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Just over four years ago my buddy @zed2 and I heard that there were some parts available a bit north of us so we made a road trip up to Sherman TX. We met with a guy that owned his own railroad station (another story there!) and he explained that a good friend was in the VA hospital dying of cancer. The friend was an old Datsun mechanic that had assembled some parts over the years and this guy was trying to sell some of them to help with the friend's bills. We followed him to another community and were introduced to what turned out to be a motherload of Z parts. There were several S30's and a couple of S130's on the property, a small dilapidated pole shed with some parts and a 30' shipping container. When opened, the shippiing container revealed boxes of parts lining both walls, all marked with the contents. With only limited time available that day we made a hurried sample inspection and made arrangements for a return trip with more time and more money. On the return trip we moved and inspected every box, setting aside those of further interest. I ended up with a lengthy list of purchases that filled the entire cargo compartment of my Xterra. A hoped for third trip was not to happen as the mechainc died and his property went into probate with the nearest family in Nebraska. I often wonder what became of the remaining parts hoard.

I too have quite a hoard, not a ton of NOS but lots of UOS. I usually clean up some parts and post on eBay. I also answer parts wanted ad's when I find them. Lately I have seen a larger amount of parts for sale on CL and FB. People seem to be cleaning out their hoards and unfinished projects for the new year. I started with adding to my own spare parts collection and just kept finding well priced, whole rusted out cars. I even tried selling them as a whole but everyone that came to look just lowballed me or passed outright. So I decided to part them out. Keeping the better of any given part and offering the extras up as mentioned before. I do have one good shell. I am saving another full set of parts for it's build. I am sure I have enough parts to put it together, but like many not enough room or time right now. I do have some rear taillight panels that are NOS (not Nissan, from an old body shop) One for a 74-78 2+0 and the other is 74-78 2+2 With storage dirt and some surface rust.

Here are some photos....

Phillip, where are you at????

I noticed my cowl panel was "oil canning" a bit on the right side and it wasn't sitting down on the foam padding (closed cell) like it was on the left side. Perhaps that sand blasting of the panel I did a long time ago distorted it a bit? Can't really tell from the pics: It pained me to do it, but I ground off the primer and filler from the top surface of the right side, worked on it to shrink the metal, and after the oil canning was corrected, put new epoxy primer, and filler on. Finishing up with that today and will apply primer. Something I found that may be useful to others: There is no height adjustment on cowl panel "per se". In order to adjust for any mismatch in height between the fender inner edge and the top surface of the cowl panel, you have to bend the cowl panel sheet metal. After stripping it to bare metal again, I was messing with bending it and noticed that this area is very thin, probably thinner than originally because of stripping off the paint: I noticed that even relatively light pressure applied at the corner there caused this thin part to flex and the height of the corner to move a little. And, in fact, the tool I was using to shrink the metal "blew through it" in one spot. So, I decided to make that area stronger to keep the panel from moving later (after paint). Front, back, and card board template: Template shape transferred to metal, the cut out piece, the spot welding tool to minimize heat: Front and back after welding: I performed this mod to both sides of the cowl panel. 9 and 1/2 hours of work yesterday. Time to get back to it.

If you lost the girlfriend over a 240z, she wasn't a keeper! 😉

It can be found on this site also, I have found it both useful and interesting as well. Thanks @240260280

I've read time and time again on here about matching proper components with each other. My best example is the hottest motor with old ignition system. I bought a really nice television and after all the hassle of getting it home and hooked through all my stuff was very disappointed with the outcome. I was frustrated and about to box it back up and get a cheaper no frills tv, much cheaper. Then the light bulb flickered in my noggin. I need the newest version cable box from xfinity. It'll be here in a few days so until then I'm watching stuff through the internet source and it's amazing. My eyebrows melted. 20230108_144344.mp4

I bought my RH fender from the local Nissan dealer in 2012 for $270.

That’s him…..I never saw his basement stuff, but understand he had some OEM door cards and fenders. BTW, there was a Z junkyard I believe in Tennessee called the Z Barn. I think he had 40 or 50 Z’s that he would part out. I bought a bunch of stuff from him. Wonder what happened to those cars?

His name was Ben Herman. His Obituary. He used to buy 240z's (only) that he found out about a printed, regional publication that was around at the time. It may have been called "old car trader"? Whatever it was called, I recall seeing his ads in it and that is how I came to meet him. At the time I dealt with him 1994/1995, he kept everything in his basement. The Fairlady Z we parted out had some interesting parts on it. It was very restorable (he said is was a shame to part that one out) but I was 25 at the time and in the middle of a restoration on my 1971 Z (my first one that I still have) that was taking all of my time and money (cost me my girlfriend eventually too!) Anyway, it had a 5 speed, a 3.70 rear diff, and some really thick rubber, floor and hatch mats. I recall them being about like a quarter to half inch thick. They appeared to be factory. Right hand drive of course, with L20A engine. Anyway, it sounds like he built that inventory out quite a bit. I know is inventory of early Z parts was extensive as he had special interest in the early cars.

I'd like to encourage you to rebuild the diff with its 4.8 ratio intact. If you want to use the car for some events using a different ratio, I think it would be better to have another diff on hand for that. The tyre diameter on the car - if using something close to the period Works Dunlops - will mitigate the ratio. I don't think it will be as drastic as you might imagine. And even if it does seem a little frantic, that's the nature of a Works '71 Monte car... The Works team used anything up to 5.1 ratio in period, so with a 4.8 you're not even at 11 on your Marshall amp.

I know who you are talking about, but can’t remember his name. He had 2 storage units full of parts sold to another Z owner in Richmond. When he died also, his son sold the parts. I got there 2 days later after it was picked over pretty good. I bought a number of parts including a F54/P79 engine, series one steering wheel and some window lift mechanisms. Nothing to really impress, but at one time he had a ton of NOS stuff. I built a Z shed, 8x12 for my stuff……keeps it out of my garage.

Internet does not forget, and we never throw away parts 😬

A little more on the R180 4-pinion LSD: mine arrived disassembled with the car in 2014. The mounted ring and pinion is 39:8 (from my reading), which amounts to a 4.88. I don't know yet what ratios are in the gearbox, but my sense is that I'll probably want to change the diff ratio for modern autocross use. The rear plate makes use of existing threaded holes for inlet/outlet for the diff cooler. My understanding is that the Ring/Pinion set is swappable with other early non-LSD R180 rings (but not later ones), so that part will hopefully be straightforward. As to the LSD internals: I've yet to assess the condition of the clutch packs, so I may need to swap out the LSD with something else in the interim, until I've got the parts I need to complete the overhaul. For most uses, I doubt I'll notice the difference.

No way that I have found to confirm it - - but it is the highest number VIN I've seen so far on a Datsun 240Z. According to the VIN information published by Nissan - in the Factory Service Bulletins - HLS30 172732 was the last North American Spec. According to my notes - HLS30 172733 is in Colombia. HLS30 172753 was in New Zealand . Who knows? - might have been a couple more with higher VIN's sent to Europe/Africa etc. As of 1999 - it was owned by Tom Faulkner. Tom said the 240Z was originally sent to "Europe" directly from Japan. Tom bought it from the original owner in Switzerland and brought it back to Chicago six years prior. (so around 1993). Tom wrote: "It has a five speed transmission and left hand drive. The two front turn signals are not the curved type but are mounted on the top of the front bumper. It has a black air foil on the back door lid. It doesn't have any air pump stuff like the previous 240Z I had." It was on Craigs List in Tucon, AZ in 2015 having been inherited... FWIW, Carl B.

The internet doesn't forget.

Seven years. OMG. Yes I still have some.

Just for reference, In 1982 I purchased new OEM RH & LH fenders from my local Datsun Dealer and they were $380 each, Canadian. This was for the first resto on my 7/70. I bet that with inflation over 40 years, NOS fenders would be at least 3 or 4 times that today, not even considering availability. Rear quarter panels were CDN$450 back then.

You may want to download this:

You didn't say much about what's not right. Your picture just shows that the distributor is in the hole the right way. Could be many other things not right. Firing order, stuck mechanical advance weights, stuck vacuum advance, loose advance mechanisms flopping around, carb problems. On the initial timing, you need to know what's in your distributor and if it's working right. Looks like Nissan used a different distributor for emissions engines, according to the FSM. When you have your timing light on, watch the mark as you rev the engine. Estimate how high it goes above about 2500 RPM. It should rise to well above 20 pretty quickly. If you have a dial-back light you can get an exact number. p.s. also not uncommon for the old damper/balancer rubber to be bad. The timing marks might be incorrect. Here's the 1972 tune-up specs.

I forgot to mention that if there are aftermarket reproductions available for an item you want to establish a value for, you will want to consider that. An aftermarket fender for the Z exists for $250 plus shipping. Though, from the description, it is obviously not the same quality as OEM.

Yeah - I would love to see pics of them too! Regarding determining the value of parts, I'll offer up the following that may help: On eBay, you can search and see completed listings. And eBay keeps the completed listings on the site for quite some time, so there is a decent span of time to look through. To get to them, click on advanced on the top right here (I highlighted yellow): On the next screen, click the check box for "completed listings": Then, if you haven't put in search words up above, do so and click the search button. Scan the results for results that ended with items sold as opposed to just expired. No NOS 240z fenders there, but this can be helpful to get some transaction data points between buyers and sellers which are recent for many items. eBay has hefty fees for the seller. So, you may want to keep in mind that the final sale price is not what the seller gets. I sold a NOS dashboard a year or so ago on eBay for around $1400 US. The fees to eBay were something like 14%. Ridiculous. So, I avoid selling anything on eBay if I can. Also, shipping can be very expensive unless you get a discount through a business (like your workplace) that gets good rates. That shipping cost, almost always paid for by the buyer, is included in the buyers valuation. So, if something has a market value of $1000, but costs $500 to ship, then that buyer is not likely to spend more than $500 for the item regardless of the $1000 value. A buyer that can pick it up without shipping, on the other hand will likely pay the $1000 value.

I have two replacement fenders, still in their Nissan wrappers that I would love to sell. Bought them for my car several years ago in case the original fenders were too far gone, but they ended up being usable. So now the replacements are just taking up room in my garage loft. Biggest problem I am having is in trying to come up with a realistic price for them as I have never seen anything like them for sale. Also have a spare hatch that I would like to pass along to someone who could use it. As my car moves along towards completion I am sure there will be other parts that I might want to sell.

Just a follow up on my original post on the Z radio options. I went with the www.tech-retro.com mentioned in my earlier post. I had Ralph the Radio Guy in Bartlett, IL (773 814 5094) do the conversion on mine. So far, I'm very happy with it. The radio looks and work just like the original one. When I got it back, I set it up on the bench and checked out all the features. Everything works as described in thier video. I now have am/fm stereo ,4 channel 45W (ea) speaker connection, usb input, mp3 input, bluetooth, hands free phone with internal or external mic. It now also has a fader and a balance control. My original radio was an am/fm monaural radio with one rear speaker. The car isn't on the road yet, but the radio is installed and tested. All ok

I can't recall having seen a Works 240Z rally car *without* the Japanese market style extended seat mount brackets. As far as I am aware they all had them. Certainly all the cars that still exist have them. They would not normally be seen on any Export market cars. This seems to be another built-for-purpose quirk of the Works rally cars.

Nice first post.