Carl Beck

OEMZ - you have 6027? Carl B.

Just a thought - If it was my car - and the frame rails looked as good as they do in the pictures - I'd think seriously about putting a couple holes in the floorboards. Then spray them inside with POR-15... I'd rather have a couple extra rubber plugs in the floor boards than future rust coming though the frame rails. Scroll down to page 22.. for example. http://www.binks.com/Portals/0/Repository/EA52-100 Binks Spray Gun Extensions.pdf FWIW, Carl B.

Great Pictures - keep them coming! The wiring harness on the steering column might be very useful to many in the future as well. Carl B.

I'm not sure what you mean "radiator housing". The radiator is gloss back upper/lower tanks - no need for high temp. paint. The radiator core support is body color. You can wash, polish and wax the inner body panels. A good polish will remove most grim and oil stains if the engine compartment is in reasonable shape to begin with. The distributor base is aluminum - you can clean it (a little carb cleaner) - and use something like CastBlast Dull Aluminum spray paint to maintain the factory look. Likewise the valve cover. If it is very stained it can be glass bead blasted (but you have to assure it is completely clean-out after). You can clean and repaint the engine block. High-Temp paint is only necessary on the exhaust manifold.. Eastwood sells a couple different special paints for exhaust manifolds and as I recall so does POR-15 - unlike the usually "hot rod" high temp - the Eastwood and POR offerings seem to stave off rust longer. Are you using Ospho or something like it - to treat small rust spots before painting etc.? FWIW, Carl B.

Anyone know of a real #1 or #2 Condition - aka Concours Quality 240Z being offered For Sale for $50K or less today. Please point it out. Any top Condition #3 examples for sale today for $30K or less today? Mid to low range #3 condition 240Z's are selling on Bring-A-Trailer above $25K.. Point is - it is all about supply and demand - - I don't see much supply in the face of rising demand. Chris - if the car being discussed here - was judged at an annual Z Car Convention - In STOCK CLASS - would it score 90%? Seems a lot of deductions are obvious.. Concours Quality is all about fine details in perfect condition.. Correct down to the valve stem caps!

Agreed - Nissan hasn't done a very good job of upkeep. They - if anyone should show more Pride of Ownership. Then too it has been driven now for 20 years, and not so gently by everyone.

Well - it is at the very least - it is different than a Vintage Z. Without seeing/knowing everything about this Z - it is impossible to tell what the market would bear. I would really want to see the documentation/photo history - of the entire restoration process. How good a job any shop can do - depends to a large degree on how much money the owner is willing to put into the project. What it is worth in the end is mostly Condition, Condition then supply/demand - - - it seems that right now something around $45K is the Top End for Concours Quality, with 1970 Models leading the demand. 71’s will usually sell for a bit less as the demand for them is less. (just a ROM estimate - there are no absolutes so far). Most observers expect them to gain market value over this and the next year. I think this Dealer is dreaming.. I can see a Vintage Z bringing $70K today as their number is limited. There are a lot of nicely Restored 240Z’s out there, and others are presently restoring more.

Is the Seller advertising or offering this Z - as a Vintage Z? Is this the car the OP was asking about?

Looks like an exceptionally clean 240Z - always far more fun to work on well cared for Z's. Somewhat odd to see the bolts for the tie downs sheared off - far more common on the lower bolts on the front fenders.. Bummer any way you look at it.. Amazing how much work could be saved - if people would only use a good penetrating oil on 20+ year old nuts/bolts/screws - before they start twisting on them. This is especially true on 40+ year old cars. Kroil is one of the best "tools" in my garage.

Standing to the Right of Mr. Katayama's Secretary is Mr. Shiro Tsuchiya - responsible for Complete Vehicle Testing. There is some confusion related to the colors of #7 and #8 - which may be my fault. The Red 240Z at Daytona is #8. It is pictured in the B&W Photo on Jan. 1970 R&T Cover.

If Motoman7 will forgive another off-topic followup. Interesting - some addition notes. Nissan's TSB TS72-29 lists HLS30 62001 as the beginning of the Horizontal Defroster Lines (also the seat belt holders were added to the center console per TS72-69). TS72-29 also notes that there were no Defroster Lines in 240Z's before HLS30 01456, and provides guidance as to how to install them at the Dealership. Didn't the Series II console fuse box cover - have a hole for the Cig.Lighter? Anyway - the early Series III (1972 Model Year) had a black space - where the coming Seat Belt Warning Light was planned to go. The structure of the seats had to be changed - to hold the seat belt sensors. The early 72's still had the Pirelli rubber like webbing supporting the foam - the newer seats have steel springs supporting the foam & the seat belt sensors. The early 72's had no "pocket" in the floor behind the seats - for the seat belt retractors - and thus no self retracting seat belts. A little later the Pockets starting showing up - but still with no retractors.. So it seems that 09/71 through most of 1/71 the transition to the newer safety requirements were "in process". AIR.. the standards had to be in place by March of 72. So any thing produced after that date had to fully comply. ( I'm the original owner on an early 72 - and the second owner on a later 72). As mentioned earlier - the 72 Center Console was redesigned to accommodate the newer Type B 4spd. at which point Nissan also moved the differential rearward to reduce the low frequency harmonics transmitted into the cabin.

Did Alan sell the car to Dave? When?

Some questions - how long have you owned the car? How do you know it is sagging in the rear - vs sitting higher in the front? From the bottom of the rocker panel - front and rear - how high is it off the ground? Springs don't usually wear out nor weaken in 60K miles. Installing modern high pressure gas shocks can raise the ride height of a 240Z .5 to .75 inches. http://zhome.com/240ZSprings/240ZSpringsUS.htm FWIW, Carl B.

The 2400cc Valve Covers came on all North American 240Z from Oct. 69 to about Mid 1970. Around July -The change over to the NISSAN OHC's started with the introduction of the A/T equipped models. Not sure when the change over was complete but less than 10,000 had the 2400cc Valve covers. So most likely correct on 240Z's with VIN's below HLS30 10000 - without the A/T.

Hi Guys - Sorry for the delay in getting back to this Thread. As far as I knew - Mr. Motomura sent the entire text and images of the book. Just last week however, he sent an additional 13 images that for some reason were not included in the original file set. He didn’t notice they were missing as we iterated several drafts of the English edition. They are nothing new to anyone - pictures of the S20 & L24 engine, pictures of the Front and Rear suspension, Datsun 240Z engine compartment and Battery Access lid. Rear end crash test on 280ZX 2+2. I will be adding them to the next Revision - and I’ll put them on line for everyone to see or download and print. I don’t expect that they will significantly impact the page count, nor the actual information content. I added US Measurements to all the Metric Measures, only because I felt it made reading comprehension better for US readers. (they wouldn’t have to break their train of thought - stop reading and do the mental measurment conversions) So any conversion errors are on me. I have to believe that the difference in page count is do to the different format size.The English Edition was printed in 8.5 x 11 format in Black & White because that was the least expensive and still conveyed the technical information. Mr Umera / Mr. Motomura wanted to make it available & affordable to everyone interested. Alan: The Title evolved from exchanges between Mr. Motomura and myself. Publishers told me that one of the key elements to book sales - was Title Selection. They view it as the most important meta-data - that drives on-line search engines. So “Fairlady Z Development Record” for the Japanese market - became "DATSUN 240Z Engineering Development” for the US and English Speaking markets. Yes entirely market driven to reach the most English speaking people, as that was the goal of publishing it in English. Secondly - - As several books about the Z car had previously been published in English - specifying "Engineering Development" was intended to more clearly indicate that the book was about the “Engineering” aspects as opposed to the “Styling”, “Modeling" and “Marketing” aspects - that were already covered in most other English Language Z Books. The Cover design was for the same reason. Thanks everyone for buying and help in promoting the book. As Chris said, I think you will find a lot of answers to many questions about what, how and why many of the Design and Production Engineering alternatives and decisions were arrived at.

Hi Gang: I am very happy to tell everyone that you can now order an English Language Edition of Mr. Uemura’s book. Titled; “DATSUN 240Z Engineering Development”, by Hitoshi Uemura. It is available to you only on Lulu.com (linked below). Many thanks to Mr. Uemura and his friend Mr. Yuichiro Motomura for making this available to us. Mr. Motomura provided the English language translation along with digital copies of all pictures, figures and charts making the publication possible. I hope you will all order several copies, for yourself and to share with your fellow Z Car Enthusiast. We need to make this a "Best Seller" with the hope that more will follow. https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=Datsun+240Z&type= FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mike - maybe I mis-understood. Are you saying that there were only 1 Post to this thread - before May 2015? I was thinking the thread started way before that, when motorman7 first got the Z. Carl B.

Did we ever get the full thread reloaded to the site? Is all that information lost? Carl B,

Hi Terje: Looks like a great road trip to enjoy with your friends. Is the Feria Chocolate Factory on that Road? That's the road I want to be on. Carl B.

Could be something as simple as the server is down.. Maybe try it later.

Hello Everyone: Mr. Shigeru Nagata (retired Nissan employee) wanted to provide a little more information related to Nissan’s use of full size clay models, in the Design Development Department starting in 1961. Mr. Nagata was assigned to assist Mr. Goertz as a translator, during Mr. Goertz time at Nissan. He was also responsible for the Design Development Departments implementation of the US FMVSS related to Interior Design. Mr. Nagata wrote a 9 page article, in English that he wanted to share with the American Z Car Enthusiasts. Toward that end I have added it to the Z Car Home Page, along with more introductory information about Mr. Nagata. I think everyone will find it very interesting. See: http://zhome.com/History/ShigeruNagata/SNagata.htm FWIW, Carl B.

"Does your Dog Bit?"

Mr. Brock has "re-designed" the rear spoiler. He wanted to make it fit clear across the top of the rear quarter - so the outside edges of the rear spoiler lines up with the body line {or in the case of the BRE Livery - with the paint line}. The original was just a little short of reaching the body line on each side. Some people found out about the new redesigned one's before they were even publicly announced.. and they sold out. So if you want the new one - it may take a while to get an order filled. You can see more about it on the BRE2 Facebook site. Nissan did offer the rear spoiler in Japan...Because of BRE's Contract with Nissan, BRE was allowed to sell any of the performance options direct to the public. BRE also supplied most of them to the Authorized DATSUN Dealers her in North America because they cost less to produce locally, than to produce and ship them from Japan. At the Dealership I worked at - it was pretty much a Customer Choice related to paint or not. So we bolted them on Black.. but if the Customer wanted we'd paint them for a bit extra money. On a few 240's for the Showroom Floor - they were painted body color. Those 240Z's usually got full optional equipment - in order to display everything on the car. {spoilers, mag's, body side molding, Racing Strips, etc}. FWIW, Carl B.

In case you haven't already seen it - Motorman's beautiful 240Z is featured in a story on the Hagerty Web Site. https://www.hagerty.com/yourstories/2015/11/29/all-in-the-family-unrestored-240z20151129112335

Thin sheet metal does not equal “weak”. It equals “lightweight” if anything. The 240Z body doesn’t flex because of thin metal. Uni-body flex is more a matter of the exact design of the structural components, the specific grade of steel used and how well it is all welded together. There is a good reason Race Cars are “seam welded” for example. Agreed that rust damage to structural components can weaken the uni-body.