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This was on a large car carrier, but that is where they placed the hooks to hold it to the trailer (I can see by reading what I wrote that people might think it was towed on 2 wheels by these points). So every bump on the highway between Sacramento and Dallas caused the car to bounce and pull against the hooks, resulting in the holes being torn open some. I think the tow hooks I am referring to were probably meant for just pulling the car up onto a flatbed or something, and not actually for pulling it down the road since they don't look very rugged, but I am sure someone here has had that experience before!! Andrew

I had some damage done to my underbody when I had my car shipped, the previous owner apparently didnt care how they hooked it up since it was no longer his car. Obviously not a Z fan like those on this board! They put the hooks into the drainage holes on the rear frame rail and the holes in the front crossmember. I have seen some pictures of cars with tow hooks mounted behind the front valance. I was thinking of getting some of these from the scrapyard, but I would still have to remove the airdam every time I have some mechanical trouble. I would like to hear what others think about this as well. Andrew

Walking won't save you, there are plenty of jerks that throw things at pedestrians, especially in certain parts of town and at certain times of the evening! Mainly kids cruising around after high school is out or something I am guessing. A friend of mine was walking home from someones house down the street and some kids driving by tossed a coke bottle at him, hitting his arm and leaving a nasty bruise. Have had some other friends have eggs thrown at them, both while on foot and driving in the opposite direction. There are some real jerks in this world of ours! :tapemouth

http://www.zcluboftexas.org/profile1999_body.html There are still a lot of members with first gen Zs in the club as of 1999, and most of their club photos have a lot of the older Zs. I plan on joining soon. Andrew

When Fairlady is written in katakana, it comes out of that imperfect translator as fair ready. I dont think this is a case of 'engrish!' see: http://page3.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c36415408

Well, that sure was simple! Seems like every manufacturer does it different. My 72 does not have the flash button, just the switch between high/low when pulling the t/s stalk. Thanks, Andrew

This might seem like a stupid question, but do our Zs have a seperate high/low beam function? When I turn the light switch to position one, I get running lights, and headlights only come on in position 2. Am I missing something? I haven't done a lot of night driving yet so I haven't messed with it yet but I see lots of people posting about high beams and low beams. Maybe I am missing a switch or something? Andrew

Hey Zed, I might be interested, but I have a few questions. I poked around their site some, and some of the samples had a little speedhut logo underneath the RPM on the tach. Would the 240Z gauge faces have the speedhut logo or would we have an option on this? Do these units generate a lot (if any) heat when in operation? Would it be possible to have a gaugeface that looks identical to the stock guage (lettering, etc) but have the lettering light up at night like the fontglow setup they have? i.e. could they produce one with a custom font, like the ones on our stock gauges? How hard do you guys think it would be to install? I haven't yet had to mess around with any of the instruments or remove the dash yet, but I figure I will need to eventually for one reason or another. Thanks, Andrew

Speaking of dealing with the airdam, do you guys have jacks that let you start to lift without putting the lever through the wheel well or removing the airdam? Do you guys ever use wood blocks between the jack/car or jackstands/car to prevent any damage? When I jack it up from the side, it tends to try to pull towards me as the jack straightens out underneath, and the opposite occurs when I release it. That movement could be a problem when I try to mount it on jackstands. I even wedged both rear wheels well but it just pulled against it. Not a lot, but enough that it would make mounting it on jackstands pretty tough. Andrew

This reminds me, What kind of floor jacks do you guys have? I bought a medium sized one at sears not too long ago, and the release valve goes into effect in a very abrupt fashion when it is under load, I am afraid I will lower the car too fast and damage something! So far all I have done is raise and lower it onto big wooden blocks under the wheels, and that did not take the amount of precision I am sure mounting jackstands need. Also, when the car is up on jackstands, how stable is it? It looks like (especially when they are up so high as yours 2ManyZs) that it would be prone to falling over under some medium lateral force. I haven't bought any jackstands yet, but I probably need to before too long. I have seen them with a variety of different shaped tops, what do you guys recommend for the best hold and least damage? Thanks Andrew

This is horrible I hope he pulls through this!

I agree, I would rather not see it in a movie at all than to see it portrayed as a 'beater.' Andrew

echocluster, I had the same problem not too long ago, there are some threads with plenty of info and links. My fuse box also melted around one of the retention clips for the circuit with the running lights and taillights. The fuse clips are not one solid piece of metal from front to back, there is a brass(?) piece on the back and the copper clip up front that are connected by rivet. Usually, these fuse boxes melt when the connectors become corroded, especially in between where the clips and rivets make contact. The 'rust' acts like a heating element and thats where it starts. It seems that as it gets worse, it starts to totally block the flow of current. When I would tap my fuse while the car was running (I do not recommend this, it was HOT) the lights would flicker on and off, presumably when some 'clean' areas made contact for brief moments. I eventually just found a new-ish fuse box and put it in, and things have been working fine since. Once the box has been melted to the point that the connectors are not held in place by anything, I think it can get even worse since there is a newfound slack between the rivet/clips. Although this may not be the problem you are having, it sounds like the exact same symptoms I was having. Unfortunately for me, this problem didn't manifest itself until I was getting it inspected at a dealership! My recommendation is to just try to find a new one. If your 1971 requires a fuse box with the long pigtail (which I think yours will since the MSA catalog has them listed as 70-71) you will probably have to find one used since they are out of stock, and would have set you back a fair amount anyway. You should probably at least go over the actual connections between various components outside the fuse box as well. Getting a new fuse box would be wise anyway though since yours is already melted and can cause a lot of other problems. You might want to try www.ZBarn.com . I emailed them and asked for a quote for a 72 fuse box and he told me they could get me a used one in decent shape for $45, but I got lucky and bought one from a board member for $5! Andy Russel might be able to help you out, however he does not have it listed on his sample price list. His email address is z@datsundude.com . He should also be able to get you a new factory service manual for a good price since you don't seem to have one. They are extremely useful! Hope this helps, Andrew

You can see the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/bruce_almighty/ Looks to be a 280z or 260z. It also looks like he wrecks it at one point since the hood is folded up in one scene. I'm guessing (after reading the other thread a few months ago) that this will be the first major movie in recent years to feature a 1st gen Z as a main characters wheels.

Speaking of pertronix, has anyone found a place selling them at a really great price? VB has them listed for $100 IIRC, anyplace lower? I don't remember seeing it in the MSA catalog when I glanced through it the other day. Andrew

Wow, are there a lot of 240Zs in Modesto? I had heard they were all over in California. Modesto must be a bigger town than I thought! I bought my 918 Orange 1972 240Z from a guy in Modesto. Welcome to the board! Andrew

It sure is bonniec75209, thanks for the compliment!

They appear on ebay every so often. However, the sellers usually have a pretty high asking price.

I would be VERY surprised if this in fact turned out to be correct, a drag coefficient of 0.45 is pretty close to that of a perfect sphere if I am not mistaken. I sure don't notice THAT much resistive force at high speeds, seems to cut through the air pretty well. One could always determine it experimentally if they took the time, but I imagine the results would vary greatly from run to run when performing it in an imperfect environment like the real world, whereas I imagine most auto manufactuers publishing a specific drag coefficient do so with wind tunnels, etc. I have heard that too from a friend who went into the service. I didn't believe it at the time, and I searched briefly for info on it on the internet and found nothing about it and dismissed it as a myth. Andrew