davewormald

Count me in!

Sorry man, I'm sure you can understand that I've been a little distracted! I got the muffler on the car last Friday, and spent a couple more hours driving around on the way home. For the benefit of everyone else, there were a few outstanding items when I picked the car up (none of them were Chris's problems - they were almost all parts that I hadn't ordered or that we were waiting for). The missing muffler was the most notable item, so it was good to get that completed. I had to remove all the spacers from under the driver's seat. That tells you how much the original seat cushions had collapsed, because I never had any trouble fitting in the car back in the day. Even with all the spacers removed I'm brushing against the headliner with the seat back and reclined. The rear sway bar links that I'd ordered months ago were the wrong ones, so the sway bar was in place, but not connected to the suspension, which was the suspected cause of a clunk happening when hitting bumps. I got the correct links (unfortunately I mistakenly ordered only one first and had to order a second) and installed the second one this morning. Unfortunately, the clunk is still happening, and I'm starting to think it might be coming from inside the passenger door. The other suspect is the gland nut on the passenger side strut. I might not have tightened it down properly when I re-assembled them a couple of years ago. The tach isn't working consistently, so I need to order and install a TechMatch device to sort it out (I believe it's the TachMatch TM-03 I-Drive that I need? Current-driven tach?). I'm not confident that my ear is good enough to recognize redline, so I probably haven't gone past 5000 RPM yet. The engine sounds and feels absolutely great up there, though, so I'm looking forward to really trying it out. The throttle's a little sticky, which made driving without a muffler quite interesting. It's either getting better or I'm getting used to it. The linkage all looks fine and all the pivot points are properly lubricated, so I'm going to keep driving to see what happens. The gas gauge isn't working, which is mysterious, because Chris and I both had the sending unit working properly, and I think I tested it once when connected to the gauge in the dash. It's probably something simple, but I haven't got to that yet. Mostly I've been driving the car, which has been fantastic! It's starting to come back to me. As I mentioned somewhere a while back, the engine somehow feels much larger than it really is when you first start driving it. That long hood has something to do with it. The car's already starting to feel smaller and more nimble to me after only a few hours of driving. I'll keep driving and knocking these items off, and I'll keep this thread updated!

It was March 14th when I posted that message. Today I got a call from the Ministry of Transport Ontario saying I own the car again! The paperwork to have it transferred back to me disappeared twice in the depths of MTO, but good eventually triumphed over bureaucracy. I wasted no time getting insurance on the car, and picking up the new ownership papers and license plates. We're now one exhaust system and a signature on a Vehicle Condition Report away from being on the road! MTO doesn't require the Vehicle Condition Report - they returned the car to "fit" condition, because that's the state it was in when transferred to the wrecker. My insurance company needs the form completed before they can put collision coverage on it.

Driving a Euclid must be something! Rolling in one must be terrifying. Which model? I spent the summer of 1982 in Whitehorse, Yukon, working at a construction site. They had a few Euclids there. For a while they used to drive me around on the hood so I could take extensometer readings at the rock face. When they got bored of doing that I found a lot of other creative, if not entirely safe, ways to get to the extensometers. I did once get my current 240Z up to ~120mph on Hwy 401 late at night. Once I got there I found the steering wheel to have no feel whatsoever. I slowly let the speed come down while my heartrate continued to go up. I don't think I'll do that again.

I just re-covered my passenger seat with the Interior Innovations cover that I bought from @KenFirch a while back. I purchased the replacement foam from Interior Innovations as well. I wasn't really looking forward to the job. It sounded like it was a bit of a pain, but it went very well and didn't take me more than a couple of hours. I thought I'd add a couple of things to this thread that might help people doing it in the future. My car is a 1971 240 (the one @grannyknot has been working on in a current build thread), but the seats seem to be from a 280Z. They have the metal "springs" in the seat bottom rather than the webbing. They've been recovered previously (the covers were obviously not original), but the foams seemed to be original. A couple of things made the job easier, as described here. There was a thin sheet of plastic covering the foam of the seat back. It seemed to be professionally made to fit the seat, but I don't know whether it was something that came from the factory. It was a little worse for wear, but I was able to reuse it. I was also able to leave the very thin layer of foam on the metal seat back. It was wrapped around and over the edges of the foam on the front of the seat back, but I was able to peel it off. I first glued the edges of the new foam to the metal seat back. I used Lepage Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive and it held very well through the rest of the work. The plastic on the top of the seat back made it easy to slip the top of the new cover over the seat back down to the point where I needed to hog ring it to the metal back. Once I'd done that (more on that in a minute), I was able to very easily roll the rest of the cover down over the rest of the back. When using the tangs to secure the front and back of the cover to the bottom of the seat back, it was easy to pull the material down far enough. This was probably because it could slide easily on the plastic sheet. I was able to hog ring the cover to the metal back through the slot without too much trouble. I first used plastic cable ties to pull the wire on the metal seat back and the wire in the seat cover insert together, then used the hog ring pliers I bought to add the hog rings. I was going to cut the cable ties off afterwards, but decided to simply trim them instead. I can't see them doing any harm, and they're providing extra holding power. When I did the seat bottom, I first used the tangs to pull the cover down tight on the foam and metal seat base. Once I'd done that, it made the job of attaching the hog rings much easier because the foam was quite compressed. I used the cable ties again, which made it very easy to attach the hog rings. I do kind of wonder whether you could do this job with the cable ties and not bother with hog rings at all. Maybe they'd wear through over time. So I would suggest using a plastic wrap over the seat back, attaching the seat bottom cover using the tangs before doing the hog rings, and using cable ties to pull parts together when installing the hog rings. I'll be doing the driver's seat over the next few days, so I'll get a chance to do this again. Hopefully it will go as well as this one did.

They very proudly proclaim that the carpets are made in USA, which I saw as a big positive when looking for a supplier.

The weatherstrip kit continues to be elusive (my first order, via Datsun Garage was last July). Today was the day MSA told me they'd be receiving kits. I spoke to Precision, who supplies them, and they told me that they'd be shipping MSA half the number they'd ordered. MSA then told me I was in the "upper middle" of their orders, so they thought I should be OK. I asked them again today and they told me that they received enough kits to fulfill orders they'd received "before the end of January". The wording made it sound like I wouldn't be getting one of the kits (next ones forecast for April 23rd), but my order was placed on January 30th, so I've asked for clarification. At this point they're very aware that it's the part holding up completion (and apparently tutorial development)!

How's that for a coincidence? The smudged date is, in fact, March 29th. 30 years ago today. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the most expensive 240Z sold in Canada at that point! Most of them were already wrecks by 1994 (this one had just arrived from Georgia), and I don't think many people were restoring them yet. Shockingly, it was appraised at $10k, though I don't think anyone would have paid that for it back then!

So it's not just me! Safari Gold, under artificial light, at night. What a great tribute picture to a beautiful car!. I've got to stop looking at these pictures. Between weatherstrip kit delays and Ministry of Transport bullsh!t, I don't know how long it will be before I can (legally) drive mine on the road! That very short taste I had of driving it the other day put the hooks back into me. There's some weird contradiction between the way the engine feels way bigger than it is when you first start driving it, and the way it feels once you've been in it for a while. I've never felt as "merged" with a car as I do with a Z. I love driving my Mini - it's small, nimble, and peppy, but there's just too much technology between me and the car/road/experience. I've kept this at bay for a very long time, but now it's killing me. Having said all that, I'm not sure who's more frustrated with the delays - me or Granny!

The guy in the Alcatraz shirt was my best friend growing up. He was a very funny guy. I've been an admirer of the pictures of your car in your signature! Thanks for sending a few more. Great colour! Nice car! I think a lot of the early Z colours had different looks in different lighting. For some reason, I find the Safari Gold looks great under artificial light at night. Strange.

That thought crossed my mind, but I don't remember pulling the hose through it when I removed the AC equipment. I don't think the hoses came forward from the rad. I don't know any of the car's history pre-1994, other than it came from Georgia, so I have no idea when various modifications were made. I doubt the dealer removed the smog pump and installed the air conditioner in its place, so it seems likely that it was modified later in its life. If I find some time, I might do some looking around BAT for pictures of the area to see if I can find any other cars with similar grommets. Maybe one of them still has something passing through them.

This one had the dealer air installed. Weirdly, the air pump had been removed and the AC compressor had been installed on the driver's side where it had been. One of the first things I did to the car back in 2020 was remove it. It had never worked while I owned the car, and I didn't think I'd use it much. So it's possible that the grommets are on this car as a result, though I still don't remember any wiring using that routing.

I had an orange 1972 240 back in 1984. I really liked that colour and thought about having this one repainted orange. Granny and I both like Safari Gold, and it didn't seem to make sense to change the colour of a car that was being kept mostly original, so we stayed with Gold. It certainly is a unique '70's colour!

I took this picture back in 2020. It (barely) shows one of the grommets in place, but no wires going through it. I might have removed some wiring by then, but I don't actually remember any wires going through the grommets.

This goes into the "I never thought this would happen to me, but ..." category. No, it isn't that kind of story for those of you who are getting the wrong idea. Back to the boobs thread for that kind of titillation. Since @grannyknot is thinking of driving the car up to a local muffler shop, I thought I'd better make sure I had everything in order so the car is legally driveable (as an aside, it's quite a trick keeping up with Granny on this project. Parts suppliers don't always work at the speed he does). When I started poking at the car back in 2020, I had the ownership paperwork. Somewhere between then and now, it disappeared. Not that big a deal. The car has been registered to me since 1994. So I went to Service Ontario to get a new ownership card. The nice lady behind the counter took my driver's license and typed something into the computer, then said "Hmmm, that's strange. What's the VIN". I gave her the VIN, and she says "We have a problem. You don't own this car. In fact this car was destroyed by a wrecker". Huh. It was in tougher shape than we thought, but I didn't think it was that bad! I asked which wrecker it was registered to, and when it had happened, but she wasn't allowed to tell me. Fortunately, I always expect something to go wrong when dealing with governments, so I was more amused than annoyed or terrified. I assured her that the car had never been near a wrecker, never mind destroyed. For some reason I had the original bill of sale and some other official paperwork from my purchase of the car, including an appraisal document with photos. To make a long story short(-ish), she got on the phone with the gurus at Service Ontario Headquarters. They apparently asked whether I seemed credible. Fotunately, I'd combed my hair and worn a shirt with no stains on it, so she put in a good word for me. They claim that they can undo the transfer to the wrecker, but it will take a couple of weeks. I'll probably need to provide something from an appraiser to confirm the VIN of the car. Apparently this happens from time to time - probably a similar VIN car was sold to a wrecker and a typo happened. It doesn't give you a lot of confidence in the system if someone can transfer ownership of your car without you even knowing ... I asked again about the wrecker, and she asked whether I wanted to request a Vehicle Information Package for the car. For $20 it would give me the history of the car's ownership. You can request this for any VIN at all. The car was apparently transferred to the wrecker in January of 2007. The wrecker is about half an hour from where I lived at the time. Maybe I'll drop by and ask if they have any parts left. Granny's running out of things he can work on again!

Yes, I read a thread in this forum about it, but that was a long, long way down the list at that point. Of course I don't move at "Granny speed".

Does the fan include the fan clutch? I'm 90% sure my fan clutch wasn't working. The fan always ran. I'm not sure what temperature the clutch should engage at, but mine always ran (after I got the engine running again in 2020). Regardless, I'm happy to cover the cost of a new fan! Don't you need the weatherstrip kit before you do the windshield and hatch? That's the part that's currently holding up the MSA order. It's apparently going to arrive "any day", just like it was at Datsun Garage (I'm not comparing the two suppliers - the experience working with the two is night and day). I think the problem must be with the supplier of the kit, as they're the ones giving out unrealistic delivery dates to their dealers. Have I mentioned how great it all looks? I'm hoping to be able to drop in next Thursday afternoon for the first time since you painted the car!

No kidding! I'm still trying very, very hard not to think about it!

Yikes, that's terrifying. It seems like a level of problem that should result in truly extraordinary effort to alert owners.

This shipment was from Z Car Depot. We have shipments of goodies coming from all over the place at the moment, including Rock Auto. Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

Not that anyone in this forum needs a reminder of how these things looked "in the wild", but here are a few shots of what the underside of the car looked like when I started poking at it in 2020. Looking good. Thanks man!

It's always hard to tell from photos displayed on monitors, but the colour looks great! It doesn't look as brown as the sample you gave me when I was there. How does it compare to the inside of the hatch lid now that it's on some car parts?

From the picture just posted it doesn't look like it. You can see DOT at about 8 o'clock, but there's nothing following it. Unless it's on the other side.

My car (the one @grannyknot is working on at the moment), has the original spare, we believe. The car is 04/71, HLS30-29817. If the spare wheel isn't buried, maybe Chris can get the info off it for you. I'm not looking to sell it, but maybe it can provide another data point for you.

I received an email from Datsun Garage yesterday: "We are very sorry for this late reply. We've had a change in our sales employees and apologise for the inconvenience. Your order is almost complete. We're just waiting on the weatherstrip kit to arrive. Once that's in we'll gather your order and ship it over complete with tracking info." I'm not sure why they couldn't have replied to one of my earlier messages simply saying that they'd received my message, and would get back to me, but at least I have an initial response. I've asked them how long they expect the weatherstrip kit to take. I'd rather pay for two shipments than wait for everything. There are 32 items in the order.