zKars

The shape of the cover is the give away for me, and then the overall size. The rear covers of the R160/180/190's are quite rectangular, while the R200's are much closer to round. Makes you wonder how only one bolt shears off. Were any of the other bolts loose? Maybe they weren't torqued correctly, or that one was way too tight, or was damaged from a previous over torque. Might be worth an inspection of the other bolts before re-use or just get new ones. R160 R180 R200

Sean has the correct approach. Bottom first, then the panel has to be bent/rolled what feels like just a bit too much for comfort to get it to clear the strut mount bracket. I would heat that panel up as much as you dare in the sun or with a hair dryer to make it more flexible. Note that you should not only remove the hatch strut from its mount, but then remove its bracket from the welded on bracket by removing the 12mm nut that's hiding behind it. I find a 1/4 drive short 12mm socket on a ratchet handle works best. Its kinda recessed making a box end wrench hard to get on it. This gives you a precious 1/2 in more height to play with. Also inspect the spot welds that hold that bracket to the body (look in the weatherstrip channel and from underneath) and wiggle it to see if it has started to come loose. This is a common issue. Big strain and flexing on that one bracket each time the hatch is closed, especially if you have upgraded to a modern strut replacement. This is partly why they went to two struts on 260/280.

That's an R180 diff. Don't know what its from. That K on the case is a clue, I remember someone discussing that recently. Subie maybe? Is there an LSD unit in the case? The vent on the new one looks like a brass pipe fitting that's been epoxied in. Likely had a hose of some sort attached that performed the vent function. It has to be open (to be a vent) but must prevent moisture and debris from entering. What's facinating about your old diff is two things. There appears to at least 3 missing ring gear bolts (is the center one sheared off?), and is that the remains of one of the ring gear bolts stuck through on the casting web on the rear cover?!?!?!?! (picture 2)

Have a look at some of the antenna options available at retrosound. RetroSoundUSA.com - RetroAntennas

Common passenger side water comes from rust and or loss/cracking of sealing compound around the fresh air chimney/cowl seam above the fan, or the windshield weatherstrip. It leaks under the dash where you can't see then finds its way down the firewall to a low spot on the floor and sits there. Strip out the carpet and whatever you have covering the firewall and get a pail of water and start dosing it.

Disconnect the wiring to the buzzer!

Yes, or damn near! Silly little homely bricks are shockingly popular. Every home should have at least one Z and one 510 for balance. Agreed?

Oh good. I was wondering if it was just me or they treat everyone's packaging the same way. BTW, I am not just complaining here in the anonymity of the internet. They hear direct feedback after every shipment. Are you listening Greg?

The MSA header has a correct thickness flange. The pacesetting appears thin. The MSA systems I've had my hands on, are pretty reasonable fit and finish. Now if wer can just get them to pack them better in the boxes so they don't arrive with shipping "marks"... hint hint.....

And that lovely red wire that running the coil instead of fixing the problem with the ignition switch. And the spliced heater hose, and the "real" fusible link butt spliced on the starter, and the rusty hood hinge bolts, and the rusty chipped paint hood latch bracket, and the missing/no rubber hood alignment rubber bumpers, missing bolt in the hatch hinge, and the buldging rear hatch finisher panel letting in some lovely exhaust fumes.... and.. oh enough already... "Completely stripped to bare metal" except maybe the engine bay.... Rust free. Yeah right. Give me 15 minutes with that thing to find something you-all ain't gonna like. but yeah, lovely paint! (no bondo eh? hummmph.....)

You are correct. That is an odd alignment question. I think we are going to need more details before anyone will be able to give you a usable answer.

The 280 tank is the same general shape but is larger than the 240 tank. The spare tire wells are the same. It can "fit", but your biggest challenge is the inlet and outlet piping are smaller, the vents are slightly different (you have to plug and abandon the far one on the driver side) and the 240 tank has much less baffling, not an ideal thing for fuel injection. If you get it installed, try to keep it above 1/3 full when ever possible to avoid sloshing that might expose the pickup. I have a 280 tank in my 240, and it was tight fit, but it was pretty easy. you see more of it hanging down, and the strap spacing isn't quite the same as the grooves in the tank on the driver side.

There is a thread on hybridz from a guy (David , 1 tuff Z) making these reproductions. Fairlady Z Mesh Grill - Reproduction Thead - Vendor's Forum - HybridZ Not sure if they are the ones showing up at MSA.

Not good. Sorry to have your first experience here be related to a problem. Do a compression test on all six cylinders and see what's up. Combustion requires fuel, spark and compression. Also test your fuel pressure and volume. Disconnect the fuel line to one carb, crank the engine and let it pump fuel into a bottle. See how much you get. Do each carb fuel line separately. replace your fuel filter too. Let us know what you find.

If you cannot get the clutch to slip with the clutch fully out (foot off) under any driving condition, then your clutch friction surfaces are not the problem. Checking fluid levels and for leaks is definitely step one. I would begin by lengthing the clevis rod under the dash a couple of turns to raise the friction point and see if clutch-applied shifting goes with grinding and friction point become better (higher). If this works for short while then gets worse, time for a new master.

All work and no play makes a dull fisherman! :0

Yes, if you give her a fish, she might indeed go away. For more than a weekend. Oh, sorry, you mean the OTHER opposite way, if YOU gave Her a fishing pole, then.... uh,... no, sorry, same result....

"Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Give a man a fishing pole and his wife will never see him again on weekends...."

the bottom nylon bushings are all the same. There is a thread about a door hinge bushing that can be used in place of the plastic stockers. Maybe its on Blue's tech tips... Yup, http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/shifterbushing/index.html

Thanks for keeping the focus on this. Its coming together, please help make it a success if you can.

The common fix involves reducing the included angle of the two bell crank arms from ~90deg to ~50deg or so. There is a thread on here somewhere about this. Just cut the mounting tube in half, rotate and re-weld. Change length of the upper rod end to match. You could also convert to cable throttle, the best solution in my mind. Depends on whether original look or vastly improved functionality is your goal.

Don't make fun of it! Hasn't it had a hard enough life already? Imagine how it feels spending all that time in oklahoma? I'm sure there's room for an nice L6 in there somewhere...

Here is a great picture of the front floor areas and why you need to remove the tar mat for inspection. Passenger side has the tar mat still in place, Looks lovely. Drivers side with mat removed. shows all the nasty rust underneath. Any arguments now? Thanks and credits to user 280z1975 from thread http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/help-me/20051-floor-pans-tar-removal-question-other-stuff.html In thread he has an album on his website of more pictures of the total removal and what he found underneath.

Ok, me first. This link, Kelly W's Z Restoration gives the most complete and clear pictures I've ever seen of what the Z uni-body structure looks like, both with rust problems, and after extensive restoration Ideally, I'de like to have some of these pictures in this forum on this thread, not referenced via the link to Carl's server page, but it's likely stable for a while, right Carl? Would you mind if I took select pictures from that set to post here? So here is the reference. If you ever wondered what is supposed to look like in that corner, or that frame rail, here it is.

Tom-Anders I am very sorry to see this situation you are in. This damage must be dealt with before the car is driven. The solutions to this are not simple or in-expensive I'm afraid. Blue's links to the frame restoration accurately indicate what you are likely going to have to deal with. This entire situation repeats itself daily it seems. I really wish there was some sort of way to guide potential Z buyers, any old car buyer really, in determining the TRUE rust and structure condition there cars are before they purchase them. So, toward that end, and in no way being disrespectful to your situation, let us all learn from it at least, by pointing out some obvious things that should have been caught before the car left North America. 1. That damn thick tar undercoating that seems to be on so many of these, and years of collected dirt grease, leaves, rat sheet, and, ALL of the sound deadening tar mat sheets from the inside of the floor pans MUST be removed from all critical areas to properly inspect the rust and structural condition. What looks smooth and undisturbed when covered with this stuff CANNOT be evaluated for compentency without its total (95%) removal. Those famous words I've heard so often just GRATE on my brain when I hear them. "I picked up the carpets and didn't see any rust! Looked great!!!" Then you start chipping off the tar sheets in the foot well and your hammer goes straight thru to clean air underneath. AARRRGGGG... 2. The first picture that shows the brake line going under the frame rail. Look at that. Carefully. That's green FIBERGLASS patching over that frame rail. Do I have to mention that this just SCREAMS that a hole in a structural member was filled with that crap, and not even in a way that's smooth and hidden. There is no fibreglass repair on a structural member that is adequate. Lessons: 1. There is no such thing as too many pictures. Get the car on a hoist and have the seller photograph EVERYTHING. If you are there, LOOK at everything with an mind set of "does that look right"? 2. Get schooled in what it SHOULD look like down there. You can't spot problems unless you know what its supposed to look like. Are the frame rails supposed to be straight? (yes). Do the two frame rails run parallel? (yes) Are there any places where they change size (yes, they neck down near the rad support). Are dents in the bottom of the frame rails under the floor normal? (yes and no.... depends on magnitude) 3. What specific areas MUST I look before all others for rust issues. 4. Remove undercoating and floor pan sound deadening tar mat from all areas noted in 3. Even if its hard to do, even if the seller protests. If you can't walk away. 5. Any rust showing on the outside hides 10 times more on the inside, miminum. 6. Doing Body work and rust repair is 100 times more expensive, time consuming and frustrating (via endless project delays and funding headaches) than the cumlative effort to hunt down a better chassis to start with. I didn't fill in the answers to most of thoise questions, because, EVERYBODY, your assignment is to FILL this thread with pictures and stories of YOUR experiences with buying Z's that "looked practically rust free" but turned into nightmares once the cancer and resulting structural damage within was revealed. We need to build a single thread that we can point everyone to when they ask the never ending question "what should I look for when buying a Z?" Come on, contribute!!