Tag: 240z

I’ve been doing a bit of work on my Datsun and one thing I needed to get was a new carburetor. My car had a small single barrel carb and I needed to get a larger 4 barrel Holley or Edelbrock so I did a google search and found out about a shop called ProRPM. I passed by them but they turned out to be a tiny store and I couldn’t find what I wanted. When I told my mechanic I was having difficulty finding the part, he told me about a place called Super Shop. Not only did I find what I was looking for there but the price was also pretty similar to the price on Amazon. So I went around and took note of all the different brands they carried in case someone in the future is googles like I did. These are the brands I saw in their shop:

AFE
ARP
Auto meter
B&M
BBK
Comp Cam’s
Cometic
Edelbrock
Eibach
Fel-pro
Holley
K&N
Magna Fuel
Manley
Mcleed
Moroso
MSD
RPC
Wix

So if you’re looking for any of these brands for your car then this is the place to check out first. Their instagram account is @supershop_kw and here is their location on [Google Maps]

One of my biggest concerns when I bought my 240z Datsun was that I wouldn’t find a garage I could take it to whenever I needed any work done on the car. The guy I purchased the car from showed me a spot in Shuwaikh where he used to take the car to, but when I passed by to get some stuff done on the car, I had difficulty communicating what I needed done due to language issues and I also didn’t really feel like it was a mechanic that I could connect with. Then while getting my car detailed at ProTech, the owner who had also recently purchased a 240z himself told me about a garage he found called Omid’s Garage. So I passed by to check the place out and right away I liked the place.

Omid is a young guy probably in his late 20s and is really passionate about cars and by that I mean he really loves his job. His garage is frequented by other 240z owners but also owners of other vintage cars and people who need anything from regular mechanical work done to complete engine swaps. Every time I passed by he would be like see this old white Caprice? It has a supercharged LS3 engine producing nearly 700hp. Or see that 240z there? It has a 400hp V8 engine. It’s like every regular looking car parked outside his garage has something interesting under the hood.

What I liked about Omid is that it was a one stop shop for me. We didn’t have any communication issues, he was very organized and wrote everything down and I wasn’t an easy customer, I had a whole laundry list of random little things I needed to be worked on my car including:

– Needed AC installed
– Replacing all the cars bushings
– Check brakes, swap pads
– Right turn signal didn’t always work
– Dash lights were too dim
– There was an engine lag on strong acceleration
– Door lock issue needed to be looked at
– Wiper water pump wasn’t working
– New rubber shift boot needed to be installed
– Electric engine fan to be installed
– Alternator upgrade
– etc..etc..

So as you can see the kind of work I needed ranged from mechanical to electrical and I didn’t even list everything I had him look at. Omid had the car for around 2 weeks and went through my list and got everything done one by one. Not only for example was he able to get AC installed but he managed to hook up the AC to function with my cars stock fan/heater controls. I read about people doing this mod in forums online so it was great he had it done for me. The guy barely sleeps since he’s always working, the last day he was up till 3AM finishing up my car and by the time I got home and went to sleep it was around 4AM. Next day I wake up to find a message from him at 8AM asking me how the car is. Turns out he still hadn’t slept and was still working on other cars. But, he actually prefers working late at night on cars since he doesn’t have any distractions to deal with.

Since I had a great experience I wanted to post about him so that if anyone ever needs a good mechanic they could pass by him. His instagram account is @omids_garage and here is his location on [Google Maps]

A few months ago I found out that the Oula gas station near the Jawazat roundabout in Salmiya had a 24/7 car wash. Even since I’ve been wanting to just randomly drop by like 2AM or something to try it out but haven’t had the time to until last night. My Datsun had been at the mechanic for the past two weeks getting a number of things installed (will post about it separately) and last night I dropped by around 11PM to pick up the car. There were still some minor things that he was working on and he ended up finishing at around 3AM. So after leaving the garage, I decided to drop by the car wash on my way home to test it out.

So I get there and sure enough the car wash was open. I assumed they just had an exterior wash since no way they’d have staff available to clean the inside of the car after midnight but surprisingly, they had a full team on stand by. So I got my car washed in the middle of the night and it cost me just KD3 for an exterior and interior cleaning (without tip).

So if you ever want to wash your car in the middle of the night, this is the place to go. This carwash by the way uses a touch free automated system called the LaserWash which I posted about back in 2010. Here is the location of this car wash on [Google Maps]

I first heard of ProTech Monte-Carlo just over a year ago when they left a comment under one of my photos on instagram inviting me to pass by them. I checked out their instagram account and did a bit of research on them and they turned out to be a pretty legit car detailing setup with different branches around the world. I didn’t really have a reason to pass by at that time but months later when I wanted to detail my FJ I called them up for a quote and quickly realized their services were out of my FJ’s league.

Then last month I purchased my 1973 Datsun 240z. The car was over 40 years old, still in pretty much stock condition but had been parked outdoors for the past 11 years in Kuwait and probably even longer in the States where it was originally imported from. The paint had clearly lost its shine, it has lots of scratches, the plastics and rubbers around the car looked dry and the interior was also faded and looked old. I had already given the car a pretty good wash but it clearly wasn’t enough. Thats when I considered passing by ProTech and getting a quote from them. I was already aware that they had worked on a number of vintage cars before including ones that were worth a whole lot more than mine so I knew I could trust them detailing my Datsun properly. They gave me a quote which I honestly thought was too much since the car really isn’t worth a lot. But, I was still curious to see what they would be able to do to a car like mine, it seemed like the perfect project for them. So I got in touch with the owner and offered him a barter deal where I’d give him a banner on the blog for a couple of months in return they’d detail my car. Two days later not he got back to me, not only did he accept my deal but he also went out and purchased a 240z himself (same color as mine even, it’s pictured in the back of the photo above). I’m telling you guys the Z is such a ridiculously fun car to get.

I dropped off my car on a Monday, spent around two hours with the owner discussing and comparing our Z’s and then left and came back the following Sunday to pick up the car. Usually they take 3 to 4 days for their extreme detailing package but because of the age of my car and the work it needed they took a couple more days than usual. When I picked up the car again, fuck was I impressed. The pictures really don’t do the job any justice.

There are a number of stages to the whole detailing process. When you first drop the car they first give it a proper wash. Once they’re done washing the car they go over it inch by inch with a clay bar which would pick up any small speckle of dirt that was still left on the car Once they’re done with that they start the detailing process. Depending on which package you go for there are different things involved here but in my case we went all out. So first thing they do is polish the exterior of the car. Before they start they mark off 8 different spots on the car so they could test out how aggressive their polish will be. They want to be the least aggressive so they start off on the lowest setting and polish the first spot and see if they can still see scratches. If the scratches are still there they move over to the second spot they’ve marked off and increase the intensity. They keep doing this from spot to spot until they get to a level of intensity that clears out the scratches without damaging the paint.

Once the external polishing of the car is complete they then apply a special treatment to the rubbers and plastics that will moisturize them and bring them back to life. The best example of how successful this treatment was is with the front spoiler of my car which you can see the before and after shots above. Before the detailing I was contemplating getting the spoiler painted black but now it looks brand new.

After the exterior they move to the interior where they once again spend a lot of time cleaning and applying special treatment to the various materials inside the car. My dashboard had faded and dried because of it being parked outdoors but like with the external plastics, they managed to bring my dashboard back to life. Even all the interior black leather that covers my car now looks factory new. It’s just insane how new my really old car now looks. They didn’t only clean my carpets for example, but they removed my carpets, the insulation underneath it and then cleaned the whole tub of the car before putting everything back again.

Once they were done with the cleaning they moved to the final stage which is applying protection. It’s basically a protective clear coat that lasts anywhere between one to two years. This clear coat protects all the detailing work so that any minor scratches will be superficial and not affect the paint. After everything is done they give you a box (a KD45 value usually) containing a bunch of their cleaning products and various types of cloths and sponges so that you could take care of the car properly. If you have a driver that washes your car you could bring him in and they’ll teach him how to properly clean your car.

The cost of this full detailing job? A whopping KD425. Obviously when a car costs as little as mine this really isn’t very feasible of course which is why I did the barter deal with them. You also don’t have to take the full extreme detailing package which I did. Their prices actually start under KD100 but if you’ve paid I don’t know, KD85,000 for a Mercedes 4X4 Squared for example then you clearly want the best fucking shit for your car and this is it. Personally I can’t believe what a huge difference it made to my car. It’s brought the paint job back to life, it’s shinny, it’s vibrant and because of the protective layer it feels so smooth (like super smooth). And the interior? She doesn’t look 43 at all, she looks like she’s in her 20s.

Now just to be clear this is not an ad and this post wasn’t part of the deal. I wanted to write this post because (a) I always need content but (b) because they really did bring my car back to life. I really need to install AC in the car since there is no way I’m going to leave her parked all summer long. Anyway, check them out, here is their instagram page [Link]

Over the past few months I’ve been on a rigorous search for the perfect classic Datsun Z. By perfect I mean one that fit into my budget, had an original and intact interior and one that required some work but not too much. Finding an original series Z was not an easy task since there were so few of them popping up for sale and those that did either had been modified heavily or were in terrible condition. Then last Monday while jumping from one instagram account to another, I found a small car collector who had a beautiful orange 240Z in his possession. I decided to leave him a comment randomly asking if it was for sale and to my surprise, the next morning I woke up to find a reply that if I was serious to give him a call. So I did and after I was done with work I headed over to his place to check the car out.

The car had one owner for the past 11 years, the exterior was in great shape and the interior was all there, even the original tape player. After taking the car for a small drive around the block I knew this was the one for me. The asking price wasn’t very far off from what I thought was reasonable for a 240Z in this condition and after negotiating with the owner for a little bit, he agreed to drop down the price and take my offer with the stipulation that if I was ever to sell the car to let him know in case he wanted to buy it back. And so just like that, next day we got the paperwork done and I was a proud owner of a 1973 Datsun 240Z.

The car is mostly stock except for the engine and gearbox which are from the newer 280z, a common modification since engine and gearbox parts for the 280z are more readily available. For such a physically small car, the interior is actually spacious. I’m 6’1 and don’t feel squeezed in the car at all, in fact its pretty comfortable. I’ve been driving the car non stop since Wednesday and it’s just a ton of fun on the road. As a pretty OCD this car should in fact be driving me insane since there are a ton of rattles and so many imperfections all ovre. It’s like utter chaos but I think thats why I’m loving the experience so much, it’s the opposite of what I usually am.

[YouTube]

Right now I’m not planning any major work on the car, I’m just going to drive it the way it is until the weather gets too hot for it and then will start working on it. I don’t have any plans yet but I did get inspired a lot last night after watching the video above. Come summer I’ll probably do an engine rebuild, replace all the bushings, install an aftermarket AC system and also get a new suspension. I managed to make a deal with ProTech Monte-Carlo and I’ll be dropping the car off to them tomorrow for some extreme detailing. I’m really curious to see how the car comes out after that since it should look factory new especially the interior.

My dad used to have a similar 240Z back in 1973, it was the first car he purchased when he moved to Kuwait and I just recently heard the story on how he got it. My dad’s an interior designer and was working on the interior of one of the properties for Abdulaziz Al Babtain. Al Babtain were the dealers of Datsun and so most of his meetings would take place at the dealership. One day while walking into the dealership he saw them rolling in a 240Z onto the showroom floor. My dad asked Abdulaziz what that car was and he told him it was the new 240Z. He then asked my dad if he liked it and wanted the car. My dad told him it was beautiful but he had just moved to Kuwait and couldn’t afford to buy one right now. Abdulaziz then called the sales manager over and told him to take my dad’s ID and register the car in his name. He told my dad to pay for it whenever he could which my dad ended up doing over time with small installments. The picture above was taken back in 1973 on Plajat street in Salmiya and my dad wants me to reshoot him now in the same spot but with my car. That should be fun.

I hope the weather stays like this for just a little bit more so I can enjoy the car as much as I can. If you see an orange 240Z zooming down the Gulf Road, that is probably me.