gilltech

Thanks for your help guys, I'll try all those suggestions over the weekend. NGK it is, BP6ES if I recall correctly.

In a fit of enthusiasm some 8 yrs ago I fitted a reconditioned motor, & installed a set of 240Z carbs, which I had reconditioned by specialists, in place of the 260Z flat-top carbs. However, I had no sooner got the carbs back but the car went into storage due to changes in circumstances & has remained since, I came very close to selling it at one point but decided to keep it & am now glad I did. Now I'm in the process of trying to get it mobile again, going over the whole car & refreshing or replacing anything that looks tired. I've been trying to start it but the front 3 cylinders & sparkplugs are totally black dry sooted & fouled. Even #4 plug gets affected. I've tried balancing the carbs carefully & leaning the front one right off but all to nil effect, there doesn't appear to be enough lean adjustment & the plugs just keep on heavily sooting up so the car struggles to run at all & then stalls. Motor is fresh, not even run in. So it's got to be the front carb at fault, surely. Maybe it was reconditioned with the wrong parts, not that there are many parts in the things. Before I pull the carbs off, has anyone struck this before? Any advice or leads would be really appreciated, it's driving me nuts. The Xmas/NY break will give me a chance to work on it.

Sounds like a good project & a father/son one at that - all good! But if you're a bit concerned about sinking too much money into it, hence already worrying about resale, then shelve the RB idea & just restore it with the straight 6 & other mechanicals as it is. You'll have a lot of fun, less work for yourself, & if you do decide to sell it & you've done it well it'll probably appeal to a broarder range of enthusiasts who, I think, would be more likely to want an original-spec car. Enjoy!

They're not really that dear, by the time you deduct, say, $150 for the rubber strips; so you get both bumpers in SS which is a better quality material than chromed steel IMHO & they won't rust in our lifetimes; then add shipping back in. The Taiwanese-made repro chrome front bumpers on eBay cost around 400 bucks each. I'm tempted but I prefer the period over-riders than not; the pommie bumpers with rubber plugs in the holes where the over-riders should be bolted on look a bit nasty; I presume the SS ones won't have those holes; I don't know if chrome over-riders on SS bumpers would look wrong or not, the materials do have a different appearance.

Unfortunate they don't have the over-riders, as I don't think the pommy Zeds had them.

I don't want to be a killjoy but the only reason I can think of for importing an early Z from north america would be if one was very fortunate to source a really original rust-free one from one of the dry inland western states, original meaning not mucked about with (good luck!). However, even if it had spent all its life in a hot dry state & really was rust-free then the exterior & interior would be cooked by now unless it had most fortunately been kept inside most of its life. Also the telescopic or later deformable bumpers fitted to the later 240s, the 260s & 280s for the US market are pretty horrible. One would have to buy a car for very little to be worth the expense, risk & hassle of shipping it from where it was found across to a port, then freighting it to 'down under' thus paying shipping, insurance, GST on landed value, customs clearance, quarantine, & any other costs such as an import approval, local trucking, & perhaps a valuation fee. And then it's still LHD when it arrives which really limits its appeal for resale or could be converted to RHD, but all needing compliance for ADRs & engineer sign-off, & finally registration. Plus factor in any repairs or restoration work or RHD conversion identified along the way. Phew. It would have to be a very special car indeed.

Make that a lawyer, real estate agent or car dealer.

Mossy, thanks for the heads-up. They look to be good value with our $ high, a bit dearer than aftermarket chrome + rubbers plus freight still to be added, but they sure won't rust out - stainless steel is the goods. Looks like they don't do the over-riders though - I don't think the UK market cars had over-riders from looking through my various books.

The R200 set should replace the R180 set OK; the R200 half-shafts bolt on to flanges whereas the R180 half-shafts have a central bolt; usually - I believe there were some variations with the half-shafts as they were widely used diffs. Certainly in my 260 I have swapped from a R200 to a R180 & back again without any problems. The difference is in the diff length - the R200 is slightly longer so uses a different 'moustache' mounting bar.

All so true. Lots of people (a) think their car is surely worth moonbeams especially if they've spent a lot of money on it over the years so it owes them in total a fair bit, & (b) while they are aware of a few rust bubbles starting to appear may genuinely not fully appreciate that their pride & joy that was repainted several years ago is in fact by now a rusting timebomb as the repaint was done to a price as a cosmetic makeover & was not a bodywork restoration - many people think that a repaint somehow magically waterproofs a car & just don't understand that cars rust from the inside out not the other way. I agree with Zedback, rust in the roof structure is a serious issue & not for the fainthearted. So, as always, it's 'buyer beware', & try not to get stung with what is someone else's major problem. There's always another car.

Mossy, in stainless steel? That would be the goods! I'll see if I can track them down. Much obliged for the lead.

Thr roof structure must rust due to the car being in a humid wet environment where it is basically sweating. Even if the car was rust-proofed when new, since when does the roof structure get injected? I recall a friend many years ago buying an early 240Z that was about 18 yrs old at the time, nice repaint in original colour, nice general condition overall, looked pretty tidy & standard original except for nice aftermarket mags; a smart looking car to show off & be proud of. Then one day he got T-boned & the car basically folded around him (he was unhurt) - it was a rusty car that in hindsight had been patched up, bogged up & repainted to sell. The body shell was shot, the roof structure was badly rusted through the pillars, & basically the only body part worth salvaging was the roof skin. It was by far the worst Z rust I'd seen, back then, but if it could be like that at 18 yrs old, imagine how many more could be like that by now at twice that age. Yes anything can be fixed, but major body repairs are painstaking & tedius, can easily work out in excess of what the car's market value is, & can be heart-breaking. All power to those who see that sort of major project through.

Would like to donate to this cause, do you have direct deposit to an account as an alternative to credit card?

Has anybody bought one of the repro 240Z front bumpers advertised on eBay & if so does it fit up OK?

I can't see it on eBay any more, so presumably it's gone to a good home.

gav240z, don't forget to add Duty if less than a certain age (30 yrs?), plus 10% GST (tax) on the landed value of the car, which includes is it's assessed or agreed accepted value on the docks & takes into account the shipping & insurance to get it there. There's also Luxury Car Tax applicable if the value is above approx $57.5K-ish. An Import Approval is $50. I paid AU$800 quarantine fee when bringing a 40 ft container over from NZ to Australia containing 2 cars & personal effects. Allow a reasonanble sum for LO2 compliance / engineer certification/sign-off to enable registration. All subject to the type of vehicle & era, but for preliminary calculation purposes I'd allow costs for a possible seatbelt upgrade to meet LO2 compliance - say, inertia belts in front, 3-points in back, & kiddie seat fixing points . Be mindful of ADRs for compliance, you wouldn't want to get stuck with a vehicle that can't be registered. Look up the Australian govt customs & state vehicle registration websites, I'm quoting 2007 figures & there may have been changes.

Perhaps one for you then NZeder, my NZ-new early '74 260 2-seat didn't have a rear swaybar when I bought it in '84, although mounting brackets are installed on the body. I've always wondered - would it have had one that a PO removed, perhaps for the reasons outlined above? I can't see any wear or disturbance of the paint or underseal, however. Other / later 260s seemed to have them.....

DatPilot, I think your mate is referring to the USA 'Scarab' Chev V8 conversions of the '70s. Trying to recall what I've read years ago, I think one could either buy turn-key modified Zcars from a company, or purchase the bits from them required to install a Chev & whatever else you wanted yourself. I've seen two while overseas in the early 90's, one in Vancouver & another in Hawaii, their owners weren't around but I had a fairly close look at them, they had modified bodywork including flared guards, rear wing, vented rear guards, square headlamps (yes, square!), etc. There's a thought, Rev?

I can't really see it in the photo. The pair of choke cables have a small tight spring-steel 'S' clip about halfway along at which point they diverge for one to each carb.

I haven't got a 2+2 set here to compare with my 2-seat ones but that's probably about right, yes they are different 'cos the roofline is different being more angular where it kicks down on the 2+2. When I fit them I check them carefully to make sure they aren't too closed up anywhere, mask the car up to protect the paint, & roll them on by the heel of the hand gradually working along a bit at a time from front to back then repeat several times until they finally roll under & seat correctly. If your car has been repainted make sure there isn't too much paint build-up on the seams. Take your time, ease them on by hand, it's too easy to gark or dent the stainless if you knock them on with a rubber mallet or the like.

IMO the correct 240Z style whether in the forward (Jap market) position or the rearward (eg NZ market) location they look just fine, it's more the slender proportions of the mirror & the angle the car is viewed from; they wouldn't want to be any further back. My NZ-new early-'74 260 had substitute mirrors when I bought it in '84, but my then-boss's old car was around, which he'd bought new & only kept a couple of years, a sister car to mine in every respect, & it had fender mirrors which looked different to those on 240s, similar height but slightly chunkier all round & very dark grey not black; for years I kept an eye out for a set at wrecker's yards but never found any. Sadly I eventually I found his old car in a wrecker's yard too, it had hit something low & solid & been written off; but the mirrors & useful parts were already stripped. Were Zs sold with factory fender mirrors anywhere else other than in Japan & NZ?

Shame. I hope someone finds some useful parts on it, like glass & mechanical, a pity if it all goes to the dump, but then there seems to be a lot of 2+2 stuff around for sale right now & tired old bits don't seem to fetch enough to make the trouble of hauling a rusty old wreck home worth while let alone stripping it all down, dealing all the while with rusted up fixings, & then getting rid of the body.

Hey Z, it really is that bad is it, as in just about impossible rust issues to chassis rails etc? A real shame, the photos must do it far more justice than it deserves then. So you can see how people get themselves in trouble buying cars sight-unseen on the internet after looking at a few images.

FWIW my NZ-new early '74 260 originally had fender mirrors, the holes in the guards I plated under about 25 yrs ago in favour of door mirrors as a PO had installed cheapo streamlined bullet mirrors using the same locations that were next to useless. However, as far as I can estimate where the centre of the main mirror mounting hole was on each side they would, I'm pretty sure, match the dimensions NZeder has provided above so they are further back than on the diagram in post #2 & slightly further out towards the roll of the guard but definitely not on the roll curve. My 2-cent's worth is this - that the NZ-new cars had 'export' mirror placement whereas the Jap home market cars had the mirrors more forward & more inboard, & probably due to a car width rule tax which apparently existed at the time - fender mirrors were favoured for Jap-delivery cars as they were more compact (so car was overall narrower) than door mirrors (on the widest part of the car) for road tax purposes. I could well be quite wrong &/or upset some people but I'm thinking that diagram in post #2 is for factory placement of mirrors for the Z Fairladys sold new in Japan. And all that would tie in with what HS30-H is trying to point out. As I recall there were two holes to each guard, the second being a small locating hole for a lug on the mirror baseplate forward of the main mounting hole. The fender mirrors on 240s were more slender than those on the 260s from what I recall of NZ-new cars, presumably the same here.

I've seen both mag wheel styles on 280ZXs with the gold finish, & from the thin metallic look to them they appeared to be anodised not painted. I'm recalling in particular some NZ-new Z-club ZXs that were concours as-delivered new & hadn't been buggered around with. Gold mags seemed quite fashionable in the '80s. I can't recall the source (would be in one of my many books of Datsun specs) but I understand that factory mag wheels didn't become available on 260Zs until late in 1974 at the earliest, possibly at the change-over between the 'early '74' & the 'from late '74' 260 variants, but it could have been a little later depending on the market. I know that my early '74 therefore missed out on them & why it had after-market alloys.