abas

At times like this you know that god is a zedhead

Carl I think this valve on the firewall in later cars was instead of an inline proportioning valve inboard of the right rear wheel (which is what the earlier cars had). This was the same as on the 260z. Andrew

That was the car that someone here was trying to save recently. Better I think to use it as a donor car to convert another one to RHD rather than try to save the original fairlady shell. Go for it Brian, you know it makes sense Andrew

pushing the pins out has never failed to work for me, the only thing that might go wrong is if you don't push straight on the head of the pin, or that the badge has been stuck to the car as well as being held on the with the pins. Good luck, and if you break one I might have a spare badge for you. Cheers Andrew

It is strange, but as the kittens and and the z are still there she must still be in residence. I would guess from my conversations with Chloe that she wouldn't go very far without them. I have some money tied up too, but for now I am more concerned with for her wellbeing

Brian no problem, glad to be of help. Best thing about this forum is someone has nearly always done it before. I don't know of any write ups on the conversion, which is why I ended up going into it heavily myself. I do know a couple of people who have done a 'home' conversion, and so it is probably not so bad as long as you have a donor car/or pictures to see what you are aiming for. I can let you have some pictures of the relevant bits of a stripped RHD shell if you don't have access to this. Just let me know. Andrew

LHD to RHd is quite common in UK and I presume Oz/Nz as well. Not so common in the US I would have thought. As someone who was seriuosly going to convert my LHD 70 and went into it pretty deep here goes: 1) RHD firewall - only need RHD steering plate from firewall only, you can leave the LHD steering plate there as well - no need to take it out. 2) Steering rack yes 3) Steering column no - but the turn and headlamp switches are transposed so you would need those from a RHD car 4) dash - yes and uncracked RHD dashes are easier to get than LHD 5) - console no, they are the same on RH and LH cars 6) - the pedal box and pedals are all different LH to RH due to the offset on the car, you will also need the throttle linkage that is different, unless you are going for cable throttle. ( ie webers) 7) heater box and blower fan housing is transposed so you would need one from a RH car. 8) Wiper linkage/scuttle panel is different( but I suppose you could leave the linkage as it is on a LHD car) 9) brake/clutch pipes in engine bay all need to be changed: master cylinders and servo are the same LH to RH. The brake line that runs to the rear of the car can be bent round to fit on RH cars. 10) Engine wiring loom is different but not so significantly that a LH one couldn't be extended to fit. 11) You also need to cut off and reweld a whole load of heater/steering and sundry brackets, including the battery tray from a RHD car. Not surprisingly this conversion is ususally only done with a complete rhd donor car to hand. But the biggest problem and the one that made me drop the idea is the relocating of the heater duct from the rh side to the LH side of the car. This is under the dash, behind the firewall. There is quite a bit of skilled cutting and welding needed to resite this correctly so that the heater will work and all the brackets line up. But it can be done as long as you have a good welder. Phew!!! Hope it helps Andrew

Has anyone had any success changing the colour of the taillights? I have a pair of good US ones that are illegal to use over here, and I could do with making them look like euro ones.( ie change the indicator colour from red to orange) I have found being able to take the rear lights apart is also useful to be able to swap in a better rear plastic bit that bolts to the car. This frequently gets chewed up or the screws drilled out especially if the llights haven't been removed for 20 years plus.

Chris!!!! I suppose $500+ might be a bit excessive for a tan rear vented hatch panel :laugh: Andrew

Chris perfect donor car for you if its not saveable. I hope sitting for 20 years has not damaged the interior too much. My guess of $5,000 was based on the current(at the the time) now retracted bid of $2,000. If we are viewing the car as a donor then I expect it will get a lot less, maybe $1,500. For that the owner gets a shell that might go to the crusher, hopefully a stock of super rare 69 parts or a bonanza selling them on, and can still say 'I own number vin 27' :classic:

I'll go for $5,000 just because of the sheer rarity of something like that on ebay. And I understand the speculators are in there when it comes to the really low vin number 69 cars. I think it is almost expected that the early cars have to be restored to original, especially if they are to command big price tags, and therin lies the problem. Some of the parts unique to the 69 cars are so rare so as to be totally unobtainable, and unless the car still has virtually all the bits needed it will be a huge job to source/remake anything that is missing. A statistic that Carl Beck quoted a short while back was that out of the 120 or so 69 cars left, ( I'm quoting from memory here so I apologize if I am significantly out) only about 40 were roadworthy, the rest were in need of total restoration. I wonder how many of the 80 projects will ever be completed, as you can still say 'I own vin number 27' whether it is a runner or just a chassis plate on the wall of your garage. I hope vin 27 gets bought and restored. Just my opinion Andrew

You should be able to: quite a few cars over here have the 2.8 L24 engine. the only question is whether your l24 block can take the 86mm overbore. You have to get the cylinder walls checked via ultrasound to see if they are thick enough. Just a though, why not just put the head and EFI on the L24 at as it is or will that not work? hope it helps Andrew

You are right Mike, Chloe does work from home. Farrisl, it would be a greatly appreciated by us all I think if you could drive by and check Chloe is OK.

My 1970 car dropped a valve sometime in the late 80's, and sat around in CA for a year or two. In late 1990 it came to the attention of someone scouting for early cars to be exported to the UK where only 1970 year cars were eligible for for the HSCC race car series. I bought it from the importer in early 1991 and it waited 10 years in dry storage until I managed to do anything with it. I have to say that 280z has got to be one of the worst rust cases I have seen a picture of. Andrew

Just before the server upgrade I noticed one 240zorg member actually lives in Wichita, Kansas where Chloe lives. I was going to pm him to see if he wanted to go and check on Chloe, but I can't rember his username now though :stupid: The perils of getting old Seriously though, I am concerned for Chloe, as she just seems to have vanished. Hope she gets back in touch soon.

You need to extract the whole light unit from the overhead trim. You will then see the bulb inside the dome light which is then easy to replace. Andrew

Hi welcome to the club, hopefully you will post some pictures of your new car into your gallery :classic: You must remove the dome light from the car first. pry it out gently from the overhead trim with a screwdriver or flat knife. Then bend the tabs up on one side of the chrome surround. The chrome bit should then slide off and the plastic light lense should then fall out as it is only held in by the chrome surround. hope it helps Andrew

gruvyz Certainly ain't going to be cheap. The only reference point I have is that silver car with 14k miles that was almost sold for $30,000 recently and that was a 71 car, but perhaps the low miles more than made up for it not being a 70. 'One' of your 1970z's, how many do you have? Andrew

Is it a plastic or metal badge. Metal ones are far more resistant to breaking than plastic as you would expect. I puposely went out of my way to get secondhand metal ones to avoid problems with them breaking. Can you get behind the badge inside the car and push the pins out? Andrew

It sounds as if your existing car might be hard to beat if you want something really early. How bad are the 'nicks and dings' you refer to. Are we talking holes/rust? If you want another all original car that makes it even harder to get. FWIW Andrew

rear side of panel let me know if you want some more detailed/close up pictures Andrew

Thanks for the reminder Dave:classic: front side of panel

Thanks for the info 240zMan :classic: This is what I had hoped for, as I am not going for big HP on mine, and hopefully the standard SU's will do for me.

British grands prix at Brands Hatch were much better IMHO, at least for the spectators.

A question for the tuning gurus. Is there a limitation on what the standard round tops can do? For a street car such as 240zman's car is it unnecessary to go for bigger su's or triple webers until you are talking BIG HP? thanks for any replies.