240Z_au

Wheels FINALLY arrived!.Car dusty...

Yeah, the difference is HUGE!.. Well here I go. - Removal of rear lights is pretty straight forward. Once you remove the interior plastic panel and the surrounding exterior light surrounds (3 pieces, left, right and centre) the bulbs and the electric harness just come away from the light assembly. Old twist and pull bulb holders are nothing complex. - I have soaked the entire light assembly in very warm, slightly soapy water (Palmolive!) for few minutes. Just wanted to loosen up stubborn inside stains and the lens glue. I used a soft paint brush to then clan external rubber and plastics (grey plastic which holds the amber, red and white lens was full of red dust and layers of general dirt & grime. Pay attention to the reflector surrounds on the red brake part. The parameter of the reflector has a 1mm gap all around, if you want that perfect finish, get in there with your soft paint brush and remove years of grit build-up from all 4 sides of the reflector. - With the lights dried up, I proceeded to remove the back clip which protrudes through the grey casing. This is right in the middle of the rear of the light, you can see little plastic stump and a metal clip. Remove the clip with a modified screwdriver (2mm flat driver, slightly bent at the end, this is not easy, you can brake the stump as the clip fits tight and you have very little room to move. Few lights I have bought before have them broken already. Not a big deal as you can seal with silicone from the back if you break the stump head, but if you prefer things to remain the same even in the places you don’t see, do take your time and be patient. - Next, you need to pull away the lens from the grey body/casing. I was lucky here as one of the sides was little loose already, but I have previously warmed the light up in the over (150C, checking softness every minute or so) The lens is attached to the casing with a white, softish compound. It is NOT rock hard. If you place the light between knees and pull away both the casing and the lens, while someone else (yes a 3rd hand does help) pushes through the reverse light bulb entry with a rubber padded stick (I used my 20 y.o hand held valve seat grinder (wooden with rubber top), you should be able to break the white ‘silicon’ tension and pull away the corner of the light from the rest of the casing. - Clean the casing channel and the matching edge of the lens with “Desolve It”, an orange smelling stuff you spray on and leave for a few minutes, did not damage my light ( tested this on an old light first) and took all residue off easily and any other lens dirt with it. - I used AutoSol (yeah, I know it’s for metal, but works a treat on my lights also) and buffed the inner and outer lights. Watch out for original felt inserts in the bottom drain holes. If you don’t have them, I recommend you buy small scraps and make some up. I haven’t re assembled the lights as yet, but I plan to inject a small amount (1mm thin) of windscreen sealer (black) into the casing channel, which should do the job, being easy to clean up and remain flexible for future removals. While there, check your metal reflectors and the chrome divider (external part between the lower and upper section of the light). You can remove that also and give the part new black paint (between the chrome bars) and gently clean the plastic chrome. Have fun. I’m amazed I got sucked into this job, but it was like a disease I had to cure. I could not help myself with a new, clean paint job, new re trimmed interior, seats etc to just put these dirty old 240Z lights back on.

OK, so I have not time, but I love my Z too much to just do a quick respray...SO...Yeah, I've swollen the restoration bug, again. I'm only limited to time again on what I will or will not do, but finally managed to spend some time in the garage yesterday and though to start on the rear end. Took one look at the rear lights and decided to bring them back to as new condition. Mud from my outback trip last year, slight exhaust residue on the left side reverse light (you know that side always looks darker) and 5 hours later, the lights are still not on, BUT!, they are like new again Will be detailing chrome, black paint in between lights and reassembling the lights etc this week. The rear light panels off to the paint shop. Not sure if to keep original colour or go black, we'll see.

Sorry, just too busy. Car back in a garage. Ordering new rubbers etc. I'm away this week so its going to be hard to do anything in the next few weeks, as soon as I get a chance and roll the car out of the garage, I'll take some pictures and post here.

Yeah, its my 5th or 6th respray job, this one is totally hands off (no time). The paint is totally flat (no orange peel, usually seen even on new cars). It will look relly nice when put together. Cant wait to drive the thing again. This is my favorite Z

Just ordered new plates from RTA online. OLD240, premium black with white letters. The old 'rusty' plates just just wont work anymore.

Hello again. Have been busy with life and away in Europe for the last 6 weeks, so has been hard to catch up on all things 'Z'. I visited my painter today and I was blown away with the end result. After close inspection I was able to pick 3 fine dust spots, but that will be buffed out shortly. The entire car is so straight!. I'm scared to ask how many hours of work it took for the car to be as it is. I really pressed upon the panel guys that I did not want to see any bumps, orange peel, ripples (I see them on many older cars where the panels just don't look 100% flat) and wanted the car to look as new from the panel perspective. Colour you ask?..Well, I did think about this on and off and was swaying toward a black (my other 240Z I never quite got into showroom condition, but my very original and first 240Z I owned at 17 years of age). I also considered burned orange from a Porsche GT3 RS. At the end I decided to go for red when a friend pulled up in his F360 next to my 240. The painter added some additional spice and the result is just what I wanted even though I did not see the final colour blend when I was away in Europe. The car will be towed back to my place on Friday. I will take some pictures and post. Now I'm getting anxious about placing some of the old parts back on, I don't want to be overly pedantic, but some new rubbers, trims and chrome bits are definitively on the cards.

OK, My 240 went off to the paint shop on the truck this morning. I think I've decided on the final colour, its going to be red again, but much deeper. I wont say I've decided on a final shade, but I think red will stay.

Looking for brand new items, single piece, no holes. Anyone?

I can find front without too much drama, but rear?. Anyone out there knows of a place or has some for sale?

Thank you All for your kind words and the enthusiasm. I'm up for a meet with other owners when the car becomes one piece again (this may take a little while). If there are any opportunities to meet up in or around Sydney I can always join if cars other then the Datsun's are allowed. I'm still contemplating the colour change for this 240. I will post some more pics tomorrow of the strip. Meanwhile, some additional pics from the trip as few have asked. I'm open to any future trip suggestions. Coober Peddy Outback drive in the Z I did not wash the car for the entire trip, but the red duco still looks clean next to the muddy 4WD's Extra fuel does come handy on a trip like this. Outback sunsets are something else. Oh, news just in (had to post online to get a response). My new Watanabe's are ALMOST there (waiting fr 4 months now!) --------------------------- Hi Andrew, First of all I would like to apologize and I'm very sorry if I haven't been able to answer your email for the past few days. I just got back home today here in Alameda from our warehouse in LA as the container from japan has arrived for this month at the port a couple of weeks ago and have to handle all the release of parcels and deliveries. Once again I sincerely apologize if I haven’t responded to your emails for a while, just been very busy lately. As for your wheels Andrew I also got a call from the watanabe factory in tokyo last week and said that your wheels have just finished the final stage of polishing the barrel-lip this past week. They did 3 stages of lip polishing they said to totally remove the grainy finish residue made from its sand-casting process. All 4 wheels' spokes are now painted in dull matte black and will be packed and ready to ship by next week according to the dispatching department. You should be receiving this soon. Your package will be in 2 boxes to be sent thru EMS air to the address that was indicated on your paypal. They said they will be forwarding to me your package tracking number as soon as it's released by next week. Just a little more wait Andrew and I'm sure by the time you see your wheels all the waiting would be worth it. Once I receive the tracking number within the week I'll forward it to you immediately so you can also monitor your package. If you need to reach me my contact details are below. Many thanks. Best regards, -----------------

Adam. The drive was the best thing I have done with a car for a while. One notable experience was pulling over at a road house about 100km's from Tennants Creek. I was told that TC is a "black fellas town" and that I was mad to drive there at night and park anywhere (threats of seeing my car burned out or on bricks in the morning). Happy to report the car was not burned or stolen, and TC is not as bad as the road house would make you believe, drinking with locals in a pubs in the middle of no where was a hoot. A friend of mine (964 Porsche Turbo) and I ware told that we look like we came "out of space". There ware places where the local teenagers have never seen a 2 door car (mostly 4WD's anyway), let alone a vintage Japanese red sports car. I did not measure fuel consumption, carried 2 x 20l fuel cells with me, but only had to use one once. I was getting somewhere between 400-500 km per tank, although in N.T. pushing the car along at a higher then 'normal' pace, increased consumption drastically. (I don't encourage or condone speeding on public roads, but I can confirm the 240 is a genuine 200km/h car IF the GPS system and following car are to be believed.) The shocks are yellow KONI adjustable from top. The difference was huge. Car sits flat, corners beautifully (King springs). I have it set on medium and all works very well as I tend to drive on a sporty side (own and race other cars). In terms of the workshop, I own it, my guys work mainly on European cars, my 240Z is an exception and for a good reason!.

Hello everyone. Thought to share with other Z owners my latest project. I have owned 240's since I was 17 y.o, I'm in my 40's now. I bough this car on ebay about 3.5 years ago. It was a site unseen from country Vic. owner who had the car stored in a shed for 5 years, this was after buying the car from a friend of his only a year earlier, the friend had it stored for 11 years prior. (combined 16 years in storage). In the last 3.5 years I drove my Z occasionally with group of Z owners here in Sydney and on some selected weekends. Late last year, I took the car on a 7000 km drive (in 6 days) in the outback. This was a very first drive of this kind for me in a very old car. The car is a 1973 build. For the last 3.5 years I slowly worked on what I though needed attention at the time, there was a small oil leak from the rear seal, which encouraged me to drop the entire gearbox and recondition all of the synchros and put a new clutch and a lightened fly wheel . I have also replaced shock absorbers (adjustable koni) as well as fuel pump, all of the engine seals and gaskets (still running original L24). Earlier this year I decided to tidy the interior up and bring it up to its original look. I've replaced all carpets, vinyls and re-trimmed seats. Everything on the car was in a reasonable condition, but I really wanted to have a very clean looking Z with as much of the original character of the car left over as possible (not looking for pure originality per say, just clean, tidy, period look with everything in great shape, working and without any obvious signs of things being worn out). I will post some pictures of my rebuild progress as I go along. This time I'm looking to change the color of the car (wont do the engine bay just yet as I know when I decide to pull the engine out it will be a mater of months before I get it back on the road and I will want to place a high level of detail, replacing or renewing all of the tired looking plastics, rubbers and coatings. On Friday I decided to get the car ready for the paint shop. As the panels have been removed, the condition of the car is nothing short of remarkable in terms of the metal panels and the lack of any rust. Having owned several 240Z's, I was aware of the usual trouble spots, but this car as can be seen below has literally no rust. Above, my 240Z getting stripped yesterday among some notable exotics, I've been hooked on 240's since my late teens and my very first car was a black 240Z, thinking going black again, but I know the pain of the dark colour, so haven't decided on the final colour yet.

Just measured a 240Z I picked up here with yellow springs (look like Kings, but not sure)..Standard height springs installed years ago. Car leans to the right, same as you described above. (this is with new KONI adjustables' just fitted) I'm getting my mechanic to strip it all down this week and re-measure/adjust. Looks like a common issue with Kings/240Z?

Unfortunately very few powder coaters (in Sydney) can take the time, have the patience, skill, knowledge or attention to detail which is required to do this job properly. The typical approach is to simply "wack" the wheels in with the rest of the products (usually fences, poles etc) and use the same baking temperature as the other pieces. This is where the 1st problem starts. Various wheel manufacturers, use varying mixes of alloys and magnesium in their wheel manufacturing. During the baking process many alloy wheels release silicones and other impurities which at surface form uneven texture, which in-turn creates "corroded", orange feel-like effect and bad under surface for the powder to finally set and bond to. Paying lot of attention to detail and working on high end vehicles I consider such finish unacceptable. We have tested 4 or five different coaters around Sydney and all with the same bad results. The core of the issue with the coaters is that most of these businesses are paying upwards of $16K per month in electricity and being a commercial business, they are not about to turn the knobs down and place one set of wheels in the oven for a few hundred dollars). Just last week I have spoken to our German suppliers of German made wheels and they confirmed they use specific powder for their coatings and the results as seen on the car below are truly impressive (matt black with machine/diamond lip finish). As a sacrificial lamb, I have used my original wheels from a good quality manufacturer to test local powder coating capabilities. These wheels are now race track dedicated and on closer look the only way to fix the imperfections is to strip again back to bare alloy and do a conventional spray paint using high fill to achieve perfect surface qualities. Getting matt black is also an art, many paint shops have no clue how to make matt black with low sheen and how to have them coated for long lasting good looks and durability. For my money, have them painted. [/img]

My personal view is that this car is not being offered by a genuine seller. I have contacted the dealership 3 times now. 1ce, I've arrived unannounced and was told the car was with the owner (the owner of the car yard). I have left my number and my business card for them to call me back (before Christmas). As no one called, I rang them again, and was told by a sales person that the car is "kind of for sale, but not for sale"..I think he is using this ad as a draw card/web hit (or something) for his Japanese import car business. That's all I can assume as I have no other reasonable explanation.

Hi..Are you able to post close-up pics of the 4 hubcaps? Want to see dents/major scratches (if any) etc..Thank you.

The Yellow 240Z sold that for $11,205. I saw the car. Flew up to Brisbane to have a look and I did placed a bid. Some of you may have not realised, it was an Auto conversion (plate did state 'Auto' apart from other obvious giveaways) There were areas full of rust bubbles (dog leg etc even though the car had anti rust "system"). So, yes, clean 240 in comparison to many other recently sold or offered for sale on Ebay, although far from exceptonal in my opinion.

I move about a lot, so location not an issue, can travel anywhere in Sydney..Let me know. Thanks.

Hi..Anyone knows where I may be able to purchase L28?.Pref. S2 and Jap Import, but not necessary. Used to be able to buy them by bucket loads from Japanese importers, but most of the sites now only list late model engines. Happy to look at something already worked or something completely stock. If anyone knows of a place to call (pref. in Sydney), please do let me know. Thanks.

Does anyone have one?, know where to obtain one?. Thank you..Andrew

I saw this car last Wednesday. I ran out to northern beaches before 7pm with my cash in hand and to my great disappointment. The guy who is selling this car knows nothing about it. The car apparently belongs to his elderly father. The car has been repainted (more than 1ce), has rust, dents, seats are stitched (literally like a bad wound). I'm disappointed because from the photos, description and my brief chat on the phone indicated this is an original, 2nd owner with approx. 60K, Km's on the clock (he converted miles to Km's). Nothing could have been further from the truth. The ware, tear and abuse on this car is not indicative even of a 200K, Km, car. Nostalgic view of old sales documents from the original dealer was the only pleasant experience, the car was a total disappointment to what has been advertised/described and not worth even $10K in my humble opinion.

I concur with Gav. I see very little value in this otherwise nice, but brutally modified car. This Z will most likely suit younger audience (for its looks and the ‘turbo’) who would feel some kind of affiliation with the older Z brand, (very small niche) This segment however would not be parting (easily) with $25K or even $20K for this car. People who appreciate originality (a much larger segment) would not even look at it and the other large 240 buyers group (what I call ‘the sensibly modified originals’ buyer) would likely see this car as too far removed from the concept of “sensibly modified’ not to mention ‘original’.. Frankly, since the question was asked what the audience here think of this car, I would have to rate its value (to me as a purist as well as a sensibly modified originals junkie) to be between $8 and 10K MAX. This car will only be purchased when the price falls way low or someone just falls in love with the whole thing.

XRQTR - I have no set limit. I own several cars and all have been purchased based on what the previous owners have advertised them for. If you are skilled in this area and have some track record I can verify, then I will hire you based on an agreed plan of action and some kind of a development plan (not a dirty napkin and some figures flying out of your head, on demand). You have my number and contact details. I'm not checking-in here to waste anyone's time, especially mine. UPDATE. PS. XRQTR. Based on reading your full "response" (I only saw the 1st paragraph before). I withdraw my offer to talk to you for obvious reasons. Just unbeliveable. Dear Forum..Please, I'm NOT considering an automatic. (I've received 2 offers today) I do understand some of you have a million KW's 240's and Auto is best, BUT please READ my Ad so we don't waste each others time. I'm donating $10.00 for every offer which CLEARLY does not fit my criteria. I've received 4 such offers so far + 1 I bet I will receive tomorrow. (So $50.00 was just donated). If you are looking at making me a very poor man, then please keep coming, but even I have my limits...."Arrogant" Andrew.

Charles. PM Sent. Lets see.