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I inherited a 1972 Datsun 240Z from my father who passed away a few months ago. It was in his possession from...I´m not sure, at least 15 years or so and most of that time it has remained in the same spot (in a sort of garage/shed sitting next to a couple of other older cars) Due to the covid19 situation I have remained at home and haven´t been able to go to my father´s house and do a more complete inspection of the car now that I´ve decided to start working on it. I took some pictures but a need to take it out of where it´s now to clean and inspect it more thoroughly. I can´t tell how many miles it has but in general is in a very good shape, very complete (original engine, matching numbers, etc) and with very little rust from what I could see. I think it´ll make a nice project. I just have to make some decisions and I´d like to share its progress here where I see so many knowledgeable and helpful people sharing the love for such a beautiful piece of car art/technology.

Pardon my crude drawing. Lets assume for the sake of explanation that the float arm at its lowest position is at 45 degrees from level. This will give you an empty reading on the fuel gauge. If you bend the float arm down slightly, it will effectively change the angle of the arm at the pivot point, causing the fuel gauge to read somewhere above empty. The fuel gauge may show full longer, but the main purpose of the fuel gauge is to let you when you are empty, correct? Any reading above empty is not as critical.

That looks great! A real barn find too. Knowing it was your Dads is even better. My Dad passed on in January and I'm trying to get an old El Camino running he left me. The nice newer one he left to my brother in law! WTF? I guess he knew the best mechanic when he made that decision. Anxious to see yours out and cleaned up. The interior looks good.

Looks like the new Nissan Z car will give the Supra a run for its money. Source: https://carbuzz.com/news/nissan-400z-will-be-much-cheaper-than-toyota-gr-supra Since the Nissan 370Z has been on sale for over ten years now, the wait for a new Nissan Z car to arrive is testing our patience. Nissan still hasn't officially announced plans to revive the Z car for a new generation, but our hype was recently rekindled when a report claimed the 370Z's replacement will be called the 400Z and be revealed within the next year. Sources claim the 400Z will be powered by an Infiniti-sourced 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 sending around 400 horsepower to the rear wheels through either a Nismo-tuned automatic or a six-speed manual. Sav This would make the Nissan 400Z more powerful than the Toyota GR Supra, which produces 382 hp from a 3.0-liter turbo inline-six in its most powerful guise. It turns out the Nissan 400Z could have another huge advantage over the Supra, too. Citing inside sources, Allcarnews claims the Nissan 400Z will have a starting price of less than $40,000, making it more affordable than the GR Supra. For reference, the 2021 Toyota GR Supra starts at $40,000 for the 2.0 model and $49,990 for the more powerful 3.0 version. This perhaps isn't surprising since the Nissan 370Z is also a very affordable sports car, starting at $30,090. As for the design, the same sources claim the Nissan 400Z will have a retro-inspired design that will look like a modern-day version of the 240Z and Z32-generation 300ZX. As a result, the styling will be a radical departure from Nissan's current V-Motion design language, featuring double halo ring LED lights at the front and a 240Z-style rectangular front grille with a visible intercooler for the twin-turbos. The rear will also retain the 370Z's fastback design but will apparently be shorter, while the taillights will look sleeker and incorporate LEDs. Inside, the interior will also be extensively upgraded with a new digital dashboard, infotainment system, and some retro touches. Sadly, we don't have a reveal date for the Nissan 400Z yet, but we're hoping the next-generation Z car will break cover sometime this year.

I have a habit of buying items well in advance of needing them. The seat heaters were bought off eBay about a year ago. No warranty or return was still possible. A risk you take, but overall I have saved money buying things this way. After 6 years of ownership and 5 years of restoration, I budgeted $500 Cdn a month for purchases, not including things like suspension and brakes etc that obviously went over budget. A good example of this is the seat covers I put in the car came from [mention]zKars [/mention] years ago and I just put them on this week! I have a shift knob I bought in 2014.... never been out of the package.

Just an UGLY SHARK! reminded me of that damned ugly toyota C-HR.. Much better, just a bit higher on the wheels for road use and no rear spoiler (not that big..)

Sorry to hear about your Dad Cliff, January was not too long ago. Seems like forever with the 'rona going on. Mine just turned 90. What year is that El Camino? The old ones are better than the new anyway. Post a picture. Probably has a 350 in it? Those small blocks are known to flatten cam lobes. Lots of popping back through the intake when you give it gas.

Let's do it! ?‍♀️

If you don't have window hang a Sonic tray on there and a potted plant.

Thank you! great info, and yes I´ll be very careful when I pull it out. Right now its almost in"barn find" condition, tons of dust! here are a few pictures. As for its history; I don´t really know much, it was originally sold in Texas, at some point it was imported into Mexico and was registered in a State in the center of the country, the weather is rather dry and hot there and then brought to Mexico City where as I said it has spent most of its latest years stored where you see it here. Like I said before, I don´t think its too rusty, the interior is quite complete (only lacking the rear inner trim, the piece that covers the back of the tail lights), the seats, vinyl and carpet look Ok. It´s got an automatic transmission but apparently no AC (strange for a Texas car I think) Obvioulsy that´s not the original body color, it was probably white? anyway I think I´ll do something about it (or the interior color) since I´m not very much into that red on red combination. You may also notice the wrong rear end. Well it turns out that one of the original tail lights had a broken lens and since 240Z are VERY scarce here in Mexico, the closest my father could find in a junk yard was the rear panels and tail lights from a 260/280 and grafted it figuring it didn´t make much of a difference. Fortunately he kept the old (original) panel pieces and tail lights and refitting them is among my plans in a short term. As for the engine, I believe it was working right but at some point my dad read that webers were a big thing among 240Z enthusiasts and got himself a kit with triple ones. Of course he didn´t have any experince with that particular swap (he ´d been a car collector for many years and came to had a very reasonable little collection of old and special interest cars, a well appointed garage and tools but certainly it was way over his head here) he told me that it actually started but just couldn´t get to properly tune the carbs and at some point the car started to smoke a lot, he realized that modification didn´t really suited him (since he was never into racing or high power tunning anyway), then sold the weber kit ,reinstalled the original SUs and left the car where it sits now, he probably never fired it up again.

Here’s a good comparison of the old paint code 240 and the new DeBeers water based E2335 BRG. I think I nailed it. Close to the original colour but a lot more metallic.

I finished spraying the chrome onto the bezels. I know it’s not perfect, but until there are reasonable reproductions in chrome, they will do!

I filled up my gas tank yesterday for the first time since cleaning the connector pair at the sender unit, and guess what!!!!?? My gas gauge now reads significantly higher than it used to before cleaning that connector. Here's a full tank now. It used to read at about 7/8 full (even when full), but now it looks a whole lot better: So for me, cleaning this connector made a big improvement: I may still pull the sender unit out of the tank for inspection, but the priority just dropped down on the list a bunch!

Nissan's making a 40OZ??? I'll try it!!

Would you be happy if the new Nissan Z car looks like this? It's been over ten years since the Nissan 370Z launched, so a replacement is long overdue. Thankfully, our patience will eventually be rewarded. A recent report claims the new Nissan Z car will be called the 400Z and debut within the next year. Exactly what the car will look like is anyone's guess, however. The styling could be an evolution of the current 370Z. Alternatively, rumors have suggested the new Nissan Z car will have a retro-inspired design that pays homage to the sports car's heritage. Penned by artist Leyang Bai, this render design shows what the 370Z's belated successor could look like with retro-inspired cues inspired by the original Z car. Dubbed the Nissan Fairlady 480Z, the rendered car's design blends Nissan's current design language with the 240Z's sporty silohette, round headlights, and distinctive tail lights, and the result is a stunning modern interpretation of the original Nissan Z car. From start to finish, the entire design process took 294 hours. The artist says the final design "serves as a reminder of the original but with modern tastes and finesse." We can only hope the new Nissan Z car looks as good as this after such an arduously long wait.

Some pics of the engine going together