motorman7

Cleaned up the wiper motor today. Put a new cover on and replaced the connector housing. I used tie-wraps instead of the plastic rivets. The original rivets could not be salvaged. This is one of those things that is not visible on the car, but you know it is there. Installed wiper motor and wiper arm assembly Also installed the cowl and front valence. Cleaned and painted the front grill. Installed that as well. Pics are below.

I had the four 'Steelies' powder-coated a matte black and sprayed the backside silver similar to the factory rims. Also got new Toyo's mounted and balanced. I loosely placed a hubcap on just to see how everything looks. Hubcap needs a bit of refreshing and a new coat of paint, but otherwise things look good. I installed the four tires on the car since this is how we will roll .

Got the exhaust and intake manifold installed. Threw on the air cleaner just for pics. Picked up the radiator from the repair shop and attached it, but not very happy with the radiator shop paint job. Will probably remove it and clean up some of the drips and solder remnants, then re-paint. Will have to get some of Jay's braided hose and some nice wire clamps next. Will also get the master cylinder and clutch master in shortly, then I think I will be ready for the fenders. Pics below.

Got the steering rod cleaned up and installed with new bushing. Also got he rims and hubcaps. Thanks @Montezuma! Should be able to get radiator in tomorrow and carbs and exhaust manifold 'officially' installed.

Got clutch and pressure plate installed. Also installed the motor. Things should move along nicely now. I picked up four rims today and have about 8 hubcaps to sort through for the wheels. We are going stock with hubcaps for the final set-up. I will drop the rims off at the powdercoaters next week. Should be able to post some pics of the hubcaps in the next day or two. Radiator has been re-cored and is ready for pick-up. I will get that on Monday and should be able to install that day. Some pics are below.

Got my dash back from Justdashes about 2 months ago. The dash looks very nice and all of the instruments fit back in nicely. You can see my write-up on this thread on pages 7 8 and 9 The cost was $1750 plus shipping. Shipping is about $150 each way. I dropped it off and picked up so no 'shipping' charges. My only issue would be the texture of the plastic material. To the naked eye, at about a two foot distance, the texture looks similar to the original as you can see in the pic with the glove box below. If you do a close-up, however with camera magnification, you can see that the texture is not like the original (color is same for samples, lighting makes color look different. justdashes is dark pic, original dash is gray pic). If I could get hold of a Yick Sang or Mold-tech texture style book I could tell you what each is. Also, they covered up a couple holes for switches that I had to re-drill, but otherwise, I would use them again if I had to (and could afford) a new dash.

Thanks! The even more amazing thing is that it's 47+ year old paint, bumpers, rubber, etc. She is spoiled and is typically kept in hibernation.

I had the 16 inch Panasport rims on my gold 70 for a short while. Eventually transferred them over to my Yellow Z. This is what the wheels looked like on the gold car. I am pretty sure the tires are 205/60 - 16's

Hi Joe, Pretty much the old fashioned way. I used paint thinner and a parts brush (for crevices) and a wire brush to remove all of the oil. I would clean an area with the brushes and then wipe clean with a towel paper. I think I went through about half a roll of towel paper by the time I was finished. That part took about almost an hour. At this point the transmission is clean, but still fairly grayish. I then took wire wheels and attached them to my drill and used that to pretty things up and make it shiny. After that, I put on a thin coat of high temp gloss clear. I was tempted to use aluminum paint, but that can chip and also looks too 'uniform' which looks funny to me. Bare metal typically has a little character to it.

Thanks! Got the transmission cleaned up and installed. I have the transmission mount in and the forward end supported with a scissors jack. I should be able to drop the motor in here soon once I can scrape together a couple hours. I bought the Exedy (made in Japan) clutch kit which included the clutch, pressure plate, throw-out bearing and pilot bushing. Very reasonable from Rock Auto. Also added the before picture which was posted earlier. Also had some nice light for the rear end pics. I love how that came out.

That is an absolutely hilarious comment! Never heard brake fluid described in quite that fashion. Makes my want to go home and slather up my hands with it right now.

Finished rear brake line install. Now working on engine bay brake lines. Installed brake line manifold and fuel vent manifold. I threw in a before pic just for reference.

Looks nice! I get all my 240Z hot wheels on ebay. Nice selection there. The one you are showing is going for about $6 (includes shipping cost). I have a good collection of 240Z hot wheels.

Thanks....here are some better pics. Got drivers side brakes done.

Good words of advice. I will have to monitor that. Did some work on the rear brakes. Got the passenger side drum brakes cleaned and installed. Installed proportioning valve, splitter and a few break lines. Camera pics are terrible and it is all lighting (or the camera, or the photographer) . Will try and get some better pics in the daylight tomorrow.

Got a lot of items installed tonight. Yesterdays prep work was a big help. Got the hand brake and linkage installed. Also put in the diff strap brackets and hardware. Then I lifted the differential assembly onto the mustache bar using my handy scissors jack. Then installed the bolts for the forward diff bracket. Got the half shafts installed as well. I threw the tires on just for safety. Jack stands are great, but you never know. (Side note: The red jack in the pics isn't touching anything on the underside. It is there just in case. Living in SoCal, I always have this strange fear that we might have an earth quake so extra support is always welcomed)

Yes, that was the one thing that always bothered me about this car, but otherwise it's a beauty. I have seen it a number of times at shows and have talked with Bob Heckendorf, the previous owners quite often. Maybe with Flat tops it would have hit $50K.

The honest answer is 'trial and error'. The brake lines need to go in first and then the emergency brake parts since they are sandwiched between the differential and the floor pan/tunnel. It is hard to access these with the diff in place. The strut towers help to align the lower control arms. I will install the diff with the lower mount and bracket pre-assembled and lift it into place using a scissors jack, after inserting the two studs on the diff into the mustache bar. Then I will put in the diff strap. Will put the diff strap brackets in before I put in the diff assembly. Will do strap after diff is in.

Got more of the rear suspension in. Also have a before and after pic here. Should be able to get the differential in tomorrow.

So I cleaned up the rear shock towers and got one completely assembled. Will finish the second tomorrow. The old shock was stuck in the strut and was a challenge to get out. The picture is a bit blurry, but I held the shock is my vise and put my slide hammer on the other end. I ended up pounding on the slide hammer with a 4 lb hammer. I soaked the strut in PB Blaster and Kroll for a couple hours. Eventually I heated up the strut and pounded the strut off. There was a lot of rust on the shock. I got the brake and fuel lines back from the plater and got those installed. Will tackle the rear suspension tomorrow. Pics are below

What size is the tap? I need to get one as well.

Wife is out for the next couple days so should be able to get lots done. Should have some nice pics by the end of the day, WooHoo!

I re-wrapped the engine harness and am starting to change out the visible connectors. I have the bullet connectors, so I have changed those out but need to get the blade connectors and connector housings. I will get the housings from http://vintageconnections.com/. I ordered 4.8mm blades from Amazon. I also started installing the harness in the engine bay. It is easy enough to change out the connectors with the harness installed so I figured I would put it in. Pics below. Also, one before and after pic. I picked up the rear suspension parts from the powder coater yesterday (sorry no pics yet, they are still in the protective wrapping). Will get the zinc fasteners, brackets and tubes tomorrow. Wife will be gone on Sunday and Monday so should be able to get a lot done. Looking forward to that. Should have lots of pics.

Yes, thanks for the reminder.

I drilled out the old bushings on the mustache bar and lower control arms. I used a small wire wheel to clean up the inside. Also scraped off the old undercoating from the suspension parts. I will drop these all off at the powder-coater tomorrow AM. I cleaned the outside of the fuel and brake lines in prep for plating. I cleaned the tubes by sanding with 220 sand paper and finishing up with steel wool. That makes for a pretty nice plating surface. Then I add several large radius bends so that the lines will fit in the 40" long plating tanks. Took pics of all the tubes before bending so I can get them back to the correct shape. the long runs needed just 2 bends to fit within the 40" constraint. These should look very nice once they are plated.