Arne

Lucas electrics have gotten a bad rap. It generally wasn't the electrical component that failed, it was frequently the wiring itself. I drove a '67 MGB as my daily for over 6 years. In that time it only let me down once, and that was early in my ownership, prior to the restoration. Properly restored and maintained, an old English car is no more prone to electrical problems or leaks that is an old Datsun. In many ways, the English and the Japanese cars have a lot in common. They should, as the Japanese learned much about how to build automobiles from the Brits. The big difference was that the Japanese weren't averse to taking advantage of more modern design. British Leyland (later BLMC) labored under the impression that the American market was a bottomless pit - we Yanks would continue to buy anything that they sent us, no mater how old and quaint the design. By the time they figured out differently (and the 240Z featured prominently in their education), it was too late.

Epilogue - The car has been mostly complete for a little more than a month now. I've been busy with replacing the fence here at the house, so not much Z-related action. But yesterday, with the help of Escanlon and beandip, the original headliner that was salvaged from the yellow roof donor was installed. While that isn't really an exterior part, it was still a part of the exterior refresh, which is now officially complete. And the final verdict? It is very good, I'm well pleased. No, it's not perfect, nor will it be confused for showroom-new. But the flaws are small and minor, and it looks like what it truly is -- a very nicely maintained, relatively low miles, mostly original and period correct survivor. On the 1-5 scale as Carl has described, I'd humbly call it a very high #3. It'll never make #2 because I drive it too much. (It turned over 65k on the way home yesterday.) But that's exactly what I bought it for, and I'm thrilled with the result. The biggest downside? It attracts more attention than I expected...

Aftermarket cruise control.

And here's one on the West Coast:http://eugene.craigslist.org/car/751589769.html

I was with Gary yesterday when he picked up his car, and have seen in person the other 240Z they painted as well, and can second his recommendation. Both jobs turned out very nice.

Yup, the above responses cover it. I used to do so, but don't bother any longer. It's not that easy to get info from DMV these days.

Sure, it'd be much simpler to see stuff locally. But in most parts of the country there aren't enough local Z owners to find many buyers. Zs are still common here in Oregon, but even so, I shipped over 90% of the parts that I sold from my cars. Here's my advice for non-eBay sales - pick a fair price, maybe a bit less than what you see similar items sell for on eBay. Figure out what it's going to take to safely pack the item(s) for shipping first. Figure out what shipper is the most convenient for you to drop off packages, and use that shipper for your shipping quotes. For example, many medium sized post offices now have self-service shipping kiosks for Parcel Post and Priority Mail. For medium sized packages, these kiosks can be used 24x7. Try to have an accurate idea of the weight so that you can quickly give accurate shipping quotes. I normally shipped within a couple of days after receiving payment. Most buyers will realize that this isn't what you do for a living, and will be accepting of a short delay like that. Doing it this way, I didn't find it too much hassle to ship most parts. Big items are the largest pains to deal with. The most difficult part I shipped was a cylinder head. Took a bit more effort, but it went OK. Remember that there are two benefits to selling your surplus parts. Not only are you raising some extra cash to finance your hobby, but you are also helping other people enhance their cars, or often helping them get or keep them on the road. Very satisfying.

If it's clean and maintained, the emissions stuff doesn't look bad at all, IMO.

As Douglas Adams would say, those parts are 'mostly harmless'. If you're going to remove 'all' of the emissions stuff, go ahead. But if you can't or don't want to pull it all, they won't hurt a thing to still be there. In fact, pretty much all the emissions stuff on '70-72 240Zs falls under that category - mostly harmless. There is very little to be gained by removing any of it.

If you are talking about the bolts that connect the front of the bell housing to the rear engine plate, that is not your problem. You see, there's not supposed to be oil in there at all. The clutch chamber runs dry. Best guess - either the engine rear main seal, or (probably more likely) the transmission front input seal. Either way, the transmission is going to have to come out again.

I got mine from my Nissan dealer. You can also get them from the usual mail order suspects -- MSA, Black Dragon, etc.

Who cares what others think? When you've owned the same car as long as you have, you're entitled to paint it any color and pattern you want.FWIW - I do like it. Nice job!

There are many ways to get nice sound. The original owner of my 240Z replaced everything behind the Y of the stock downpipe. Way low-tech and simple. Consists of 1-7/8" crimp-bent pipe, and a 24" generic glass-pack muffler where the resonator used to live. That's it - small pipe size, no rear muffler, just the single glass-pack. The sound is actually quite nice, not overly loud, no resonance, a mellow note reminiscent of early Jags or a 95-99 M3. So nice sound isn't hard to get.

Nope, it's just an agreement between the insurer and the insured. Has no direct connection with the market price, unless the insured uses his/her estimate of market value in coming to the agreement..

Nope. It's a metal tab with a 12-point star-shaped hole in it, spot welded to the inside of the frame rail. Just like the ones on the bodyshell where the brake hard lines connect to the brake flex line. Most automatic cars don't have that tab. (I have seen it on one early Series 1 automatic, but my yellow car didn't have it. I removed one from one of my parts cars, drilled and pop-riveted it to the frame rail. You'll need the tab sleeve and spring clip too. You should be able to get all this from the same car you get the hard line itself from.

No offense meant to you in particular, Mike, but why don't people ever think to check with their Nissan dealers for these types of things? That's the only place you're likely to find new parts of this type. In this case, all three pieces seem to be available new from Nissan. 79901-N3400 - Center panel, list price $59.90, frequently discounted to around $50. 79902-N3400 - RH panel, list price $211.82, frequently discounted to around $165. 79903-N3400 - LH panel, list price $211.82, frequently discounted to around $165. Also worth looking at - 79900-N3400, a set of all three pieces, but marked as possibly superseded in the parts list. If you can find the bundled set, it shows a list price of $169.37. That low price alone makes me think the 3-piece set is NLA.

I suspect the reserve was set at or near the B-I-N price of $35k. Mike, you and I look at this from a much different point of view than most people in the USA. First, we live in a part of the country where 240Zs can still be found fairly easily.But secondly, and more importantly, both of us already own very nice, low mileage original 240Zs - your red '72, and my red late '71. And neither of us paid anywhere near that much for the ones we already have. Now I'll grant that the gold car in the auction was lower mileage and nicer than my car, especially underneath. And - unlike my car with it's new paint - that one is still original, not restored or refreshed. To me, that fact alone greatly enhances its value. Add the fact that it is also a "Series 1" (although not a "low-VIN"), plus its East Coast location, and I can certainly see that it should sell for considerably more than what I have in my car now. $35k? As we all well know, restoring a car to anything approaching the level of this car will cost every bit of that. Because of the expense, very few will ever be done to anything close to this level. And even then, the restored car will be restored, not original. Bottom line, though, is this - If I didn't have the car I now have and was looking for a really nice 240Z, I really don't think I could talk myself into spending that much for that car. Although 5-10 years from now, it'd be another in my long list of regrets, right up there with selling a clean, original, very nice '63 1/2 Galaxie 500XL hardtop for $600 back in 1975. Should have just stored it away somewhere. A quick addition - I'd rather spend $35k for an original like this, than for a Program car. FWIW.

Speaking as someone who fought a similar clunk for many months, it doesn't sound like diff lash to me. I think the diff itself is rocking -- one way in first, and back in reverse. Just a stab in the dark, but make certain the two nuts that hold the diff to the mustache bar are tightened to spec. I've seen the whole diff torque back and forth there.

Should be virtually the same for all manual transmission LHD S30s. If the exact year isn't the same, you may have to tweak the master cylinder end a bit, but that's all.

From the end of the metal line to the slave cylinder. Marked in yellow.

I forgot to attach it. Here it is.

It's not all that short, but it is required. It runs behind the engine as shown in the attached photo. It is also very difficult to get mounted properly while the engine is in the car, and you will need to either find the correct rubber isolator blocks for it, or modify the ones you now have. Your car will probably lack the metal mounting tab on the side of the right frame rail where the metal line and your new hose join. I posted a fairly complete parts list in my tech article on this a while back. While it was written from a Series 1 point of view, almost all of the info there is still valid for the later cars.

Yes, Stephen, that's what I did. I found a couple E12-80s for next to nothing and actually gave my E12-93 away for free. I didn't want to mess with the mod. But I've heard that (in some parts of the country) E12-80s are hard to find. Not so, here out West. The wrecking yards are full of old 210s, 510s, 200SXs and pickups with the E12-80. So if you can't find an E12-80, the advance mod should make the E12-93 work. But it does seem simpler to find the right thing from the start.