Zak's Z

That happened to me at a new Nissan dealership close to me. I went in looking for an oil-spray bar for my cam, I even had a part number. I went through the Vin speech, and he said he had 240sx, I think he was playing cool because I said Datsun and he didn't seem to pick up on it. After a minute he says he doesnt have it. I pulled out a part number, and he looked for a minute and said "oohhh.. I see it now" and looked sort of relieved he figured out what I was talking about. He did stare at me like I had 3 heads when I first walked in and told him I had a '72 Datsun.

"If any teenie babes hit it in their VW - you are dead." Your friends might be right about this one!!! After doing alot of work on mine, I'm convinced that anything more than a fender-bender will result in serious bodily harm. ...but anyways, congrats on your new purchase! Personally I'm making mine all stock, no mods other than wheels and electronic distributor (so far). Theres alot of info on modifying your car at hybridz.org. And Im sure you can find some stuff here too... I just never paid attention to it if I saw it. Good luck and keep us posted.

The seats I have the gap isn't too bad.. but it's there. I have seen lots of seats on Ebay, and a few in person that have had noticeable gaps. Don't know why though... but would it make sense to say that the new seat cushions might be a slightly different size, or more 'compressed' because they are new?

Jeff, I never thought of that. I've been following the poly vs. rubber debates for awhile. I already ordered a set of Energy black poly bushings for the whole car, but I could always mix 'n match or go to rubber if need be. Montreal roads are just like Toronto roads. Come spring, theres a ton of potholes from the constant freeze/thaw effect.

I can tell you I painted those mounts blue. I do remember though that when I cleaned them off originally, they were blue then too. there was alot of grease and fading, but when they were all cleaned off blue was the only color left in some faded spots.

I have somewhere in the area of $14,000 invested in mine... and I figure I have $2k left to put into and I should be done. I also have about $2k in parts to sell after... That figure does NOT include the tools I have bought over the last 4 years to do the work myself. If my body NOT MY FRAME - because there is no frame - was in better shape I could have gotten away with about $4,000 less. It was pretty bad to start.

I guess you wouldn't. I did say body/frame not knowing how familiar he is with the car. You are correct. There is no frame. Thanks for pointing that out for me.

Before you decide what to do.. why don't you post some pics of your car? First thing I would determine is the condition of the body/frame. What issues do you have with rust, etc? Post pics of the battery tray area, doglegs, inner fenders, frame rails, rear deck lid and the underside. From there I think people could actually make useful comments on what needs to be done. Assuming it's pretty good...and you want to go ahead with a 'refresh' of the car, seriously consider the cost involved. It does cost alot of money, even if you do most of the work yourself. I am in the process of a 'refresh' on my '72 and I'm doing alot of work myself and it still costs more than I anticipated. Assuming after that you're still going to go at it... then I guess you start by tearing it down. I think the most important thing you can do is photograph and document the process like a crime-scene! I have all these baggies lying around with a few bolts in it with a smudgy label that says "left side" on it, for example. Now that I'm ready to start putting things back together after 3 years I cant remember where alot of it goes. Anyways...lets start with looking at your car!

I took some pics of the motor today and the VHT paints used. One is VHT Flat Aluminum (too dull and dark) and the other is VHT Caliper enamel Cast Aluminum (too bright). I painted everything with the bright one, then gave a light coat of the dark one to take the shine out. The valve cover and distributor body are just blasted and sanded. The valve cover is a tad dark because I havnt cleaned off the metal polish completely, so the distributor is a good color reference. When I resized the pics it turned them on me..you'll have to tilt your head (and I had to throw in one shot of the new paint job) It was a really bright day here and the sun is low..I cant imagine this much light will ever hit the engine bay.

You should find someone with the resources to match the color. It really shouldnt be out of reach for a good body shop. A little shopping around might be able to save you from having to get the whole car painted, or worse - just leaving it because it costs too much for a complete respray.

I refinished most of the parts for the motor last summer, and I had the flat aluminum and the shiny aluminum paint. I didnt like the look of the shiny aluminum, and the dull was just a tad too dull. So I painted everything with the shiny one, then misted on the dull one to tone it down. Engine is all wrapped up in the garage but I'll see if I have any pics...

Hmm. Your first option does sound too cumbersome. Watermark or copyright pages sounds pretty good. Your second option may be a problem where members need to access materials offline, like from a pda or computer in the garage or on the road somewhere. Printing would also be a necessity I think. If you require online authentication, why not just host it in a protected area online?? You could use .htaccess on the server with vbulletin and give users a unique user/password that can be logged. Is it possible to just offer the pdf's with copyright protection? You can add a watermark, use security permissions, encrypt the documents and even use a public key right on the users machine. That way you can still have access to the document, but make it unattractive to be distributed due to having to also share a public key, passwords, etc. The document will scream classiczcars and be tied to a persons name. Just offering up ideas here...

There are a few ways you can copy protect stuff, but I would say keep it simple. Different file-types have different schemes built in such as Acrobat, Word, etc. You can also copy protect the entire DVD with one of several programs that sort of enclose everything into a container and its password protected / encrypted and access is for one session only. I've used that before and it tends to work but its kind of cumbersome and you have to either index everything like make a web or flash based interface if you have alot of documents, or just have a folder with everything in it. If you are copy protecting documents to keep people from reselling them, does this site own the rights to them? If so could you watermark or copyright notice all documents? I would assume users want access to their documents, printing, keeping a copy in the garage, etc. If you try to restrict access to documents they really would have to be embedded in another program. What types of files are you talking about exactly, and maybe we can narrow it down?

Ya, its pretty far gone. Hope you get whatever you can out of it before you send it to the crusher.

Hey and welcome to the site. Theres a Z club in Ontario and the website has a classifieds section.. http://www.ontariozcar.com/ Theres also a great shop in Toronto that works almost exclusively on Z's. Mike or Gregg usually have a line or two on whos selling Z's in the area - you might want to give them a call. http://www.whiteheadperformance.com/ And of course THIS site is probably the best place to sit back and learn as much as you want to on Z's. Some really good advice I can personally give you on buying a Z in Canada is to watch out for rust. Its really rare to find a Z up here that isnt rotted out or well on its way. If you do, you usually pay quite a premium. If you are willing to make a road trip find a Z down south that has a good clean body/frame. That will put you miles ahead of the game. I drove down to Ohio just a few months ago with a friend who bought a Z and he did well for way less what a similar car would have cost here. Happy hunting!

Barrie, Very Sad to hear the bad news. Thats terrible, and theres nothing that can bring her back but you did some very nice work and should be very proud of it. I really hope this experience doesnt convince you that you dont deserve something as nice as your car was. It has nothing to do with you, and all to do with some lowlife that wanted to part you and your car, and take something THEY dont deserve.

Guys, I went to the link but what is the proper way to re-align the cam to the support towers when you're going to put it back together?

I looked on member Kat's website after looking at your pics, it seems (unless the color and camera flash is off) that you have some rare early parts like the gray heater control panel. The pic from his website is here http://www.geocities.jp/datsunz240zsports/1969heaterpanel.jpg Great find !!

You must have been looking in Woodbridge...

Wow... I love the 'center-channel' on the speaker system.

I have the same problem curerntly. Best I can figure is that a square 17mm socket is required. I tried the regular sockets on it with a huge breaker bar, nothing. I also tried huge vice-grips on it with a hammer. Nothing. I also treied again heating it with a torch, nothing. Im going to use the switch hole when I fill it up. I even tried a few auto parts stores to order a square socket and no one had one. I know this doesnt help your problem, but I gave up on mine.

I know Tabco makes the replacement metal that most of the suppliers use. Im pretty certain MSA and BD buy from them. If anyone knows better please correct me. I ordered from them directly. http://www.tabcobodyparts.com/html/table_of_contents.htm

Beat me to it...

ok, is the reluctor the magnet then? I thought it was when I pulled mine apart. If so heres one on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nissan-280Z-810-New-Elec-Ignition-Reluctor-Assembly_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1205Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c39Q3a1Q7c240Q3a1318Q7c301Q3a1Q7c293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem310106563674QQitemZ310106563674QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

(hangs head in shame) ... ya i missed that one.