oldhemi

You might want to check our Classifieds: http://www.datsunclassifieds.com/showproduct.php/product/5117/title/1975-datsun-280z-in-houston/cat/1

Veddy nice. Have you attached the end tips of the bumper, or are you relying on the 2 front mounts?

Take yourself over to hybridz.com and do some (Google) searches. The crowd over there has done some incredible mods with parts from cars that I would not even consider!

I would kill for the front frame rails on your car! Even the floors have floor rails left! Prolly not for long on the floors. You are gonna have to poke and prod. If pretty solid, weld or fiberglass some patches on the floors. Escalon and others have summed up my opinion. Fiberglass, bondo and cheap paint are the way to go on this car. If the car runs decent, the brakes are good, the suspension is good, drive it like you stole it! Looks like you have a car that spent some time near saltwater. They usually rust from the top! Tabco sells patch panels for fenders, doglegs and Zeddfindings sells floors. Welding is dirty, hot and potentially dangerous work. I have been toying with the idea of leaning to weld also, but now that it is summer in Houston, my enthusiasm for it has waned. But still, keep me in mind if you part it out. A sawzall on the front rails is easy! IMHO, the car is not resto candidate. Could be a good mule or DD. Dont forget, chicks dig scarred cars that go like stink!

Since your A/C is not hooked up, have you removed your condenser? I have found that the "rebuilt" units these days NEED a lifetime warranty because they fail a lot. Used to be a 30 day warranty was good enough. I have been fortunate in Connecticut and here in Houston to have excellent electric component rebuild shops. Prices were not much more than the auto parts places and in some cases offered a amperage output modification. Three observations on the internally regulated alternators: 1. The regulator seems to be the part that fails on rebuilds. 2. Getting rid of the external regulator helps clean up the engine bay. 3. You *might* have a problem with the tach depending on the alternator you choose. Hybridz and this site has some discussions.

260zinsd, the 260Z was raised in height by the factory to comply with US bumper height laws at the time. This was accomplished by different spring rates and thicker isoolators(rubber thingies that the top of the springs rest in). The rear isolator is .79" higher than a 240Z. The rear was raised a bit to help with front end floating at speed issues. (Your car looks level which raises some questions - are the rears shot, has a previous owner changed something) Your car looks about right to me with the exception of small tires. The stock tire/rim combo was 175/78/14. A 195/70/14 will be about the same height but a little wider. It will fill out the wheel wells a bit. There are several lowering spring sets out there. Along with different struts that will lower your car. You *could* cut some coils off of the springs. One can even go with coil over mods to lower that car to suit ones needs and tastes. IMO, you need to search on this site and hybridz for this info. I would recommend that you hook up with the local Z club or some local Zcar nut so that you can see lowered cars and ask questions. Dont be shy, us Zcar nuts LOVE to talk about our cars! Lastly, welcome to the red-headed stepchild 260Z club! NEVER assume that a 240 or 280 part will fit your car - OR even a LATE 260Z!

Rockauto.com has been veddy, veddy good to me for my 2 1996 Dodge truck suspension parts. They offer multiple brands and prices. Fast and reasonable shipping. Be sure to check the shipping locations on a group parts order. If they come from multiple locations, it will increase the shipping costs dramatically. Sometimes another brand will be in a different location that matches your other parts. I have read that some folks here have had some issues with some parts. Notably suspension - ball joints and the like. I have found that MSA will sell the same parts for mo' money. Pays to do some research like you are doing. Check your local parts stores also for the stuff that I see that you listed. Engine and tranny mounts might be a MSA or dealer part - I dunno. Black dragon also has some stuff that others might not. They have brand new early 260Z front bumpers for $149+shipping. I gotta ask, Why the oil pump? If you have to change it, I believe that I read that there is a better alternative - 280zx turbo??? Do a search here or more likely over at hybridz for this upgrade. Welcome to the red-headed stepchild 260Z club!

240Z bumpers will fit with a little work. The easiest thing you can do right now is to evacuate the gas in the bumper shocks and push your bumpers inward. To do this, you will have to remove the bumpers 1st, then turn the Philips screw on the end of the shaft to let the gas out. Push the mounts inward to where you like(a tack weld will keep them there) and re-attach the bumpers. BUT, the hardest part is removing the bumper w/o breaking the screws on the fender sides. It looks to me that your rear rubbers on the sides are already bad. You will also have to remove the front and back center rubber filler pieces. Some modification is also likely neede to mount the sides in their new (pushed back) location. BTW, the '73 240z bumper is more like the 260z's and bigger than than the 70-72 bumpers. Another tidbit on lowering. The 260Z was the 1st year than Nissan raised the rear. They did it by increasing the size of the spring isolator - rubber top hat on your spring. Its .79" higher than a 240Z. The springs are the same on all four corners on the 260Z and are also different than the 240Z. There are many threads on lowering a Z and the different affects on the ride after doing so. I changed my stock springs and struts in '77 to Mullholland(NLA) springs and Interpart struts(NLA) which lowered the car considerably. The car handled like a go-cart but rode like it had steel struts. I could tell when I rode over a cigarette butt in the road.:sick: IMHO, I would not change a thing on that car right now, but do some preventive maintainance. Download a service manual from Xenon's.com. Change or at least inspect belts, filters, hoses etc. Dont forget that there is a filter inside your electric fuel pump also! Also inspect your wiring - especially the connectors. Clean as needed. I know that this is not sexy stuff, but the wife will be more impressed when you are not broken down on the side of the road due to something that could have been fixed. These processes will also get you started on becoming familiar with your Z and some rust - hopefully not rot - that you will inevitably find. If you still have the original "flat top" carbs and they are not giving you any drive-ability problems, leave them alone. If they are, get some 70-72 round top's from Z-therapy - about $750. Or some 40MM triples - Webers, or Mikuni's(sp). Oh, congrats on acquiring a fine looking 260Z and welcome to the red-headed stepchild 260Z club! If you are serious about your car, I advise you to search and read! Here, at Hybridz.com and Zcar.com. Unbelievable amount of good info! Last BTW, Datsun ONLY offered steel wheels and hubcaps from the factory on 240's and 260's. Any "mag" wheel that you see are aftermarket. The dealers would load these cars up with crap including viynal(sp) roofs. wheels, sunroofs, bumper overiders, decals and side protective strips/moldings. I hate those side strips - only thing that I see "wrong" with your car.

Black Dragon has new front bumpers listed in their catalog for 149.9x plus shipping!

Like Grantf, I plan on doing small sections at a time; IE a dog leg followed by another than some small hatch area. I was planning on using an epoxy primer because I was told that it will seal as opposed to regular old primer. I understand the need to stay with a "system". So, is it a good idea to stay withe epoxy or etching primers while the loooonnnngg process is ongoing? I dont plan on the car getting wet, but I do live with Houston humidity.

Jacob, if you have a Z or plan on getting a "good" one in the future I reccomend that you either strip the cars or store them. Parts - even little screws - would be invaluable to you. OTH, rotted fenders, bent bumpers, dented gas tanks etc are not usually worth anything to anybody. Check out ebay prices and see how much comparable parts are selling for and figure out if you want to go that way. It is time consuming to take pics, list and ship! Craigslist is a bit easier with a smaller audience. You can also check out Hybridz, Zcar.com and our classifieds for further info. I do know that a lot of 280Z owners like to convert their "park bench" bumpers to the smaller 240Z's. A few even convert the tail light area to the 240Z type. Of course, helping out some folks that could use your parts now is always good for banking some Karma points. I have no dog in this fight because I have a 260Z and there is very little that I would be interested in on your cars. But, I also have very little knowledge on whats "good stuff" for early 240Z's. I can not ID the header brand but I would guesstimate that it is worth $50-100 based on some of my infrequent observations. Added: take good pictures and state honest descriptions - less grief all the way around. For example, the steel wheels are date coded - some restorers really like to get originals if they are missing. This is a part that is often overlooked except by maybe a show judge!

I know the racers want aluminum and have been moaning about the lack of new units. I have been extremely fortunate to have 2 people offer me their old units because they are converting to discs! Yes the linings themselves are steel. One bonus on the steel units would be that they SHOULD be easier to remove in the future due to like materials on the hub. That aluminum/steel combo just does not want to play nice.

We had a discussion awhile back. It seems that most think that the numbers were ENGRAVED rather than stamped! If so, then I would tend to agree that an ambitious da-er could have erased some numbers more easily than stamped numbers. That's a very early 260! And, welcome to the red-headed stepchild 1974 260Z club!

True dat! Take a look at my pics in my signature and compare the rot on my front frame rails to your car. See those stiffeners above the crossmember? Not easy to fabricate and if you are into sawzalling, I could use both! But 1st make sure that YOU dont need them on your good car. The rear stiffeners are fabricate-able and a member (A7D7) here did a very nice job of documentation on his solution. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28644

Welcome to the red-headed stepchild 260Z club! Very nice car!

It USED to be ok to drive with eye protection. I had to use my motorcycle goggles a few times in my misspent youth driving MG's. The old ones had lay down folding windscreens.

Pay the bucks to have an "expert" install the glass. Maybe you can learn some tricks for next time! Does the installer guarantee the install if he breaks the glass? I watched an installer check for leaks by using shaving cream on the exterior and using air pressure from the inside on my '96 Dodge Pickup. We ended up bending my door a bit! Search here for opinions on whether to put the trim on 1st or after the gasket install. Escalon and Geezer have had some discussions as have others. BTW, I have enjoyed your posts on this re-build. I wished that I lived near that Maaco shop. We had one in Connecticut that was like that. They had better facilities than most "good" shops at the time and some shops used them for final painting!

The location is generally correct for the early 260Z Seatbelt Interlock system relay. But the relay looks different than mine. Mine is mounted vertically with all of the wires on the bottom. The wire colors look to be different also. But it could be an later model or not even the SBI system.

Weren't these called "resonators" or did I miss the jist of this thread. IIRC, my early 260Z came with one!

Compare your new and old pistons and see whats up! I know that you gotta pop one out, but I am pretty sure that you will end up popping them all out anyway.

Thanks for the pics and the research. FWIW, my early 260Z M/C is original and made by Tabco - Japan. It is a touch under 4" long. The plastic reservoir cover's outside edge is 4 1/4" away from the firewall. My WW fluid container actually touches my clutch M/C - leans on it really. There looks to be 1 1/2" of clearance from the end of my stock M/C to the bottom side of the WW container. So, I think that you will be OK on clearance provided that your 240Z's WW container is the same as my 260Z's. BTW, my original M/C plastic reservoir is on the outward end of the M/C. Your new Sanyco has a bit more cylinder(1 1/2"?) outbound from the firewall after the reservoir. You might have to wrestle with the hard line a bit, because your new unit appears to have the port further forward. Hopefully there is enough slack in your old line! Just a heads up on this. I am planning on replacing mine because I have no confidence that it will come off cleanly(see my other posts with my experience on these cars fasteners) and It is probably sludged up from setting so long. I am presently w/o a camera again. I really appreciate you posting because it is good timely info!

Z-luke, if it makes you feel any better, my car has had "the broken bolt blues" since new! I think it got much worse from driving it through a couple of Connecticut winters. I need to start on my brakes system soon and I am putting it off until I can "handle" all of the broken bolts, nuts, fittings that are sure to happen. NO amount of your favorite witches brew will release these fasteners. Solder is not a good idea when new hard lines are not that expensive. Barrel type connectors are also available and acceptable to join two lines together if you can not find the right length and 2 other sizes will come close. Double flares are a PITA and require some skill.

Maybe look at the steering shaft coupler - if you haven't already. I would think that a bad bearing would be making a lot of noise - mine always did! Flip your tires front to back and see if the wobbling is still there or different. Out of balance tires are usually the culprit in my experience.

I agree that will be a fair assumption. Prolly starting with all of those firewall boots. Thanks for the description of the stuff in the M/C - so THAT's what was in mine:stupid:

WOW - in NJ? That blue is just a great color. I am green with envy! BTW, what are the specs for the paint? Brand color # etc