RedNeckZ

My oldest daughter was driving my 280Z in Colorado a few years back. During a Snow/ice storm, she lost control and put the rearend into a curb. She did some damage to the gas tank and passenger side control arm. It started making the same type noise. It would only make the noise when moving. Turned out to be the bearing cage in the rear hub area on the control arm. We had to replace the bearings and races on that side. It had spread apart and the metal bearings were knocked out of its cage and was rubbing on the race. I hope you find the problem. Good Luck, Rich.

Our cars were made to last a few years at the most. They have no rust protection on them at all. If you take the fenders off, you will see that the areas not covered in tar or such from the dealer were all metal and covered in rust. We have a car here in Fayetteville, NC that is a first gen. Z. The Guy will not sell it for what it is worth. He is trying to make a small fortune from it. Thinking that someone will come along and buy it at a very high price. But if you look at it, it is rusting from the inside out. It has the normal paint bubbles (every panel) on the paint and the normal rust around the wheel wells. It even has holes in the floor boards. Who ever decides to get it, must do a lot of body work ($) to it. From what I can see, it will rust away, just sitting were it is right now (outside in the weather). I don't think anyone will be stupid enough to buy it for the price he wants. I wish I could have brought some of the Z's I had back in Colorado to NC. I had people giving them to me, just to get them out of their yards (1990's). The county came to the house and told me, I had to put insurance and plates on all of them (10). So most of them got stripped and sent to the junk yard. I had at one time ten cars listed in the world Z club. Rust is our greatest enemy. It never sleeps and can only be removed with a lot of work. The car was made very cheaply and it rusts a lot. To save them, we must take them apart and start from the inside and work to the outside. That is why most people take a few years and rebuild them after stripping them (check out other sites on the internet). Hope this answers some of your questions. Before you buy a Z make sure to do a complete inspection of it and be honest with yourself, decide if you want to spend however much to fix it back into shape. It will be your time and money that will make it happen. Good Luck, hope you find a rust free body out there.

Thanks, all for the info. I loved the drawings, a new area or idea to look into. I do have the MAS flairs (complete set - street). They are not that great fitting and poor quality. For a complete set it isn't that bad of a price. I paid that much and more for the motorsportZ street flairs (had to add three sheets of fiberglass to make them work on the street). I am adding this to a Z with g-nose and whale tail. Because this is my second Z, I can do a lot more to it then I could my first Z. We are looking at doing this one up right. We will be spending some money on it. Thanks again, Rich.

Thanks, for the advice. I am looking at it, as a way to cut cost in building my next 240Z (racing only). I was involved with getting his car together and liked the way the look gave it. I wished I had the skills you have shown on your car. You have given me a lot of ideas on my first Z. But now I will be trying it a little different way. My Z will have a 401 AMC engine in it (have a short block already)(need a transmission to go with it). I am also going to try to graft the brakes off of a 300ZXT onto my Z. When you sent me the paperwork on your car back when I was with the Colorado Z club, it helped me a lot. This site has also been a great help. But most of all it has me trying stuff I would have never tried before. You have helped a lot of us out here in hybridZ land. So Thanks, Rich.

Before anyone asks, yes, I did the normal search. Now the question. I was helping a friend put some fiberglass flairs onto his 65 mustang. I started to look at them and found out they are real close to our flairs. I checked out the site he got them from: WWW.Mustangdepot.com . I need to ask, if anyone has used or looked into this. The other site I looked at is WWW.MustangPlus.com they have a 4" set that looks real interesting (code: 00859). The price is pretty good for me. I know it may take some body work or trimming to get a nice fit and to fit or smooth them out. Any ideas out there about this? I am looking into putting this onto a 1972 240Z with a G-nose (track car only). Thanks, Rich.

:mparty:Just some info on the ZX to Z exchange. The body parts will not exchange (280ZX had some size difference in most body parts). The engine block and transmission can be exchanged. The arms on the rear of the car will not exchange with the Z without major mods (two different styles of arms). The R200 rearend and CV shafts can be exchanged. Alot of stuff will exchange between the 240Z to 280Z. But most people will only exchange the 280ZXT or L-28 engine plus the 5-speed into the early version Z. Some of the front end will change over. The brakes can be used with some mods. Most is up to you and how skilled you are to adapting stuff. Just do a lot of reading (searching) at this site and you will reap alot of knowledge. This one of the greatest sites on how to do mods to the Z car. Check out both of the cars and you will see the difference in them. Good Luck, Rich.

To Greenmonster 80, Where did you send it off to. I am not able to read the message, but I am interested in it. Can you give us some more info on what you did and where you sent it to. Thanks a lot, Rich.

No, you do not need to remove the gas tank. You will have to drop the gas tank down a few inchs, so that you can reach up into the space above it to remove the three bolts holding the shock in position. It has the same size bolts that the other side has. Use a wrench or 3/8th ratchet/socket combination to undo the bolts. After removing the bolts, just twist the shock around and pull it out or pull it into the tank area. After it has cleared the body rear panel either way, you can remove it and get rid of it. Make sure you retighten up the gas tank before doing anything else. (The smaller your arms are, the easier it will be to reach up into the work area). I gave up a small amount of blood to do this around the hand. But it was worth it. The 240Z rear bumper was easy to install.

If you want a rear bumper for the 240Z, I may have one I can swap to you. You have to come here and pick it up (Fayetteville, NC). If you want one just give me a call at (910) 987-5194. I may have one already stripped and painted. But I know I have one that needs to be stripped of the chrome (has some rust on it). Good Luck, Rich.

Check the rear bearings in the hub or the U-joints on the half shafts. Start with the half shafts. Jack the car up in the rear, reach in and grab the half shaft. Try moving it around to see if the joint is not bad (up or down or back and forth movements not turning it around). If your half shafts are ok, then it is most likely the bearings in the hub. You can jack-up the rear corner the sound is coming from and try moving the wheel from side to side and up and down. Make sure you disconnect the half shaft from that side before doing the test. Then check for major play in it or bind. If it does, you will then have to replace the bearings. Read the manual before doing this. It does require pressing the outer set of bearings off the shaft (machine shop). When putting it back together make sure to put the proper torque back on the nut. Again read before doing this. You don't want this to come apart at speeds.

Just thought you would like to see the fenders that we used. the first two pictures are the fenders we used on the Z (the shop teacher said you can cut one fender in half and use one side per side for an easier way of putting them in). The last picture is the fenders we will be using on the next Z. I will be taking more pictures as we attach them this time.

Some more pictures. We will be able now to run at least a 10" wide rim with this setup. We are starting to work on the next Z we have. We will be using a full fender setup on this one (has the fender and back side cover). We haven't decided on what flair we will be using on this one. We are looking at the 280YZ setup for now.

See the pictures attached. This has opened the rear wheelwell a lot. We have used fusion seamsealer to seal everything and rubberized paint to cover it. We are still working on the rest of the body work. Hope to have it painted this fall semester.

The info I am passing on has been done to a 1971 240Z over the past 2 school semesters at Fayetteville Techincal Community College. The idea came from my shop teacher. I am in a course in autobody repair to fix and repaint my Z. It did have MSA street flairs on it with the normal lowering springs - 16" by 7" rims. The flairs had been put on and the metal below it was cut back and bent over, back into the wheel well. No seem sealer or welding to close them. As we started the body repair we found the normal rust we knew that was there. We then got into the rear wheelwell area. We found a lot of rust in the area under the flairs. Him and I sat down and decided what we needed to do to do it right the first time. He came up with this great idea of using stainless steel fenders from a car trailer as the fix. We first marked the inside area of the flairs. We then removed the flairs by grinding down the pop rivits and then slowly removing the flairs that had been glued on. We then cut out the metal on the outside of the wheelwell. We then cut slits into metal in the wheelwell area. After going out and buying stainless steel fenders for a car trailer (most farm and wal-mart stores carry them - cost about $20 or more for a pair of them) we trimmed one side of the outside lip off of both fenders. We also trimmed them to fit within the flairs and to fit between the outer and inside sheetmetal. He then welded them in to the outer skin first and then we bent the metal from the wheelwell up to the new metal and welded it together. Then we seamed sealed everything. It work great. I will try and take some pictures tomorrow.

Yes, there is two ways you can do this. One way is to order one from Nissan/or find it on E-bay. The second way is to go to Home Depoy/or such and buy some wire mesh screen and make your own. The choice is yours to make.

Got a big question for everyone. Has anyone ever done an AMC 401 engine transplant into a Z? I have a spare block sitting in my garage and have been looking at the possiblity of this engine into my second Z. I have done a search and got nothing from it. Any help would be great, thanks, Rich.

Make sure that you mock-up your setup first. Some of the hubs have small differents in them. I needed the .375 size to make it work on my Z (280Z hub on 240Z spindle). But I do know of guy's needing the .350 size for the 280Z hub on 280Z spindle. On the standard 240Z hub most need the .50 size. Good Luck and let us know how it went. Rich.

Check with the Jim Cook racing site. He at one time was selling a twin turbo setup for the L-6. He still has it on the catalog. So he maybe able to help you or direct you in the right direction. Good Luck, Rich.

Depending on what year your 260Z is. Early model were done with 240Z Parts - had the thin bumpers on it. Later model were the start of the 280Z model parts - had the big bumpers on it. So if you have the late model 260Z, you will have to cut some metal to get the taillights to fit. But I liked the 280Z taillights over those of the 240Z. Good Luck, Rich.

The stock springs should be put side to side. the taller springs go in the rear of the 240Z. The 280 springs are even longer in the back. Don't know about the spring size. Hope it helps.

Just did this to my Z. Have metal fenders and fiberglass buckets. We first used 80 grit sandpaper to remove the paint and took it down to bare metal on the fenders. Only the paint on the buckets were removed. We then filled in the connection area with short kitty hair. Used two layers on it. After sanding it down with 80 grit, we filled it in with bondo (1 layer). We then sanded it down starting with the 80 grit and finished with 180 grit. We then primered it and wet sanded with 240 grit. We are now working on the back wheel openings. HOPE, to be able to paint it in the next school period (Spring) .

Colorado Custum Wheel in Ft. Collins, CO has them. Sorry don't have the number with me at school. They do have a web site you can check. Rich.

Yes, Having a oil scraper does help. Most of it will be in the upper reachs of your RPM limit. It helps with the removal of oil from the rotating mass of the crank and directing it else where (back to pan). Rich.

I have put a 240Z bumper onto a 280Z body (78). The bumper come off of a early model 240Z (71). After attaching the mounts from the 240Z (rear bumper middle brackets)(welded them on), we, then aligned the bumper to the body and only had to cut the hole for the bolts to go thru. The 280Z rear body panels are done a little different then the 240Z. It is narrower then the 240Z. So before you do anything with the bumper or body, test fit it to the body. You may not have to do any thing with the body. The way it sat on the body, it wasn't that bad looking and fit pretty good. After the test fit, you can decide what you want to do and go for it. Your wallet and mind is your only limit. Good Luck, Rich.

I am now trying to get a voltmeter from a friend. Thanks for the help, Rich.