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Oh, and Cody told me this is his new favorite mug @Zup @S30Driver

So we spent the last few weeks working on the hatch. It turns out it has been hit hard at some point. Right in the license plate. Some one did a fair job of reshaping it but it still needed work. We worked on it for a couple of weeks. I looked some at replacements but they were really expensive for some thing in much worse shape. It is really hard to get the crease lines right when you have no metal to guide you. I shot color on the inside a week or so ago. Color on the outside on Thursday and clearcoat on Friday Still getting tons of trash in my clear coat. I think I am going to redesign the booth to try to eliminate some of that. We cut and buffed today. Sanding on clear coat is down right spooky. I hate it... This is wet sanded 1200, then 2000 grit. Used a cutting compound then a polish at about 1500 rpm's This is where we ended up. 99% of the trash is gone. It's looks good unless you get really close and at the right angle All of the "orange peel" is gone. I didn't have much to begin with, which helped Buffed all the hardware and he reassembled the hatch. I had plated all the latch hardware over the last few weeks We will have to source new license plate lights because one of these is badly dented. I will also need to source the exterior hatch vent pieces...

Going for Cars and Coffee tomorrow at Zup's house. Based on tomorrows weather forecast in Bentonville, 18 is the high, it will be Cars and Ice Coffee.

Well Jim 2 made it up here and his prediction is 100% accurate. 18* for a high and the coffee is iced! Probably sounds like a heat wave compared to @Namerow @zKars @240260280 I'd prefer @motorman7 temps---

Dr. Dave is right. Dash caps look and feel cheap, and mine (installed by the PO) didn't fit very well. I attempted to restore my severely cracked 280Z dash, spent hours filling and sanding until I thought it looked good, textured it and then painted it. It looks WAY better than before, but a year later a couple of hairline cracks have appeared. It's not even back in the car yet and has never been exposed to the Arizona sun. A new dash pad seems like the only option. @theguppies, I'm seriously interested in your dash pad. I'm sure you are busy trying to get your new business off the ground. Any details you can give about your materials, process, testing, or end results will be really appreciated. Not asking you to disclose anything proprietary, just the sort of information that will make people want to buy your product.

This is how they sit at the moment. Plated all the hardware and polished the overflow tubes. They will need some straightening. The buffer took them away from me a couple of times. Sourced the heat shield from Z therapy and a few other parts. I am still missing a few things. Throttle return springs and the hex head screws for the choke cable ends... If I set the float heights, I think they would be ready to go on. Don't know if I have what I need for linkage...

Good catch! Dennis

Sweet tea in Alabama and barbecue is a noun not a verb.

That better be southern sweet tea (at least that's what we call it up here). You probably just call it "tea".

Grubbs can you take some photos of the repair? My Z has the same issue, I just wanna see how the repair is approached. Regards

Somebody gave me this..., and it taste like tequila. I'll drink it anyway but I did the shake test off Moonshiners do and the bubbles go away quick. I've buried all my car keys and given the map to my neighbor. Happy New Year everybody. From here on out disregard anything I type. I'm being proactive.

Well now if you all think I'm goofy those guys from West Virginia have me beat coal stone dead. Them are some nuts/best guys in the States. Nick Saban's is from the coal country, and I'm sure he's had a drink or two. Something stunted his growth, maybe whupping his his lilly? But he still sees good!

Thanks everyone for their help so far. I have an Exedy 6029 Clutch kit (pictured) and the rear Main seal (also pictured). I also attached a photo of the car in question.

I knew some guys in West Virginia that used to get pure ethanol from the local chemical plant. They knew people. Years ago. The ultimate moonshiners.

Cliff, My father-in-law used to distill any of his home made wine (that was too terrible to drink) into something that he called Brandy. He rigged up a still on his kitchen stove. I remember it tasting more like Tequila than Brandy. As it turned out the "Brandy" was quite useful. Took some hunting one year. Used some of it as internal anti-freeze but used most of it as degreaser on my hands after emergency Jeep repairs in the snow. You must have some greasy parts that could use some cleaning. BTW, remember to use safety precautions (gloves, eye protection, Haz-Mat suit, etc.) when handling it. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Oh that's not right.....

This is the coolest project! 510’s just make me smile. My son had an orange 510 too......good luck Cody....it’ll be special.

The first one I did on a 280, I drove the new throw out bearing down with a block of wood and the old bearing. It made a spinning noise when in neutral. The next one I had pressed on at a machine shop, no noise when adjusted to spec. FYI My guy didn't even charge me so I'd say $10 at the most. The Exedy clutches I buy are 6009s I think? They don't come with new collars. I think that's what Zed Head is referring to above?

I would suspect the sender in the tank or its connection. At least the sender is still available and easy to change.

The only parts that need to have the transmission out to be replaced are the throwout bearing, the rear main seal of the engine, and the front cover seal of the transmission. And the clutch parts, of course. The clutch fork too, sometimes they're worn. The rest can be replaced piece-meal as necessary, or at better times, with the transmission installed. You might start your project by loosening nuts and bolts. Propeller shaft flange bolts at the diff, exhaust pipe bolts and nuts, exhaust system hanger bolts and nuts, fill and drain plugs on the transmission. It's that one nut or bolt that won't loosen or breaks that will stop a well-made plan. List all of the parts that you have and we'll tell you which ones to be careful with. The throwout bearing sleeve is the most common place that people go wrong. Some kits have it, some don't. You didn't mention it specifically.

That speedo connection can wait until later and see if it drips. The bronze bushing gets rid of a sloppy shifter but zcardepot.com sales the oe plastic ones. Some people like the plastic. I was rattling off things I experienced, hopefully your's will be different, newer maybe? My '72 hadn't been driven much and had all the original parts from 1972. Wishing you the best with your swap. 8^) Cliff

I took her out for the inaugural drive round the cul-de-sac. Had to watch out for the snow and ice in the corner but....oh wait, I live in SoCal. It's 80 degrees and sunny. (Just had to throw that in for the East coasters). Anyway, car is running great and is very nice to drive. Now I just have to finish up a bunch of details and she is good to go. Boy, it drives nice! Love having the new shocks and bushings. It is very smooth. Looks like the short engine video is loading. Feel free to turn the sound up Engine Vid.mp4

Oh yeah, here's another little thing that makes a huge difference while you're there. Replacing those plastic bushings on the shifter with bronze door hinge bushings. Thanks @240260280 http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/shifterbushing/index.html Oh yeah again, make sure you get the slave rod and pedal all adjusted right. Before they started using the automatic adjusting slave cylinder the older ones were able to be longer or shorter by loosening the nut and running out or in the rod. When i first bought my 240 it wouldn't get up the driveway from slipping so bad. I got on here and read how to adjust them and ran that old clutch for a year until I rebuilt the motor. Sorry but I'm just getting up and some coffee in me, starting to remember things after a few cups. Removing the old console is tricky too if you haven't done that yet, you have to unplug the choke light switch to the left of the radio. Then the choke holder from the console. Mine was cracked already so I bought the tunnel mount from Art Singer, one of the best cheap upgrades of all time in my opinion. Well I just found out it's for the later 240s. https://zcardepot.com/choke-lever-mounting-plate-reinforcement-240z.html

This is a couple of dollars at a hardware store and saves some trouble, rubber cap for plumbing. Sorry I can't remember the exact size but I'm 99% sure it was a 2 inch? The one one the nose is the 2", the smaller one over the shifting mechanism was just for pressure washing. Maybe 1 1/2"? I use a motorcycle jack but like jaymanbikes says above you have to really get it up high to clear everything coming out. I would buy the rubber seal that goes into the speedo connection too. After they get worn in and you remove the old one, when you go back it'll leak a little. Nissan still has the new ones for just a few bucks. I'll find the info and add it to this post in an edit. here's the part numbers for the speedo cable. I drove mine down with a 10mm deep socket. Another thing, the pilot bushing needs to be lubed up for some reason. I read it in the Tom Monroe How to Rebuild the Nissan L motor book, you put it between your thumb and your pointing finger, fill it with oil and pinch down until you see little drops "sweat" out the outer side. Good luck, it's easier than than you're probably thinking.

Good time to check the driveline U joints, on a Series 1 trans you can remove the shift lever without removing the console, check the shift lever bushings once trans is out, replace or have flywheel, if you can replace the pilot bearing (Orielly may loan you puller) if you replace it test the new one on the trans before installing, loosen fill plug on trans before removing from car, replace trans fluid (I like Redline), replace trans rear seal and look for other leaks, throw out bearing, pressure plate, trans rear mount, use a clutch disk locating pin. Check engine rear seal for leaks. Make sure trans is in gear when putting it back in. Sorry if these were obvious. Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Make sure and get the car up high enough so that you can get the transmission out. I have an small fairly low profile jack that I made a plate for, then rolled it out. Alternatively you could pick up one of the little trans jacks from Harbor Freight. You will need to support the engine so make sure you have something below or above to provide support. Other than that it's pretty straight forward. If you plan on pulling the flywheel I would recommend going back with something lighter. I installed a standard steel unit that had 4-5 pounds shaved from it. It makes the car seem so much more lively and does not really compromise low speed modulation.

Mark made my point very eloquently. You will basically have to reengineer the car to get a dependable car with those HP levels. Also keep in mind you can't just source a fuel pump that will work for 500+ Hp that is good for your current level of 250HP (or what ever). It needs to move more fuel than that. You can't run overly large injectors for a similar reason, you lose resolution and accuracy when large injectors are asked to deliver low volumes of fuel. That means you have to buy multiple injectors and fuel pump and misc odds and ends as you upgrade the car. As you do this you have to retune and retune... I speak from experience that this kind of project can be really frustrating and very costly. 50/50 odds on whether you ever actually get a dependable 500Hp Z to where you want it to be even after pouring piles of cash into... This is very good advise! Doable but still not cheap, and even at 300Hp you are gonna break stuff finding the weak links...

Throw that amount of horsepower into a Z and you'll be chasing the weakest link in the drive train. When you correct that weak link, you'll find the next one, and the next one, etc.

waaaaay over doing it 500whp would be probably 600 at the crank. At 2500lbs or so (with necessary driveline upgrades) you'd be looking at a power to weight ratio of a little over 4. Think about that for a second. 10lbs/hp is a decent sports car. 8lbs/hp is pretty quick. And you'd be at 4. You would also need some decent chassis reinforcement - definitely more than just subframe connectors and strut bars. Add in driveline upgrades, you'd have to do just about the entire thing front to back. Stub axles, CVs, diff output shafts. All of that won't be in any way cheap. And of course your trans will need to be up to the task. I don't know if the stock driveshaft will be an issue. Now consider that you will need brakes to stop the car, and an appropriate amount of tire to put the power down. This could mean cutting the fenders for flares, but 275s can be stuffed under stock fenders with some effort. With all that in mind, consider that a major strength of the Z is its light weight, and that you would be adding a lot of weight to the car, between rear end upgrades, larger wheels and tires, a larger trans, the heavier RB with turbo, and intercooler, piping, etc. IMO the Z is not worth turning into a high HP monster. There is so much that needs upgrading, and I think there is a risk of ruining what makes the car great. It should go without saying, that if you still want to go this route, you are free to do so, but you might find the finished product to be more enjoyable if you instead concentrate on maintaining the Z's low weight, while also giving it a much more manageable power level (lets say 300hp). Much less focus will be needed on tire and driveline/chassis upgrades, which will keep weight down (allowing that 300hp to be more effective in propelling the car) and also saving money. If you want something with serious power, I think there are better platforms to start with. Cars that have strong drivelines from the factory, and a chassis that can handle the power without significant reinforcement, if any. Of course, these cars will mostly be newer.

The bumper mounts are early 260 style I believe. 280's would have have big holes where the shocks stick through. 240's have a pair of holes for bolts, these have 3 threaded holes. ??

We have gotten the motor to turn over with a ratchet. I have worked on disassembling the SU's. Wow! I had a fit getting this piston out... The issue I have now is getting the throttle plates to move. If I could get them to move I could probably salvage these, believe it or not. But right now the plates don't even wiggle. Might try some heat tomorrow to try to get some movement...

I am pretty sure it's not supposed to do this...