to be "right". Since there is no clear consensus even among the most knowledgeable people on this forum (and we DO have some really knowledgeable people here), the judges at any given event may be judging based on a different conclusion than yours. If you use Les' paint and the judge believes that the original was lighter, you're wrong. But another judge at a different event may believe that the darker color is correct. So it might be a roll of the dice. You know, when I started with my 240Z project(s), I told myself that I wouldn't get obsessed with strict originality. This was because I felt that toeing that line with the restoration of my MGB a few years back hampered my ultimate enjoyment of the car. This vow didn't mean I couldn't follow discussion like this with interest, but I really didn't plan on worrying too much about stuff like this. Close counts, was what I figured. This promise was easy to keep with my yellow car, since it is/was not matching numbers, and has now had a transmission swap from auto to manual. Who cares if the color of the tail finishers is absolutely dead-nuts accurate? Close counts. The addition of the red 240Z to my stable (with its almost startling originality in many ways) has made it much harder to keep that vow. For example, look at the recent shift boot thread. For the yellow car I wouldn't think twice about using the later lace-up boot, even though we all agree that the '70 and '71 cars should have the grommet-style boot. But for the red car, I feel I need to find/make the proper early style boot. I can't quite bear to use an obviously non-original replacement for a rare original part on the red car. But I do not plan to enter the red car in concours-level events. I plan to keep it as original as possible, but I will drive it - as much as possible. So it's going to get rock chips, and it will be dirty now and then. That's life. Because of that, I figure my car is one of the 99+% for which Les' paint is "close enough" and that is what I'll use.

Sounds right to me as well, my 7/71 car also has the early ashtray and boot.

Hmm.... I've not yet seen anything like that on my red car (the original one), but it's not all that early at 7/71. A quick glance through the parts CD doesn't show it, but that's not conclusive either.

Wattage isn't the issue, Steve. Amperage is the big deal. The stock headlight fuse is 20 amps. An average halogen 55 watt bulb is said to draw a bit more than 5 amps, so two of them are less than 15 amps. So if your wiring is in great shape, you should be fine. But the odds are that your wiring may have a fair amount of resistance after 30+ years, which is why the relays are so strongly recommended. That said, for the time being I replaced the original Koito sealed beams in my 240Z with some low-cost Neolite H4 lights. (Went with the Neolites because they have a round face similar to the sealed beams. Didn't want to have the flat face of my preferred Hellas in the 240Z.) I do not have any relays in mine, but as a low mileage car my wiring is in better than average condition. But I still plan on using relays before I start driving the car a lot.

Marty, the boot on the left in post #22 is very familiar looking to me - but not from either of my Datsuns. I THINK it might be the original boot from a late '80s or early '90's VW Jetta. I believe that it is the same as the one that came on my wife's '91 GLI 16v when we bought it new. I can't swear to that, not because the car is gone (we still have it), but the original boot is history. That's certainly what your picture reminds me of, even the stitching.

I'd also be interested in the style with the rubber grommet. I still have my grommet available.