SteveJ

The gentleman (and I use that term loosely) started a thread over at Zcar.com. Either he does not know what he is doing, or he is just looking for people who have more dollars than sense. He has many other cars at his website GROSSLY overpriced. While a car is worth whatever someone will pay for it, there is some reason involved. He equates rare with valuable. He doesn't realize (or doesn't want to admit) that a pristine Yugo is rare, but one would be hard-pressed to call it valuable. A 10th Anniversary 280ZX is just a badge and paint treatment. Low mileage means it's a low mileage 280ZX.

My 2¢: I have to agree with Arne's last post. I have a sneaking suspicion that the pushrod length is wrong.

Could you see if he's got a good center console for a 73?

Define way too expensive. I think they are about 70 cents each through Courtesy and other places.

The conversion is easy, especially if you get the adapter (splice piece) that someone on here is selling for it. If you don't order the adapter, you're going to have to jumper wires yourself.

Are you sure it sold for $5600? On the page it said, "The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale." Maybe he got a better offer in person.

Naviathan, considering that people can check the threads that have been active in the last 24 hours, starting a new thread to draw attention to the old one could be considered SPAM. Face it: not everybody shares your enthusiasm for the car being built for Pinks.

I used standard headlights after the relay conversion with excellent lighting. It helps to have full voltage at the lights.

This may be overly detailed, but I don't want to leave things out. Above is a schematic of the headlight circuit. I omitted the fuses for clarity. As you can see, the headlights themselves are between the headlight switch and the high/low beam switch. So, if you're tapping into the old right headlight socket for power for your relays, you would have the terminal from the red wire connected to the 86 pin on the relays. On the low beam relay, the red w/ white stripe would go to the 85 pin, and on the high beam relay, the red w/ black stripe would go to the 85 pin. That should have your relay signals straight. Now you'll need to wire your new headlight sockets. You can do this more than one way. I'll just throw out one suggestion. Run two wires off the positive lead of your alternator. Install 10 AMP inline fuses on the wires and connect the end of one fuse to the 87 pin on the low beam relay and connect the end of the other fuse to the 87 pin of the high beam relay. Run two wires off the 30 pin on the low beam relay to the wire on the left side of the replacement sockets. Run two wires off the 30 pin on the high beam relay to the right side of the replacement sockets. Run the black wires to ground. If this doesn't work for you, I suggest that you either follow the wiring as described in the other link or search this site for the person selling the relay harness adapters.

I modified the Daniel Stern Lighting design to work with the Zcar. You'll find it at http://zhome.com/ZCMnL/HeadlightRelays/JudkinsRelay.htm.

Did you actually find the name of the place in Woodbridge? I've driven up and down US 1 without seeing anything that I thought might indicate a place selling Z car parts.

Go to the search page and type in the following words: fuse box melt Read through the responses. The problem with the running lights & dash lights is common.

That was ARCO Graphite. I tried to search for it on Google, but all I could find were anecdotal stories. Frankly, now that I'm older and perhaps even wiser, I wouldn't put any additives such as teflon (Slick 50) or graphite, etc. If it worked that well, the manufacturers would do it from the factory. After all, there are still the US corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) requirements that they must meet.

Look for loose/exposed wires behind the radio & heater panel. This along the lines of what EScanlon said...soon after I installed my radio... Been there. Done that.

Inspect any vent hoses and the filler tube.

Even with how scarce Z cars can be, £2500 sounds pretty expensive, especially considering how much you say already needs to be done. I'm not sure how well set the interior parts market is outside of America, but in this country we strip a lot of old Z cars for parts. Why do you say those parts need to be replaced? Are they in bad shape, or are they missing? What year 260Z? (imhoppy - this poster gave the price in pounds, so most likely he is outside of the US.) Look for rust, rust, and more rust. Typical places include the following: floor boards frame rails (They run almost the length of the car from the firewall back to the rear suspension.) battery tray (battery acid and metal just don't mix) rear hatch spare tire well lower panels wheel wells doors. If the car hasn't run in a while, you can almost be guaranteed that you'll have to clean out the fuel lines and possibly have the inside of the gas tank recoated. Unless you have ample room to disassemble the car (in a covered area) or you have a big pocketbook to pay someone to store & work on the car, you might want to take a pass on a car requiring a lot of work.

He's in Colorado.

Wow, 5 years have already elapsed since you posted the same questions over at ZCar.com. You might as well sell it to someone who needs it for parts. Price it at $500. Maybe you'll get lucky.

If you watch the different boards, you'll see that you don't see the people outside of the US ever use "boat anchor" or some similar term for the carburetors. We Americans were pretty much alone with that privilege at that time. I didn't forget about the carburetors on the 73. I have also seen posts claiming that using the right techniques, the 73 carburetors were quite usable, too. My main point was that an American 280Z owner was making comments that did not apply to the original question. Given that the poster already was publishing erroneous information, I was curious about where the rest of the "knowledge" originated, especially since it appeared to be a blanket statement applying to all 240Zs.

Of course, since the post is in the Australia forum, it's safe to bet that the first author is in Australia. Given that, it would be difficult to impossible to find a 1975 to 1978 Z, since Datsun kept the 2.6 Liter engine in non-US markets until the 280ZX. By the way, where did you hear that the 240 had some problems with the carburetors? Do you have anything to qualify that remark?

Carl, GRM started Classic Motorsport Magazine so they could concentrate the focus of both publications. GRM was going to focus on "newer" cars (less than 15 years old IIRC) while Classic Motorsport was intended to focus on older cars. I haven't purchased GRM since the split, so I don't know if the division still stands.

Beandip, according to what I've read on Zcar.com, early 280Z doors will work. I believe the cut-off was around the 76-77 model year change.

Let's go back to the basics. Have you inspected your wiring harness? Is the harness completely original and unmolested? Did you or a previous owner ever install an alarm system? For your turn signals, have you inspected all of the parking light and turn signal sockets for corrosion?

Check your connections. Given that you said you did an engine rebuild, I would guess that you had at least part of your wiring harness disconnected. You could have had a corroded connector in the wiring harness. You can find an image of the wiring harness here http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm Look for the connectors along the route of the wire for the high beams and see if any are pulled out, corroded, etc. You'll want to trace a red wire with a blue stripe.

Just to clarify a few things... To truly protect your lungs from dust from grinding, fibers from fiberglass, etc. (aka particulates), you need at least a half-face respirator using a P100 cartridge. The mask must be the right size, and you have to adjust the straps properly, too. As for the manufacturer, 3M, MSA, Scott, Willson, Draeger, North, Survivair, and AOSafety are all companies that are likely to be around for a while. If you want to filter out the vapor from fiberglass resins, you can also probably find a combination organic vapor/P100 filter. Remember that you need to match the manufacturer of the filter to the manufacturer of the respirator. Some others mentioned paints that contain isocyanates. Cyanide poisoning isn't what you need to be worried about. Isocyanates will sensitize your respiratory system, and you could experience anaphylactic shock (like with a bee sting), choking you to death. I haven't looked at the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) from many automotive paints to see if they contain isocyanates. They are correct in that you need supplied air for spraying isocyanates. You also have to make sure you are not pulling the air from anywhere that could be contaminated by the isocyanates as they get into the air. Above all, carefully read the MSDS for the paint. You can usually get a copy of it just by emailing the manufacturer. Depending upon the paint you are using and where you are painting, you might be able to use a full face respirator with an organic vapor cartridge. A prefilter may also help prevent the filter from clogging. You have to make sure you have adequate ventilation. This prevents displacing the oxygen in the room, and it prevents you from building up a high enough concentration of the organic solvent and overwhelming the respirator. As with the half face respirator, you must choose the right size respirator, or it will leak. Be sure you store your mask in a clean area, preferably in a plastic bag to prevent contamination. You also need to know how to clean your respirator and maintain it, unless you plan on using only disposable respirators. Also, don't paint in your garage if you have a water heater there, especially a gas-powered water heater. You can find a variety of respirators and filters at Lab Safety (http://www.lss.com). They even have a fit-test kit available for $45. I have worked on respiratory protection programs for over 11 years. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM.