No guyz ~ thank YOU. it was a tremendous rush to finally bring #02807 out into the public eye, even tho it's not completed yet. But to have you guyz there during the debut made it all the more exciting for me.

I was pretty happy with the interest people showed for the car, too. Almost every one of them had their own Z story, but what really excited me were the younger generation kids who "guessed" it was one of those "old 240Zs" they had heard about. It was great to watch their eyes as they ate up all the details of the car, peering curiously into every part of it. I could almost read their thoughts ~ ("Wow, so this is what the old school guys were talking about. It looks so....so....SIMPLE!")

I had a lot of attention until Phrog parked nearby and opened his hood ~ then all my crowd ran over to his car!

Next time I show it, the interior will be a LOT more complete!

Congratulations Frank! I know the feeling of getting my #3833 back on the road after a decade long sleep, then again after a 2+ year restoration. Without sounding too sappy, these cars do indeed become part of the fabric of our lives. I wish I could have seen the look on your face when you let out the clutch for the first time.

Can't wait to see #2807 in person. Send pics!

_________________
John Taddonio
1970 240Z
1977 530Z
1984 300ZXT
zcarnut@hotmail.com
FB: Zccr zcarclubofrochester

No photographs, John ~ I'll bring you the car!

You are high on the list of places to visit with #02807. Your car and mine (and your local buddy's there in Rochester) all sat together on the same Honolulu Datsun showroom floor during the summer of 1970. Today they live less than 400 miles apart, 6,000 miles from where they were sold. I find that a simply STUNNING coincidence, and I feel we three are compelled to bring the three cars together this year for a photograph.

SOMEbody should find that interesting enough to print in their magazine.

And by the way, I don't care if it soundz sappy or not ~ I love my Z car and ain't ashamed to tell the world.

THANKS for the kind words. I look fwd to zeeing you soon!
Frank

Well, my new 90amp alternator system fried my fusebox last night. Both Vinny and Bryan Little warned me that if I increased the charging system and installed those Super headlamps, I should replace both the front electrical harness and the fusebox. I told them both I would, but didn't.

When Vinny heard my intentions to drive the car to the West Coast and back, he advised me to start driving the car in ever-increasing circles until I had 1,000 miles on it ~ just to see what else might be needed. I have been having great fun doing that every night the weather permitted, and have racked up over 800 miles so far, with no serious complaints.

Last night I drove more than 80 miles on highway and twisty backroads. All was well until I decided to return home for the night, after more than 3 hrs of fun. Half a mile from my house the engine sputtered badly leaving a traffic light, and the cabin filled with acrid smoke.

I took the same actions you would ~ neutral, switch off, lights out, coasted fast into a large, bright parkinglot, popping the hood latch before the car even stopped. Jumped out, grabbed the fire extinguisher from the cargo deck, and ran to the engine. Hit the battery quick disconnect and saw nothing suspicious under the hood.

Diving under the dash I found heat and smoke coming from the fuse box. The parking/tail light fuse was still good, but one end of the terminal was melted thru the plastic fuse box. A hole about the diameter of a pencil was smoldering where the terminal should have been.

The 1970 fusebox is unique to the Z cars. My spare 1971 fusebox is very different and can't be used as a substitute. The MSA upgrade is now $180, so I would have saved a lot of money if I had listened to Vinny and bought one when he suggested it four months ago.

SO, my Z is 'down' until MSA can ship me a replacement upgrade and a new front wiring harness (just in case), and Vinny can find time to get my car back into his shop. He also wants to investigate a slight 'clunk' in the rear halfshaft which doesn't belong there. Also, one SU is sticking just a bit and it's fully guaranteed against any defect whatsoever, so I will swap that off to be reworked for free. Finally, there is a tiny oil leak at the front case which I want stopped before it gets worse. I insisted on using Mobil-1 synthetic oil in the case, instead of the recommended Valvoline V-1. Any synthetic oil will seek out the tiniest leak possible, when a standard oil will ignore it. (Sigh!)

This means #02807 will miss the NJ car show this weekend, but that's minor compared to what might have happened if I had headed West and had the car catch fire on some distant highway 800 miles from home.

This simply slaps me on the wrist and drives home the common-sense mandate that FUN comes AFTER the all the work has been completed. PATIENCE, Frank, PATIENCE!

Frank, one of the things I discovered early-on in the restoration of my '70 #3833 was that once you decide to "jump", there is no looking back! There is always something that you should improve. Change that to MUST improve.

240Zs were notorious for weak electrical systems, especially after decades of corrosion which leads to resistance, which leads to heat, which leads to failure or worse, fire. The way the headlight circuit is routed directly through the headlight switch doesn't leave much room for error.

I had ZCCR pal Dave Werdein perform his electrical magic on my wiring harness and stalk switches. All were refurbished to better than new. I also immediately ordered MSA's modernized fusebox. This was the best money I spent in the restoration. Now everything works as it should and the charging system is stable at all RPMs.

Get the MSA fusebox, it works great. You might want to look into restoration of the switches and harnesses as well.

_________________
John Taddonio
1970 240Z
1977 530Z
1984 300ZXT
zcarnut@hotmail.com
FB: Zccr zcarclubofrochester

Thankz John ~

When Vinny recommended the upgraded front wiring harness and I declined, he refurbished the old one as best he could. All electrical connections were blasted clean and checked, but he continued to recommend a new upgrade. Guess I should have listened to him. So far I haven't found any fried wires, so damage MIGHT be limited to the fuse box itself.

WHEW!

Guyz, listen to the Pros when you rebuild your car.

My Z is FIXED!

Today Vinny spent 3-1/2 hours on it and installed the new MSA heavy-duty bayonet-fused fusebox in it, then installed the new MSA upgraded heavy-duty front electrical wiring loom in it. Total cost was less than $350 plus shipping and no wires were damaged. Only the fusebox melted . WHEW!

The new wiring loom re-routes all the current from the light circuit, just as ZCar70 said. Now all the steering wheel stalk switch does is turn on/off two big relays under the hood, and lets THEM handle all the current. They are heavily fused and water proof. If you've ever read Bryan Little's DATSUN Z GARAGE website about how badly Datsun designed the electrical control system on the early 240 lights, you'd run out and buy both of these items as quickly as possible.

I had a melt-down, not a fire. I could have lost my car if I hadn't disconnected the battery switch in time.

Vinny also swapped out one of my rebuilt SUs which was sticking slightly and making it difficult to drive smoothly. That carb is guaranteed forever, so it's going back to be re-rebuilt for free.

I waited until dark tonight and ran the car another 20 miles just for fun. The new headlamps look like aircraft landing lights on dark backcounty roads!

I regret these partz didn't arrive in time to let me make the great New Jersey Z Car Club car show, but at least I'm functional for this weekend's Lime Rock Vintage Race and car show!
Z y'all there !
Frank

While my car is only 17 years old, I finally bought a fire extinguisher to carry in the Z.

_________________
Keith Hultmark
2009 370Z Touring - Sold (5 years owned)
1993 300ZX - Sold (5 years owned)
1976 Porsche 912E. #163 of 2200 - SOLD (3 years owned)
2018 BMW 330i GT xdrive daily driver
2004 BMW Z4 3.0i ….it is a Z

Frank, what a fantastic story!
That happens only once in a life.
You have your Z back - thats wonderful.

Thorsten

_________________
T. Link
Germany
1971 240z (HLS30-16506)

Thank you, Thorsten! I can't tell you how happy I am to be reunited with my old sweetheart! The car still needs some work, but it's all cosmetic. All the mechanical work is done and the car is safe to drive now. Everything is new underneath and it performs better now than it ever did when it was new. The engine has been rebuilt ~ it was bored .30" overbore, and the E31 hi-compression head was shaved slightly (.10") to keep it straight. That raised the compression only slightly, and my estimate is probably about 10:1. I use only hi-octane benzine in it now. It has a slightly 'hotter' camshaft, altho I don't know the grind numbers. Above 4500 rpm it becomes a beast and sounds WUNDERBAR!

It now has a 5-spd ZX transmission in it, which makes it much more fun to drive at any speed. I can start it in 2nd gear from a stop (and often do), and then it has a low snarl like an old Austin Healey pulling thru those long gears!

The exhaust system is a new "Twice Pipes" system from MSA (MotorSport Auto, an American firm which makes quality parts for Z cars). It sounds WONDERFUL to me, and replicates the old ANSA exhaust system I had on the car when it was new.

I try to behave with the car, since Ich Bin Alt and should be very responsible. But it is such a temptation to wind it up to redline in each gear!!! The top legal speed near my home is only 65mph, but this car makes me wish for the Autobahn!

I have installed a front chin spoiler to help keep the nose on the ground at speed. It is probably the very best investment I have ever made for this car. The early 240Zs became very 'light' in the front at speeds above 70mph, and that always scared me. (You will understand when you drive yours). Now I can go 80 or more (nobody heard me say that! ) and the car remains "locked" to the road. Ist Sehr Gut!

I have a small oil leak around the front engine case, which will be fixed before I put the car to sleep for the winter. I am also finishing some interior details and eventually I want to repaint the car. I don't like the blue, although other members keep saying it looks good.

BUT ~ whatever it looks like, sounds like, or feels like ~ Macht Nicht! My car is home now, it's MINE again, and I am SOOOOO Happy!

Frank

Frank,

in which paint was the 240 z (until 1973) mostly ordered? It occurs to me that it is orange. Wrong?

Thorsten

_________________
T. Link
Germany
1971 240z (HLS30-16506)

I think either orange or silver. Very few were white, and none were black until the Black Pearl 280Z was introduced in 1978. You could ask that question in our BODY/STYLING/APPEARANCE Forum ~ someone else might know.

Frank

Hi, Thor, Rick here.

There were 8 exterior colors available on the earlier Z's, which you can
see at Carl Beck's excellent Z History website, "ZHome.com". If you go
to that site you will find two columns. Scroll down the left column about
3/4 of the way to "Exterior and Interior color list 240Z-280Z." Click on
that line and a complete list of all color combinations year-by-year will
appear in the right column. I agree w/Frank; in my experience, silver
and orange, and I would add gold, were probably the most common
colors back in the 70's. The chart shows Sunshine Yellow as #918, but
should be #919 ~ that was my personal favorite, but there didn't seem
to be very many of those.

Now to be very precise. The question was about which were the most
popular colors ORDERED. The short answer is NONE. The 240-Z was
a very rare car from 1969-71. You might see as many as one per week
on the highway. Dealers got only about 2 or 3 each per month, so there
were very deep waiting lists of people who had given a money deposit
toward a car which might arrive in about 6-8 months.

When the truck would arrive carrying ONE Z in its load, the earliest
person on the list would be called to come pick up his/her Z, whatever
color it happened to be. If you insisted on your choice of color, you
could decline and wait, and wait, and wait, till your color arrived--
perhaps several more months. But some dealers were even more
"hard-nosed," as we say: if a Z arrived and you chose not to accept it
after having waited for a long time, the dealer would simply refund your
deposit, eliminate you from the list, and offer the car to the next person.
In other words, "Take it or leave it."

This doesn't even address the facts that (1) some dealers demanded--
and received-- a premium for this rare car, sometimes as much as
$5000 for a $3600 car. And (2), some dealers "loaded" the cars with
many options and accessories to inflate their profit margins. The
philosophy was, if you don't want to take the car, someone else will.

I know that what I said in the last two paragraphs seems harsh, but
that's the way it was.

Frank spoke about the color black. For some reason that was not avail-
able in the early days, but some people insisted on black. So, there
were those who actually took delivery and then had their brand new Z,
"right off the boat," repainted black at considerable additional expense
before they had ever driven it. I personally only ever knew two of those,
but heard about others.

All Z Best,.............................Kathy & Rick

_________________
All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

Hi Rick,
I had overlooked your detailed answer here, please excuse the omission. Your implementation about the colours as well as the market situation during the first both production years is highly interesting. It is a blessing that I can learn thanks to the club so much about this splendid and groundbreaking car. I am quite happy about the fact that mine is an orange Z. I think that fits very well to the "atmosphere" of early Seventies. The US colour code is 918. In Germany we have other colour codes. We call them RAL. However, in case of a necessary spraying the exact colour is easy to investigate.

Thorsten

_________________
T. Link
Germany
1971 240z (HLS30-16506)

Hello again, Thorsten, und Glucklisch Neujahr.

I'm glad to share with you and the others that which I've learned.
I'm even more glad to be alive to share it!

It should be easy to find the colour code either in the German pub-
lications or by some Internet means which can offer the conversion.

Nonetheless, with the rarity of 240Zs in Germany, I seriously doubt
whether someone will park their orange Z next to yours and say,
"Hey, your car's orange is two shades different from mine!"

All Z Best,...............................Kathy & Rick

_________________
All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)