Arne

Depends on your goal, Brian. I will be using stock rubber on my red car, but it will never see the track and seldom (if ever) an auto-cross. So rubber is fine for me.

Hmm. None of the three '71s I've had (both manual and automatic) have had this part. Was it something Datsun came up with later?

I apologize as well, for my lack of clarity. My car does have the white Z, in hollow metal.

I agree with Chris' assessment. That emblem is the same as those on my 10/70 car.

Are you looking for the factory small bumper guards, or the aftermarket (and sometimes dealer installed) Amco over-rider bars?

No, don't want to use anything that would be difficult to get off when I do end up painting it later.

I like the Xenon on 280Zs, but I certainly don't consider it period-correct for a 240Z.

I will either leave mine in black gel-coat or paint it black at first. Later when I paint the car I will paint it to match. Other than that, I haven't seen anything else of the period-style I like. I do know where there is an NOS Kamei air dam, but it's not an attractive unit in my opinion.

I'm planning on getting a spook later this summer. I've looked into this as well, and have come to the conclusion that while there are more than a couple small shops cranking out this style, I will buy mine from Classic Datsun Motorsport. They have the original BRE mould, and the consensus is that theirs are a bit better fit than most. That's not to say that there aren't others that fit OK too. Several people have indicated that the ones from MSA aren't bad either, which I believe are made by Showcars Bodyparts. The MSA spooks are on sale right now for $100. Last part of the equasion is the condition of the valance you are attaching it to. If that's not straight, the spook is going to warp and twist when it's attached. That may be the issue with the red car pictured above, might not be the fault of the spoiler.

The less travel you have from rest to bottomed out, the stiffer the shock valving needs to be. That helps slow the compression motion down before it bottoms. Similarly, if you have a higher spring rate than stock, the springs really try to push back (think pogo stick), so increased rebound damping is necessary to compensate for that.

To keep the ride height as is, if you have shocks now that lack gas pressure (the shafts stay put or self-extend slowly if you hand compress them), you'll want to stay pressureless with your replacements. That means either Koni or Mulhollands.If your existing struts have a fair amount of gas pressure now (the shafts self-extend fairly rapidly if you compress them by hand), then Tokicos would be a better bet. You have already identified the rebound issue with your new springs. With springs of a higher spring rate the shocks need a lot of rebound control. As far as the ride issue for a daily driver, that depends entirely on your preferences. You may be far more tolerant of a firm ride than I may be. I've found that good performance shocks need not be harsh, but will generally be firm. That has been the case with my Mulhollands, and also with other well matched packages I have used on other cars as well.

Typically, for springs with a stiffer spring rate like the Arizona Z springs you want a shock with a lot of control, especially if the ride height has been lowered. You want the shock to be able to damp the motion quickly, since you don't have a lot of travel. Ideally you don't want it to bottom out. So with your cut-down Arizona springs I'd say something fairly aggressive would be a good idea. Tokico Illuminas maybe, Konis, or actually even the same Mulhollands I put in my red 240Z. The ride will end up being pretty firm, but the handling should be great on relatively smooth roads.Side note - those NOS Mulhollands I installed are great performance shocks, but not so good for back road weekend touring. Too firm for that. I'll end up going to KYB soon. Might put the Mulhollands in the yellow 240Z instead, but not sure yet.

Looks pretty good, Brian. What are you running for shocks?

My stock '71 needs premium, and the owner's manual specifies premium. You might get away with less octane if you have a later cylinder head, or a hot cam installed. But for a stock '71 L24, I'd recommend premium.

The issue is that if you use a left side mirror on the right side of the car, the stalk extends at a much different angel than the other side.

Pull all six spark plugs out. See if you've got liquid in any of the bores - coolant, oil or fuel. You may have a leak of some sort that has filled one cylinder with liquid and now it's fluid-locked.

Yes, it sounds like a problem between the switch and where the to coil feeds join on the coil feed in the Start position..

Wow. That may be the slickest option I've yet seen for night visibility yet. And surprisingly affordable, to boot.

So are you saying that in the start position that it cranks, but won't catch until you release the key? If so, there may be something wrong with the wiring to the coil. In the Run position, the switch sends power through the ballast resistor to the coil. In Start, power is sent through a different wire directly to the coil.

The FrostFree kit looks like a nice idea, but it may not work on a Z. Our rear windows are 38" wide and 28" high. Neither dimension works for their stated minimum width of 40". You might sneak by going horizontally, as 38" is not too much under the minimum. But for early cars with vertical defrosters it's not even close.

None of my '71s have or had that connector, not in that location anyway. Not even the (formerly) automatic car. I'll try to remember to look over my spare wiring harness this evening.

So it sounds like the main mount itself has really no way to go bad. That's a relief - those parts aren't cheap. I'll plan on getting replacement rear spacers before I next tear it apart.

Good thought, but all four struts are new - less than 750 miles on them.

Thanks, Ron. I too recall them as being pretty much a solid piece. Maybe a solid chunk of rubber inside a metal shell perhaps, but solid none-the-less. The noise I'm getting is almost a rumbling, almost sounds like a wheel bearing. It only happens on roads with a rough surface. My thought is that perhaps the mount has gotten so hard that it doesn't cushion anymore and is transmitting all the roughness into the body shell. Maybe, maybe not. I will be replacing all the rear suspension bushings, so maybe I'll just do the upper mounts at the same time.

I feel a bit silly asking this, considering how many times I've changes springs in my cars in the past 9 months, but here goes. Do the upper strut mounts (the parts with the three mounting studs, what Nissan calls "insulators") have a rubber cushion inside them? I know this is common in other cars, but never looked at mine when I've had them apart. My concern is that my red 240Z has a lot of road noise on rough road surfaces, and I'm wondering if the rubber inserts in the mounts (if any) has gotten stiff and hard over the past 35 years?