Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/17/2025 in Posts

  1. A little late jumping into this conversation. I have been "out of contact" on holiday which I do every so often going internet dark for a few days in my effort to get away from it all. Often, I travel to Europe but I just returned from several days in coastal Maine and that northern wilderness. We were hiking and boating. Reading up on this discussion, I thought I would chime in on some of the issues mentioned. Nissan contracted with four private restoration shops during the Vintage Z program. Pierre Z in Hawthorn, California completed by far the most restorations, however Classic Datsun Motorsports of Vista, California, Datsun Ally of Signal Hill, and Old Car Service of Huntington Beach were also involved. Datsun Ally and Classic Datsun Motorsports prepared two cars each. I don't know how many Old Car Service prepared. Engines were rebuilt and provided by AER Manufacturing in Arington, Texas as transmissions came from Williams Technology of Summerville, South Carolina. Pierre Z rebuilt the units for the first restoration only as Nissan contracted thereon. They were assembled units, crate shipped, including everything except carburetors, generators, cooling fan and hoses, and exhaust manifold to the best of my knowledge. Part management was coordinated through Pete Evanow of Nissan N.A. and there were documents related to car assessment, part orders, and quality control however these were internal project documents related to the management of the project cars and not released with any of the cars. I actually have part order documents for cars that were never restored. Concerning CAD plating: The yellow / gold coloring that we associate with "CAD" is a chromate conversion coating applied over the plated metal, yielding the familiar gold color. A similar appearance can be achieved with a similar chromate conversion over silver zinc which is far less toxic and not easily discernible from a cadmium base electroplate. Cadmium electroplating on its own is not yellow. I believe that what we see on cars today is yellow chromate zinc. True cadmium electroplating is not easily found or inexpensive. We all seem to call it "CAD" but that's probably a term we use for the color and not AS 9100 certified or ASTM A165, SAE AMS 2400 specification. Finally, Nissan N.A. didn't just decide to restore a bunch of 240Zs; they schemed up an ad campaign to keep the Z legend in North America alive while Nissan discontinued their current model Z with only the promise to deliver a new design some time in the future. The goal was not to create 'restorations' but deliver complete, running examples of the original car with 12,000 mile warranties. They had to rely on private repair businesses to accomplish their goal with a parts inventory that could not sustain the project. But they pulled it off! Cudos to the businesses and people who contributed to the effort. The cars are quite valuable now, and it is always exciting to see one because the story behind it is one of the best automotive sales campaign stories. Especially after the blunder of dropping the Datsun brand, I opine. So, I did the research project / compendium in 2005. I have a huge digital file of stuff as well as a fairly good library of literature. I have a vhs video that Pierre gave me in 200? that has Mr. K's visit during the restoration program. I don't have any printed , bound copies at the moment. I hear some interest for copies of stuff I have. I'm going to get some copies of the compendium made. Stay tuned.
  2. Thankyou gents for your replies. I've mounted the car. Sat down after two days of endless measuring, laser levels. 3 spirit levels...... absolutly perfect. Had to pry the shock towers in....they seemed to be out by about 8mm. Yeah its crash damage I think. So I sit down in the heat. Crack a beer. And celebrate my days of handy work...... Then.... I read what is written above.....that the towers will be 7mm out if you meausre it wrong........ Ok so tomorrow I'll pull that strut mount off and redo it. Some awsome tips. Thanks again! I put the doors on yesterday and gapped them.....a tip for you all. Im a woodworker too and the best gapping tool on the market is a good set of playing cards......
  3. Sticky pistons on 4-screw round tops. Not ideal. About the only things that would account for that would be a) severely misaligned nozzles underneath or b) mismatched domes/pistons. You can check for the mismatching between the domes and pistons by taking the domes off, pulling the pistons out of the carbs and then sliding the pistons into the domes and see if they move smooth and free (while the dome and piston are in your hand, not mounted to the carb body). And you can check for misaligned nozzles/needles by either removing the needles out of the pistons, or by loosening up the nozzle alignment nuts on the under sides the carbs and seeing if the pistons move free while the nozzles are way loose.
  4. I have also used a plumb laser to do frame measurements on my Z. I began by taping together a bunch of poster board sheets to form a single big rectangular sheet that was long enough to go from bumper to bumper and wide enough to just fit between the inner sidewalls of the tires. Once I had it in position under the car, I taped it to the garage floor so that it wouldn't shift while I was lying on top of it taking sightings on the various targets. Once I got the laser aligned with a target, I used a Sharpee to make an 'X' mark on the sheet (along with a little note to record what target it was for). After I had marks for all of the targets, I pulled the sheet from under the car and laid it out on my workshop floor so that I could make the various target-to-target measurements with a tape measure. This system works pretty well for most the undercar measurements. The car can be sitting on its tires, but it needs to be elevated a bit (I used wheel dollies) so that you'll have enough room to slide underneath. However, it won't help you with the fore-aft locations of the shock towers unless you remove the struts and sight the laser down through the hole in the centre of each shock tower cap (the procedure for this is to put a piece of wide masking tape across the hole, trace the hole outline with a pencil, mark two intersecting centrelines, and then poke a small hole at the centre point for the laser to shine through). You'll also need to set up some kind of the platform above the shock towers (I used a length of 1 x 6 lumber) to give you a perch for the laser to sit on. Additional requirements: You'll need to get the car up on axle stands. Don't do any of your measurements until the car is up on the axle stands. You'll need to get the lower control arms out of the way b/c they'll block the laser beam from reaching the floor. This isn't too hard to do at the front (the LCA's can be folded up to a near-vertical position after the struts have been removed). I'm not sure whether this can be accomplished quite so conveniently at the rear (I didn't try). It might be necessary to actually remove the lower control arm from the car ☹️.
  5. Yup. Most of the pertinent info on Hybrid will be from 10-15 years ago. And probably most of the picture links won't be there anymore. I used to post a lot there but haven't been on in years... A 225mm flywheel and clutch package won't hold the torque of a turbo engine. I originally used the 260Z stock clutch and transmission (and R180) and realized after one drive the clutch wasn't going to do it - and that was at factory boost. I've been using an Exidy 240mm clutch and flywheel package for 12 years or more (well, 2009... How many is that?). I've been running 10-12 pounds of boost for quite some time. (You control boost with your RIGHT FOOT and even when you're driving hard, you're not always at full boost. Most of your driving time time is not in boost at all and if you're sized and tuned correctly, you're in and out of boost fluidly - turbo lag becomes a myth) If you're going turbo DO NOT go with a LIGHTENED flywheel! You need the spinning mass IMO.
  6. I have no idea if I did or not, but feel free to copy it over there, or maybe @Mike can duplicate the post there.
  7. Namerow got me searching... You can buy trammel point on Amazon pretty cheap. Add a 1x2 thats long enough and you should be good to go... https://www.amazon.com/s?k=trammel+points&crid=K19KM88E6XBD&sprefix=tammel+heads%2Caps%2C343&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-pd-dpltr-ranker_1_13 My frame man uses them alot to make sure the car is square and even. You set it for one side or one diagonal and the mirror side should be identical
  8. I wouldn't have any problem reusing that clutch. I'd replace the seal and reuse everything else. Don't forget a little bit of new EP grease on the pilot bushing.
Remove Ads

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Guidelines. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.