Well Chapter 1, Page 1 of the book that will (hopefully) be my 240z's new life. I guess I'll start with a bit of the history.

Purchased in 1972 by my Father, this beauty of a blue 240z came out of the lot of Redlands Datsun. It was driven often and taken excellent care of. My sister was born in 1976 and the Datsun 240z was there to take her home from the hospital.

In 1980 (two years before MY birth) the poor car's fuel pump died. So it was placed in the garage with every intention of fixing... I came along, money got tighter and tighter, the years piled onto this one fuel pump problem. "There has to be a million things wrong with it by now, it's been years".

So the car sat in every home I knew of in my life, gathering dust and bugs and pet fluids (and occasionally Christmas presents for the hiding) among all the countless boxes, tool boxes and other random piles of things my packrat father couldn't bring himself to throw away.

So I'm 25 now, married and growing tired of video games. I'm in a job where I can afford some very minor extras and I want to see the car that was postponed from being fixed for so long, largely due to my birth, rise again in glory. I have a most excellent best friend that is willing to help me with almost anything I need help with. I have an (almost) understanding wife. And, perhaps most importantly, I have some money, some time, and a great willingness to learn new skills.

I very much want to do the vast majority of work myself for two reasons: It?s cheaper, and I really want to learn something, not just learn how to throw money at a problem. I want to be able to look at this car and say to myself (and you people) ?I did that; I worked hard and all of that work is another skill I learned because of this car?. I want to drive this car around and know that I did the work.

So far my parents (more at my urging ? and money, which they later gave back to me) have fixed the broken fuel pump, some of the seals, the spark plugs etc to get it actually RUNNING again. I?ve never seen it with my eyes, but this car has turned over and driven 10 miles before dying again. The muffler is old and needs to be replaced.

Anyway; I?ll get some pictures when I get home today? But here?s what needs to be done (and what I need to do the things that need to be done).
For some reason there are two belts that are missing, one is the Alternator belt which explains the dead battery. And the A/C belt which can stay off for now.
I?ve ordered some smaller items (including the elusive missing belts) and they should arrive tomorrow. I?ve cleaned out my garage to make way for work on the car. And now I need a place to actually do the work; a workbench of some kind. Also some tools would be nice?

I'll post more when I get home and get some real pictures up for a before shot.