inline6

The inner rear seat mount looks to be in the wrong place to me. You may want to have them double check.

I took the car to Caffeine and Octane on 9/7. While there, one of the attendees offered to take some pics of my recently restored 1971 Datsun 240Z. Looks to me like she used some kind of lens filter. Nice of her to send them along to me.

I think there are a lot of signals that the economy is weakening. To me, this is another of a great many.

Adhesive type matters. I have found contact adhesive available at local stores isn't good enough for high heat (automotive) applications. With interior temperatures going well north of 100 degrees repeatedly, it let's go. This stuff does not. It is only available by the gallon, and has a relatively short shelf life (a year or so), but I find it to be amazing, and crucial for any adhesive application in our cars.

Here is a post showing a bit about what I did to redo mine: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/63087-restoration-of-bringatrailer-240z-hls30-35883/page/63/?&_rid=2858#findComment-663237. I can't find it now, but someone found a material that I thought may be a better choice. It may have been @Patcon. The rubber I used is very durable, but it is rubber sheet. I found it to be less "shapeable" than the original foam like material. If I had to do it again, I'd look for a very thin neoprene or more foam like material, as I think this material would folder around the edges of the flap better.

Yesterday and today, I spent some time working on the car again. I haven't been working on it much, as I have been working on my track Z some more instead, and I had tenants move out, so I have been spending some time over the last few weekends at a rental house doing things that needed attention. I am still hesitant to modify my SM spec SU needles. Taking a lessor path of resistance, I swapped out the 10W-30 oil for some 20W-50 to see what a difference that would make. What got me thinking about doing that was the "drop test" of the SU pistons. From fully up to fully dropped, there seemed to be almost no damping. So, I decided to try a change. Comparing/contrasting, the throttle response is not as lightning quick as it was. However, the lean condition on overrun is noticeably less. I think I like the 20W50 better overall. I might try 10W-40 as well to see about getting a bit better throttle response (for rev matching downshifts). If I am cruising and I snap the throttle fully open, the engine and car respond quickly - it accelerates nicely. So, maybe the 20W50 is fine. I don't know what to do regarding the SU dampers. They are original Nissan ones - probably original to the carbs on the car. The "barrels" seem to have wear, just judging by their appearance. The barrels have an OD of a little more than .346". I purchased an SU rebuild kit, which came with new needle and seats, and dampers recently. However, I didn't use either. I found the problem with the existing needle and seats. The rear one just needed to be polished inside to keep it from sticking as when it was machined, it was finished with a coarse finish. Also, the new dampers have a "longer throw" than the original ones - the sleeve portion of the damper has a longer amount of free movement. I didn't want to introduce that change, so I have held off on switching them out. Also, the new damper sticks do not have low and high marks for oil level like the original ones have. However, the barrels measure at, or just above .346", just like the "worn" originals. So, again, given all of these things, I didn't feel like installing them. At present, I have the mixture nuts turned out precisely 2.5 turns front and back. When warm, the AFR at idle is around 11.8. At cruise on flat road, the AFR is about 14.8. I still see AFR get lean if I try to accelerate a small or medium amount. This often happens when the road changes to a slight incline. AFR on a slight incline, trying to maintain the same speed tends to be in the high 15's and can reach low 16's. If I smash the throttle to the floor, I typically see AFRs in the 12.4 to 13 range. With the 10W-30 oil, on long instances of throttle shut deceleration (like from third to second - rev match, and then just decel in second with throttle shut), the AFR would climb up to 18s... or 19s even. With the 20W50, AFR will spike lean on throttle shut decel for an instant, but then AFR will return to normal range (13 to 14). Much less popping from the exhaust with 20W50. I need to do some data logging again so I am not just pulling these from memory. I haven't heard of anyone with Hitachi SU's changing the springs, but watching various Youtube videos, it seems like changing springs is pretty standard with tuning British SU's, and it is typically done before attempting to modify needles. It looks like order of march is springs, dampers, oil, then needles. I think I'd like to try some springs which are bit stiffer. And I'd like to try 10W-40 instead of 20W-50. Maybe I will do these things before I try to modify the needles.

What do you think it is worth currently - roughly?

Looks to me like nearly every part of that car was touched during a restoration. I would think, even with current valuations for 240z's being lower than their peak, this car would be worth more than $70k.

Just now looked at the pictures of this car. Uh, yeah... no. Nope. Much of the sellers description is inaccurate. Garrett

Do you know about the special site: search? It limits searches to just that one site. If not, try to paste this into a google search: chrome door trim site:classiczcars.com

No-no, I said "My 12/70 (16530) is black. And my 6/71 is orange/yellow."

My VIN is HLS3016530. I will double check my memory. It has been a long time since I put eyes on that switch.

My 12/70 is black. And my 6/71 is orange/yellow. Still a wide range there.

I am thinking there are not many restoration shops that focus on Z's these days. Impatient Creations is doing good quality work. I think they are very expensive. But, they do good work. Looks like they are 30 minutes from Birmingham. https://impatientcreationsinc.com/

Some options to investigate: https://upgarageusa.com/pages/nos-parts-we-have-instock-for-1969-1995-z-cars https://vintagerubber.com/datsun-240z-260z-front-bumper-guard-over-rider-strip-kit-69-72/ https://jdm-car-parts.com/products/front-bumper-over-rider-vertical-strip-set-for-datsun-240z I believe I have a spare set of aftermarket ones as well - I think of decent quality. Let me know if you would like to see some pics of them.