My 240z bought 2 years ago, left stood under a cover now almost complete.

rageness

Active Forum User
Ok so where to start, I am new to this forum so bare with me as none of you will know about this car.

Also forgive my grammatical errors there will be a few and I really can't be bothered to proof read everything


2 years ago the premises that I was leasing at the time sold up and left me a little stuffed with no where to go or much to do, I was a registered motor trader and once the premises were sold I had no where to continue the business at a sensible rate so I packed up for a bit.

If you are wondering why I had not planned ahead well I only received 2 weeks notice :(

So when that packed up I stuck some cash in shares and some of it into the then fairly battered 240z, I parked it up at my mum and dads with full intentions of cracking on and making a stunner of it only to end up leaving it there with little to nothing being done. The weather was terrible and I started a new job and just did not have the time to drive a 100 miles every weekend to do little bits.

So at the time I stuck her on ebay as a restoration project but she only made around £4000 and I was not happy to sell her for that so kept hold.

Long story short, (not that short) 2 months ago I got to work finally every day for the last 2 months!!!

so from the start I actually bought the car from this chap

Datsun Z car 240Z 260Z 280ZX sales

It's still on the site, which is a surprise. Now on the pictures it looks quite straight and tidy but it really was not. No discredit to the chap as he was very honest and sent me a ton of pictures as requested before I rented a trailer and drove from Sheffield to Bristol to collect it. Pretty much as it was described and pictured when I got there, bah a set of mis match alloys as I had mentioned I would be putting new ones on, I got to hear the car running and off I went back to Sheffield. Or rather off to Lincoln to drop it at my parents.

From there I had ordered £300 worth of paint and other little bits and bobs and that's where it all went wrong and she was left to stood.

Fast forward to 2 months ago and I popped a battery on, cleaned the carbs out turned the key and hey presto -brum brum brum-, she started and although a little smokey and hesitant I gave her a little (slow, really slow) blast up the road (they live in the country no danger!!) to see what I figured it might need.

Sure enough there was a list and a hell of a lot of rattles! but the car was still fairly solid especially compared to some of the things on here i have seen fixed up.

Rear shocks were the 1st thing to get replaced! What a ball ache that was, especially since I forgot to bring my bloody suspension clamps with me, spent an hour trying to do it with super thick tie wraps and rope and coat hangers and brute force!!!! before remembering I had actually bought a pair and left them in bleeding Sheffield. So that got stuck on hold until the missis came over at the week end and brought them with her. Even with them it was still more painful than taking a ride through the air before face planting onto the concrete after putting your R6 through a hedge.

There has been enough done on this car in the last 2 months to fill a dictionary but I'll just stick down the main bits to keep it a bit simpler.

All the brakes have been cleaned up, painted, greased and bled, Now stops pretty quickly. Having never owned a 240z before I get the feeling the front calipers are not standard as they look to be the same as I had in my 300zx TT no idea if any 1 could post me a pic of some standard calipers?

When I bought her she had fiberglass wings and I thought she also had fiber glass head light surrounds, so I bought new metal wings a new bumper as the old 1 was just tatty and rusted and I also bought new front light surrounds, because I thought mine were fibre glass... (waste of money they were bleeding metal and a better fit than the ones I bought! So I have a spare set that I really should sell!

One of the hardest jobs I have had to do was switching the wings. God if I had known before hand I would have just modified the fiberglass ones a little. 3 days!!! 3!!!!!! and the drivers one still is not correct but I only noticed upon sticking the new £1000 bloody alloys on. The fiber glass wings had a bit of a gap between the wing and the door which I hated, what I should have done is molded some more fiber glass there to address this. But instead I bought the new wings, stuck them on and then had to mess around for days to get the entire thing perfect! It is now apparent that my meaning of the word perfect differs greatly to that of the dictionary. Either way they are good enough or will be once i have sorted out the drivers wing which seems to wedge outwards and makes the wheel look like it is sat further in??? so some where they must be bolted wrong and it is forcing it to bend outwards, I could only tell once i stuck the new wheels on as I say, with the arches on it wil only look worst so I must sort it.

After are this messing around I did I had the wings bolted on, the bonnet, the hatches! but I did not have the vent on that sits by the wipers, nor did I think that this could possibly be out of line after adjusting everything else. But of course it was, which meant moving the hatches again for the millionth time in order for it to look some what decent!! So now it looks ok but it doesn't open!!! Maybe I will address this in the future but it is unlikely!

Other body work areas that were a pain was the rear quater panels at the very bottom as they had rusted so required a bit of work and the roof had been involved in some kind of riot or rave and I am not even sure how many hours went into sorting those issues out. But generally everything was quite solid, massively out of line with dents in but solid!

At some point the car has had new sills and floor pans, Great you would think, but one side is slightly different to the other and the door does not sit flush. I could have stuck a ton of filler over it to mask the problem but really didn't want to as it's not that noticeable.

After all of this I decided to get it primed to prevent rusting of areas that had been ground back to bare metal and took it for an MOT. For some reason I didn't expect it to fail, not sure which cloud I was riding this day as I don't do drugs but I must have caught a sniff of a passive smokers bong of hard crack!!! as I took it with no number plates on or wipers???

Ok I suppose I didn't really expect it to pass but it had not moved a mile in 2 years so I couldn't see anything obvious it would fail on that had not been addressed.

Boy was I wrong, it had such an array of issues they didn't even MOT it, just made me a list of things that needed doing to pass. Now in fairness none of it was actually that bad, all 4 tyres were boloxed but that didn't matter as it was having new wheels and tyres, the plates and wipers missing where fairly obvious ones as was the fact I forgot to put the fuel cap back on. The washers didn't work or at least after an hour of me fiddling with the motor and electrics I came to realise the button didn't work and finally discovered what this new after market switch was for!

There were 2 points that needed welding which I had not even spotted along the front of the chassis.
a new track rod end.
ball joint dust covers???
a brake pipe (was actually just dirt that looked rusty, they are copper so I cleaned them up) 1 of the brakes was sticking so that got sorted.
one of the lights decided to pack in (loose wire)
seat was loose (old seats were being replaced anyhow)
exhaust brackets loose or snapped

and a couple of other things but overall nothing major at all. All parts were ordered that day from the internet and I carried on. Once all these little bits were fitted it drove like a different car, no major rattles, handled better and actually stopped, at this point I decided it was worth throwing a bit of money at her as prioer to this I had only spent money on essentials until I was sure she would make a decent car. So I ordered new seats, new carpets from the USA, New alloys which are 85.j on the back and 7.5j on the front, custom drilled pcd but the offset was set and only just fitted at -15 and -20mm. Back look great with a 5mm spacer, no spacer on the front but will require some when the arches arrive.

Also had to order a complete sound system and wires, new gear and handbrake gaiters, new Grill, Various other bits and bobs.

So once all the bits were fitted for the mot I took it back, only for it to fail on the headlights again, because I had put 2 wires in the wrong way around so one side was on main and the other side on dip, plus they were not quite straight and need some adjustment so until my screws arrive from MJP shes not quite road worthy.

The only other thing it failed on was the fuel cap, Yh I forgot to put it on again! What a nob.

So today I have finally managed to finish off the inside almost complete, new carpets have been stuck in, both new seats and 4 point harness. (actually 3 points as they all went into the original holes) and the new sound system was wired in which was also a bloody pain. Seats went in over 3 times as the 1st time they were too high, 2nd time too far to the left 3rd time didn't match the holes, 4th time in correctly!

Carpets although decent took quite a bit of modification to fit correctly and a bit of cutting here and there plus some glue. I glued on the side pillars and rears behind the seats but left the floor unglued as I will velcro it in case any 1 ever wants to check for rust if I come to sell it and also in case it leaks as I have replaced quite a few pipes.

After all that was done I gave it a huge clean and vac and right now I am fairly pleased! Still little bits to do on the inside but not a lot.

Also forgot I stuck new door rubbers on, new kick plates off ebay which are very nice, new front and rear window rubbers (those are not cheap are they)

A friend of mine Paul who lives in Newark has really helped with quite a few parts, including the wings bonnet, rear rubber door rubbers, rear window, badges various bits and bobs which I think I got for a fair price to be honest.

Also prior to finishing the inside the car was painted, I am afraid I did this my self not that it's a bad job but it's not the best as it was done out side and I will probably have it redone professionally once I save up a little bit as it's just a blow over that needs doing. A pair of stripes have been fitted and it's looking quite beefy right now. But I won't stick up a picture of the outside until it's finished which should be in the coming days.

Jobs left to do, fit arches and lowering springs, bought from a couple of chaps on here, Source a rear bumper, Paint and fit rear light surrounds, Have custom spacers made to fill the arches, modify and fit K&N air box to standard carbs, have it tuned by some 1 in Sheffield, unless any 1 can recommend some 1 near Lincoln? Finish the lights and refit the front bumper. MOT and TAX and that's about it!

I must stress that every part of the car including the underneath has also been rust treated and painted accordingly to prevent any further damage as we know these can be a bit of a rust heap!

As well as sourcing a rear bumper I also need a choke stick switch and the handle for the ash tray.

Thank you for reading my thread I do hope it was not boring and I can't wait to stick some pics of it finished on.













































That's all the pics for now, I will stick some more on of it finished hopefully this week. Paint's done wheels are on etc, waiting on arches and bumpers going on!
 

Sean287

Well-Known Forum User
Got a choke knob (brand new) and rear bumper with number plate lights if your interested?
 

Mr.G

Club Member
Welcome to the forum and great progress! It must have felt good to have finally been in a position to start work on her.

Look forward to the finished pics.:thumbs:
 

Weaverhead

Well-Known Forum User
Looking very good mate. I bought my Z off the same guy (and a ton of other stuff). His workshop in the centre of Bristol is like a Z car treasure trove!! Wouldn't worry about the car still being in that page, looks like you have a link to a page no longer linked on the home page, I know he doesn't have most of those cars. I think the closing down sale page on the site is a better list of what's left but there are other odds and ends knocking about.

If the choke stick switch is the same as the one in a 260, I think I have 2 and don't need either. I'll dig one out and PM you a pic.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
The guy you bought the car from is Geoff Gale, he is a long-time member of the Club and was our Chairman at one time. The other Z dealers tend to sell the 'top-end' cars, however Geoff sold cars in all stages of restoration so there was usually something to suit customer's budgets.

Good to see you have got to grips with this one. It looks reasonably solid from the pics.
 

rageness

Active Forum User
CHeers for the replys and I have pmed you Sean about the bumper thank you.

I'm not worried about it being on Geoffs site still I can't imagine it's himself that does the updates as it was his friend who emailed me the original pics, I am actually glad it's on there as a bit of proof of what it looked like etc when I bought it.

Took it for a spin today, revs through the range but is a little smokey at 1st. Also after a few minutes of running when it comes to a stand still it takes a few seconds before the revs pick up again when setting off, seems to stick at idle rpm.

Stuck a K&N filter on finally after a bit of modification of the backing plate, Sounds nice, but really think it needs a tune.

Weaverhead I wouldn't mind a look at the choke stick if you don't mind as far as I am aware they are pretty standard between them.
 

rageness

Active Forum User
So car is pretty much done, just got to paint the rear light covers and stick the badges on, I bought lowering springs and flared arches and my intention was to add those and have it really wide but im having second thoughts as it means cutting the arches and they are solid so it seems a shame!

Need to have the prop shaft looked at as the car drives brilliant until it hits 50mphin any gear and once it does it has a serious rattle which seems to be due to the prop shaft. Still has the original engine and what a sound it makes I am so happy with it. It's look a long time but was worth it in the end.

I have bumpers but have not put them on as it just doesn't seem to suit the car.

















 

zedache

Well-Known Forum User
Excellent thread. Especially liked your first posting which to me says it all about restoration jobs and the many frustrations involved. You have done a great job.
 

rageness

Active Forum User
Done a couple of things since I last posted, changed grill from silver to matt black as it looked a lot more stealthy and suited the overall look I was going for. Lowered the car and not bothered with the arches, removed the big lumpy front indicators and replaced with hidden LED ones. Fitted Smoked front light covers and finally cleaned up and stuck the rear badges on. Plus I have cleaned the engine bay, fitted a new radiator plus a 14 inch electric fan and now it really doesn't overheat at all. Done 2 oil changes to clear her out, Changed the oil and fuel filters, changed all the plugs and hoses and found a set of air filters that work!! Last thing I need to do is fit the rear light surrounds before usc this weekend.

Time to sell now I guess














 

Dale

Club Member
The recent mods you've done have made a big difference, especially lowering it; it looks great.

Personally, I like to see a front bumper (I don't mind them without the rear one). A front bumper will let you put the licence plate lower too. What year is yours? Have you thought about black and silver plates? Black and silver would match your colour scheme nicely, especially at the rear.

And if you excuse my weird observations, but the low front end shot doesn't half remind me of Don Lino! ;)

Great work though :thumbs:
 

rageness

Active Forum User
Cheers Dale, 1972,

I must say I was considering putting the front bumper on it but I have just not had time to refurb it with all the other jobs lately. Will be getting new plates too as front was is a bit knackered.

Cheers for the response :)
 

RIDDLER

Well-Known Forum User
Leave the wheel arches as they are - those bolt-on flares spoil the beautiful lines of the car in my opinion. I would also like to see the bumpers on - looks a little naked without them.
But I have to say you have done a beautiful job with the car and you must be really proud of yourself. Now just drive and enjoy it!!
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Yep, it looks good. :thumbs:

With bumpers and the rear panels in place it would look neat and finished off. I'm sure it would attract more buyers that way. I took the bumpers off my car but that was purely to lighten it as it was a trackday car - they look lower and wider with bumpers on.
 

rageness

Active Forum User
Some 1 said put black and silver plates on so I have, also finished the rear covers. Cheers for the suggestion on the plates, looks a ton better.



 

Huw

Club Member
Really like what you have done. Think it looks great as is without the bumpers IMO. Hell of a job mate, you must be well pleased with that.

Huw
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
Personally I think bumpers would improve it - but it does look great. Well done.
 

rageness

Active Forum User
Cheers Huw,

Yh it's for sale, really don't want to sell her but I don't really have a choice. Been thinking about alternatives but right now I just cannot afford a new place to park her up every month closer to home and my insurance has gone up due to changing locations. I have done far too much to the car to leave it parked on a busy main road especially during the winter it will just end up being another nail.

I'll be sad to see it sell but I would honestly rather some 1 who can look after her keep her and maybe one day I'll get it back or another 1, after all im not as old as some of the guys on here ;p
 
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