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Hey guys, I haven't been active much at all on here but I have been ghosting the forum for around the last 4 years and reading up while I was looking for my Z. Ok, so where to begin. I have always loved the Z cars and have yearned to own one for a long time. After buying a new house with what basically is a small warehouse for a shed I decided the time had come to get said vehicle! So the search began, 3 years of me being a fussy bastard and ghosting 12 or so different Aussie car forums netted me a number of a "phantom Z seller". This phantom Z seller (Isaac Smith) was suppose to only come out near summer and sell Z cars?! After a phone call that lasted a good hour and a half I had found myself a Z! Isaac had a straight matching numbers 1971 240 that he was willing to let go. Isaac helped me get it from his house to Port Melbourne where I was to pick it up. The wait was excruciating, I hadn't felt excitement like that since early childhood Christmas. It was only a week...... anyways!? I jumped on the plane and had the worst flight of my life (L plate pilot!!), landed and headed for the port. When the truck pulled up with Z in check I was a little taken aback. The car looked bad. Looking inside the car made me feel worse; most of the interior was sitting in the cargo area along with alot of other parts. Trying to get it off the back of the truck was a little difficult. There was no loading bays or areas that could be used to get the car off! To add to that the battery was flat and there was a leak in the fuel tank and where the car was sitting on the trailer had allowed the tank to almost completely empty! shiver! After getting a jump start from the wharfies I drove around looking for a fuel station hoping to not A. see a cop and B. run out of fuel. Once the initial shock wore off and I stood back and had a good look at it for what it was, a fairly cheap matching numbers 1971 Z car, I felt a little better. I had a fairly long wait to get onto the boat and this helped me see that the car wasn't all that bad. Most all the parts were there and there appeared to be very little rust (this may come back to bite me yet). 3 things in my life have never faltered, my love for my fiance, my love of everything mechanical (Z's!!) and my love of siberian huskies. My sibe: Kiara, "Kortierra Obsidian Dream" As such I named my car after my last black and white sibe, Kiara. The Z will eventually be black and white but not in the normal way most people paint Z's. My fiance believes I already spend more time with the car than her so she has name it "The rusty mistress". As you can see here her body language tells the story of what she thought when I pulled up!

CAN ANYBODY TELL ME WHAT PARTS A DATSUN 260Z FROM 1978 AND A 240Z HAVE IN COMMON. WHAT ABOUT CHASSIS, DOORS, WINGS, REAR HATCH AND MECHANICALS? I've just found one on ebay and it's not much money. Was thinking I could use it as a donor car. It's less than a day to go so i'd appretiate your time! Thanks very much! Matt

CAN ANYBODY TELL ME WHAT PARTS A DATSUN 260Z FROM 1978 AND A 240Z HAVE IN COMMON. WHAT ABOUT CHASSIS, DOORS, WINGS, REAR HATCH AND MECHANICALS? I've just found one on ebay and it's not much money. Was thinking I could use it as a donor car. It's less than a day to go so i'd appretiate your time! Thanks very much! Matt

Hello all, You remember me, I'm the guy who was about to buy a lovely 240Z and then they sold it to someone else! Threaders!! Anyway, I made this find and am bringing her home next week. She's been sitting there with many rats for company for the last 23 years so I'm going to need some direction and tips ( hopefully someone selling spares too ) from anyone who has the time. Really appretiate any help recieved. Cheers all Matt

Hey everyone, I hope all's well with you and your families! My name is Michael from Houston, TX. I've been a member for almost a year now (hard to believe!) and so it's well past time to introduce myself. I first fell in love with the Z car back in 1978 when a drummer I was working with in the U.K. used to take me for rides in his 240z. When he let me get behind the (right-hand) wheel, that was it. A few years later in 1982 I purchased a burgundy 1978 280z 2+2 with a 4-speed transmission. I was partial to the coupe model but liked having the back seat and extra room for my guitars, etc. That was followed by a blue 1978 280z 4-speed coupe which I loved. I later switched to a van (!) in order to transport my band's gear as we were on the road pretty often. However, the thought of getting another Z never left my mind. Over the years, I fondly remembered from time to time how much I loved that 280z. Sometimes I would look at ads on ebay and found myself trying to remember what it was like to sit behind the wheel of a Z. It was like a sweet dream that brings a smile to your face every time you think of it ... sound familiar? Flash forward to early November 2007. One of the secretaries in my office told me one day that she and her boyfriend were working on a 280z. I of course told her that I had owned a couple of 280z's years ago. The subject came up a few more times after that and then ... something clicked. The fever was back. On a lark, I started checking out listings on ebay and cragislist to see what was out there and recall being surprised at how relatively few Z's I found around Texas. As the fever grew, I then began crunching some numbers to see if I could swing something crazy like this. And then I knew - somehow, some way - I was going to get another Z. By late November I found three 280z's for sale on Craigslist. Two in the Dallas area and one around Austin. At that point, the only thing I clearly remembered about Z cars was that you had to remove the fender liner to change the headlights! So I asked the sellers a lot of questions and had them send as many photos as possible. I decided against the Z in Austin and decided to make the trip to Dallas in hopes of returning with one of the 280z's. My first choice was a bronze 1978 5-speed coupe. Second was a green 1977 coupe. I knew that the '78 needed some brake and other work and would need to be towed if I bought it. For some reason I didn't have a real good feeling about the '77. Very early on December 1, 2007, I took a Greyhound bus up to Collin County (north of Dallas) and rented a U-Haul truck with a car trailer. (My Volvo was not heavy enough to pull a trailer with a car on it). I had made arrangements to see the '78 later that morning and drove over with great excitement to see it. When I got there, I found that it was in somewhat rougher condition than I had expected. The body was in pretty good shape except for a few dings and dents. No visible rust. Paint was fair. The interior was dirty and a bit rough. Overall the car just looked neglected. And it had an ugly half dash cap! The engine sounded pretty good but as the owner had told me the brakes were not working well, I didn't try driving it. After checking the car out as well as I knew how, we agreed on a price. Using the parking brake, we loaded the car onto the trailer and I drove away as the proud owner (once again after all those years) of a 280z. When I got home, my brother helped me unload her from the trailer. I then discovered that the brakes worked better than I had thought. It felt so wonderful just to sit in the driver's seat of MY 280z! As the registration was expired, I was a bit reluctant to drive her but later that evening took her for a spin around the neighborhood. I recall my intial surprise at the steering as I had completely forgotten that the S30's don't have power steering! The fever was coming back with a vengeance. Over the next couple of weeks, I took every opportunity I could find to reacquaint myself with Z's in general and learn about my car in particular. This included a few more neighborhood drives. At that point it became clear that I needed to find a good Z mechanic to bring her back to health. I ended up taking her to Kin Chan's shop in Cypress, TX. Kin is the Technical Co-Chairman of the Z Club of Houston and a Z car enthusiast. My intial intention was to have her checked out and restored to proper running condition as a daily driver. As most of you know, however, these projects often take on a life of their own! And so it was with mine. Kin and I often discussed the possibility of a full restoration. As Kin's shop was restoring her to mechanical health, I decided to redo the whole interior and see about having her repainted. We ended up pulling the engine, transmission, wiring harness, etc. and sending her to Master Auto Body & Upholstery in Houston, TX. She is now repainted in the original 301 bronze color. Except for a few hard to find parts, the engine, transmission, etc. are back in the car. While the engine and tranny were out, we had the valves and cylinder head redone, block repainted and a bunch of parts like the intake manifold, valve cover, heat shields, splash guard and various brackets powder coated. Also had the underbody, wheel wells and floors undercoated, the bumpers rechromed, seats recovered and mag wheel covers refinished. There were only a few minor rust spots throughout the car - some small ones in the floorboards, a little under the battery tray and in the windshield channel, and a few small spots by the tailights. There was also a bit of rust forming on the drivers side frame rail that was only visible after the engine had been removed. These were all sand blasted and repaired. The real fun was cleaning and protecting all the connections on the wiring harness and retaping all the places where the old tape was pulling away. New weatherstripping too. Before she went to the body shop, I also replaced the struts, ball joints, tie rods and steering rack. At the same time, we replaced all the bushings with a poly master bushing kit from Energy Suspension. Also replaced the front sway bar bushings, which are not part of the master kit. Later pulled the dash out and took off the half dash cap that was on it. I removed all the gauges, cleaned them, installed brighter bulbs from MSA and put a full dash cover on with a new dash emblem. Also replaced the short insulated duct that goes from the drivers side dash vent to the vent under the dash. Now in the process of locating a few miscellaneous parts such as a new receiver/drier and expansion valve. I got some new replacement stickers/decals for the underside of the hood, air filter housing and radiator. MSA doesn't have the 301 paint code sticker yet, so that will have to come later. Soundproofing, new carpet, re-upholstered seats, new console, door panels, etc. will be going in soon. Once the paint and trim are buffed out and polished, new emblems and side molding will go on and then a set of new tires. Last thing will be a muffler that's closer to the stock design. Last July, I decided that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to use this car as a daily driver. When a friend started asking me to sell him my Volvo 240, I started thinking that it would be fun to have another 280z to use as a daily driver instead of the Volvo. A few weeks later I purchased a burgundy '78 5-speed coupe from a guy near Fort Worth. But that's another story for another time ... for now here are some photos of the bronze '78 coupe at various stages of this project. Back in the saddle indeed!!!!