Ricklandia

I know it's not much now, but all in all I'd say you were very lucky. A new windshield is not that big of a deal, your insurance should cover that NP. Mirrors, speakers, loose stuff in the car, all that is easily replaced. Most don't get that lucky, I sisn't with mine. Pay homage to the Z Gods, and be thankful that she's back in your appreciative hands once more.

HEHEHEHE... totally sick dude, love it

Okay, I'll finally fess up... I have a set on mine. BUT... thier not musical, as in play a tune musical. They just have a two-toned blast. I love the sound of them, very "euro" AND they do get peoples attention. My 260 years ago had a three horn version that sounded even sweeter. I love em. Hmmm.. I wonder if you can attach sounds here... :laugh:

I've actually done a few clutches, but that was 20 years ago, in a real garage, with real tools (air), on a real lift, with a real transmission jack, ... I was just a kid in High School, but I had already worked in this Mom and Pop gas station/repair shop for 3 years. It was a little town. Anyway, it's now 20 years later, the tools are long ago gone to pay for things like diapers, family vacations and kids auto insurance. Unfortunately, now if I spend more than 1/2 day doing any serious lifting or contorting, my lower back will leave me sleepless for days. Sometime I wonder which is worse; being in agonizing pain, or feeling the agonizing pain of the local repair shop bill :/ there may be one ray of hope though. My neighbor has a young racer-boy son who gave a jaw-drop when he saw my car in the garage. I might just see what it would take to get him to help me with the heavy stuff.

Hey George, I'll definitely take you up on the invitation. My Brother lives in Melbourne, and although I don't get up nearly as often as I'd like to, I've made a promise that when I get this new car road worthy that I would get up his way. I did hook up with the SFZCC on the web, one of the club officers lives just a few miles from my home. Like you say, most are new Z owners but I do see a few "old school" members. On a sadder note, I took her out for a longer spin today, and after about 20 minutes of driving I started to notice the clutch was slipping. :disappoin A major blow as I just dont have the proper tools, or knowledge to tackle that by myself. Crawling under a proped up car in my own garage just makes me too nervous, I'm not as young and fearless as I used to be. Not to mention as limber as I used to be. The local repair shop is good, but like nearly all here in S. FL, very expensive with the labor charges. Patience... patience...

You could always make it exclusively part of the starter circuit, that way if it came loose it wouldn't effect the actual ignition circuit. I have seen a magnetic switch circuit done similarly. You had to hold a magnet to the dash to trip a hidden switch while turning the key for the final starter circuit to work. I didn't see the actual wiring but it seemed to work well. Once the engine was started, the magnet could be removed as it was no longer needed. the owner simply had a magnet attached to a chord on his key ring. Cumbersome, but effective.

DOCTOR! DOCTOR! He said... THE "B" WORD... Quick! Get me my pills! GET ME MY PILLLLLLLLLLSSSSsssssss.... :tapemouth

After fighting for nearly six weeks with the morons at DMV in Tallahassee, I finally got the paperwork finished and plates for the car! WOOHOO! Took my wife for a quick spin up to the gas station to fill up, it was running on fumes from weeks of me messing with the motor, or just firing it up to listen to it. :stupid: Having yanked all the carpeting out (old and mold), every road noise came up through the body, and I do mean EVERY noise. My wife looked at me and asked. "Why do you look so disturbed?" I had to answer it was purely paranoia, that "pseudo-test-pilot feeling" you get after you've made a repair and take it out on the road for the first time. I'm glad to say that nothing that I hadn't already suspected turned up, and although after a few miles I started to relax and enjoy, I also started to build that endless mental list again... ball joints, rod ends, linkage parts, ... :knockedou

If pumping the brakes helps "build up" the pedal, it might be something as simple as air trapped in the lines. Bleeding the brakes will cure that IF that's what it is. However, if your pedal went straight to the floor as you describe, I'm betting it's a more serious issue. If the booster goes bad, you wont lose brakes, you'll only lose POWER brakes. You say the car slid several feet? Sound like the rear brakes are fine and the trouble is more likely with the FRONT brakes. If you havent lost fluid (esp. in the front resevoir), then I'm think it's likely the master cylinder. I don't know if you can get rebuild kits for master cylinders any more, but I wouldn't monkey around with a problem like this. If you suspect it might be the master cylinder, one way to test is to pump till you have a good pedal, then hold it there. If the master cylinder o-rings are bad internally, the fluid will seep around them and you will start to lose pedal after a while. I lost the front brakes on my GTO once, skidded right thru a 6-lane intersection. Not getting "T-Boned" was a miracle, but I wouldn't want to roll those dice again.

Well, not to get too political, but you're right. The current administration (G.W. and the rest of the Neo-Con's) have basically managed to gut 30 years of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) laws. If it weren't for states like California, I think most people here would have no clue as to the sorry state of the environment in this country. Short sighted thinking IMHO. Too many people wanting to drive thier MEGA-SUV's to and from the grocery store, and yet the bitch when it costs them $75 to fill thier gas tank. Go figure. When I mentioned Florida amoung the not-so-bright crowd, I think you can expand that to include a vast portion of this country.

Yeah, I saw that. Unfortunately the damage is already done on mine. Unless a perfect console falls from the sky into my lap, I doubt I'll replace it just because of the two holes, but OTOH I wouldn't mind coming up with an idea or two to "dress it up" a little. Has anyone ever found a way to repair holes made in plastic like these? I've seen many of the commercials for vinyl repair kits but I've never given them much credance. BTW, what was the purpose of the plastic "cover" piece anyway? Were there optional switches that went there? I dont see how from the choke bracket underneath but it sure looks like a switch blank.

In the USA, it varies by State. Some states, like California, have very strict restrictions of emissions equipment and/or engine swaps. It's my understanding that in Cali, your car needs to retain ALL of the emissions equipment that was required when it was new. No exceptions. I don't know how they deal with engine swaps, but I would imagine it's a major pain. To give you another example, here in Florida (my home State), pre-1974 cars used to be totally exempt from emissions testing. that was up until about 5 years ago when they totally abandoned emissions testing. That's right, NO testing State wide, that includes no safety inspection either (lights, brakes, etc). Basically that means anything goes. You can still get tickets if your car has burned out bulbs, belches smoke like a fogger, or generally looks unroadworthy but that is totally at the discrepancy of the police officer at hand. In one way I enjoy it, much less of a hassle, but rationally I realize it's pretty irresponsible environmentally. then again, no one has ever accused the State of Florida of being members of the Mensa Society.

You gotta let us know what neighborhoods you drive in! I wanna cruise for deals like that too!

I would agree, all creative minds tend to put a style or theme to what they do. Personally, I have always had a thing for 1960's "euro"... maybe a youth of watching too many spy movies. But none the less, thats the direction I'm taking my baby, slowly but surely. So many of the Z's lines were inspired by European designs, I think it's fitting.

I hate to bring this up, but... When my 260 was stolen (many moons ago), it was taken in broad daylight, right from my office in downtown Miami. They pulled up in a wrecker, lifted it and went, all in about 5 minutes. Guys across the street watched the whole thing and didn't think twice about it, not even enough to remember what the name on the wrecker was. I;m afraid any amount of battery kills/magnetic switches/sirens or whatever wouldn't have stopped them. I suppose the best and ultimate defense these days would be a lojack system (if they have it where you live). Cops here in S. FL say it works amazingly well, they're constantly tracking cars to shipping containers awaiting shipment to the Carribean where they can be sold for double or triple thier value here in the states. JMHO

I need to correct myself. I think this problem might have been exclusive to '73's. Anyway, here is the fix my PO made: Bad enough it looks ugly, it also cracked the plastic piece too.

Hmmm... well it's only a problem for older 240's I suppose. I don't have any photos onhand, but after a quick search thru the forums I did find a thread regarding it. Unfortunately on mine, the damage (screws through the console) is already done by the PO, but the thread offers some very interesting solutions to the problem http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14577&highlight=73+console I'll keep looking, or else snap a photo of mine when I get home.

Welcome. It's always nice to meet fellow Floridians. I gotta agree with Ed, I would have serious doubts about the 39K as being authentic. Too much work has been done to the car for a low mileage original (wrong year carbs, emissions equip removed, headers, could be wrong but it looks like it might have had A/C at one time - who would dump that on a 40K mile car?) . I could be wrong but it would take alot to convince me otherwise. As Ed say's, pull up that carpet and get a good look at those floorpans. If you do metalwork ,you'll know what to look for. If you don't, then beware that it can get $$$ to repair. Otherwise it looks pretty good, even has the "t-handle" shifter my old 260 had! Too bad no A/C, but I guess if you were gonna race it, that'd only be a handicap. Tough call between that and a Miata for weekend racing. You can find great deals around on Miata's if you look around. I found mine for less than $2K and it was pretty spotless bodywise. Speed parts for Miatas are everywhere and relatively cheap. You don't need a whole lot handling wise, it corners like a go-kart bone stock. The web-community is on par with this site as well (miata.net to name the biggie) so lotsa go-fast advise out there.

Damn! Aren't you the wet blanket! (just kiddin) I know what you mean though, I was think more in terms of "dress-up" items as opposed to actual engineered parts. Although that's still an option for some. I'm fortunate enough to know the engineers at our Biophysics Department enough to ask for that kind of advice. One thing that has been buzzing in my brain is what to do with the spot on the center console that the choke handle mounts to. Virtually every photo I've seen has the same repair as mine does - screws thru the little plastic plate - rather unsightly at best. I've been thinking of what might look good there to "dress it up".

Ran across this today, thought I'd share it with you all: http://www.emachineshop.com/index.html You never know when you might need to have a part custom manufactured up for you! Hmmm... let's see now. What could I make for my Z for Christmas...?

POR makes a tank sealer-refinsher product if you wanted to do it yourself. Reading the instructions, it sounds like a PITA. Think I'd rather take it to a rad. shop and pay the money to get it done. JMHO

Just a bump: Only two more hours on this item and it's only $533 - not a bad price for a set of triple Mikuni's, not to mention some spare parts to boot.

Where in FL?

Charlie, I'll bet that this topic has been covered from many angles in the forums before. Best bet is to use the search function and look up ENGINE SWAP and see what comes up, I'll bet it'll turn up just about any question you had, or didn't even know you had... yet.