My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Well hello everybody. i'd like to introduce myself. I'm Nils, coming from switzerland and about two year ago i started work on a S30Z i bought. I now have a few restored parts, a lot of repair-parts lying around but the chassis was in bad condition because of earlier bad repair attempts by previous owners and a few crash-damages.

Check out the whole story here:

http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11769

then i had to decide if i would have a bodyshop to bring everything back to original condition or look out for a second car with a better base. Some weeks ago i got a notice from two friends telling me they saw a sad Z hanging around with no roof-window out in the rain. Long story short - it was near my job, i checked it out and brought it here this weekend and started work immediately:

so here's were the story begin's - i'll keep you updated!

Check out my other project (JDM EK9 TypeR and my Daily EJ9 which will get replacement in 2013) on my personal site on www.JDMjunkies.ch

back to the Z:

Jup, it has been a while, but today i bought a second 240Z for a really great price. it looks ugly but it was a real great deal i'll also get some more parts from this guy beloning to the Z soon. Mor information soon:

1) My friend Simon is loading the car and tying it safely

2) while at home my old Z chassis had to leave the garage for better workspace on the new one:

3) and here my new fairlady is safely at its new home in the garage:

Even have some OEM seats and seatbelts

and a complete engine with carbs and everything

4) Last but not least i had to wrap the "old" chassis so it wont get wet during winter:

I'll explain more on my plans soon. all i'd like to say is that both are genuine swiss 1972 240z. The main plan is to strip the new chassis and build one car out of these two with each part choosen from which car the part was in better condition. but we'll see. will be fun to explore Lots of updates will come again soon - the project is back in full swing

Edited November 5, 2012 by JDMjunkies.ch

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Started disassembly on the second Z today. This is how it started:

Removed some Paint first where i saw some rust underneath. It's a real ****te homegrown paintjob whith a wrong build-up. Seems like the big amount of primer and/or Bondo underneath drew humidity and started to rust on the surface. well luckily only on the surface!

Removed the taillight covers first which have been painted in a wrong colour also:

Rubber-taillight seals are really brittly and weak but lucky me i allready have a set of new ones lying around

and taillights uncovered:

Next i removed the rear wing:

And cleand up a bit in the trunk. theres a hole and some rust in the spare-wheel "bowl":

Found this funky oldschool-sticker in the mess that was inside:

Next i removed the driver seat which is soaked in rainwater, but otherwise looks usable when re-done:

Also found a genuine but black painted datsun emblem underneath:

Then removed the driver side door panel:

And rear window which was only laid inside without rubber - easy task

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

And this is how i ended up today. I feel like i know one or two things now from my first Z and that makes it all faster

[olzed 0]

Hi from NZ. I have a 72 as well. You have a big job there, but the end result will be worth the effort i'm sure.

Your dash looks to have no cracks, which is a huge bonus.

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Thanks mate. Well i thought it was nice first too, but the white Z (my first chassis wich is still an option) has a totally cracked dashboard and the second one from the black car has a small crack at the usual spot. but i have one in great shape on hold i will pick up as soon as i can afford. other things have priority right now ;/

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

took apart a few more things this week and hopefully will have better progress tomorrow:

1) Started with the taillights, which were installed with about 5 different types of screws

and out they are:

2) removed the interieur cover around the inner light (Above c-pillar)

3) Next on the list was the dashboard front piece thingy:

At one point i was curious about how bad the paintjob is so i started chipping the paint of wih a small spatula. it was so much fun and easy, spent about 1,5 hours just chipping of old paint with a spatula - here we go

well, hopefully i'll be more productive next time and get some more serious stuff done **

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Just a short update:

1) Pulled out the roof liner:

looks ok underneath:

2) I love the fact the new car came with alle the stuff like OEM-seats, and seatbelts. even if the need quite a bit of love to look shiny and work properly again

and out they are:

3) while cleaning the car a bit i found this wasp's nest inside the drivers door

[EuroDat 407]

It look like a good straight car thats been neglected for a very long time in someones backyard. Except for the funky paintwork;) the body looks good for its age. It will be nice to watch your progress.

Goodluck

Chas

Edited November 12, 2012 by EuroDat

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

It look like a good straight car thats been neglected for a very long time in someones backyard. Except for the funky paintwork;) the body looks good for its age. It will be nice to watch your progress.

Goodluck

Thanks, mate! Yeah the car has it's problems but compared to my other car which has been repaired really bad it's at least original and doesn't have any patched up parts. Also it's complete with all the interieur and a complete engine. so that's nice. At the end i'll probably build one car out of two or something like that. need to strip the second car now and then decide what's best. also there is quite a bit rust underneath the paint but i have a lot of nice bodypanels from the other car so it's ok At least the substructure looks great, but for safety and a long life i think i'll replace a lot of the parts anyway, so it should last another 40 years

So far i have a complete sandblasted and powdercoated subframe from my first Z lying around, as well as a Trust header, Kameari stuff, NAMS ( Nagisa Auto Motor Sports) and RockyAuto Adjustable rods and arms, a set of new wheel bearings, JDM fender mirrors and a lot more. all still NOS and packed up, so this will be great to put it all back together at one point

[EuroDat 407]

I know what you mean by previous resto jobs. Mine had a nice suprise for me. The back passenger side tail light didn't look right. The mounting frame behind the tail light was all bent up. They just hammered it in so they could get the light to fit and filled the rest with filler. It cost me two days to get it back to (almost) normal, but its still not perfect. I want to eventually repaint the car and will probably have to cut the section out and replace it.

Chas

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

yeah on my first chassis the installed different taillights (from a corvette or Opel GT or something) so they welded up everything. it's hard to find an entire upper rear panel so that's why i decided to look for a second base that might be a lot of work as well but at least no such ****..

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Just a nice B/W shot to start with:

Removed the spare-tools lids. was quite tricky because i had to cut new Slots to get the screws out:

and out they are:

Removed a bit of those insulation mats with a rubber hammer on the driver side in the trunk. benefits of having a unheated (read: Freezy) garage is that tar-mats tend to get brittly

Next up was some interieur stuff behind the rear seat:

and at this point i found my first serious rust-hole:

at this point i decided to spend the rest of my time removing the brittly old bad paintjob with a spatula. Totally useless becase car will get a sandblast / Sanding anyway if i decide to use this shell, but just so much fun:

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

thought it's time to show you my other part of the car, chassis number one, and all the aftermarket parts i bought so far:

Chassis Nr 1 and the rotisserie i built for the Z's:

it's totally stripped now, but has a few problem-zones, so i will see which one i'll complete as soon as the black one is stripped too

and the parts:

Saito Rollcage from japan:

Kyo-Ei (Japan) extended wheel studs:

Rocky Auto Japan Tension rods:

NAMS (Nagisa Auto Motor sport japan) Tierod end links (compared to the OEM ones):

Zedd findings replacement floor panels:

Energy suspension Master bushing kit (plus a few extra bushings for the swaybars):

HKB Japan steering boss kit:

Trust Japan Header:

Tow hooks (custom made in Japan):

Kameari Japan leather "Z" shift knob:

Tokico (Japan) Blue shocks:

Got all the sub-floor parts sandblasted and powedercoated in satin black:

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

and the holy grail:

a brand new NOS RS-Watanabe "Falcon" steering wheel:

also a whole bunch of OEM-parts ready for the re-install like Ball joints, wheel bearings, seals and stuff:

also bought a few used panels, taillights and a set of JDM Datsun 510 Fender mirrors, which will be reassembled with the longer 240Z bases i have to a set of OEM JDM 240Z mirrors:

and a lot of other small pieces and a few truckloads still need to be ordered - hope you see where my project goes

here we have two better pics of the chassis nr one

1) when i bought it:

2) how it looks now (completely stripped to bare shell):

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Long time no update. I‘ve been busy making some extra space in the garage and clean up the mess there Also I removed a lot of paint and thought it wouldn’t make sense to post pictures of every bit of junk I removed so far

This is how it looks on the outside currently, lot of paint removed just for fun:

Lots of surface rust underneath. anyway i continued with removing some of the insulation in the trunk:

next on the list was get out the interieur behind the seats and look how the structure is underneath:

Found a big hole on the passenger side rear inner wheel well:

Now after i've seen a few things on the black car i feel like i have a plan again:

The white (first car) seems to have better base structures, so at the moment i think i'll go with the white car. If the front end of the black one is good (on the white it isn't, also due to a lot of bad repair-attempts) i'll use the entire front-end of the black car. So Disassembly of the black car's front end is what's up next:

more to come on the front-end

In the meanwhile it got pretty freezy in the garage again and i feel a bit sorry for the white shell sitting outside in the cold, will put it back into the garage soon, or find another home while i work on the black car:

Then i had a few dollars left on my paypal account last month so i thought this is a good excuse to buy some small parts from MSA (zcarparts): Got a set of NOS rear pillar emblems as well as a hood emblem:

[EuroDat 407]

Hi Nils, Looking good. Nice parts gathering your got going. Well you have a good parts car for your project.

Is the black z a euro or a us import with euro taillights? Sounds like the white one was us, with the corvette taillight mod.

My z is a us import. I spent 18 months looking for one. All the euro models are in pretty bad condition due to the salt in winter.

Chas

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Hi Chas, thanks for the feedback.

both are genuine swiss market Z's, Every car was marked in japan to which market/Counry it will be delivered:

How i know this? On the glove box liner there are three japanese katakana characters (ス イ ス) which means Su-I-Su and stands for Suisse, see here:

Also both of the cars came with non american features like a 5-speed manual gearbox and without the terrible us-bumpers.

Swiss models have specific corner-lights on top of the bumper

istead of underneath them, because of the minimum-hight corner lights had to have here these days and the OEM ones were to low.

The Corvette tail-light conversion (or maybe it was a Opel GT conversion) was done here by one of the previous owners i think. this was something "cool" back in the "manta, manta days"

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

oh and i totally forgot, i have the registration documents from the swiss car which has been registered in switzerland 1972 still waiting to pick up the documents from the black car...

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

It's currently -3°C in the garage (26.6°F) in the garage, but some good work keeps me warm Started disassembly of the front end today, t his will alow me to remove the fenders to check the structure of the chassis in the front.

1) Removed the front-bumper with the swiss-spec Corner lights. It's slightly dented but repairable.

here it's gone:

2) next was the front lower panel, it's quite bent but usable:

next on the list was the grille, but i wasn't able to remove all the screws so i let them soak in some WD40 for a while While working i found the VIN-tag plate:

and noticed a weird thing: Even if both cars are 1972 Swiss-spec cars they have different oil filler caps. here's the one i found in the black car:

and here the "elephant" type oil filler cap from the white one. Of course i'll go with this one

[TQ24TZ 0]

Those headers are the same ones that came with my parts car...I had never seen them before any information on them?

[EuroDat 407]

Hi Nils,

I was wondering about the turn signal light above the front bumper. Never seen them before. In NL they wouldnt pass my CA Import until I disabled the turn signals on the side for safety reasons, but he coul not explain why:stupid:. Crazy when you think about it. Now you cant see the indicators from the side because 280z front indicators are zunk in the grill above the bumper.

Chas

PS: did Heiko pick up his roadster from a guy near Groningen NL? There is a guy there with 7 or 8 off them ( cant remember exactly) and a true roadster fan.

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Those headers are the same ones that came with my parts car...I had never seen them before any information on them?

you mean the blue one? It's a trust / greddy one, it's out of production since a while. i have part numbers and drawings if you need more information. just let me know

i got one of the last NOS parts from the greddy japan stock, but now it's no mor avialeble.

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Those headers are the same ones that came with my parts car...I had never seen them before any information on them?

you mean the blue one? It's a trust / greddy one, it's out of production since a while. i have part numbers and drawings if you need more information. just let me know

i got one of the last NOS parts from the greddy japan stock, but now it's no mor avialeble.

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Hi Nils,

I was wondering about the turn signal light above the front bumper. Never seen them before. In NL they wouldnt pass my CA Import until I disabled the turn signals on the side for safety reasons, but he coul not explain why:stupid:. Crazy when you think about it. Now you cant see the indicators from the side because 280z front indicators are zunk in the grill above the bumper.

Chas

PS: did Heiko pick up his roadster from a guy near Groningen NL? There is a guy there with 7 or 8 off them ( cant remember exactly) and a true roadster fan.

Yeah those turn signals are some swiss specific because original location was to low for swiss law, but i will change them to standard under-the-bumper type now, already got some panels and stuff

Yeah Heiko changed his roadster with a guy from netherlands. so the guy in netherlands now got a rarer year model from heiko and heiko has got one in better condition, but i don't know whick guy he got it from, only know he swapped cars with a guy from the netherlands

[JDMjunkies.ch 143]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Pre-christmas stuff keeps me busy currently, but soon Christmas holiday is coming so i hope to be able to get a few things sorted.

Compared the damage on my two chassis today. Still need to check a few things but this is what i saw so far:

So my plan is to do the same as Torby from Latenightgarage to his Z. Swap the entire front end from my black car to the white one, as well as the taillight surrounding. still need to study a lot of things but this seems a pretty nice way to make one good Chassis out of two rusty ones as the front is pretty well on the black one but the restunusable and the front-end is the biggest problem (with a lot of cheap repair patches) on the white one: