Carl Beck

This is absolutly the ONLY way you ever want to replace the roof panel on a 240-Z. Take it to that man, he knows what he's doing. FWIW, Carl B.

I'll be there with the BRE Baja Z.. We need to bug Jimbo to bring a Vintage Z or two.. It's a huge concours... FWIW, Carl B.

Bo - what specific numbers are you putting into that calculator? thanks, Carl B.

Hi Mark: Most of the guys seemed to agree that the L28 head gasket was 88mm - you have 86. I also get 1.27mm for the compressed height of the gasket .05 inch or 1.27mm. You are using 1mm Also you have a piston deck clearance .3mm - ie. below the deck - - all my notes say it should be .-0.741 above the deck. I was using -0.3 by mistake as that is for a 0.5mm overbore. FWIW, Carl B.

Well it would appear that you have a 1973 Datsun 240-Z, with an L24 engine. What is the engine serial number? The numbers that follow "L24"? I don't believe that you can get any previous owner history from records here in the States. Nissan certainly won't have any files from that period either. FWIW, Carl B.

MEZZ - where do you find the "Left For Others" feedback section? Carl B.

No - no black 240-Z's. The Black 280Z produced for the 78 Model Year here in the US was really a limited edition - "test market" - to see if a black Z would sell. It did and the following year the 280ZX was introduced with Black as a standard color. The original paints were amino-alkyd enamel... for 69/70 the acrylic (Acryl) enamels were used only on the Silver Metallic 69/70. FWIW, Carl B.

Wayne - Amen! I am copying that reply and I'm going to send it to people from now on... I'll only add that IMHO the PT is the spiritual successor to the 240-Z. WHAT??? Yes it is - if you look at the spec.'s the two are very close: - Wheel Base - Weight to HP ratio - 1/4 mile times - stopping distance 60-0 Both had lots of FUN in mind when designed Both had lots of UTILITY for the owner Both had lots of personality Both sat record sales Both offered bargain pricing for the total package of Fun and Utility in their time Both had "enthusiasts" Clubs formed around them, and lots of aftermarket stuff created for them Both broke the mold for their time While the Datsun 240-Z comes as close to being the "Perfect Car" as I have even seen - no one car will cover every drivers "desires" and their "needs". I'll offer an alternative path - - Keep the PT for daily use, reliability, comfort - - and find a great Datsun 510 to drive for FUN. The 510 will cost far less today than a 240-Z, but it will give you a basis for learning the mechanical side of older cars, while giving you a car that can be make to handle as well or better than the 240-Z. Yes the 510 is a boxy little sedan, but has great heart, is really fun to drive and the people that own/drive them fall in love with them just as hard as the 240-Z owners do.. If money is a factor - start with the Datsun 510... FWIW, Carl B.

If you turn your stock battery around - to put the positive post closest to the engine - then the battery hold down frame's indents (cutouts) are in the wrong position - and that can leave your battery posts too close to the hold down frame. See white arrow in Stephen's picture below... That notch is there to provide room for the cable ends, so they don't contact the frame.. Better to get the Group 24F and keep the battery posts in their original position. Even so - most batteries today have their posts - just slightly off the center line of the top of the case. Whereas the older style batteries had they posts closer to one side or the other... This too can cause interference with the stock battery hold down frame's cut-outs.... Nothing is as easy as it should be... FWIW, Carl B.

Even with the original ducts - fully inclosed - you had to run duct tubing to the struts and aim it at the brakes... for brake cooling. No problem with the ducted spook in the rain... FWIW, Carl B.

It seems to be a funny fact of life - but I've experienced it for over 50 years now. The people that offered $10,500.00 and then failed to negotiate a final selling price in order to "BUY" - fall into one of two groups. ( a serious buyer that really wanted the car would have come up a couple grand if necessary to drive it home that day). The first group is made up of people that make a hobby of buying then reselling cars like this. for a couple grand more than they paid. They make 100 offers, and about two or three times a year they make a buy - then a profitable sell. The money is nice for them, but it's the hobby of looking, buying and selling that really drives them. The second group are the one's that never seem able to adjust their personal/mental "value" guides fast enough to ever catch up with the current market prices as they rise.. In this group, the guy that offers $10,500.00 for a $13K to $15K car, is the same guy that was offering $4,500.00 for a $6,500.00 car five years ago.. As the years pass, they never do "buy"... always fearing that they will pay too much. Then ten to fifteen years later - they are the one's that say "I should have bought that Orange 73 when I had a chance". The best time to sell a car - is when you don't have too. FWIW, Carl B.

If you can, get the Date Of Manufacture from the drivers door jam, and the original engine serial number from the data tag under the hood. Looks like it should be 01/70 and the engine should be in the L24-032xx to L24-039xx range. thanks, Carl B.

When I looked at the 72 the first time it had 0 bids... I think??? So is there a difference between a "starting bid" put in by the seller as a starting point - and/or a first bid put in by a potential buyer? Don't "starting bids" show 0 bidders? Carl B.

This 73 is every bit as nice - even nicer in fact... and the bidding is at a silly $4,500.00 or so... most likely honest bids... everyone is waiting until the last few seconds to put their real bids in... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Z-Series-1973-Datsun-240z-Very-Original-918-Orange-and-Black_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6187QQihZ001QQitemZ110234022557QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW Where the 72 that the Dealer has - has been bid up to $10,500.00 at this point - wonder who is bidding it up that high this soon???? Will be interesting to see how these two end up.... miles isn't all that different 85K vs 32K... on a 240-Z you can't tell the difference anyway... I think the 73 would be a better value.. FWIW, Carl B.

Original stock will usually bring more interest from buyers that are willing to spend the money up front, so they will usually sell for more to begin with. If a buyer really cares about the car being "stock" but not fanatically pure stock - then things like mag wheels or a change in the steering wheel won't throw them off too much. This car has too many things to attract someone that wants to buy a low mileage "stock" example. It just wouldn't interest them... seats are wrong, dash cap, carpet is wrong, carb's and the engine bay need a lot of attention - a lot more than should be needed on a 32K mile example.. door panels have screws in them that shouldn't be there. It would take an additional $5K and some work to bring this car back to what the typical "Stock" buyer would want his car to look like... So they would just keep looking until they found a car that was close to Stock to begin with - even if it cost $18K it would be ready to drive/enjoy and still less money than the $16K they want, plus the additional $5K it needs.. All the above said with the full realization that there are no absolutes in the 240-Z market today.. I'd also want to go over that car with a fine tooth comb, before paying $16K... I don't like the fact that there is no real description of this specific car, nor any real clear photo's showing details that are important to any 240-Z buyer... FWIW, Carl B.

The Buy-It-Now is $15,900.00 - - - and "IF" it checks out underneath, and has a solid body it is most likely worth that... A lot depends on the quality of the repaint... Street mod'ed a bit, but $16K is a reasonable price for a clean 240-Z in that area of the Country. I know we've seen this car at some point in the not too distant past... If someone lives in that area - go inspect the car carefully and let us know what it is really like.... FWIW, Carl B.

I have a set of NEW 14" MiniLite's - I'll most likely not use them.. $250.00 each plus shipping, includes lugs and center caps. beck@becksystems.com FWIW, Carl B.

Amazing... sometimes you just luck out.. Great Deal.. I'll never understand how people can sell something like that for a hundred bucks... Looks like it might have been orange or red originally... but certainly worth restoring.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Arne: Of the cars we've found - only a couple do not have their original engines. That is because the original engine from them had some problems that prevented proper overhaul.. ie cracked block, scared cylinder wall etc. Since we haven't Registered all 38 of them - I don't know what the exact percentage will turn out to be... but it would seem that every reasonable effort was made to keep the original engines in the cars. FWIW, Carl B.

L28 – Flat Top Pistons (79-83) & E31 Head Swept Volume of Cylinder = 458.9 Combustion Chamber volume = 42.4 Gasket Thickness = 7.7 Deck Height = -3.69 505.31/458.9 = 11.1 C/R with a positve deck height 509.0/458.9 = 11.09 C/R with 0 deck height Now mill the head to flaten it, reducing cc to aprox 38cc, then unshroud the valves to put it back at 41cc - or add an over-bore and you’ll push it even higher... With the crummy pump gasoline we have in most parts of the country today - I wouldn’t want a street engine with much over 9.5:1 C/R... Run higher C/R and you have to retard the timing -and that kills the engine response/power anyway.... FWIW, Carl B.

Yes - I'd say that two years and five monts is VERY LATE... understatement of the year perhaps? just too funny.... Carl B.

What do I think? - - 1) You should buy it - then resell for $5,500.00 2) I think that sounds way to cheap... must be something very wrong with it.....If I was looking for a good, rust free 240-Z, I most likely wouldn't even call about a car that the owner thought so little of... You can't buy a good body shell for $2300.00, let alone a sold 240-Z....... 3) I think it's a shame that it is so hard and expensive to get a car shipped from OR to FL... Truckers just don't run that route... and they want a very high premium to go that far out of their normal routes. 4) I think you should post some pictures and the owners phone number 5) I think it's crummy that we don't get deals like that back East... 6) I think that if the car is in OR of WA... I may have sold it to it's first owner... just some thoughts... FWIW, Carl B.

Great Ad - - - - I always believe that a BIN should be placed on items like this. The BIN lets potential buyers at least know the price range you are expecting the car to sell in. That can be accompanied by a note in the description saying "the reserve is set at a very reasonable level for a 240-Z of this quality"... OK - all that said - if it doesn't sell - don't be discouraged. It simply means that you put it on auction the week that no serious buyer was looking. Wait a week or two and put it back on E-Bay. There will be 150 lookers... for each potential buyer.... and there will be one or two serious buyers among the potential buyers.... You just have to have the luck of the draw... good luck, Carl B.

As long as you understand clearly that whatever the "Stated" or "Actual" value you give the insurance company - is what they will base, to an extent, the premiums on. Also it's very important to understand that the "stated" or "actual" value is what YOU believe it to be, supported only by your documentation and/or appraisal. It is NOT a VALUE they AGREE TO... just one you state. When you have a loss, an accident or theft - You will still deal with an Insurance Company Claims Adjuster to settle the claim. In almost every case - the first thing he will tell you is that "they" and/or "the insurance company" do not agree with your stated value or your ideal of its actual value. They will then propose their own idea of what your car is "actually" worth - based on their own market research and whatever else they can deduct for use, wear, tear for your car etc. An "Agreed Value" policy will state clearly, in writing, in the Policy - that in case of a total loss, the insurance company will pay the Agreed Value. There will be no "Claims Adjustors", nor Claim Adjustments - - - they just send you the check for the Agreed Value. or for whatever amount up to the Agreed Value that it takes to put the car back in the condition it was in before the accident. In most cases I've heard from people - and that has been many over the past 20 years - the car they "thought" was covered for a Stated Value of $12K+...... their Claims Adjuster put a value of less than $2.5K on - then the arguments and letter writing and hassles started.... They also found out that nothing their insurance salesman told them, held one bit of weight with the Claims Adjuster... I hasten to add - I have heard from one, maybe two people that did get their classic Z cars fixed, without major hassles rather than totalled... when insured on a Stated Value Policy - or when they had current appraisals that were close to the actual market value of their cars.. It does happen. But in all two many cases, what their Insurance Salesman (agent?) told them - just wasn't the case when they had a loss and tried to have their insurance cover it.... If you have a higer value 240-Z - say something at or over $12K - then take your insurance policy to YOUR lawyer and have them clearly explain who is going to do what, in case of a loss. Don't believe a thing an insurance salesman tells you. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Guy: Thanks for relaying the message - John is great guy and I'm sure your Twin Turbo will have a good home with him. Maybe we can all get together in Cleveland this year... not too far away for any of us. Wonder if John's son is back in the States now - or over sea's again. regards, Carl