gav240z

The early 70 / 71 cars had Fiberglass headlight buckets from the factory because the tooling wasn't available to do them in steel. So it's definitely the passenger side that has had the knock and the headlight bucket replaced. I'm not sure what your plans for this car are, but I'd be very tempted to keep it original and source a replacement fiberglass bucket. I think it keeps the early cars unique. She looks so original, btw when you replace the steel hubcaps with Watanabe's store them away somewhere don't get rid of them! My 240z has similar front end damage (doesn't appear to have disrupted the radiator support at all), coming from a minor incident. I was thinking of cutting off a good front (2+2 or donor car) and welding it on, but was going to ask Lurch about the best way to approach it. Would be interested to see what you end up doing.

I would love to see a tutorial, as you say it looks straight forward but it always helps to have someone show you how and save you having to find out the hard way . My rear drums are in a bit of a sad state and I think I'm going to do this conversion (since adjusting drums is a P.I.T.A). Looking forward to it anyway.

Hi guys, On the subject anyone had experience with touch up paint for Metallic paint?

You are right hate is a strong word I can appreciate anyone looking after their pride and joy, it's just that they are definitely not my cup of tea. 1 of my friends who owned 1 also had a VL Turbo, which is another car I'm not very fond of. Different horses for different courses I guess. I do agree with Jeremy though, if you are going to have a Japanese / Italian car collaboration go with the Italian styling (which is usually much nicer) and use the Japanese reliability since Italian cars are not known for being reliable . Don't do it the other way around though.

Interesting video from Clarkson on Japanese Car Industry Rise and Fall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3GFnI_T3_w Love the Alfa Romeo Arna, could possibly be the worst car ever! I always hated the Nissan Pulsar ET (Turbo). 2 of my friends bought 1 and I remember driving it and being utterly disappointed. It drove worse than it looked and it didn't look good at all. I just coulnd't understand why they liked them.

Fantastic looking cars, really like the 2000GT also. What a wonderful car, can't be many of them in Australia.

Awesome video: Love hearing him explain why the design was the way it was, like the FRP front headlight scoops and the rear hatch. Then talking about the Dashboard and how he wanted a certain shape and feel. All these details are the reasons I fell in love with this car so many years ago.

I'm happy to get them up and featured on this site. http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1456.75.html

Still looking for cars to do a write up on. So if you fancy having your car featured please let me know.

If you are into conspiracy theories then check this out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sISdgA0NbRM

Hi Dave, For now donations are working well and we seem to hit target each month. We also do earn a very modest income from Google Adsense which tends to make up for any short comings and provide a very small buffer for the months where donations don't quite reach target. I am also considering other ways to monetise the site and just now have implemented something that may bring in additional income although I'll have to give it a trial for a couple of months to see. I have considered adding more adsense to the site, but I want to try and avoid overwhelming advertising and I always try to keep the User Experience in mind. I have been meaning to migrate the website to a more manageable CMS to make maintenance and new features easier to add but time has got the better of me. I've always seen this website as an investment myself and I hope when the time comes to get started on the resto of my Z I'll be able to call upon a few favors .

Hi Guys, This is a general question although it still applies to your projects. However I'm wondering what methods you use to find parts you need. What I'm looking for is a list of websites, contacts, tools you use to find the part you need? If you are in the trade I'd also appreciate some info on how it might differ for you in the trade when it comes to finding parts you need. Has anyone ever had luck with any of the car part search engines? If so which 1? I'm toying with the idea of building a car part search engine to help people find new and used parts for their cars.

That's true many people do donate. I try and update everyone who has donated to status of donating member. Although recently I've been a bit busy and missed a few of these so again if anyone has yet to receive their status update. Feel free to drop me an email gavindoolan (@) gmail.com. John I appreciate the thread and the donation. What I've been doing is every month I set our target Chip In total. This month for example we need a bit more cash as I renewed the domain name viczcar.com for another 5 years at a cost of $10 p/year ($50). So that goes on top of the $170 odd for hosting. So far we have been pretty good at reaching targets with the Chip In widget on the homepage. Although 1 thing I didn't consider is that people don't visit the homepage and they skip straight to the forum. I might construct a banner to encourage donations that can alternate with the Otomoto banner.

Welcome back Marc, I was wondering when you might be back on the forum. I met Marc many many years ago now, driving along city road in Melbourne. He drove past in his black 260z 2+2 and I chased after him in my white 260z 2+2 and we had a bit of a race . He won though haha. He later helped me out a few times with my 260z and I remember going for a ride in his 260z after he turbo'd it (it was a carby turbo). Was pretty damn quick too. At the time I couldn't restore my 240z due to no space and being a broke uni student. So I bought another 240z (my current one) and sold him my stripped down 73 240z. Marc I still regret selling that 240z so if you change your mind and decide you don't need the additional project let me know first please . I saw Marc's current project many years ago in it's sad state as a shell so he's done a lot of work to get it where it is now.

Looks good, I think it would be even better if you paint the grille black or restore it to the original grey colour. The black and red combo works well, just like on the old rally cars.

Hi Guys, I thought this might make for an interesting debate. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i7z_m_-zdZfE27l2OgX7-ivh1K0Q?docId=CNG.065c95c9ec87c66849736794b4625215.391 I am wondering if anything like this has been mentioned in Australia? I know many a man has tried to change this, but without much success.

My advice, buy a cheap econobox as your first car and save your pennies for a project car. Something that needs some love and work. Take a short course in welding (since most of these cars are rusty as) and practice your welding skills on some scrap metal. Then when you are ready get stuck into the Z. If you really are truly enthusiastic other members on here will take note and many of our members are willing to lend a hand. So don't feel you'll get stuck on your own. Oh and don't listen to your mates!!!! Mine were always telling me stop wasting your time on that 240z why don't you get a Silvia or a 180sx or some other common as muck car. For me it was never about how powerful or fast the car was, but about owning something unique, with the timeless sports car shape. It was also about learning about cars, how to work on them and improving the car. The Z's are relatively simple so an excellent starting platform. Good luck.

Welcome, we don't have many 240K members here but then again there is not many left so welcome aboard. I think they are an underrated car and would like to see as many preserved as possible. Show us some pics when you get her.

Hey John, I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, However I don't think later RX-7's (FC / FD) followed suit of the Nissan Z-series. In fact I think they kept their back to basics approach and the FD was made as light as possible with complete focus on the driver. The FC was a bit heavier than the earlier SA / FB / First Gen's but they also had the Turbo variant. The FD is actually lighter than the FC. I think each generation of Z-series has got heavier and heavier. Not sure about the 350 / 370z though think the 370z is lighter? Incidentally the 350z was penned in the US, as was parts of the FD RX-7 which in my opinion is 1 of the best shapes to come out of Japan since the S30. So whilst the 280zx may have been penned by the American's I can't say that's the reason it was slightly *uglier* .

Oh man if I wasn't such a purist with my own 240z a 20B would be awesome choice. Even a 13B with a single turbo would go awesome in a car as light as the 240z. But I might put a 20B in my FD . I have to admit every time I see my 240z in the garage I used to smile and admire how cool it looks also. They are an addictive car and loads of fun to own.

Lime Green S30 Z from Rocky Auto Japan

Well if you are here to help our members that's fine. But if you are here to try and post links back to your own website then this will be disabled very shortly and a pointless exercise. I hope you have more to contribute than just flogging 1 product.