The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through.

It's hard to describe why this car is fun. It's not fast and it's tough to drive compared to my modern car. It does sound and look fantastic, but you can experience that without the car moving. I just feel good driving it. And describing what good feels like is not something I think that I can do in the same way that I can't explain why green is my favorite color. It is impossible not to smile while driving the car.
 

I finished redoing the ignition system this fall. I don't know exactly what was giving me trouble and why it took me so long but it doesn't matter anymore. I've made it work. It runs, and it runs really well. Even starts on the first crank, too. Pretty amazing.
 

That first drive after everything was correct was smooth and enjoyable...it reaffirmed a lot of things for me and not just about this car. This is something that I really enjoy doing.
 

 

 

 

 

I've had a lot help from brother Steve and cousin Zane, both of whom provided help as well as motivation to get the car right. It makes it a lot easier having a couple extra sets of hands and extra minds to bounce ideas off of.

 

Unfortunately, my brother discovered a fuel leak the next morning. Zane and I decided to remove the fuel tank to do a full inspection, which was horribly messy since we had to drain the gas. The tank is in great shape but the gasket for the fuel gauge sending unit needs replacing. Good news in the end since that's a simple fix, but we could have saved some trouble and replaced that with the tank still on the car. I'll take the opportunity to give the tank a fresh coat of paint.
 

The to-do list is still a bit long and I've got a lot of parts ready to go on. At some point soon I'll need to take the car to a shop for the roll bar install. But after I put the fuel tank back in, I can hop in and drive anywhere. That a pretty good feeling.

Little bit of feel good goes a long way

After the long hibernation of winter, the sweet excitement and preoccupation of spring, and the minor life reevaluation that comes with being figuratively kicked in the balls, I drove the Fairlady down the street for the first time since November. It felt good, even with a technical issue that has me a little confused. The machine moves and that makes me happy.

Over the winter I rebuilt the distributor (the part that distributes electricity to the spark plugs) with a non-smog spec recurve kit. Basically this means I changed the timing of the spark plugs sparking with new springs and weights inside the dizzy to make the car run smoother/better. Dizzy is classic car lingo for distributor and also how I felt looking at everything taken apart on the kitchen counter and then trying to wire everything up correctly back on the car. During this time I also added a pertonix electronic ignition, new spark plugs, a new coil, and deleted a girlfriend. Upgrades all around.

After some troubleshooting and making sure I didn't put things back together 180 degrees off, the car starts right up like a champion on the first turn. Great! Seriously...it's great. This was all new stuff to me and I figured it out (after some trial and error). Now there's none of the old car "wub wub wub wub wub " and feeling it struggle to start. It's just turn key and the engine is on. Pretty dang cool and credit to the Pertronix kit.

I backed down the driveway (mental note: e-brake needs adjustment) and started down the neighborhood street. First gear is good, really smooth. Big smile. Clutch in, put it in second, clutch out, press the gas and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT NOISE?!

I immediately put the clutch back in and go back to first. Everything is somehow back to fine and I can rev happily to 4k rpm. Well that was weird. Lets skip second and try 3rd gear...NOPE no forward movement and it sounds like a gun battle inside my motor. Back to the garage in 1st gear, which is again very smooth and pleasant.

It feels and sounds like a misfire of epic proportions. I popped the hood and everything was damn hot after a very short drive. The pertronix wires showed some rubbing inside the dizzy (not much clearance in there) so I tried to sort that real quick. The ground wire in the dizzy is pretty crappy so I replaced that too. Haven't driven it since as it was getting late but I don't know why a little rubbing in the dizzy would only happen in 2nd and 3rd gear? Why would a misfire be gear dependent? I'm working on it. I should double check the timing to be safe, but I did reset it after doing all of this work.

In other news, I took a closer look at the weatherstripping and have a good idea of what I need to do to square that away.

Also, I got my custom revalved Koni adjustable shocks from some Dutch guy. Heck yeah!

Not sure when I'll get a chance to put them on, but I love me some quality shocks.

Until next time...drive safe, have fun, and don't be a jerk.

Wiring

Just a quick post.

This is me looking at the previous owner's wiring:

I'm still waiting on a few parts to arrive before finishing the ignition. Other than that, I've ordered a few weather proofing parts and a new dashboard cover. The dash cover may be a bit of a project as the current one is a homemade contraption from the previous owner that will likely be a pain to remove. We'll see. I've also got a sweet new wood shift knob on the way. I'm currently on the lookout for a vintage wood steering wheel to replace my crappy stock one. The interior might be getting a bit nicer soon.

Ignition

I don't know how I got there but at some point during my furlough I decided that a "points" ignition is silly and my car would benefit from an electronic ignition. Easier starting, smoother at higher RPMs, and less maintenance. Seems like a no brainer.

For a description on a points ignition, please refer to wikipedia and then return here to tell me how it works because from what I can tell it's really dumb.

Anyway, I purchased the Pertronix electronic ignition kit and successfully installed it a few weeks ago. The car started and had some trouble idling, but ran very smoothly at higher RPMs. I shut it off and had trouble starting it again so I'm holding off until I upgrade the coil to a Pertronix 12V unit. New spark plugs will be installed as well. My guess is that the timing needs to be reset.

I'm also going to install a recurve kit for my distributor to the non-smog equipment specs. The previous owner removed the smog equipment but did not change the distributor as recommended, so the end result is less than ideal.

Hopefully all of this ignition work I started on a complete whim will pay off and I'll get a smoother, more consistent, and slightly more powerful car.

I do need to learn how to use a timing light and reset the timing. Excellent skill to learn in the year 2013!

Lots of other parts are in the mail. Exciting times ahead!

For kicks, here's a pic of the car fairly recently. Looking good.

Fun with gauges

For about 30 seconds, my to-do list got a little shorter. I fixed my license plate light. Then my headlights burnt out. Felt pretty good for a moment there.

I was able to mostly diagnose my gauge problems last night, so it was pretty productive for a short amount of time to play with the car.

The speedometer doesn't work be cause the speedo cable isn't spinning. Need to track it back and see if it's even connected on the other end.

The fuel and temp gauge aren't working because the voltage regulator they are supposed to be connected to is not connected to anything.

I'd also like to have some gauge lights so I can see what they say in the dark. Might be a good time to take out the dash and tackle all of these issues even though electrical work is not exactly my thing. But I choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard, and because it's kinda fun. And I need to see how fast I'm going, how much fuel I have, and if my motor is going to melt.

There's a lot of odd stuff going on with the wiring in my car.  It isn't pretty under there and there are a few things that I just have no clue what they do, including an on/off switch that seems to turn nothing on or off.

Start building some memories.

Well, I did not see this one coming. Others might have had an inkling I'd do something silly like buy a 45 year old sports car, but I was definitely taken by surprise.

My usual lunchtime craigslist search for cars I had no intention buying and no business looking at turned up an unexpected gem. A 1969 Datsun 1600 roadster, or a Fairlady as they're known overseas.* Datsun isn't even in my web browser's spelling dictionary. Shame on you, Google. Anyway, Datsun later became Nissan and in the early 60's they wanted a car to compete with the British and Italian roadsters of the time. Thus, one of Japan's first modern era sports cars was born...after someone at Datsun saw My Fair Lady and thought it was a good name for multiple generations of sports cars. The current 370Z and all previous "Z" cars are known as the Fairlady Z overseas.

Back to me, a 27 year old guy living in a small apartment in Baltimore City with limited free time, no garage space, and no experience with carburetors. In a search for a Datsun 240Z that I had no real intention of buying, I found a pretty little thing that looked fairly clean and complete at an attractive price. I had seen a few online before but never in person. This one looked good, had lots of recent mechanical maintenance, ran well, a nice removable hardtop, and the exterior had a fresh coat of paint. All rust had been taken care of. Only issues were the interior (with the exception of the very nice seats) wasn't in great shape. Also, the minor issue of me having no place to keep a 2nd car.

Logic be damned, I sent an email, set up a time to see it in person, paid some money, and spent several hours at the MVA. Then drove it home to Clarksburg so it could hide in my brother's garage until it's ready to pass inspection and I'm confident it's weatherproof.

*I will be referring to it as the Fairlady since it sounds much cooler than 4 numbers.