Grandad

Hi OZ Can you build a car from a badge? Well from your rivet to Spitfire example, I guess you can. I whole heartedly support your FATHERSON aspirations, I'd call them DADSON aspirations but that one's taken. I'm fortunate that my son and I have always got on well and have similar interests, so as a 15 year old high school student with a learners permit I decided to get him a tarmac competition Zed as his first car, partly to keep him away from the relatively cheap turbo Jap import scene and the street racing that comes with it but also so we could compete together in motor sport, the deal was that I purchased the car and he was liable for 25% of the purchase price and maintenance costs but had to do 50% of any work required, I covered all race tyre and event entry costs, I figured that with his part time work commitments this might just have him busy and broke enough to keep him off grog and drugs, ten years down the track, I'm claiming success. I accept that we all do things a bit differently but from my experience I recommend buying a car that's going so you can get out and have some fun together before any re-build because then the not so fun work becomes just that bit more enjoyable. This will give you an idea of how we did it and the fun we have. I wish you lots of enjoyment and success with your father son project. Cheers Dad oops I mean TT Aero

Hi All There's nothing quite like a deadline to apply pressure and it sure did for us, fortunately Whittie committed himself to two days working on the car and honestly without that it wouldn't have happened. On the late night brake bleed we ran out of new fluid and had to recycle what we had in the car so after my hills run we completely flushed the system with new fluid and I was amazed at the further large gulps of air we expelled, anyway with that done we had a rock hard pedal and confidence that the brakes wouldn't let us down, so with oil and filter changed again we hit the track with about 325ks on the motor. Here's some hand held vid it's a bit shaky but it shows how we went, as you know I had the first run. The car felt great and I didn't want to stop but knowing Whittie was eager to get behind the wheel I didn't over do it and handed the car over with no need to advise of anything to be aware of, so out he went but sadly it didn't exactly go as expected. This isn't a good look and definitely not part of the script. When Whittie got out of the car I asked what happened and he said that half way round the sweeper he lost ignition (you can hear it is his vid), ah ha I know what that is, the power input to our Mitsubish distributor sits close the the top radiator hose and with the engine moving on it's mounts, the hose lifts the plug off but a cable tie fixes it. 10 minutes later Whittie was back into it. I'm feeling an immense amount of satisfaction in the way the car has gone back together and now after nearly four years off the road, with every last nut and bolt removed the only glitch in an otherwise faultless first outing was a noisy fan belt and a disi wire that fell off, I recon that's a pretty good result but the best part is Whitties motor sport Mojo is back. In November I was lucky enough to drive the Sprintex supercharged Toyota ft86 on the track and was seriously impressed with the cars handling, it effortlessly changed direction at speed with no fuss what so ever, I rate it as the best handling tin top I've driven, until now, the Zed's right up there with it. John Fowler called this morning to hear how we faired last night and when I told him he said "wow that's a far better starting point than I was expecting, now let's get some more caster into it and some sticky tyres onto it" The re-build is not complete yet there is some cosmetic stuff still to be done and we have a Schweppes oil catch can that needs to be replaced. Cheers Dad

Hi All We've been away from the track far longer than we ever expected but we're back. True to his word, Whittie let me have the first drive in anger which was fantastic, this car is sensational. We do have some vid and tall stories so I'll try to get to it tomorrow. Cheers Dad

Hi All Just back from three hours in the Perth hills, not as good as the Adelaide hills but still not bad, the car now has just over 300ks on it our target was 400 but we're out of time so I'll drop the oil and bleed the brakes onece again for good measure then we're off to the track. I can't believe how different the car is now compared to how it was, the suspension set up is light years ahead of where it was and the motor has noticeably more torque pulling effortlessly from 2k in 5th and the power increases with the revs. We will be taking cameras to the track so hopefully will get some vid. This turned over while I was out and as it will only ever happen once it became a photo opp. Cheers Dad

Hi All Yes it is rather late and we did start rather early this morning so it's been a long day but a productive one and in spite of the challenges thrown at us today, we're looking good for hitting the track tomorrow. Started this morning by re-visiting the overhead gear and reset the idle jets, that done we fitted the strut brace, oh and as our 3 liter ali catch can won't be here by Monday we've been informed that something like a coke bottle will suffice, Schweppes that was close. So it's time to fit door locks, window winders, windows, mudguards, spoiler, bumper and maybe some lights. Ok with that done it must be time to let it down off the jack stands and take it for a run, we fitted the old wheels because the tyres have only done one event so have plenty of life left in them and are perfect for the break-in sessions but of course the new wheels look and fit a whole lot better. With it ready to go on it's maiden run we fired it up and it ran like shit on five cylinders, WTF Mate, how can that be? So we pushed it back into the shed and started looking, first check was the timing which Whittie, never having done before and not knowing how to read the timing light had set at 15deg advance so that was the first thing to be rectified, Whittie then suggested that the filters might be over oiled so removed them for cleaning and re oiling, in the mean time I ran my carby balancer over the ram tubes and found the balance to be so far out the engine was idling basically on the first carby so I tried to adjust it without success then decided to do something I've not done previously and disconnect the accelerator linkages then balance the carbies using the idle screws on the butterfly linkage and re set the idle jets as per my Webber manual then re connect and adjust the accelerator linkages, the result was amazing, I don't think the engine has ever run so sweetly. Finally it's time for the maiden voyage, so with Whittie driving and me in the navigator seat, we're off, well not for long because 50 meters down the road Whittie brought the car to rest gently and said, we don't have any brakes, so I had a drive and sure enough, we didn't have brakes so it was back to the shed for some bleeding. The fronts appeared to be fine with almost no air expelled, the rear did give a little air but the pedal didn't really improve, we went for a second short run but there was no real improvement then Whittie said "do you remember we had this problem when we first fitted this system and we had to move the rear calipers from their 3.00 o'clock position to 12.00 o'clock so the bleeder is at the top and do you remember that was the night before an event," with that we bled the navigator side first which achieved nothing so I was feeling a bit down and said, lets deal with it tomorrow but Whittie said "I've got a good feeling about my side, lets just do it," so we did and I couldn't believe the amount of air that came out, the caliper must have been empty of oil because after this we had a full pedal. Following the second run we noticed that although the fans were running they were pushing air away from the radiator so were wired incorrectly for their location, that was another little job. With that done and brakes working, Whittie took off to do some break in Ks and has recently returned, he can't believe how good the car feels and how much better it is now so I can't wait to get out in it later today but it's now a very late one so I'm off. Cheers Dad

Hi PZG302 Thanks for that one, I was going to sell the old VL MOMO but as by mistake we have two bosses I'll keep it and do the swap. Cheers Dad

Hi All Wow this is getting a bit crazy, the young guy with the tats and piercings working the spanners fell in love with the car and took pics of everything and the guys who own the workshop took lots of pics of the car and insist I show them the car when it's going, their interest comes from previously owning a Nissan dealership in South Africa when these cars were new, they said the engine bay looked too good to cover with a bonnet, I'm not sure that's true but it made me feel pretty good. Anyway back to reality, With the car back in the garage I fitted the driver side fire extinguisher bracket. OK time to fit the driver's seat and steering wheel, Whittie decided that the MOMO wheel we have been using that first saw service on my near new VL Calais Brock bluffer at about the time he was born was no longer up to standard so bought a new current spec one to match the trim, cant wait to wrap my race gloves around it. The two lots of break in oil that I have drained were sitting in the buckets they drained into but knowing that Whittie has dedicated this weekend to getting his Zed track ready for Monday I thought it would be a good idea to empty the buckets to avoid the possibility of youthful exuberance seeing their contents cover the garage floor so I emptied them into some containers I can give to Tuss for disposal from his workshop, in previous pics I compared drop one with drop two and to be fair I thought the difference was marginal but in emptying the buckets the truth is revealed. Cheers Dad

Hi All There were two things that absolutely had to happen today, the screen had to be fitted then the car towed to the wheel aligner, both have been achieved and the car is back in the garage so we're in with a very good chance of getting onto the track on Monday. The screen fitting was very straight forward and uneventful which was good, before the car came off the road we were sponsored by Wheels World so wheel alignment was never an issue but with the way the new owners treated John Fowler my allegiance to that business is gone, John has set up again working from a home office with access to friends workshops so he has set the suspension up, I asked him to make it a bit taily and while he listened to me he didn't follow my instruction suggesting that because we haven't driven it for so long and have changed it so much we should get to know it again and then loosen the rear if we still want to, good advice thanks John. We used to have almost 2deg of neg camber but with the new suspension he has given us 3 deg and we can get more if we want it. For any Perthies who may be interested John is contactable on 0416 105911, with the current exception of Yoki tyres he can do and supply everything he could previously and we all have access to his massive bank of knowledge. Here's what 3 deg of neg camber look like. Cheers Dad

Hi All Things are more than a litttle tight for getting the car on the track next Monday, firstly we don't have a windscreen, which is somewhat useful for keeping the rear window intact when traveling at speed, so thinking that wouldn't be a problem I got on the phone this morning and being a loyal customer, rang the guy that fitted the rear window to let him know I'm now ready for him to supply and fit a screen, clearly the Zed didn't make a big impression on because it took more than a little prompting for him to remember the little blue coupe he fitted a rear window to, anyway eventually the penny dropped and he remembered the car and he then became a little more motivated, he shuffled through some supplier stock availability and found a screen for a 260C, OK that's a start but I need one for a 260Z, with that he said I need to make some calls so I'll call you back in 30. Not hearing from him after 30 I was thinking Monday was off but then thought, Martin must have some sort of screen we can fit for one event so felt a little more relaxed then finally my phone rang and it was the windscreen guy who said "do you know how rare these things are, no-one keeps stock of them they are made to order from China but one has recently been ordered and sent to Perth but the order has been rescinded so there is one available", I don't particularly care whether that story is accurate on or not but the screen is being fitted in the morning. We're at the end stage of the rebuild and are almost ready for the head lights to go back in so it's time to clean up the trims, just one so far. This car has frequently seen periods of stanover time sufficient to drain the battery, one stopover in Sydney we dropped on this gem I'm sure most of you are aware of. Cheers Dad

Hi All I have the feeling that in spite of a few set backs it's all coming together nicely and I expect our next vid will be the test and tune at Wanneroo next Monday, in reality it will be a shake down to find the things I've missed before we enter some real timed competition. With all the major electrical work finished the tacho wasn't working so I removed it and took it to the guy who did the digital conversion for us, he tested it and reported that it is working as it should, with the fault not in the unit I connected it and checked the power and earth were working because with the amount of wire that's been removed I thought it would be my luck to have removed something important but to my relief it checked out OK, that leaves the feed from the MSD which I have also been playing with, using my multimeter I checked the connection where the feed wire joins the tach and that was OK, I then checked the whole wire and that was OK, through process of elimination I eventually checked the connection to the MSD and that was it, the connection has always been loose but has never failed, when Rikki was working on the car he noticed it and recommended tightening the female spade connector which he did and reinserted it into the connection port little realizing that he had tightened it so much what he actually did was push the male spade back into the MSD unit creating a failed connection, I had to unmount the unit and remove the end plate in order to get to the spade to secure it and reconnect it, anyway that's that little problem solved. Satisfied that everything in the wiring loom is good I bound and secured it. I decided that Whittie's conduit idea worked well at the front, so refitted it. With phase two of the brake in completed I again dropped the oil and changed the filter, Whittie has had a sexy baffled alloy sump fitted with a recessed Allen key plug and it occurred to me that for competition the plug has to be lock wired so I thought I might have to replace it with a plug that protrudes but before doing that I had a go with my drill and while the result may not be pretty it will do. As I said I would, I have compared the second lot of 20 minute break in oil with the first and while still quite dark it is slightly lighter in color than the first so I'm thinking the oil's doing it's job well. The battery isolation switch we have has the ignition cut capability which I was going to ignore but after thinking about it and knowing engines continue to run off the alternator with the battery disconnected I considered that if ever that switch is required in an emergency situation it could well need to kill the engine as well, I looked at the wiring diagram that came with it and decided it would be much easier to use the tacho feed I mentioned in an earlier post, so it's done and the console is finally back with battery and ignition cut instructions. It seems that every time we replace the fire extinguishers they mount differently and with what's been done to this car I don't want to be drilling new holes in the body just to satisfy bloody CAMS every three years so gave it a bit of thought and came up with this. And of course you did see that correctly, the first seat is in. Yes I'm burning a bit of midnight oil but it will be worth it on Monday. Cheers Dad

Hi All Following Whitties research on wiring the alternator I'm ready to connect it up but thought that if I simply use spade connectors, next time we have to remove the alternator even though Whittie has marked them we will have forgotten what goes where. I did a bit of research and running around today ending up at automotive electrical wholesaler Ashdown Ingram, I left with exactly the connector I need. So I connected it up ready to test, if it works all thats left is to tape the loom. When I started it I was way happier than I was expecting to be, cold running at ~ 2.5k here's what I saw. After about 15 minutes running I checked the gages at idle. I'm not unhappy with any of that and I'm now confident the small crank pulley won't cause any issues. I ran the motor for 20 minutes again today so that's part two of the break in completed, I'll drop the oil and change the filter again tomorrow then as far as the motor's concerned it's ready for the road. Cheers Dad

Hi All I'm glad we've set a deadline for the car to be going because without it I probably would have had a relaxing day at the beach today but instead I was head down bum up in the garage. I continued with the wiring today concentrating on the firewall and passenger side, when I installed the MSD ignition I had to run a couple of wires from the unit which is mounted by the coil to the instrument panel so ran them across the firewall entering the cab with the main loom and this is how it looked after Whittie encased it all in conduit which is a big improvement on how it was before the re-build. With installation of the cut out switch we now have battery cables entering the cab between the battery and the engine so I decided to use the spare hole in the same area for the ignition wires and do away with the conduit, it's still a work in progress but here's how it looks currently. We really are getting close to completion now so I turned my attention to the doors and when I delved into our box of new and not so new rubbers I found these gems, they were new once but as built up crud and over spray shows, that was some time ago. Or is it? With the engine having had it's initial 20 minute run I dropped the oil, changed the filter and re adjusted the rockers because I thought I'd set them a bit too loose, so with that done it's ready to run again. When I checked the dip stick at the end of the run the the oil looked fresh and new, even when I was dropping it it looked clean but when I looked at it in the white bucket I was amazed at how dark it looked, more like 20 thousand Ks than 20 minutes. I've never done this before but prior to refilling the engine I decided to do a little comparison of the 20 min run oil with new oil in comparable buckets. WTF MATE! (oops didn't mean to SHOUT) I know this is a refresh rather than a new motor but how can that be? I'm thinking that the break in oil, while high in Zinc is also high in detergent to clean any parts such as crank and cam shaft oil galleys that weren't flushed in the cleaning bath, that notion also justifies the filter replacement. Following advice I'm going to run the motor again for 20 min before again dropping the oil, changing the filter and filling it with oil more durable for a highway run in, I will collect the second lot of run in oil in the current new oil bucket so that we can compare the two. Cheers Dad

Hi Mike, You spooked us a little with your last post but we appreciate hearing about your experience, we are aware of the small pulley diameter but at the time of acquisition we were not aware there were options, we have considered the pulley more a potential cooling issue (stock water pump) than electrical, Whitties initial response was that we could fit a smaller alternator pulley which makes sense so we compared the sizes of the balancer and alternator pulleys and found them to be ~1=1, we then checked our alternator spec sheet which shows it charging from about 800 rpm, our motor idles at ~1K and the alternator is at just under 50% charge @ K1.5 rpm so we are feeling somewhat comfortable but as always, time will tell. Hi All Under CAMS rules we need to fit a 3L oil catch can, we have been looking for one for some time without success but by chance this morning I called into a local race shop and found they have what we need so took a pic I could refer to in order to find a place to fit it. Whittie turned up today keen to do something on the Zed which was great because in the limited time he had available rather than clean dirty old wiring he was able to research the fix to our alternator charg issue, meanwhile with catch can placement in mind I turned my attention to the dirty old wiring and ultimately decided to unwrap and slightly re-position the main under bonnet loom. I started by positioning wiring to allow for the catch can then taped it starting at the end of the branches working back into the loom which I would then tape starting at the furthest end. My fingers are telling me they've done more than enough tape winding for one day and my back is starting to complain a little so I'm calling it a day, not to mention that it's way past beer a clock, I'm not finished yet but I'm certainly not unhappy with what I'm seeing so far. There's now been quite a lot of wire removed that has just been sitting there doing nothing. Cheers Dad

Hi All I mentioned the other day that I have a few small coolant leaks that I'm not concerned about because I'm convinced they're caused by using a high concentration of glycol which is particularly wet and slippery so when I topped up the coolant this morning I added some Bars Leaks minus the pellets. I started the engine for its initial break in and ran it for 20 minutes fluctuating the revs between 2,500 and 3,500 constantly monitoring the instruments and they read beautifully and the thermo fans cut in on que. After 20 minutes of running, the coolant leaks were sealed. With the initial break in done I'll now change the oil and filter then it's ready for part two of the break in which will involve driving it. When I installed the gear lever I just plunked it in not thinking it could go in two ways so when Whittie was here for the false start he said " hey Dill, ah I mean Dad (I'm sure he meant Dill) you know you put the gear lever in back to front don't you?" Ahh, Umm, Err, Oops :-[ so today I attempted to restore my standing with Whittie by rectifying that little issue. This is the lever in the neutral position. With the motor running I discovered a couple of little electrical issues, firstly the alternator is not charging but a quick google search reveals that I need to splice a couple of wires that went to the old voltage regulator and the tacho isn't working, not sure if that's regulator related or not so will correct the regulator first. The track day on the 13th has been confirmed and we're entered so no pressure I just need to have it going in a week. Cheers Dad

Hi All. Here's a first run, sadly I cant rev it over 3k but with the light flywheel it gets there fast. Click to view. Cheers Dad

Hi peter You've read my mind, the engine builder has a reputation for building strong race motors he did ours last time and it lasted almost five years which is very good considering it spends most of its time at or near the rev limit and is double entered and was still making good power when we decided to freshen it up so while I'm going to bring it to his attention I'm also giving him the benefit of the doubt as the two areas that tripped him up are exclusive to Zed motors which he won't see often and there's been no harm done. Cheers Dad

Hi Mike260LW Welcome to the Forum, you'll find lots of friendly, helpful like minded people here. Our blog is getting pretty lengthy now because it's been going on so long so kudos to you for sticking with reading it all the way through, I'm extremely happy with the way the car has come together but we have had considerable outside help, I'm in awe of some of the re-builds you'll find on here that people have done almost single handed in their garage. Hi All I once heard someone say, "there's no better day than a good day" but I'm going to challenge that because today has been better than simply a good day. I started by removing the distributor and found the drive was 90 deg off where it should be, the right side of the shaft is currently at 10 past 8 when it should be at 25 past 11. I then removed our new low pressure hi-flow oil pump which required removal of the front sway bar. The good book talks about two marks on the drive shaft that should be lined up and then moved forward one cog. So with the engine set on no1 TDC compression stroke I carefully refitted the pump and as if by magic (not really, the Nissan engineers do actually know what there doing) the spindle was in the correct position at 25 past 11 and the rotor looks to be where it should for firing no1. Ahh the Mitsubishi Logo is a bit of a give away but yes we are running a pointless disi, it was fitted by the previous owner. With the pump and disi in place I once again tried to fire it up with no luck so as they say in the classics, if an engine won't run it's either a fuel or electrical problem, so with all I've done on the electrics side I tested it again then ruled it out as the main cause of the engine not starting. I then turned to the carbies and to cut a long story short after taking the tops off the carbies I realized that when I took the carbies off the manifold I refitted them incorrectly so the linkages were not in sinc and the accelerator pumps were not being actuated so I removed and re-fitted the rear carbie making sure the linkages fitted correctly. So now with electric and fuel issues sorted it should start. (click on the pic to find out) We generally run loose valve clearance so are used to overhead noise but even though I was happy to have the engine going, I was not comfortable with the level of overhead noise I was hearing even allowing for an enclosed environment I considered it excessive so shut the engine down and went looking for the cause, on removal of the cam cover I could see that the rockers had been re-surfaced which was ok but knowing that this is a critical area of these engines, I decided to remove them and I found worn rockers that had been machined way past the case hardening and were sufficiently pitted that they should never have been used. Fortunately we have Martin our local Zed used parts specialist to turn to so in almost no time I had a good set of used rockers with plenty of life left in them ready to fit. All fitted with accurate clearance and what looks like correct rocker angle, just need to re-fit the oil line. Here it is good to go my confidence is so high I've even re fitted the filters, it's been a big day and it's a bit late to fire it up now and annoy the neighbors so bring on tomorrow. Cheers Dad

Hi All Thanks for your interest and concern, we did try moving the plug leads without success so it's more than that, in my reading of the manual last night I see that the distributor driving spindle has marks for lining it up and they must bet set one notch apart so that's were I'll look first. I did promise vids and while they don't have the result we wanted they do show what happened. Clicking on the pic will open the photobucket link. Cheers Dad

Hi RLY240 Great to hear you're off to Bathurst at Easter, you're in for a great time. My son and I have taken the Zed there twice (double entered), we usually run a 4.11 ratio but for our first Bathurst run we fitted a 3.5 to allow for the run down the hill which was fine but we lost out enormously going up and it didn't really work across the top so for our second attempt we fitted a 3.9 which was perfect, it left us with enough power up the hill, worked well across the top and didn't overwork the motor on the way down. I was happy with my times but unfortunately for me my son was even happier with his best of 2.55.3, while the car is not group s spec but was on 6" rubber, for you to get an idea of how your car will rev with a 3.9 ratio diff I've attached a link to his hot lap. Hope this helps in your decision making.

Hi All This has been another frustrating day and I can't even blame the Irish. While waiting for Whittie to arrive I connected the remaining fuel and water hoses then connected the fuel pump to check for leaks and found a couple of clamps that needed to be tightened I then filled the cooling system and finally got to use the bottle of coolant we won at NDSOC 2007 for greatest distance traveled and as expected I found some coolant leaks which I'll get to later. Finally the time to fire the old girl up had arrived, vid camera in hand our first attempt achieved nothing, just waiting for the carbies to fill I guess, second attempt resulted in some spitting so we removed the filters to protect them from any further flame which occurred big time on our next attempt so with that I decided that the timing must be set incorrectly so turned the motor to no1 tdc compression stroke and as expected the timing was way out, I removed the distributor and sure enough it looks like the disi drive has been installed incorrectly which is no big deal to fix but not starting until 5.00pm we have run out of time for today, so my bedtime reading tonight will be the 260Z workshop manual and I'll seek further advice on it tomorrow. Whittie and I did share a beer but it was without the celebration we had been expecting, we received notification late today that the test and tune day we want the car ready for is tentatively booked for 13 Jan so the pressure is on. Cheers Dad

Hi All Another day and a bit more progress, today was about preparing for tomorrow so I set about connecting some fuel and heater hoses which included polishing and lacquering a brass union. I fitted that and connected the hose but I need to get some new clamps to finish the job tomorrow, I decided to fill the engine with oil and started with the Zinc additive then the breaking in oil, I filled the engine to about 5mm above the full marker on the dip stick to allow for empty oil galleys and the filter. The engine has increased compression with the re-build and even with the oil additives I've been a bit concerned about potential damage occurring at initial dry start up then the other day it occurred to me that I could fill the engine with oil, disable the ignition and fuel pump, remove the spark plugs and run oil through the engine turning it on the starter motor without compression or fuel. I am seriously glad I did this because even without compression the starter appeared to be laboring for about 30 seconds then sped up to what I had been expecting and soon after I had oil pressure. Time to stop and wait for tomorrow, interestingly as I said earlier, I started with the oil 5mm above the full mark on the dipstick then when I re-checked it some time after the exercise it read 5mm below the full mark, I knowingly over filled the engine allowing for the filter and oil galleys but the have required more than I expected. Happy New Year All, I hope 2014 delivers everything you wish and hope for. Only one more sleep. :) Cheers Dad

I've heard this referred to as the 40 year rule, just look at the age of most drivers in Aussie Muscle cars. I put my son into his 260Z as his first car when he got his learners because he was showing interest in cars and I wanted us both to be able to go and play historic motor sport, which we have now done for quite a few years. The first day at school after buying the car I suggested he just tell his mates that he had bought a Datsun then wait for the laughter and barbs but don't let on it's a Z, so he did and the laughter was loud and the barbs sharp right up to the day he drove it into the school car park, the general reaction was wow that's seriously cool you're so lucky can I have a ride in it. My son is now an engineer and has commented on how many engineers own these cars, his ground up restoration is almost complete and while the market value is a long way of the restoration cost he now has a brand new classic and it's amazing how many people look at it and love the appearance but don't have a clue what it is. I've been doing most of the re-assembly work and have had numerous trips to parts suppliers, powder coaters, electro-platers etc and I'm often asked what my project is and I've found the response vary from, why are you doing it to that, to wow I love those you're so lucky will you show us when it's finished, the negative v positive response is about 70/30 to the positive, so my experience is that the old Jap Crap image is going and Nissan entering the V8 Stupidcars won't hurt that one little bit.

I've bought a lot of bits and pieces from interstate without issue but for expensive items I have arranged friends or family to inspect it first but not everyone can do that, recently I found this site, looks like a good idea. https://gotoguy.com.au/

Hi datberger Great to see another coupe head West, from the pics and your comments that appears to be a very good example of a stock 240, please keep it that way, I look forward to seeing it at the next Zed day. From experience I understand the attraction of turbo power but if you possibly can, please resist going that way with this car. I don't see these old (drive by cable) cars going down in value from here so I suspect whatever you paid will turn out to be good value. Cheers TT (twin turbos)

Hi peter This job is so far over budget that I didn't even give new indicator lights a thought but thanks for the heads up, clearly I'm a shoe polish devotee but will say that if it didn't work I wouldn't waste my time applying it, if you want to test it yourself do your tyre side walls it will take a bit of time to do properly but after you've done it once (time permitting) you won't go back to crappy silicon tyre gloss. Hi All, Today was a bit of a run around day trying to source new head lamps, we've have HIDs wired in but after years of competition the old lights just aren't up to the job, I found what I need on the net from the US but don't want to take the risk of getting LHD lights so discounted that option then it was back to pre internet days of taking a sample with me and doing the rounds of parts suppliers and on my fourth stop I struck gold. When I got home I decided to test one just to make sure they work as they should and all was good so the globes are now fitted to the lights and stored out of harms way. Here's the old light and the new ones for comparison. Not wanting to achieve nothing at all on the car today I refitted the cut out switch and put grommets on the cables where they go through the fire wall. Only two more sleeps. :) Cheers Dad