Arne

The rules are different out West, although they vary some from state to state. But in general, plates are issued once and can be used as long as they continue to be registered on the car, with only new stickers (tags) applied. Replacement plates are not routinely issued. So the presence of current year-of-issue plates on a CA car indicates unbroken registration within the state of California. Here in Oregon the laws are a bit looser, the presence of year-appropriate plates is not an indication of unbroken chain of residence. But year-appropriate plates can be legally registered and used on cars in one of two or three methods here.

I don't think the blue plates are reflectorized, not even the yellow. I think that started in CA with the white plates.

That shot was taken during the reassembly process after the paint job. Was the best picture of the plates I could come up with on short notice.The tail panel paint I used was from Les Canaday at http://classicdatsun.com/

It is true that most states have administrative rules that prohibit repainted plates. But done well, no one will know. I've always thought that the blue of the California plates was very similar to the blue used on Oregon plates through '73. If so, this site may be able to help with the blue. The yellow on the CA plates appears to be a bit more "orangy" than the Oregon yellow, though.

A pair of compartments in the floor of the rear deck, under the carpet near the seats. I can't find any pictures right now, but that's where the jack and tire changing tools are stowed.

No solid guarantees, but if you have enough room to get these on the lock it should work.

Remington, or Norelco?

I've never seen the factory-style rubber in preassembled "sets" like the poly bushings come in. I think you'll need to order them all individually.

There are hundreds—if not thousands—of Gorilla codes. Summit will not have spare keys available, you would need to contact Gorilla for that, and they aren't going to sell you a key without knowing the code.Here's another thought. Hit up your local tire shops to see if they have any old Gorilla keys lying about. Code doesn't matter at all. Bring it home and use a die grinder or Dremel to grind off all the splines save one. If there are both wide and thin splines, leave a wide one to match the one at 2:00 in your picture. Don't grind the other splines too far down, you want the key to have a very snug fit. You should then be able to use it to remove the locks. Worst case scenario, you can buy another full set of locks to get a key to modify.

Not to add insult to injury here, but '74 and newer Mustang II and later Fox body Mustangs have a different bolt pattern than your Z. The Z is 4-4.5", the '74-up 4 lug Mustangs are 4-4.25". The very early 6 cylinder Mustangs ('64-68 or so) used the 4-4.5" like the Z, but not the later ones.

I'll probably have time to hook up the dwell meter after work on Wednesday.

If you don't care to save the current rims, weld a normal lug nut on the end of the lock nut. Arc welding is better for this than gas. You can also try to select an appropriate sized (but expendable) 12 point socket and drive it over the lock nut with a hammer. Try to get it driven on quite snug, but beware that you will quite likely break the socket.

Nice seats, and easy to adapt to other cars. But they are a bit hard to find in good shape, as only a few of the E21s here in the states came with them. When I retrofitted a pair into my E21 323i, I ended up paying over $800 for them buy the time I found a pair, had them shipped and then had them re-upholstered. Not cheap...

All of this "yellow" talk is bringing me down, guys. Knock it off!

Yes, the black vinyl is hot in the summer. (And cold in the winter, although I doubt that's much of an issue for you.) But my daily driver has black leather and I can't see that there is any significant difference. If the sun has been baking the seats, either black material is like sitting on a teflon-coated griddle. If I wanted to reduce this problem, I'd move to cloth, not leather. But that doesn't maintain the stock look.I actually have less problem with sun-baked seats in the Z than I do in the BMW. Since the dash in my Z is uncracked, I never park the car in the sun without a sunshade in the windshield. That helps keep the direct sun off the dash (my primary concern), but also helps with the burning thighs problem as well.

I ran nothing but synthetics in my old E21 323i, which had over 330,000 km on it when I sold it. No issues with oil over the 5 years I had it. If your car's gasket or seals are marginal, you could see increased leakage. But on a well-maintained engine you should minimal issues, if any.

The 15" Rewinds are 15x7 and 0 offset. Walter, your ZXT wheels have the outer lip tucked inside the fender over 3/4" more (22-23 mm). That would make them much less likely to rub than 15" Rewinds.

Another concern is that—lifetime warranty not withstanding—I've seen far too many E12-80 failures to be totally comfortable with their reliability. I am not aware of any method to "remanufacture" the module, so I suspect that the Duralast module is either a third party repro or a used module that has been cleaned and tested. When I had the E12-80 on my car, I always carried a spare module in the car with me just in case. I never had to use the spare personally, but it was used in a friend's 240Z after a sudden module failure without warning at a Datsun show. I wasn't happy with the advance curve and total advance when used on a stock L24, either.

To use my blue plate (which is not original to the car), I had to register it as either a "Special Interest" plate (~$80 one time cost, but 1500 mile per year limit), or as a vanity plate and pay the vanity fee every renewal. I drive my car too much for the SI option. The Monza has a good sound when coupled with the 24" glasspack mounted up in the transmission tunnel. A bit quieter than I'd probably prefer, but still nice.

So here's a question - if you are after the "original look", why switch to leather? I can see no advantages to leather over original or well-made vinyl replacements.

This is a huge part of the issue. There's lots of clearance for wide tires if your 240Z has an air dam on it. The rubbing problems when turning are most common on cars with stock valances.

You talkin' about the Monza dual tips in the bottom picture? I found that unit covered with decades of dust on a shelf in a local muffler shop. They haven't been made in years, true NOS stuff. No group buys available on that unit, for sure.Someday I'll get around to replacing my exhaust system. When I do, I'll sell that Monza, the rest of the system is only suitable for scrap metal.

Jonathan, I'm not 100% certain I know what the exhaust opening is like on a 260Z, either early or late. The 240Z opening is very pronounced, and only a bit more than 3" wide. If you are willing to enlarge the opening on your car, I think the twin tips of this system could look quite nice. First pic below is as mine was when I bought it. Second is same exhaust, but after the re-paint. The third pic is after my change to the Monza dual tip rear exhaust.

OK, this information is VERY interesting to me. I fought with the 4000 RPM rev limit after installing my Pertronix for several weeks of testing. I actually emailed back and forth with Pertronix about this, they were trying to pin it on the 3.0Ω Pertronix coil. I finally worked my way around the issue by re-installing the original 1.5Ω factory coil and resistor, and making certain that the Ignitor was receiving line voltage (pre-ballast) on the red wire. Doing this allows my engine to rev out properly. I have not been able to get there using the 3.0Ω coil in any config.I don't recall that I ever checked the dwell angle after installing the Ignitor though. That could explain a lot. If mine is also too low, I may try slotting the lower hole to adjust it myself. I'd really prefer to be able use a new coil instead of the 39 year-old original.

I don't care for the look of that system on a 240Z since the dual horizontal tips don't fit the exhaust opening in the valance. But on a late 260Z or 280Z that is not an issue. There have been numerous reports on this system over the years on this forum. Search for "twice pipes" to see some of them. Most owners seem to like the sound, although they are frequently described as being "loud". There have also been fit issues reported. But MSA may have corrected some of that by now, don't know for sure. Only two official reviews so far in our reviews section. http://www.classiczcars.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=18&cat=21