ajmcforester

Look at that healight bucket better it maybe ABS plastic, if so that is an original for your car. You can only get used ones or metal ones now. I have two extra ones for one side I'll find out later what side if your interested. The plastic ones where only used on the earlier Z's and there is a history and story to these plastic buckets. I don't have the time right now to scan the microfiche copy and post it for you. If I remember next time I'm at the library with my microfiche I'll make a copy to scan, if your interested.

That is not the best way to patch the car that is how they would do it at a body shop, it was more than likely glued on (it is strong it just won't last over many years of use. If you find more like this do #1. By the way if you can get the car up enough you can drop the engine/transmition and front suspention from the bottom it is easier, to do that you need to take off the intake and exhaust. to make sure things don't go out of line you may need to put the engine in and out several times to make sure things line up when the weight is on the wheels. Also don't start cutting until you brace the car other wise it may fold or bend out of shape (this isn't hard as long as you tack-weld well). Also consider using bracing in any area you see a lot of rust before getting stripped, if you use a good media blaster they usually stop before blowing out to much rust but why risk it. The more I look at your pictures the more I notice the hard to find parts are their, it is just a lot of rusted areas that need some work and cleaning the rest. Are the seats new or where they that nice in the car?

Yes their are tools you will need. One thing I recommend to use 6 point sockets they do less damage to the head of nuts and bolts. If you plan to use the original style of carbs first find a British car specialist they can teach you how to tune SU carbs (infact when you get the car together have him set the carbs for the first time). He will direct you to get a airflow meter, and some type of exhaust meter, you will need it to get the two carbs to sink-up well. I have a lot of fun with these carbs differnt oils in the pots make them act different and so on; you can really tune them to your driving style. Also the early 240z like yours and mine are faster than a 280z. The 280 was heavier and restricted by head disign and emmision control. For natural aspirated heads the E31 is the best, you can modify them to get more power I've heard of machining to get 280z valves in, but they will tap the cylinder walls. To wake it up and keep an original look under the hood try to find a JDM or Canadian exhaust manifold the have larger openings and no smog-pump plugs. These sell really cheap but you pay in shipping (about 25-28lb). If you look at them you'll notice they have good flow. try to get the down pipe to match, a least the top half of it. I'd also recommend not going bigger than 2.25" on the exhaust unless you will be increasing the intake volume or using two mufflers with some restrictions. Remember you have no cat you have less restrictions. I had this setup on my first 240z with a magnaflow muffler it sounds great and not that noisy. Also if you go to 15" rims tires get cheap it brings them to a Honda size, tip on custom rims it take .25" spacer to fit Honda rims they can look up what the back spacing is from that. You will be happy for ease to work on the 240 has a lot more engine room than the 280 you just have more maintenance jobs over a 280.

He does have the right combo for that the lightest bodies and the rare z

By the way what are you looking for with the car a nice driver, fully restored to original car, race car . . .? This will send you down different paths, and be honest some people will restore all to new like original, other less intense something to take to the local small car show and drives around the countyside. I want to keep mine mostly original with some vintage aftermarket parts, like how I would have done the car in the early 70's, and I'm going for high detail, but I will keep a lot of the patena (sp?) that came with age. My thought is if I wanted a new car I would go down to the dealership and bought one. That was why I don't judge Corvettes anymore you would take points off for discoloration of aluminum parts for example, and it took 30 years to get that look. What ever you like do it to your tast, and don't look back

Since it is a uni-body car their is no frame the body would be the cab area or any part welded or strongly connected to cab. The floors, inner fenders, rocker panels . . . for examples. Body panels would be like the front fenders. Two things you want is the factory service manual and the factory parts book these two books will help a great deal and you can get them from Curtsy (sp?) Nissan in Texas they are online. This will give you ways to reference what cars by production date will match your car with diagrams of the car and other important specs. The other thing you will want is some system to keep things organized. I actually use zip-lock bags index cards and measure every fastener and give a number for the diagram for location, for example. Keeping the parts organized will help when putting it back together. Placing fasteners in a bucket with no way to tell where they go will cost so many hours that many times cars never get done. If the fasteners are not organized it would cost more for a restoration shop to do than if you gave it to them in the first place, don't worry even if you just put front fender bolts in one bag and break them down by section of the car it isn't that bad to get them in the right spot. I'm actually going to have all the fasteners replated measurements and details will get them back in the right bags for assembly I would only take apart the car you are trying to restore that way you can use the other car for reference. The only time I might take the other car apart is that the other car was worse off and wanted to see if the body on the other was any better.

I like that get-er-done attitude that will keep you going for at least 3 months. I'd keep an eye out for a good shell you may have enough left in these two cars to start one good shell and restore one of these. It may be too difficult to restore both. I used to judge Corvettes and for every 85 or higher score their was more than likely 2-3 parts cars to make that one. Some advise from someone who has restored one and is currently restoring one. Only do what is fun for you, if in isn't fun send it out other wise the car becomes a chore, not entertainment. If someone ever totals your project car don't buy the same type car, mine is about 5 times harder to restore with a better car, you tend to reminisce of your old car (I wish I knew that before otherwise I'd be restoring a 84 Toyota Supra or modifying a 91 twin turbo MR2). I know when I'm done I'll enjoy this car just as much, the satisfaction of fully restoring a car is a great feeling that people that have done it them selves only get.

When you are looking at a restoration project, nearly everything can be restored with enough time and money. The question is it worth doing. The pluses I see is it looks like you have a big shop area to work, have two rusty nearly complete cars that could make one complete car, and it sounds like you have some knowledge and time to invest. Cons you have two rusty cars that need mostly new lower panels, and will more than likely cost more to restore than they are currently worth. Now if I had a good shop area with a lot of room I'd restore one to original from top to bottom, and if their was enough of the other hotrod it out after restoring the first. The early 240z are the lightest of the z's and I'm always a big fan of light weight cars, power to weight is key to a fast car. The first thing I'd to is disassemble the car noticing condition of every part and fastener and documenting it. then get the body taken down to solid metal to see how much work is needed to restore the body, that will tell you if you need to find a better shell to use. The nice thing I looks like you have two great parts cars if the body is to far gone to make it worth restoring. Paint is a great protector, but can cover up a lot of rust, so make sure you strip it down before you start welding new panels down you can save your self a lot of heartbreak if you do that.

I have the front muffler shown in the pictures I just got it this week. I checked for muffler material their is none it actually is a resonator. I made a new post http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36681 trying to find more out and I added pictures that will show it better than the one above (not to say I'm excited to see the ones above). If anyone finds either one the end muffler I would be very interested in it.

Some penetrating oil, BFH, and brake cleaner you can sometimes get the wheels to rotate if you spray down the breaks and hubs, with the drums taping with a BFH can break them louse

You all might think I'm crazy, but what do you look for to replace it like original? I'm looking to actually replace it after I re-prime the metal, and repair a dent in the floor, I don't have any rust to repair (thank god). I made a template to make a new one before I take it out I just need to find the material is. I've helped friends with this the dry ice works great and then some heat where ever it didn't come up. We didn't use hammers since the metal on that car was aluminum. just found edges and pried up on it breaking pieces off. I know someone that might be able to get me some liquid nitrogen that would relay make it brittle. When the time comes to remove the tar met I'll let you know if I used liquid nitrogen and how well it works

I bet the wheels are frozen in place. If so I'd recommend the ancient method of using round sticks (aka 1 or 1.5" PVC pipe) and a sheet of plywood. Bring the trailer as close as you can jack the car up and place a bunch of PVC pipes down and then the plywood lock the wheels on the car and set the car down on the plywood with this set up you can move almost anything. then push or pull the car on the plywood on to the trailer moving the pvc pipes in front as they come out in the back. I'd recommend using a winch to move it onto the trailer. You can use the tow hooks another good spot on these cars to connect to is the steering support in center of the car. Don't use the bumpers, frame rails or the diff mount you will more than likly damage the car at these points. They look like a lot of work but it will be 2 fun project cars.

OK hear are the pictures I promised

That's what makes it a vintage exhaust and the difficulty setting up vintage aftermarket stuff. I had a friend with a packston (sp?) supercharger on his mustang, I remember how hard it was to get a new vain for it.

Well Marmitte might not be a brand, and they made several different brands, or something along that line, and I do know that is a region of Italy. When I was looking at websites using Marmitte for search word I came across a Fiat Marmitte aftermarket website. It was poorly designed and hard to fallow the text, but it had great pictures of about 4 brands or types all having the Marmitte name. I wish the sight was easier to follow because it looked to have some chronological order of the history. Any ways where I'm trying to go with this the muffler body construction on the mufflers and resonators were the same among all the different brands or models hinting to me at least the use of the same manufacturing plant. The other ting I noticed is different lables on the exhaust systems. I however have not found any exhaust systems with with the SUPERSPRINT label on it like I have or any other pictures of my exhaust system than the eBay ad. By the way I'm interested in your resonator, but I want to find out more about these exhaust systems first. If they made a Supersprint resonator I might want that as my first choice to keep the exhaust system looking like it was purchased as a set. When I'm ready to purchase I'll respond to your ad:)

I just picked up an barely used Marmitte Supersprint front muffler:D I've heard of this front muffler but had not seen picture untill I saw the ad. I'm wondering what other setups Marmitte had I know this manufacture sold many different brands, like ANSI. I'm trying to also figure out what resonator to use to finish the setup. One thing I have noticed with the resonators for sale is they don't match my size the end of the pipe measures a factory sizes (1 3/4" OD and 1 5/8" ID). The ones I've seen for sale are 2" Today is rainy and dark, but the fist day of good light I'll get some pictures to add (I know a lot of you love pictures)

Keep it clean, and put some moisture absorption packs inside the car. Milldew does not like to grow on plastic, more than what is on the plastic like dust and other tings.

Duplicolor needs the panels very clean to have good adhesion you might be stripping the paint. Beside I can tell when people paint the panels, but it don't look bad if you get good adhesion. If you want them looking new try what I posted earlier. When I bought my first Z I thought I had the wrong color since it looked like a really dirty butterscotch interior, but it was white. These results took time and some over nicotine exposure, but they are all original panels. See below PS use a good vinyl protectant after it is clean. I like Mothers because it leaves a more natural look and does not have much cleaners which can dry out the vinyl. With Mothers you need to wash the panels before using unlike other brands

Mix one gallon hot/warm water and one cup vinegar and some elbow grease will do wonders. On the over spray try some Eco-tech you can find it at a bike store, you can mix it very lightly and clean the areas that are really dirty. For the plastic get a Mothers buffball and plastic polish after you clean it by had it will do wonders on the plastic. If you have any stress impacts on the plastic try a heat gun and slowly heat the area to recolor it it works wonders, it also works on faded areas.

OK I did get the plastic welder and like it better than glue. One nice thing is I can add reinforcement to the plastic like fiberglass strands. Also the plastic in the area welded seems to gain some of its original characteristics back. Cons it will distort panels just like welding thin metal so plan to have stuff to reshape the panel, and a heatgun. I found doing 1/4" sections at a time best with the thin panels. Also on panels that are not painted you can only weld one side than two sides, like recommended in the instruction. I'll try to get pictures up sometime this month.

OK the books out their are not that great for tuning the carbs. You also picked a very hard type of carb to work on. I agree on checking for vacum leaks and with the backfiring when was the valves adjusted, that needs to be done anualy on these Z cars. I hoped you checked vacume before messing with the carbs it sounds like they where close. If you didn't set the carbs as close as you can to factory setting you may even need to adjust the neetles and check vacum pressure. Do you have a smog pump and equipment hooked up, a portion, or none of it working? I picked up a car that had the emmtions hooked up but blocked off since the smog pump seazed, well I had a rebuilt pump that I conected and put all but one new hose (forgot to get that size of hose). Well I spent two days just to find a ball berring in that hose blocking the system from working. The point is that it was causing the car to run like you are explaining. You can block the smog system, and disconect the pump and see if that fixes it. It would only take one emisions part to go bad to cause your problem or they may not have blocked something off corectly causing problems if they disabled it.

I'm still looking for the fasteners does anyone have any ideas

My alternative cars would be a 91-95 MR2 twin turbo or one of the rare supercharged 80's versions, 85 Supra, 64-68 s800, 93 ZR-1 with 40th anniversary package, Sunbeam Tiger.

I have a 71 and live in Maple Shade. I also know a guy in Morestown with a 260z 2+2 and a 73. I also know of some guys in the Vineland area that could help you out with some parts

I'm in S Jersey what part of Delaware