abas

I just laughed so much I cried!!! Top marks.

Does anyone have any idea how to remove dents in a fuel tank? The previous owner of my 1970 z decided that the middle of the fuel tank was a good jacking point for the rear of the car:stupid: A friend of a friend thought I could 'blow' the dent out with compressed air, but I'm doubtful I could get enough pressure to do so without something breaking first. thanks for any help

landmizzle I painted the engine bay on mine with rattle cans ( see my gallery). Looks OK from a distance but close up its nohing like as good as a professional spray job. It will however do for an engine bay where a large number of other components obscure any imperfections. I wouldn't attempt any exterior painting with a rattle can.

So you can remove the UJ's on 240z driveshafts without a press? How would you go about doing that? Is it something that can be done by your average DIY'er?

240znz just also to say that your car doesn't look as if the whole rear deck has been changed, just holes have been cut in the rear deck to accomodate the metal tool hatches. OK it might not be original but the tool boxes in the rear deck are a lot more convenient/usable than the plastic originals. ( as the plastic toolboxes no longer take up space behind the seats you can also treat your 240z as an occasional 2+2 if you have some short passengers!!!! although I accept this might not be strictly legal.

240znz, sorry to say,I agree with Nick that the hatches have been retro fitted. My 1972 z with hatches has a recessed flange in the deck all the way round the hole. You also have the remnants of the 'swiss cheese holes' in the rear deck that you can best see on the pictures that 26thzposted on this thread earlier. Finally there are the 2 luggage strap bolt holes holes that are right at the top of the picture (ie so that luggage strap goes the entire length of the rear deck as on the earlier cars), whereas the later cat had the luggages trap bolt holes roughly in line witj the rear suspension towers.

Divx seems to dislike my PC intensely in both windows 98 and XP. I did see the video once ( ace!) but I can only get the sound now. Nice to hear a z again, its been too long. You need these kind of things every now and then to keep you motivated (especially with a rebuild that is 12 years and counting!!!!)

Alan Good to hear there is someone less than 3000 miles away!!! I'm near Bournemouth on the South Coast. I'm definitely interested in following this up. Do you have an E31 head for sale? Was going to get mine repaired but not sure now. I would lilke to keep my original engine if possible, do you know what the max overbore/piston size is for a 240z engine? I'm thinking of increasing the cc by overboring (which it needs anyway) but by keeping the crank the same. You have some great pictures in your gallery!!!! cheers Andrew

After some helpful discussion here I may look at replacing the engine in my 240z rather than rebuilding the original ( put that one on the backburner for when I'm retired!!) Anybody know of a good source for rebuilt or secondhand L28 (tuned or standard) engines in UK? Many thanks

SJCurtis thanks for that I thought there might not be an easy fix for this. - Bu**er!!! Decent/new mirrors have been going for quite a lot on ebay as well. I might have found a possible replacement so perhaps I'll try to remove the mirror glass on the 'floppy' one to try and repair it.

thanks for the replies guys I have another 240z engine ( from my 1972 car) so I don't NEED to rebuild the original yet, but Its one of those things that bugs ya!!!! and I'd like to know whether it can be rebuilt or whether it is too far gone. This car will probably be kept original if I can redo the original engine. Cylinder head has been chewed up and needs some welding and a new guide/exhaust valve Sorely tempted to go for L28 etc but cost might be prohibitive. Plus I don't think there are many places here in the UK that do L28's. Perhaps I'll post to find somewhere over here who knows their stuff. Hmmmmm!!!! got me thinking. I can always swap the original engine back in if I rebuild it in the future. SJCurtis I'll get you my HS numbers shortly

Hi guys Well I decided to have a look at the original engine from my 1970 240z a couple of weeks ago and I 've got it partly stripped. Problems is engine dropped a valve before I bought it which has damaged the E31 head and smashed one piston. My first thought was to get the knackered bore sleeved and to buy one new piston ( which are apparently still available) and a full ring set. And get the block tanked to get all the bits of broken piston out. However the engine has done at least 120,000 miles ( could be 220,000 miles!!!!), and only replacing one piston seems a bit of a false economy if the rest of the engine is starting to wear. And I was concerned that fitting one replacement piston should not be done anyway as perhaps replacement pistons should only be fitted as a set of 6? I was thinking whether to overbore it for 280z pistons but wouldn't the compression then be too high ( particularly with an E31 head.) Any assistance gratefully received.

NickF I have just bought some repro plastic toolboxes from ebay. I'll let you know how they compare to the originals when I get them

talking of the hand throttle in the console, they were included as standard equipment on early UK cars. My ex california z has provision for it in the console but not the hardware. I was going to buy a spare choke cable setup and try to get the hand throttle working on mine. By the way my rear deck does not have tool dors but it does have 2 gaping holes where some dork decided to put cutouts for some speakers!!!!!! And also 2 speaker cutouts in a brand new rear hatch carpet!!!! The carpet is $110 new from MSA - I could've cried.