Hello from a new owner of a '73 240Z

[70 Cam Guy]

K I tried it, I think I got completely lucky because I stuck my light and camera up in the dash blind. I got 3 decent shots. It's funny I think my iPhone takes better pictures than my digital camera does now.

I've never looked under the dash before, there is a surprising amount of space! There is less space for me under the steering wheel than my truck or old Camaro but I actually fit my hands up there... with a camera!

I'm going to try attaching these, hopefully it maintains the resolution

[=Enigma=]

Andy,

I'm extremely jealous of your unmollested door panels. The interior looks to be in excellent condition. The PO of my car cut holes in them and mounted some cheap a$$ Audiovox speakers and they're not even flush. What a waste. Perhaps they were decent speakers at the time....... I plan on making some thin, formed bases out of MDF to better mount the replacement speakers at some point. He did the same thing in the rear. Not sure what I'm gonna do there yet. New panels may be in order but I'm not looking forward to trying to color match the existing panels. They're only available in black now and donors in this color are hard to find.

Edited April 26, 2009 by =Enigma=
Changed reference to Pioneers to Audiovox......

[ChrisZ]

Adam i believe that is not the truth, Les at CDM do offer butterscotch doorpanels, (re skin), IIRC, check out his homepage.

Chris

Edited April 23, 2009 by ChrisZ

[ChrisZ]

Andy, thanks a lot, those photos actually tells me that the wire colors is the same as in my car, so the tach must match my car, next thing is the wires at the coil, can i also get you to take a photo of that, there really is some fu.. up in my harness.

While i have you, can you then post a clear shot of your seats, it looks to me that the middle section is in a darker tone, is it the same as the middle of the door panels ?

Chris

[70 Cam Guy]

ok sorry, lots of text again

Hey Chris, I'll be glad to snap some shots of it for you. I probably won't be able to do it until tomorrow (Friday) after work. My schedule has been frantic the last couple weeks but I'll do my best. It's funny, with every picture, I'm learning a little more about the car . Sorry that link was something you already knew about. I figured if anything was going to have a wiring diagram, the factory manual would.

I believe you are correct about the color tones, the textured bit of the vinyl is a slightly different shade. I'll take some more pictures of the seats as well in the sunlight. Out of curiosity I checked Classic Datsun, and they have the butterscotch seat covers, but they don't seem to be exactly the same as mine.

http://www.classicdatsun.com/

240Z restoration parts > interior > "butterscotch" seats covers

http://www.classicdatsun.com/new/240Z_tan-seats.html

Adam(?),

Honestly, the interior was really what sold me on this car. My Camaro never had an interior this clean. I don't have any plans to touch this interior. I might wire in my Sirius radio but that does not require any permanent changes to anything (that is the key to any changes I'm making). The body is in surprisingly good shape but I've talked to my friend that's an old time body man. He's gonna check out the dings and give me some advice on that. This was one of those cars that I absolutely could not pass on even though I took a hit to my checking account buying it. (I'm not broke, but it put me in my safety zone that I don't like to be in)

It's killing me, I want to get this thing running/driving so badly! This weekend my dad is going to help me get the car down into the driveway so I can inspect the brakes, make any repairs, and bleed them out. Then I need to check the clutch master for leaks, verify slave cylinder operation and double check for leaks. Then I'm going to get the round tops on there to get it started. Somewhere in there it's getting the new coolant and the fuel lines are getting blown out/purged. I'm going to keep the EGR for now since the stock exhaust manifold is still installed. Actually I am friends with one of the best Porsche techs in California and he made an interesting point on EGR. They are designed to lower NOx emissions but they do that by lowering your peak flame temperature. The side effect is your engine doesn't ping and you can run more timing or lower octane fuel. With that in mind, I'm going to hold on to that until I swap to the header (and I want to save all those parts in good shape)

Anything you guys want pictures on, I am more than happy to try to get what you need. I love cars, my job is cars, I can talk for hours about cars (but I don't bore women with them who don't care). now if anyone could tell me where to find a knob for my rear view mirror dimmer toggle...

[=Enigma=]

Hey Andy, my name is Adam. That post was directed at me and the post of my mollested door panels.

[Carl Beck]

Andy - what off-road sites do you hang out at?

Carl B.

[70 Cam Guy]

Hi Carl, I mostly read Marlin Crawler and Trail Gear forums (both good forums). When I need hard core information I'll read/search on Pirate4x4. I never post on pirate, just read it mostly, those guys are ruthless. I keep my nose out of the drama threads. My truck's been on hold until I can buy Longfields and gears so I haven't posted much lately. I haven't changed my screen name since I started joining forums so if my name looks familiar, that might be why

This is the album for my Toyota, all of the welding I did ... http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v283/70CamGuy/Yota/

Requested pics can now be found here!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v283/70CamGuy/240Z/PicsForZcarGuys/

I took some with my iPhone and some with my digital camera. Hope this helps you guys.

Adam,

I suppose I was responding to the doors in a rambling sort of way. Your interior looks pretty damn clean too, and really the door panels don't look bad at all on your car. The old school look of the speakers don't look out of place on the doors. Is it possible to replace the speakers in those surrounds?

Edited April 25, 2009 by 70 Cam Guy

[ChrisZ]

Andy, once again thanks for the photos, the wiring looks as the same in my car, fat BW to ballast resistor, the two other BW, goes from positive side of coil to BR, in that wire the GW to the tach is spliced in, according to the -74 260Z FSM the tach is triggered from the negative side of the coil :surprised, but it looks as the -73 3 wire is triggered from the positive side ??....

Do anyone know if there is a in line resistor and where it is.

Andy, the photo of your seats are the best i have seen of the original and it clearly shows that the center section have inserts of the same vinyl as the center of the door panel, i just send a PM to Les at CDM and i hope he will chime in here with some information on this topic, time will tell.

Chris

[70 Cam Guy]

Chris, I'll have to take a look for you tomorrow and post back. Thanks for the compliments on the interior! I'm pretty surprised by how comfortable the seats are and how much space there is. I'm not tall at 5'8" (172cm?) and I don't consider myself too short but I feel pretty short in this car! Real people can fit comfortably!

I've been outside all day today and got the engine started! I removed the flat top carbs, smog pump, and got the balance tube plugged up to seal any vacuum leaks. I'm waiting until I install the header before changing the balance tube and removing EGR. Tomorrow's agenda is to do the brakes and clutch and get it idling down where it should be. Blew me away, this thing is not smoking at all, and the exhaust doesn't even smell bad. Oil pressure is looking good it revs smoothly

Even though parts are coming off the engine, I want to do as little damage to the original parts as I can manage. Some day this car will probably be worth more in factory original form like so many muscle cars are now. But the current plans are resto mod. Period correct resto mod with Webers are a nice plan for the future but I'll be happy with my round tops while I scrounge up the 40 DCOE's.

Edited April 26, 2009 by 70 Cam Guy

[ChrisZ]

Andy, i'm a little taller, only about 8 inch and i almost hit the roof, when i got the car i was sitting much lower, then i pulled the seats, pulled the covers and had them washed, when i re installed the covers i put in some "felt" on top of the springs, it was recommeded by the upholstry guy, the hair lock have a tendecy to sink down in to the springs, in between the hair lock and cushion i put 3/4 inch foam and now my seats are so comfortable, my cushions looks very good and i think it is the cover that have streched.

If you want to raise your seats, there are some distance nuts you can adjust the seats up with, they have to be under the rails, try to have a look and see how many you have.

Chris

[=Enigma=]

We'll have to get together some time and compare our cars. I'm still working through finishing up all of my mods and trying to get this thing back on the road. I made the mistake of tearing it all apart shortly after I bought it, before taking some time to enjoy it. That said, it really needed the suspension, brakes and fuel system gone through. Unfortunately, I got hit with the WIAT disease (while I'm at it) disease and figured I'd do a bunch of other things along the way that has led to my car being out of commissions for some time now. Slowly but surely I'm getting one more step towards getting it back on the road. It would have been ready a few months ago if I hadn't injured my back pulling a rear end out of a JY car......

FYI, I also have an interest in 4wheeling, although the Z has pretty much taken priority for a while now. Here's a shot of the 4runner as it sits now. It's no hard core rock crawler, but it aint no grocery getter either. It's seen it's share of tough trails.

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