My California 1973 240Z

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:24 pm

Hi all,

With all these recent skyline threads I've been a part of, I thought I'd start a little thread of my own about my S30Z before she gets too jealous about the new addition to the family whose keys I get in 2.5 weeks... Since old cars can have a temper, gotta keep them happy! right?

So here goes:

I bought my 73 240Z out of a san gabriel valley craigslist ad in the summer of 2001 from a guy who was the second owner and who was a freelance automotive cartoonist. The car was a bit beat up and needed TLC but I got it for $2500 so I can't complain.

About a year later it started taking shape with fender flares, front & rear spoiler, and a first set of (shallow) Wats:

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:32 pm

The gloss black hood was nice, but the body shop actually misunderstood that I had wanted satin black - I only fixed that years later. Here's a couple more pics of the car as it started out life with me:

It was generously shot pro-bono by a professional automotive photographer friend of mine in Pasadena:

Check out his paying work at http://www.jeffludes.com - Thanks Jeff!

Then it got some magazine coverage love when another photographer friend / writer Zach Mayne shot it for UK mag RetroCars:

Thanks Zach!

Then it went off the radar for a while so I could change some things around...

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:53 pm

I sold off the front Wats and the old rear Wats became the front Wats for a while, and I acquired some 15x10s for the back...
Always more offset.... it's a bad bad addiction... More on that later...

That required some cutting of the rear wheel arches sheet metal, and the stock suspension was removed

Turned out like this:

Thank you Simon!!

I do all mechanical work myself including engine build / suspension set up / and so on and typically only rely on others for block/head machining and/or welding... One time however I was pressed for time and couldn't swap out a tired stock u-joint before a track day, so I brought it to a local well recommended hot rod shop in South Pasadena (you know where this is going already, don't you?...)

End of the first session (before 10am) in the advanced group, coming out of Turn 16 at Buttonwillow, I shift to 3rd and $%&*@$%@#* ... I managed to coast into the pits...

They had forgotten to put the new spicer u-joint circlip back in after installing it on!!
Somehow I had unknowingly driven it home on Friday night, driven it all the way up & down the Grapevine Saturday morning, and made it through a portion of the first session before it let go...

So here's me pulling off my front chin spoiler while the nice AAA Premium flatbed guy waits to load the Z...
Almost 4hrs later I was home... ugh what a day that was... Fixed the u-joint and she was new again, didn't get a refund for my lost track time from the shop though - lame...

Just goes to show you can only trust yourself... lol...

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:17 pm

So my Z has ALWAYS been a SoCal car - it was originally sold from Universal City Datsun - I have the original window sticker, the original salesman's business card, and a whole bunch of invoices from the last 39years.... And I've always known that it needed some rust repair from day one... Yes, even SoCal cars can have it bad!

Peel back the old stock tar paper sound deadening and you get this:

Look closely, and you'll see my right shoe! lol...
Most of this under the passenger seat too, but not nearly as bad under the driver seat...

I opted for the repro frame rails from John @ http://www.baddogparts.com, and the repro floors from Charlie @ http://www.datsunzparts.com and picked a body shop in Pasadena to do the work

If you've ever dealt with body shops before, you know that they rarely finish on time or on budget.
I went to see Brett @ http://bobsbodyshoppasadena.com/services.html, and he called me on the dot exactly as promised two weeks after I dropped off the car.

I was stunned! Thank you Brett!

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:35 pm

After body shop (sorry for poor angle):

And some other outstanding items that I am working on when time permits:

Rear disc brakes (finally!)

Safety21/Cusco cage needs some sorting out regardless of what the US importer says is "normal"...

All in due time, right?
Thanks for looking!

-e

kory · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:06 pm

you got a beautiful z there :tu:

Norcal510 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:40 am

Very nice! Glad to see you got pics up.

Dachshund · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:08 am

...Very nice!

ericbauer · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:12 am

Thanks for the compliments guys...
More pics to come

Eric · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:57 pm

Very nice, have to get my own Z back to its original orange color too!

Mr Chris · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 2:01 am

I love the oranage and black colour scheme on Z cars. What engine are you running? Any mods?

ericbauer · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:05 am

After the original L24 expired in 04 or 05, I replaced it with a stock ZX (F54) L28 bottom end with a big valve head & triple Mikuni 44s..

But now I'm in the middle of a big upgrade which is going to put me at 2949cc. All head work is done, need to order custom pistons & bore blOck out next. Should be fun!

503Alex · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:12 pm

Love your Z, looks great! Liking the 432R styling.

ericbauer · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:19 am

So I've bought a handful of parts from Gabriel at TTT over the past couple of years and have always been very happy. However when I got his rod end outer tie rods for my Z I wanted to make a small mod to them.

He supplies them with some beefy bolts that require you drill out your steering arms.
I have the old Nismo shortened steering arms on my car and didn't want to modify them in any way.

So I drew up a spacer that would make the TTT tie rods and the Nismo steering arms play nice together and had a friend machine them for me.

I've got 15"s and it works like a charm.
It probably wouldn't work with 14"s though.

Garant · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:43 am

ericbauer wrote:

With all these recent skyline threads I've been a part of, I thought I'd start a little thread of my own about my S30Z before she gets too jealous about the new addition to the family whose keys I get in 2.5 weeks... Since old cars can have a temper, gotta keep them happy! right?

smart man knows how to keep his ladies happy :mrgreen:

Kennymonster · **Posted:** Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:52 pm

Quote:

What a killer shot.

The 432 look would've been my other choice had I not gone with the metallic blue theme.

If you're in so cal hopefully I'll run into you one of these days for a photo op at least.

ericbauer · **Posted:** Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:24 pm

I thought I'd lost these earliest pics, but I just found them again on an old harddrive I was about to toss...

Pic of the day I bought it off of craigslist for $2500 in July 2001:

Yes that was a super cheap price... but:
_ Bald tires
_ Worn out brake pads & shoes
_ Dented hood & bumper
_ Thrashed carpet
_ Poor aftermarket "alarm" (chuckle) wiring job
_ Twin flat top SUs which were super prone to vapor lock
_ 80s Recaro default buckets
_ etc... It definitely needed love....

Almost immediately I sold the Italian wheels & the Recaro seats much to the dismay of my Euro friends, especially when they saw me buy a set of black 14" steels & stock Z vinyl seats! lol.... I had a vision in my head and nothing was going to deter me... The fender mirrors went on almost immediately too and then slowly the build began to what you see today...

ericbauer · **Posted:** Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:49 pm

More from memory lane:

Spring 2002
_ first set of Wats (15x8 & 15x8.5 as I recall)
_ Euro bumpers before they became NLA from Nissan USA

Summer 2002
_ ZG flares from Les @ ClassicDatsun in Vista (CA)
_ eBay score of that year: NOS 432 style exhaust made by Trust/GReddy
_ Japanese taillights & headlight covers I had picked up in Japan at StarRoad on a trip out there
_ Fairlady badges & 432 style mesh grille from Nissan USA
_ I had triple Weber 40 DCOEs on the original L24 at the time
_ A whole lot of rubbing compound and elbow grease
_ No side glass - I don't remember why it was out...

Right around this time I missed out on a genuine Nissan NOS box of all the ZG front end parts that was advertised on craigslist in NorCal - Can't win them all, right?

Still want to do that conversion some day... LOOOVE the ZG front end....

Pics at Fort Ord during Monterey Historics 2002

Summer 03
_ On the beach just north of Malibu... lol... Yes, I got stuck immediately after the pic was taken... Got a quick tow out from a passing 4x4

Summer 04
_ I was working for General Motors' North Hollywood design studio at the time, and coming home from work was at the receiving end of a 4 car pile up on Hwy 134. First two cars were totaled without bodily injuries, 3rd car got pushed into me and flattened my chrome bumper... For the relatively small amount of damage I sustained Mercury Insurance of the guy who started the chain reaction never paid to fix my car... lame... oh well ...

Dachshund · **Posted:** Fri Apr 13, 2012 8:37 am

...Wow. 240z bumpers are good for something :lol:

G-nose is cool, but I think your JDM tube grille and headlight covers w/ bezels are too cool to replace.

It's sort of funny that the fender mirrors looked so out of place when you first put them on, with the USDM bumper, "dagmars", no flares etc.... But then you can see that they really come together as part of the package with everything else you've done with the car. Looks about perfect.

Only thing I'd do is paint/unpaint the hood :mrgreen:

ericbauer · **Posted:** Fri Apr 13, 2012 8:45 am

I got real lucky that day, I still have a slight dent in rear panel behind bumper to this day

Had the impact been any harder and both taillights and tailgate would have been gone

I was pissed but I definitely dodged a much worse state of affairs

My California 1973 240Z

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