Arne

1 Apr 2007 - U-joints, Hoses, and Swap Meets Since my last update, I've done a bit of maintenance to the red car. First, I had all six u-joints replaced and the driveshaft balanced. The main goal in all this was to get rid of the clunks in the rear end, for which 240Zs are notorious. The driveshaft u-joints were the worst, being quite stiff and notchy feeling. And nice new u-joints did definitely help the noises in the back, but did not eliminate them all. So next I swapped the rear differential mount bar that I had salvaged from the parts car. These bars are mounted to the unibody by large rubber bushings, and the bushings in the bar from the parts car were obviously fairly new. When I got them out, the ones from the red car didn't look too bad, but the new ones must have been a little firmer, as this change also improved the clunk situation. Still a bit of clunk left, I'll probably end up replacing the front differential mount as well at some point. But it is MUCH improved at this point. I also replaced two of the four main fuel vent hoses recently, the two that could be done without having to drop the gas tank. And one of those hoses in particular was in very bad shape. Someone had spliced a section of hose in at some point to replace a bad part near the tank, but they used ordinary heater hose instead of fuel-rated hose. This one hose may have been the source of most of the fuel smell. So that was a success as well. Today I drove the red car to a Datsun swap meet in Wilsonville (about 90 miles North). I had loaded a bunch of spare parts into the car last night, and had no plans to buy anything. I looked at this more as a chance to visit with some friends from Portland, and not so much as an event to buy or sell parts. Which was the right way to look at it, as I sold one small part and bought nothing. But the weather was clear and dry, and it was a nice drive.

19 Mar 2007 - Sitting Pretty No status change on the yellow car since the last posting. I haven't done much on it, and not much in the way of inquiries either. On Saturday morning I removed the red car's center console to install the new shift boot mentioned above. The console and various switches and such got some serious cleaning during the installation of the boot. The reproduction boot is very nice, and a good match for the worn original that I removed. I had pulled the passenger seat out of the car to give more room to work while doing the console stuff, and decided to look into the seat cushion webbing while the seat was already out. The '70 and '71 240Zs used a heavy elastic webbing to support the lower seat cushions. (The '72 and later cars went to a solid metal support because the webbing was not all that durable.) The webbing on both of the red car's seats was totally shot. (Yellow car's is shot too.) I looked at what it came with, then went to a local upholstery supply shop and found some 2" nylon elastic webbing that looked like it should work well. And it did. The passenger seat was so much improved when I finished that I did the driver's seat on Sunday. The seats are greatly improved now. They will still need new covers and foam at some point, but are much more comfortable now. Last task this past weekend was to de-squeak the front brakes. The shop that had done them for the previous owner did not lube any of the pad contact points, and the brakes would squeal loudly when applied lightly. Applying brake lube judiciously fixed that problem as well. Next up - rear half-shaft u-joints, and soon the fuel tank vent hoses.

10 Mar 2006 - Tuning Last weekend Jim, a 240Z owner from Tacoma, came down to Oregon for a visit. We spent some time talking, both about my cars and the '70 240Z that he is single-handedly restoring. His car has been in his family since new, and he has spent much of the past few months cutting out rust and welding new metal in. He's doing a great job of it too. Saturday morning he looked at the yellow car, and with his rust-experienced eyes he pretty much confirmed my assessment, which is reassuring. At least I do have a pretty good idea of what it will take to make the yellow car right. When Jim left to head North and back home, I fired up the red 240Z and went North as well, and we both stopped at the Portland Roadster Show, where a man we both know had entered his freshly re-assembled '71 240Z in with all the hot rods, muscle cars and other American iron on display. (Mike's car looked great!) We met a couple other 240Z owners at the show, and chatted while wandering through the displays. I didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked, as I didn't want to drive home in the dark if I didn't have to. The Datsun took in the trip just fine. It still rides a bit firmer than I'd probably prefer, but I need to get enough miles on it to help break in those new strut inserts. I think it'll be OK once that happens, since it was OK with the same type before I replaced them. The speedometer and odometer both read about 6% slow. Jim said the exhaust was a bit dark when I accelerated hard, so we thought it might be running a tad rich. It would ping a bit when pulling hard also, even though I've been using premium gas all along. So today I did a little tuning. First I readjusted the clutch at the pedal to improve the feel and to move the engagement point to suit me better. Then I removed the air cleaner and did some checking. The carbs were fairly well synchronized, but I tweaked that to make them better. I did lean the mixture just a touch on both carbs, only about a 1/4 turn each. Reset the idle speed to 750 RPM, and then checked the timing. The timing was set to 12 degrees BTDC, but the factory specs call for 5 degrees BTDC. That sounded like a bit much for the quality of today's fuel, so I dropped it back down to the factory spec. Took it for a test drive and it felt fine, with no pinging. Still waiting to replace all the fuel vent hoses on the red Z, I have ordered the last specialty parts for that job but they aren't here yet. I also ordered a reproduction early-style shift boot for it. The original on the red car is worn, and the proper style for the '70-71 cars hasn't been available for many years - until just now. So I ordered one now, as I don't know how long they will be available. That's about it for the red car, and not much on the yellow car either. All is much the same with that car as before.

25 Feb 2007 - Springing Forward Yellow car - Still no action on the yellow car. I've been asking around the country for opinions, and watching various eBay auctions for value ideas. I really don't want to just give it away, but in its current less-than-pretty condition, it might come to that. Still considering other options, though. Red car - After driving it a bit more this past week, I decided to bite the bullet and change the springs once again. The rears got changed back to the factory stock springs Saturday afternoon, and I did the fronts Sunday morning before lunch. The ride is improved, and I don't expect to change them (on this car) again. It seems that the European Stage 1 springs were designed to improve the handling of the cars by increasing the spring rate as much as possible while still being compatible with the stock shocks. The Mulholland shocks I installed (and that I already had in the car when I bought it, unknown to me at the time) were a true performance shock designed in the days when aftermarket performance springs were uncommon. So they were designed to stiffen the suspension as much as possible while using the stock springs. Add those two together and you get a ride that is simply too stiff for normal road use. So after all that, the suspension is much like it was when I bought the car, other than now all four strut inserts are good. And I suspect that's how I'll leave it for now. I'll probably keep the Euro springs, as someday later if/when the Mulhollands are worn or I tire of them, the Euro springs appear to work well with standard KYB inserts. I guess I've got options...

18 Feb 2007 - Details... Yellow car - No serious inquiries on the yellow car this past week. I'm pretty sure that my starting price is a bit high for this part of the country, even if I can show receipts for over half of that in brand new parts. If I could find a buyer in the Rust Belt, I might be able to get this much, but out here I'm going to probably have to accept a lesser offer. I'm OK with that, just have to wait for it. In the mean time, I finished hooking up the heater control cables yesterday, and installed the heater panel itself. Looks good and works, too. Red car - I removed all the interior trim from the rear of the car yesterday, initially to look at the fuel vent hoses. I wanted to compare the new ones I got, and assess the job's difficulty. I suspect that I might be able to do it without dropping the fuel tank, but it will be much easier to do the job properly if I do drop it. The hoses I got all look fine, but I still need to get some sealing grommets before I can start the job. While I had the trim off, I spent some time cleaning, then I removed the antenna to see if I could repair it using some of the spare parts I have. I disassembled it to find - as I expected - the plastic reel coil had broken. After looking over the spare parts, I ended up reattaching the broken end of the reel coil, effectively shortening the antenna's travel by about 8 inches. It now works fine, just doesn't extend as far as it should. But for now, I think that's OK.

11 Feb 2007 - Spring Saga If you're interested in learning about springs and other suspension stuff for 240Zs, read on. If not, there won't be much in this update to interest you. Repeat visitors may remember that way early in the yellow car project, I bought a reproduction set of Nissan European Stage 1 springs. The whole reason for the Euro Stage 1 springs (in theory) was to have a slightly more performance oriented spring WITHOUT lowering the car significantly. These springs have about 10% stiffer rate, and were reputed keep the ride height about stock, since the European 240Zs sit at about the same stock height as ours do. Unfortunately, it is now believed that the European 240Zs had strut housings with the lower spring seats positioned lower on the strut housing, which throws all the ride height assumptions in the dumper. In the real world, people have found that these springs actually RAISE the North American cars somewhere around 3/4" to 1", even with non-gas struts. So the only option to get the ride height back down to stock is to cut the springs a bit. Not ideal, but the only choice now that I have them. I won't bore you all here with the endless give and take and calculations that many of us who bought these springs have gone through while deciding how much to cut them down. Lots of theory, and repeated measurements. I am lucky, as I had installed them on the yellow car as is, and so had a good baseline to start from. Plus I knew that a stock 240Z (like the red car) had a normal ride height measured at the rocker panels of about 8". Last Sunday I started the process by cutting the rear springs down by 3/4 coil each. I then pulled down the left rear strut, removed the stock spring, and installed one of the NOS Mulholland non-gas strut inserts I bought recently. I was surprised to find that the strut insert I removed was also a Mulholland, which actually felt pretty good. But I installed the new one anyway. Installed the new spring, and a new bump stop, assembled it all and took it for a short drive to settle it before I measured it. When measured with only that one done and 3/4 coil removed, the height at the left rear was 8 1/2". Too tall. I feared that might be the case, but was being cautious not to cut too much. Ran out of time last week, so that's where I left it. Yesterday, I pulled the left rear back apart, pulled the spring off and cut an additional 1/2 coil, for a total of 1 1/4 coils. Put it back together and drove it again. New measurement - 8 1/4". Still taller than I expected, the next 1/2 coil only changed the height by 1/4". But close enough to stock, especially if it should ever settle. So I cut the other rear coil to match at 1 1/4 coils, and did the right rear. No surprises, went just like the left side. Took it for a drive, both rears were now at 8 1/4". On to the front. After more deliberation than I care to admit, I cut both front springs by 1 1/2 coils. Did the right front first. Again, all went well, I found Mulhollands in the front as well. But I did find that the right front insert was bad, it seems to bind and not extend or compress smoothly. So I'm glad I had the new inserts here ready to go. And the height of the front after installing the cut-down springs? Just over 8", call it 8 1/8". So while both ends are a touch taller than I'd been aiming for, they are close enough that I'm happy with the height as is. Knowing what I know now, maybe I'd take an extra 1/4 coil off each rear spring and 1/4 to maybe a 1/2 off the fronts. But I won't pull it back apart yet again just for another 1/4-3/8". But here's the kicker - after driving it a bit with all four springs and the new shocks installed, I'm not certain I like it. On the plus side, I noticed an improvement in the ride when I replaced that bad RF shock. And the ride is not harsh, that's fine too. But the ride seems a bit "bouncy" like there's not enough rebound damping for the increased spring rate, especially in the rear. This despite the fact that the Mulhollands (both new and old) seem to have a whole lot of rebound damping - they are very difficult to extend, so much so that I was concerned they might "pack down" over washboard roads. That was before I knew I had Mulhollands in it all along. I did not notice this "bounciness" or "pogo-ing" with the stock springs, so since I'm using the same struts (only new) I must assume it comes from the increased spring rate. Now I suppose that the springs may break in a bit with additional miles. So I'm not going to panic just yet. I'll drive it a while before I make any decisions. But after all this fussing, it's very possible that I may end up re-installing the stock springs.

5 Feb 2007 - A Time To Sell Yes, I think the time has come to sell the yellow car. I did some final cleanup, parts sorting and such, and I'm ready to let it go. I suppose if I wanted to really think a while, there are still a few low-cost or no-cost things I could do to it, but I really want to get going on some of the things that the red car needs instead. I don't need the distraction of the second car sitting there waiting. So later this week I'll start the process. I've got a couple of people who expressed an interest in the past to contact, and will also likely post it on Craigslist and here on ClassicZCars.com. As for the red car, I began the suspension refresh on the red car over the weekend by replacing the strut insert and spring on the left rear. I hope to finish the other three this coming weekend.

28 Jan 2007 - More Sale Prep Not a lot new to share. I was able to get the two rear springs exchanged yesterday in the yellow car, as well as beginning to get the heater control panel installed in it. The fuel vent hoses aren't all here yet, although the dealer says three of the four have arrived, so we're getting close there. Drove the red car to work a few days last week, just because I could. I'm beginning to realize that its suspension needs help as well, but I already have the springs and new strut inserts here on hand, so that won't be far off either.

21 Jan 2007 - Cleanup and Sale Prep Since the last update, I've done some cleanup and the yellow car is a bit closer to being ready to sell. First, all of the surplus engine parts are gone, which really helps tidy up the looks of the area outside the garage. The 280ZX head went to one Z owner, and the 280ZX block and 240Z head went to a different Z owner. The remnants were then sold for scrap. Last weekend when it was icy, I stayed inside and reworked taillights. I disassembled both spare pairs I had, selected the best parts, cleaned them all up and reassembled one pair. They aren't as good as those on the red car, but actually turned out fairly nice. I installed them in the yellow car in place of the original beat up ones, and they look quite acceptable there. And as with the engine stuff, the remains were disposed of. The differential in the yellow car has been replaced with the one from the parts car, which now gives it the proper gearing to match the 4 speed transmission. And the front two springs (of that set of brand new ones I bought a while ago) have been replaced with stock springs, still have to swap the rear pair yet. So the yellow car is getting close to being ready to sell. One or two weekends, I figure. Not as much news for the red car. The fuel tank vent hoses haven't arrived yet, finding the proper hoses has proven more difficult than I had expected. But I think we're getting close on that front. I have a set of NOS Mulholland strut inserts on their way, which should work well with the new springs. The strut inserts should be delivered in the next couple days. And with the improved weather we've had lately, I was able to drive the red car a bit. One of those days I noticed that I had no heater fan. It had been working earlier, but now was dead. Turned out it was just a bad 35 year old fuse. Not even a blown fuse, just a bad one. So it's working fine again now.

7 Jan 2007 - Progress Resumes It's been a while since I posted anything here, but in large part that's because there hasn't been much to say. I ordered a new hood release cable, along with replacement fuel tank vent hoses. But none of that has arrived yet. I've begun sorting all the spare parts I've got lying around, in preparation for getting rid of the stuff that has no value. Today I did actually get back to work, though. I replaced the manifold gasket on the yellow car. I used a special gasket set made by the manufacturer of the header itself, Hooker. And the end result is pretty good. The special gasket seals much better. The exhaust is still a bit noisy, but that's mostly because I just cobbled it up using various parts from both cars to get something on it. But it's quiet enough to hear how the engine runs, which is quite nicely. I took the car for a very short drive and was very pleased with it. The 'new' engine runs smoothly, feels strong and doesn't smoke. It does idle a bit roughly, I suspect that the carbs need their throttle shafts replaced/re-bushed. But other than that, it's very acceptable, even if I were planning to keep the car. It actually runs almost as well as the red car does. This means there's not a lot left to do on the yellow car to prepare prior to offering it for sale. I still need to remove the new springs I put in it a while back, and also swap the rear differential (taller gearing to match the four speed), but that's about it. I hope to get all that done by the end of February. Stay tuned...

10 Dec 2006 - Got New Shoes Yes, the rain that was predicted for Saturday turned out to be only showers, so it was dry enough to get the car out of the garage and to the tire shop. New tires (of the proper height, 195/70R14) were mounted on the mags, and the old stuff was all dismounted. And the results are pretty much all good. (I posted three new pictures in the Gallery.) The taller tires and shallower offset of the 'new' mags fit the car much better. The two wheels that didn't polish out as well still look surprisingly good, the unevenness in the finish is not all that noticeable with the wheels on the car. The ride is better with the taller sidewalls, and now the speedometer reads correctly. So these will do fine for now. Being an ex-tire guy, I will probably always watch for something 'better', but for my purposes now, these wheels and tires are great, and staying with 14x6 was the right call. In other news, I discovered just in time that the hood release cable on the red car was badly frayed and very close to breaking completely. For now, I swapped the cable from the yellow car into the red one, and will plan to order a new cable soon.

3 Dec 2006 - Holiday Slow-down Just like last year, there are so many things to do during the holiday season that working on the cars has to take a backseat. So again, not a lot has happened since the last update. I did install the nearly new master cylinder (that came off the red car last week) on to the yellow car today. Since the yellow car had already been worked over to correctly use the later style master cylinder, I did not have to make any adjustments to the lines or the pushrod. That went very smoothly. I also removed the shipping tie-down hooks from the red car. I had noticed that it had a pair of what I thought were tow hooks on the rear, as well as a matching one on the right front. After I noticed that many other original and/or well-restored 240Zs didn't have these hooks, I started asking questions. And it turns out that the three hooks were installed by the factory as shipping tie-downs, but were supposed to have been removed by the selling dealer prior to delivery. Apparently, the guy doing the PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection) on my car didn't want to take the time to do this, and left them in place. I went ahead and removed them, but I'll probably keep them as curiosities.

26 Nov 2006 - Wheels, Brakes, Lights, Etc. I got the wheels back from the polisher on Friday, the results were a mixed bag. I knew going into this that polishing wheels this old can be a crap shoot, as the quality of the alloy and castings in those days was rather inconsistent. And inconsistent is what I got. Two of the wheels turned out quite nice. One is rather mediocre, and one is not very good at all. In the cases of the two not-good wheels, the alloy is rather porous and gives a speckled appearance to the wheels, as well as a noticeable unevenness to the surface. Nothing much that can be done about it, I rolled the dice and lost. But even though the appearance of two of them is not what I was hoping for, they will still fit the car better, and drive better than the wire wheels now on the car. And it's not like they are trashy looking, they just don't look as nice as I'd hoped. They are what they are, and they'll be going on as soon as I get around to getting a new set of tires. I still need to order a set of center caps for them too. On a more positive note, I installed the proper brake master cylinder on the red car today. I had to readjust both the pedal and power-booster pushrods, as both had been changed to accommodate the later-style master cylinder. I plan to put the nearly new one I removed on the yellow car, as it has already had the lines modified for the later style cylinder, but the one on the car is of uncertain age. Might as well use the new one, it's not good for much else. I replaced the red car's original Koito brand headlights with a pair of H4 halogen units. The original headlights have been packaged up for safekeeping. On the yellow car, I replaced the original (automatic) console with the manual transmission console from the parts car on Saturday. I've also been sorting through all the parts I've pulled from the parts car to decide what I'll keep, what I'll give away with the yellow car, and what I might sell. Still a ways to go on this task.

13 Nov 2006 - Small Stuff Nothing big has happened since the last update. The wire mag wheels are still at the polisher's shop as he has been fighting equipment failures. No worries on that, I don't need them to drive the car, plus the rain we have been getting has kept the red car in the garage anyway. I noticed that the vacuum hoses were stiff and badly cracked, so those were replaced last week. I also noticed that the brake master cylinder on the car is wrong, it is for '72-78, not the '70-71 unit it should have. Since the outlet ports between the early and late cylinders are reversed, this is perhaps more serious than it sounds. So I have ordered the correct early cylinder from the dealer. Nothing much has been done to the yellow car lately, it's probably feeling unloved. I've been working on clearing out the remainder of the stuff left from the parts car, most of that is gone, tentatively spoken for, or in the eBay planning stages. And that's about it for now.

29 Oct 2006 - And Then There Were Two... Yes, on Thursday afternoon the remains of the parts car were loaded on to a flatbed tow truck and hauled off to be crushed and recycled. I had the wrecked car for about three and a half months, during which time I stripped off most anything of value. The yellow car has been an obvious beneficiary, gaining the engine, door, bumper and more from the parts car. An additional seven 240Zs have also benefitted from the parts car's demise, with a few parts left to sell in the future. It had a good run, but it's over now. As for the other two cars, the 'new' mags for the red car are in the hands of the wheel polisher now. I hope to get them back in a week or two. I picked up a set of spark plugs for the red car, and OE-style fuel filters for both remaining cars. On the yellow car, I still have a bit of work to do to get the fuel delivery system dialed in, and the filter is one part of that process. For the red car, both the fuel filter and the spark plugs were recently replaced but neither were proper for the car. I also replaced the spark plug wires on the red car, using a set of new ones that I purchased some time ago. The old wires appear to have been original, and so I have set them aside and will keep them as novelties. Lastly, in an effort to see whether the recent tachometer problems on the yellow car might be related to the 280ZX electronic ignition it was using, I replaced the ignition with the original points ignition from the parts car. The ignition works fine, but the tach is still bouncing around, so the ignition isn't it. I do have a spare tach out of the parts car, so I will try that at some point. I have received a few questions about the ultimate fate of the yellow car, and I have to admit that I don't yet know exactly what will happen there. The sensible thing to do is to tidy up a few minor issues and sell it. There's no way that I can recover what I've got into it at this point, but that is almost always the case anyway. But we have been kicking around the thought of proceeding with the project, in a modified form. If I could get it fixed up a bit more, it would be much easier to sell, and done carefully, we might not go farther into the hole, and maybe - just maybe - we might recover a bit more than we could at this point. That decision has not yet been made, still a lot of thinking to be done before I decide to go that route.

22 Oct 2006 - Road Trip! Well, I did almost nothing TO the cars this weekend, instead doing something WITH one of them. Saturday I was busy most of the day doing non-Datsun things, for the most part. I did check the air in the red car's tires, but that was about it. But Sunday, we hit the road! While the yellow car wouldn't quite be ready for a trip yet (even if I had not bought the red car), I figured the red car could handle a trip. So on Sunday Deanna and I drove up the back roads to McMinnville, OR (about 90 miles each way) where we met up with a group of four other 240Z owners from the Portland/Vancouver area for lunch. Deanna and I got to the meeting place first, and so we got the treat of seeing the other four 240Zs arrive in a group. Pretty unusual seeing an old 240Z on the road at all these days, and here came four of them playing follow the leader! We had a great time chatting and - of course - looking at each others' cars. And how did my car drive? Quite nicely. It sounds like there may be a u-joint going bad, but that's actually pretty common for early Z cars. I'll look into that over the winter, as well as the other things mentioned earlier. (Cooling hoses, fuel vent hoses, weatherstripping, etc.) But all in all, it was a good day. Great weather, excellent company, and a nice drive in a very nice car. I can't wait to do it again!

16 Oct 2006 - Wheels and Whatnot The red car was gone for a few days last week, I left it with a local body shop (which was recommended to me by other satisfied Z owners) to have the hatch hinge plate rewelded. I got the car back on Friday, and I'm pleased with the result. Nice work, and now I don't have to worry about it breaking the rest of the way off. Saturday morning found us heading to Danny's Datsuns again, this time to see what he might have in the way of vintage mag wheels. Deanna and I spent some time looking through stacks of used wheels, looking for restorable matched sets. Danny had a pretty decent selection of wheels, and we found a nice set of 14x6 aluminum basket-weave wheels - either Appliance Wire Mags, or very close copies. Spent some time Saturday afternoon cleaning the wheels, but I think I'll have them professionally polished rather than trying to do it myself. I'm pretty sure that I could get them looking pretty good, but I think a pro should be able to do better. Other than that, just some cleaning and such. Didn't really drive it much last week, but if the weather cooperates, we may take a small road trip next weekend.

8 Oct 2006 - This and That The acquisition of the red car has slowed the pace somewhat, and (finally) lent some focus to the project. I spent a few hours on Saturday doing the final bits to get the parts car ready to be hauled away. I pulled the dash (with gauges and wiring), removed the rear window, and finally dropped the gas tank out. I've been storing worn and bad parts in the shell of the parts car, figuring to leave them in it when I haul it off, so my final task will be to look through that stuff to make certain I didn't miss something, but I don't think so. Didn't do much to the yellow car, but I do need to decide if I want the new springs I put in it a while back for the red car instead. There may be yet another round of spring swapping in my future. As for the red car, first on its agenda was a new battery hold-down. This was an odd coincidence. I had ordered a set of the battery hold-down parts for the yellow car from the dealer a while back. They arrived last Monday. The funny part is that the red car had no hold-down at all! Of all the bits and pieces on this car that are totally stock and original, the battery hold-downs were the only parts that were missing. And I just happened to have already ordered them, before I had even looked at the red car 2 weeks ago. Other than that, more cleaning and such, still slowly learning about it. I made a list of the things that need to be addressed (other than a paint job someday), and for the most part it's pretty minor stuff. The three biggest items are tires & wheels, weatherstripping & seals, and the fuel system vent hoses. I'll be working towards all those items in the coming weeks.

1 Oct 2006 - Starting Anew So here begins a completely different type of story. The red 240Z (I guess I'll have to keep identifying them by color until I'm down to a single car) is not perfect, and there will still be a lot to do. But it's a completely different kind of project. Saturday morning I started my cleaning and fixing by pulling the hatch support strut out of the parts car. Since it worked and the red car's support strut didn't support, I figured that was an easy first fix. And it was - after I stripped the good one to bare metal and primed and painted it. No way was I going to put it in the way it was, not in this car. While I was doing this I noticed that the left hinge mounting plate on the hatch is breaking loose. Apparently this is common, both sides had been re-welded on the hatch I put on the yellow car. That will need to be addressed very soon. While the paint on the strut was drying, I continued exploring what I had bought. I found the spare tire was oversize, and on an aftermarket wide rim, and so (like the yellow car before it) the tire didn't fit in the spare well correctly. This was simple, I just took the spare I had refurbished earlier from the yellow car and put it in the red one. That took care of that. I also replaced the original shift knob that was a touch faded and had a crack in the plastic emblem with a brand new factory knob that I had been keeping for future use in the yellow car - whenever it got to that point. I found that the ashtray lid had a crack in it, but among all the ashtray parts I have gathered I had one perfect lid. So you know where it went, too. On Sunday, I replaced bulbs in the tach, glovebox and in the engine compartment lamp, and repaired the dome lamp. I found that the parking brake warning lamp didn't work because the switch had come unplugged, so that was reconnected. I removed the aftermarket driving lights and mudflaps, while mentally thanking whoever it was that installed the lights for not drilling any holes in the dash to mount the switch. One thing I had noticed when driving it, the clutch engaged very high, and was difficult to operate smoothly because of that. Since both the master and slave cylinders had been recently replaced, I suspected they were mis-adjusted. And I was right, readjusting them made a big difference. And that's pretty much it for the weekend. While this car is in fantastic shape, there will still be a lot of things to do to it, so check back (assuming you're interested). Next weekend will see me working on getting the parts car ready to go, and maybe a little work on the new car too.

30 Sep 2006 - This Changes Everything A funny thing happened on my way to building a nice 240Z. The project to refurbish the yellow 240Z has been derailed. Last weekend while I was working on the exhaust, I had a visit from a neighbor who also has a 240Z. Charlie has stopped by now and then to talk when he sees me out working on the car. He also owned a '71 240Z, that he bought about 18 months ago from a co-worker, who was the original owner. I had seen the car a time or two, and it seemed very nice. Anyway, he stopped by to tell me that he had decided to sell it, and wanted to know if I knew any Z enthusiasts who might want to buy it. You can see where this is going, can't you? I told him that I did have contacts, and we should get some digital pictures of it so that I could spread the word. So he went home and drove it back. Of course now I needed to look at it closely, if I was going to try to help him sell it. What I found was a late '71 (Series 2) 240Z that has been garaged its entire life, and shows 59,500 miles on the odometer, which is thought to be original. Charlie had spent some money getting it road worthy since he got it, all new brakes, tires, tuned, cooling, etc. It has its original red paint (code 905). The car is 98% stock. The only non-stock items I could see are the wheels (14x6 Appliance Fine Wires - true wire wheels, not baskets), exhaust, a pair of driving lights under the bumper, and an aftermarket sunroof. Everything else is stock - original signal-seeking AM radio, 4 speed, steering wheel, upholstery, even all the smog gear is intact. Interior and under the hood look awesome, nice cad plating on all the smog stuff, good early ashtray/fuse cover, console, etc. Excellent chrome bumpers. Since it has always been a garaged car, and seldom even seen rain, there is no rust. None. I looked in all the normal places, found nothing. It appeared to me to be ready to drive right now. Downsides? The paint needs a little work. A fair number of chips on the nose, and little flaws here and there. But if it were polished and properly touched up, I think it could be really good without a re-paint. Of course, I considered the sunroof to be a big minus, although this one seems to be fairly high quality and the seal looks good. The new tires are too small - 175/70-14. The rear hatch strut no longer holds the hatch up. The factory power antenna no longer works. I really didn't plan to buy it! Honestly! I ruled it out because I didn't really want a car with an aftermarket sunroof. I sent out a first feeler to a group of Z people that I routinely correspond with here in Oregon and Washington, and waited to see if there were any bites. But I kept thinking about it, still marvelling over how clean and original it was, especially under the hood. The sunroof that had turned me off completely at first was seeming to be less important as time went by. On Tuesday when I was talking to Deanna about how nice it seemed, she asked if I was sure I didn't want to buy it. (She later said that she had felt fairly safe in asking that, figuring that I would say no because of the sunroof.) I told her that I had been thinking about it, and that it seemed to make sense in numerous ways, so maybe we had better go look at it and perhaps drive it too. So we looked and drove. Yes, it has a sunroof, but at least it's a nice one with a good looking seal. And the wire wheels and small tires will have to go, as soon as I figure out what I want to put on it instead. (Three cars, 15 tires and 19 wheels, and I don't have anything I like yet. Figures.) But man, is it amazing. And boy does it run and drive nice! All in all, we figured it's just way too good a car to pass up. So I picked it up yesterday, and spent a little time exploring it today. I also pulled the differential out of the parts car, as I have to start thinning the herd, and soon. Pictures and more details on the new car soon, maybe tomorrow.

24 Sep 2006 - Happy Anniversary! That's right, today is the one year anniversary of when we got the yellow 240Z. And so it may be appropriate to recap. But before that, on Day 365 I worked on the exhaust (again) and the cooling system. The header was leaking at the cylinder head, and I wanted to try to fix that. Since I have to drain the cooling system to pull the manifolds, I figured this was a good time to change from water to antifreeze, as well as to change all the hose clamps to the new OE wire-style clamps that I received a few days ago. I fiddled with the header for quite a while, shimming and trying to make certain that I had as even pressure on it as I could manage. And I failed. It still leaks rather badly. In hindsight I'm not at all thrilled with this particular header, the mounting flange is rather thin, and it is difficult to get good pressure on the fasteners. I've only got a couple of options. One is to order a special manifold gasket designed for headers and give it one more try. The other option is to bag it and buy a whole new system. Haven't decided which way to go yet. And so what progress has been made in the first year? Not a lot that is externally visible, but quite a lot underneath the skin. The exhaust is about the only mechanical issue remaining to having the car decently road-worthy. The brakes have been dealt with, the suspension is decent, and the electrical system seems healthy as well. The entire running gear (except the differential) has been either replaced, rebuilt or refurbished. It has gone from a poorly running, oil-burning 2.8 liter with poorly installed injection and an automatic transmission to a pretty nice running 2.4 liter with original carbs and a 4 speed manual transmission. Lots of small things have been dealt with, and I can foresee finishing all the non-appearance items within a few more months. All in all, a pretty good start.

18 Sep 2006 - Fine Tuning I spent some time trying to get the car ready to drive some this past weekend. I started by finishing cobbling together a semi-usable exhaust system. It doesn't fit all that great, but it's on, and it's quiet enough that I can drive the car now without fear of setting off alarms on parked cars as I pass. It's also quiet enough to figure out where I stand with this motor and transmission. And the answer is that it is mostly good. The transmission from the parts car is much the same as the other one - shifts fine, no ugly noises. The engine seemed to run fine, without oil smoke. I do have an exhaust leak where the header meets the head, so the manifolds will need to come off so I can get that fixed. I installed the parts car motor with its original carbs, and it seemed to run fairly well with them, but I decided to put my original carbs on to see how well they worked. And they work quite well. In fact, I spent a few minutes tuning them, and they seem great, even better than the other set. So I left them on it and took a short drive. And this was the final test, whether the engine is really sound enough to run as is, or whether to plan for a rebuild. And the answer is that all seems great. No smoke, runs very nicely, no bad noises, no smoke, good oil pressure, temperature is steady, it's pretty much all good. So what next? Well, a real exhaust is definitely in order. I need to get a proper battery hold-down, and also to replace the inner hatch weather strip. I am only running water in the cooling system for now, won't add real coolant until I get the exhaust leak handled, since I have coolant running to the intake manifold. But those are the next details, after which the car should be reasonably drivable. So probably a couple of weeks to go.

10 Sep 2006 - Quiet Time This weekend was quiet time, in more than one way. First, it was quiet in that I didn't do much on the car this weekend. I spent a good part of Saturday cleaning and organizing the garage and work area, and not much time working on the car. On Sunday we did a little non-automotive recreating, and again I didn't do much on the car. On Saturday, I got all four of the sidemarker lights working, with the addition of some new bulbs and replacing one of the bulb sockets with one from the parts car. A minor thing, but satisfying none the less. During the preceding week I made a few calls to some muffler shops, and I have decided that I need to take the car to them for accurate quotes. Most of the shops gave me phone quotes that were considerably more than I had expected. So one of my tasks for the weekend was to get some parts to see if I could get the header connected to the old exhaust, just good enough to drive it some. I bought the parts on Saturday, but did my test fitting Sunday evening. I think I've got that covered, I didn't finish connecting it all, but it looks like it will all fit, and even with nothing tightened down (lots of exhaust leaks) it is much quieter. It should get me by for a while, until I figure out what I want to end up with.

4 Sep 2006 - Engine swap Complete This was engine swap weekend. Monday was a holiday here in the US, which gave many of us a three day weekend. I decided that I didn't want to have to rush the job since the weather has been hotter than normal here in Western Oregon, and took Friday off as well. Which gave me up to four full days to get this done. Not that I figured to take this long, but the idea was to not have to rush it. Friday, 1 Sept. 2006 I started the day by assembling the engine hoist (cherry-picker). Once that was done, I hooked the chain to the lifting lugs on the engine in the parts car, removed the last two bolts and lifted it out. Pretty simple. After sitting it down on some blocks I pulled the transmission off to inspect the clutch and seals. The seals in both the engine and the transmission look good, but the clutch is quite worn, just starting to polish the heads of the rivets on the friction plate. But this is not a problem, as the clutch in my car is virtually new. I then put the yellow car on ramps, and began prepping it for engine removal. Drained the cooling system, the transmission and the engine oil. I pulled the carbs and intake manifolds, driveshaft, shift lever, etc. I removed the ZX radiator and set it aside and disconnected the exhaust. Hooked up the cherry picker and did it again. By mid-afternoon, it's getting pretty hot, and both cars are in the full sun. I'm not feeling too much like working hard at that point, so I started wrapping it up for the day. The last thing I did was to properly route and mount the hydraulic line across the firewall between the clutch master cylinder and the slave cylinder. You may remember that I didn't get that done properly when I did the transmission swap, but doing it right at this point was easy. The metal line is secure and routed correctly, and I riveted the hose mounting tab to the frame rail to secure the hose. Picked up my tools, looked at two empty engine compartments and called it a day. Saturday, 2 Sept. 2006 First task of the day was to pull the good clutch off the L28 motor and put it on the L24. Moved that and several other brackets, mounts and such, then bolted the parts car's transmission back up. Hooked up the cherry picker one more time, and put the smaller motor in the car. No drama, no issues, very smooth. At this point, the job became pretty routine. I've got some new parts to go in, and for the used parts, I just pick whichever is better condition or most appropriate. By the time the heat got to be a bit much in the mid-afternoon, I had the bulk of the external parts reattached. It was pretty much ready for fluids and ignition. Gear oil, engine oil, fill and re-bleed the clutch, finish connecting all the coolant lines and fill that, connect the fuel lines, and install the distributor. Oh yeah, the exhaust. That is the most difficult part of the job yet remaining. And that's where I left things at the end of Saturday. Sunday, 3 Sept. 2006 Took Sunday off. You can't play with cars EVERY day. Monday, 4 Sept. 2006 Back at it in the morning, started with the fuel, cooling and ignition. I decided to use the carbs that came with the engine, as they were apparently well tuned for it before the accident. I set the timing statically by eye, and tried to start it. Nada. I took a look at the ignition again, and figured out that I had used the wrong timing mark when I set it. Reset the the timing (correctly this time), and tried again. And this time it started! (At 10:45 AM.) And it seemed to be running quite well, actually. Unlike the old motor, no clouds of smoke, no noxious burnt oil smells filling the neighborhood, just a nice clean running motor. Oh yeah, it's LOUD since there was no exhaust at all attached to the headers. After a minute or two, I shut it down and checked for leaks or other problems. Didn't really find any though. I did exchange the oil pressure sender with the one on the 280 motor, as the gauge seemed to be reading a bit low. (That worked, gauge shows good pressure now.) The next tasks were to fill the transmission and re-bleed the clutch. I started with the transmission. An hour and a half later (maybe longer), I still had an oil-free transmission. I had planned to loosen the fill plug on the transmission prior to putting it in the car, but had forgotten to do so. I tried every trick I knew, but could not get the fill plug to budge, using the tools and leverage that I could get up in the transmission tunnel. After lunch, I gave up and dropped the transmission. Once out where I could get at it, I was finally able to get it loose. (I had to drive an undersize socket onto the plug with a hammer, and then used an 18" breaker bar to get it out.) Got the transmission back in place, and - FINALLY - got it filled with gear oil. Removing and replacing the transmission took about an hour - the entire process of trying to fill it took almost three hours. All for failing to remember to loosen the plug while the gearbox was already out. Picked up the tools, put away the spare parts, and just generally tidied up the work area. And then, since I wanted to get it warm enough for the thermostat to open, I took it for a little drive. Never got it into top gear, I didn't want to annoy the neighbors that badly. In fact, I never revved it higher than 2000 RPM. It's not too loud if I hold it at 1500-2000 and cruise there. The good news is that it seems to run well, and doesn't seem to smoke. But obviously, until I get some exhaust on it, it isn't going very far.

27 Aug 2006 - Swap Prep, Part 2 I think I'm ready. Or pretty close to ready, anyway. On Saturday I spent a little time sorting parts and organizing. As part of that I got the spare tire aired back up and correctly bolted down in the spare well. Saturday morning also was when the jack, jack handle, lug wrench and tool bag that I bought on eBay arrived. These parts (along with the factory wheel chocks that came with the parts car) complete the tool selection, and were also mounted in the car. I also replaced the ugly, rusty-looking aftermarket cast iron brake drums on my car with the original aluminum drums off the parts car. Much better looking than before. Later in the day, I went back to prepping the motor in the parts car again. I drained both the transmission and engine oil, removed the driveshaft, shift lever and header. At this point, all that is left is to unbolt the final motor mount, and lift it out. This morning I spent just a bit of time doing things to the yellow car. I worked on the front bumper a bit (reworking the left side mount), replaced the front sway bar bushings with the poly bushings off the parts car, and set the toe-in on the front suspension. Between now and Friday, I need to pick up a few more things - oil, filter, gaskets, clamps, manifold studs, etc. So cross your fingers, and I'll report back next week.