Leaderboard

I'll eat some of this and drive my Z if my belly fits under the wheel.

Cleaned and painted the front grill. Also, got a new fuel pump and installed that. Looks much nicer and closer to the original than the standard auto part fuel pump. I had an old original style pump that I removed the screws and fittings from and sent out with the last batch of plating parts. I will probably swap out the clear zinc fasteners and fitting for the yellow zinc parts once they come back from the plating shop just to get a bit closer to the original look.

That looks incredible Site.......I saw a truck with a commercial cooker in tow on I20 passing through Columbia, S.C. It had a sign that said” You can smell our butts a mile away”.

Just more diversion. That's his M.O. He's worried about Cuomo and needs to try to make him look bad. I haven't watched any of this one, they're all the same now.

My restoration is finally finished. Now sitting in the show room at Robert's Automotive in Springfield, Illinois. 1981 280ZX Grand Luxury Edition, Manufactured September 1980. I drove it off the car lot on January 12, 1981. Features: Engine rebuild, original paint, original carpet and seats, re-upolstered interior and headliner, re-plated cadmium engine parts and restored wheels. I haven't driven it for almost 24 years. Original miles 25,536 and I have all documentation to back that up. I paid the ultimate price for NOT driving it - an entire engine rebuild. Everything works except the status display in the center of the instrument cluster. (See photo) Need to figure how to trouble shoot the status display. Needless to say I'm excited. I will be able to take it home before the end of next week. Still needs to have the air conditioning system re-charged.

Hi all, I've just received my 1973 240z! The previous owner towed it out from MO for me along with piles and piles of parts. We went over it together and it's in better shape than I expected (it was a Craigslist transaction over the phone between MO and NJ). I'm sure that I'll start finding nasty surprises once I start into it, but for now I'm basking in the glory of having a Z in my garage.

Thought I would share this interesting Z car I have been working on to help the owner out for the last few months. It is proudly owned by a very nice, very enthusiastic older woman 100+ miles away. I brought it up to my location in an enclosed trailer with the generous help of a good friend. It has not been running for over a year and in addition, she has had some bad experiences with some shops which took advantage of her with little results. She was referred to me by one of her relatives that lives in my area and I made the trip down her way to look it over, meet her and her husband and then agreed to bring it up to my garage. When I first talked with Joyce and I asked her about the car & herself her response was ... "I like to drive fast, and I'm all about accessories" ... The car had a number of electrical and fuel issues going on which are now mostly corrected. ( I successfully got it running, -very nicely, - this week to test some new wiring & things and will now continue on to complete or correct the other modifications and some new items. The brake system also needs some attention from sitting a long while. Some of this 75 280z features are : A beautiful ** (it pops!), very high quality 2 tone paint finish. Fresh, almost no miles Datsun Spirit stage 2 street motor, electric assisted power steering, glass body kit (not my cup of tea but she loves it, and that is all that matters). ** This paint could hang with MikeW's exceptional award winning 260z and give him a run for his money.... lol New stuff going in : new Vintage Dash with full Speedhut instrumentation, Zcar Depot Fast EFI system, numerous Skillard accessories & knicknacks , and more. Enjoy the pics, let me know what you think .... Its a fun car to work on, mostly a labor of love we all have for these cars, looking forward to see her reaction when I get her baby back to her, 280Zoommmm.....................

I have decided to make my own vapor/ hydro blasting cabinet. I have a bunch of Datsun parts (mikuni carbs, intakes, ac, head etc..) that I want cleaned up and shiny. I really really like the look of hydro blasted or vapor blasted aluminum parts. So I live in a tiny town, that's about 1.5-2 hours from a major city, but even that city doesn't have anyone that hydro/ vapor blasts so I am either shipping parts (expensive, and chances for damage) so it's time to make one. The basics of vapor blasting is a glass slurry mix (ratio unknown as of yet) of water and 170-325 Glass Bead (tiny beads) pumped in circulation through a gun that has compressed air attached to push the slurry at high speeds. Which doesn't damage or pit the aluminum, basically from what I read, it almost picks out the dirt out of the surface. It doesn't even affect zinc, rubber etc... I was just going to get a harbor freight cabinet and ruin it, but decided to look around the web first. I figured someone makes a plastic blasting cabinet. Which turns out they do! Simple, light and pretty cheap. I will probably end up using it not very often, so I would rather it not rust out. I ended up getting one off ebay for 175$ shipped! Retail on it is like $350. So I was pretty stoked. I wanted this size to fit a datsun L6 head. The one I bought: 31" version https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sni-40390 Smaller: 22" version https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200136624_200136624 Pump: Next was a slurry pump, I wanted centrifugal so that the slurry wouldn't ruin it. I decided on this one. According to vapor honing videos you want good psi from the slurry pump, this one is 63 psi. I will be going from 1" down to 1/2 or so for the gun, so that psi will be lower. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQCSUZK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Lightening: I wanted to be able to see inside and I would rather not get electrocuted. I found some neat LED's on amazon that are meant for fish tanks. They are 12v that use a small ac adapter and are fully waterproof. I got 2 warm white 12" long ones. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OP3P1AM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 False Bottom: The blasting cabinet came with super super shitty screen for the false floor. Which is mild steel, so I threw that in the trash. I have a bunch of stainless grating (I own a brewery and we have lots of scrap) that I was going to use. But I was worried about damaging the aluminum on sharp stainless. Then I had an idea! Plastic grating and I actually had some laying around! It's a fiberglass/ plastic grate meant for standing on. I cut it down into two pieces and she fits perfect and are easy to remove. I also have a small stainless basket for smaller parts. It has very small holes so it should keep anything small from going down to the pump. Through Hull: I needed some way to get the slurry out without leaking. I decided on a cheap through hull for a boat. Which fits perfect. The pump is 1" so I decided to run 1" hoses from the cabinet to the pump and back to the cabinet. I went stainless, which is a giant overkill. But whatever. I will also pump a wide screen on the through hull so it doesn't suck anything large into the pump https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001HC0R6W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Water tight Pass through: I will use liquid tight cord Strain Relief Cord Connectors. You can buy them online or at any homedepot. They have a few sizes. I should be able to use them for the compressed air into the cab, slurry and 12v. So it will be water tight. 120v Foot Switch: Since your hands will be in the machine I decided to use a foot switch for the slurry pump. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Maintained-Latching-Foot-Switch/dp/B004LJ6MYE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520527436&sr=8-1&keywords=120v+pedal+switch I will hopefully finish it this weekend, I will use marine 5200 on all the through hulls. Should be a fun project! Videos of vapor blasting honing: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DdHXu6oFqUWZ-rNNR7Bcg Some of the before and after are amazing.

Hello, I'm new to this club. I am looking to buy a 240/280 Z but not sure really where to start. A friend of mine had a 240Z when I was younger and I really liked it. I'm looking for a car that might need a little work, but solid. Any suggestions on publications or resources would be great. Also from you experienced owners, any input as to the pros and cons of the 240 vs the 280 would be appreciated. Thanks, Ernesto

I've been off for a week now so my daily hygiene has dropped off dramatically. I do brush my teeth twice a day whether they need it or not. But you can literally smell my butt many feet away according to my gal. She says it smells like her panties. TMI I know but I like to amuse you good people when I can.

Cleaned and painted the CV shafts this weekend. I painted them with 'aluminum' spray paint which I think may be a bit too shiny. May re-do this in flat aluminum.

I put rivnuts in the doors so I won't have that issue. Everything tightens down from the exterior of the door

Now i wanted to find out what it is.. i looked if i got such a thing in my warehouse.. AND... YEP! got one! It say's: STANLEY on the back.. It looks like there is a little lightbulb in the right side of the display.. and the display is build out of layers of glass of some sort.. with small dots of glass on them.. Just by shining some light on the specific plate the sign gets visable.. What a cool technology! There are .. i took a good look in there .. around 20 plates of glass or ( i suspect) plexiglass in there, some have the pixels others are just dividers.. STOP is in front, then the headlight sign and OK comes next.. for as far i can see, behind those is the rest of the signs. By using a (colored) filter inbetween the lightbulb and the sign, these can light up in different colors!

@dutchzcarguy Well just the fact that it's multi-color unfortunately makes the system more complicated. So I've never seen one of these with my own two eyes, but simply from that era in time, the technology is probably vacuum fluorescent or plasma. Although it could be nixie-tube (neon) as you mentioned before. But I'm not sure if you can do multi-color with cold cathode like that.. My guess is that it it's VF. So I punched that part number you mentioned into the web and found one on ebay: And you're right. Could be a problem with the little display module itself in the dash cluster, or it could be a problem with the control module. Or any of the associated connections that make the system work.

So grandad, what did you do while the COVID Virus was spreading around the world? Well my boy, I did my bit and two bucket washed the Z and gave it a quick polish.

$20USD is like $1000CAD whooo hooo!

Just incredible.....maybe going to be the most impressive Nissan in the country. This will bring a new interest in the Z31!

Ready to begin wiring, engine and trans install at my good friends before it comes back to my house for final assembly.

So some of the LEDs (SteveJs suggestion -thanks) that I ordered, came early, the clear version is (as luck would have it) still not scheduled to arrive until 4/21. I tried the red version (brake Light Failure) and the green version (turn signals) and you have to be patient - there is no abundance of clearance when installing the LED into the socket, but it fits. I then plugged the sockets into the respective holes. They install as they should and you will have no trouble with them bottoming out in the gauge causing the socket to become dislodged due to vibration ...etc. I was going to wait for the clear to finish this portion of the dash effort, but I am not the most patient person and I noticed all of the socket holes have green filters. I ordered 10 green and used two. I need 7 to light the tach, speedometer, and the 3 gauge set. I decided to populate the remaining 7 with the green LEDs. Could not stand not knowing what it would look like so I wired the lights to a battery. Yes the dash is upside down as I am testing the harness. And yes the gauge faces have a fair amount of dust on them but you get the idea. The wiring on this car separated the 3 gauge set lights from the speedometer and the tach with regard to the dimmer. When I was redoing the harness I tied all 7 bulbs to the same ear on the dimmer - so they all dim at the same rate. So these LEDs are a lot brighter than the incandescents. If they are too bright I can dim them down. I don't recall anyone ever claiming that the z gauge incandescent lights were overly bright. Once again, thanks SteveJ - I appreciate the help. regards, ron

Thought this day would never arrive! Can I get a virtual high five from the forum please? High build (Valspar DTM prime and seal mixed 4:1:1) ready to sand in a couple hours and fill any last minute pinholes with putty. Then on to a mix of 4:1:2 for a seal coat before paint!

We will still offer the group-buy to members of ClassicZcars. Please email info@groupharrington.com and my colleague Thao or Christophe will assist. Please quote 'ClassicZcars group buy'. best wishes James

Gundee, Thanks for responding. I am sorry to be the bearer of mixed news. The URL that you sent has a 360 deg view button, one of images is a dimension view. This is the url for that dimension view. https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/ba9s-ba7s/ba9s-led-bulb-4-led-ba9s-retrofit-car-classic-car-bulbs/6/. I have some of these and I believe that they fit in the speedometer and tach (will check if you need me to), but they do not fit in the gauges - oil temp, amp fuel or clock. As you can see the length is 26 mm for this bulb. The length of the bulb listed by SteveJ is 18 mm and I believe it will fit everything. ps 1 (3/23/20) I just checked and the 26 mm does fit in the speedometer and the tach. ps 2 (3/24/20) sorry to do this but I did not want to mislead anyone. I was working on the harness in my dash, and inadvertently put just the slightest amount of tension on one of the bulbs for the speedometer. It came out of its socket. So it turns out that the 26 mm LEDs do in fact hit the green lens inside the speedometer and the tach. I was fooled because one of the bulbs seemed tight enough, but it would be a mistake, in my opinion, to use the 26 mm bulbs anywhere on the dash. So to tie a bow around this the original incandescent length is approximately 20 mm. The alternative that SteveJ has suggested (thanks again) is 18 mm. There is one more critical dimension. There are 2 posts that extend out of the barrel of the bulb. they provide a key/locking scheme to keep the bulb in the socket. I apologize if I am confusing anyone. Anyway, on the suggested alternative there is a collar. That collar is no doubt larger than the socket, so the distance from the post on the barrel to the collar could be, likely is, critical if it is too short then you will not be able to get the bulb in the socket. This dimension is not available, so I cant be certain that the alternative will work. I will update this when I get the bulbs that I ordered. Sorry for the confusion. regards, ron

I did this a while back and the only way I could do it (as my hands are too big and not triple jointed) was to disconnect the speedo cable at the tranny and pull some slack, then pull the dash part way out, attach the cable from above, replace the dash, pull the slack out and re-attach the cable to the tranny. I must have tried this every other way for too long as I didn't want to partially remove the dash again. Unfortunately it was the only way. Good luck. Cheers, Mike

@Carl Beck Thanks for the ammo for teasing my wife (the assistant) and the laughs: Nissan recommends speeding and has made provisions for it:

More progress from today:

Did the warning system work properly before the dash was removed? Honestly I'm pretty sure the instrument cluster just houses a series of bulbs that light up when commanded by the control amplifier. So basically, unless there are broken solders or circuits on the circuit board of the instrument cluster (unlikely), I doubt it's the problem. I would double check all your connections, especially those running from the control amplifier (underneath the glove box) to the instrument cluster. If you want to start with the basics, make sure the control amplifier is being provided proper power and ground. 12v power is provided from the 2nd to the bottom fuse in the left column of the fuse box, through a green wire to the connector at your control amplifier. Ground is a black wire 2 cavities over from the green wire in the control amplifier connector, which goes through a junction connector and then to body ground. Since you pulled the dash, there's a chance you may have a loose ground or poor connection here. Page EL-83 in your FSM illustrates the wiring schematic you'll need to follow, but what I listed above will be the basics to get you started. If you suspect you have a faulty control amplifier, I have an '82 turbo parts car that I can send you a replacement for. I can't promise they're 100% compatible, but I doubt nissan would make changes to that particular system in 1 year. But I would first verify your harness integrity. And I can also assure you that mice, rats, squirrels etc. will absolutely chew up these harnesses, as I have seen first hand.

Kent, "A very nice gentleman." Would you mind if I shared this with my long suffering wife? Cheers, d*** McDonell

Picked up a bunch of stuff from @Richard McDonelyesterday. A very nice gentleman with a beautiful 918 orange restoration underway .... He had a lot of great stuff for sale. Loaded my Avalanche to the brim - might have to go back ... I thought this was interesting. Vertical defrost but no vents .... Took a flyer hoping this steering rack is in better shape than it looks. I get a little nervous when someone has painted over the boots, bushings AND mud 😕😕😕 Fortunately the rack moves smoothly from lock to lock. 30 minutes later had this ... and this ... 😉🤭 Grabbed a couple of fenders and a set of early doors to experiment with ... And couldn't resist this ... all in all, a decent haul ... might have to go back 😀

As a business owner, if I was being endorsed or using the endorsement of somebody convicted of fraud, I would want to be told. If I continue to use them, then that is my prerogative but I would at least like to be made aware of something that might not be readily known.

He probably has 14 pages of engineered drawings he whipped up over lunch one day...

Do you have a set of plans or are just going to wing it?

A few pics from the paint shop. This is the final primer. After it dries thoroughly shop will do final block sand and then paint white

It’s hard to fathom how much work this is !

Beautiful car, extremely well done. Congrats - now, drive the damn thing and get some long past due enjoyment out of it.

Very nice work. I do very little sheet metal work, and the stuff you do highlights how amateur my efforts are. Looks great.

Nice Work!

Sure. So with the front rail and the rad support out, I could push/pull the horn side to side a few mm by hand easily (except for the strut support holding it it place). If it was out of alignment, I could easily be re-aligned. The legs of the jig are bolted to the car, and to the long longitudinal rails. So the jig gets assembled / dissambled under the car while the car is on jacks. The floor is epoxy installed by the previous owner. It is slowly being destroyed by all the metal work ....

- no. I did the floors years ago, and then the car just sat for a couple of years.... The jig was built to factory dimensions, not to this car. I posted about the build in my other thread “240z gets jiggy”. (Can you link to another thread here? Not sure how to do it). Anyways, the jig supports the car at all the factory drivetrain and suspension points and under the floor rails. If the car is out of alignment you can pull it pack in for sure. The front is partially supported by the strut tower. It would be almost entirely if I had cut out both rails at the same time. The next support point is the transmission mount. its very rigid. Car did not budge when I cut the rail.

I guess you are an expert spot weld driller by now, big project.

As a source for new bumpers don't forget Futofab, http://www.futofab.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=131&Itemid=118#a_frontb New metal, perfect chrome, no holes, all metric fittings and they fit well. I'm very happy with mine, $360 USD a piece.

file size limit hit

ok. ill do that

Continued WT Wheel and Tire.pdf RA Rear Axle and Suspension.pdf SE Body Service Equipment.pdf SE Service Equipment.pdf ST Steering System.pdf TM Transmission.pdf

Continued RA Rear Axle and Suspension.pdf EG Engine General.pdf EL Engine Lubrication System.pdf EM Engine Machanical.pdf ER Engine Removal.pdf ET Engine Tune-up.pdf FA Front Axle and Suspension.pdf FE Fuel and Exhaust Systems.pdf GI General Information.pdf PD Propeller Shaft and Differential.pdf

The new garages! Life is good... Sent from Canadia

G'day Maddos, I like the photo of your zed. Mines the same (except the wheels). I think the metallic blue looks fantastic. As for the clock, you've noticed the tranny is an 828 (or something that you can't get anymore). I used a BC337. It is just a basic npn BJT we stock at my work. I am sure most common npn BJTs will do the trick. I found that when working, the 828 (or whatever it was) didn't have much grunt and replacing it with the BC337 gave it a bit more. The pin-out is different though! I have started writing up what I did and sketched a pin-out comparison between the two and another common BJT. You see the little copper-looking metallic disk. It appears to be made up of two windings. From what I gather, one is a 'pick-up'. It detects the magnets on the oscillating disks as they pass. This then creates a pulse, which drives the transistor, which then uses the second coil to give the oscillating disk magnets a little nudge as they pass the coil. Sort of like giving a kid on a swing a push each time they swing past you. I looked at the voltages at the transistor with an oscilloscope and the 828 didn't seem to give much of a push. I don't know if this was a design parameter or if the transistors back then were just junk. The replacement transistor gave it a stronger push and mine has been going strong for over six months now. Hopefully I will have some sort of write-up in a couple of days to post with pin-outs and waveforms. I will try to make it interesting.

I was stuffing around with a few Z clocks and found there were mostly two types. The one described above, and the one in my 260Z (a Kanto Seiki). The one I had was driven by a small electric circuit rather than a motor. I couldn't find any schematics so I got the oscilloscope out and traced it out. Of the three I got working again, one had failed capacitors, one had a failed transistor, and one had both the transistor and capacitor failed. I changed these to equivalents and presto. This was six months ago and they are still going... I think I will look at a way of putting the circuit, waveforms, diagrams (equivalent transistors will have different pin arrangements), and photos into one document and posting it. It should make a nice little article. Stay tuned.