Tj

My 1977 260Z definitely has a rough black finish. Interestingly I've seen a 2000 sports recently that had a polished lid on its ashtray, not sure what year it was however.

I started researching the Tokico Illuminas tonight after getting prices on the King lows and Gabriel inserts (KYBs were more or less the same price but they were unsure if they could still get rears) and that came up to $760 for the set of 4 coils and 4 inserts supply only. I got a quote on Koni yellows and they wanted nearly $550 a pair. Looking at the Tokicos on Lightning Motorsport's website I can get this kit of shocks and springs for $634 USD (or $592 AUD at today's rate) before shipping. I've emailed them for a shipping quote. So are the Tokico's better? do they bolt straight in? (like, are they an insert or a complete strut replacement?) because if they are I'd be happy to pay a bit more for shipping if they're a better product.

So I'm researching suspension options for my 2+2 and I've come across quite a few differing opinions. Firstly, it's a road car. There's the odd chance that it might make it out to the occasional supersprint (it's got a loooong way to go before it's anywhere near worth entering it mind you) but at my current average it'll only be one every couple of years so I really don't think it's worth focusing on track capabilities. That said, I'd like good road handling as I do on occasions go for trips up twisty back roads. I've written off coilovers as out of my price range and too much work at the moment. I'm aware of the advantages but they really aren't necessary at the moment. I'm starting to settle on lowered King springs (I've read the arguments about spring rates and I think the lowered Kings and a decent sway bar will be suffice for me at this point in time) and I'm now looking at inserts. Koni's sound nice, but having not got prices yet I don't think they're within budget. KYB's seem popular so if Koni's are too pricey I'll look at that option. What has been coming up though, leading me to this question is a few people keep talking about rebuilding the original wet legs. In the past when I've done suspensions in other cars they've been the first things to hit the bin, but I keep hearing about them here, so; Are there any advantages to rebuilding wet legs? I figure they'd be cheaper but how do they perform? Can you still buy parts for them? like seals and bits and pieces? I'm pretty sure at least one of mine is stuffed as theres oil running down the strut leg :-\ How do they compare to replacement inserts or even gas inserts? I'm trying to avoid all the newb questions but I am curious to why the wet legs gain a mention and if there is an advantage to them. Other communities I'm part of would probably look at you like a sped if you talked about them

So progress on the old war-horse is moving a lot slower than I would really like. Recently my employment situation has taken a bit of a turn so while I have plenty of spare time on my hands I've had to more of less lock myself out of my bank account and there's very little I can do to the car at the moment without spending money :-\ I have however been able to take it out and enjoy it and all it's niggling problems, for example, losing all power inside a multi level carpark in Manly only to come good again after parking it up for a few hours Probably just needed a rest. Anyway, just last friday night I picked up my Girlfriend and my buddy Pete, who's getting right into photography, and headed out for a drive. Among the places we cruised around taking night shots through the rather crappy weather we ended up at Mrs Macquarie's chair. On the way out, noticing that the place is empty at midnight I pulled up out front of the art gallery of nsw, parking right across the road for some shots of the Zed. It was a very wet and misty night but all things considered they turned out alright The next shot was a bit of fun. We later ended up over at milson's point north of sydney harbour taking shots and generally dicking about in front of Luna Park. It was then that we noticed that the space alongside the pools there and out front of Luna Park itself was more or less a big driveway, no gates, no bollards, nothing. There weren't even any signs to deter us from driving the car straight down there in front of Luna Park. So that's exactly what we did Unfortunately because of the amount of light blazing out of the front of the park, it made it quite difficult to get some light on the car, this was about the best we could do. I still like it, and it was a heap of fun! All these shots courtesy of Pete Podlaha from Injected Ideas

... Well, at least that's what I think they're called. In the charcoal canister there's meant to be a small spring loaded valve and mine's missing. I believe its the cause of my lack of vacuum advance and loss of hvac controls (unless its something else, I'm a little bit of a Zed noob) Can you still buy these? For the mean time the old man and I have swapped a few vac lines around to it does at least get vacuum advance but its still not quite right. Thanks guys.

One of the first big jobs I want to tackle on my zed is the suspension. It's incredibly out of shape. Anyway, my brother in-law rallies a 1600 and has a few complete rear ends floating around his shed. What parts, if any, out of a complete 1600 rear sub frame are interchangeable with a zed? more specificaly a 77 260Z 2+2. I need half shafts I think, there's a pronounced clunk when changing gears. Also, he apparently has a few rear sway-bars so I'm curious to see if there's any similarities. Thanks guys.

Hey guys, I'm new here. My name's Tj and I've just bought a 1977 260Z 2+2! I mentioned in my introductory post that I'm selling my '08 Ford Focus XR5 Turbo to get back to basics and get back into some old school J-Tin. I'm in the finishing stages of my last build, a 1975 Mitsubishi Galant hardtop coupe powered by an N/A 4G63 twin cam that's actually my girlfriend's daily driver, and was developing a hankering for something of my own (Pro Tip: don't pull apart your significant other's pride and joy telling them that the engine conversion will only take "a few weeks" only to spend the next 18 months spending every spare moment on the car ) Anyway, back to the Zed. I spied this car on carsales down in Frankston. The main issue was that I'm in Sydney. I kept searching but the only cars in sydney were either way to expensive or needed way too much work. The reason I was looking for a 260 2+2 was that they're significantly cheaper than the two seaters and while I'm not disputing the worth of them, I just didn't have $25k to spend on one. I know that the roof line is a bit different and they're longer but I don't mind. They've still got the looks and more importantly they've still got the L-series straight 6! Luckily this car was just perfect. Either way, my girlfriend and I had planned a weekend around the car to make it worth while making the trip to Melbourne just in case the car turned out to be a dud. That's not to say It wasn't an adventure though. We planed to fly down on Thursday night after work on the June long weekend only to find out as we got to the airport that our flight had been cancelled (bloody tiger) only to find out later still that all of tiger's flights to Melbourne that night we're full (several of the remaining few were later cancelled as well, that mob couldn't organise a fart in a curry eating contest) After forking out twice as much again as we paid for a our tickets, we hopped on a Virgin flight much MUCH later that night. By the time we made it to where we were staying in St Kilda it was well past 1AM. We left my house at a bit before 4pm. We very nearly could have driven in that time The car however made up for all the hell we went through getting down there. Bar a horrible misfire which I had to deal with until I got it home, I liked it and I laid down my cash for it Before we drove it home to Sydney though, it desperately needed new rear tyres and some attention made to that misfire. Problem being, it was Saturday arvo by the time I bought the car, and we were to drive it home Sunday morning. I somehow remembered that Kmart Tyre and Auto were sometimes open on Sundays and that might just get me out of strife. Luckily we found one in Preston that had my size tyre got them to have a look at that miss while they were at it. All they did was swap a spark plug but it did make an improvement. So some hours after we were meant to set of we were finally on the road. And that's where it got un-eventful. The car didn't miss a beat... well, except for all the beats it was missing due to that misfire and made it home in just about 10 hrs the whole time impressed by the huge amount of leg room and surprisingly comfy seats, given that they're original. May have been re-padded, who knows Now onto the car itself. It's nice and straight, and reasonably rust free, the only spots being on the bonnet facing edge of the passenger side guard (about an inch long) and a bubble about the size of the very tip of your pinky finger on the bonnet itself. The paint is in real good nick, all things considered. From my understanding the car was "restored" sometime around 2006-07 by an elderly gentleman here in Sydney to keep himself occupied during retirement. He unfortunately passed away not too long after finishing it. It then ended up in Victoria and changed hands i think twice before I came along. It's a real good and thick coat of two-pack that doesn't show any signs of dodgy work. There's understandably a few minor scuffs and in need of a good polish but all in all it's good. I cant tell what the original colour was (is that red original??) as theres no paint I.D sticker in the engine bay and I'm yet to find any differing paintwork in hidden places. The badges are a bit of a jumble up. As you can see there's one on the grille (not anymore ) and theres actually one tucked under the back bumper half covering a long oval shaped hole just near the exhaust. Is that meant to have a grommet in it? The bumpers themselves aren't too bad. The back one is pretty clean but the front (not yet fitted to the car) is a bit of a mess. I spent quite a while just last weekend trying to fit the front bumper but I couldn't get the damn thing to line up. The brackets aren't bent (they're still the mirror image of each other) and there's no creases in the bumper itself but the drivers side corner sits about 30mm proud of the bodywork. I just can't figure it out at the moment so the ugly-as jungle gym hanging off the front needs to stay :-\ Now the interior is where it sang it's alluring siren song. It's completely original and mostly untouched bar for a cd player (for which i have plans, but more on that later) a half skin on the dash and the wrong gearknob and choke lever knob (both of which I'm hunting original replacements for) Oh and the clock's on the fritz and the speedo twitches about and reads 15k's lower than what you're actually doing (GPS to the rescue) The only issue inside was the steering wheel, which while original, is knackered. The foam grip is completely perished and swathed in a rather repulsive and uncomfortable wheel cover. I hate wheel covers Thus bringing me to my first little tidy up job Firstly, during the build of my GF's Galant I started a bit of a pictorial journal of all the work being carried out. I'd like to do that again here. I find it really encouraging to hear peoples reactions to the work I carry out and often pick up a lot of pointers in the process. What did I do to the wheel? Binned it... well, not really. It's in a parts tub in the garage but that sounds much less dramatic After talking to my brother in-law (who's a big datsun fanatic) he dug out an old 240K steering wheel he'd been stashing away. The original wheel The 240K wheel as it was given to me It was pretty grubby, it looks as though it came out of a smokers car judging by the gunk it was covered in. I filled up the laundry tub with a mild solution of sugar soap and hot water and scrubbed it gently with a scouring pad. To my surprise it's a timber wheel! The spokes only needed a gentle rub back to get the rust spots off after which I gave it a few coats of etch primer and silver paint. The end result: Due to the cruddy weather of late there hasn't been enough light to take a photo of it on the car but it looks the goods! On a side note, the big 'Z' horn pad off the original wheel fits it, but looks a bit odd. The K wheel isn't as dished as the Z wheel so it juts out and looks a bit ungainly. So for now I'll live with the old D motif. There's a lot more work to be done. Even though my old man, who's a mechanic by trade (truckie now) cleaned and balanced the carbs, which did make the world of difference, the engine's a bit how's you're father. #4 cylinder (the one that was fouling the plug in Melbourne) is about 20psi down on compression (pretty sure that's what the old fella said) in a dry compression test and then higher in a "wet test" suggesting theres a dodgy ring in there. It's not missing any more but it's rough at idle (lopes like it's got a fat cam, pretty sure it doesn't though ) and it's quite down on power, enough to struggle up hills. Hopefully it'll hold out for a while. And then there's the suspension. Actually, that implies that it has suspension It's stuffed. There's oil running down the passenger side strut leg. It's all floaty and scuttles and wobbles over bumps. The steering rack feels tight though, so there's that I guess :-\ So the plan of attack, more or less in order is: Replace shocks and springs and all rubbers (spying off that full underbody nolethane kit on fleabay) and maybe bigger swaybars. Don't think I'll go down the coilover route just yet, it's a bit pricey. But the stance is soo gnarly looking.. I'm torn Look at upgrading brakes, or at least overhauling them Tint the windows and get the AC regassed before summer. A few cosmetic things like headlight covers, a BRE chin spoiler and rear wing. After seeing THIS GUY'S 240 with no flares, I think I may too avoid the over flares path. That thing just looks so tidy. Gotta do something about those wheels. I may find something a little more attractive on the cheap until I can justify the $$$ of some old school japanese wheels. Thinking Hayashi Streets or SSR Longchamps, just to break the Wats trend. A hidden stereo. I mean completely hidden. I want to source an original radio, don't care if it's just AM, dont even care if it doesn't work, it's just gotta look correct. I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron so I was going to pick up a 2nd hand head unit that controls an IPOD and has a good remote (not one of those cruddy thin card type ones) unpick the IR receiver on the head unit and hide it in the dash somewhere. Then hide a few speakers (I hate seeing speakers cut into original door cards) And then, only then, build up a strong motor. Not sure what, but it WILL be an L series (After the galant I don't want to do a modern conversion again. Too much stress and time off the road.) I'd like to chase a decent amount of power but I want to strike a decent balance between power and driveability. Gotta remember its my road car after all On a plus side however, It passed it's blue slip today! (I know, I'm surprised too) Going to the RTA tomorrow to register it properly and get some NSW plates on it! I'm happy a pig in it at the moment. I was worried that I was going to end up with another car on stands in the garage for months again (seriously within days of finishing the Galant too ) Anyway, If you want to see more photos check my photobucket out There's photos of the Galant build in there too if you're interested. More to come!

.... Does that make me crazy? Hi, I'm Tj and I'm hopefully buying a zed next weekend. Long story short I've owned a current body shape Ford Focus XR5 for the past two years and I've fallen out of love with it and all I see when I look at it now is just money evaporating into nothingness. Don't get me wrong, they're a great car, fantastic car actually, but I'm just not enjoying it like I thought I would. I've got a long-ish history with classic J-Tin as my family and myself have been involved in club level motorsport for a very very long time. I've been an active member of Hills District Car Club for 16 years (I'm 27 now, joined as soon as I was old enough to start entering motorkhanas regardless of the fact that I could barely reach the pedals in my Mini K 1100) and grew up surrounded my more 1200s, 1600's 180B's and Zeds than you could throw a whole bucket of sticks at. My family's alliance however had, already at this stage, long layed with Mitsubishi. My dad and my Godfather rallied a GA Galant and then an LA Lancer back in the 80's. My sisters first car was a GD Galant that eventually got handed down to me for my first car. I only sold it because it was developing a terminal case of tin-worm. All the while growing up however, tucked away in the garage was the car that seems to have rekindled a flame that has led me here. Many years ago my dad bought a rather rare 75 GC Galant Hardtop Coupe. He had all intentions of restoring it but never quite finished it. Fast forward 15 or so years to now and my Girlfriend and I have bought it from him and finished it ourselves for it to be her daily driver. But now I want something for myself. We're 99.999% finished it's second rebuild just now where we've slotted an N/A 4G63 twin cam under the hood. Check out my build thread over here if you're into that sort of thing. With all of the research I had made throughout that project I spent a lot of time on forums like Japanese Nostalgic Car where I got bitten by the classic japanese bug hard! There's a bloke on there from sydney who's built a KPGC10 skyline and posted 60+ pages of detailed progress which held me captivated for months just wading through the work he'd done. This inspired me a lot, not only to start a build thread for my own project but to put in the extra effort to make things right and to clean things up and make them presentable, often costing no more than my own time rather than just slapping it together still covered in 35+ years of gunk. It also introduced me to 6 cylinder Datsuns in a big way too. Pretty soon it started me hankering for some L-series lovin of my own. I initially wanted (and still do!) a 240K to build into a Kenmeri GTR clone. That may be a future project when I've got the time and money. So when I started playing with the idea of getting rid of my XR5 for something much cheaper the idea of something classic japanese seemed obvious. For nothing more than my own curiosity, not expecting to find anything affordable or desirable I started searching for any Datsuns for sale. And that's when I saw it. And now, even if I don't buy this particular car, I want one. I found a mint, bone stock original 260Z 2+2. If there's one thing i appreciate more than anything on a classic car its an original interior. And this car has one of the best. I'm hesitant at the moment to post which car exactly it is as I don't want anyone to beat me to the punch. Especially considering I have to travel interstate to buy it. What I would appreciate is a few pointers for things lo look out for in the way of common rust areas an mechanical faults. Y'know, the usual things. Anyway, that's my story. Hopefully, it'll include a Zed very soon!