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Well you never know what you might find in a Z at a wrecking yard. I found a brand new Kamei ABS front lip air dam, complete with the original documents and sticker. It attaches with a few screws to the underside of a stock valence. Good for Z's through 6/74 apparently. There is several pages of instructions and a letter from the manufacturer thanking you for purchacing their products. There is no indication of dates on the paper work, but I'm thinking late 80's early 90's? Nothing on it remotely resembling an email or web site, Anyone know more about the life cycle of Kamei? I'm no fan of this thing, just something cool I found. I suppose it's for sale. Would be a pretty big box.... Make me an offer if you just can't stand life with out it.

Updated with more testing. This pair has seals and screwed onto the headlight bucket.

Good news! Got my balancer back from Dale and it looks a lot better now. I will re-paint it blue once the engine comes back but wanted to share a picture. Dale was great to work with and the total turn around was 8 days with shipping to and from. If anyone is looking to get their stock balancer rebuilt, give Dale a call.

Ben, Nice write up on the ZG. I was there on Saturday saw the car in person as well. Besides the valid points you made on why the ZG sold for not as high as anticipated, I think the main reasons for it not selling higher was due to its condition and previous repairs done to the car. When looking through the opening of the g-nose it was apparent that the radiator support was silver. At first I thought maybe the car was originally silver and just made into a ZG clone. But after opening the hood it was obvious from the poor welds and messy application of seam sealer that the front support had been replaced. The sub-par repair also caused fitment issues between the front headlight buckets and the fenders. Both floors had been replaced with just plain sheetmetal instead of stamped repros or floorboords from a donor car. The driver-side door jamb looked to have been previously repaired, possibly due to rust. When I opened the hatch there were loose rust flakes found all over under the carpet. An electrical fuel pump that was fitted underneath by the factory mounting points was jerry-rigged to a thin sheetmetal strip one would find at Home Depot. The body had numerous dings and wavy body panels, and the paint, while it still had a shine, had many spots where it was blemished or cracked. The hood emblem was the S130 version. These issues along with others I didn't note I think caused any potential buyers present to be turned off from buying the car. I did try to ascertain if it was an authentic ZG or a clone. With the exception of the radiator support that was replaced by a silver one, everywhere I could inspect without ripping out interior panels led me to believe the car is an original GP Maroon car. I even looked under the liners in the tool bins and it looked to be the factory paint. What shocked me the most was how well this car looked in the RM Auction photos vs seeing it in person. I was expecting the car to sell higher due to online bidders registered in the auction. RM Auction worked their magic in those photos.

Quite apart from all the other issues with the car, that front license plate makes me very nervous. Hopefully it was put on to create some 'atmosphere', but it's all wrong for the car. The taxation class is wrong for a genuine ZG (it's for a car with capacity under 2000cc) and any car hailing from Sapporo needs extra scrutiny of its structural condition because more than half the year it is snowy and icy up there. There's one old car dealer in Sapporo who has a particularly bad reputation for make-do-and-mend type repairs that are covering up all sorts of nasty stuff.

Why don't you take out the lock sets and have a locksmith re-key them all to one key? Cheaper, no shipping and shouldn't be that expensive if you take it to the locksmith...

Last Sunday we fired her up! Here's the link to the completed video. If you don't have time to watch the entire video, feel free to jump to minute 3:50. I tried uploading the video here but I think it's too large of a file. I spliced and edited the video with descriptive captions to help my viewers, especially the novice DIY-ers like myself, navigate the thought process of a master mechanic as he systematically works through the process of getting an engine fired up and idled correctly. Most of you on here probably do this in your sleep, so you'll find the descriptions elementary.[emoji23] Have a great Labor Day weekend and enjoy the video! Sent from my [device_name] using http://Classic Zcar Club mobile

They ended up pulling the tire well Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

The heater core arrived from Rockauto, SPECTRA PREMIUM 94741, I'm going to try and fit it this weekend. Also finished the steering rack, new bearings, seal, cleaned and re packed it, just waiting on the second set of bellows, the first set, AC Delco 46A7010A is on Rockauto's list for rack&pinion bellows that fit a 280z, well they don't, way too big. That weird rear control arm bolt cover came back from the platers, still have no idea what purpose it serves but at least it's not rusting anymore.

Got a few updates. I sent my stock balancer to Dale Manufacturing to be rebuilt. You can find him at www.hbrepair.com. Ran me $130 plus $26 shipping for going there and coming back. Cheaper than an aftermarket unit and lets me keep the option of running A/C in the future. The Isky-2 cam is in the head and I will be ordering my lash caps as soon as I get the invoice from Precision Shims in Australia. I also tried scrubbing the engine bay some but after several rounds of just working on the inner fenders, everything still looks to be in a sad state. A lot of what I thought was dirt and dust is actually over-spray from previous owners. Part of me really wants to give this car what it deserves, strip everything out of the engine, pull all the glass, make the bodywork right, and get it re-painted. However, just not sure if that is in the cards right now. Seems it would be wrong to strip the engine bay and just paint it without making the body better. Decisions decisions.

I would say with all those issues, it did well to bring what it did

That's notin', clean that up with my toothbrush. How about this one?

I would think the screaming engine and tire noise when you drop the clutch would hide those noises! Hahahaha

Powder coat is done on the diff case and cover. Looks good sitting together! Now to complete the rebuild and reinstall the seals and gears.

7tooZ, I love Seattle. One of my favorite cities. The author Garth Stein is from there and he is an excellent writer and car enthusiast! JayHawk, those are some spectacular cars you saw. Thank you so much for sharing the photos. Like all of us here I was over the moon with the Nissan Motor Co. being the marque celebrated at the track and there are many photos and stories I want to share, but for now I will leave you with a photo of my wife and I in the 260Z. It was a parade lap, but we still got to do a bit of a shake down. My wife looked at the finish line clock and I had reached 84mph in the straight. I was having fun, but being careful. Forget about the car. My wife is my baby! The car was set up very well and I was the weakest link. Seeing my wife smiling and having fun made it all worth it. Ben

Looking forward to the finished product. I had heard through a friend that you were getting close. Do you plan on offering the hardware to attach them to the buckets?