My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[JDMjunkies.ch]

2 hours ago, HS30-H said:

I've seen the occasional example of user/owner-added single or twin bolts through the baseplate and inner wheelarch. A kind of belt-and-braces approach that certainly would help when the baseplate 'floats' slightly above the inner wheelarch.

They could also have been added at the request of scrutineers/safety inspectors. Pretty soon they were mandating welded-in cage mounts for certain race classes and this prompted some car owners to weld in sections of the factory safety bar, like this rough and ready period example:

Very interesting photo. thanks for sharing. I've never seen such an installation before. It also seems that in your case the bar itself has been welded to the bracket, which is obviously more rigid comparded to the original detachable design.

17 hours ago, xs10shl said:

That is a really nice replica comp roll bar.  I have one myself, and it is very true to original, as far as I can tell.  Just for the sake of discussion:  I have not seen the three through-bolts on the wheel well actually appearing on original units.  Of the few pictures that I have, I don't see any with this particular feature.  That said, I'm confident it will improve safety and utility that way.  The hardware is also a bit different from original on the kit I have - I believe the original units were fastened using JIS bolts labeled "9".

I'll defer to others with better knowledge.

Thanks for your inputs, i appreciate a lot.

Here is the example i took for reference. Rear installation plates are welded in, upper ones are only "laid on" (No visible welds or bolts):

The Mizukami rollbar claims that it's close to the original design but has some modifications for easier installation and better fitment.
The upper side mounting brackets come with the three holes for the inner wheel well bolts you mention. and including the three bolts on each side:

This (terribly google translated) installation manual from the Factory race and rallye preparation "yellow book" shows that the also the upper mounts should get welded, if i get that right. As shown in the Photo by Alan.
Unfortunately it is not very well visible in the upper left (black) picture how it is installed, but if i look at the picture in the original Print, it seems to be welded, as in Alans photo.
Anyway, as Alan mentioned, i think there were different ways to install those and everybody came up with their own solution. Many probably never had or didn't read the intsallation manual either.

Overall the fitment of the Mizukami rollbar is very nice, and i like the way they designed it. I guess it's close enough to the original design to convice the MoT guy to approve it as an original rollbar. Otherwise it can be quickly removed by it's smart design. Overall i like it a lot. If you want to have it closer to the original design you can of course close the three holes and weld the bottom plate to the inner wheel well, that should fix the main difference.

Edited April 17 by JDMjunkies.ch

[xs10shl]

Great info, thx.  Also of note, the original examples shown have a trunkbed plate with welded nuts in place of the provided plate, with welded studs- likely also for ease of installation.  The original nut-plate solution is also how the roll bar was installed on my Works car.  i can certainly understand why Mizukami went with the latter stud system, as the original welded-nut-plate solution requires 4 large holes to be drilled into the floorboard.  A very subtle difference that 99.5% of enthusiasts would probably not recognize. (thatsa lotta nuts & studs talk)

Edited April 18 by xs10shl

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So since i'm working on the R180 diff, a some nice people here pointed out that there's a special Service manual for this. Luckily one was available for sale just that time, along with another book which i saw recently and was missing in my 240Z reading collection:

The differential service guide is an Datsun USA made service manual for various R- and H- Differentials by Datsun and is brilliant. It explains the working priciple, the differences of the manuals and obviously, the service. it comes with calculation tables for settings and a lot of background information about the various diff.

It's basically an englisih translation of the original Nissan JP factory differential service manual.  But it being english makes it much more convenient to understand 🙂

Registered ClassicZcar users can download a digital copy of the english version for free here: https://www.classiczcars.com/articles/engine/differntial-manual-r115/

The second book which i bought, was a Z-book i haven't seen before. The "Dastsun Z Series - the Complete story" by David G Styles.
It made me especially curious because the writer was an Englishman, and the cover features an Euro-Spec Z, so my hope was that there was a bit of a focus on the european cars and market, compared to the usual American / Japanese focus.
Well i was wrong. It's honestly pretty much bull****. A LOT of the usual (false) Goertz praise for his achievments, a lot of design comparison to Jaguars and Ferraris 250 GTO and really nothing new or interesting when it came to the design, development, production or testing of the cars.
Even though the writer mentions a lot of japanese sources on the first pages, it seems that the Japanese had no big influence on this book and rarely (if at all) a japanese name gets dropped.
I didn't expect much, but at the end it wasn't even able to fullfill that. Nevertheless, one more for the "nonsense" section of books in my shelve.

[HS30-H]

51 minutes ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

The second book which i bought, was a Z-book i haven't seen before. The "Dastsun Z Series - the Complete story" by David G Styles.
It made me especially curious because the writer was an Englishman, and the cover features an Euro-Spec Z, so my hope was that there was a bit of a focus on the european cars and market, compared to the usual American / Japanese focus.
Well i was wrong. It's honestly pretty much bull****. A LOT of the usual (false) Goertz praise for his achievments, a lot of design comparison to Jaguars and Ferraris 250 GTO and really nothing new or interesting when it came to the design, development, production or testing of the cars.
Even though the writer mentions a lot of japanese sources on the first pages, it seems that the Japanese had no big influence on this book and rarely (if at all) a japanese name gets dropped.
I didn't expect much, but at the end it wasn't even able to fullfill that. Nevertheless, one more for the "nonsense" section of books in my shelve.

I wholeheartedly concur. It was another stinker.

Unfortunately my stack of poor, bad or total garbage books on the subject of 'our' cars is so tall that it I had to apply for planning permission from my local council.