1973 240Z Refreshtoration – 901 Silver

[Montezuma]

Status? Will it be ready for next weekend? Might be up your way tomorrow, going to Stone of course.

[motorman7]

No, will not be ready at all :disappoin. My renters moved out so been spending the last couple weekends fixing up the rental house. What a pain. House work is not nearly as fun as car work. Hopefully can get it rented soon. Hoping to start back on the car in December

[Montezuma]

No, will not be ready at all :disappoin. My renters moved out so been spending the last couple weekends fixing up the rental house. What a pain. House work is not nearly as fun as car work. Hopefully can get it rented soon. Hoping to start back on the car in December

That is too bad. Atleast you have the yellow one to take to the show.

[Diseazd]

Rich......It's so nice to see these old cars come back to life.......You do an outstanding job!!!!! Beautiful work!!!! By the way....you can buy the brake booster stickers from Mike at Banzai, along with most other stickers. Guy

Edited November 12, 2010 by Diseazd

[motorman7]

Rich......It's so nice to see these old cars come back to life.......You do an outstanding job!!!!! Beautiful work!!!! By the way....you can buy the brake booster stickers from Mike at Banzai, along with most other stickers. Guy

Thanks Guy! I have to say, I am doing my best to get up to your level. Your motor and paint pictures have been a great inspiration. I have saved those pictures and use them as my models. I even have your Safari gold engine bay paint job on my rotating screen saver slides .

I will need to contact Mike at Banzai. The paint shop painted over the gold stickers on the underside of my hood:ermm:. It least I know where to place the new ones

Best Regards,

Rich

[motorman7]

Finally got a chance to work on the car again. With moving the in-laws, fixing up the rental house, and celebrating the 25th wedding anniversary with a nice eight day get-away, haven't had much time to get anything done on the car in the last four weeks. Now that all this is done, I can finally get back to work here.

I did go to the SoCalRoc Show on Saturday, 27 Nov. I love the roadsters. I took second in the Z category with my yellow Z, so that was nice.

Getting back to the '73 refreshtoration, I got the windshiled in. It was a piece of cake. Had my son help me put it in place and the rest I was able to do myself. I have installed two windshields and two rear hatch glasses and feel pretty comfortable with the process. It did not take that long either. Maybe 2 hours total to put in the glass and the stainless strips. Also got the windshield wipers on and a side emblem. Still a lot to do but it's nice to get back to work on the car.

[Montezuma]

Nice to see you back to work Rich. I must get back up there to visit you and Stone of course.

[grantf]

looking good. Where did you get the windshield rubber from?

[motorman7]

looking good. Where did you get the windshield rubber from?

Hi Grant,

The windshield rubber is from the complete gasket kit that I purchased from Black Dragon. The cost is about $200 and include almost all of the gaskets for the car.

I got the same kit for my yellow one. Only thing I don't like on the yellow Z is the tight door seal. Takes some effort to close.

This is a newer kit and the door gaskets are packeaged different than the rest of the kit. I am hoping these are improved. I will know in a couple weeks when I get to them.

[motorman7]

Cleaned up the spare tire area and installed the rear carpet. There was a lot of that horse hair stuff to clean up. Put in the carpet for the rear deck and the passenger side. Will get to the drivers side this weekend.

The rear carpet did not have the cutout for the turnbuckle at the aft most end, but that worked out OK. I loosened the buckles and tucked the carpet under the buckle to secure it.

The two cloth belts are a bit faded. May talk to my wife and see if she can dye them for me.

This spare is probably pretty old. Toyo Z-1 14/175 series with Rayon cords.

[rtaylor]

Hey Rich. For my straps i just used SEM Landau Black and sprayed them three years ago. They still look brand new.

[motorman7]

Started doing some of the interior items. I put on a full dash cap from MSA. It looks nice and clean but seems to be a bit glossier than the original. It makes the glove box look a little dull. I will look into putting some Lexol conditioner on it to see if that brightens up the glove box. It was pretty easy to install. I used a razor blade to flatten the high spots. I lightly sanded the dash and the underside of the dashcap as directed. The fit was very good. The only part that needed help was the portion that goes around the radio. I used two pieces of wood wedged against the seat to hold that part of the plastic in while the glue dried.

I started do the weather stripping. A huge thanks to the person that suggested masking tape to hold the stuff in place. That works very well. In spite of the masking tape, weatherstripping is still a big pain to do. The only part I like about it, other than the elimination of the exhaust smell, is peeling the glue from my fingers when I'm done .

I got the passengers side door completed and panel in. I re-did the clear cover plastic under the panel using the bag from the dash cap. It is a nice thick plastic. Used the old brittle and torn plastic as a template for the new stuff. Secured the clear plastic with the weather-stripping glue.

In the engine bay, I have been waffling on the air galley. One part of me wants to use the yellow zinc paint as it is much cheaper and easier. The other side of me says I need to get a new air galley. Still really not decided yet, but I am leaning to the new air galley. They are such a pain to remove...I tried already with the wrenches. May need a blow torch if I go in that direction. As for now, the galley is painted with POR high temp silver.

Still need to get a few parts, but haven't bought anythng lately (put the dash cap cost in earlier). Total cost is still at $5229.