Mike B

The guy that restored them painted the centers. I considered asking him to leave them unpainted, since I thought they would darken naturally, but I thought it might protect them and be a little less maintenance with the paint. -Mike

Sorry Carl. I know you'll find a spare eventually. -Mike

Thanks. Yeah, he was slow and hard to get in touch with at times, but he does good work. -Mike

I finally got my magnesium ARE Le Mans wheels back from being restored. They came out really nice except for a few noticable pits on one lip. The guy welded the area a couple of times, but couldn't get it to fill without pitting. He said I could fill it with epoxy and put some chrome colored paint on it to make it less noticable. I might try to see if I can find someone else to fix it, but magnesium is difficult to weld and old wheels have a tendency to pit, so it may not come out any better. -Mike

Here are pictures of the original horns from my 1972 240z (manufactured 5/72). The fronts of the horns look like a semi gloss black. I think the rest is zinc plated and the bolts are cad plated. They are stamped H and L on the bottom front for High and Low. The 6/74 USA and Canada parts catalog shows the same part numbers are used up to 7/73. The horns in HLS30-00032 are not black. They have blue overspray from a repaint, but it looks like they could have been the olive color originally. I'll see if I can clean them up some and take some pictures sometime this week. -Mike

DeeZ, I'll PM you about the horns. I have an excellent example of what original unrestored horns should look like on my 72 with 38,000 miles. I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow. As I recall they were a flat black and had an orignal stamp or some kind of marking on them. -Mike

Nice work! So when can I send my horns to you for restoration? -Mike

Yes, that's it. -Mike

I bought my first Z in Sacramento in 1990 and sold it in 1995. Here it is in Hawaii in 1992 at the Navy base I lived on. -Mike

Welcome back Jim! This has been discussed a few times. Here is one of the threads http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19895&highlight=radiator+support. If you need some more pictures let me know and I can take some. I don't recall any black paint around the door openings, but maybe I need to take another look. -Mike

I tried again today, and still not able to get it to work using Windows Explorer. I tried it with Firefox and it worked just fine. -Mike

Carl, I get this error when I try to click on the Paypal link on the items Sorry — your last action could not be completed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you were making a purchase or sending money, we recommend that you check both your PayPal account and your email for a transaction confirmation during the next day. If you came to this page from another website, please return to that site (don't use your browser's Back button) and restart your activity. If you came from PayPal's website, click the PayPal logo in the upper-left corner to return to our home page and restart your activity. You might have to log in again. -Mike

Steve, The guy with those cars is trying to sell them again. He has an ebay ad for just the yellow one now, but it says he has over 30 cars and wants them all gone. His ebay ID is californiaxport and the ad says he is in Camarillo, CA. Here is the link http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240-Z-260-Z-280-Z-300-Zx-Acres-of-parts-cars_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6783QQihZ015QQitemZ250291836973QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW I'm attaching the ad pictures this time for future reference. -Mike

Sounds like a good option for you then and it would be an interesting project. What are you going to make your bio-diesel from? -Mike

Here are a couple of old threads. I searched for "veggie car" http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19746&highlight=veggie+car http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14732&highlight=veggie+car I would rather go with an electric motor powered Z. I've seen a few people do that. There is an electric 280z in the current Lightning auto magazine (Japanese mag). -Mike

I also vote a maybe. The hood and doors are easy to replace and should be easy to find good ones in CA. It would depend on how the floors, rear hatch, battery area, and the underside of the car (frame rails, etc) look. -Mike

I would gladly take $7k for #331, but that's not going to happen. I may have it sold by the weekend though. -Mike

Don't forget the most recent one

Not to try to drive you away from this site, but you should also checkout hybridz.org, as they have more V8 conversions there. They have a classifed section and I took a look and came across this ad http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=138138, which links to a craigslist ad in Eugene, OR http://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/814494236.html (maybe too far away for you though). Good luck with your search. -Mike

I wound up buying HLS30-00331 last fall from a local guy that had it for several years. The owner before him bought the car through eBay in 2000 and had it shipped from Alabama to the Seattle area. He intended to use it to build a SOVREN vintage racer since it was built pre-70. However he subsequently found out that it wouldn't be allowed since the 240Z wasn't homologated for racing prior to 1970. It sat untouched (as received from AL), and stored inside over the past 8 years. Before that it obviously lead a hard life and lived outside for quite a while. The car has a clear Washington title (but not a current registration since it is inoperable). It has the numbers matching block, but has a E-88 head that looks like it was rebuilt by someone named Ron Blades on 11-3-79. I have a spare E-31 head from a parts car that I intended to use on it. I recently had time to start digging into it a bit. I removed the old junk AC system and took out the remnants of the interior, including the dash to get a better look at the car. It has lots of rust issues and bondo from poor prior body work. There are large holes and rust in the battery tray/passenger firewall area and in the floors. I'm not sure if the rust in the battery tray/firewall area was caused by battery acid or leaking AC drains or a combination of both. There is rust and a couple of small holes in the front of the rear deck, probably from a leaking rear hatch. Lots of rust on the rear hatch ledge and taillight area. There is bondo from poor repairs of the left rear quarter panel and dog leg, rear hatch, and hood. Maybe more in other areas. I haven't tried to take a magnet to the car. The underside of the car looks pretty rough. The passenger side rear frame rail looks damaged. The car was originally #907 green with a tan interior. It was painted gold at one point and now has a bad black paint job on it. The interior was spray painted black (also a bad job), but most of it was too damaged to save anyway. I have some tan interior pieces and seats from HLS30-00882 (a 1/70 parts car that came with this car). The seats would need to be reupholstered, but the frames and hardware could be reused. I have some sheet metal from various parts cars that may be usable for some of the needed repairs - right and left quarters, a marginal battery tray section, a rear wheel well, rear hatch ledges, and a rear hatch. When I bought the car I thought I might be able to repair it, but I wound up buying HLS30-00032 this spring and I also have two other Z's so I need to get rid of this car soon. It would definately be a lot of work to repair, but it is a 11/69 production car and it does have the matching block and a clean title. I will put a listing in the classified section here if anyone is interested in it they can contact me. If I can't find anyone interested in it in the next month or so I will part out the salvageable parts and probably scrap it, so if anyone thinks they have the skills or the funds to save it get in touch with me soon. The car is located in Sammamish, WA (near Seattle). Here are links to all the pictures I took this weekend. http://s467.photobucket.com/albums/rr38/Datsun240Z_Pics/HLS30-00331_vol1/ http://s467.photobucket.com/albums/rr38/Datsun240Z_Pics/HLS30-00331_vol2/ http://s467.photobucket.com/albums/rr38/Datsun240Z_Pics/HLS30-00331_vol3/ -Mike

I vote to part it out. I am debating whether HLS30-00331 is worth trying to save now. I took a lot of pictures of it yesterday and will post a separate thread to get some opinions on it, but sorry to say that yours looks even worse than it. It looks like the roof on your car would be a real challenge to fix, in addition to the more standard rusted areas that we can see from the photos (floors, firewall, doors, quarter panels, etc.). I would bet that once you strip the interior out and take a close look at the underside you will see that this is just the tip of the iceberg. -Mike

If the clips are loose can't you just use a pair of pliers to squeeze them together more for a tighter fit? -Mike

Well, if it was a Toyota 2000GT I was driving I might be able to live with that . -Mike

Spook is a term people use to refer to a front spoiler (specifically the BRE style). Replica spoilers made from the original BRE molds are available through www.classicdatsun.com under 240z parts - fiberglass parts. -Mike

A seller on ebay (gira7777) has sold several sets over the past year or so. He is in Thailand. He sold this last set with a Buy-it-now of $599. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DATSUN-FAIRLADY-Z-240Z-240ZG-260Z-HEAD-LIGHT-COVER-NOS_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ34207QQihZ021QQitemZ310076968693QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW You should contact him to see if he has anymore. -Mike