motorman7

It's a bit late here and the day was super busy, so no pics today. I will try and post some tomorrow. I did make the final payment of $5500 (so $6500 total for the car) to the owner today and picked up the car and most of the disassembled parts. I will have to make another trip to the PO's house to pick up the rest of the stuff some other day. So far, I am pretty happy with what I have bought.. In addition to the original radio and very nice interior (which looks bad in the pics above but great in person), I noticed that the car is also sporting the original spare (I think). Will post pics of that tomorrow. As I was sorting parts into storage bins, I noted the following items: A second steering wheel with new horn pad, two more sets of of 3 screw SU carbs (originals are on the motor), another new choke cable, a reconditioned clock that said 'working quartz' on the bag, all of the original jute in good condition with original carpeting, plus a brand new set of carpeting, a complete precision weather strip kit, 2 grills, bolts and screw in clearly marked bag indicating what area they were from, a number of boxed NOS interior parts among other things. So, looks like I have a lot of stuff to work with here.....when I get time to work on it As I was filling out paperwork with the PO, I guessed that the mileage was probably 165K given the 65K speedo indication. The PO, who is the second owner, said it is probably 65K. He said the original owner was a doctor in Nevada that did not drive the car that much as he was older and it was difficult for him to drive. He died and the car sat for quite some time until the doctors son eventually sold it. The PO bought it from the doctors son, drove it for a short while then started his 'restoraton' which didn't get very far. Again the car sat for years, until I picked it up. So, it could be just a 65K car. I guess I will probably know better when I open up the motor. Anyway, will try and post some pics tomorrow. Rich

Beautiful. Love it!

It's always nice to get some good press. http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/why-are-datsun-240zs-shooting-up-in-value/ar-BBDh9M3?li=BBisPVf&ocid=spartanntp

The Ztherapy final inspection check list:

I will have to google that one. Anyway, here are the carb before and after pics.

I would call it ironic timing on the carb arrival as my wife and I went to the Queen + Adam Lambert concert at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Of course they played one of my favorite songs; 'I'm in love with my car'. I think my wife thought I was getting into the song a little too much....and then the 'carbeurettas' show up.

These just came in....very nice!

Cleaned up and lubed the half shafts today. I went with the bare metal clear coat on the half shafts. I did this on my '71 and I think it looks great. I could go with black, but then everything underneath is black so it looks kind of plain when in reality, these are pretty cool looking parts.

That would be my conversation with Mike Malamut at the San Marino motor classic (formerly the LA Concours) two weeks ago. Mike, who has his own museum with over 150 cars, had recently picked up the Blue 1970 Z off of BAT for almost $40K and Mike Sage's silver #222 for an undisclosed amount. I probably should have asked, but I am guessing he paid $80K +/- $10K for that one. Maybe more. Mike said to me that there have been private party sales of low VIN 240Z below 500 in the six figures range. Seeing as how he seems to be accumulating them, I would think he is a pretty valid source. http://malamutautomuseumfoundation.org/ The San Marino show is pretty amazing. Aaron Weiss is the chairman of the show and also has his own museum. I think Aaron's museum would make Mike's look like an amateur collection. I honestly don't know what the heck I am doing at this show given the people that are there. Jay Leno was also there last year.

Thanks, fortunately I did. It's one of those things where I found the original a couple days after I gave up looking for it. Lucked out.

It's a moot point since you have the insulator, but yes, the insulator is for heat insulation. Even though the bolts provide direct heat transfer, the transfer Area is reduced by using the insulator. This can be seen in the equation: for heat transfer. A is area, delta T is difference in part temperatures (head versus fuel pump) and Delta X is the length of the bolt through the insulation. k is the thermal coefficient of the bolt. If you use titanium bolts, this number would be very low, copper would be high. Steel is in the middle somewhere. This equation then becomes a battle between how much the air in the engine compartment cools the fuel pump versus how hot the head is. The heat battle is going on through the bolts that connect the two. The reduced transfer area helps the pump stay a bit cooler due to the reduced area as the equation shows. I am sure @Zedyone_kenobi would concur and he is a rocket scientist. Just my two cents. Best regards, Rich PS: I only weighed in on this because i was trying to find the pump insulator myself a week ago. They are becoming quite rare it seems.

I really have no idea. I am guessing the paint on the original Z's would be a Japanese supplier just for logistics. PPG seems to be one of the better quality paint suppliers and is recommended by most of the guys on the site here.

Updates from the paint shop. Slow going, but glad everything is being addressed. A couple small holes in the floor have been welded up. Plugs welded in where the AC hoses used to be. The orange paint is in, PPG brand, 918 orange. That is a good sign.

I just used the Rust-Oleum gloss black for the housing. I wire wheeled the entire housing down to the bare metal and wiped with lacquer thinner to make sure it was clean. It sticks pretty well that way. I used Matte Clear for the aluminum. I used to use gloss clear to protect the metal parts, but it does not look as good. Matte produces a finish that is a bit closer to the bare metal appearance.

Cleaned up the differential this weekend. I took a little bit of 'artistic license' and put clear coat on the aluminum parts. Who looks under the car anyway? I could paint the aluminum black but it looks nice like this, the cast aluminum is beautiful. Before and after pics below.

$15K wouldn't even cover the bodywork and welding needed. A serious restoration on this car with correct parts will be in the $40-$50K range easy

Latest photos from the paint shop.

Just a quick pic of three Z’s at the 2017 San Marino motor classic (formerly the LA concours). Mine is in the middle. This really is a great venue with a lot of very high end cars. Lots of space to walk around, trees for shade and the best goody bag of any car show that I have ever been to. Last year I even saw Jay Leno here, so it is definitely a very nice event. Unfortunately, the Z’s drew blanks and did not place at all in the Japanese Classics category. Yes, even Jay’s Gold Medallion Z did not place which seldom occurs. However, as has been mentioned before, it all depends on what the judges are looking for. Sometimes they are looking for workmanship, sometime its authenticity, or un-restored, or a ‘great story’ car. You just never know, and it is different for each show. In talking to the judges afterward, the judges gave high marks for ‘how rare’ (translated expensive) the cars were. Yes, even though the craftsmanship on some of the Z’s was exceptional, when it comes to rarity a $600K Toyota GT, complete with oil leaks, detached and dilapidated weather stripping, deep scratches and non-stock radiator (among other issues) trumps the Z’s hands down. The 2000GT, with car cover on in the pic, took second. The Mazda Cosmo, another six figure (nearly $200K?) took third. First place was a 1961 Mazda R360 coupe, which also took first last year at this show. The conversation I found most interesting was with Mike Malamut . Mike owns the R360 that took first and also has his own museum of cars with over 150 cars including a 2000GT. He also just purchased that blue 1970 240Z on BAT and Mike Sage’s Beautiful silver HLS30-00222. Seems he is adding to his vintage 240Z collection. The comment he made is that some of the nicer VIN’s below S/N 500 are selling for over $100K to private sellers. That is pretty fascinating. Putting 2 and 2 together, make me wonder what he paid for #222. Anyway, just thought this was all pretty interesting

Yes, I guess I would have figured this out when I went to put on the hoses. It's funny, I originally had it on correctly, but the pump would not rotate freely through the length of the slot in the support arm. The lower housing starts to contact the support bracket as you rotate it towards the engine, with about 2 inches of slot left. The interference gets worse the closer you move it toward the engine. In the upside down configuration it rotates freely over the length of the slot without interference. Thus, not looking at pics, I thought this would be the right install. Will have to fix this.

Sounds great! That has got to be very exciting having that baby up and running. It's a work of art.

A little more progress tonight. Got the smog pump cleaned up and painted. Lubed the bearings while I had the back section off. Used clear satin over the aluminum housing and inlet and outlet pipes. Also got the air breather attached. Loosely installed the pump onto the motor.

I have been prepping my orange Z for the upcoming San Marino Motor Classic so have not spent much time on the resto here. Just did a couple small items. Not sure why, but the smog pump was painted blue. I used lacquer thinner to strip the paint which worked real well. The aluminum looks nice underneath. Still need to remove the back part of the pump and paint that nicely, then this will be ready to install. Assembled one of the smog system parts here (Throttle opener control valve?). That came out nice. Cleaned and painted a couple brackets. Not much to update with the paint shop. Miguel took a little time to work on another vehicle but will get back to this one this week.

So this has all worked out very well so far. Drove to the sellers home with my wife in the roadster. It was a beautiful cool sunny morning and the drive through Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch was absolutely perfect. We spoke with the seller and his wife for about 30 minutes and I left a $1000 deposit for the car. I told him that I would pick the car up in a month or two as I currently have no time or space and he said that was fine. I did check on the front windshield glass and it is the original Nissan stamped windshield in excellent condition. So, very happy with all of the original parts and especially the interior. The original motor is even sporting some of the original braided hoses. Any, will post pics later.

It looks like you ground off the protective zinc plating on the steel, which will lead to the clip rusting rather quickly. Might me easiest to spray some clear coat over the assembly to help protect it. Otherwise, looks very nice under there.

Well, It looks like we are good for me to pick up this Z. I will need to contact the owner and work out arrangements....aahhh the concessions. She said that I should see if i can put a deposit down on the car and pick it up in a couple months when we have more room. If not, I will have to see about working out a storage location with Montezuma. And she want some house upgrades done as well....concessions, So, I have to be completely honest here. The love of my wife's life is her 1 year old grand nephew. We are not grandparents ...yet...so I guess she is practicing with the grand nephew. She asked about putting together our kids old hobby horse which had been stored for years, in pieces, up in the garage rafters. She wants to give it to her grand nephew for his first birthday. So instead of doing car stuff on Sunday, I surprised her with the completely restored hobby horse. I even put clear plastic over the springs to prevent finger pinch. Anyway, she was just thrilled to death about this. I figured this was necessary to make sure she was in a very good mood. I showed her pics of the car this AM and she really liked it. So, very happy with all this. I will try and work out some time where we can drive out to the sellers place in the roadster and see the car. Maybe next weekend. Will keep things updated as it progresses here. .