v12horse

The warning light that is on when you are in gear and your seat belt is not on has that red plate that indicates there is no seat belt on is there on the dash. On the opposite side closest to the driver, has no plate nor does it light up. I believe this to be original. Am I right and what is the use of this place? I have an early US 74' 260. Thank you. -Ben

I have an early 260z. From what I can tell, when I first bought the car in 2001 it was almost never touched. It was in pretty bad shape, but the milage read 62,000. I believe it to be true because the internals were in such good shape. Furthermore, I am almost certain that everything in the interior is original. The only things that I have replaced is the arm rests, and of course the super cool rally clock that actually works. Jeff, you might have thought that it was a 280 because the 260 and the 280 both share the same arm rests. Take a look the car for yourself. Thanks for the posts. Take care. -Ben

nice trim

eeesssh!!!

When I first bought my z the door panels were in great shape except for the chrome on the wood trim. I didn't want to buy new door panels just for that. More so, trying to track down a pair of prestine wood strips was impossible. So what I did was I used plastic model chrome foil. It does not look perfect, but it looks pretty darn close. It is not that hard to do, but it will take patience and care. Things you will need: -sharp razor knife: prefferably the one that has interchangable blades -a bunch of que-tips -"Bare-Metal" chrome foil that can be found at most hobby shops. Make sure you get just chrome, and not ultra-chrome because the ultra-chrome is too thin and very hard to work with. $6 -tweezers -ruler procedure: 1. Cut the width of chrome strip to 1/2'' and then place on the trim individually. 2. Burnish it with que-tip. 3. Cut away the excess chrome foil. 4. Burnish again. Here are photos of before and after. I hope this helps anyone in their quest for a stunning interior. If you are having trouble just pm me. Good luck. -Ben

I have not heard that sound anymore since I wanted to go in there and check what it was. Figures.. I am going to be driving it from the Bay Area to Orange county next week for the Motorsport Z nationals so that will be the test of what that sound was. I want to find that kitty. Darn. Thanks a lot. -Ben

If you are going to buy one of these old 240's or 260's a couple of the main things that you should pay attention to are the suspension and rust. These cars have MacPherson struts and I would assume that most people that have these cars usually have not replaced them unless they have keep the car in premo shape. Including the springs and bushings to go along with the struts it will cost you a pretty penny, but will make the ride great. Rust is another problem with these cars. Try to find one that is rust free unless you plan doing a ground off restoration. Finding parts is relatively easy. Correct stock replacement parts are harder to come by than after market parts, but they are not too hard to find if you look around. Ebay has been the best place for me to find good deals on stock replacement parts. The best advice I can give you is, if you are going to get one and don't want to do too much work to it, buy one that someone has babied. You may have to pay a little more, but it will be worth it. If you are going to restore one try to get one as rust free as possible. These are great cars and if they are taken care of right they are really reliable little cars. I have an early 260 and it starts every time. What I like about the early 260 is that it is the best of both the 240 and the 280. The interior is a little more refined than a 240 and the bumbers are smaller than the 280. Good luck with buying a car and keep the forum posted on the cars that you are thinking of buying. -Ben

I will definately do that stethescope procedure today and post what I hear. -Ben

I get SportZ. It is a great magazine. I wish it was monthly though. -Ben

There is this wierd sound that is coming from the engine compartment. It seems to be there when I start it, but when it starts moving it is still there but not as much. It sounds like an aweful whine. The car just started making the sound today. The only thing that I did different was not warm it up because I was in a rush, but I don't think that would be it. I thought it was coming from the fan or the fan shroud, but I am not certain. It is an early 260z. If any one can help or give ideas that would be great. Thanks. -Ben

I get between 19-22 mpg in my 260 and it is bone stock accept the 72' carbs. -Ben

I am looking forward to seeing it. Once I see it I will comment. I think many of the books and the shows are not accurate about many things because it is pretty hard to come by accurate information. Information on production models and the numbers of where cars were shipped to across the world are in so many books and sites, but all of the numbers and specs seem to differ. That is from my experience. I just ordered a book called "Fairlady Z to 280z." Hopefully it is a interesting and accurate book. Seems like it will be. Cheers, Ben

I just started the project of taking the undercoating off and what I found to be the most helpful was the Nevr-Dull. It is a cloth type deal that has petroleum in it and you just wipe it on the surface you want to clean. It took the z-barr right off. I bought the Goof off and it actually did remove some of the paint. Thanks for the ideas. The engine bay is not show quality, but it is looking better every time I clean it. I will post some pics of the before and after. -Ben

Thanks a lot. I knew it was too good to be true. I will someday get a compe. That will hold me over until I get my factory g nose z. Until then, I am going to try and get the great j-spec items for my 260. Man, I love those j-spec models. -Ben

I could be totally wrong on this one, but this looks to be a compe steering wheel from a sport package on a j-spec Z or it could be a 73 240 steering wheel. If anyone could help me on this one I would appreciate it. That would be so awesome if it was the compe. -Ben

I don't know if this is going to answer your question, but it will add to it. I am 20 years old and my dad bought the early 74 260 a few years ago. Since then he has drifted from it and I have become very interested in the car and the history of Datsun/Nissan. What I am going to discuss is all from what I have heard from others and read in books and online. The Z was shipped to the US mostly because it was geared towards the US market. Many (almost all) of the trim levels offered on the Z's in Japan were not offered elsewhere because Nissan did not know if the Z was going to be a flop outside Japan. One of the reasons why the Z was so popular was because Datsun almost as soon as they introduced the car put it in races(scca and world rally). When the cars started winning these events they became very desirable because not only were they fast and nimble, but they were strong and dependible enough to win a grueling rally. The approximate number of 240z's shipped to the US was 148,115 and for the 260z 2 seaters, 40,588 and the 2+2 it was 9,499(all these numbers came from "Nissan/Datsun a history of nissan motor corporation in U.S.A. 1960-1980). These numbers are staggering compared to sales of the Z car in other countries. I am not sure about this, but I think the 260z was made up until 1977 or 78 in japan and sent to aus but not to the us, we got the 280z in 75 and the last 260 in late 74. I assume this was because of the emission problems in the US at the time. I hope I answered some of your questions and made you think of some new ones. Take care

I have an early 260z and I bought it with worn out black arm rests, so I assumed that they were original. The interior color is white. I just bought some oem black arm rests and I was just wondering since my car's interior is white, should it have white arm rests?

I have a 260z and it was Z barred before I bought it. I guess it had tar and other things put behind the panals to prevent rust. This is all good and dandy, but in the process they put this suff on my firewall and on the rest of the engine bay making me never want to show off the engine because of the ugliness. I want to remove the stuff from this area because the original paint is still lusterous underneath. If I did remove it, would it rust easily even though all of the paint would be there? Thank you -Ben