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I particularly enjoyed this shot from HLS30-03386 on BAT. The almost vertical handbrake/e-brake lever. It takes some effort - maybe even a double-jointed elbow - to get that there, not to mention some sleepy rear brake mechanisms...

I picked up a roof down in Ga at Resurrected classics. Very nice guys there. I ended up picking up several other things that I needed. They make some nice products. It was great seeing the younger generation passionate about old z's. Happy to support them. Cutting the roof skins off wasnt quite as easy as I had read it was. Each corner was welded and soldered in place. It took me a while to figure out the best approach. I got some spot weld drill bits and a seam buster. Pretty pleased with it so far and it looks like it will go back together ok. This is going to be a long project! I dropped of the motor at the machine shop today. Some pictures of the new roof test fit:

Sorry, but I tested the fuel from my local phillips 66 and the mid grade gas I use indeed contains no ethanol. If it was magically mixing it at the pump, I think I would see a measurable amount of ethanol. The refineries produce gasoline in both ethanol and non ethanol blends, it is the decision of the retailer as to which blend they purchase for their pumps. Lucky for me, only the regular grade has ethanol. Here is my favorite guy on Youtube showing how you can test the ethanol content yourself.

How about this? https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/16-7009

The car has been dormant for many years according to the description, so not surprising really. Looks like a car with great potential. Hope it finds a worthy new owner.

The car cleaned up nice! Be careful, the x may want it back now 🙂 I think my vin is 7400's or so. I was thinking of going back Brown with black interior, except from what I can find, that wasn't ever offered. I want to keep it as a stock color combo. Leaning towards silver or white.

Hi , I did a little bit for HLS30-2146 . Rear bumper removed, tried to straighten by rubber hammer and wood basement, I feel long way to be straightened . Today I want to show headlight cases which I am working on. Please see the pictures, I found 2146 has a steel type on the right hand side, so I am going to replace it with a plastic old one . You see the steel type has round corners on front edge , which is easily noticed from our view . What I want to say is , my 2156 has plastic type but they were NOS when the car was restored in 2000. And those NOS headlight cases are not showing sharp edges like the old originals . You can see the difference between the two, my 2156 and old original. This old original is sharpened by my hand a little bit more as I found it had a thick paint on it . I really love this pointy headlight case , how about you? Kats

There's nothing like taking it apart and then trying to put it back together again to learn about something. Works for me!!

So the problem was mostly the wheel balance, I rebalanced the wheels and used road force and found the wheels were out of balance when using road force compared to just spinning. This solved about 50%-70% of my shaking at the steering wheel at least based on todays test drive. I now believe the rest of the shaking might possibly be coming from either the hub or struts. You can literally push the struts in with your pinky zero force and they don't come back up after and I have a feeling with lowering springs might be causing some vibration in that area that is transferring back to the wheel. As for the hubs they had a lot of surface rust, I tried to clean them today with what I had but they still felt somewhat ruff after, probably causing the wheels to not sit fully flush but could be wrong. Going to order Koni Yellow Adjustable struts and see how much that helps and clean up the hubs better.

Or... To attach the snowplow blade. 😁

I joined this group in 2000 and sold my last 240 in 2014. I saved some old parts for some crazy reason. I really thought with the recent increase in Z values that I would never get back into them. So, I moved on to restoring and playing with some other cars. A couple of weeks ago I got an email from an old college friend. We both had 240's in college. He swapped to a vw after his second year in college. He told me that he had parked his 240 in a shed at his parents house in 1986 and never touched it again. He said his parents were moving to an assisted living facility and the car had to go. He lives across the country and doesn't have time to deal with it, and thought I may be interested. I initially said no, but I would go take a look as it was less than an hour from me, and I could help him sell it. Long story short we made a deal on it and I am back in the z scene. The car is a 72, but was modified with a rear wing and front spoiler and a sunroof! The good, is that it is very solid, has the original motor and straight panels. Bumpers are straight and in good shape. Interior is rough. My plans are a complete restoration to the original metallic brown. I remembered I had an old parts car that I let a friend have. Thinking I could use it for a donor roof, I went to check it out. Guess what.....It has a sunroof too! How could I get this unlucky? Why didn't I remember that? It did have a few other bits that I will need. So, I will be searching for a donor roof. I will post up some more pictures when I go get the car and get it home. Looking forward to catching up with the z community. It was my first online car group. I remember when we had a list serv system where we got emails back in the 90's. Here is how she has been sitting since 1986.

I've been working on a new product for the last six months that I'd love to get some feedback on. I've always known getting the floats in SU's set properly, and knowing for sure they were set the same in both carbs was important, but the method of doing so always seemed imprecise and less than elegant. I developed Float-Sync to know precisely where floats were set and have a visual reference, without removing the float bowl lids. On three screw SU's, there's a threaded plug in the float bowl that can be easily removed to substitute Float-Sync. The level of fuel in the float bowl dictates the level of fuel in the jet nozzle. This is a big deal for SU carburetors because the fuel level in the jet nozzle directly impacts engine performance. When the engine is running, a vacuum is created in the SU carburetor venturi that pulls fuel out of the jet nozzle, mixing it with air and drawing it into the engine. If float levels are adjusted too high, fuel puddles at the top of the jet, allowing too much to be drawn into the engine, creating a rich condition. If the float is adjusted too low, it's harder to pull fuel out of the jet, creating a lean condition. A rich condition can cause plug fouling, poor fuel economy, gas fumes, diluted crankcase oil (contributing to blow by and reduced engine protection), and in extreme cases potential for an engine fire. A lean condition can cause the engine to stumble, back-fire, ping and run hotter than it should, creating the potential to burn valves. Float-Sync allows you to see precisely where your floats are. You can see the fuel level, with the engine running, throughout the entire RPM range… all without opening the float bowls. You will never wonder again if your floats are adjusted correctly. I'd be interested in your feedback and suggestions. I listed a few sets for sale on eBay yesterday to gauge interest. Thanks

I have completely going through the carbs and cleaned and replaced multiple things on recommendation of z therapy. I have a 280 that was carbed and it runs rich like can't sit in the garage for more than 10 min without hurting your eyes. I replaced the fuel system, just turned the fuel reg down to 1 and did not change it. I am going to try the idea you have in the picture, that should work. Thank you for the response.

I'd watch the wrecking yards and/or look for a damaged 5 speed 71B. Like EuroDat said, the failure modes are fairly common. You could probably get an undamaged main shaft and that coupler from any "blown up" 280Z or 280ZX 71B 5 speed. Or, buy a whole junk car with transmission. People often just sell compete cars for not much more than a transmission costs. I got a complete engine and many extra parts when I did that, plus made some cash back when I junked the remains to the salvage yard.

I’ve been using a 3core aluminum “champion” radiator from eBay. It works well, I don’t use a shroud (because I don’t have one), and am using a mechanical fan. I’m in the SF Bay Area, it’s never really too hot out here, however the car does see “track days” and has not had any overheating issues. I don’t recall any issues with mounting the radiator.

Thanks! Not a chance. Been nearly 30 years, and we haven’t spoken since the divorce. I would like to run into her though. I paid $2,000 for it, and we all know what they are selling for these days. Yes, the brown cars only came with the tan interior. I’m not as fussy about the originality, or I would be looking for a way to return it to the tan. Besides, I’m partial to the black.

Welcome back to the club. What is the VIN? I have a brown 72, manufactured 11/71, VIN 56539. Bought it in 1992 for my first wife, kept it in the divorce. Drove it until 98, then parked it. Pulled it out of storage a year ago last August. , when I was sent home on Covid quarantine. The previous owner used upholstery paint on all the tan interior parts, so it has a black interior now. I spent the two weeks of quarantine cleaning of 22 years of dust, dirt, overspray (I painted a tractor in the shop and the temporary paint booth didn’t keep the overspray contained), and spider poop. The original finish cleaned up well. The picture with the red Z is from 92, the others from the quarantine cleanup.

I took it to Bill's radiator in Plano a few years ago where they acid bathed it, rodded it, and welded all the cracks shut up because the metal was so thin at that point the welds didn't hold, and their work only lasted about 6 months. I've just been driving it as-is for a while but the radiator finally started saying enough a few months back.

I did an internet search and read a few things to confirm what I already knew. The chemicals in the polymer evaporate out and the material becomes brittle over time. Heat will make the material pliable, something in the 200 degree range, boiling water temperature, but the material will return to its same brittle state when it cools down. There is no way to infuse the material with what has evaporated out over the years. There are some really good products to protect and slow further damage, the Mequiar's being one of the top five, but that's about all you can do.

I believe the 27mm RH thread nut is NLA. There were a few offered here on the site by members that had some machined up Yes on the gutter I think the others are probably right. A lot of damaged parts in that case EuroDat is an excellent source of information on Datsun transmissions especially. I would give his advice a lot of consideration!!

1. YES. You should fit a gutter. 2. ? 3. Not sure which transmission you have. Have s look in the document in link. Not sure if this transmission is worth rebuilding with the costs of a new input shaft, main shaft, 3rd/4th hub and bearing kit. Might be better to find snother and pick the best parts of the two and add a bearing kit.

Looks like the needle bearing was the cause of yhe hub failure. Not much help now, but intrresting to know what caused the hub to fail. Why the needle roller cage failed? Could have been a assemble fault. The rest of the transmission looks to good to be normal wear and tear on the needle bearing. Maybe someone tapped the input shaft in with a hammer. I am with John @Av8ferg on this one. Now is the time to look for another transmission.

So I'm getting back into Z work after taking a winter break to work on some house projects (pantry, painting, etc). Discovered one of the rear brake lines was clogged, so I bought some tools and fabricated new ones: Came out pretty well, I think. The left rear still only bleeds in fits and starts, so if the braking performance still isn't there after a good bleed, I'll probably get the later S30 brake cylinder retrofit kit so I KNOW they're working. Got the door cards back on this past weekend: The pics don't show it, but they're actually pretty trashed, being 50 years old and made of glorified cardboard. All new vapor barriers (I used the 3M sticky strips), clips and rubber receivers. Little bumpers for the door release handles on order. I'll need to re-chrome the piping as well. * * * * * * So I actually got the car out on the road for the first time since the restoration began. I drove about 10 minutes down the road to the local O'Reilly's to pick up some fuel stabilizer, and stopped at the gas station on the way home. Some impressions: The car is pretty loud with the stock exhaust manifold and MSA exhaust (no resonator, just the muffler). A little too loud, if I'm honest, but it does sound pretty good passing up through 3K rpm. The car still needs a good tune. Colortune on the way, and I'll need some advice about how to time it. I have a points delete kit ready to install in the distributor. It attracts a LOT of attention, and I feel REALLY self-conscious driving it (I'm not a high-profile guy). It's really strange---I've never owned a car that stood out this much---and is going to take some getting used to. One more exterior pic for good measure:

It was from Anderson! A college friend at Lander was from Anderson and owned the car. He had it a couple of years and bought another car. Parked the Z at his parents shed in 1986.....and it never moved again. He lives in Ca now and needed the car gone. He remembered that I had a z and contacted me. Not sure if that is lucky or unlucky.....like offering crack to an addict. Here is what it looked like when I drug it out a few weeks ago. Look familiar??

Thanks for the replies and the welcome backs! ! At this point, I am open to all ideas concerning the roof, as I have a lot of work to do before I get to that point! I have restored a number of cars since I refreshed my last z back in the 90's. It turned out nice, but looking back, it would have been better if I had taken it completely apart. One of the biggest improvements since the 90's is the cell phone camera. Lots and lots of pictures at your fingertips! My old z right before she was shipped to Canada...