MikeW

Go ahead and post the complete VIN. Someone here will be able to tell you more about it from that alone. Also, it's possible that the date of manufacture is stamped on the door jamb plate on the driver's side. I'm not sure if this plate was installed for all models but it's worth a look. Other clues may be found by looking for dates in other places, such as on the seat belt tags.

When you are composing a post if you scroll down a bit you'll notice a section called "Additional Options". Within that section is a button labeled "Manage Attachments". You simply use that to upload image files. Jpeg files are preferred and I believe there's a size limit of 1024x768 pixels. I prefer it when people do images this way instead of linking them in using HTML which forces you to download the entire images every time you reference the thread.

The earliest cars had no defroster. If you got a manual printed in 1969 it may be a bit too early for your car.

Click on Search up on the top menu bar and choose the advanced search option. That gives you the advanced search form: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/search.php You can then specify lots of different search criteria but I simply put in the user name and told it to sort in ascending date order. The first hit is therefore the earliest post.

Good point. A car can easily get to 120 degrees F when it's in the sun, even when it's not extremely hot outside.

It's quite possible that I made a mistake performing the search. I did notice that a lot of people seemed to lurk for a while before actually posting whereas others seemed to join specifically to make a post.

I thought it would be fun to go back and find the very first post from some of people who spend the most time here (at least in terms of post counts). This was easy to do using the search feature to find posts by a certain author in ascending date order. It's kind of funny looking through these; a lot of us have idiosyncrasies that showed up early. You'll probably notice some patterns looking through these. We may sometimes give new members a hard time but we were all there before. Here are the top 20 according to the member list sorted by number of posts: Alfadog Fun_in_my_z 2ManyZs Mike Gav240Z SBlake01 hls30.com TomoHawk Escanlon Beandip 26th-Z HS30-H Ed Mr camouflage Victor Laury v12horse MikeW 1 Bravo 6 ZRush Zedrally

"Custom Cold Air Hood Scoop looks great and is functional." I think it's ugly. I'd be surprised if it was done by the dealer.

As an alternative you can replace the center valence and both corners with a single airdam for a lot less money.

Tokico Springs (Red) Tokico Struts (non-adjustable) 195/60-14 24" rear 24.5" front I like the ride height but I don't have a good before-and-after type of comparison. When I put this setup on the car a few years ago I was replacing sagging original springs as well as the original struts. As I recall even though the new springs are supposed to lower the car an inch they actually raised it a bit due to the sagging springs.

It may well have a lot of rust that's clogging the fuel filter. However, even if the entire tank itself rusted away completely there's simply not enough metal there to amount to more than about a gallon's worth of rust. Something else is accounting for your missing capacity.

The tank you refer to is actually known as an expansion tank or vapor tank. All of the braided hoses inside the hatch area are vent hoses. They're all just for vapors. Excess fuel is returned to the tank from the engine but that goes back into the main tank near where the outlet is. I suggest that you get a factory service manual which has a good diagram of the whole system.

Welcome to the club. I have an extra gas cap that I can send you. The extra cap does not match what's on my car so I'm not sure which is correct for yours. The attached picture shows both together. The 3 screw holes line up so it will probably fit any 240Z.

Don't forget C: Tire size

Welcome to the club. I'm afraid you'll find that changes were introduced constantly, not just a "model year" at a time. There were a number of features unique to the earliest cars. Fortunately there are quite a few people here who are quite knowledgeable in this area. I suggest that you update your member profile to include your location as well as post your VIN (HLS30-#####) here so that people can help in your quest.

Unibody. S30 is the identifier for the body style from 1970 to 1978. H indicates that it's the L24 engine and the L indicates left-hand drive.

As always rust is the killer. "Tinkering" and repairing major rust do not necessarily coincide. Can you post pictures of the car so we can get a better idea of just how bad the rust is? You might want to also update your profile to include your location in case someone here can help you inspect it.

While the complete tool set and storage chest will be nice you can probably get by in the beginning with far less. In my experience you can do most of what you need on a Z with 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm wrenches and sockets.

I say you should just transfer the VIN plate and leave the DMV out of it. In my mind replacing the dash should be like replacing any other component. After all, that's the number that goes with the car. If anything having a different number would be questionable. I think I've seen a discussion about trying to duplicate the appearance of the rivets in the past.

He may have forgotten in the last 3 years.

I'm very sorry to hear this. I never got a chance to meet Carl in person. I was once in his area at a picnic and invited him to come visit me and get some free food. He was driving there and his car (not the Z) broke down so he had to return home.

I notice in the Black Dragon catalog they list one model for 70/71 and another for 72/73. I'm not sure why but WOW - they've sure gone up in price: http://www.blackdragonauto.com/icatalog/z/0115.html

Welcome to the club. Just the tail lights stay on? Not all of the parking lights? They are all fed by the same switch so that seems strange. It seems more likely that the brake lights would stay on.

http://www.ix-qu.de/info/mazda_XYX/geschichte/verwandte/std_1981_Datsun_810_Maxima-.jpg

I'm not sure I understand the question. There is a cable that goes from the negative side of the battery to the starter housing which is bolted to the bell-housing of the transmission at the rear of the engine. The entire body of the car is effectively grounded by this. The dashboard is attached to the car using quite a few bolts - any one of which would be sufficient to provide a ground for the dash. There's not a single point of failure if that's what you're looking for. How did you decide that you've got a problem with the electrical ground? Do you have power to the fusebox? Does anything electrical work on the car?