MikeW

September or so seems to be the switchover month. My '72 HLS30-47431 lists a 9/71 production date and is therefore one of the earliest 72's. You just happen to have one of the latest. Strangely enough, ZHome lists HLS30 48863 as the earliest reported '72 yet other sources claim the starting number was 46000. I think it's safe to say that there is a certain amount of overlap in there. While your carbs could have been replaced (as many '73 owner did) I doubt anyone would have gone through all of the trouble to replace all of the other '73 changes (dash, metal headlight buckets, etc.).

Yep. That bad news is they do it because lots of people will watch it. There are also lots of people who buy stuff they see in TV infomercials. There are even some people who respond to spam e-mail. The best answer is to ignore all of that stuff.

That will be interesting to find out. Insurance companies are certainly weird about such things. A 4 door car will have lower insurance than the same car in a 2 door model. A red car will be more than a white car. Big luxury cars and minivans don't have high liability costs because people who buy them are safer than those bad sports car people. As a sad side note to us Z-car fans, the 7-passenger 2003 Honda Odyssey can do 0-60mph in 7.7 seconds. Ouch. As a teenage male, you can thank your predecessors for demonstrating that certain groups of people are more likely to have insurance claims even though you've personally never done anything wrong. It's not fair. As I recall, the 240SX has an electronically limited top speed of 115 mph specifically to lower insurance costs. Who decided that 114 is safe but if you're doing 115 you must be dangerous? In any case, even though it's a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder it actually puts out slightly more HP than the 240Z (155 vs. 151). It also weighs a good bit more. In my earlier post I mentioned that the 240SX would be easier to maintain. That's not what I meant to say. After all, you can change the 240Z oil filter with your bare hands. What I meant to say was that the 240SX, being newer, would probably require less maintenance. Let us know how the insurance works out as that may be the determining factor.

Even though I haven't seen it yet the show is actually a re-run that's several years old. You can even order the VHS tape from their web page (although for North America only, sorry). Users in Australia saw it a month or so ago so I guess you'll have to just keep checking your local schedule. I would have missed it had someone here not noticed it.

What your TiVo finds is hopefully on what cable you have. There's a second history channel (TV guide online calls it "History International East") which does appear to be running the Z show twice on Friday the 18th (11AM and 4PM EST) as well as once on Saturday the 19th (4AM EST) as well as the 10AM EST showing on the regular history channel. You can search for it yourself at http://www.tvguide.com

I keep seeing this talk about it being just about oil. Do you really think oil companies want more oil? As recent gas prices have shown the oil companies simply charge more for gas when the oil costs them more. They probably make a bigger profit when oil is expensive. If the US really cared about the supply and cost of oil why have we had an embargo on Iraqi oil for the last 12 years? It's true that we wouldn't want a madman like Hussein controlling a majority of the world reserves (which would have happened in 1991 had he taken control of Saudi Arabia after invading Kuwait) because he could cut us off completely. That would be bad for US consumers, not oil companies. Oil companies will do what it takes to get oil. However, the US currently gets more oil from Canada than even Saudi Arabia. We also get a lot of oil from Mexico and Venezuela. Bush's Texas oil buddies are actually hurt by cheaper imported oil since in makes Texas oil less desirable. It's not just about oil.

I'm in a unique position to answer you're question based on the cars I own. I've only purchased 3 cars in my life and still own all of them: 1972 240Z (purchased in 1985 when I was 18) 1990 240SX (purchased new right after college) 2001 PT Cruiser (family car) Since insurance is a concern you should check into that before doing anything. When I was in college the 240Z was on my father's Allstate policy with me listed as the primary driver. As soon as I bought the 240SX and got my own insurance on it Allstate realized that I was no longer living at home and dropped me immediately from the 240Z. To get my own insurance was outrageous (I seem to recall $2000/yr in 1990). I consequently stopped driving the Z and only used the 240SX. After letting the Z essentially sit for over 10 years I finally decided to do something with it last December. I cranked it up (first time in years) and drove it to a shop where it's been ever since. They're almost done with it to the tune of about $7000 (professionally rebuilt original engine, new suspension bushings, new brakes rotors, calipers, etc.). That doesn't even count the body work and paint that's coming soon followed by replacing much of the interior. I realize that you're probably not interesting in refreshing the Z (which is what I'm doing - I'm not actually restoring it which is a lot more money). Many on this forum may disagree but at your age and budget I'd recommend the 240SX. It will be cheaper to insure and easier to maintain. I've got 140,000 miles on mine and it's in much better shape than the 240Z was in when I bought it at about the same age and mileage. Nissan really improved their fit and finish over the years. The 240SX probably doesn't have a cracked dash. It may have ABS and airbags (which is probably a good thing for a first car). It's certainly safer and has a small back seat. The A/C probably works and it has 4 speakers for the stereo (instead of just one for the Z). The rear defroster probably works (I see you're in Colorado). Perhaps you should consider getting the 240SX as a reliable daily driver and when budget allows pick up the 240Z (or a different 240Z) which you can work on in your spare time. The insurance would probably be cheaper if the Z wasn't your primary car. Hope that helps ...

It may just need a simple tune-up. However, it could be more serious so you should always get a car checked out by someone knowledgeable before buying it. If the owner has nothing to hide they won't mind. You might want to look at the number plates and see if the engine is the original. The engine block number is below the #5 spark plug. The id plate that contains both the car VIN and engine serial number is on the passenger side inner fender where the strut is.

http://www.datsunzparts.com/start.htm

I spent 6 days in Paris 2 weeks ago (yes, after the war started). I thoroughly enjoyed my stay and was treated with respect by everyone I saw. The only sign of anti-Americanism I saw was a Nike poster in the Paris metro that had graffiti on it saying "USA go home". Of course, that's probably been there for months.

You can a little 3oz metal squeeze can of 3-in-1 20 weight oil (blue and white color on can) at many places including hardware stores. It's not like you need a whole gallon of the stuff. That's what I've always used and it's what was recommended by Nissan. A quick froogle search turns up this ad with an image: http://tinyurl.com/95tf

Looks great!! I started to ask which car is more fun to drive but decided that I probably wouldn't want to hear the answer... Instead of attaching pictures to messages you can upload them to your personal gallery which makes them easier for others to view.

For the benefit of everyone on the west side of the Atlantic ocean, a torch is really just a flashlight. At first I was thinking he wanted you to burn off some undercoating or something like that ...

Well, my car is about ready at the shop (close to $7000 in mechanical work alone) and I need to think about insurance before driving it much. I currently only have liability with Allstate. I've looked at previous discussions of this topic and am guessing I need "agreed upon value" insurance. I called Hagery and talked to a nice young lady. After several minutes of discussion about how the value would be agreed upon it seems that they're of no use to me. They seem to think that you're only going to go to car shows and drive on Sunday afternoons. No trips to work or the grocery store are allowed (well, I think she actually said I could drive to work twice a year). I'm not putting this much money into a car that I can only drive under such restrictions. I've tried calling the ANPAC people as others have suggested but only get a busy signal right now. Their web page only lists "stated value" insurance anyhow. What do the rest of you guys do? If you put $15000 into a car that is only worth half of that when you're done, Ok, I can accept that. Insurance companies probably don't want to give you more than you could have sold it for. I can't accept not being able to drive it when I please (understanding that there's probably a 3-5k miles a year limitation). Any other suggestions?

You're going to want to use plenty of penetrant like "liquid wrench" or WD40. The most likely reason it broke was that the threads are really stuck. There are various extraction tools where you drill a properly-sized hole in the middle of the broken bolt and then insert the tool. The most common form is tapered and threaded in a reverse spiral from normal threads. As you screw it into the drilled hole (counter clockwise) it starts to bite in and will eventually back the broken bolt out. However, if there's not enough penetrant in place you can end up breaking the extraction tool which is hard steel and not easy to drill out.

Ed - perhaps you could simply upload pictures to your gallery instead of attaching them to messages.

Dero: perhaps you could simply upload all of your pictures to your gallery instead of attaching them to messages ...

I certainly appreciated your effort. It makes me want to go and pull off some interior panels. I apologize if my question to Victor got him off track ...

Out of curiousity, what's the VIN on this car? Mine was also manufactured in 9/71 and is HLS30-47431.

I suspect it's whenever an administrator gets around to looking at them. The few that I've uploaded have been approved within a day but since it's obviously not an automatic thing there are probably no guarantees.

There's plenty of oil in a lot of places. The question is one of economics. It's less expensive to go after oil that that is readily available. It's expensive to pump oil out of an old well in Texas that's almost dry. In the middle east it literally flows out of the ground. That being said, the following are the top 3 countries from which the US imported petroleum for this past January (thousands of barrels per day): CANADA 2,235 SAUDI ARABIA 1,858 MEXICO 1,621 That's right, we get more oil from Canada than Saudi Arabia and almost as much from Mexico. Recent labor troubles in Venezuela have contributed to the increase in prices lately, not just concerns over Iraq. As far as reserves go, the US currently has about 600 million barrels stored in salt caverns along the coast of Texas and Louisiana. That represents 53 days of current demand. While we do have untapped oil in the ground (for instance, in Alaska) there is a lot of pressure from environmentalists to prevent going after it.

After reading the reply from 2ManyZs, I'm not sure you guys are talking about the same part. The MSA catalog currently lists the "Lower Control Arm, Right 70-78" for $49.86. The equivalent part on the left size is listed as not currently available. The "Tension Rod, Left/Right 70-78" is available for $110.15. In either case, the answer to your question is "Yes".

I know it was a joke; I just didn't want our international friends thinking our cheap gas was somehow because we bought the oil for much less than them. The avatar? Couldn't think of anything good but wanted something. I just went through my many vacation pics and found one that I think is cool. It's actually someone surfing under the Golden Gate bridge. You can't really see it that well in the 150x150 image, but here's the original (which you can click on for the full size view): http://server7.aps-soft.com/Williams/SanFran/Detail-IMG_1465-JPG.html

Actually, the main reason that fuel is so much more expensive in other countries is the high taxes placed on the fuel. That's not exactly a bad thing if the aim is to discourage driving. Just imagine how bad London traffic would be if gas was suddenly 1/4 of the current cost.

No picture. "These rims" was in reference to the subject, not a picture. Here's a nice picture of a 16" Panasport as well as a picture of them on a 240Z: http://www.panasport.com/fs16.html