87mj

I have two cars. One has a manufacture date of 6/70 and the other 5/71. Both cars have their factory rear quarters. The lines do not end on either car but the lines on the 6/70 are much more pronounced than 5/71. Its almost as if the tooling needed to be sharpened by the time May '71 came around. I would certainly call it "less prominent" on the '71.

I realize you didn't photograph the entire pan but from the photos, it looked like surface rust that as you said earlier, was cause by water getting between the sheet metal and the tar mat. Are you sure you pans need replaced? From your photo, they don't look that bad. Maybe blasted and painted only?

I'm a purist and have an early series 1 car that I plan to recover in the near future. I have the exact same dilemma. On one hand, I want to return the car to as close to stock as I can. Stock was vinyl. On the other hand, those of us old enough to remember know that 240z seats were barely durable enough to last 50,000 miles so most nicer cars are not running the factory upholstery anyway. I have a 60,000 mile car '71 that was reupholstered about 10,000 miles ago. They still look good but I am beginning to see wear along the side bolsters where you enter/exit the car. I don't think you would have that with leather. If I could find leather that looks like the factory vinyl, that would be my preference. The stitching on the sides would need to look original with the tube stitching and so on. Then I would have the factory look with the leather durability. Has anyone seen leather like that?

My car left for the body shop last week. I mentioned to him the condition of the vin tag and he said he could drill the rivets and clean it up a bit. To me, there doesn't seem to be any good way to clean this without removing the ink. Has anyone found a good way to clean it up without damaging it? If you were me, would you have the body shop remove it to get a better paint job or would you leave it alone and tape it up and paint around it? Thanks Gary

This has got to be the worst possible job imaginable. I am not looking forward to it. BTW, how accurate are the MSA headliners. Anyone? Can you tell they are not original?

I believe Motorsport auto and zcar depot both sell replacement door cards. I THINK they only come in black. If you want another color, they also sell just the vinyl and you reupholster them yourself. I am not sure how accurate of reproductions they are. Maybe someone else can chime in on that? I seem to recall they come with the chrome strip across the top. I don't think the replacement dogleg panels directly behind the seats have the chrome strip on them.

260Z came out in '74. '75 was 280z.

Also, perhaps one of the reasons you see so many 918 cars is the color is iconic for the car & period. People such as myself always wanted a 918 car. Luck brought me to a clean 905 red car instead. But I found a car in need of restoration and plan to paint it 918. So there's an example of one more in the world that didn't exist a year ago.

Unbolt those tie down hooks from under the front radiator. Otherwise the transport company might use them. That would be bad.

Just a thought but what if it isn't vapor lock at all. Maybe the choke needs adjusted. Maybe it doesn't fully disengage? Someone obviously messed with it when they swapped the carbs. I have a very early series 2 car with the old style center console. A PO swapped the transmission with the later style which moved the shift lever so my console no longer fit. My fix was to install a later series 2 console with a series 2 choke. Right after I did that, it sputtered on me. It eventually worked itself out but I was freaking out anyway. I thought I was reliving 1979 all over again.

I know this sounds like a solution coming from a simpleton (which it is), but I wonder what would happen if you installed a larger capacity clear fuel filter in various places so you could actually see what was going on. For example, right before the engine, then between each carb and the fuel rail. Maybe even on the return line. I swear when it happened to me, my mechanical fuel pump was not sucking gas from the tank. I concluded the fuel pump was bad so I replaced it but there was no difference. I recall putting the fuel hose in a glass jar of gas and it still didn't suck gas (when the sputtering occurred). When the engine was cold, it ran great. Keep in mind this is coming from the mouth of what was a dumb 16 year old kid but it still haunts me to this day.

I had the same problem back in the late '70s with my '73. I still had the flat top carbs though. I was never able to figure it out. Then I sold the car and got a nasty phone call from the buyer a couple days later. I know this sounds too simple but have you tried making sure your fuel lines are tight and then switch to alcohol free gas? The ID of my fuel lines going from my rail to my carbs are very difficult to remove even with the clamps off.

I know a guy that was one of those original z guys that were on the 240z waiting list back in the day. After 6 months of waiting, he gave up and bought a Tiger.

Dang, I don't get it. It looks like there are quite a few parts missing. Speedo is not factory, It looks like the center dash is 280z. Carbs and possibly the motor is '73.

Unfortunately, It is not solid. Its the hollow cast one. On the back, it looks exactly like my series 1 emblem.

Wow. It must have been the installed on the earliest of the early cars. I have been watching for cars with the chrome Z emblem on BAT. There is a car on BAT (I think someone here owns it now) built in 11/69 which still has the white Z emblems on it. I have an emblem on one of the first cars made. If I only had the rest of the car....

I am trying to find the origin of the emblem to the right. At first glance, it looks like a series 1 b pillar emblem but notice the "Z" is chrome. I believe It always was and it lacks a raised border. A couple of years ago, I bought an old car along with a bunch of old parts. The emblem was in a box with the parts. The emblem on the left came from my vin 5xxx car. Does anyone know the origin of the one to the right? They are both the exact same size (even though they don't appear to be in the photos). The casting on the back of both are identical. They are both made of pot metal. The one on the right was mounted on a car at one time. The clips are still on the posts and it has minor pitting. I read somewhere where there are 2 versions of this emblem so I assume this was it. But I was curious when they used them. This was the first one I have seen. Anyone have any ideas?

I think it was Sunoco that has a great article on fuel shelf life. Their fuel with 10% ethanol has about a 3 month shelf life. If you want to extend it, their fuel with no ethanol has a long shelf life (6 months IIRC). Their racing fuel has about a year but that is leaded off road only.

Oh yes and the black leather. It was factory in 1970. :)

Hmm, is it just me or is intake manifold not factory for that age of a car? Also, I see the air cleaner isn't correct for the year along with the fan. Possible that is not the factory engine?

But it has a 240z hood.

Rebello claims to get an additional 90 hp out of a 2.4. I suspect a person would notice that in a 2,300 lbs car.

I have seen those before in other cars. They look very nice. I like them but since they look a bit elegant, I don't feel like they match the car. I am sure they are more durable than the standard vinyl too. If they had a cheaper grade of leather that looked more like the cheap vinyl that came with the car, I would do that in a minute. :)

I had a similar situation. A couple years ago, I bought a spare '71 complete engine & transmission on a cart, a spare dash, 2 complete doors, about 10 or so gauges, a bunch of taillights, a spare gas tank, several boxes of parts, some plastic interior, a series 1 AM radio and a complete running and restorable car. I paid today's going price for the AM radio for everything. That was just 2 years ago. I doubt I could do that today.

I have a 5xxx VIN series 1 that I am trying to bring back to life. All NOS door strikes I have seen on ebay et al are bright white. I am absolutely certain mine were yellow zinc along with the bolts that fastened them to the car. Has anyone else seen that on an early car?