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Took out the left side 1/4 glass/frame & replaced the inner, outer & forward vertical seal. That was a bitch! Getting the frame pressed back in place to align the retaining screws was quite a challenge . I had to do it twice, as the first time the top lip folded inwards instead of out. Frame sections all cleaned, I painted where the securing plates are welded, as there was small amounts of rust. The forward edge of the main frame I sanded back & repainted. scrubbed the glass clean of all sealant residue opening needed a little cleanup, but no paint issues glass & seal set into frame, outer seal glued to frame top outer seal lip properly situated on second attempt. Liberal amounts of vaseline helped to get it to slide into place forward vertical seal that takes care of the driver's side openings, with just the seal inside the driver's door window frame to address the end cap was gone from the scraper molding, so I modified a trim panel retain clip to fit

Whenever I read these discussions about Goertz, I'm reminded of another 'design consultant' of the same era, Raymond Loewy (automotive credits include the Studebaker Avanti and the Greyhound SceniCruiser bus). Both were European ex-pats -- Loewy born in Paris, Goertz born in Germany. Both gravitated to the US -- Loewy to NYC in 1919, Goertz to LA about 17 years later. While Loewy's credentials included some university-level engineering training (which he apparently did not complete), Goertz appears to have had no formal technical training and his career appears to have been based on not much else beyond an interest in performing Euro-customizing of pre-war Ford sedans. Apparently, he rented a garage with a showroom in LA to build and sell his handiwork (I sense that all of this activity may have been backed by a family trust fund). Somehow, he managed to get one of his kustoms (named the 'Paragon') exhibited at the New York World's Fair in 1939, where I'm sure that it attracted the attention of Mr. Loewy. It's not entirely clear whether the two met by accident of by design, but meet they did and it would appear the Loewy -- Goertz' senior by about 20 years -- decided to take Goertz under his wing. Or maybe Goertz just pestered him for a job. Loewy is said to have arranged for Goertz to get work with Studebaker, but this might have been nothing more than a piece-work role as a design sub-contractor (Loewy's industrial design firm was big and had enjoyed a significant consulting contract with Studebaker going back as far as 1936). It's worth noting that Goertz, after the end of WW2, had decided to shift his base of operations from Los Angeles to NYC and in the mid-1950's was busy enamoring himself with Max Hoffmann, the principal US East coast importer of many European brands (BMW included). One wonders how this led to his involvement with the Type 507 project. So: Interesting that the two knew each other and collaborated in some fashion. With their similar European backgrounds, it's easy to see how a dialogue of sorts got started. I wonder what was going through Loewy's mind when Goertz started promoting himself as a consultant for the BMW 507, Porsche 901, and Datsun Z? Loewy had put together a major industrial design firm by the 1950's, with over 100 staff (Loewy had even been featured on the cover of Time magazine). Goertz does not appear to have ever got past the status of 'sole proprietor'. While both men were, I'm sure, relentless self-promoters, Goertz 'chutzpah' really stands out in light of his 'one-man-band-with-no-followers' status. As HS30-H has pointed out, it can be tricky to try to assign the origin of a design to any one particular person -- as tempting as that might be. As a noteworthy example, the design of the original Corvette String Ray is often attributed to a sketch done by Pete Brock (designer of the Shelby Cobra Daytona coupe) while he was a junior member of the GM Styling department, working under Bill Mitchell, in the late 1950's. While the Brock sketch certainly displays many of the design details that became hallmarks of the Sting Ray prototype, it would be incorrect to claim that Brock was the designer (and, to his credit, Brock appears to have never made such a claim). I suspect that Goertz -- like Brock -- produced a sketch for concept that eventually became an icon (the BMW 507 in Goertz' case). Unlike Brock, however, Goertz appears to have no hesitation in claiming status as the sole-designer. Or, perhaps more accurately, he never said that he was but never denied that he wasn't. The same would seem to apply to his roles with the Toyota 2000GT and the Datsun Z. BTW, Raymond Loewy claimed personal credit for some of the most hideous automotive styling exercises that I've ever seen. Perhaps his real talent lay in assembling a group of talented people around him and then promoting and managing their efforts.

Just about done with the AC hardlines. Once I get the dash built up I’ll finish plumbing these up to the Vintage Air unit.

I'm happy to believe that we could attribute some elements of styling/design as being typical of particular nations (EG 'Italianate') for certain periods, but as the (design) world got smaller due to international travel, photography and media the contemporary international zeitgeist took over, presuming designers/stylists were given enough of a free hand. For sure the likes of Yoshida, Chiba, Matsuo, Tamura, Abe, Kurisaki et al (the guys who actually did the work that Goertz was claiming credit for) could have sketched a beautiful, pleasing and current form for a car body and they all had technical educations behind them. The 'Japanese can only copy' thing ignores this. However they would have been influenced by the work of others in the same way that all creatives are. This is a totally natural phenomenon. The language of design and styling evolves and spreads in just the same way as - for example - trends in music. At some point we end up with mirrors facing mirrors and endless reflections therein.

For sure he did! On his golden toilet in the year 1952, somewhere in Italy!

So I don't want to get ahead of Ernest but I'll post up some info from today. I went and helped him get the engine out. We tore it down to the long block The intake valve stems were really clean looking. The exhaust ports looked really wet! It's a little hard to see in this picture. That is actually a puddle of oil in the exhaust port! This is actually liquid like oil that was seeping down under the gasket. Pretty much all of the ports had the same situation. The PCV hose was nice and clean. I would say all of this is coming from the bottom end and it's not isolated to one cylinder. To me that rules out a broken ring or bad ring indexing or something isolated like that. This is an issue across all the cylinders. I also don't believe the engine builder is going to be the issue. He's apparently been building races engines for probably 40+ years. If I had to guess, I would suspect the oil rings destroyed themselves. Possibly poor quality rings... Will be interesting to see what he finds when he tears it down

I also took his spare tire mount apart last weekend and replated and painted everything. The chain was tough to plate! I really should have done it in the barrel plater and I don't have enough amperage for a part that big. So I had to do it in sections and that made it sort of inconsistent. But like Cody said it will be up under the car I also started on the door sill tin at Ernest's

On another note we have a matchbox dizzy for his car. It looked pretty pathetic, so I decided I would go through it and clean it up and make sure everything was free inside it... So I was trying to get the reluctor(?) off but was afraid to try to pry hard enough to make it move. So I came up with this. I use the center off another puller and a couple of paint can openers. Didn't need a wrench. Threaded off by hand Continued on with disassembly Pretty nasty inside So after I helped Ernest pull his motor, I made use of his Vapor honing cabinet The main body has a lot of pitting but not much I can do about that. It does look a lot better though and once it's reassembled, it aught to be reasonably presentable

I checked my book shelves, it didn’t mention who but BMW507. Did you read my report of a dinner with Mr. Yoshida and Mr. Tamura? I believe no one has ever been told about story of Mr. Goertz’s work before. He didn’t say what to do about S30. Also He didn’t show any single sketch for S30. He couldn’t, because he left Nissan well before the styling study of S30 began. He would never have been able to answer how and why for the styling details of S30. Because he wasn’t involved with the team. Kats

I've always thought the 240 looked much like the 68-73 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (Daytona). If we looked long and hard we could probably find someone who thinks Goertz designed that too.

To add: I'd venture to say that most designers are influenced by other designs and designers. Take as an example Gandini/Guigaro and the Miura. There are only so many unique ideas out there, and if someone claims the S30 is a derivative work, they could at least acknowledge that the S30 designers picked some great designs to be influenced by. Imagine if they had picked a VW bus, or a Renault 2CV as their styling cues. Many enthusiasts who spot an S30Z seem to know exactly what it is, and don't say, "Hey, what is that- a Jaguar?" In that sense, I'd put forth that the S30 design can be categorized as having staying power on its own merit. A automotive journalist friend of mine has traced many such rumors back to a single article-of-origin. It's very common, and speaks mostly to the laziness of some writers, who perpetuate the rumors with their own "articles-from-a-prior-article" [EDIT: HA! - an even more clear-cut case of "derivative work"]. Even today, I see articles crediting Goertz with designing the Toyota 2000GT, long after stories of any "involvement" on his part have been debunked.

Todsay i have some very good news, some not so good ones and then some good ones again. The very good news: The bodyshop started working on the car in full force. And they seem way more professional than the previos one. Not that he was really bad or so, but you see those guys have a different approach of working. Before they even plugged in the welder, they decided to measure through the entire chassis and compare them to the original drawings and check if everything is straight. And now the bad news. It seems it's not. According to them, it once got a hit front left, and the difference from height from the left to the right side is approx 1,5cm. The good thing is, i have the complete NOS factory LH Frame rails. complete front inner fender and Air channels. so basically they can rebuild a whole corner of the car with NOS parts. But before they start, they will put the car on an alignment bench and get it straight. Otherwise it makes no sense to replace parts on a bent car. you better get it right before you even start. While one guy measures all the corners and is setting up a plan in which order the car needs to be rebuilt so it remains solid all the time, the other guy is already busy preparing all the old panels. Some have small storage and transport dents or need corrrection here and there, so the other prepares all the body panels. excellent. They promised to send some pictures soon. I yet have to see the work, but i have a much better feeling. They haven't asked for a cent yet, while the other one always wanted to be paid in advance (which i can also understand somehow), they have set up multiple calls to clarify details, they ask the right questions and are more interested in showing me solutions than showing me problems they found. So far, that's way more my kind uf guys. let's see. Now the good news again: I was able to obtain another big Parts lot from an old parts hoarder. This time it's not so many NOS parts, but more of well preserved or resfurbished stuff. Mainly about 20 kilograms of replated bolts and fasteners in really good quality (he sorted them for his own usage and only kept the good ones from dozens of z's which he dismantled over his lifetime) and now i got all the "leftover" replated bolts. But you also will find a bunch of really good rubber pieces. and some NOS parts now and then scattered in. These plastic parts and wiring from the ventilation / heating system will definitely be handy. they're in excellent condition. If you look closely you also find some parts which are from later generation Z or ZX cars, but the most is from the 240Z as far as i can see. Plenty of replated stuff. I have to double check if those are really from the 240Z, but nevertheless, they're a set of NOS factory decoration stripe decals. I won't use them, so will definitely put them up for sale, once i have confirmed what car they're for. Again, multiple kilocrams of Nissan Z and ZX bolts and washers. i'm sure this will come in handy when something is missing 🙂 I have a box where i collect my stuff for replating. but now many of that is already available freshly plated, like the hood holder, shown below. The dull gold one is one that a previous owner painted and would have needed a blasing / Sanding and replating, while the one below is now already freshly refurbished. Overall i will need some time to figure out which parts are usable for my car and which not, but the parts that fit my car are definitely worth the price Oh and i just spent some money in Japan for some really, really cool parts, and as soon as the sea-freight shipment arrives here in probably 2-3 months, i will be able to show you more. Also have a few smaller orders open, and some work happening soon with my EK9. so expect plenty of updates in the near future on this very page.

So you were taking pictures while I was doing all the wrenching?? Just kidding, I really appreciate Charles driving down and helping me get the motor out. It's really nice working with someone that knows Z's. We had the motor out and torn down in about an hour. Motor is loaded in the truck and headed to the builder in the morning. I will post up what what we find. Good day.

One other thing to note is that due to the shape of the tank the gauge comes off "F" fairly quick because the top part of the tank is way smaller than the bottom part of the tank. The fuel gauge moves much slower in the bottom half of the gauge.

Unless you have a particular interest in going with aftermarket carbs, the '70-72 240Z stock Hitachi carbs are a great fit for your car. Everything is readily available, including manifolds, linkage, and air filter box.

Digging up an older post - My Z432 had a conventional spare tire hold-down in in it when I purchased it in 2010, so finding a more suitable hold-down for a mag spare was yet another item on my 10-year-old wish list. A cheap, rusty hold-down which looked the part popped up on Y!.yp a few months ago, and I paid something like $40 for it, with another $30 to have it shipped. I'm not entirely sure it is the exact S30 Z432 part, as it's been mentioned that it might be shared with another model, but it seems to do the trick regardless. I'll have to add a rubber cushion prior to using it. It cleaned up fairly decently (photos of bare metal part attached), and will be sent out for cad in my next batch. I'm assuming it was Yellow cad, and not originally silver cad?

Amazing. First time I've seen that. Thank you. His input for that Steinway piano seems to be more about surface finish than anything else. "By Goertz" was probably useful as something for the sales, advertising and PR teams to get their teeth into though I guess. Goertzlore on display with his remarks about Japan. He tells us that Japanese people were still wearing Kimonos (presumably to set the scene whereby he is some kind of pioneer bringing Western culture to the savages...) but that would be 1860s rather than 1960s, when Goertz started writing letters to Japan and knocking on doors. He paints himself as some kind of pioneer, but in truth he was a latecomer. In terms of industrial design he was a good part of 60+ years late minimum (arguably 150+). But people swallow this kind of stuff whole, don't they?

Good luck with that Florian. I have had the same convincing people about the not designed by Goertz for the Nissan CSP311 Silvia, though its a little bit more tricky as he did have a small input (which doesn't mean he designed it - supposed C pillar angle change). People aren't easy to shift. I had Toyota GB do an article on the Toyota 2000GT, saying Albrecht did it, even though I pointed to all the evidence needed is in Shin's brilliant Toyota 2000GT book, which is well researched. All I get is quotes from various magazine articles as "proof" when we know they have put little research in and skew their article to their readers. Geortz seems from his autobiography to have been in a design desert since the BMW 507, having designed nothing of any note after. The odd ring, things like household goods, which doesn't float being in the spotlight of design....I think he attached himself to the CSP311 and the 5 or 6 other car designs as his, or put it so that the ear of the listener thought so, to get back in the limelight. A bit sad.....

One of his last interviews is particularly exciting. Here he very deliberately avoids many questions and avoids giving clear answers. For example, he is asked what his most difficult design was. The BMW or the Z. He answers, "The most difficult design was a fountain pen." Alan, yes, you told my about it.

You've got the right show. Goertz was photographed there - hanging around the Datsun 240Z that was on display - by CAR GRAPHIC magazine of Japan. I think it goes without saying that Goertz would have been talking up his (non) connection to the new car as soon as it debuted and hit the media in October 1969, so your hunt for the first example of such story being actually published is probably going to be somewhat subjective. Car shows presented great opportunities for Goertz to meet with industry insiders as well as international journalists. This could be a 'Where's Wally' type hunt... I'm not sure what the exact lead time on CAR magazine (UK) was in 1970, but the cover date for UK magazines in that period was usually up to four weeks - possibly more - before publishing, so I would say it is likely the March 1970 cover-dated issue hit the news stands in early February 1970 and the Goertzlore pre-dated the 4/70 NY Intl. show. There are were several other shows in the USA that could be candidates for a Goertz sighting (we have discussed early USA and Canada shows on this forum), and - of course - he could easily have been spreading his story amongst personal contacts between-times. He would naturally have been surfing the buzz about the new car. Here's the photo from CAR GRAPHIC Japan relating to the 4/70 NY show at the Coliseum. The caption below calls Goertz "a consultant designer for Nissan", although - technically - Goertz was never engaged by Nissan as a 'designer'.

Those HJG46W carbs are great! I drive a 240z for 23 years and never really had to tinker with them, after a good tuning in, these carbs are without problems.

Looks like the typical wrong jacking up of the car. The floors don't look bad at all from the pictures, why did you replace them , or was their hidden rott we can't see in the pictures?

If it helps here is a link to a recent discussion where I shared a hi-res TIF file of the FSM chassis drawing above. Hopefully it might reduce strain on your body guy's eyes.

A few years back @rossiz grew tired of screwing around with his EFI and installed SUs on his 280. It ran great and no more tow trucks after the change until an accident brought another one.

Yes they can be a pain in the ****. I think, when my 280zx injection starts to fail, ever.. i go to 2 simple carbs or Jenvey injection.. i think theire site is on www.jenvey.co.uk or jenvey.com? It's not cheap i think but you will get out of the troubles! I don't know how much experience you have with carbs but they are fairly easy to put on the L28, and we can always help you if you don't understand the service manual. get the 240z manual and take a look at those carbs, they work also on your L28.. AND no computing stuff!! A BIG plus!! AND... if you do it yourself, you later on understand the technology and can fix all the problems that may occur! Also be proud to have done it yourself.. I was affraid to fail at making my own steeringwheel.. well now look at the little pic on the left of this reply.. (Working since 2007!)

The new stainless-steel WINDOW CORNER TRIMS ARE HERE !😍 Front and rear upper corners with the lower, short-straight connexion strip. Buy both ends (full kit) or just front or rear (single kit) ! (kits will not be split eg 1x corner or 1x connexion strip !) Fitting both 2x seaters and 2+2s. Prices : Full kit :usd$120 aud$175 cad$160............. €110 £100 Postage : USA/AUS/CAD $6/9/8....................EU €5 £5 Group shipments available. Single kit : usd$65 aud$95 cad$90................€60 £55 Postage : same as above (same weight/price band) ! Payment available via Paypal, Wise-Transfer and int. bank wire. TO PLACE AND ORDER, please PM/DM me and quote your full name and postal address - thanks. These will be available via Ebay but more expensive so as to cover all the selling charges

FWIW, when I replaced the valve seals (which were fine) I used compressed air to hold the valves in place. On several cylinders I could hear air escaping somewhere at a pretty good rate. It wasnt coming up through the valves. I couldn't feel it through the dipstick but I didnt close off the PCV hose, so it may have been coming through there. At that point I knew swapping seals was a waste and the motor needed to come out. Pretty sure the issue is going to be rings, but I will know for sure pretty soon. Thanks for all the comments and support. @Patcon has offered to drive down and help me pull the motor. Great group here.

Too Rich...? Remove air filter cover, take a thin, flathead screwdriver and raise the carb piston about 1/16" to 1/8"...if it starts to die, it's too lean. If the RPMs increase, it's too rich. From a lifelong Triumph owner...!

First major milestone - strip the Z down to a bare shell and get it on the rotisserie for media blasting. Took pictures throughout so that I could use as reference and documentation. Overall pretty solid car. Didn't uncover anything major (yet) on the body during the tear down. You might pick up the group of Klassic Fab JDM replacement panels underneath the car. I'll get to those shortly.