Arne

Well, sort of. The early long-pigtail fuseboxes for the Series 1 cars did not use a screw connection for the white/red wire, but used male and female blade terminals instead. Apparently Nissan felt these were not as reliable for critical circuits, and starting with the 1/71 production they moved to the short pigtail fusebox with the screw connection instead. So I guess you could call it an 'afterthought' on Nissan's part. I choose to think of it as an improvement.

Those appear to be Tru-Spokes. Tru-Spoke ended up as part of the Cragar family, but Cragar no longer builds wire wheels. Cragar's accessory page does show a similar cap, but I don't know if it is really the same, or even if it will fit your wheels. http://www.cragarwheel.com/catalogs_accessories.html

I agree, Austen, they did. What color and brand paint did you use?

That's the main power lead to from the battery to the fusebox. Gotta have it. Doesn't the MSA box have a place to attach it?

"Graphics? We don' need no stinking graphics!" I love the BRE-look for a track 240Z. And even for a street-driven 510 the BRE-look and bubble flares is too cool. But for a street 240Z, I personally prefer them pretty much sans graphics. Maybe a set of side period correct side stripes, that's all. But that's just me. I like the clean and classic look as originally designed. Doesn't mean I think that other opinions are wrong, they're just not mine.

Thanks, Ron. I am SO glad I had it done as the entire panel. Seeing the pictures after seeing the end result and hearing the plan has firmed it all up. Done this way, it should be just as good as when it was new. I'm very pleased with the results.

I suppose that makes sense, Jeff. There's a heck of a lot more Zs left here out West than there are in Michigan. I wonder what they'd do if you went in with the part number (from the club CD) in hand?

Courtesy is great, and is a sponsor of this site as well. I've bought from them too. But don't write off your local Nissan dealer until you've given them a try. Mine sells me parts at about the same price as Courtesy, but with no shipping cost. Of course, here in Oregon I've got no sales tax to confuse the issue.

Check the prices on Nissan bushings before you go all out on a search for alternatives. I haven't done the front yet, but the prices for Nissan parts for the rear wasn't all that bad, especially after the club discount my dealer gives. The rear inner were about $9 each, the rear outer $7 each. Buy or rent a spindle pin tool!! Makes the pin pulling a much less ugly job, even if yours are rusted. But the rear outer bushings are still a major PITA even once the pins have been pulled. Very difficult to get the old ones out. And in my experience, the rear outers have always been the least worn of all the bushings on the car. So I'd look those over very closely before you decide to tackle them. Mine had no slop or play at all, even after 36 years. I decided to replace them anyway, just because. But in hindsight, I'm not certain I would if I knew then what I know now.

Performance increase (if any) from not having the converter will be small. So unless the converter is bad in someway, I'd keep it on the car. Better for all of our air, too.

I figure painting will start sometime next week. I'm hoping to have it back by the end of the month. Canby is June 14-15, it's going to be a busy couple of weekends... Yup, the headlight buckets and the Spook will both be painted separately, but with the same batch of paint (of course). I too like my wheels, if only they weren't so badly pitted. Once the body and interior are done, I'll have to start watching for a better set.

Yes, Dave's products work on early 240Zs. My car is fully equipped with them. (Except the LED lighting.)

Me too. I'm happy to pay for this kind of work.

... and the work in progress.

More pictures. The donor...

I paid the shop a short visit today. Only took one picture, as I don't want to be a pest. But progress is being made.

Now that the roof was in primer, paint became a priority. So the very next day after I got it back from the roof re-skin, I began stripping it down for paint. Since the interior and engine compartment are great, those parts will not be painted. Door and hatch jambs will, of course. The color will start with a commercially available formula for 905 red, and then will be fine tuned by matching the underside of the tool compartment lids.

By far the biggest flaw (in my mind), was the aftermarket sunroof the original owner had installed in the late '70s. While it wasn't leaking (yet), I never liked it, even to the point of almost passing on this car because of it. In the end, I decided the rest of the car was too nice to pass up. But having the sunroof removed someday was always in the back of my mind. That happened late last month. I won't go into details here, they can be found in this other thread.

A few pictures to document my exterior refresh. The subject is my '71 240Z, #37705, 905 red. The car currently has just over 64,000 miles on it, and is rust free as it has been garaged its entire life, has seldom seen wet roads, no snow, and no road salt. Here are a couple of before pictures. Bear in mind that the car looks much better in pixels (or from 10 feet or more) than it did in person. It had many small flaws. A couple of scrapes to bare metal, lots of rock chips on the nose, and 37 years of very small door dings. Not to mention that the 905 red has faded so much that it really looks like 110, the later orangy-red.

No promises yet, but I may have a line on a few non-shaded windshields. Aftermarket, not Nissan. But non-shaded. Details as I get them...

The image and description in that auction were stolen verbatim from my (copyrighted) website. I have reported it to eBay.

Better now than in a few years, but best time would have been about 5 years ago.

Umm. That plug (as I of all people well know) as to adapt the ZX alternator to a 240Z, not the distributor. And yes, they are available from Dave directly. Info can be found at: http://www.classiczcars.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=11&cat=7

Yes, dissing the Vintage Program and the resulting cars seems to be a fairly common thing among some 240Z enthusiasts, apparently because of the above mentioned 'resto-mod' approach that was taken. People tend to compare them to true 'restorations' when - in my mind - they should be thought of as a very special limited edition car. Face it folks, regardless of how 'original' you consider these cars to be, the investment and effort expended for a mere 38 (or so) cars may never be seen again. That alone makes these cars something special. Only a very historically significant model will get treatment like this. It will probably never happen again. About the only other manufacturer-backed projects that that even approach this in concept would be the British Motor Heritage replacement MG bodyshells. And even that is nowhere near the same, as all they did was provide the shells. The rest is/was up to the restorers.

All of those items are strictly emissions items. I don't believe that any of the current issues could damage the car. Back in the '70s had I owned one, I'd probably have disconnected all that stuff right away. These days - being both a bit more realistic, and more environmentally aware - I see no good reason not to have it all connected and functioning. The air injection system used on the 240Z has virtually no effect on performance, other than the parasitic drag of the belt-driven air pump (mounted below the distributor). That said, if your air pump is already disconnected, bad or missing, I see no reason to worry about this stuff. Assuming, of course, that the car is emissions-exempt in your state. If it were me, I would move the vacuum line to the distributor to the proper port on the front carb, on the remote chance that the amount of vacuum coming from the balance tube (where it is now connected) is not the same as that from the front carb. If you do this, make sure to cap the nipple on the balance tube where you move the line from.