ollie

I have a set of 16" panasports in gun metal grey with a chrome lip and they look great however if given the choice again I'd go 15" to avoid the speedo being thrown off. This I'd probably an easy fix but I don't care that much. I also have the originals in excellent shape for kicks. For me silver panasports are it for a 240z.

I'm spending the extra to port and polish the head as well...stock block and I know people say go L28 but I'm wanting this to stay somewhat original. All the crappy spot welds are being fixed and sealed and we're likely not using any undercoat at all. No rust per se has popped up but I know he was going to drill out the trapezoid "reinforcement" patch on the inner to see what is going on underneath since this is a hot bed for rust. This car will be a show / occasional driver and will be stored in a heated environment. The underside of my car is simply going to be original 918 orange in a "more duarable" finsih than the 2 stage Dupont on the body. All the emissions stuff is history with a new balance tube as well. I used Vintage Rubber for any seals which seemed iffy and have been spending a small fortune on things like bumper rubber. Good luck with the restoration, sounds like it will be awesome in black on red...my buddy's '66' Vette he put $80K into the restoration is that same combination and it looks amazing.

I'm only about a month ahead of you with my '73's restoration. Bolted to the roti on October 17th and the restoration shop will have it sealed with epoxy by the end of this month, ready to be sprayed and back to my by Christmas. Suspension bits are being stripped and powder coated now, all hardware removed is being cleaned and plated, which reminds me I need to send the bumpers out to be re-chromed. Motor is at the engine shop as well...supposedly only has 24,000 miles so we're hopefull it only needs rings and bearings...head is going to be an e31 with 280 valves, mild street cam, Stahl header. Interior was all near perfect, somewhat validating the low mileage claim and the body guy found nothing significant in the rust department. Since misery loves company feel free to email me and I will be happy to share some of my experiences with vendors around restoration parts. One in particular has been EXTREMELY helpful with respect to plating and providing things like perfect clamps, NOS and never been used SU's, decals and so forth.

wow, the green 240z appears to be one heck of a deal.

I went with the Vintage Rubber kit. Seals looked very nice but have not been installed yet as the car is still on the roti.

I bought the braided hoses from esprit through msa and also have a set if the Nissan non braided hoses. I can vouch that the braided hoses are exact matches in terms of lengths and bends. Pricey but a rounding error compared to the cost of this restoration.

Shadbolt in Vancouver ground my cam and had no problem supplying.180 lash pads, fyi

That is the dealer I spoke with...I went back and looked through my emails and they were in fact asking $22,500. At the same time my "low mileage" '73 popped up on ebay and I snapped it up for $18,500. The seller turned out to be less than honest and I've spent a heck of a lot more sorting it out, with more to follow this winter but it will be near concourse. BTW that seller just had another car on ebay and had the gaul to refer to how awesome my car was...brutal. Any way in the end, I'll be into this car for 2X what I could get for it....sorry for the threadjack again, I'll step off now.

Bit of a thread jack but that car of Mike's was for sale last spring at a high line import dealer for around $30k in CA, listed on Hemmings. I spoke with Mike as I was actively looking and he had no current knowledge of the car and the dealer wasn't moving much on price. It sounded like a consignment and was around the south bay area.

Try Norm at Zeddsaver...he provided me with EVERYTHING to remove the Webers on my '73 inlcuding a new, never used set of '72 SU's, linkages, heat shield and euro balance tube. I don't recall how much the balance tube alone was, but I'm very much looking forward to the clean appearance this will bring, along with the new Stahl header.

Update; I received my calipers from Eric today and they are simply amazing, you could eat off these! For anyone looking to do a full and original resotration this is absolutley the way to go. It was no problem buying original rubber lines from Nissan too. Now I have an Arizona Z 4 piston kit to sell. (this is by no means an offer for sale)

Thanks Blue...mine are on their way tomorrow to Eric. The Sumitomos are going to be looking great in no time!

wow, just stumbled over this thread, Eric will have an email from me to send my calipers in tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, anyone want to buy a brand new never installed set of Arizona Z front brakes with 4 pistons? , just add it to the "uninstalled" pile.

The car turned out amazing...I'm headed in a similar direction, I hope it turns out equally well. All the parts are lined up, and the car is a nice original specimen with no rust to speak of and is very solid. Nevertheless I know I want it perfect so the trip to the restoration shop is booked for our CDN Thanksgiving in October for a 4 month stay, roto and all. This thread has given me no end of inspiration so I'm confident my '73 918 is heading in the right direction. Thanks again.

I think your car is awesome, very tastefully done, be proud and drive it like you stole it!

Tons, and I mean tons, of BMW diesels are being sold up here, mostly X5's and a lot of 335d's. There must be at least six X5d's around our place in Whistler and never have I seen anyone have any issues firing those up. I still prefer my 335i X drive because I can get it with a six speed however an X5D will be the next family car.

and without warning, my outter seal arrived today...looks good to me but I won't have time to try and fit it onto the car until the weekend...now we'll see what they do about the bumper orderrider rubber they sent being incorrect for my '73....

Service aside, how does the seal fit onto the car? I ordered the 19 piece set from VR and they sent me all but the outer hatch, which seemed odd to me and now I'm left waiting for the one piece I really needed, said outer hatch seal.

Try Randy at vintage rubber for the rear overrider rubber pieces...it isn't specifically listed on their site but it is worth a try.

I know this is an older thread, and I did send the OP a PM without a response, but I would be very interested if this diff were still available so please PM me, thanks.

FYI...I placed an order yesterday for the last set of 1.5" primaries they had in stock, 2.25" collectors with Judy. I realize these are costly headers but I'm very stoked to be getting one of the last sets they will build for a 240Z.

I thought that was awesome...Neil would approve, I's sure!

I'm going the Vintage Rubber route with the restoration kit. The way I figure, all the seals in my car are still in decent shape after 38 years but if I'm going to be in deep for a strip and spray, the cost of the kit is a lot less than rust repair down the road because I used old seals in critical areas. I also found NOS rubber kits in the usual areas, one seemed like a great deal for $275 from jdm-car-parts but it is now sold out. I inquired and they said "it covers the whole car" but were not specific. The Vintage Rubber kit, in either form, seems like good insurance against water intrusion....although it is quite costly so I'm expecting a top quality product.

I'm in a similar spot as the OP...I recently purchased what was sold to me as a 24,000 original mile '73 out of Colorado. I finally pciked up the car last weekend and while it isn't exactly as offered, it is 100% solid from any structural issues, never hit, 90% original paint, etc. Little issues which could have been huge are things like a missing castle nut and cotter pin off a tie rod, what the heck! Any way it runs very well...but now that it is in the Pacific Northwest my number one goal is to drop the sub frames, pull the transmission and fuel tank then strip all the sound deadener. This car has never been undercoatted so that's a plus. While the suspension is out we will clean up and powder coat all these parts, replacing all the bushings and properly seal the under carriage with whatever the best solution the body shop can offer, if that is por - 15 or what, I don't know given there is no rust to start with, then reinstall the suspension and running gear. I figure this will run me around $5k once I'm through all the "while you are in there" items. I know a car is only original once so I'm trying to avoid my impulse to stip the body and go crazy with paint...there is some surface rust to deal with but it is very light and certainly not through any panels but it drives me crazy so I have to deal with that, at least. So to echo what others have stated, if you are not doing the "shot gun" approach with an open limit on your VISA card then you might want to go the direction I'm headed towards getting the car running right, strip the suspension, etc and go from there.

What he said but I prefer a slow flow of water so you can control where it goes, otherwise you can spray water in places you don't want soaked like AFM, etc. I also like to use 303 Aerospace Protector on all rubber surfaces, seals etc to protect after the wash. I use regular car wash soap strength, rinse, lather, rinse...do it a few times over and you should be good to go. You can also use a leaf blower to help the drying process so long as you have good control over it.