My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

Today marks a big milestone in my project and a big step forward. But let's start from the beginning. Over the last weeks, I was very busy cleaning parts.
From media blasting dirty bits:


And enjoying the view of the shiny freshly blasted pieces:

To recutting hundreds of threads on old OEM fasteners:

To chemically cleaning and preparing parts for replating. I'm still looking for a good plating company, but at least the parts are piling up for being replated:

Of course, the packages kept arriving, too. with various parts and documents:

And some more:


And then I got an information that my car will be picked up soon. So I realized, I need something to transport the engine safely. I quickly had an idea to repurpose an old Euro-pallette. Cut it in half and layered it:

Used an NOS oil pan to creat the cutouts for the actual engine bottom:

Testfit:

Addd some cardboard for protection and to have enough space to have the pallette-roller underneat it without touching the pan:

Done. Seems pretty safe.

And then? to assemble the car. I spent an entire satuday, to go from this:

To this:

Most things went unexpectedly smooth, and then the smaller bits took forever. For e.g. the rear bumper with the EU lower number plate lighting, which didn't fit. I realized there are many different versions and in the end, I built my own version, which I thought looked the best. It's basically a modified OEM look. still close to the original, but stlightly cooler. Oh and wherever I had them ready, I used the OEM fasteners. Unfortunately, most still need to be replated, so in some cases, I still had to use temporary fasteners, which is no big deal, given that the body goes apart, soon again.

I installed all hood, door and hatch locks without any alignment, just to keep the openings shut, during transport, but since it will go on a long journey, I decided better to be safe than sorry, and re-tightened all fasteners, and added some extra safety measures, to ensure nothing will pop open on the Autobahn. Also added some cardboard, to minimize rattling...

And then, today, a friendly transport driver showed up. We loaded the engine first  (now wrapped, to protect it from the rain): 

And then, the shell on the trolley:

And off it goes to the very capable peeople at S30.world. The plan is to work on the car for about 10 months. This will include a lot of things, but first mainly body and engine.
I will prepare a second shipment with all the smaller bits and pieces. As much as I love doing things myself. I've been working on it for more than 12 years, with minimal outcome, and lots of costs and time lost. 
I Just started a new, great job, and rather than having it sitting in my garage with slow progess for another 10 years, I decided to speed things up and giving it to some of the most talented S30 specialists.
That doesn't mean there is no work left for me. there are plenty of bits and pieces to restore. So no worries. The updates will come. Both from the guys working on the car, and from my end.
After all, I'm very excited to see the result in 2027. And I hope I can visit the car some days in between. Have a save trip, mylady: