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Hi Folks, Turns out my car has got the wrong rear hatch strut. Does anybody have a good rear hatch strut with correct ends, OR know a source for such item? My car is a 1971 240Z and I want the correct rear hatch strut with OEM mounting hardware. Please PM me if you have one. Cheers Adam

George, When I was at Nat's yesterday I mentioned this car to him. Whilst you might be planning on doing the the resto yourself, you should consider talking to Nat as he has just done a relatively epic rebuild and might be able to give some advise / lend a hand on technical aspects of repairs. He had to do A pillars, roof sections, beaver panel, doors and door sills and fire wall (yes it was pretty bad!) so just wanted to point that out. It'll be worth it in the end Cheers Adam

got the angle grinder out and did the left side rear arch. took about 5mm off the inside lip then took he for another spin. Needs another 1mm or thereabouts. I taped it off and primed it to ensure NO RUST !!! Gotta do the drivers side too. Brakes are amazing! Car seems to have a bit of a wobble in the rear under (a lot of) load. I think the moustache bushes (or whatever those big chunky vertical bushes are) might be too soft as it felt like diff housing is moving ever so slightly under load. This happened when Nat was driving the car and pushed it hard into a corner. Nat questioned it, as did I. Any thoughts here would be welcome. fixing the wiper washer bottle leaks and rear guards is on the agenda for tomorrow !!

its registered! the rear guards need trimming on the inside ... might find a few hours with an angle grinder this weekend

So I went today after work to pick up the Hornet and drive it home, from DeeWhy to my place which is probably 25klms. Car was unregistered, but has green slip, blue slip and insurance so I was allowed to bring it home. Car drove flawlessly, but having no carpets is HOT and LOUD, but at least everything works now. The engine is pretty hot and i find coughs and splutters off the line, then all hell breaks loose at about 3500rpm and above. James told me to drive it normally, but not to rev her above 5500, and since I dropped her off they'd put another 30 or so miles on the clock. Still a stack of little things to do, like front suspension lowering and caster angle, panel alignment, carpets, heat shielding in engine bay and so on, but that will give me some things to tinker with. Will hopefully get her registered tomorrow! Adam

WOW George, Firstly congrats on buying an early Zed, secondly can I have my plates back? I was looking for AF240! and now I know where they are! That reminds me of the Brown Hornet in May 09, but unfortunately yours does look a fair amount worse than mine was, and mine was BAD! With the budget, just take it one step at a time, but for me the total cost has exceeded my initial budget several times. Nat put over 1000hours into my body, so you'll need to pace it. Great to know you have such an early car, with matching numbers that will see the value equation work perhaps better than it did for others on the road. Will be an interesting build. Do you plan on doing the body work yourself, or are you going to farm it out? If you want to come over and have a look at the Hornet to see what we did, by all means drop by, i'll here this long weekend. Best of luck Adam

The OEM MC was NEW and bought (i think) from Warren at All Z Parts. Don't worry Fella's I will be conducting a full analysis of this issue so we can determine for sure what the problem was. I take Alan's point seriously, and so will be sure to get a full response here in time.

Hi Alan, Again, thanks for you fantastic feedback, and PLEASE don't top yourself, a little too dramatic, even for me!!! I did have a long chat to James about it and he was of the view that there very well might have been something the matter with the factory MC that was in there. I will collect the car this weekend and the MC will be with it so I will have a look ad perhaps take some measurements to ensure its in line with proper operating specification. I would of course prefer an OEM part in the car so if it turns out that the part I have is faulty, I will look to replace it and put an OEM part back in. I will also discuss this issue with Stewart Wilkins to be sure that there is not something more that he understands about the problem I had. Remember that Steward re-built my front calipers and I remember at the time there was lots of discission about pistons and availability and so on. There is also missing dust covers. I wonder if there is a chance if Stewart used non-OEM pistons, thereby necessitating the need for a larger MC? I wonder too if without dust covers there is another issue that pops up? As I say, I will have this discussion with him and see if there is not a simple solution. Like you Alan, I always prefer to use OEM parts where possible, so in this instance I am as mystified as you are as to the nature of the problem. I do know that James had the brakes bled about three times to ensure there was not air in them, so we can be pretty sure that this was not the cause of the problem. Of course, if you wanted to either speak to, or email James to ask more specific questions, I am happy to pass on those details. Again, thanks for your insight that makes this whole forum a highly informative place to be!

Thanks Crew, greaty appreciated! Yep, ok I will lose the Lambo and get the Hornet pic in there Mike. Re the Brakes Mossy, I had a long chat to James yesterday and he tells me that it was his view all along that there was not sufficient volume in the old MC. He made an interesting point to me yesterday too, that in the event that I was the boil the brakes (looking forward to that!!) then the new 1" MC will be much better. In the washup, turns out that James is not entirely happy with the front end alignment. Tells me I have nylon bushes in the front control arms and that these are not properly able to be adjusted for caster. Need to change the front bushes, but will do this at a later time. Also turns out the 'broken' empty fuel gauge was umm not broken! Waiting for my personalised plates to arrive... this could be two weeks, but i'll be back to Nat to get those bits and pieces attended to.

Just got the Blue Slip !!! Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Collecting the car and driving home on Sat! Brakes work perfectly.

Mmmm now you got me thinking .. let me get over my first stone chip before I apply though! Understanding Wife too, you are a lucky Man!

Well you better get yer ride up here Lurch ... I can drive the old Pac blindfolded! Jokes aside, I actually contacted the RTA once to make enquiries about setting up a Euro style hill climb event on the Old Pac, aka Euro style events. They never responded!

That IS true and well proven Jase, James told me the HP number once and I literally fell over. James is now SO FAST in his 2.6L Zed that he's moved up from S class and is currently 2nd overall in the outright class, beating everything on the track, including porsches, Camaro's, Mustangs, Monaro's (and everything else) only to be right on the rear bumper (literally if you've seen the video of it) to a stupifyingly fast De Tomaso Pantera.. which I'd say he will very soon be beating. Right you are too, she's running 2.6L and twin hitachi SU's, with totally 100% stock brakes, including rear drums!!!

Hi G... Would love to tell you about them, but I don't have the info. Call James at MIA Engine Service as he has used them in his race car. When he was building my motor, and since, he just gave me a bunch of options and said; "for this much money you can have this, and for this much more you can have that" and so on. Recently, we discussed his race motor and what was happening there. He mentioned some new valves that he was using that cost a LOT, but are noticeable. I told him that I just wanted the thing going, and then I can do updates in time, such as those that I mentioned, ie dizzy, balancer, rods, valves and so on. Having said all that, when I drove it the other week it frightened me and lots of neighbours and that was all under 4000rpm. Need to get the thing, use it, and then determine what I really need. I do think though that having come as far as I have, a SERIOUSLY tuned L24 is very much within my reach ... Mmmmm decisions decisions.... oh, and a bit more $$$ too of course! Adam

yeah good point Lurch, acutally James was telling me he uses a special set of valves that despite their exxy cost "pay for themselves in HP alone". He reckons these specific valves make a noticeable difference. I have modified L28 valves in mine now which James said would be more than sufficient for a fast street motor. If you're reading this Lurch, do you know what the cost of one of Les' fancy Dizzies is per chance?

yes its period ... Titanium has been around forever! having said that, no idea what diff they might make other than slightly sharper throttle response.

Thanks Gents, I really appreciate all the advise, seriously I do. Just watching the Ladies tennis and thinking: 1) i'll order an ATI balancer, 2) i'll give Les Collins a call about one of those motorsport dizzies, 3) i'll call James to discuss this whole braking debacle, and 3) i'll also ask James about those uber valves he mentioned that make serious HP? Just one more question ... Does anybody know if anybody has made Titanium rods for L series motors? Adam.

Thanks Lurch, and Alan for picking up on those interesting points. Alan, I am not sure what was going on with the brakes. When I first collected the car, the pedal would just drop to the floor, and then in the last centimetre or two they would do everything, so basically completely unpractical for any sort of use and no progression. I bought the brakes off Nzeder a few years back and then had them re-built by Stew Wilkins. At the time, Stew made the point that he could not fit dust covers to the pistons as the lip was missing (i think) but that this would in no way affect the operation of the brakes. James fitted the brakes, and Nat had previously totally rebuilt the whole system with OEM parts, include rear shoes and drums and so on. You could have eaten your dinner off these brakes, and they were installed by some very experienced Datsun chappies. In terms of them not working, we all just scratched our heads, and I (as I have become extremely proficient at since buying this car) just casually reached for my wallet.... again! Seems that nobody actually knows what is wrong with the operation of the brakes, but Mike (NZeder) did refer to an issue that often occurs with a smaller M/C in terms of moving sufficient fluid, to get the operation working properly. James was also of the opinion that this may have been the case too, hence doing this conversion (and yes, I am not over the moon about having a non OEM part in there). One point to make about this issue is that I had the spacers removed, and am running non-vented rotors.... does this mean there is a different distance for the pistons to move, and hence necessitate the need for greater fluid capacity hence 1" MC? Lurch thanks for the tip on that Dizzy from Les, I will follow that up in time, and the ATI balancer too, which I had heard of but forgotten about. As i've always thought with this, getting the car 'right' will now be a matter of getting to know it and see 'what she'll do' so the saying goes. I have some very favourite roads that i've taken the other stuff on, so doing the same for the Hornet will surely tell me what I need to do in time. Thanks for your thoughts here gents, and Alan for the technical details for which I am very grateful. Naturally, i'll give y'all a proper run through when the car is registered. Adam

Ok, On Friday James installed the 1" Wilwood master cylinder to get the Mk63's working as they are meant to and is waiting on the new brake lines to be made up. All the wiring is now tidied up and the fuel gauge is working, as are all the back lights. James re-tuned the carbs, fiddled and fettled generally and reports that The Brown Hornet is going even better than is was last week, and that on MONDAY or TUESDAY coming, they'll get the blue slip. Out of interest, James tells me to ONLY run the car on BP Ultimate where I can, as his experience tells him that is makes a considerable difference in these engines. Got a call from Nat today, who wants the car back to re-align that bonnet and re-set all panel gaps to perfect. At the same time I'll get him to paint the radiator top tank fan guard that is currently missing and braze that on, and mix a batch of paint to do the engine louvres body colour. I'm going with old school steel mesh air filters (actually they should be called pebble filters), and only yesterday I ordered a set of bakelite hard mounts for the carbs. Can you believe that i'm already thinking about a better harmonic balancer and a Motorsport dizzy?! Borrowing an OEM carpet set for the car that i'll have copied and professionally fitted in German black wool loop pile as soon as I can get the car down to the trimmer. Will ask Nat to paint the console in satin black two pack and see how that turns out. I ordered the number plates too, which i'm particularly excited about. 240-ZEE white numerals on Black. Naturally I looked for all variations of HORNET, but could only get H0RN37, which just doesn't cut it. Suspect we'll have official lift off in a week then we might get a bunch of Sydney folk together for a spin. Here she is last week ... actually run out of fuel just near place, door slightly open. Adam

Yeah thanks Lads, I think Lockie I won't rush into it as I'm unlikely to go completely berserk on the road (unless I see Mossy or Gareth of course and need to show 'em a thing or two). I will of course use the Hornet for the first few months and just shake it down and see what's what. If it needs alteration at a later date, of course I will consider an LSD then. Great thread though.

very interesting thread fellas and as the Hornet comes out of a five year hibernation (Yipeeee!) next week I am too considering if I need an LSD. Suspect it won't be going to the shops too often, and sunday mornings will be the preferred choice of use. Having said that, given I use the OEM 3.9 R180 diff, and assuming I wanted to get a 'torsen' style LSD, what are the current options available to me? I've heard of several brands including Kaaz, Quaife and OS Giken, but can anybody point out what brands are available, and perhaps how they might line up in terms of quality, and price? I saw Ben Zed can get the OS type, but as for the others, what is out for the 3.9 R180 diff? Cheers Adam

Yeah OK .... yes .. you got me ... its REALLY slow setting and LESS slow setting... NOT intermittant, and Billy when i switch it off, it does the old two strokes before settling where it should not... I might just have a fiddle with the motor when i get the car back from James, suspect its a loose wire or something. On this point, does anybody know a stockist of carbon brushes for these motors? Thought i might have a fiddle and most likely will need to change the brushes and springs ... question is, where do I get these? Adam.

Hi Scoot, Yes, it works on intermittant and full speed, but when I turn the wipers to the OFF position, they stop in any given position on the screen, 99% of the time not where they are intended to do so. Not entirely sure what I need to do to get them to part themselves properly when the switch is turned off.

Hi Folks, Hopefully as the header suggests, when I switch the wipers OFF on my 71 240Z, the arms tend to either; 1) stop right in the midst of the stroke, or 2) move for another stroke or two and then stop in a totally random position on the windshield. To get them to park in the correct position just above the cowl panel requires the skill of a surgeon and patience of a Saint. Does anybody know whether this is a switch related issue, or wiper motor, or relay (wherever that might reside?) or other? Very keen to have this issue resolved, not that I plan on doing a whole lot of wet weather driving, but its just one of those annoying glitches I wish I had remedied. Cheers Adam

Wow Billy, the car looks and sounds amazing. Like you, i'm also extremely pleased with the Koni Yellows and King springs and can't think of a better handling setup i'd use for the road. Have heard of others with coilovers and so on that are just not suited to road use. Dimitri's comments echoed here too, but then you already heard me say that! Well done, its a beauty. Adam - The Brown Hornet -