Hey Everyone!

I wanted to share a new microfiche/resource sharing website I've been working on. A couple years ago I bought a full set of microfiche slides for the Datsun Zs and scanned them at my local library. I wanted a more easily searchable database of parts and the ability to add things like torque specs, notes, or references. The result is at the link below! Still a work in progress as I still need to verify and clean up the information and number callouts for about 80% of the diagrams but the site is functional.

If anyone has ideas on what they'd like to see added in the future feel free to comment or send a message through the contact page!

Thanks for looking!

https://datsunresource.com/

Fantastic work @lapriser well done on taking the initiative to do this. One feature would be to write a script/algorithm to decipher the part numbers, Nissan used a code that determines the bolt type, coating, thickness, length etc. If you automatically did that for each part number it would be a great help to sourcing now obsolete parts. Here's some examples: Part code

Edited September 15Sep 15 by SpeedRoo

3 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

Fantastic work @lapriser well done on taking the initiative to do this. One feature would be to write a script/algorithm to decipher the part numbers, Nissan used a code that determines the bolt type, coating, thickness, length etc. If you automatically did that for each part number it would be a great help to sourcing now obsolete parts. Here's some examples: Part code

This is awesome! How have I never heard this before? I'll definitely be trying to incorporate this, thank you!

Great work lapraiser!!! This is very helpful!

I like the quality of the digitization.

The item number bubbles and links to that item in the list aren't correct for me though. Most of the items don't have links at all, and many of the ones that do have hot links are incorrect. I assume that feature is still in progress?

18 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

I like the quality of the digitization.

The item number bubbles and links to that item in the list aren't correct for me though. Most of the items don't have links at all, and many of the ones that do have hot links are incorrect. I assume that feature is still in progress?

Yes I still have to go through the majority of diagrams and fix bubbles and table information. Right now the only "done" category is Miscellaneous. Bubble identification was not as good as I hoped with the pdf character recognition but I wanted to make it exist and then refine and making better!

Yeah, the first bubble link I looked at converted a "17" to a "7", so the pdf recognition wasn't foolproof. No surprise, and as always, the last 10% of any project like this will take the most time. I applaud the effort.

So two additional comments... First is it would be nice to have prominent navigation buttons at the top of each screen to allow you to move right, left, up, down so you could move around just like the original films.

Second is that many of the pages are redundant. This is caused by the architecture and layout of the original films and the limited space they had on each slide for the item numbers parts breakdown info at the bottom. So they repeated the same picture with the next group of item numbers at the bottom. Since you have ALL the item numbers on ALL the pictures, they end up redundant. IMHO, I find this a little confusing. The two possible solutions that come quickly to mind are either 1) duplicate the scheme that they used on the original slides, or 2) delete the redundant slides.

Note that the second solution (deleting the redundant slides) is what the current existing on-line resource does.

3 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Yeah, the first bubble link I looked at converted a "17" to a "7", so the pdf recognition wasn't foolproof. No surprise, and as always, the last 10% of any project like this will take the most time. I applaud the effort.

So two additional comments... First is it would be nice to have prominent navigation buttons at the top of each screen to allow you to move right, left, up, down so you could move around just like the original films.

Second is that many of the pages are redundant. This is caused by the architecture and layout of the original films and the limited space they had on each slide for the item numbers parts breakdown info at the bottom. So they repeated the same picture with the next group of item numbers at the bottom. Since you have ALL the item numbers on ALL the pictures, they end up redundant. IMHO, I find this a little confusing. The two possible solutions that come quickly to mind are either 1) duplicate the scheme that they used on the original slides, or 2) delete the redundant slides.

Note that the second solution (deleting the redundant slides) is what the current existing on-line resource does.

you can check out any diagram in the "Miscellaneous" category or the engine diagram here to see an example of how the pages will look fleshed out!

https://datsunresource.com/2-8_B9_Cylinder-Block_Fitting_L24-L26/viewer

Right now there is functionality to use the arrow keys to move left and right through the diagrams. But I like the idea of displaying them as they are on the slides!

I've started culling duplicate diagrams in the L24/L26 Engine category and will be continuing removing duplicates once I make sure I've noted all the information I need on the rest. I think you're right that this last 10% is gonna take the most time and effort!

Thank you for the input!

On 9/15/2026 at 7:16 AM, SpeedRoo said:

Fantastic work @lapriser well done on taking the initiative to do this. One feature would be to write a script/algorithm to decipher the part numbers, Nissan used a code that determines the bolt type, coating, thickness, length etc. If you automatically did that for each part number it would be a great help to sourcing now obsolete parts. Here's some examples: Part code

https://datsunresource.com/2-8_B9_Cylinder-Block_Fitting_L24-L26/viewer

I was able to get the part number decoding implemented! You can see some examples on this diagram!

Hey thanks. I actually learned something and gained a resource from the "Parts Code" link. I don't understand why there are so many illustration pages for the same systems (ie: say rear suspension). For me, the service dates are very late. What is the publication date on the originals? Great effort, though. Hat's off.

On 9/17/2026 at 12:45 PM, 26th-Z said:

Hey thanks. I actually learned something and gained a resource from the "Parts Code" link. I don't understand why there are so many illustration pages for the same systems (ie: say rear suspension). For me, the service dates are very late. What is the publication date on the originals? Great effort, though. Hat's off.

This set of microfiche scans were published in '79. The reason for the duplicates is that some of the diagrams have 70-80 parts and a single page only has enough rows in the table to show 20 parts. So the diagram is duplicated in order to show all part information. I am working on condensing these into one diagram per system. Similar to the CarPartsManual site.