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So today's event was I spent some time working on the original starter. Took it apart, cleaned and lubed, and reassembled. I had been using a gear reduction starter from a later year because the original was struggling in the beginning. Now that I have the motor and carbs gone through, the engine starts with the flick of switch and I don't have to grind out the original starter to get it to run. The original starter works great.

You've probably heard these songs but didn't know the artist. Same guy. He wrote one of them. Wahhh wah wah wah...

Very nice. (I'm also happy that you don't have any body side molding...) Could be just camera, but if you look at the two pictures of silver Z's you'll notice the slight difference in "tone". Not to fault anyone or anything. Two different painters can use silver metallic from the exact same can, and spray two slightly but noticeably different "colors". With silver, the flake is usually the majority of the color, and how the flake settles on the part will make a difference. As will the amount of material applied and the primer or sealer used underneath.

Silver is tough paint to spray evenly - even tougher to match ("even tougher" I said... nearly impossible). You want someone with a good deal of experience spraying silver metallic and that's not generally cheap. We always had very good luck with our supplier (Sherman Williams Automotive) and Datsun colors - what they had was very close to factory. I think we shot three silver Z's. Datsun metallic base paint is fairly inexpensive (for paint) and fairly consistent in price. It's the clear and hardener that will have a great deal of price variation. Be forewarned that cheap clear usually means greater LABOR cost or settling for a poorer outcome. Each painter you talk to will have a preference for the clear they use and they will have a reason they do so. If you go against their preference don't be surprised by additional labor or cost to get the clear looking the way you want it to. And please don't argue with the guy - after he's sprayed the paint you told him to. (Here in Phoenix our cost of just the final materials (sealer, base coat, clearcoat) of the brands we prefer would be just over $1,000 (using a very good clear but by no means the most expensive) and not talking of labor, fillers, or primers. We got a pretty good discount - and a painters discount may or may not be passed on to you. Paint cost is the very cheapest part of the job.) If you want the silver "to pop", spray dark sealer under the base. If you use a lighter sealer the silver metallic will look "washed out" and will not have as much character, For the most part paint IS NOT opaque. Underlying colors will have a visual effect - subtle but definitely noticeable. I personally despise masking around weather strip and trim. It may look acceptable at first but will eventually present a myriad of issues. Early on, we did one at a customers request and immediately afterwards made it a policy to NEVER do it again. You think you may be saving on labor cost to mask rather than remove but in reality labor saving is minute and the result is poor. We had several Z's come to the shop years after a "masked trim and weather strip" spray looking needlessly shabby. Pull the windows and trim and get paint underneath all the gaskets, trim, and weather strip. My last piece of advice - if you can't afford what the experienced painter quotes you just don't do it - don't look for a cheap quote. And, with a Z, you CANNOT hold him to an initial ESTIMATE (unless he doubles up). There are WAY to many unseen things that may pop up. (I said "MAY pop up"... Sigh... I can't remember a single Z in our shop that didn't have surprises unknown to the owner AND to us!) Oh,, ya,, we shot that. VVV

Looks to me like nearly every part of that car was touched during a restoration. I would think, even with current valuations for 240z's being lower than their peak, this car would be worth more than $70k.

It sounds like the tach itself. From your description I would imagine there's a part inside that let the smoke out. I doubt the coil itself is going to have that effect. Perhaps removing the ballast had a role, perhaps not. Like Yarb said, maybe it's just old. There are discrete parts in there and perhaps the culprit could be found and replaced. The tach is just reporting entity and has no physical connection to the engine or coil. There is a battery positive and ground for power, but the "signal" is isolated - that wire is not physically attached to any part of the gauge. If you look at the back you'll see the G/W feeds a looped wire that goes through the same sort of device that a "clamp meter" (ammeter, amp probe, or the clamp that goes over the spark plug wire on a new-fangled timing light) has.

Could be the tach just said I’m done. These are 50 year old cars.

Awesome. Thanks Jim!! Wish I would see you at Zcon!

If you’re going to dent the race car, it helps to own the team!

The lower one in the pic is correct for your car.

I think he's talking about the bend in the wiper arm.

Greetings and welcome to the group, HLS30-365101. Some pages ago, we were discussing the quality control checklist. At the urging of SpeedRoo, I dug through my files to find my copy of the "240Z Restoration Program Quality Control Checklist". The checklist I have is some 40 pages with an introduction overview page and 20 or so pages of procedure descriptions organized by component with columns for notes, sign-off and date. For instance; under the brake / clutch / hydraulic component, one of the procedures is "All rubber brake hoses: replace" and in the notes column it says; "Use DOT 3 brake fluid". During the restoration program there were two final inspections and four inspection sign-off points during various stages of the restoration process. Of note to our Plating conversation; checklist item "All steel brake lines: check for kinks, condition of flared ends", notes "Cad plate all brake lines possible. Replace any corroded lines." Attachment D of the checklist is a two page copy of Wick Humble's book; "How to Restore your Datsun Z-Car" discussing fasteners, everything about fasteners from engineering standards to thread pitch and sizes. From Attachment D; "How about the fastener's finish? The manufacturer plated every metal fastener...on the Z car, it is predominantly what platers call yellow zinc, that multi-tinted golden finish used on most bolts and nuts exposed to the elements. Plain natural-colored zinc is also used on some parts."

Hi Charles…..Thanks, no, I bought the foam from Resurrected Classics, the seat covers from Mike at Banzai Motorworks and had a good upholstery shop put them together. Some things I leave to professionals 🤑

It was "bid too" $35K with 20 bids. It was NOT Sold For $35K as the reserve was not met.

IMSA car. Now in Glen’s care.

My mechanic finally solved the 11 year old problem by resdjusting the carbs with the temperature of the car during traffic jams, 3/4 of the Temp gauge and an MSD blaster coil. Now he is asking me for a diagram or schematic to get the petronix 1.5 coil and 1.5 ballast resistor running and the 1972 240z tachometer working alltogether. Can seem to find it in the web or haynes manual. Do you have any reference for this? Guess the stock tachometer wont work with the MSD blaster 2 coil.