Much like the starter motor, the disassembly took place in April 2020 and the assembly months later – in this case December 2020. Without the reference photos this task would have been puzzling to say the least. That’s how things go when you need to wait a minimum of 4 weeks for parts to be blasted and plated. I had two alternators to play with. The one with the pulley that splits in to two pieces is for an early 240Z and it accepts an 11mm belt. The later style switched to a 13mm belt and used a keyway. I …
Starter Motor
I’m here to repent. I’ve neglected my one true love for too long. I have not appreciated her and turned my eye to her needs. Well, no more! It’s time to spark up our love again… time to start respecting her… OK, seriously though, I’ve made very little progress since April and it makes me feed depressed thinking about all of the lost time. Where have the last few months gone!? To start back up I thought the starter was an appropriate task to complete. Like a lot of my sub-projects, I started this one months ago and it has …
Front Brake Calipers
In February 2014 I removed the calipers from the car. In January 2020 I bolted them up to the car… just as well I’m not getting paid to do this for a living! Before starting this project I would have looked at well used parts and considered them scrap metal. I did in fact scrap a perfectly good exhaust manifold becase it had a bit of surface rust on it… I threw it out! What possessed me at the time I do not know. That exhaust manifold, along with many parts like the brake calipers here, have been eye-opening lessons …
Summer 2020
There are some parts that you just know are abundant but you struggle to find anyway. The transmission crossmember for an early gearbox had eluded me for months and months as I persisted in limiting my search to Australia only. I relented and after posting on Instagram one was on its way from the US in less than a day. In early December I decided to free up some floor space and take the engine in to Stewart Wilkins Motorsport. He has already reconditioned my differential and transmission and I trust his many years of working on these cars will …
Brake Warning Switch
The brake warning switch from the Datsun 240Z is a simple design. It detects a difference in hydraulic pressure between the front and rear brake system and alerts the driver via a warning light on the speedometer gauge. The unit receives the front and rear brake lines from the brake master cylinder. It splits the front between left and right while the rear is sent via one line and is split between left and right at the rear proportioning valve. When a loss of hydraulic pressure is detected at any point beyond the unit’s exit ports of around 13 to …
Dash, Wiring, Gauges, and Ducting
Like many jobs, the dash restoration started many moons ago. It was in fact March 2014 when I sent it to The Dashboard Doctor. They did a fantastic job recovering it and it sat in its box wating for all the other pieces to be ready. Later in 2014 the wiring was sent to Vintage Wiring Harness who took a touch under two years to complete the restoration due to a number of circumstances. In any case, the results are fantastic as I found out this year when I went to install the 3 harnesses. The dash harness fell in …
Half Shafts and Prop Shaft
I disassembled the half shafts in April so of course when I went to assemble them six months later I made a couple of mistakes. I’m finding myself in this situation quite a bit and it’s unavoidable; it’s just the way I work. I’ve got components in pieces from 4 years ago! The mistakes are usually silly little ones and exarcebarted by a gung-ho attitude and a reluctance to check the manual; but mostly it’s rushing to complete jobs when the finish line is so close. I keep relearning the lesson of patience and double checking everything. It will sink …
Fuel Tank Dents
I had booked in some painting time for this past Saturday and nothing was going to stop me, not even the rain that started early Saturday morning and continued for the better part of my scheduled 5 hours. My poor wife must have thought I finally cracked it with all my pacing up and down the stairs, inside and outside the house, checking weather apps, and commenting on drizzle vs rain all while contemplating throwing plastic drop sheets over the clothes line so that I can paint under cover. Oh the hillarity of it all. I can picture pockets of …
It’s On Wheels
I’ve waited a long time to say that, “It’s on wheels”. Five years and two months to be exact. I’ve come a long way and there’s some way to go yet but oh, what a satisfying milestone to see the car on wheels and steering around. It has injected a lot of enthusiasm in the project; even the wife is starting to appreciate the car with it’s quintessential ’70’s shade of mustard showing off the beautiful sleek design. Here’s a small reminder of the car as I bought it. And a few after I stripped it. And just a short …
Suspension Detail
Immensely satisfying to be finally assembling components instead of cleaning decades of grease off them. This is what I was picturing all those years ago when I set out to restore a car. The reality is not far from the fantasy in this case. A smile grows to a grin each time the roller door winds up. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum now that I’m on a roll. Get it?