gilltech

Yes, USA & some other markets didn't have locking caps, twist knobs instead. You'll need the lock with tab, & the catch inside the opening. The key is the same as for the doors & hatch.

+1 what PeterAllen just said regarding the roof/quarter joint. Our cars were assembled by hand. But you may have some 'old school' lead repairs as well. Bog available in the 70s & 80s was in it's infancy so a bit suspect & many people were still prepared to pay for better quality leaded repairs.

The high/low beam switch is combined with the indicator switch. If you have a floor switch then it's been retrofitted from, say, a Ford or Holden or something, the one in my Mustang looks just like your picture. The end of the indicator switch has a headlight flasher button, or at least my car (early 260) does, I don't know for sure if all S30s had them. Look, you need to find the correct replacement indicator switch. And if I were you I'd replace the headlight switch at the same time - in other words find a set new (preferably) or good clean used & then you're set & can dump all the mickey-mouse wiring & have peace of mind.

Yes you'll just have to get another complete switch from somewhere. They all wear out so it's something that people on this forum often look for, you might like to dig back through previous posts.

Well something doesn't add up with respect to 260 2-seat door variations...you lost me.

No no not you Alan, I meant the OP - I can read his query two ways... But re the headlamp retainer: the RH one has the headlamp adjuster at top & RH side, whereas LH is at top & LH side.

FWIW if the price was sensible I'd take the door glass as a spare if it's the correct light blue tint which it should be, for my '74 260 2-seat. Problem is I'm in Brisbane, so probably not practical.

Do you mean the bucket the headlamp clamps into, or the whole panel sometimes referred to as the sugar scoop?

I take it you have a 240, what year, is it an auto? You definitely should be getting power at the switches, one side or other. What happens is that the soldered connections at the back of the light switch & indicator switch detach themselves after many years, and/or the switches start to wear out, usually both. People try to install substitutes from other Datsuns, & run new wires, etc. The colour codes end up all wrong. Substitute stuff from parted-out 260s has been easier to obtain than 240 but doesn't conveniently just plug in, plug types are usually different for starters, 260 looms became more complex over time, requirements for different markets, etc. My own car had an indicator switch out of a 180B or something, had to replace it with correct & that was 25yrs ago, hard enough to find the correct part then - eventually I found a matching car in a wrecking yard - but I hate to think how people get on these days. But I think some OEM stuff is available in the USA. The only thing I can suggest is that you get yours alongside another borrowed set of approx. same year & compare. I wouldn't get too hung up on colour codes, mine don't everywhere match the wiring diagrams in my workshop manuals, factory & aftermarket, there were many variations. The only soldered connections are at the back of the switches; the rest of the wiring loom is all plug-in. Don't worry if a plug is multi-pin but only uses some of them; that happens, same on mine; the others are probably used in a different market or for features not installed on your car.

Just looks like a kit car, overstated bodywork without the style of wheels that make Porsches look 'right'. Downright ugly, terrible colour. All that money & it still leaks oil? Good luck to a new owner then...doesn't portent well...

Yep, we used Conroy Removals to bring our possessions from Auckland to Brisbane in 2007, including my Zed & Mustang. They were absolutely excellent. Mind you, having two cars & other stuff we used a whole container. General possessions were door-to-door, whereas the cars had to be from their Auckland depot to their Brisbane depot (which is actually up the line a bit at Caboolture). I don't know if a removal company is OTT in your case. Best would be to work out what size box you'll use, total weight, & maybe go online & get some online quotes. Don't forget insurance, & there will be port fees of some sort perhaps both ends, & maybe quarantine or whatever they call it fee at this end. John

Yes that Readers Digest manual was popular back in the day, I have a copy too. Chicken wire was the DIY material of choice, years before expanded metal mesh became available. Would have required a hell of a lot of bondo..... Once saw a construction worker working on his car outside a work site, stuffing chicken wire into the rusted out lower door sections & trowelling in cement render.....guess his repairs will have outlasted the rest of his car. A mate of mine bought what he thought was a tidy VW with a very presentable repaint, until it got tee-boned one day & he discovered that the rusted out doors had been heavily bogged up using bits of wood & pine cones & flattened toilet rolls as backfill. I'm sure the panelbeating industry will have many wonderful stories.....

Yes it's all rather confusing. And there were differences between Australia-spec-new & NZ-new cars so they would have to have been delivered in respective batches. Many years ago when I was a Z-club member in NZ it seemed that every other 2+2 I looked at had come in from Australia (privately imported by a returning expat), typically being fitted with A/C & smog pipework & most often an automatic. So maybe the 600 quoted for the RS30 2-seat is about right, & all the rest sold in Australia were 2+2s? I know with old Mustangs that often the limited edition versions were produced in sufficient numbers so that every dealer in the USA & Canada could have at least one if they wanted, so there'd be at least 4,000 or so.....So how many Datsun dealerships were there in Australia in the 1970s? Each one would have wanted a Z in their showroom as a flagship model while they flogged off 120Ys & 180Bs you'd think.

I'm surprised, I would have thought more than 600 RS30s would have been sold new in Australia? I've been told there were about 200 260s sold new in NZ which is a much smaller country. But again, no-one seems to have kept any definitive records, unless someone has been able to trawl through registration records in more modern times. Mind you, maybe the '70s market was quite different here, as you had a lot of home-grown Australian designed cars.

One hundred thousand & twenty-ninth isn't it? What year? FWIW my early-'74-spec 260 2-seat is 000115 sold new in NZ, there were quite a number of others there at one time with close VIN numbers to mine. Some detail differences between Australian-spec & general-spec (incl NZ) cars. I would say that quite a number have crossed the Tasman either way over the years so they're all mixed up by now. I brought mine over to Qld in 2007. As to how many Zeds were sold new here, the subject has come up before on this forum but IIRC the estimated total was inconclusive.

Well I thoroughly enjoy car shows, & appreciate the effort that goes into holding them. But nowadays I can't be bothered anymore with polishing up my own car & taking it, then hanging around for hours until finally able to slip away. Boring & a WOT. Always happy to support the car club or charity event at the gate, they need the income, but I'm over spending most of the day there. Much easier to just chuck the kids into the station wagon, look around the cars & browse the trade stands for an hour or two while the kids go nuts on the (hopefully if there's one) bouncy castle, stuff some food & ice creams into them, gather up our purchases then head off again.

Maybe just take the assembly along to a machine shop & have some new bushes turned up in brass to replace the original plastic bushes which disintegrate & disappear over time. That's what we have to do with the manual shifters.

Hi PB260Z - they're installed, several months ago, but my car (which I've now owned 30 yrs!) has long been off the road in storage, gradually I find time to fiddle with it but other things like kids, house reno, & a Mustang, take precedence. One day... I digress. Those springs will be coming off again as they don't suit & I'll get the original springs re-tempered but re-set a little shorter than stock, maybe 25mm or so. Sydney mike - my car is an early '74 2-seat, has same suspension as the late 240, a bit taller than the late-'74-on 260s. I don't know if there were just 2, or more, 260-type struts. My Nissan 260 factory manual lists a whole range of different springs - lengths & rates - depending on whether 2-seat or 2+2, which market car sold in, A/C or not, & whether standard or 'performance'. I bought my car in '84 & a little later discovered that one front stub axle was damaged. I went to a Z parts guy & he didn't have a matching strut but did have a pair of later 260 ones, which are shorter & fatter, so I trial fitted those (complete with springs) & they dropped the front down nicely, which looked & felt better. So purchased them, a quick fix for my only car at the time rather than chase around to find someone with the right gear to repair the damaged one. My mistake was not doing my homework first on what I was getting, as soon as I got them out of the box I thought they looked a bit on the short side.

Well I'm not impressed. I assumed their 'standard' springs would pretty much match the original factory spec springs (rate & length) so as to restore OEM standard ride height. And that the 30mm lower option would just be a little stiffer & set a car's ride height about that much lower, as a 'performance' spring. But no - BOTH versions are the same spring rate.!?! I bought a front & rear set for my early-74 260 2-seat, opting for the 30mm lower. The rears are barely captured by the retainers, & so stiff that the ride height ends up slightly higher than the tired originals; just as well I didn't opt for the 'standard' ones! Worse, the fronts are not captured at all, missing by about 10mm on full droop, & I'm already running the later shorter 260 front struts. I shouldn't have to wire them in place, that doesn't seem a safe fitment, wouldn't expect that to pass an inspection. They're quite a bit too short, as verified by my factory 260 manual - which gives a range of factory spec springs used for different markets, 2-seat, 2+2, standard or performance etc. Springs are a function of length, wire diameter, coil diameter etc. IMO the ones I purchased for my 260 are too stiff & - on front - way too short to fit correctly, AFAIAC the specs are quite wrong. Their tech dept advice was that they measured off an actual car (goodness knows what); but why not just use OEM specs as a starting point? So I'm not at all happy.

The 260 A/C heater box is a bit more cumbersome than the non-A/C 260 version. I think you'll have to move a few electrical items out of the way under the 240 dash to fit it in, I couldn't tell you if it will bolt right in so a bit of bracket fabrication may be required. You wouldn't want to start chopping the box around too much. The tricky bit will be the control panel; the 260 heater control panel vs the 260 A/C heater control panel are interchangeable, but different of course as the latter contains more controls. Best check the 260 A/C heater control panel (which presumably you'll need to obtain from the donor car at the same time) will fit into your 240 dash before you go any further.

I fitted a rear bar ex USA supplier to my early '74 260 2-seat, it's 7/8", aftermarket of course. IIRC my stock front bar is about the same diameter. By rights I should probably at the time upgraded the front to a 1", but with the $$$ exchange rate being poor at the time I opted not to. I've been happy with the set-up as it is. The Z Store catalog lists different 240, early '74 260, & subsequent 260/280 rear bars, but whether layout or specification is different, or both, who knows. Maybe ask them? If you can lay your hands on a 260 bar then try it to see if it fits. Otherwise you'll just have to go aftermarket.

Correct, all my info indicates none of the 240Zs, nor the earliest 260s, were supplied with rear sway bars. The brackets were there, presumably for special factory models or to assist with factory sanctioned competition set-ups.

Exactly, my 260 still has the original rubber pads, & they are 'slip-ons', no adhesive used just very tight fitting. Same with my Mustang. My guess is that the illegal pads are those 'boy-racer go-faster' add-on cosmetic metal/rubber panels that fit over the existing pads & just have soft pliable foldable tabs at the back to fix them in place.

I second dat2kman's theory, sounds to me that on full droop the spring is too short for the length of the strut rod, & the top spring retainer plate either drops down with the spring or can be slid down. Meaning that the front spring isn't captured at full droop as it's been either cut down (to lower the car) or replaced by an aftermarket shorter/stiffer item. If so would be the same on the other side. But if it's only one side then MaygZ could be right, that the top shock 'hat' metal/rubber assembly has structurally failed for some reason.

I would go with the above advice, especially from oldmates260z. I'd say it's more than likely fuel. Modern fuels deteriorate over only a few months & as they do they can leave gummy deposits. I had a similar thing with my Mustang recently, car had sat for about 8 months & already had aged fuel in it. I had to prime the fuel lines & the pump, once the pump was primed fresh brand new fuel was drawn through & the engine eventually started & has been fine ever since.