Arne

OMG!! The shame!

Shoot, Bryan. I'd give you grief too if I had seen it!

The thick ends are nearest the ends of the car. Therefore the fronts have thick to the front, rears vice-versa. When properly mounted, the lens surface should be parallel to the centerline of the car. This allows the reflectors to reflect to the widest field of view. Note that having the reflectors parallel to the centerline was a US DOT requirement, so I don't know if the rest of world had theirs mounted as we did here.

I really do plan on visiting the shop, Bruce, really, I do. But tearing myself away from the other 'have-tos' is tough. But I will, I promise. As for the swap meet, it occurs to me that my previous swap meet experiences were all prior to the explosion of the Internet, and specifically pre-eBay. Perhaps what I perceive as poor vendor turn-out is normal these days. Used to be if a guy had a bunch of leftover parts when his car was done, he sold them at swap meets. These days they probably go on eBay instead. So maybe we can't expect much more than we got. Lastly, I'm not the right guy to ask about the entry fees. I've never been much into having my cars judged, even the old MG after doing a 98% stock, bare-tub restoration. I don't mind paying admission, but I restore/build my cars to please me, not other people. (Well, I have to consider my wife too, or I'd never be able to do this stuff.) In fact, compared to the Brit-car scene, being able to pay a nominal fee to just park inside the grounds with all the rest of the cars was a revelation. At the All Brit Field Meet, if you didn't enter the concours or buy a swap meet booth, you couldn't bring your car onto the grounds. So if I was just attending one day to look at other cars, I had to park outside in the gravel with the SUVs. The $5 fee to park inside to me seems great.

After reading all this, my plan is to go smaller tubing on mine when I do the exhaust. Since mine will have an essentially stock L24 I figure 2.25" will be more than sufficient, and even 2.0" will probably be OK. Everything I have read indicates that the smaller tube is quieter.

The approximate metric equivalent of the old F78-14 is 205/75-14. Assuming that a.) your car is not lowered, and b.) your rims are the stock offset 5.5" 280ZX rims, the 195/75-14 should fit fine. I can recall installing plenty of tires of that height on Z's back in the late 70's and early '80s when I sold tires for a living.

I dunno. If you're going to swap to carbs, why flat-tops? Makes me wonder what it really is?

The stock ones for all 240Zs were wood with the shift pattern, I think 260Zs were the same. No Datsuns ever came with onyx from the factory. I'll bet that most of the people on this site have bought something from MSA (aka The Z Store) at one time or another.

Is it really worth the effort? You can buy a brand new polished walnut knob with Datsun emblem from MSA for $17.95. (Third one down the list, #50-3513) http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/SSK

Are you sure it's the knob, ad not the shift lever? What yer car do you have, and what transmission?

Sorry, Gary, that post of mine made it sound like I had problems when using the correct harness. I did not. What I was referring to was that because of all the small differences I felt like I needed to find that exact harness, not that the harness that I did use was a problem.If I was still looking as you are, I would try to find the E4602 as my first choice. But if I found an E4601 I'd probably do it. While I can't say for certain (as I haven't had one to physically compare), I believe the differences between those two would be minor enough to be easily worked around. The later harness (starting with 1/71 production) would seem to also work, but more differences have crept in. But in the case of the original thread starter, going from a '71 (either early or late) all the way to a '73 will bring on many differences. That will increase the difficulty of the project considerably. So in short Gary, for your 11/70 car I'd try to find the proper 10/70-12/70 harness, but would probably consider one on either side of that production window as well.

Hold up, guys! Which type of 260Z does he have? An early one (with bumpers similar to a 240Z)? Or a later 260Z (which had 280Z bumpers)?

Due to an obscure US DOT regulation, all manual transmission cars had to have the shift pattern visible from the driver's seat. The simplest answer to that was to put it on the shift knob, but some BMWs and VWs put labels on the dash instead. Anyway, Datsun always met this requirement by putting the pattern on the shift knob. So yours is definitely an aftermarket knob.

Collapsed oil control rings.

If there are no identifying marks stamped on it, there is probably no way to tell. In the 35+ years since the Z was introduced, there have to have been dozens of different headers built, many by small companies that no longer exist. Good luck!

Scan through the registry at zhome.com and look for the closest to your VIN. That should get you in the ball park.

Most helmets of that quality come with painting instructions (limitations) in the box. I know my Arai's always have, as did the Simpson.

What year car are we dealing with? Does it have EGR?

In the US, they went to the one-key-fits-all program starting with 1/71 production. Other parts of the world were different.

Front valance, left and right side. And the piece in between is the front valance, center. Looks like the ones pictured are very nice, and in 919 yellow for the 70 and '71 240Z.

I did mine today. My rim wasn't too bad so I decided I'd leave it as is - retain some of the patina, so to speak. But the spokes were bad. Chips, scrapes and corrosion, plus at least two coats of paint. So I decided I had to strip all the way to bare metal. I'm pleased with the result, the steering wheel and the new OE walnut shift knob are the best looking parts of my car!

Yup. On a 260Z the same key should open everything.

For most Zs, yes. The exception is the '70 and early '71 240Zs. They came with separate keys - one for the ignition and one for everything else.

1.) To the best of my knowledge, all 240Z air cleaners were orange. 2.) The only replacement door panels for the early cars that have been available lately were for RHD, and therefore have the holes for the pull handle. So the obvious answer is to install the handle to cover up the holes. Not original, but understandable.

Regarding removing the tint - I am of the opinion that removing tint off the rear window is why so many old Zs have dead rear window defoggers. Peel the tint - the defogger grid comes off with it.