If you follow me on social Media, you might have noticed that I spent the last 10 days in Japan with my fellow S30.world friends for a very special once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'll post multiple detailed stories on this website soon, but I still need to process it all in my brain and go through thousands of photos. What I can show you already is what I brought home from Japan, aside from all the business-cars and fresh S30.world clothing (not pictured):

First, a set of Papers with the "Nissan logo": Those are the ones that Nissan dealers usually put in new cars to protect the carpets. We had them at our Car show in Japan to protect the floor from tire-marks. As we had a lot of them leftover in the end, I thought i stuff two in my suitcase :-)

I also got various stickers. From the old NISMO logo stickers, which I bought in the Nissan HQ Gallery in Yokohama, to a handwritten Kanji-version of my name, to various stickers of the event, and a sticker that me a local Honda dealer gave when we checked out their cars.

Some went of course directly onto my new "Hall of Fame":

I was also very fortunately to buy one of the very last RS-Mach "Ura Mach" steering wheel from the maker himself. I have planned a detailed story on this blog about the Mach steering wheels, so stay tuned, if you want to know more. He sold all the remaining ones he had on this very day and doesn't plan to make new ones.

I also came home with a lot of Magazines and catalogues. From the Protec catalogue to the Nostalgic hero (showcasing the new NISMO DOHC head, which we would be able to check out the next day), to the nice Motorfan Fairlady special edition which I was gifted by Endo-San, To the new Motor magazine 70th anniversary edition by Editor Morita-san, which joined us during the first days of our trip.

At RS-Watanabe we got gifted with a nice bag that also included a lovely box with their iconic Watanabe 8-spoke wheel as a miniature keychain version. Lovely!

From Morita-san i was gifted the lovely pin in exchange for a document I gave him and from Jeff we got gifted some ZCon keychains and a group Z sports car club Bolt tray.

The bolt-tray went directly on my car lift:

Then we also got gifted a set of reproduction rubber plugs for the drum brake drums from a good friend and Endo-san handed out NOS spare bulbs in original packing, which will be excellent to put in the glovebox :-)

In a local toy-store we found a box full of mini 240Z's for 90 cents a piece, so I got a bunch of them as a gift for customers :-)

From one of the Japanese participants of the show, we got gifted these lovely 70ties scanned magazine covers from two Japanese 1971 "Autosport Young" magazines, which assemble to a nice poster when you put them together. Aside from the naked lady, you see all the Nissan Fairlady Z Works race drivers in front of one oft their racing cars.

I framed it and hung it in a nice place in the garage:

We also got gifted some copies of hand made sketches by Tamura-san, one of the original designers of the S30 car, plus a nice photo from a LHD prototype car:

Then I also got this. I understood that this is some kind of rating chart and something very special, somehow linked to Sumo battling, but still have to find out what exactly it means.

Another cool thing was this S30.world Japan expedition Lego kit:

Which, when you assemble it, turns into an S30 under a Japanese Torii gate with the S30.world logo on it:

I was lucky my suitcase didn't burst. I would have loved to buy more stuff, there was definitely no more room for that, and that's fine for my wallet too :-)
Expect more updates from our Japan trip soon!

I've been traveling a lot recently, and been dealing with life, but I still managed to collect some cool stuff:

I got hands on this cool vintage NISMO enamel sign from Japan:

And this cool Poster, which shows a works GTS-II race car. The seller says he got it from a racing shop called Iwashita racing in Shizuoka, many years ago. According to Alan, it shows SCCN works car from the first round of 1972 Fuji Grand champion series on the 20th of March, with driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino.

I also found this Dutch 1971 Datsun Advertising magazine.

Usually I don't collect documents from other countries (there's just too many), but this one is special, because it shows an EU-spec prototype car. If you look closely, you will see the Fender-top mounted blinker / turn signals and the Rob Janssen homemade front spoiler, which led to the development of the OEM front spoiler for European cars by Nissan.

Then I got a reproduction of the MK-1520 ZC car radio manual and a correct Swiss 1972 service / Warranty booklet for my car.

After a bit of a search, I also managed to get this cool Nissan Oil Can:

With the Elephant oil logo from the 240Z oil filler cap:

I also got gifted a Center cap from a friend. Not the correct one for my car, but who am I to turn down freebies?


I also found a set of NOS OEM FS5C71A transmission "monkey motion" shifter bushings. The original ones of mine were worn out, and I had them replaced with some red aftermarket ones, but these will definitely look better.

Then I'm constantly on the hunt for the missing tools of the Datsun / Nissan tool boards, which I acquired recently. Luckily they pop up sometimes, and recently I got a bunch of missing ones:

There are still quite a few missing, but 2/5 tool boards are complete now, and the remaining ones are filling up quickly.


I'm currently awaiting more deliveries, so expect another update soon. Oh, You may have noticed that I've also reorganized my workshop and garage a bit for better usage of space.

13 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

If you follow me on social Media, you might have noticed that I spent the last 10 days in Japan with my fellow S30.world friends for a very special once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'll post multiple detailed stories on this website soon, but I still need to process it all in my brain and go through thousands of photos. What I can show you already is what I brought home from Japan, aside from all the business-cars and fresh S30.world clothing (not pictured):

First, a set of Papers with the "Nissan logo": Those are the ones that Nissan dealers usually put in new cars to protect the carpets. We had them at our Car show in Japan to protect the floor from tire-marks. As we had a lot of them leftover in the end, I thought i stuff two in my suitcase :-)

I also got various stickers. From the old NISMO logo stickers, which I bought in the Nissan HQ Gallery in Yokohama, to a handwritten Kanji-version of my name, to various stickers of the event, and a sticker that me a local Honda dealer gave when we checked out their cars.

Some went of course directly onto my new "Hall of Fame":

I was also very fortunately to buy one of the very last RS-Mach "Ura Mach" steering wheel from the maker himself. I have planned a detailed story on this blog about the Mach steering wheels, so stay tuned, if you want to know more. He sold all the remaining ones he had on this very day and doesn't plan to make new ones.

I also came home with a lot of Magazines and catalogues. From the Protec catalogue to the Nostalgic hero (showcasing the new NISMO DOHC head, which we would be able to check out the next day), to the nice Motorfan Fairlady special edition which I was gifted by Endo-San, To the new Motor magazine 70th anniversary edition by Editor Morita-san, which joined us during the first days of our trip.

At RS-Watanabe we got gifted with a nice bag that also included a lovely box with their iconic Watanabe 8-spoke wheel as a miniature keychain version. Lovely!

From Morita-san i was gifted the lovely pin in exchange for a document I gave him and from Jeff we got gifted some ZCon keychains and a group Z sports car club Bolt tray.

The bolt-tray went directly on my car lift:

Then we also got gifted a set of reproduction rubber plugs for the drum brake drums from a good friend and Endo-san handed out NOS spare bulbs in original packing, which will be excellent to put in the glovebox :-)

In a local toy-store we found a box full of mini 240Z's for 90 cents a piece, so I got a bunch of them as a gift for customers :-)

From one of the Japanese participants of the show, we got gifted these lovely 70ties scanned magazine covers from two Japanese 1971 "Autosport Young" magazines, which assemble to a nice poster when you put them together. Aside from the naked lady, you see all the Nissan Fairlady Z Works race drivers in front of one oft their racing cars.

I framed it and hung it in a nice place in the garage:

We also got gifted some copies of hand made sketches by Tamura-san, one of the original designers of the S30 car, plus a nice photo from a LHD prototype car:

Then I also got this. I understood that this is some kind of rating chart and something very special, somehow linked to Sumo battling, but still have to find out what exactly it means.

Another cool thing was this S30.world Japan expedition Lego kit:

Which, when you assemble it, turns into an S30 under a Japanese Torii gate with the S30.world logo on it:

I was lucky my suitcase didn't burst. I would have loved to buy more stuff, there was definitely no more room for that, and that's fine for my wallet too :-)
Expect more updates from our Japan trip soon!

I am glad that you enjoyed the trip in Japan. I didn’t know you took the Nissan paper to your home! I could give you 10 more papers. Every time I bring my cars to Nissan they put the paper on the driver seat floor. The paper is durable and good for oil drops, water etc.

I visited your own website, the articles of the trip is so nice! It brings back so many good memories of our S30.world Japan Expedition.

Kats

On 10/5/2025 at 9:41 PM, JDMjunkies.ch said:

Recently, I was able to obtain something rare, which I've been searching for five years, or so now. But let's start in the beginning. In 1937, Nissan registered a daughter-company called "Nissan Auto Sales Co. Ltd." as a sales division spin-off. In 1957, the same company registered the "NISSALCO" trademark, with the aim to develop and produce service tools for Nissan factories and workshops. They produced all kind of mechanical and electronic testers but also accessory parts for Nissan Car owners. Here is a picture from the Nissan Cherry assembly line, with a NISSALCO sign above every test bench:

Today, the company is still existing, but under the "ALTIA" Name. In the early 70ies, they developed a Special service tool box for the Datsun 240Z sports. ST0929-0000. And yesterday, I finally got one, after many years of searching for it.

The toolbox comes with a selection of Special tools for the 240Z. And this box came with a lot of extra tools inside.

You can lift out the upper case, and then you have access to the lower level. Mine included also the Booklet that comes with it.


So first, I had to get all the parts out and go through them. 


Luckily, i collected some of the Datsun / Nissan / Kent-Moore Special tools books over the years. 

And the box (even though without any part number or information) and some of the tools are also listed in the US-service manual:

Sadly, I quickly realized that my purchase came with a lot of additional tools which do not exactly belong to the S30, but random Datsun's, and some original tools from the box are missing. It seems that the previous owner also recreated some missing tools.

Overall, it's still a good starting point. After cleaning the box out, hammering the metal straight and fixing the locks. it started to look good.

I wanted to keep the patina, but still clean up all the parts. so i gave them a quick wash in the parts cleaner:

And then put the original parts back in:

Assembled (some tools are not correct):

And closed:

The set also included this nice Nissan wooden tool box, with the lovely lock:

I still have to figure out yet what this is used for, but i just love the looks of it:


I'm also working on to restore the original manual that came with it:

But it appears that the last few pages are missing and the back cover. But still better than nothing. It also has a very strange format, where each page is only printed on one side and then folded to have a print on both sides, which is a bit weird.

That's it for now. I will try to keep finding the missing tools and pages. If you know something, I'm happy to hear from you. Expect some more tools related stuff in the coming days, but i also hope to work on the car itself again, in the next days. Stay tuned!

Wonderful stuff you have obtained, I envy you! In addition I have never seen tools boards, wall mounted tools are so cool.

Thank you for your gift “tools manual” which is replicated nicely, I think I have the lost pages in digital format when one of my friend on facebook kindly gave me. So we can share it.

Kats

52 minutes ago, kats said:

Wonderful stuff you have obtained, I envy you! In addition I have never seen tools boards, wall mounted tools are so cool.

Thank you for your gift “tools manual” which is replicated nicely, I think I have the lost pages in digital format when one of my friend on facebook kindly gave me. So we can share it.

Kats

I'm happy I could gift you a copy of this manual, for all the effort you put into the whole Event.
If you have the missing pages, you can maybe email them to me and I can try to complete the book with the missing pages for you and me. That would be great. Or to just have them digitally would be nice too.
Thank you for your support too and for all the good memories made in Japan :-)

Yesterday, the postman delivered a big package from Japan again. This time with a load of cool documents.

The first one (Bottom right) is the Race and Rally preparation manual. I bought this one for a friend, since I already own one. But it's always cool to see those.

The second one is a combined S30S(A) / GS30S(A) brochure for the standard Fairlady Z / Z-L and the 2by2 versions. See also Color samples at the bottom right:


For whatever reason, one of the Japanese lots included a US-Market 240Z Brochure. Not something I would usually buy, but since I didn't have it in printed form yet it's cool to have it anyway.

From the Japanese market again, I got this Fairaldy Z / 240 Operation manual, which also includes the Z432 versions. These are particularly useful to find some details of the interior for my knowledge posts. 

This is the later version that also covers the ZG and other HS30 variants (the early versions only covered the Z / Z-L and Z432):

Then I got two of the Japanese marked fold-out Fairlady Z sales brochures. It's basically a brochure on one side and a ZG Poster on the other side. I was buying one, when a second one was included in a Lot of documents.

Once I got them, i realized that i already had one, So now i end up with three. But, I intend to frame one as a Poster and I realized that there are different versions. Both the Material (paper-weight) and print is different:

For me no doubt the coolest item is this Nissan Racing school brochure:

With the Checkman Sponsored GTS-II Works car on the back. Especially this version of the car with the "Batmobile" rear aero. I just love everything about it. The sponsoring, the aero, the livery.

Another Magazine was the "Nissan Graph" Customer magazine from April 1985. Which also included some racing school details. I'm working on a knowledge post about this, that's why I started to collect some information about it.  

One general 1971 Japanese Nissan brochures also included the ZG:

And the general lineup on the inside. I guess this magazine was issued at a Car show in 1971 or at the dealerships?

It also included some cool drawings of the 216X Concept car:

Another similar brochure (without date) from Nissan Tokyo, which again shows the ZG and some other nice cars:


On the inside you find the lineup from that time, but with a regular Fairlady Z and Z-L shown.

Another cool book is the J's Tipo Fairlady Z Archives (002).

J's Tipo is a Japanese car magazine, and this book is basically a collection of all their Fairlady Z related stories from various years, compiled in one book.

After I met Morita san, the Author of the Fairlady Z Story and History books, in Japan recently, I had to get "Volume 2" of the book. I've owned Vol 1 for a long time, but never the second one, since it wasn't so relevant for the S30. But now I had to get it :-)

Then i also got this Jack and tool stowage reproduction Sticker from Germany.

I had this Genuine Datsun Parts sticker for a long while and always wondered how I can present it. When I found this piece of Aluminum sheet, I got the idea to make a sign out of it.

So I cut the aluminum. 

And then put the sticker on it.

So I ended up with this cool sign. 

And found a good little Spot for it:

I also found a nice place for the NISMO sign, but it looks a bit small on this big wall, next to the huge Datsun sign.

I have some projects planned for the next week and hope I can get back working on the car itself, so stay tuned for some updates, soon.

I have been doing loads of small things over the Christmas holidays, and also got many deliveries of recently acquired stuff. Let's take a closer look at what happened in the past few days.
First, I got various deliveries of Books from Japan fore some nice holiday-season reads:

But then I thought i should better do some actual work on the car. So I installed the passenger seat:

It's actually the first time I can sit inside the car since 12 years or so.

The reason I installed this car, was to figure out which route to go with the seats (OEM or aftermarket) and find a suitable solution for installing my Autolook seats into the car.

So I have ordered some parts and hope to do some final trials in a few weeks, when the parts arrive. Speaking of Autolook, I got various small deliveries of random cool stuff which I bought recently...

One of them being an Autolook sticker set, including two of the original Aluminum plate reproduction stickers that go on the back of the seats.

Then I also got this 1982 Nissan Motor Co / Datsun Suisse SA Image brochure, which is quite cool.

It has loads of interesting pictures and information about how they operated back then and I have used many photos from this brochure for my History post about Datsun Switzerland. So far I only had this brochure as a Scan from a friend, but after a few years of searching, I finally found an original Printed one.


Some random Datsun (Switzerland) and Safary Rally Stickers:


And various Datsun Spare-parts stickers. The left one is a Swiss one (German and French) while the other ones are international ones. I like the evolution of the "Spare parts dog". If you look closely you can see how the names slowly transitioned from Datsun to Nissan from left to right. (Cap and pants of the dog, and the Logo on the Sticker)

Speaking of cool Parts. My man Stefan found a NOS hood release cable mechanism.

And gave it to me. Very nice find:

And then some work again:

 decided to install all the heater / Blower components.

The reason was that I wanted to install the original Rally clock oscillator box:

On JDM RHD cars there are two factory installation points in the passenger side of the fire-wall. Thanks to Alan for giving me the reference photos:


I wanted to install / mirror it in the same position on my LHD car, but wanted to ensure that it actually fits there, when everything is installed. Which it does:

So, I got my holes drilled. (Ignore the shady primer-work...)

And got the box fitted. Nuts will go on the other side (not where marked). It will look straight when the insulation is in place.

This is the position in the rear, just behind the battery tray. I will ensure that the body shop will weld proper nuts in place. Also, ignore that third hole (I believe some previous owner drilled that hole to install some aftermarket Audio gear).

And then, I got some parts again: A set of Fuel tank straps by Revive Jalopy, including the J-hooks. I prefer the ones from S30.world, as they come with the complete installation hardware and rubber insulators, but they're out of stock, currently, but should be in stock back again, soon.  

And just to end the old year, I found another one of these missing tools for my Datsun tool boards.

That's it for 2025. I have recently bought some rare and cool stuff in Japan, and I'm planning my next steps of the build, and hope to be able to have good progress in the coming weeks.

Recently, I saw an ad for some Datsun NOS parts for sale. The photos didn't really reveal a lot, but the lot appeared to have some good stuff included, and the price was fair. It was an 8-hour round-trip away, though. After talking to the seller a bit, I somehow felt the urge for a little road trip to collect that stuff, so we agreed on a date. Unfortunately, we had heavy snowfall in the blackforest:

After I made it across the snowy hills, the highways weren't any better either. 

Luckily, the weather changed after 2 hours and I eventually made it to the owner. A collector of various Toyotas, as he told me.  He bought a Lot of Toyota parts, and the Datsun Parts were included. So he wanted to get rid of them quickly. Good for me.

After an hour or so, my car was loaded to the brim with dusty and dirty old panels and various stuff. Luckily, we found even way more stuff than originally advertised.

Luckily, the way home was much better, so once at home I laid out everything to see what i got.

Most is NOS (new-old-stock) Datsun / Nissan stuff, still with all original Packing, Number-stamps or labels on it. Which makes it easier to identify the parts.

It included various Emblems.


Hubcaps, panels, lights, door hinges and whatnot.

Even a few NOS gauges and some random stuff.

Heater cables, etc.

After sorting through the stuff quickly, i managed to find some nice and cool Z-stuff.

A quick de-dusting makes a huge difference. Now, before you ask: Nothing is for sale here. I'll keep the Z-parts for my own project and I have an agreement with my friend, who takes all the other parts, so please don't ask.

I've been collecting stuff again. But this time there are some more exclusive items than usual:

First, a French "Sport-Auto" magazine. I usually don't buy random magazines with Z-reports inside. But this one features a quite special car. Not the original Fender Top mounted turn signals. It appears to be a car with quite an interesting mix of parts. and I will definitely have to look at this one closer. Maybe it will also end up in my Knowledge-post about the Development of the European spec cars. It could be one of those rare early prototypes, seen here.

Then, I got a Japanese Fairlady Z parts manual, which includes the PS30 Z432. This one is for my Friend Chris, over at S30.world who is currently restoring not one, but two original Z432's.

The NISMO catalogues proved to be an absolute gold-mine of information. I have a few of those, but this one has specifically a lot of information, which fills a few gaps in my library. I will use it to update some of my existing knowledge posts.

I also found an 1973 UK Color sample chart, which includes the 260Z and the 2+2 version. I've uploaded it to this site, where you can download dozens of high-resolution scanned original Datsun / Nissan Color and fabric sample charts.

I also got a bunch of Nostalgic Hero magazines. This includes the one issue where our S30.world trip to Japan is shown including yours, truly:

That specific issue also includes a nice calendar for 2026. I need to find a good spot for it:

And now some parts. That Datsun NOS parts lot, which I've bought recently, had some good parts inside. Including a complete tool set, and some other useful stuff. The most valuable being the NOS inner wheel arches and that 260Z front bumper extension thingy.

Then I found this Datsun competition / Nissan sports option aka NISMO intake manifold for the 44mm triple Mikunis:

The price was too good to not get it, and It looks way more OEM than the flashy FET one which I have. This one is a later generation version, which had these additional “Bumps” or “Bosses” cast onto each pipe, which were meant to be ready to cut threads into, to accept air injection pipes (anti-pollution measures) which were a legal requirement should the manifold be used on the street, although they were seldom used in practice. Here is another picture from a  Japanese Carboy L-gata special:

Speaking of sports option parts: I also found a nice set of replacement gaskets for the MK63 brakes, which will be useful when I'm finishing them:

Then I came across this nicely replated heater control box. The price seemed fair, so I got it. And it came with this cool sticker, which I've never seen before:      

Here is a comparison of the replated one vs the dirty one from one of my original heater panels:

That's it for now. I expect another very cool delivery tomorrow, I'm already collecting new stuff, and I'm desperately waiting for some items to arrive so I can proceed working on the actual car. And then I'm also working on one or another project on my EK9. Stay toned for more updates very soon.

As somebody who used to develop test equipment and test procedures as a profession, I just love special tools and equipment and when they're for one of my cars, I always collect them.
Recently, my mate Florian found a pretty much complete set of an STE "Synchrometer" for Nissan / Datsun SU (Hitachi) Carbs.

STE stands for Shleyer Test equiipment and is a german Company who used to make those, in what to appears some kind of Partnership with Datsun / Nissan Germany back in the day. The company still exists, but only seem to sell their Standard product now.

The tools come in a nice wooden box with a variety of different adapters for multiple cars
 

And a set of adjustment tools in a littl epouuch including instructions.

It looks like STE made a wide range of sets and adapters for various cars.


But this set is specifically put together for Datsun cars, which you can see by the included manuals by STE specifically for Datsun cars.
The second set of document sincluded is (what I think is) a Datsun / Nissan Germany Service journal, which explains how to test / set the carbs using that STE Synchrometer set.

Overall, maybe not a tool I will use very often (Especially, since I plan to use triple Mikunis), but nonetheless a very cool piece of german Datsun history, and given the condition it has, also a nice piece for my display of rare and cool Datsun / Nissan tools.

Time for another update: After some weeks of waiting, finally the Bride MO seat rails arrived.

After studying various solutions, and by wanting to keep it Japanese, I ended up with the bride MO type rails:

A first check to see if they fit in the car, showed it all works well:

Next step: Fit them to the seats: I used some existing holes, but need to drill a few new ones. So this is all just a quick mockup to see if it all fits:

First result looks good. One problem I noticed is that the door handle will touch the seat so it needs to go slightly higher up. A second problem is the angle, so I need to tilt it slightly forward, by using the OEM plastic spacers.

Overall i'm quite satisfied with the look and feel of it all. It's still adjustable. Doesn't look like too much of a hack-job, seems safe and all quality components used. This will do for now.


I have purchased some very cool stuff recently, which should arrive here in the coming weeks, so stay ready for updates.

It's the time of the year when people clean out their basements - and that means shopping time for me.
The first thing I found was a huge Datsun Dealer sign in very good condition. It's a Double-sided FL-tube sign which the previous owners got in the barn when they bought their house. And it has since then been there, until they decided to sell it, recently.

It's in very good condition but got a bit of dirt inside. Time for a little side-project:


Dismantled it all:

Cleaned everything without getting rid of the patina:

And got rid of the old electronics, which were in a very questionable and unsafe state. And very energy-consuming, by today's standards. I've ordered everything for an inverterless LED Tube retrofit, similar to my last signs. Once the material is here, I'll complete it and update you again, here.

I've recently become a bit obsessed with Kobe Steel. I've known them for long as the company who made the Mag wheels for the Nissan Rally cars, but recently I dug a bit deeper in their history (More about that, soon).
When suddenly this set Of Kobe Magnesium wheels popped up for a fair price, I couldn't resesist. Note: These wheels have notthing to do with the S30, but I still had to have them :-)
According to a previous owner, they actually made them in both colors, or changed the color during the production period. that's why they're mismatched:

Those are proper magnesium wheels. Super light and cool design.

And the best part is that they're all complete with the beautiful center caps, valves, etc.

And last but not least, an S20 Valve cover. Sort of. This is actually a Japanese-made FRP replica. I always wanted to have an S20 valve cover for wall decoration, but they're quite expensive and somehow too rare to "steal" them from the S20 owners community. I prefer to see them in real cars. But when this one was for sale for a nice price, I had to get it. Looks quite good, if you ask me. The seller said it's the last one he made, so I was very lucky. I think the white areas can use a little touch-up, as the paint was not sanded down very nicely or the masking tape not applied properly, but this is an easy fix.


This is the back side:

I remember seeing some very similar ones on the Wall during our Visit at Protec Japan, But it might be something else.

Anyway, I couldn't wait and immediately had to put it on my "wall of fame" - and I think it looks lovely! Also bought a few wheel-stands to display the Mag wheel on the bottom:

That's not it, yet. I stepped into a gold-mine of cool documents recently, which I hope will arrive here in the coming 1-2 weeks. I'll keep you updated.