motorman7

I will try and keep the thread focused on the ‘Refreshtoration’ costs. The first thing to do was get the car running. Once home, this wasn’t all that hard to do. I checked spark and rough timing- that looked good. Pulled a carb fuel hose and turned the engine over-no fuel. That was easy. Since the car has an electric near the tank and a mechanical on the engine, I started with bypassing the mechanical and just running with the electrical. Still no fuel. Went and bought a new ‘Nippondenso’ mechanical pump for $53, bypassed the electrical pump and got fuel to come out the carb hose. Perfect. Hooked up the hose and the car started right up. All I needed was a new set of tires, $380 for Michelins at Costco and I am now using the car as my daily driver. Add $70 for new title and registration, $50 for the fore mentioned u-haul trailer and we are now at $1453. It adds up fast.

I love Craigslist for buying cars. Nice selection and in my opinion, some great deals. You also get quite a few dreamers on there as well. Anyway, when I saw the ad on Craigslist for the ’73, I was very impressed by the original look and the motor pics that looked to be untouched. All that funky insulation was intact as was the smog and the flat top carbs. The owner wanted $1300 for it. I called the owner to see the car, at which point he mentioned he could no longer start the car. I told him that was fine, I would still like to see it. When I arrived, the owner was still trying to start the car. I did a quick inspect and tried to help him start it but no luck (later found out it was a bad fuel pump). Since he couldn’t start it, he on the spot lowered the price to $900. That was nice, no need to haggle down the price. I checked the car over and was thrilled. There were two minor rust spots behind the rear wheels, not bad. Radiator, radio and seats were not original, otherwise it was not too ‘molested’. The seats were a nice pair of Recaro’s which are now in my sport yellow Z. The owner had bought the car for his son to ‘fix-up’, but the son lost interest. The seats were as far as he got, fortunately. The owner was very excited to show me the blue carpet that he had bought to ‘re-do’ the complete interior.:sick: He was insistent that I take it to complete the car by gluing the carpet over the vinyl black diamond interior. The funny thing about this is that the original vinyl inside is nearly flawless as are the door panels-better than my ’70 even. Makes me cringe to think he would have tossed that to put in the horrendous blue carpet. The owner was really quite cool, though. He is the author of a very popular robotics book and he gave me a free copy. I helped with my sons’ robotics team at school, so we had a lot to talk about. Anyway, I got my wife to agree to car number 6 and paid cash for it the next day as I picked it up with the u-haul trailer. Now the fun begins

I was not going to start a thread on this but changed my mind as the information may help those who are thinking of buying a Z just to do some minor clean-ups and flip it. What I thought would be a quick 3 month ‘clean-up’ and sale has now turned into a well over 5 month ‘Refreshtoration’. I don’t really call it a restoration as I am not doing a complete 100% strip of the body and undercarriage. And my original intention was just a simple re-fresh. So, I am now in the middle of these two with what I am calling a ‘Refreshtoration’. Part of the problem in cleaning up a vehicle is you can’t just strip a car, put a nice paint job on it, put it back together and sell it. The paint may look great but the surrounding parts do not match. So now the paint looks good, but the bumpers that looked fine on an oxidized car now look lousy on a freshly painted car. So we add re-chromed bumpers to the cost. Now that the bumpers are re-chromed, the old door handles look bad. You get the picture. One improvement eventually leads to another. As a result, my initial refresh budget of $2500 has now ballooned to over $4000 (so far). That is a huge increase. And, that price does not include labor as I do most of the work myself. And for those of us who are ‘anal retentive’, like myself, flipping cars is not your calling. The issue is that there is a lot of time in the details. I am talking about rust abatement here. I can’t for the life of me put a rusty nut or bolt back onto a car. It has to be either wire wheeled and zinc plated, or wire wheeled and sprayed (paint or clear coat for metal). Of course thread anti-seize also has to be used. And, any form of rust on the body needs to be treated and Por-15’d or at least passivated and sprayed. This all takes quite a bit of time. Now, let’s throw ‘attachment’ into the picture. Of course when I bought the car and told my wife of my plans, she said, ”You won’t be able to sell that car because you will be too attached to it”. I said, “No problem for me, I can sell it in a heartbeat”. That was easy to say when I first bought the car. Now, after many hours of labor on this car, I find myself re-considering. “Maybe, I can finish it and drive it up to my parents’ barn and leave it there for a while”, I tell myself. I think I’d like to enter it in some of the local shows here soon. Maybe I keep this one, give my son the yellow Z and sell his T-bird. Oh how my wife knows me too well. So this is where I am at right now. I will re-post some of the original pictures and then show the progress. I will also add more info on this as I get some time. The PO was pretty interesting so I want to add that as well.

I used a Scotch Brite pad to clean the fuel and brake lines. That seems to work best. I've used steel wool before, but it leaves too many 'hairs'. Once the lines are clean, I spray them with a clear coat enamel to prevent rust. The brake clips and bolts I zinc and yellow chromate plate myself with the Caswell zinc plating kit. It works great and is very convenient.

Cleaned up the brake and fuel lines a bit. Installed some of the clamps. I like the before and after look. Will fire up the zinc plater this weekend and try and finish the engine bay. Hopefully get the engine in the following weekend .

It's all coming back to me now....that's what I used, a C clamp.

Hi Danny, Welcome to the board and the Z community. It's a very good group here. You live in a great location. Classic Datsun Motorsports is located near you in Vista. They have just about any part or item you would need for your Z. I am over there quite often. I definitely have to agree with jfa.series1 on keeping the parts. You'd be amazed at what some of those items go for, even in well used condition. Regarding your Series 1; if the motor is the original motor, I personally would keep it as original as possible. If the the motor is a transplant, I would modify to your hearts content-it's a great platform. You also might want to check out the local Z clubs. The San Diego club meets right down the 5 from you. They meet the first Tuesday of every month at the Denny's in Clairemont Mesa. Keep the pics coming of your car. It will be nice to track the progress. Best Regards, Rich

I put new rubber T/C bushings on both my '70 and '71 and they were both a challenge. I remember pushing in the rubber and washer while turning the nut at the same time. I will need to do my '73 here shortly, so I will try the jack trick. Regarding the bushings in the pick, mine were pretty thick; as thick as the larger one. I am not sure if they compress over time.

Put the re-chromed bumper and back panel on. Painted the back panel with the paint from Les at Classic Datsun. It looks great with the silver. I also got the headlight bucket and front headlights lights on. The passenger side headlight is still the original Koito. The drivers side is a re-placement GE.

Hi Guy, I love the Bolts! Used them on my '71. Eiji's info is below. Eiji Hosomi Datsun Spirit, Inc (703) 598 5215 sales@datsunspirit.com

The color looks pretty close to me. Mine is just not as glossy even with 4 coats of Zaino show wax. I also wonder if the color has shifted a bit due to 40 years of aging. And then again, the lighting is a factor. So many variables with color.

I love fins! They make the car go faster....almost like a turbo.

Color sand and buffed the 73 today. Still got more to go. Got most of the sanding done. got about 3/4 of the car buffed with Maguiars 105 cutter. Will do the 205 poish once that is complete. It's starting to look nice.

Yep, that sounds like a short then if battery is low. Those are easy to find with a cheap meter. The fuse box is in the forward part of the center console, just below the radio-on 240s. I am guessing 260's are in the same place

Now that sounds like an open or loose connections. Much more difficult to find than a short. My guess is the ignition switch area or fuse box area. Funny, I had something similar happen to me about a month ago in my yellow Z. I turned the key and absolutely nothing. I banged my palm on the side of the fuse box-still nothing. banged my palm on the underside of the ignition housing and the car started right up. No problems since. Kind of made me feel like 'The Fonz'. Not really saying that is the best way to fix an intermittent circuit though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Z-Series-240-1972-Datsun-Orange-240Z-Immaculate-Mint-Condition-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4152df2d8aQQitemZ280563232138QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucksQQautorefreshZtrue $18.1 final bid

10 mins to go on auction---still at $17.4K

I am not sure if a list for this exists. You are correct on the clamps, they should be silver zinc. Other silver zinc items are the door catches and door bolts that hold the window frame (10mm with Phillips center). The coil bracket on my '70 was silver zinc-though I believe some models are yellow. The two hatch door 'bumps' (sorry I don't know correct term) are also silver zinc. There may be more, but this is what I can remember off the top of my head. Rich

He is referring to this one http://www.datsunclassifieds.com/showproduct.php?product=5399

This one intrigues me, early '70Z...S/N is just 2 less (2162) that my 920 gold one and only 30 miles away. I would do an inspection if someone was interested. Original motor and long time owner on this car. http://www.datsunclassifieds.com/showproduct.php/product/5390/title/1970-datsun-240z/cat/1

Got car back from paint- Cleaning up the engine bay before assembly. Got the rack and pinion items cleaned and painted. Will clean and re-tape wiring harness today.

Yes, that is correct. Bolts holding on fender are painted same color as fender. hood rods are pretty glossy even on a 40 year old. My bay just wasn't as clean. Over $15K with 4 days left, not bad

That's a great looking car. From the pics it all looks pretty legit. The hoses are very telling. When I picked up my '70 with 95K on it last year, it had all the original hoses. These definitely look all original-even the plug wires. The only things that seem odd to me are the blue coil (mine is black) and the gloss black bumper support and hood rods. Would like to look at my '70 to compare but it's not available. (you can tell that I am really stretching here to find something not original). That is a pretty sweet looking vehicle from the pics.

Would love to go, but have so too much going on. Gotta take care of the rental. Thanks for posting the invite. :classic: Rich