Timbee

Rat damaged wiring. Apart from where our friendly rodents got to it the wiring harness looks pretty good so I decided to patch across the breaks. Usually I would fit crimp connectors or twist and solder if it's in a well supported non flex area but I wanted to keep the original dimensions and still have a strong joint so I wiggled the two cut ends into each other and then wrapped with stripped out coppers strands to support the joint while it was soldered. Just remember to slide you heat shrink on before doing the final solder on each wire (don't ask). Bound with wire Then soldered. One thing I didn't count on was that there are double ups in the Color codes of some of the wires. So will have to get a wiring diagram and back track with a continuity tester.

Odinz dash photos

Hi Odinz no I didn't take more photos and now you're making me nervous. Actually I wasn't too worried as the layout looked fairly logical. I will lay it back out tomorrow and take some pics and post. Cherrs

Thanks for the leads guys. Got the dash out a bit rusty but nothing major. Doesn't look too bad from this side Wiring harness out and yes those are my fingers under the pile. Wiper motor cover off and amazingly no rust in sight in this area. True colours. Looks like this was a donor panel from another car in the past Very cool a remote light running through a plastic optical cable for the cigarette lighter. Starting on removing the front guards shortly.

Hi odinz thanks for the link .Har bloody Har alright gav. The apprentice usually pulls his shirt up over his mouth as a dust mask even if he peeks inside to hand me a beer and at this stage it's me in the cabin doing all the shit work. He usually only gets into it once we hit the engine bay. Rang dash doctor and it's a no go re replacing that much foam. Best bet may be to nab the second hand one as it's savable and I'm guessing around $300 ish is market value. Gilltech not too worried about wiring but I ain't no motor trimmer.

So suggestions regarding dash? I see locally there is a reasonable (cracked ) 260 dash for $300 neg is that okay or am I better going for a reproduction as of course the old dash will require refurbishment anyway and I have no idea what that will cost. Cheers Tim

Hi gilltech and Gav . Definitely mech pump as it's still on the engine and the after market pump is bolted straight to the guard. Regards carbs they are the least of my worries at the moment. I was actually surprised how well the car ran given the float valves were so glued up I had to get a small set of expanding circlip pliers and get them down into the back of the float valves and grip and twist to get them out. I also had to heat the carb body gently where the float pivot pins go in because they simply would not budge. Tracking down some .5 fabric reinforced nitrile for the power valves as the current ones are mummified. Currently at the depressing stage where the more I look the more I find The rats chewed up the foam behind the dash so it is totally toasti can attest to the fact that rat piss is very corrosive. Nearly an hour to get the glove box out for decontamination but didnt break or strip any screws Sometimes a little heat via a soldering iron works wonders especially mixed with some inbox or lanolin spray.

Thanks guys. Older vehicles with mechanical fuel pumps would sometimes not have a return to tank but rely on fuel pressure to hold the actuating arm away from the cam and as fuel was used pressure dropped and the arm came back into contact. Looks like this system was set up to keep a little fuel circulation and just guessing but allow fuel to vent back to tank in the case of vapour lock rather than overpressure and unseat the carby floats flooding the engine. This car had an electric pump fitted a lot of which run at about 7psi which is way high I'm thinking for those carbs. Probably ran very rich at idle and would bog down if not constantly blipped. Will strip and have a look at the mech pump but may run an electric with a pressure regulator for now. I've now read as much info as I can regarding the tuna can carbs any resources like old service details would be much appreciated. Cheers Tim VID_20181007_120551634_HDR.mp4

Thanks Jeff wasn't sure as I could see file marks and it looked a bit homemade.

Hi 260DET that sounds like a plan although maybe get her going enough for one sneaky lap around the block for inspiration would be nice. This is the main wiring harness where it passed through the fire wall, chewed to pieces by rats so no way I could power up the electrics normally. Disconnected harness power supply wire off the back of the starter and just left the positive starter cable on. Hooked jumper cables to positive battery clamp and negative to the block. Oil and filter changed earlier. Also tablespoon of oil down each cylinder and new plugs. Removed oil pressure sender and cranked by shorting starter solenoid till I had oil pumping out. Put sender back in. Ran a power wire from the jumper battery to the + on the coil pulled the coil lead off the dizzy and cranked. No spark. Fitted new points and condenser. No spark. Traced problem to film of corrosion on the tiny bolt that passed through the insulator block in the dizzy. Cleaned up and fat blue spark on crank. Yippee. Statically timed at 8 degrees There's a timing mark there somewhere. There tis. Cranked and the engine fired immediately but backfired through the carbs. Seems someone accidentally swapped two plug leads. I'm blaming the apprentice. Swapped leads back and cranked again. Apologies for the narration of my youngest. VID_20181007_120015615_HDR.mp4 Pretty stoked and very surprised how quickly the car settled into a stable idle. The black pipe and filter is a temporary fuel supply hanging from the bonnet. Question.The fuel return pipe had an orifice in it, is this standard? Does anyone know? VID_20181007_120514714_HDR.mp4 Cool shot of the carby piston valves responding.

Hi dat240z I've been on Macleay 5 years this time and built a house here about 28 years ago but long since sold. I must have seen the back of this car from a distance a hundred times and just not really looked. Don't know about return on money spent. As I said in my original intro when I joined the forum the rust initially looked less than I thought it was but would probably end up being more than I thought. It's more than I thought I thought it would be. Still seeing the heroic efforts on this site have both inspired and depressed me. Looks like I'm going to learn a lot more about panel work that's for sure. Removing stuff the long task begins Patterns in the dust More eggs, rat poo and seat foam Trying to start out organised. Both carbs have been removed (sorry no pics)and given a rough clean up . I have some .8 nitrile fabric on its way for the power valves. Carbs were a pain as EVERYTHING was either glued in with 13 year old petrol gravy and or corroded. A good soak in carby clean, Judicious use of a little heat in the right places and a little creativity and lots of swearing got it all apart. Both floats levels were way high which I suspect is because of degraded floats. For now it will do. I'm going to try for a start tomorrow. Considering the rat chewed mess the wiring is, I will just be jumping power direct to the starter and coil and temporarily fit a oil pressure test guage. Cheers Tim 

Inside before clean. Two faced.

Hi MaygZ that's not me in the photo but the previous owners partner and Smokey the Pomeranian. Funnily I referred to him as a mogwai too! Hi 24 Dat yes I'm going to take my time and do it right. As a mechanic I will concentrate on getting her running first while I get my head around the requirements for the body work. We are currently living onsite in a caravan in prep for starting a house build so I don't even have a shed atm. Checked engine number today and it matches number on the plate so that is good. The owner also gave us a complete l28 engine with all the accessories ( from 280C maybe as it is a single carb) 5 speed box (the car is an auto) and a spare set of the small rear windows Cheers Tim

Ok so 3 days ago I wasn't even looking for a car and certainly would've thought that someone was crazy to suggest I would soon own a Datsun 260z. I live on Macleay Island near Brisbane and run a mobile mechanical business with my son as apprentice. I was in the local car parts/ marine shop and started talking to a gent who was lamenting sending his partners 300zx to another mechanic on one of the other islands because he reckoned he couldn't find my number. Ten weeks since and he still doesn't have the car back. Anyway got to talking and he says out of the blue they have a rusty 260z in an old shed if we were interested. This is what we found The car had accidentally been filled with diesel and although the diesel was drained the car for whatever reason was never run again. From the rego sticker this was sometime in 2003 A deal was quickly struck and my son Callum and I became the owner of a 260z Went around and picked it up today this is after a bit of a clean. It looks great in the photos but there is a bit of rust to be dealt with, still for $1k very happy. the owner at one point had over a hundred chickens on site and at some point someone removed the driver's door and the chickens and rats moved in. The floors were a sea of rat poo and chewed up egg shells surprisingly underneath the floors were good and rust free. This is what greeted us when we opened the glove box The biggest rats nest I've ever seen. I can feel It extends out the top of the glove box and continues under the dash. We cleaned the glove box a bit but under the dash will have to wait although I don't hold much hope for the wiring being unmolested. Yum! The owner couldn't find the keys so I had to remove the steering lock to get the car on the trailer but look what turned up when we were scooping rat shit out of the footwells later Woo hoo! So that's day one of many more to come. It's going to be slow going as we have a very busy small business and we are shortly starting to build a rammed earth house but looking forward to the challenge. Cheers Tim

Thanks guys, yes the hatch is pretty much toast its what made me expect dire things for the rest of the car. It may well be that it was most exposed as I was expecting dire things from chassis rails and the floor pan but looks reasonable so far. After reading up on this site I went and had a look at the potential trouble spots but honestly for the price I'm not going to be picky. I joined to tap into the hard won knowledge on this site as I would like to build the car up properly so that the value and collectability aren't degraded but also do those things that make for a "better" driving experience. Anyway off to pick it up tomorrow, bring it home and scrub/vacuum some dirt and chicken shit off. Cheers Tim