Zeddophile

If its going to be a pretty stock L28, I'd go with 40mm carbies, as the 45s will be too big and may make it a bastard to start. If you are going a big cam, some head work and raised comp, 45s are probably a better option. And if you are starting off stock, but planning for some engine work later on, jetted down 45s possibly with smaller chokes installed are probably best, to avoid spending money twice .

You don't necessarily need a 280zx one - most L-Jetronic fuel regs should be the same pressure (2.5bar from memory) There is also an adjustable type fitted to some european car as standard, but for the life of me I can't remember what model car it was - either Volvo or Jaguar comes to mind, but could be wrong.

you should be able to find a 2+2 that meets the criteria with that budget fairly easily, 2 seater might require a bit more careful looking and waiting. Check carsales for 2+2s, there always seems to be at least 5 or 6 up there.

I was thinking about doing this at one stage, there was a Jag v12 going very cheap at the time. If you check hybrid Z, quite a few guys have jammed a BMW v10 in there as well.

I'm assuming you mean castor rods here. Can't remember how the zed ones bolt onto the strut, but Alfas have adjustable castor rods - (Alfa 75 (maybe 90 as well?), and all Alfettas (GTVs and sedans). Even if they won't bolt directly on, or are the wrong length, you could cut the strut end off your Zed ones, and weld them onto the alfa castor rods (preferably with a sleeve over it for strength). Just have to make sure that you adjust the adjustment to the middle, then make them exactly the same length as the standard zed one is, then you can add or subtract castor from standard postion. There is a fair bit of adjustment in the alfa rods, so any desired castor should be acchievable. Just an idea, if no reasonably priced off the shelf units are available, and nothing from another model Nissan/Datsun will fit. Could do it with any other models adjustable arms too, most likely - Alfa ones were the first into my head because I've been fiddling with mine lately, they are pretty chunky, and there are quite a few Alfettas/75s being wrecked around the place at the moment.

For the panel work, I'd go see Rankins Restorations in Bayswater (Malvern street). He's done a few before, and does a lot of concours restorations on all makes of classics - the job WILL be done properly.

I can't believe this car is still for sale.... its ridiculous that no-one has snapped it up. Damn being poor (or disinclined to spend money!)

2+2 panels from base of windscreen forwards will fit on 2 seater, anything behind there is different. Rear quarter skins - is it the whole quarter you need, or just the dogleg at the bottom? I believe the dogleg is available, but if you want a whole quarter, you'll have to buy a shell to pull them off (and believe me, it is NOT a small job to change rear quarters, and should be avoided if not completely necessary).

I don't think its the rail thats the problem, looks to be the section that is spot welded into the floor.... The easiest fix, rather than replacing the whole mount piece, would be to get a piece of 3mm strap in the right width and put it underneath, drill a bunch of holes through the mount into the piece of strap and weld the two together (fill the holes you drilled up with weld to make a kind of spotweld). Should strengthen it enough to stop it happening again, especially if you make sure the strap goes to the formed groove in the mount either side of where it is broken

Doesn't suppose that was anyone on here was it, bidding on a 260z 2 seater shell with an RB20det?

Manual conversion is very simple for DIY with a little mechanical ability.... doesn't even have to be a 240z box, can be 260z or 280zx, and possibly even some other similar age datsun boxes fit. http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1986.0.html Read that thread for more info.

http://www.carsales.com.au/used-cars/private/DATSUN/240Z/details.aspx?__Ntk=CarRego&__D=5366340&Cr=0&State=All%20States&R=5510861&state_id=0&__N=0+834+285+257&distance=25&__Ns=pCar_PrivateSpecialFlag_Int32|1||pCar_ImageCount_Int32|1||pCar_LastModifiedDate_DateTime|1&__Ntt=5366340&trecs=1&__Nne=20&__Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&silo=1003&__sid=118E0596E36B&rego=%095366340&seot=0&__Dx=mode+matchany For the price, it could be a pretty good buy, if its not lacework. Kind of very tempted myself, but if its as clean as it appears, better someone buys it to keep it mostly original, as I'd be ripping a lot of it out. Which makes it uneconomical to spend even that much.

The TOP of the guards isn't very common, nor the roof (it even looks like the roof has rusted in behind the hatch there, along the top?) - water usually makes its way down to the bottom, and rusts the bottoms of panels, or sits in under seals (ie on the hatch).

As the old hands say, weight loss is the cheapest form of horsepower.....

I'd be interested to know why you say this? The dish in the piston is there when the piston is at bottom dead centre as well as TDC. If you are determining the size of your cylinder (ie. the whole volume at bottom dead centre), you would take the bore and stroke into consideration, then add the volume of the dish of your piston and the volume of the chamber in your head. Sure, at top dead centre your cylinder volume is only the volume of the dish in the piston, the chamber in the head, and the area between the piston and top of block height if your piston doesn't come up flush. No argument with that at all. However, while the cylinder is filling with air and fuel, it still has to fill the dish in the piston as well, regardless of piston position (assuming 100% efficiency of course). I know traditionally displacement only considers swept volume, but thats not exactly the whole picture when you actually consider whats going on inside the motor. And when boring it out 5mm gives a per cylinder increase of around 13.5cc, and the dish in my Rover 4.6 pistons was 28ish...... Not trying to have a go, just stating my view, and wondering where you are coming from with yours?

Unless he has been given concessions to run SUs, yes. The section of Sc regs on induction states that bore size is free, but make, type and number must remain as standard (but any period style manifold can be used). Which in theory means on SUs you could run some with much bigger throats. Engine wise, the block, head and stroke must remain original (or a CAMS approved alternative), but internals are free, and a 1.5mm overbore is allowed. Heads can also be modified by removal of metal only (guessing that means no larger valves!). So if you were smart, you would bore out the allowed 1.5mm, giving you about an extra 80cc of capacity. Then you'd use flattop pistons to bring up the compression (which incidentally would probably lose most of the displacement increase), and port the crap out of the head, to match the big and scary cam you just put in. Set of extractors to complete the picture, and you've got a pretty angry motor starting to form up.

Generally rear demisters aren't worried about much, as long as your heater blows hot air onto the windscreen your demisting requirements are met. The VSI relating to rust definitely states structural rust is unacceptable, but panels etc should be permissible, providing they are still in reasonable overall shape (not pedestrian slashers) and not allowing fume access. Floors/roof/pillars are all part of the main bodyshell, and as such count as structural, and the rear quarters on a zed could be argued to be structural in that the way they are attached stiffens the rear of the body. Door SKINS (not frames) shouldn't be a cause for a fail, likewise bonnet etc. I wouldn't agree with the first part of that - I'd have to read that particular VSI before making a final decision, but most testers wouldn't be too happy about it. Hazards are required to work if fitted, from memory. I'd just see about whether they fail it first, and if they do, then do something about it. May not be a problem in the end, and if it is, it will give them something obvious and easy to fail it on - some guys like to at least get one or two things that need to be fixed, so they can write it on the RWC and it shows they have looked at the car properly. The other problem you may have is that sometimes country testers are very tight on their interpretations, and fail things that would pass otherwise. Get it inspected when you're ready, and see.

Why must you make such awful puns?

Spot on - Victorias roadworthy standards are at best grey on many areas, and can be quite open to individual interpretation.

the old tyres on the zed had a lot of sidewall flex!!!! The other videos from that movie are kind of cool too. After watching the 4th chase from it, I may have a new favourite silly line from classic car movie: "Can someone tell me whats going on? We've got a blue mercedes leading a corvette in a motorcycle race!"

Definitely heard of using molasses to clean parts like rocker covers etc of grime and oil, the alloy/metal apparently comes up better than new. Does take quite a while though, and finding a tub big enough to put a whole hatch in and then buying the molasses to fill it could be fun. Sounds like your restoration bloke is a bit of an old timer, I'd be guessing he's forgotten much more about perfect panels than any of us will ever know. While the old ways often sound strange, panel beating and repairs done that way on cars made from real metal (Ie. Zeds and other classics) seem to always come up far better than taking the more modern approach.

Amusing that this thread is hot again - was just browsing through the recent CAMS updates posted up on the Alfa club, and came across this http://www.cams.com.au/content.asp?PageID=MemberBenefits&ObjectID=14 in amongst a few insurance changes. Not sure how many of you are members of CAMS (and not sure if being an official counts), but still interesting if there is actually a decent discount. (NOTE: If being a recognised official counts, then grab yourself a trainee official licence off the cams site, get along to 3 sprints/meets run under a Cams umbrella, get yourself signed off for all three, then send your form in, and become an official official (all for free!). The upside of which is you could possibly officiate in some way at ANY cams event, including Rally of Melbourne, getting yourself free trackside slots!)

Random guess, something sticking in the carby, or being held open by a little bit of crud. If the needle that the floats push down to allow the fuel bowl to fill up sticks down, the carby will just keep filling up with fuel, till the float bowls are completely full and you have un-atomised fuel running into your motor. Only evidence for that theory though is the black smoke and the fact that it randomly came good, could conceivably be any number of other things.

my staggered set of 16x7 and 16x8 with +25 offset wouldn't clear struts on mine when I had it, and those wheels would stick in further. But yes, Silvia/180sx rims are the correct 4x114.3 stud pattern, as are AE86s (Toyota Sprinter/Trueno/Levin).

That series 2 sounds pretty damn good..... don't suppose anyone wants the series 1 and not the series 2?