Gyra

Ralf and Huey, awesome Billy Connoly sketch! Sorry, don't know the guy. G

Hi mate, Freddy at Topstage has some nice fiberglass centre consoles. Cheers Gyra

Pm sent re grill

Thanks guys. Those coilovers from Canada look good. I'd be interested to hear what the ride quality is like The car's skittish enough on poor roads as it is! I've grown attached to the red dash cover, I'm not sure I could part with it (must be old age!) G

Gone! G

Folks, a pair of speed bleeders to suit 240 (maybe 260?) drum brakes up for grabs. (ie smaller size, won't suit disc calipers) These make one-man brake bleeding much easier! pickup from Gisborne or East Melbourne. Cheers, G

Folks, a set of four 260Z wheels. They need a good clean, but seem to be quite sound. All yours for a slab of beer or a bottle of red! Pickup from Gisborne. cheers, G

Finally got the front wheels on - needed 5mm spacers to clear the springs. I know it's slightly dodgy, but I'm looking into a set of coilovers to clear up some space. I notice a few folks have bought the 'budget' (chinese?) ones from ebay - are these OK or do they have any issues I need to watch out for? I've also installed some 1970's Hella 4004 mirrors. I think they suit the Z shape better than the more common bullet type mirrors, but that's just my personal taste. Unfortunately the field of view from them can't be adjusted easily and is very average! Also picked up a new fibreglass centre console from Freddy (Topstage). I'm planning on cutting out the slot for the choke lever and painting it satin black tomorrow if I get some free time. I'm very happy with the quality of this piece, and Freddy seems like a great bloke too. G

Sadly though, I rediscovered all the filler that had been used on he wheel arches back when the car was painted... Bog doesn't bend apparently! Also found a patch of rust in the left guard that I didn't know was lurking there. So...now I need to get some remedial rust removal done. I wasn't particularly surprised - but disappointed all the same. The car is desperately in need of a re-spray anyway (last time was 1993...) so I'm in the market for a good panel shop somewhere in the Macedon ranges if possible.

I decided on Kumho KU36 tyres - these looked to be the best of the Kumho's for street use. Fairly soft rubber, but nowhere near as soft as racing tyres. Reasonably cheap too at $240 each (225/50/16) The guard clearance at the rear wasn't too great with this size rubber however! So I picked up one of those nifty guard rollers from Burson's - at $180 it seemed like a good weekend challenge compared to $250+ to get a panel beater to do it!

Awesome project. My first datto was a very mint 180b station wagon with the SSS carbs - sold years ago, but I really want it back! (anyone seen reg IKZ-479?....) The SR20 looks a really nice fit in there! How hard is it to get something like this registered? I presume that's what the brake upgrade is for.

Could be your ignition switch? I have a similar problem - will only start if you turn the key "just so"...ie if you turn it too far then nothing happens. G

I've done this conversion, but I'm getting some disturbing squeeking noises from the brakes - as if the calipers are under pressure. After a 20 minute drive the left rear disc was hot to touch (other was warm). At first I thought I had left the handbrake brackets too long which caused the handbrake levers on each caliper to be slightly engaged. I've trimmed them back another 4mm with no real difference. Is there another residual pressure valve in the brake line distribution block at the back of the car that could be causing this? I have upgraded the master cylinder to a 1" JB1419 unit - I don't believe this has the internal valve as it's for an all-disc config. The calipers are mounted up top and bled properly, and there isn't anything fouling the suspension (handbrake cable clears the drive shafts by at least 10mm). The calipers slide back and forth OK without sticking. Any other ideas? Thanks! G

Hard to say - if you find the right buyer you might get $50, but then again you might be waiting a while... The biggest factor would probably be the condition of the center - is it in perfect condition or falling apart? Did you hear about how copper wire got invented? It was two datsun owners fighting over a 2 cent coin! Cheers!

OK, I got it sorted after a fair amount of stuffing around tracing what each wire did: I cut the connectors off and transferred the old 240Z connector to the 260Z motor unit. The wires from the 260Z motor connect to the 240Z connector as so: (260Z) Black : (240Z) Black (260Z) Blue/White : (240Z) Blue/White (260Z) Blue/Red : (240Z) Blue/Red (260Z) rubbery Black : (240Z) Blue (260Z) other rubbery Black : (240Z) Blue/Yellow The yellow wire from the 260Z motor isn't needed, so just tape up the end. Make sure to solder and seal the joins with heat shrink tube to keep water out! The two rubbery black wires are for the high/low motor speed. I got it wrong the first time around so just swapped them over and then they worked fine. Also needed to swap the yellow and red wires on the self-parking switch (on the back of the motor gearbox) to get it to park properly. (The original way caused the motor to run backwards when parking). Now I need a new firewall grommet, the original one was too perished to re-use... Hope this helps someone! Gary

Hi folks, i've picked up a nice 260Z wiper motor and want to fit it into my 240Z. Sadly the 260Z has a round,6 wire connector, whereas the 240Z plug is rectangular with only 5 wires. Also some of the wire colours are different. I presume the extra 260Z wire is for an intermittant setting (which the 240Z didn't have)? ie: 240Z: Blue/yellow Blue Blue/White Blue/Red Black 260Z: Blue/White Blue/Red Black Yellow Black (rubbery insulation) Black (rubbery insulation) Has anyone done this conversion before? Thanks! Gary

I've decided to sell the Simmons rims as the offset wasn't right (+40) and would need a huge spacer which would be legally dubious! In the meantime I picked up a nice set of Rota grids from Stivva. The urban cammo black finish wasn't looking too crash hot, so I was planning on getting them bead blasted and refinished. I had some left over paint stripper laying about, so tried it out...and found a pleasant surprise underneath! A bit of buffing with some metal polish had things looking very nice. (Was temped to keep them half stripped though, with that grungy black/orange theme happening they looked like something out of an anime cartoon...) Next up I need to get some new tyres. I had a look at some Goodyear F1's, which seem OK. Any strong opinions on these? G

PM sent re master cylinder. G

Apologies if you've seen this before - Awesome video of a 1971 GTR in full song. G

PM sent....

Hi, I believe the angle of the stub axle is dramatically different on the 280ZX and 300ZX struts as they are located more vertically. Maybe 10 degrees different, which would cause severe negative camber. G

Hmm, might be difficult to measure - I'm only on my second tank of fuel this year... Then there's that pesky breather hose that seems to leak 10 litres every time I fill up! Back when I used the car as a daily driver I was getting about 450Km from a tank, about 13.3l/100km. Country trips were much better, hooning about much worse... Engine type: L Engine Size:2.8 Tank Size:60 Kilometers to tank: 450 Kilometers per litre: 7.5 Carburettor type / or injector size: round tops

I had some similar weird problems with my drivers door lock recently. After a lot of stuffing about it turned out the plastic adjustment nut on the door handle actuator was too tight. (ie the actuator rod that is pushed by the door handle). cheers, G

Rust on the cam too... I'd say move on and wait for something better. Also depends on what block, piston's you're running. G

Also working on some Simmons wheels that have been sitting around for years. The centres were gold, but the powder coating was seriously degraded. I picked these up from someone off the ozdat forum, I believe they were off his 1600 being used for racing (nice unit with an SR20) There were a few dings in the outer rims, but I've managed to machine these back and get them looking reasonably good. The powder coating took a lot of work with stripper to remove - I should have paid for sandblasting... I now need to get these re-coated. I'm thinking metallic charcoal / dark silver. Any suggestions for powdercoaters in Melbourne?