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I always enjoy it when our resident armchair expert (RAE) from across the pond makes assumptions that turn out to be wrong. To assume he knows the people I speak to for my background information is the level of arrogance, Just as he has done here: "In contrast, one of your "people involved in the program" has knocked out a couple of hardback books - to great fanfare - but which are packed with enough misconceptions, mis-captions and plain old mistakes as to make them all but worthless for entertainment let alone reference material. You'd be well advised to take care in choosing your gurus." I've never spoken to or been in contact with that person, nor do I have his books. Yet again RAE has gone far off the beaten track. Even the people I have spoken to didn't have a lot of good things to say about the program manager you refer to. It's obvious from the photos from the Japanese magazines they are early cars, the cars in the pictures are instantly identifiable from the master list of the Vintage Z build. If you watch the videos @deanhuff posted links to you can see them at Pierre's shop. It's no great mystery but documented evidence. Just as they put the engines in conventionally at the beginning of the program, they got more efficient fitting rebuilt engines supplied by AER from below by lowering the car onto the assembly. Oh I forgot, RAE worships at the house of Japanese superiority and how could they be wrong having put some photos in a Japanese magazine. The VZ program was an American program, done in the USA and sold in the USA, not sure how the Japanese had much if anything to do with it.

"Hold that damn light still!" was heard many times in my early years. When he would finish a repair I was put in charge of cleaning all the tools and putting them away.

Deanhuff, I am in Maine for the week, returning Saturday the 16th. I will contact you when I get back.

The classiczcars.com knowledge base was pretty much built on the experience, expertise and forensic investigative curiosity of "armchair experts". Much of the historical data and official documentation you now take for granted - and quote from - made its public debut here thanks to enthusiastic amateurs. In contrast, one of your "people involved in the program" has knocked out a couple of hardback books - to great fanfare - but which are packed with enough misconceptions, mis-captions and plain old mistakes as to make them all but worthless for entertainment let alone reference material. You'd be well advised to take care in choosing your gurus. Just a few posts ago, the claim was made that "AER Manufacturing in Carrolton, TX remanufactured the engines." Sounds quite definitive, doesn't it? But... Thanks for the, er, clarification but the word "may" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Is it anything more than a guess that the incomplete engines photographed by two different Japanese magazine photographers just happened to be some of these "early ones", rather than any other explanation? At the very least the contrast between the two statements illustrates that a little pragmatism is required when investigating the 'facts' behind the legend. The more I've read about the 'VZ Program' over the years, the more it seems to be revealed as something less than the well-planned and executed operation that its PR at the time would have us believe. A really great idea, less than ideally planned and executed, ending short of its original targets. The resulting cars are great in and of themselves and the story has paid dividends in terms of column inches, but overall the 'Program' seems like the proverbial swan - floating serenely on the surface whilst paddling furiously below...

All, The mounted muffler appears to be silver. The unmounted muffler (photos 2 and 3 above) have a greenish tint. Any consensus on the correct color? Thanks, Keith

Have uploaded the file to the archives.

Love the videos, lots of detail on how they built the cars up. Great find after all these years.

Ignore the women. Just enjoy the sound of the fretless bass. Like a string trombone.

Bump Anyone have a comment? Keith

That document should be downloaded then uploaded to the Resources area before it disappears. I saved a copy. Not sure which category it might belong in. Maybe the Vintage program should be a separate category. https://www.classiczcars.com/files/ or https://www.classiczcars.com/articles/

My Dad raised a gearhead and I didn't even know it. Started out as the keeper of the light shining "right here damnit" then tool chaser, he'd get flustered and throw wrenches. He hardly ever used sockets.

Hi Dean Thanks for finding the document I was referring to. Based on this, chalk one up for me!

@26th-Z I have been looking for the red "Rebirth" brochure, would it be possible for me to make a scan of this? I'm located near Sarasota. Also I've been looking for the original owner to my #HLS3068727 car. A previous owner told me he bought it off eBay from a guy in Michigan 20 years ago. Does anyone by any chance have an archive showing the seller's user name?

@SpeedRoo Thanks for the addition, I scoured the internet and found the checklist document via the wayback machine Cylinder head checklist #4 states "new seats"...so it looks like hardend valve seats were in the protocol.

Most of my kids are gearheads. I need to build a couple more Z's to reduce the fighting when I'm gone...;)

The document is 34 pages long, it doesn't mention who did the work. It also doesn't mention who did the body restoration, paint and assembly. There were at least 5 Datsun restoration companies involved in the program. There is a master sheet listing all the cars and the companies responsible for each one. Two of them confirmed to me the engines and gearbox were sent out to be rebuilt, that's from people involved in the program and not armchair experts who had nothing to do with it. Now that doesn't mean every single engine was sent out, the early ones may have been built up to check the process and parts required. If you watch the videos @deanhuff linked to you can see the different companies involved. @zspert was one of those who worked closely with Pierre and also supplied parts to the program. I tend to listen when he speaks!

So the engines were reportedly 'remanufactured' at AER Manufacturing, but the photos from two different Japanese magazine articles on the VZ Program show a partly assembled engine (in one) and two in-process cylinder heads (in the other), clearly not at AER. There often seem to be missing pieces - or pieces that don't fit - in the VZ Program story...

@Zed Head I am aware of 2 promotional brochures related to the Vintage Restoration Program. One is red with "Rebirth" on the cover the other is yellow with "Spirit". I was able to purchase a yellow one from eBay, it contains an overview of the history of Z models up to the 300ZX and a little about the race cars. There is a copy of the yellow brochure online here The vehicle came with a photo copy of the red brochure. If anyone is aware of either a digital copy or physical copy of the red brochure, I would certainly be interested in it. The Red brochure states the following regarding Engines: The engine and transmission are completely disassembled, cleaned and analyzed. From the engine block to the smallest nut and bolt, the parts are laid out on tables, so they can be inspected and, if necessary replaced. When available, genuine Nissan parts are used. And in cases when non-Nissan are used, quality non-OEM parts are approved by Nissan engineers, specifically for use on these restored cars. All external engine parts such as the block, oil pan and air cleaner, are painted their original factory colors. Many ancillary components, including the alternator, starter motor and fuel pump are replaced with new units or ones that have been re-manufactured to our stringent standards. @zspert thank you for the recommendations, I will pursue a full compression test and valve clearance checkout. @HS30-H thank you for these great pictures! I don't want to hijack the theme of this thread being about BaT and other online listings too much, but If anyone is interested, there are some really neat videos of the vintage restoration process in the links below: Original Z Program Footage - This is video from Pierre'Z Restoration Program for Nissan 3 more Z program cars from Pierre'Z Restorations (I think my car might be shown at 10:44 mark but not sure) Autoweek July 1997 - Z restoration program with Pierre Perrott at Pierre'Z Service Center.

Somewhere along the line I remember seeing a quality control checklist used by Nissan for the program. Maybe that would provide some insights? Google search links me to what appears to be the New Zealand Z Car Club and no permission to view the attachment to the forum post which is a copy of the checklist. I vaguely remember seeing it on here somewhere but cant find it.

I love the fact you get the kids involved in rebuilding the Datsuns. Keeping the hobby alive going forward is getting harder to do. Let's hope they keep up their enthusiasm.

Roo - You're correct, and I know from first hand experience, Pierre wasn't amused! Many moons ago I serviced 2 of the Z Store cars and just can't remember what exactly I did to them. If I did a valve adjust to one or both and found little or no adjustment room left for the exhausts that would have told the tale about valve seat replacement, but............

I hope this doesn't feel like "doxing" but I found the place you bought the car from. Not that you're hiding it, it's pretty obvious. The ad copy says that it came with Restoration literature. There's a picture of what looks like photocopied pages. Is there anything in there about the engine details? Or is it just vague statements about remanufactured engines? Somehwere out there is some old AER Nissan reman engine paperwork that tells exactly what is done. They were used on more than just the Restoration program cars. I'm here for the puzzle.

Here's a different AER page. It's from 2002 and "Not secure" so can't tell if it's just an internet artifact or current. http://dealer.aermanufacturing.com/manufac/remeng.html They do have a Contact page though. Might send them an email and see if they have some documents. http://dealer.aermanufacturing.com/contact/index.html

Looks like AER is getting absorbed in to bigger corporation. Contracts with Ford and Stellantis. No contact means on their web page. Documents and old-timers probably disappearing. https://www.aersales.com/company-history/ The History page has some odd references but Nissan did get a mention. I assume that it's for all Nissan remans. So, maybe any Nissan reman documentation would be relevant. Not just the Restoration program.