Over the last few weeks, i did some small things and collected a lot of stuff again. First, I exchanged my US-spec front lower valance. Before:


And After: Euro spec valance:

In case you're wondering, what's the difference? The euro spec has the additional mounting holes / nuts to install the Euro spec front spoiler lip. Here you can see the two side-by-side:

This allowed me to temporary test fit my wobbly, worn-out, cheaply-repaired Euro spec front spoiler lip:

I still need to change the corner valances to euro spec ones, but also the lip needs a replacement, as this one is beyond repair. But at least I could see how it will look:

People often say they're impressed with what I'm able to find for purchase. But this time I even surprised myself. You might remember the Eaglemoss Fairlady Z Kit that I bought a while ago and came with a bunch of magazines? The set has dedicated folders / binders to put the magazines into. I always had two missing, so some of the magazines were stored "loosely". Luckily, I was able to find two unused Folders for exactly that kit in Japan:

So all the magazines are now nicely stored:

And my book shelve / archive looks much better :-)

I also bought a small lot of vintage Datsun (Switzerland) Stickers. Some of which I haven't got yet in my collection:

Then I also got a bunch of Documents:

First, the Datsun Sports 311 Introduction Bulletin from 1967.

Theoretically, it has nothing to do with my 240Z project. But with this car the FS5C71A transmission was introduced

The original Overdrive transmission, used in a similar (albeit slightly different) configuration in the early EU-spec 240Z. To find information about it is a bit tricky. So when I saw that this booklet has more details about it, which I haven't seen before. I had to get it:

Speaking of transmissions, I also got the Japanese Nissan Transmission service manual from 1974:

This one includes the later FS5C71B transmission and some general information about Nissan transmissions, which is not found in the 240Z specific documentation:

And then i also got another issue of the "Nissan Star", Swiss customer magazine from 1990, which always has cool insights into Nissan from those days:

More to come soon.

I have some urgent projects around the house which I hope to be able to finish in the following days, but I hope after that I have loads of time for the Z again.
So this will be a very quick update: I got some nice documents from Japan again:


The first one is the "Z-2" Service Shuho Book, which is the equivalent of the English bulletins. They have become quite pricey recently, so i stick to focus on the most important ones, but when Z-2 (introduction of the Automatic transmission cars) showed up for a reasonable price, i made sure to get it. Here's my collection so far. There are plenty more, which I hope to add to my collection whenever they pop up for a good price.


The second document is the December 1973 Nissan sports option catalogue for the HS30 "240Z". It's probably the most extensive one, which is 12-pages strong.
It focuses on the HS30 Fairladies only, which means most of the listed parts also fit my HLS30 car. The other catalogues are either much thinner, or focus on a different car (Z432, for e.g.) or a whole range of Cars (240 / 260 / 280Z). But basically, it was a good price and missing in my collection, so that's why I got it. I hope for more updates, soon, I have some things planned... And I have some very cool things waiting to be picked up by me, or on the way here...

I have some urgent projects around the house which I hope to be able to finish in the following days, but I hope after that I have loads of time for the Z again.
So this will be a very quick update: I got some nice documents from Japan again:


The first one is the "Z-2" Service Shuho Book, which is the equivalent of the English bulletins. They have become quite pricey recently, so i stick to focus on the most important ones, but when Z-2 (introduction of the Automatic transmission cars) showed up for a reasonable price, i made sure to get it. Here's my collection so far. There are plenty more, which I hope to add to my collection whenever they pop up for a good price.


The second document is the December 1973 Nissan sports option catalogue for the HS30 "240Z". It's probably the most extensive one, which is 12-pages strong.
It focuses on the HS30 Fairladies only, which means most of the listed parts also fit my HLS30 car. The other catalogues are either much thinner, or focus on a different car (Z432, for e.g.) or a whole range of Cars (240 / 260 / 280Z). But basically, it was a good price and missing in my collection, so that's why I got it. I hope for more updates, soon, I have some things planned... And I have some very cool things waiting to be picked up by me, or on the way here...

It has been a serious while since I was able to put some actual work in the car. I had some urgent projects on the house to complete, and then I managed to injure my hands, but now I'm back at it again.
First, I had to re-install my tank. Since I sold my new fuel tank including rubbers and straps at the Japanclassic, to help somebody get is car running again quickly, I had to wait for a new one to arrive from S30.world.
Unfortunately, new straps are currently not available anymore, so i had to go through my set of existing straps to get the best ones for temporary usage:

First i had the rubber insulator blocks installed on the tank:

And then had it all wrapped to avoid scratches on my brand new tank:

And then everything installed. Thanks to my new transmission hoist, this was a lot easier than last time.

And last but not least, i had the drain plug installed, which comes with the tank:

Next? Front end work. Ever since I had my wobbly bent EU spec front spoiler installed, I was wondering myself which route to go. EU-spec corner valances with the mounting holes for the spoiler, but no holes for the Lower turn signals or other way? After thinking about it for a while, i decided to take the best of both worlds. Some might call it sacrilegious, but I decided to go what appeals the most to my eyes. US spec lower turn signals, but EU-spec front spoiler (which also helps stabilize the car and is not just for the looks).
My original thinking was that the US-spec corner valances need to be modified with that "loose-nut" mounting brackets for the lip, but when checking my EU-spec valances, i realized that on the corner valances (unlike the center valance) there is only a simple hole.

So the modification of US-spec valances to fit the EU-spec spoiler is simply to drill a 5mm hole in the right place. To get the right place, i made a nice little template from tape.

Transferred it from the EU- to the US-valances, and drilled / cleaned it.

Unfortunately, I found that on the LH-side somebody had previously drilled holes in the wrong places, for whatever reason. Probably they had some different spoiler installed? I'll leave that to the bodyshop.

So everything set to install the spoiler completely? Almost. As you can see, the brackets on my worn out spoilers are quite bent.

Some were even completely missing or "fixed" with a bit of backyard-engineering:

After I bent all the existing brackets in a more-or-less correct position and installed it back on the car, i have to admit it looks quite good, even though it's still just a completely temporary mock up.

I also had my replica US-spec turn signals installed (I will look for some good OEM-ones, as these lack the mandatory E-stamps on it).

Which made the iconic, but also a bit ugly, EU-spec turn signals obsolete. Even though I don't think the look is too bad, I always have the feeling that they were just slapped on the car in a hurry, and are held on the bumper with only one nut, so they always look a bit off in their position and are hard to get it right (see previous photo). So I had them removed.

The US / Japan spec turn signals always looked much sleeker to me, fully integrated under the bumper. Like intended from their designers. So for the moment, I'll stick to this setup. But I might change back to full EU-spec, if required. During this work, I was also able to fix two previous issues with the front bumper alignment, which is great too. From my point of view, the front-end (everything in front of the radiator support) is completed now. Next I'll focus on some other points. My 2-do list is getting smaller, and I'm happy with every task I can check off.

I expect DHL ringing on my door with some nice stuff from Japan every moment, and i have some more things on the way here, so expect another update soon.

Over the last few days, I was busy in my workshop, getting some small tasks completed on my Z project. Time for a little update.
After installing the partial gearbox to test fit the brackets and stuff, I realized that the gear lever is too much in the front of the hole:

A quick look into the manual made it clear: I had mounted the lever the wrong way.

So, gear box rear-end out, gear lever corrected:

And back in, this time, correctly:

Then I spent a lot of time at the rear end of the car. I had to clean the holes for the three taillight panels, so that the plastic rivets would lock properly.

After that i re-installed the taillights, and ensured the sealing rubbers were set correctly, using my "string-trick":


Next i have to finish the slightly worn chrome / metal trim around the taillight panels and get them back on:

While working at the rear, i decided to install all those fasteners, stoppers, alignment pieces, guides, etc.

Like those rubber spacers: 


And trunk dampers.


I have a NOS set of everything, so the installed ones are only temporary, to not mess up the new ones: 

And the last bit at the rear end was to align the trunk / hatch. The body shop had installed some spacers to get it straight, but after all the parts got installed, I had to remove them again and massage a few areas lightly to have it all aligned:

Next? Seat rails. I had those Bride seat rails from my Histrix lying around for a while and wanted to test-fit them. I'm most probably going to use something different setup in the end, but I wanted to ensure that the distance and position of the seat mounting brackets was right after all the bodywork.

I thought the best way was to use the original seat rail mounting studs and spacers. Since I had several highly-damaged OEM seats, I hammered out the fasteners and used the plastic spacers after grinding away the factory spot-welds on the bolts.

This worked unexpectedly well, so now I can do some trials with different seats, rails and setups - to figure out what will go into the car in the end.

Next: I realized that I didn't have any upper rear number plate light in my part collection. Luckily, Florian from Datsun-Autowerk was kind enough to send me one of his broken ones including some other parts (more on that in a following post), for trials.

After puzzling and glueing all the parts together...

I could mock it up all together and drill the required holes.
Fun-fact: I always thought that slight "dent" in the gray metal piece was a production fault of the reproduction panel, but it's actually there to make space for the number plate lighting bolt.

After the holes were done and cleaned, I got the upper plastic part installed.

And then the whole thing with the lens. Note all bolts and the light itself are temporary units for the mock-up only, final parts will be correct and fresh.

Looks good if you ask me! Special thanks to the person who gave me the hint with the holes (I wasn't able to find the mail anymore, but you know who you are!)

And then? Spoiler-Alert. Again. After i realized that the currently installed spoiler is beyond repair, I remembered that I had another one lying around. But it was bent in all directions and super wobbly:


But all the brackets were still in good shape, so I gave them a little wire wheel brush and corrosion protection:


I placed them on our terrace, which tends to get quite hot now in summer


And let it take the heat every day. My thought was that the Polyurethane gets weak and goes either back in its natural shape by itself, or can be massaged.


At the end, some areas turned out to be pretty stiff, even with heat and required some proper bending over my special bending bench :-)


It didn't really work out. It's way better than in the beginning, but still super wobbly. I thought if i'd install it on the car, it might straighten itself a bit. Let's see. I have my doubts. The good thing is, there seems to be another spoiler on the horizon :-)


I've seen worse ones, but yeah. Not good enough for me:


I also went through my plated fasteners and sorted them a bit. I got various boxes over the years from various collectors and Z-specialists, so it was about time to ensure I find what I'm looking for :-)

The to-do list gets smaller by the week. And there's not much left from my side, but some tricky bits.

I guess I've earned my favorite Japanese "Hitachino Nest" beer for today.