My 72' 240z

[z_kid_1994]

Well, I'm brand new to this site, and mostly brand new to this car. I have a 1972 Datsun 240Z. I am also only 15, and this car needs far more work than i know how to do. This was at one time my fathers car, in college... unfortuanatly it has been sitting for almost 8 years now. so of course the paint, and the dash are RUINED. i do have a dash cap though. also pirrelli tires with less than 200 miles on them. the interior looks grim, peeling vynl, cracked center concole, and the foor plugs on the left side are missing compleately. one day my dad decided that it would be a good idea to take out the sound system and stick it in our boat, so now i have the startings of a sound system (pioneer CD/MP3, Blaupunkt 6" speakers) but absolutly no knowledge of sound systems or electrical. It also has a broken exhaust manifold stud on the 6th cylendar. so far i have attempted to begin to prepare for the paint process, i have taken off both bumpers and the front air dam. I'm just so tired of looking at it sit there rusting away. i need some sort of inspiration to get me off. my friend also uses this site for his 240sx and he turned me on to it. he talked of doing an RB engine swap, but i know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about anythitng like that. Please talk to me!

[evildky]

welcome to nico, poke aroudn here int he classic sectiona bit, there are a few rb swaps going on, me I prefer the L6, it birthed the rb and has a lot fo potential at a fraction fo the cost and effort

rust is the buiggest problem, these cars are pretty simple and cheap to repair maintain and modify, but rust repair can get expensive

get some picks up of that beast

[z_kid_1994]

i saw a few other posts where some people talked about dropping in an intercooler, first of all, how much does that cost? and, is it something i can do or a machine shop has to do? i do have some car money but not a ton, i am still a student.

[evildky]

an intercooler is for turbo cars, unless you swap in a turbo motor you have no use for an intercooler, i hihgly recomend you just keep the L6 at least for a while, it'll give you a chance to lenr the car and the mechanic's invovled and you cna slowly modify the L6 before jumping into an engine swap

[gmac708]

Welcome to NICO noobert! I would start by cleaning it up and sending us some pictures. Maybe get that rust treated with a rattle can paint touch up. Is it running?

[ravera]

O hai fran'.

Welcome to the best part of nico (obviously) the classic Z forum!

Do lots of searching, there's tons of Z sites with hordes of info. Rust can be a problem but a little sweat equity and you can get it all out.

I built my first car from the ground up (63mini) at 15, so don't let it phase you, there's a really quick learning curve.

And if you wanna swap a motor, go with you like, there are tons of Z's on the west coast with all flavors of power plants so look around. The RB is alright (not my fav so I'm biased) but it's not my car. In the states it can get pricy to get RB parts and that lends a bunch of people to go turbo L28, LSx, SBC, SBF etc. etc. etc. But I will recommend you drive your Z with the ol' L in it and get a feel for it before you dump some big ol' motor in it. As soon as I turned 16 I WAS NOT ready for a high hp car right off the bat. I thought I was believe me, but the old tired L28 was plenty to scare me. Get to know the car, get to be positive of your skills before you try anything. With such a light car, you'd be surprised at how quickly that car accelerates and gets dangerous even with 300hp.

Good luck!

[z_kid_1994]

i guess i am just over exited, photos on the way, i think the worst thing is the broken exhaust manifold stud, ive heard that if you yank the head, that its relitively easy for a machine shop to take it out. yes it runs. photos very soon!

[Perrenial Badass]

A 240Z for a first car would have been awesome. One problem I see with that is... you are from WA. Where there is snow and they salt the road, cars rust. I think a 240Z would rust in outer space, so you might have some big issues there. You might get lucky, but check under the battery, the firewell, under the carpet where you sit (the floorboards), in the door jambs, around the taillights, and at the bottom of the hatch. I think that's all the bad parts, evildky will correct me if I missed some.

If there is any rust there, get some rough sandpaper and get as much of it off as you can. Then get some automotive grey primer and spray it over any exposed metal. Anywhere you see a bubble or crack in the paint you should do this, it will slow the spread of rust. I wouldn't even worry about that broken stud until you get the rust under control if not completely fixed. Once you get a car on the road, it's much more difficult to make time for a big overhaul like putting in new floorboards. Plus, having Nissan put in a brand new engine costs less than having a good shop put in new steel everywhere you have rust (I've checked).

Now on any rust holes you find, you really should weld in new metal. If your father or a friend has welding skills, sand down the area, cut out the rusted section, cut a piece of fresh steel in the same shape, and weld in. Grind the weld down a bit, smooth with body filler, and prime. Now failing that, you can use fiberglass. They make this stuff called POR15, it should seal the steel a bit better than the off the shelf rattle can stuff. Same deal, get off as much rust as you can, coat the exposed steel and remaining rust with POR15. Fiberglass is pretty easy to use so I won't walk you through it, basically patch the hole, sand smooth, and prime. This isn't something I have ever recommended doing really, but given your inexperience with cars and taking a wild stab at your financial situation, I don't want to recommend cutting the floors out or anything like that. Just use this to keep water out, heat out, or as something to rest your feet on.

Remember that whatever you do with fiberglass is a temporary fix, as air can permeate fiberglass and the metal will find a way to rust. The floorboards in my 73 were repaired like this and the rust has since spread. So if you plan to keep the car for an extended period of time, expect to have to fix it the right way in... 10 years maybe.

Once the rust is dealt with, you can move to the running part. Does the motor run? If it hasn't been run in 8 years that's bad, but you can still try to start it if you would like. Drain all the old oil out of the motor, put in fresh stuff, then pour some into the cylinders through the spark plug holes. Let it sit overnight, and the oil should seep past the rings and lubricate everything so you don't screw up everything on startup. If it turns over well, then the motor is probably fine and you can start troubleshooting if you would like. I personally would pull the engine apart and replace the gaskets, piston rings, and bearings at a minimum. But pulling apart an engine isn't a beginner job so it might be something to hold off on for a while.

Once it idles, you will want to do a compression check. If any of the cylinders are out of spec for compression, you could try the oil overnight thing again and sometimes the rings will seal. If that doesn't work, you'll need to replace the rings. Which dictates replacing the gaskets. And removal of the pistons makes not replacing the bearings irresponsible. The block might also need machine work so let's hope that they all seal. If you need to tear it apart, start making friends who know how to dot this, who don't mind getting dirty. And then stock up on beer (of the root variety).

BTW: if the rings seal it isn't difficult to remove a broken stud from the head. It is easier with the head off though. If they don't seal, you can always have the shop that machines the block take care of it if you like.

Once you've got the engine rebuilt/running, you can start worrying about the rest of the mechanicals. First, the brakes. Check the reservoir, if it is empty you need to find the leak and fix it. If it isn't empty, you need to drain it and replace the fluid, then get your dad to help you bleed the brakes. Once all of that is taken care of, tell your dad you need to move it. Steer as he pushes, and slam on the brakes to make sure they work. If they work well, you might just get a laugh out of it. Now technically you could run on the pads and shoes you've got. But I would recommend replacing them (and for that matter, the rubber lines too) before you start driving it regularly.

Now check the clutch fluid, if there isn't any then you need to fix the leak. Otherwise swap it out and bleed the clutch. With that taken care of, it is technically driveable. The first two places you will want to drive it are a shop to change the transmission and diff fluids, and then likely the tire shop (200 miles, but how old are the tires?). At some point you will want to address the suspension which at the very least has worn out dampers, possibly springs, and I'd bet money that the bushings aren't in very good shape. My 73 has a lot of rust on the suspension pieces, nothing some time with a sand baster won't fix. It isn't really bad in my 73, but it's certainly something to look out for as if it gets bad enough it can become a safety issue.

Now the car is driveable so you might want to make things pretty. Now here comes something completely out of the norm for me: take it to Maaco (or a similar shop). I usually advocate painting your own car, but I remember my first paint job (painted an FC... orange) and it turned out like crap. And that was in a garage with somebody who knew how to work the equipment. You get good quick when you have to keep buying paint, but for the cost of materials for the first try you can get a decent looking paint job done for you. Those places usually just suck at the prep work. I've seen a gorgeous paint job on a car done by a Maaco-like shop, but the factory pinstriping wasn't removed from one of the fenders.

But it turns out decent with good prep work, and will last as long as you take good care of it. So sand down the paint with 300, 500, 800 grit sandpapaer (in that order) everywhere there will be painted. Keep in mind that these places just spray over the outside, so some of the chrome trim might be best removed when it is sprayed. This also means that they won't paint the jambs/engine bay/under the hatch, so choose a matching color (you can pay extra for jambs, probably 50-75 per jamb/under the hatch, IDK what they would charge for the engine bay). Some of these places aren't so good at the masking, so look at some of the ones drying when you take it up to see how it turned out. If there's overspray on the windshield and such, you might want to mask it off yourself. After that; they spray it, you pick it up, you store it in a garage for 2 weeks as it cures, and then you buff and wax it. Most of these cheaper places use cheap one layer paint, so you need to keep it waxed and washed or it will fade out quick. A car cover wouldn't hurt either to keep the sun and rain (and snow you poor bastard) off of it if the garage isn't as easy to steal away from your father as it is mine.

The paint will further seal off the metal from rust, and now that it's all shiny you can turn to the interior. This is a great way to take advantage of the weeks in the garage when the paint is curing. Throw the dash cap in, then get to wiring! Hooking up the sound system isn't a difficult thing to do, you just need to know which wires to cut. If the car has the stock wiring for the head unit and speakers, I would recommend replacing them if you can, but no house wire please. Pull out as much of the interior as you can, you can run the wires and remove the old ones. It's not hard to do, it's basically just follow-the-wire-and-zip-tie. You father probably knows enough to show you how to wire up things. While the carpet and everything is out, look for rust. If you find any rust you missed before, say, near the spare tire... you know how to address that. A hand vac and some discretion on how you point the can is advised.

One that's done, throw the interior back in and start sourcing replacement parts for what's worn out. Congratulations, it's now been 1.5-2 years and you've brought a Z back from the edge of the grave.

[z_kid_1994]

oh my gosh you guys, thank you SO much, the engine does run, quite well actually, and my father rebuilt the bottom half of it about 20,000 miles ago. and salt isn't much of a problem in eastern washington, the cold is... i finally got some pictures!!!

[z_kid_1994]

wuh oh... i guess i dont know how to put pictures on here!

[kelloggman]

wuh oh... i guess i dont know how to put pictures on here!

photobucketif you dont have one already make one its free pretty easy

[z_kid_1994]

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just to show the stripage level i am at.[IMG][/IMG]

the rest are on the way, ran out of up loading time!!!

[z_kid_1994]

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oil is new!!!

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[z_kid_1994]

ah, see the god awefull floor!!!

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[kelloggman]

looks like you have some work to dodefinitely take advantage of tearing down your caryou have time. get to know it inside and outim mad i didnt keep my truck when i bought my zwould have came in handy for other things but since my z in my ddi cant really tear it apart like i would like and replace all the old brushings

badass gave you alot of AMAZING infocheck out motorsportauto(MSA)has alot of good parts. start wanting to buy everything...at least i dothey have floorboards for sale as a part of their end of summer saleblackdragonauto also has some good stuff.

[z_kid_1994]

Here are the rest of my photos, you can see the issues, this is with the bumpers and the front air dam off.

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[z_kid_1994]

absolutly discusting :

[kelloggman]

looks like you need some restoration lil research on how to do it but ~sand paper~weekend ~primer

some ppl on here have done itgive you better tips on how to
Modified by kelloggman at 9:10 PM 9/23/2009

[s13-t]

hey ken its eric.keep your chin up. The rust is common and its not out of hand yet. I will come by in the next couple of weekends and we can try to replace the floor board on the passenger side as well as fix the rot under the battery. In the mean time post some more pics of what we found. Try to get good detailed pix of the holes we found under the sound deadening. Try and get a pic of the hole that goes through to the rail.

the rust you have is annoying. but atleast ur project car runs! I have had my motor siting on a stand since april. bla....

NICO- his fuel pump has a bad leak that wasnt fixed by cleaning the gaskets. So where can he get new gaskets or a new pump?

[kelloggman]

msa sells themmechanical fuel pump http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/SFC02

MSA(motorsportauto.com) sells just about everything!

[evildky]

looks like someone left a takp or somethign on the roof for a long time, but looks like it's only surface rust so it should't take much to get it off, just be sure you cover it with a good sealing primer afterwords

as for fuel pumps, if you go electric any low pressure electric pump will work but you need a fuel rpessure regulatlr, anythign over 3 psi will overpower the needle valves ont he su float bowls

[s13-t]

hey ken. its ericidk how often you check this but my phone broke and I lost some contacts. So i dont have ur number anymore. hit me up

[cwebbatya]

Man that is damn old and mad props for having the courage to battle with something of that age. I loveeeee old rides, just wish I had the patience to put up with their suspension problems and crap..

[z_kid_1994]

well. i'm back, and with a far better education. i cheated..I found a soda blaster near me and i'm going to do that. i have started on taking the engine apart to get to the broken exhaust manifold stud, in the process i have taken off the smog control, intake, and exhaust manifolds. now i have reached a dilemma. i need to take the head off to get at the broken studs (I've already tried freeze-out and grabbit) so are their any special procedures or tricks i should know about? i have the blue workshop manual and the hayne's book i was just wondering if their are any other tricks. but any way i cleaned the carbs and things are going well. the rust on the floor has created a sizable hole so i will have to do that too.

[Maxy]

nice work man awesome car !!!!

[Leahgia]

Hey there, My name is Leah, I'm 18. I'm also new to the site and just bought a 72 240z as well. Picked her up for 2900$. Pictures are on my flickr. we both are in the same situation and could prolly help eachother out. I need to replace the floor pans, they are badly rusted, but that is about it that it NEEDS for right now, besides a new paint job. there are a few cracks and rust bubbles. I replaced the master and booster, those bolts were a pain in the a** to unscrew...so rusted over. Brakes are working great now, and she runs okay. The carbs need to be rebuilt as well, I'm going to pick up the front kit from autozone today. Sorry to bust in your thread, I just thought it was crazy how we are in the same situation. Good luck with everything!

[AZhitman]

Hi Leah! Welcome aboard.

nissangirl74 also has a '72 Z - Make sure to let her know you're here, and let us know if we can help with the restoration at all!

[Leahgia]

Will do! Thanks so much!

[Zkid1994]

I cant believe it. My name is Kenneth Corliss, i am the kid that posted here almost a year ago. that Datsun 240z is mine an i love it. its been a long strange trip, and in the process i have hit many bumps, and lost my login stuff, but it's almost over. My Z has a new coat of paint, its color is grey. i have fixed all of the engine problems except one. Does ANYONE know the placement of the manifold studs?? there are long and shot studs and i can't figure out which goes where. thank you all so much for helping me on my trip to having a car that i am truly proud to own. Z cars will always have a place in my heart. i wish i had gotten on here more often to see all the words of encouragement you guys left, but thats a teen boy for you. again thank you so much, pictures on the way!!!

[evildky]

the studs should all be the same length, if some are different they were likely replaced at some point with the closes size they could find