Arne

For de-waxing I've had good results using Griot's Paint Prep which de-waxes, de-greases and de-silicones.

Pipe wrench.

How about NOS? http://www.classicgarage.com/konstrutinfo9.html

Neither hubcaps nor radios are available new any more, finding good used ones takes time. Both hubcaps and radios do turn up on eBay relatively frequently. Just be glad you're looking for the later hubcaps, and not the '70-71 style.

I think you'll find a lot more info on engine swaps at HybridZ.org.

While everyone says you should mount it in back to push, I put one in the engine compartment of my yellow car, and it works fine there. Much easier to mount and wire. No problems.

Try this site: http://zparts.com/zptech/articles/trans_swap%20parts/4tobear_specs1.html

I agree. But I know I could have shifted that R32 faster than that! Its shift linkage isn't THAT bad!

Brendan, there's not a lot of swapping going on at this site, you'll probably get a lot more info on this stuff at HybridZ.org.

No. I have had the 280ZX ignition in my yellow car and had no problem using the 240Z tach. I know of several other people who also have the same set up, also with the 240Z tach. Yes, as long as you have the 280ZX distributor base bracket (the pedestal that bolts to the timing cover) as well. Should work fine. Don't use the resistor, the ZX ignition is designed to use full voltage at all times. Make a small jumper wire to connect the two resistor wires to each other.

I got to admit, I really like it when people put their own car on their avatar. When I was a lurker here, I really enjoyed getting these small clues as to what everyone's cars looked like. It really helped fire my enthusiasm for Zs. Which is why I have always used shots of my own car as my avatars. Of course, in the case of the yellow car I cleaned it up in Photoshop first...

Maybe not. Check out these links:A review of the DatMan bank from Triad Z Club. A thread from North West Datsun Enthusiasts. Scroll way down and you'll find three black and white pictures taken in the lot of Escondido Datsun, which show DatMan painted on the side of the buildings.

Yup, and we also need to keep in mind how important any given repro part might be. For those of us who want to keep our cars looking as stock and complete as possible, the tail light trim is very important. Sure, it'd be nice if they could be sold for less, but as has been pointed out, tooling up for a small run of parts like this is terribly expensive. The fact is that we need to be very grateful that Norm has taken on the job of recreating these parts. While my red car doesn't need them now, it may later, and I'll likely buy a pair once they are available to have if and when. Because they may not be available forever.

So there is no power in the wires to the coil? If that is what you are saying, you have a wiring problem somewhere between the battery and the coil. The usual suspects would be the ignition switch and the tach. You will need to start tracing the power leads backwards from the coil to find the problem. This is not likely to be a problem where someone can simply say, "Your problem is xxxx." It's going to take time and logical thought.

FWIW, here are my thoughts: Question 1: My car is garaged and will seldom be out unsupervised. Therefore I am not all that concerned about theft-deterrents, and will not adding alarms, Lojack, immobilizers, etc., partly due to concerns listed in the next paragraph. But in answer to Enigma's question, the security of the 240Z (like most any car from this era) is not great. Locks were pretty wimpy even when new, and most of them are essentially "one-key-fits-all" by now. The cars are fairly easy to get into, and once inside the car, even if the ignition switch is still good, give me 5-10 minutes with a Phillips screwdriver and a cordless drill and I'll have the ignition lock removed, the car started and be gone. Question 2: Mdalpoggetto, your car and mine are very similar - I have a '71 with less than 60,000 miles that is also virtually all original. It is my intention to do nothing to my car that can't be easily reversed with no after-effects at all. But I do think that in general, cars that have survived this long in stock, unmodified condition should be kept that way. Because there are darned few of them left, and as their custodians I feel we are obligated to try to maintain that originality as much as is possible. There are plenty of modified 240Zs out there, from mild to wild. But not very many stock examples are left...

Jerry, is that price just for a pair of the chrome trim parts? If so, it is more than I would have hoped, but still within a realistic realm. Take a pair of these trim parts for around $250 delivered, and a pair of repro lenses from Too Intense or MSA for around $300 shipped, and you could have a pair of completely refurbished tail lights for $550 and some labor. And considering the prices that NOS lights have been reaching that doesn't sound all that bad.Of course, I've yet to hear from anyone who has physically seen and touched those repro lenses, so I can't say for certain that they look good enough to pass muster. Anyone out there seen them yet?

No, you said that 3 months ago, not years ago. No problems either way. Please do let me know what color yours are.

Never having met you in person Carl, I can't speak to whether you are colorblind or not, but the camera flash definitely lightened the appearance in the picture. Trust me, they are flat black, not the charcoal of the grill and finishers. The wheels I have are dated 4-71, and were removed from their original car less than a week after first delivery. They came to me out of the first owner's attic still with the original Japanese wheel weights attached. Obviously never been painted or otherwise mucked with. And Rustoleum Rust Reformer in Flat Black is indistinguishable from the factory flat black finish.When I asked about this earlier (concerning a spare wheel), the unanimous answer was flat black. http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22654&highlight=spare+wheel+color

Yup. Here are pictures of mine.

As best I have been able to determine, yes.The background is that the 240Z wheels were made for Nissan by a Japanese company named "Topy" who were (and still are) a large wheel maker in Japan. They did lots of wheels for Japanese automakers as well as for commercial trucks. The silver-gray color was the baked finish that Topy applied when they made them. Nissan added the flat black to improve the appearance when the stock hubcaps were on the car. The silver-gray is a fairly durable finish - not so the flat black. I found that Rustoleum Flat Black in their premium rust-converting paint ("Rust Reformer", IIRC) is a virtual dead match for the factory flat black coating. I did half of one of my wheels with the Rustoleum and I can not tell which half is original and which I painted. While the black color is easy, in this case the sheen or 'flatness' of the paint was also perfect.

Actually, the original wheels were first painted with a silver-gray paint over the entire wheel, and then the front side had a quick coat of flat black.

This has been covered before in depth. http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22619

Yup. The basics are the diesel crank, 240Z rods (generally the later rods with 9 mm bolts), and pistons (often modified) from non-L-series engines. Properly over-bored you can get 3.1 to almost 3.2 liters.

If your engine compartment and body wiring seem OK, the dash harness pair may be all you need. Just make certain that this one hasn't been mucked with too badly for aftermarket stereo installations.

Note that from the numbers given, it is not a complete harness. It looks to be the dash harness pair from a 240Z built between 10/72-7/73, and the small mini-harness from the fan switch to the blower. That's all, no engine compartment or body harnesses.