Mike B

Post some pictures of your restoration when you get a chance. I'm working on #237 so I am interested in many of your early parts. -Mike

Notice that he is asking the same price for both #305 and #51. There are no pictures posted of #51, but assuming they are in similar condition would #50 be more valuable than #305, or are all 1969 production cars worth about the same in the same condition? I would think some of the earliest cars available to the public (like #26 and #27) could be worth more, but where would that cutoff be, after #50 or #100? Is that the case? Does month of production have any effect on value (Oct vs Nov or Dec 1969)?

Arne, The guy parked behind me at the Canby show this weekend had a set of American Racing Libres for sale for $350. I already have two sets of Shelby Viper (libre style) wheels for my cars, otherwise I would have bought them. He sold them a little while after I looked at them. I think that is probably on the low end for a decent set. Most of the ones I have seen on ebay go for $400-600 plus shipping. -Mike

Austen, sorry about the car problem and that we don't get to meet you. I was wearing a UW sweatshirt too (until the sun broke out for awhile). Here are some other pics from today, including the Dat O Lantern truck you mentioned. It was one of my kids favorites today. -Mike

Hey Will I recently bought a 240z service manual on eBay called S30 Supplement Chassis Manual. It looks like it was published for the National Service Training Department. Do you need a copy of this for the club DVD project? The manual contains revised/updated service instructions to service manual #99999-20016 and includes information for R&R of the instrument panel, floor console [auto-standard trans]; the heat-ventilation system is fully documented; R&R of the console finisher, center instruments and radio; revised wiring diagrams. There is no date, but it references late 1971 wiring harnesses and shows pictures of early style consoles. This was the first time I had come across this manual. Let me know if you need/want this and I can scan it and send it to you. -Mike

I was the only bidder on an ebay auction for an early shift rod and grommet, so I got them both for $5.99. I was hoping no one else would notice the auction. I guess no one that needed one did. Now if I can just get the floors and firewall done I can start putting the interior back together. -Mike

Jimmy Z, I don't think the seatbelts in the ebay ad that Deesz posted a link to will work in your car. They are the later retractible style and I don't think your 2/71 has the pockets built into floor for the retractors. -Mike

I just came across this site while doing an internet search. http://bringatrailer.com/category/japanese/ Has anyone ever seen it before? Seems to compile cars that are currently for sale at various other places. Lonetree Steve's car is the first one listed. He has nice things to say about Steve's car. Note this comment, though, "The Nissan factory restored a select number of early coupes in 2003 and they still draw high prices". Further down it also has a listing for two Toyota 2000GTs in Maine being offered at $250,000 each. -Mike

Actually I guess that is a 620 truck? I don't know anything about Datsun trucks and was just going from memory of the picture when I typed that. Anyway, that should be the license frame though. -Mike

That link is to the ebay auction where he bought the license frame. Here is a picture of a 610 at the dealership with what may be the same license frame from an earlier thread about Datman. Kind of hard to see though. There is also a picture of Datman painted on the wall behind. -Mike

BuDavid, I have a set of 14" Dayton wire wheels that came with my 1972 when I bought it. They hardly have any miles on them (the car only has 37,000). I have the paperwork and invoice for them around here somewhere. The original owner bought them new from Victoria British in the early 1990's I think for around $1200 for the set. It looks like your link shows them to be over $500 each now. I have the lug nuts for them as well. I am attaching some pictures of them I took last summer and one from when they were still mounted on the car. PM me if you are interested. -Mike

I'm going to try to go and bring my red 72 (not showing it though). It sounds like most people will be there on Sunday, so I think I will do the same. -Mike

Wow! Quite a car and quite a history. I'd say if any Datsun is worth $68k, it would be that one. -Mike

Here is a set of tan vinyl on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240z-Tan-Vinyl_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6763QQihZ011QQitemZ320113870029QQrdZ1 Maybe the seller has the interior panels as well.

Chris, Actually, I have the remnants of only one plastics inspection lid clip. I had the remnants of both clips when the car arrived, but the other one was apparently loose and fell out on the drive home (it was broken off like the one in the picture so I wasn’t too worried about that). The car came with a locking gas door (later two sided key) I guess added by the PO. I removed the lock to compare it to the NOS one I have with the black top Nissan N key and just haven’t put it back in yet. Since I doubt I will ever find a correct plastic locking knob, I was considering getting a later style metal one instead of putting the locking one back on (since neither are correct for the car and I’d rather just have one less key to deal with). I do have the clear glass, and no wiring for a rear defroster. What do you mean by deck insulation? I have had two 72 Z’s so I am new to Series one cars in general and am aware of some of the 1969 specific features, but not all of them. Do you have some sort of a checklist you could send me and I’ll let you know what I have and what I’m missing? Are you sure that the air chimney location is reversed for LHD cars? I am attaching a scan from my 11/69 US parts catalog of the cowl area and it shows the chimney to be on the left hand side, not the passenger side. I think that was what I recall visually seeing as well. Does that make a difference in your analysis? Why are you not a fan of a POR repair for the bottom of the cowl? It seems that many people on this site recommend POR to repair floors and other areas. The bottom of the cowl doesn’t seem to me to be as weight bearing as the floor is. By removing the battery box, do you mean just the battery tray or the surrounding sheet metal too?

daddz, yes, that is the car. I didn't know they had so many long needle pine trees in NJ, but apparently this car was parked under one for a while.

I forgot that I did take a picture of the inner firewall this weekend. I removed most of the firewall insulator and it doesn't look too bad to me. The inside got wet from the small hole in the cowl when I washed the car just before taking the pictures. I'll take some more pictures further up the inner firewall and of the bottom side of the cowl area this weekend. -Mike

Thanks for the input guys. The dash is not crackfree, but I think it is still in pretty good shape. It has one crack in the center, maybe about four inches and a very small maybe 1/2 inch crack on the right side (see attached pics). I know a vinly repair guy that did a minor repair on one of the door panels in my 72 and swears he can repair cracked Z dashes too, so I thought I might give him a try. Also, dk240z is right, the pop riveted cover below is covering where A/C lines came into the car at some point (I found an old A/C switch mounted in the car) and I don't recall seeing any rust inside in that area. I will take and post some more pics of the inside of the firewall and the inside and bottom of the cowl area this weekend. It seemed that the firewall got the worst of the rust (maybe the car was parked facing downhill so that the standing water was up against the firewall?) The rest of the inside of the cowl looked like it would be repairable with POR15 and reinforcing mesh, but you can give me some more input after I post additional pics of the area. I've never taken a dash out before, so I didn't really want to do that if I don't have to, but on the other hand I do want to repair it right and if that is what needs to be done than I will have to do it. If I do remove the dash I may have it recovered at the place here in WA while it is out. By the way Will, I don't leave either of my Z's out in the rain. They have both taken over the garage and thankfully I have an understanding wife. -Mike

Yeah, I wanted to take everything apart first to see what I really had. Good thing I did or I might not have noticed the floors and cowl area right away. I plan to remove the steering wheel and (obviously) the seat before starting the work on the floors and cowl/firewall, but I need them in for now to move the car around. I also wanted to check out how the steering wheel looked in the car after my refinishing. I think it came out well. -Mike

Thanks. I removed the hubcaps for now. I didn't want them to fall off and I wanted to check the date codes on the steel wheels. Three including spare are correct 11/69 and two are later replacements I guess. I considered having Z specialties work on the car, buy it is kind of far for me to go, especially because it had to be towed from Pacific when I picked it up. I had Duane Bender at Motorworks Ltd work on it. He is currently the President of the Z car club of WA and I think his silver Z was mentioned in a recent Nissan Sport mag.

This is the second group of pictures. -Mike

Once I got started I decided to just go ahead and resize and post the pictures tonight. Here is the first batch.

Well, after a long delay, I finally received #237 about a month ago. I had it shipped to me via enclosed railcar, which was supposed to be faster and safer. Unfortunately there was a fire on a major east-west rail tressle in CA that backed up all rail traffic for a couple of weeks. So much for getting it here quicker. Then the car wouldn't start after sitting for almost two months, so I had to have it towed to a local Z mechanic to get it going again. It runs, but still needs a good tune up. I got it back right before going on vacation for a week and I've spend the last two weekends taking the interior apart and removing some non-stock items. I finally had a chance to wash the car and take some pictures today. After taking the interior out and getting a better look at the floors I have decided to replace them before putting the interior back in. I ordered a set from Charlie Osborn and am waiting for them to arrive. Other than the floors, the other major rust issue I need to deal with is the cowl area. In the pictures I got before buying the car I could see bubbling rust on the firewall above the battery and thought it was due to battery acid. When I got the car, this area of the firewall was so weak I could put my finger right through it, which I did to open it up and see how bad it was. I then opened up the cowl grill and the cowl was full of leaves, pine needles, dirt and rust chunks. The bottom of the cowl has numerous pin-hole sized rust holes, but I think I will be able to use POR-15 and fiber mesh to repair that. Obvioulsy the firewall will need to have some metal welded in, so I plan to have that done at the same time I have the floors put in. The doors also had a lot of pine needles and junk in them, which caused the bottoms to rust. The passenger side is the worst with several areas of rust bubbles coming through the outer skin. I'm going to try to POR-15 these areas and see how that works for a stop gap fix until I do a complete repaint. The rest of the exterior actually looks pretty good. The hatch looks to be rust free. The car was repainted the original silver several years ago and it seems like it was at least a decent job. So far I have done the following: *replaced aftermarket drivers side mirror with stock unit *replaced aftermarket steering wheel with stock unit that I bought and refinished *removed and reinstalled the combination and turn signal switched after having them repaired by Z'sondabrain *removed the after market electric cooling fan and installed a plastic fan from a 72. I also bought a nice condition 70 metal fan to have for originality *removed aftermarket radio, speakers and manual replacement antenna and installed a stock power antenna *removed later speedometer and replaced with a 70 unit *removed front bumper overrider bar *removed the aftermarket coolant recovery tank *found a perfect set of stock seats (from a low milage 72) and swapped out the brackets and reclining mechanism with the stock series 1 parts. The seats that came with the car had been poorly recovered. *bought a stock nissan exhaust system, but then found out that the PO installed a header, so I will also need to install a stock exhaust manifold and downpipe before I can put the exhaust on. *removed the clock and amp/fuel gauge to replace I'll attach some pictures tomorrow. It looks like I have to resize them all. -Mike

I just got my combo and T/S switches (for #237) back from Dave and his work far exceeded my expectations. They look and feel like new. I think this is a great value and highly recommend his repair service. -Mike B