WA240Z

Looks absolutly fantastic.

Hi Gav, Sorry for the thread hijack, I hope you don't mind me butting in with a question. Did the early 240's, without the separate front blinkers mounted on the bumper bar, have a single white globe that functioned for both the turn indicator and parkers? Or did the early 240's not have parker lights only blinkers? Cheers, Billy.

I have been waiting for this to come out. Paul Newman is by far one of my favourite actors, he served in the second World War, was a philanthropist, and he raced Z cars. What's not to like about him.

That blue interior really works having the transmission tunnel carpeted in black. If the tunnel was covered in the original blue I think it would be too much. Beautiful car.

I think its a great looking car that has obviously had, going by its previous condition, 100's if not 1000 odd hours put into it. It is tastefully and respectively modified. I think one of things that make the 240/260z such a great classic car, is that it is one of those that can be personalised, if done correctly, without compromising its value. You wont see too many 250 SWB Ferrari's being modified outside period correctness. (Of course for the ones being raced I am sure there is some pretty sexy stuff going on inside the engine and gearboxes while staying "within the rules"). As for values, well lets face it, the S30 isn't that expensive as a fantastic early 70's sports/GT that is a wonderful car to drive,especially with a few tasteful mods, great little club sport car, and a cool looking thing. At present you will not get your money back on a professional restoration, where as there is similar aged cars around you could drive into the side of a bus and they would be worth just as much as restored. Also I think we are seeing people getting into 240/260's that are buying them to really enjoy them for a wonderful weekend toy, and these people have the means to purchase much more expensive cars. The cars are no longer just a cheap "datto jap crap", in the eyes of many, sports/GT car. Personally I don't think they were ever that. Those who do enjoy a good car, have enormous respect for our zeds. So while this car isn't all original and is at the upper end of what has been paid in the past I think it will find a buyer for around the asking price.

That is a fantastic looking car, congratulations.

Hi Gav, All installed, works a treat. Thanks mate. I think the interior is as completed and as OEM as its going to get, for now anyway. Billy.

Hi Gav, Arrived today all safe and sound. Looks fantastic, the quality is better in person than the photos show. Very happy. Cheers Billy.

I will email Adam to see if my old carpets are still around. The hard part to get right with the carpets are the two foot wells. The carpet has to curve in two directions and as the carpets are not moulded a crease is formed, like trying to wrap a sheet of paper around a football. Even after the carpets were cut from my original carpets, as they are cut flat, I still had to "fit" them into the car. This required cutting where the creases were formed in the foot wells, and stitching to create curve. Takes a while, and if a motor trimmer completes the job, the hours will rack up. The under seat sections are pretty easy to fit as well as the rear deck section. I doubt the original carpets were ever very well fitted in the first place compared to today's standards.

Thanks mate.

Hi Gav, I will take one. PM sent. Billy.

Hi Rev, Adam (ACF321 ex Brown Hornet) and I used my original 73 carpets as templates for new carpets to be cut in Sydney. I sent the old carpets from Perth over. PM Adam to see if the original carpets still exist, if so he could send them down to you in VIC. These carpets fitted very well, they were just starting to fall apart, mainly the rubber underside, after 40 years. Cheers Billy.

Hi Locky, The Early Girl is looking fantastic. The mods you have and are completing has produced not only a fantastic looking car, but I image given your eye for detail and ability, a wonderful driving car. Billy.

Same story for F1. Chanel 10 is only showing about half the races this year. I only realised yesterday when I was checking the program to see what time the qualifying was on yesterday, to my total frustration, no qualifying and no race broadcast. I am SO pissed off about it. I dont have foxtel, nor do I want to get Foxtel. Free to air TV has really taken a massive dive in the last year. There isn't even the amount of some high quality drama produced on free TV any more, especially on 2 and SBS there was a couple of years ago. Its only f,,king reality shows. Who wants to watch untalented people sitting around watching TV?

Shame you were not over a couple of weeks earlier. The WA 240/260Z register had their yearly registration day over the weekend. Would of been a good chance for you to catch up with the WA S30 crowd. If you like PM me and I will pass on the Presidents email address. He can supply you with the clubs competition calender. You might be able to meet a few of the boys then. Cheers, Billy.

I will take them. PM sent. Cheers Billy.

Well 12 months on, and what do you know I have finally finished the interior. Basically just the carpet and the all elusive center console. The carpet I had customer cut from quality German loop pile using my old carpets as a template. My Buddy Adam had this completed in Sydney while having a set cut for the Brown Hornet at the same time. As I had the chassis rails replaced I had to remove the old sound deadening, I replaced this with Dynamat. To replicate the OEM rubber type liner under the carpet I used 3mm Dynaliner, and then had the edges over-locker stitched similar to OEM. I finally came across a 72-73 center console in fantastic condition advertised on the this site, thanks Geoff. This was to replace the modified 260 console in the car before we owned it, finally the interior looks the way its meant to. I still just need to get the small plastic badge/decal for in front of the ash tray. I have a set of luggage straps as well, I just need to get the steel re-plated and will replace the old faded straps with new ones. Anyway here are a couple of pics how it has all come up. Cheers Billy.

Thats my understanding that no 240Zs came standard with rear sway bars, but others on here can confirm better I am sure.

Hi Stephen, My '73 240Z has never had a rear sway bar, I am pretty sure the 240Z's didn't have rear sway bars even though the hanger brackets are there for a sway bar. Billy.

For another $150.00 you can have the real thing (weber), well as close as it comes to the real thing these days. http://www.weberperformance.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=2_62&products_id=233 Personally I think I will still hold out for Mikuni or OER when I finally get to giving the engine a birthday, I like the idea of keeping to Japanese bolt on period performance mods.

Hi there, For great finish, suggest having them sand blasted and then powder coated. Had mine done last year, cost around $100-150 I think from memory. If you are going to do it your yourself, the KBS Coatings chassis kit. Its a three step process. This is was what I had planed on using until I got lazy. Colour for either option, satin black.

As I wanted to powdercoat all my suspension components and have the hardware re-plated, I just dropped the struts off to the suspension shop that supplied all the parts. They fitted up the new springs and shocks, then I re-fitted to the car with all my newly painted and plated components, along with the new bushes and wheel bearing. Finally I supplied the car back to them to complete a wheel alignment. Really quite straight forward and easy if you are well set up with good tools and good quality stands. Mind you the actual labour costs if the suspension shop had done all the work wouldn't of been that much extra, maybe few hundred dollars. I did the work myself because of the time to have components painted and plated. Remember, if you undertake the work yourself, and its not something your experienced at make sure all your torque settings are correct. Also if you run into trouble its very hard to get the car to someone with the suspension half out of it. Oh also, while the rear suspension is out, not a bad idea to have new uni-joints fitted to the prop shaft and then have it re-balanced. Also check the uni-joints on the half shafts as well and check the grease in them.

Very nice car with some great plans. I have always liked that colour, you don't see many these days. As for the suspension, if you do want to keep a relatively OEM look, I cant speak highly enough of lowered King springs with Koni adjustable yellow shocks and white line bushes throughout. Simple, effective no squeaks and not harsh, all important for road use. One extra thing, I find the car handles and rides better on the road with 60 series tyres, plus it also looks a little more period. Obviously wheels and tyres are a very personal choice. Enjoy what looks to be a great car. Billy.

If you are finding the issue to be underload I would look at the spark side of things. Replace all 6 plugs and the coil, very cheap way of getting a base to start with, and replace the fuel filter as well, also cheap. As for the 240z hitachis getting out of tune, I havent touched mine in 8 years. I replace the damper oil every year and run some carb cleaner through them yearly. Once adjusted corrected they do not need to be played with at all. My car ownly getts used about once or twice a month, apart from the 6 to 7 secs of cranking to get her started initiallly with plentty of choke, once warm it idles perfectly and will rev out to 6k without issue under load, year in and year out. Agree though the idle ignition advance is very low. Check the manual, but as yours is modified, L28 etc, you are unsure what static compression you have you may need to start low and then see how you go. Run 98 octane. Good luck, Billy.