Montana Z

Good to know. Thanks Qiluj.

siteunseen, I'm guessing you mean the bracket ends face each other? Thank you, that is what I needed to know. Now I just have to figure out why the fitment is off.

I apologize if this is a little dumb. How do the L shaped brackets for the front bumper go on a 240z? Do they mount facing each other or away from each other (hopefully that makes sense)? I'm asking because I cannot get the ends of my front bumper to not contact the body of my car. Thanks for the help. Cheers, Scot

Being able to do the work yourself can certainly save $$$. Most of the maintenance costs on my car are from the first few years I owned it (young, no tools, no garage). Now I do the work myself. Unfortunately I do not have the talent for paint or body work. How long have you had your 240?

Well I bought my 240z 16.5 years ago and decided I should see what it has cost me. I used it as a daily driver for the first 6 years and a summer/fun driver for the last 10. I added up all my receipts and the total came to $14,544.65 $1000.00 of that is the original purchase price back in 1998. $5614.58 went to general maintenance. This includes a partial engine rebuild, head gasket, a couple of starters (seem to have bad luck with those), and one alternator. It also includes a lot of trouble shooting various problems and minor maintenance items. $4425.07 went to body work. That includes $1600.00 in accident repairs (I HATE the 405). and $2700.00 for an amateur paint job that will need to be redone when I get the funds. $3505.00 went towards upgrades. Those include a Mallory distributor, new carbs from Z therapy, new wheels, new front bumpers, weather stripping, new seat foams, new leather upholstery, and some new badges. All in all it works out to about $73 dollars per month which is a pretty good bang for the buck. Especially when you factor the value of smiling every time you drive:)

I've got the in the car now, but here's a picture I took to compare the repainted vinyl. The seat on the right is the drivers side (second seat I did). You can see the head rest is a little taller and better filled out. I've only taken one short trip, but I can say the new seats are MUCH firmer. Borderline hard in fact. Hopefully after a couple summer of driving they soften up. I also had to lower my drivers seat to get closer to the old driving position. Once I get the rest of the interior installed I'll post some pictures of the finished product.

It does seem high, but 34K really isn't unreasonable. Especially considering that a good paint job (around here at least) will cost half of that.

First, thanks Mike, the foams worked out great Hank240, my car was originally red inside and my door panels are in fairly good shape. There is a little fading, and the top edge is somewhat deteriorated. My suggestion would be to find some good door panels and paint them. The Napa Red from SEM is a good match.

The foams I used are pretty firm. The guy I bought them off of had only used them a couple of times. It is definitely firmer than the old seats, almost hard. However, I think with a season or two of driving they will become very comfortable. Also the leather is more stiff than the vinyl was, but I think it will soften with use. If it helps both my wife and my daughter feel the new seats are a huge improvement. If you ever make it down to Great Falls you should look me up. Then you could see for yourself!

So I finished the other seat today and need to add some information. Earlier I said they we cut too generous in the back... I was wrong. They are cut correctly. What happened on the first seat is the headrest peace of the foam slipped down about an inch. To prevent this on the other seat I put the foam in the cover and then slid the metal back in. Another thing that happened is several of the metal tabs broke. To fix this I drilled holed in the frame and screwed the cover in place. I suppose time will tell if this was a mistake. Lastly I read a thread from some asking about redoing the straps on the seat bottom. I can say that this was the easiest part of the project. The kit from Motorsport explains what needs to be done. Again, thanks for the positive feed back and I hope this helps. Cheers, Scot

Thanks guys! It was a little easier that I had thought. I would recommend 2 sets of hands to do the bottom portion. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get the other seat done this weekend.

I recently purchased leather seat upholstery from Interior-Innovations and figured I would do a write up for any of you considering that route. First a picture of my old seat back. I'm pretty sure the interior was "updated" sometime in the 80's before I got the car. I considered both leather and vinyl but decided to go with leather hoping it will acquire charater over time. At $375 for the pair Interior-Innovations was affordable so I sent them an e-mail asking if they could send some scraps of leather so I could check the color. I got a response within 10 minutes of my e-mail stating that they just needed my address. The color swatches took about a week to get to the house and it looked like the maroon leather was a close match to my original red interior. I called them and got a guy named Kahlid. He was the only one I talked to from there out so I'm not sure if they have other employees. Anyway... I asked what they would charge to do inserts in a different color and he told me there was no additional charge. I ordered inserts, but then changed my mind. Kahlid was very patient with my changes. After my final change he told me he would call the order in and I would get a tracking number in 5-8 days. In reality they were delivered in 7 days. I find that amazing considering they came from Karachi, Pakistan. Initial quality seems good, and they are in fact entirely leather. The leather is backed in foam on all interior surfaces. I won't do a compressive install write-up since Hardway already did a good one. But I will mention a few issues I encountered. The seat bottom installed just fine. I imagine a professional could have done better, but it went okay. You can see the leather is much duller than the original vinyl, but a fairly close color match. The seat back, however, was cut too generous in the back. I didn't put the 1/4 inch of foam on the back so that may have contributed. Additionally I am using "slightly" used seat foams purchased from another forum member so that could have affected it as well. In the end I got it pulled tight by reversing the order in which it pulls over the tabs. All in all I'm pretty happy with the service and the product. This last picture is some vinyl trim painted in SEM Napa Red for color comparison. Let me know if you have any questions or want any other pictures. Cheers, Scot

I know it's been a while, but I thought I would post an update. Yesterday I received new Carbs from Bruce at Ztherapy. So far they appear to have solved my problem which leads me to believe my old ones had air leakage. I did notice my old carbs had side to side play in the butterfly and the news one do not. Anyway, thanks for all the input and hope to see some of you on the road. Cheers, Scot

It's hard to put a value on it because Z's tend to be all over the place. Too bad about the steering wheel and vinyl because more "original" cars tent to bring more money, but all those changes can be easily changed if you were so inclined. 10K seems to be about right though. If you want to see some reference cars check out The best vintage and classic cars for sale online | Bring a Trailer and search 240z. The consensus on that forum is that these cars will continue to increase in value for the foreseeable future so buy now:) Good luck with your hunt.

Oiluj, how funny you should mention that! That is exactly what I did last night. I didn't have time to run it long enough to see if it helped or not.

Thanks alternativez, I think I actually have a host of issues. The vacuum lines to the brake booster have looked ratty for years, I checked the vacuum advance on the dizzy today by sucking on the line and it appears to be bad (I can rotate the plate by hand). So right now my plan is to replace the brake booster lines and the vacuum module on the distributor and go from there. I will post results as I go and again thanks to all for the help.

Olzed, I have thought about that but I don't think air temp is my problem. It was may daily drives when I was in California and ran fin in temps over 100 degrees. Since it seems to be having issues even in cool temps I think something is failing such as vacuum lines or carbs. So... with that in mind I have another question for you Gurus. Do you think it would be possible to have a vacuum leak in one of the brake booster lines without noticing degraded brake performance? The brakes are initially weak (maybe 1 minute) from there on they grab very well.

Nice Z! I also have an Automatic and have debated for the past 16 years on whether or not I want to install the 5 speed sitting in my garage. Strangely enough my auto is quicker off the line and hits a higher top end than my friends 5 speed. Either way you are in for some great driving. Cheers, Scot

Alternativez, I'll get out to the garage and take a look. The previous owner did a de-smog so there aren't many vacuum lines left. I don't suppose any of you have a good source for a hose kit?

Mark, thanks for the advice. I've been through the carbs several times with the help of Z- therapy's video but have not replaced the return springs. The springs on my car are different lengths, do you know if they are supposed to be? I plan to get the remanned carbs from z-therapy before the weather gets nice so if they are the culprit that should fix it. Olzed, vaporising fuel was what I thought it might be so last summer I insulated the fuel rail. Unfortunately there was no change in performance. Thats why I'm leaning towards over fueling ,carbon build, or erratic fuel/air mixture due to worn carbs. The last time I pulled the plugs they looked good so it might not be a fuel problem. I've had this car for 16 years and it is running better than it ever has... for about 20 minutes.

Bare with me here... first post. I need some help figuring out what's wrong. I have a 1972 240z with SU carbs. I have recently replaced the plugs, wires, coil, points and condensers. My problem is that after about 20 minutes of driving the car begins to "surge". I usually first notice it coming off of a stop, but once it starts I can't drives out of it (meaning that it continues to surge regardless of speed). I know my SU's are worn because in the summer they run very rich regardless of what I do :angry:so my plan is to replace them. Is there anything else I'm missing? Thanks for any advice, Scot