Front Air Dam

After installing my new wheels, I continued to get dragging on the front facia of the 240z, so I decided to install a Xenon urethane air dam.  The fiberglass models apparently crack very easily, and given the road conditions in Chicago, I determined the urethane is the better option.  Below are the before, during, and after install.

Seat Rebuild

After several back and forth seating options, I finally decided to rebuild the original 240z seats and use those for the foreseeable future.

Original seat look

   

The Finished Product

The Rebuilding Process

Disassembly

  

 

New Covers

Got a great deal from http://www.interior-innovations.com/index.php/welcome/product_detail/42

 

Installation

  

 

Small winter projects

Not much time this winter, but I did accomplish several smaller jobs around the car.

Taillight gaskets ($40 reproductions from ZcarDepot.com)
Here are originals that were deteriorating and allowing lots of fumes in from the back of the car
  


The new gaskets are very good quality and fit quite well.

  


New Seatbelts
Purchased some "cheapo" seatbelts that attached perfectly to the upper mount and lower mount.  The seatbelt receiver is also nicely positioned now & doesn't flop around like the other set that I previously had installed.

 




Ballast Resistor Elimination
I also decided to eliminate the ballast resistor as it no longer is needed since I'm not running points.  Now I've got the full 12 volts across the spark plugs, rather than 6v-8v as limited for the points.  The picture below is of the ballast resistor, all 3 wires have been connected together as a bypass.

Get up and Go (4.11)

The "big" project for this summer was to improve the 240z's off the line performance.  After switching to the wide-ratio 5 speed from a '77 280z, the gearing did not play well with the 3.36 rear differential that came stock in the 240z.  Yes, I could get 35+ MPG on the expressway going 65mph, but for all around driving fun, it was very slow.

After searching for several years, I got a great deal on a 4.11 R180 differential from a Datsun 4x4 pickup truck.  Its a direct swap for the 4x4's front R180 into the back of the 240z, other than needing to scavenge two buttons from the original differential to allow for the axle stubs to bolt in.

 

To fit the newer 4.11 R180 differential, I needed to steal the two "buttons" from my original R180 to allow me to bolt in the axle stubs that the half shafts connect to.  I then needed to install them into the new R180.  The good news is that by the time I needed to install the buttons, I had some practice on the old differential.  Below are some pictures of what needed to be disassembled.

Once the carrier was extracted out of the differential, the spider gears needed to be pulled out in order to access the buttons as shown in the left of the picture.

Below is a great video that walks through exactly what needs to be done, plus some live-camera comedy by the two performing the swap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li_Q40T2Zm0

Better visability

After taking the summer off from Blogger, I'm back with several updates!  I did install a set of vintage 100 watt (each) driving lights that mounted nicely under the 240z's bumper.  I constructed my own wiring harness with a relay to power the lights.  For a switch, I decided to drive the lights from the rear window defroster switch.  I don't use the rear defroster, and I like that its powered by the ignition and it glows when turned on...plus I didn't need to hack into the dash.

 

  

Glove Box Insert Fix

For all those with the original style paper/cardboard glove box insert in their 240z, I found a cheap and easy way to upgrade to a plastic insert from a later 280z.

   

Here is the picture of what I started with.  A huge cut in the back of my cardboard insert from the prior owner.  Its only gotten bigger since I've owned the car

Old and new side by side.  The 280z plastic insert will need to be trimmed to fit.

 




There are various approaches, I chose to trim just the bottom tab and the made a new hole for the glove box door arm

The finished product is much nicer than what I had in there originally.  I did need to mount the glove box door first and then slide the new insert in.  I also put screws into these front holes to hold it better.  I probably could have trimmed down the side tabs as well and use the original holes, but this seemed like a much more secure way of mounting the insert.

Wheel / Tire Upgrade

Finally purchased a nice set of wheels & tires.  I chose to go with 16" x 7" Konig Rewind wheels with 205/55R16 Cooper tires on them.  Very nice combination to fill the wheel wells and not rub with my 1" suspension drop.