steve91tt

Thanks man. My goal is to work on it until it is a reliable, comfortable, good looking daily driver that looks period correct. Lots of little things left to do but the journey is half the fun!

Yep, I have KIA on both doors and hatch. Perfect seal, doors and hatch close very easily, great panel fit and stockish look. Could not be happier.

Just a quick update on my AC install...I have been daily driving my car for the past week or so and I must say that I am impressed with the AC system. It's been full on summer heat and humidity here in Texas. I park the car in the garage at night but during the day there is no shade at all in our work parking lot so it sits in the hot sun. I use a sun shade for the dash, I have a dark window tint and I have a fair bit of dynomat installed so I suspect that this helps some. The AC system does not cool the car down as fast as a modern luxury car does but so far it's plenty good enough to keep the heat and humidity in the cabin to a more than tolerable level even after being heat soaked in the hot sun all afternoon.

I'm not sure if it is a good idea to simply bypass the mechanical pump. I suspect if it runs without fuel to cool and lubricate it for any length of time you would run the risk of damaging it. Your best bet would be to take the pump off of the car and block off the mount hole to the head so that you do not spray engine oil everywhere. Just my $0.02.

I always go straight to my local Nissan dealer. I buy enough stuff from them that they give me the mechanic's discount so they end up being the cheapest option.

If it were me I'd be looking into a Nissan short block. Last time I checked you could get them for about the same price as a rebuild. They are very stout engines in stock form. I daily drove a 1991 twin turbo with a stock bottom end and big turbos, big injectors, big intercoolers, etc. for 10 years without a single engine issue. Shockingly fast car. It had 175K miles when I sold it last year. I believe the bottom end of the turbo is the same as the NA just different pistons and oil squirters. When the engine is that good...just go stock.

Denver bumper seems to be standing behind their product. They are paying to have the bumper shipped to them to relocate the mounting bolts. They say it should only take a couple of days to turn it around and get it on a truck back to me. If all goes as described then I am impressed with their customer service.

My 1991 300ZX had issues with methanol. I was loosing injectors regularly. Even new ones were failing after a year or so. It turns out that certain Nismo injectors had issues with methanol resistance. I switched to a different brand and it ran great for years. Just my $0.02.

Thanks for measuring your bumper for me. I think if mine were 25.5 inches I could maybe muscle things into place but with 1 inch of difference between the bumper and the mount I think I will have to send it back to Denver.

I recently had the bumpers on my 1973 240Z straightened and chromed by Denver Bumper Works. The bumpers look great but the front bumper does not fit! Basically, it looks like the bumper mounts are too close together. On the bumper the inner two bolts are 25" apart but on the car the corresponding holes are 26" apart. The bumper brackets on the car look straight and unbent so I suspect that DBW messed up the spacing of the bolts on the bumper. Can someone confirm the bolt spacing on the front bumper?

Well she's home and I spent the evening putting her back together. It's going to take me the best part of the week to finish up but so far I'm happy with the way it's turning out.

I suspected as much. No big deal. I contacted Les at Classic Datsun to give him the scoop. I will send him photos and such so that he can guide later 73 owners.

With any luck I will drive my car home tonight. Just the hood to put back on before I can drive it back to my house to finish the reassembly. One problem popped up today. The fiberglass valance from Classic Datsun does not fit. It rubs on the bumper brackets. I suspect this is something to do with the fact that this is a 1973 with different bumper mounts? No big deal. Looks like I will have to cut a couple of half inch notches and all will be well.

I have a few interior panels with cracks so I broke out the epoxy and fiber tape to reinforce the back... For the warped parts of the panels I stabilized the crack with clamps. I used release paper over the patch so the clamps don't stick while the glue dries. Lots more little cracks to do but so far my test piece seems to be stiff enough for interior panel duty.

Just FYI... Epoxy is the green stuff in circuit boards so I agree cured epoxy won't conduct electricity. However, some epoxies, like JB weld, are pigmented with aluminum powder. These type may be slightly conductive.

Good progress this week. The car has been filled, primed, blocked, sanded and the unibody has now been painted and clear coated. Still no major surprises. Should be driving it early next week!:classic:

Thanks man! I've done very little serious car photography but if you want to have fun some afternoon we can break out the camera equipment and snap some pics.

If you change your mind I'm a photographer and a Z owner in your area. We could meet up and shoot your car. No charge...just fun. I usually shoot people but a Z shoot would be cool. Here is a link to my web site... http://studio979photo.com

The following post has some good information... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19034&highlight=fuel+vent I followed these directions when I did mine. This got rid of the smell but the car would not run well with a full tank of gas. To fix this I also had to eliminate the line under the hood running from the gas vapor line to the breather and PCV line. Without redirecting these underhood lines I found that I was sucking raw gas (not fumes) directly into the PCV/breather. This would cause the car to stall when I had a full gas tank. I simply disconnected the vent line under the hood and ran it up and through the radiator support and then down into the front of the wheel well. I'm not sure why my car needed this second modification, others have not, but I have had no problems since. Good luck!

Looks great. Looking forward to more photos!

Vent temperature is only half of the equation. The vent temperature in my G37 does not get much below 40F but it moves a huge amount of air at that temperature so it gets the car cold fast. It's basically a heat flow issue. You can increase how much cold comes into the cabin by improving the air flow and/or decreasing the vent temperature. You can also decrease the amount of heat that comes into the cabin by tinting or insulating. I've tried to do all of that but in the end I suspect that I will only be able to make the car tolerable in the Texas heat...time will tell.

The engine will come out in the fall when the summer heat has past. I will strip the engine bay at that time and paint it. I will also do some drive train upgrades (head work, stroker?). I've been in the industrial paint business for the last 15 years. I've painted cars and boats before myself in the past. The engine bay is in great shape so it should not be a big deal. I didn't do the entire car myself because I don't have time (ie my wife would kill me:classic:) I was able to cut the cost of the paint job down substantially by both doing the engine bay and the wet sanding and buffing of the entire car myself.

I have an old style unit running on 134a and a modern compresser. I can get mid 40s at the vent with the Honda blower moter mod. I wait to pass final judgement until the summer heat gets here but it seems to work fine for now

The fiberglass valance came in from Classic Datsun today. This is my first experience with raw fiberglass body parts so I have a hard time judging the quality. I will take it to the body shop later this week and get their feedback. I will say that the gel coat looks quite good and to my eye it doesn't look like it would take much sanding to get it ready for paint. There are a few small imperfections but even without sanding I don't think you could see them when installed unless you went looking for them.