Mikes Z car

Here is a wild arse guess otherwise known as a wag. All wires on the flasher switch are normally hot? If someone gets it right do they get a prize? What about booby prizes for incorrect answers?

Here are some more pictures. I tried to duplicate the angle of your picture. I noticed looking at the hood point that to me the bottom seems to have more of a point on it than the top does on my car. To me looking at your picture your hood looks like that too.

Here are some pictures from my car (70 240Z). I realized after I took them that you might want pictures from a lighter colored car as mine is nearly black on that part of the car. My car has at least three different colors on it, not counting the cartoon characters pebbles and bam bam. Top view looking down (the ruler is not touching the hood): Side view of front corner, up is to the left: Front view from slightly above hood: Front view from slightly above hood but further away: Looking up from under front corner:

Personally I would LOVE to take on this kind of challenge if I had the time (and the skills) however I would be likely to drive on side streets and do doughnuts there as a test of my work before sneaking out into real traffic.

I admire your work. Bravo! Nice to see a Z coming back to the living so to speak.

What year is your car? The 71 240Z I had back in the late 70s had a black and white 4 speed map. I THINK the green map was for a later 240Z model.

Is the map black and white or green in color?

How about world famous goo gone?

I am ignorant about 280Z wiring but if the tailight circuit is the same as the side marker light circuit, remember that thing where on a 240Z the side marker light socket would short? Can that happen on a 280Z?

I'd like to find my old 71 240Z I had in 1985, even with the rust it had I would take it back. Didn't know how to fix rust back then.

FWIW when I took my turn signal switch apart to scrape the carbon off of the contacts I bent the small side of the cover out at the corners instead of the tabs to get it apart. My theory is that the cover can be bent more times than the tabs before breakage because it doesn't have to bend as far. There might be a possibility of repair if it did break by soldering two "L" shaped pieces of metal around the two corners where it broke if that were to happen. All of this is just a theory though. The hard part of getting it back together I thought was making sure the ball bearing that goes on the end of the spring was in position after assembly (maybe drill an observation hole?):

Sometimes heat works, maybe from a heat gun instead of a hair dryer. Mine is the wrong sticker for the car as the hood was replaced from a 260Z I believe.

I am just green with envy that IdahoKidd got another Z. But where would I stash another one? Disguise it as a planter?

This car was good practice for me to NOT make fun of someone else's car. The owner probably enjoys the creativity that went into this. I was so surprised when I saw it that I took a picture as I wandered by in a parking lot. I have also seen a pink pickup truck here as well and have heard some of the story behind it. Mike

Here they prop up the car VIA the brake drums perched on the the rims turned flat to the ground. How does one get suspension parts off in that scenario since they are being used to prop up the car without risking life or limb?

We still get real gas here, it is all I burn. Have to know where it is. One place in a nearby city advertises the gas they have is real. I don't mind the reduced mileage as much as the corrosion of rubber and metal.

Gary in NJ, In case anyone else wants to try this here are measurements on the bend in the "turnstyle" arm the PO did on my car. The measurements on the ends of the arm are from the center of the pivot to the first bend and from the other end it is from the center of the nylon ball to the first bend from that end. My blog doesn't want to work so I am posting this here. Mike Measurements:

The PO of my car bent the top arm of the "turnstyle" into a stairstep shape effectively shortening it which slows down the rate of butterfly opeining as the gas pedal is deperessed. I finally noticed my car doesn't have nearly the problem with throttle jerk my old 240Z had as I work on it more than drive it. I also finally noticed that my upper turnstyle arm looks different from other turnstyle arms from pictures others have posted of their upper arm. Other arms are straight, mine is bent. I am putting this on my blog with pictures, don't have access to the pictures right now.

Maybe if you had a Porsche they would holler "nice Datsun!". It would be entertaining to have decals that rotated out like that license plate did on James Bond's car in that old Bond movie. That way you could select decals from Porsche, Ferrari or Corvette or anything at all. Just dial it in.

Thanks Arne for the info.

With the new info I found Enkie 90s on Google images though my wheels don't have the word Enkie on them but otherwise are identical. I NEVER would have noticed this without starting this thread but the "direction" of the spokes on the wheels goes one way on some and the other on some others. Is this for a performance reason? I am not that competitive so it wouldn't matter much to me but I am curious, is one direction supposed to be on one side of the car and the other on the other side? That seems to be how my car is now.

Arne, Thanks for the information! Construction info too! I had no idea there were so many different kinds of wheels made until I started searching through Google images. Mike

They do look very similar. Different manufacturers may have copied each other or borrowed ideas I guess.

LeonV, Thanks for the information and the Wiki link. I remember now JWL being mentioned on another thread, didn't know what they were talking about. Your bet is good I think. My search on the net revealed a Nissan wheel that looks like mine but has a different number of angled spokes or whatever they are called. Mine have 8 but I saw one with 12 with the same center cover and the same look otherwise. Will pull a wheel off soon. A couple of yard workers last year saw my car, looked at the wheels and said those are corvette wheels. I didn't know Corvettes had wheels sourced in Japan! Mike

black gold man, Thanks for the idea. I have had the wheels off before and not noticed any marks but, with your idea in mind, a mirror and flashlight in hand I looked where I could see on the back. Getting over a cold and didn't feel up to taking a wheel off. I didn't see anything but then I looked on the easy to see side and spotted this: Maybe it is a Western Wheel model VIA? The picture was taken with the center finisher cap removed. I had seen the marks before but ignored them as they are hard to read and I just figured they were scratches or tire tool marks or something like that.