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Cars on the ground. Fuel is in, ready to load the first run file and start the engine on Saturday! Hopefully no fireworks.

Still needs a tune and bumpers and a myriad of other things, but I started it for the first time in 6.5 years (and since the body was restored) yesterday: Before the restoration, way back in 2011: Totally rusted out pass. floor pan and rockers, mismatched tires, faded non-original color paint, etc etc. I've done everything except the actual body restoration (welding, paint, etc). All the disassembly, reconditioning of parts, reassembly, etc. It's been a LOT of work, and it's not over yet, but... I just wanted to take a short victory lap. Thanks for all the support and great advice.

Hardlines first (fuel, brakes). Engine and body electrical harness next. Then everything under the dash. Interior, I'd do everything I could with the dash out - except seats which should probably be last (or tied for last with the steering wheel). Dash is a bit easier to do while the windshield is out.

Been working hard to improve my photography skills so I shot my dad's orange Z this morning. These are my favorites. Shot with a Canon 6D.

I discovered that the fuel level sensor was leaking on the live terminal where there is insulating plastic, remember this photo? To confirm it, I hung the thing from the float over night, with the “bowl” bit filled with self penetrating oil. The next day there was ample oil on the other side to prove it’s no longer air tight. I could have repaired it with fuel resistant mastics but I started to look at the cost of a new one. Utterly HORRENDOUS prices. Over £300 for the right shaped one. Then one appeared on eBay advertised for a Datsun 510 with very similar kinks etc so I took a punt at £40! Today, this little package arrived ... Now you can see the differences below: The resistances however are virtually identical +/- 1/2 an ohm. 10.8 ohms full, 88.5 ohms empty. I was tempted to move the rod and float from one to the other but decided that as it involved cutting the squashed end and re-calibrating, I was going to have a go at bending the new one first. I straightened up the first kink on the new one, measured the length of the same king on the old one and bent it in the same place as the 260z sensor. The end result? Ignoring the parallax of the iPhone lens, it turned out utterly perfect. It even sorted out the difference in length - they are now identical in length also. I gave it a test run in the fuel tank and fortuitously, there is plenty of room in the tank for the float to sit the opposite way round to the original. The bottom of the tank is actually deeper at that point and thanks to the PO has a raised bit where the POR treatment wasn’t fully flushed out. That will give me “reserve” when the gauge is on empty. A total win!! Next up, a test on the car electrics to see it “turn up to 11” on the gauge ;).

The lighting makes a huge difference to me. Before sunrise, after sundown they look redder.

I really admire the extent to which you've persisted, not with the restoration, but the documentation thereof. I've never been able to force myself to stop working, clean my hands, find the phone, and snap a few. My hat's off to you. I especially appreciate your commitment because your car and mine are very nearly identical in condition (when you started), and this thread has already been of great assistance, though I haven't "officially " started quite yet. Saturday will be a great day.

Discount Tire Direct has good deals on Rewinds and twice a year, they also do a $100/set mail in rebate. I bought two sets of 15x7 for my race car for $360/set delivered after rebate. It looks like 16x7's are currently $520 shipped with a $50 instant savings plus a 5% mail in rebate, so somewhere around $450/set shipped. https://www.discounttiredirect.com/buy-wheels/konig-rewind I hear you on the Panasports. I think I paid $1200 for my set of 16x7's close to 15 years ago before Rewinds were available.

Big thanks to Steve for putting me on to the kit with the male & female pins I needed to adapt the new Speedhut gauges to the stock dash harness 6 & 8 pin connectors. They worked out well.

I’m running Eibach springs with Tokico blues. BTW, the Panasports are IMO “best in class”. You’ll live with your wheels for a long time. The car is a 35,000 original mile car that had zero rust, and I mean zero. My painter is an absolute perfectionist! He block sanded for over 50 hours on a car that just had minor flaws to begin with. He’s the best that I’ve seen. My Safari Gold car (Brandon shot these too) is another one of his paint works. Thanks for your comments.

Starting to put in the sound deadening which I cut from the patterns I made. First layer of sound deadening material (standard Second Skin) has been installed on the front floor sections. I did buy the 1 mm version for the floors, so that the thickness after installation of the OEM stuff over top of these pieces will be closer to original: The floor (inside) has been sandblasted, straightened and sprayed with Glasurit 801-703 chromated epoxy primer. I will be applying seam sealer to the edge of this matting (and to the seams/gaps between the individual pieces used) after I install the OEM bitumen material on top. Then I will spray with a coat or two of primer in preparation for paint which will be done by at the same time as the outside of the car (same color). Hope it looks like factory when I am done.

Love the silver. (I am partial) Great looking car Casey

Are you at stock height with the car? The ST springs I have will lower it about 1.5 inches I believe. But that is nice to know. Your pics show an incredibly nice paint job in my opinion. I hope the paint on the car I am restoring comes out that nice. I actually decided those would be the wheels I went with a while back, but I keep rethinking. Seems like a very nice wheel especially for the money: Konig Rewind Graphite 16x7 Wheel Kit, 70-85 - four wheels which come with center caps, stems and lug nuts for $474!!!! plus shipping... The Panasports cost $1300 for four plus $110 for shipping and come with center caps and lug nuts. Quite the difference. Glad I bought the Panasport C8's for my track car like 20 years ago - can't imagine what they would cost now. Don't want to jack the thread... again super pics of your Dad's car, Diseazd! Garrett

Nice pics! Nice car! Are those 16 X 7 wheels? What size tire? I was told by ZcarSource today that those wheels would likely require fender rolling. I am planning to run Suspension Techniques blue springs and didn't even begin to think Panasport 16 X 7's would rub. Appreciate any insight you can provide there.

Clever boy! What a great idea, thanks for letting us know.

Hi over here Brandon! Nice photos, and beautiful Z! Also it reminded me to swap my Z's windshield wipers, lol. I have the longer one on the driver's side at the moment...

http://www.alfaparts.net/dat280.html His Datsun panel selection is still small but he plans on offering more. Not great photos on his site but the detail looks crisper than Tabco products.

Beautiful pictures of a beautiful car. Nice job on both counts!!

Hey Guys, quick update on the reproduction rubber bushings. Heard back from my contact in Nissan USA. Bad news is that there is not a lot of information on the mustache bushing parts within the US organization because everything was produced in Japan and "sold" to the US legal entity, so limited visibility. Good news is they are following up with some contacts within Nissan Japan to track down the original supplier and minimum order quantity to reproduce. At some point, we are going to need an estimate of how many potential orders the Z community might have for these parts if they could be made available. Is there a polling option within ClassicZCars or something that we could set up to send out to the community? Was thinking we could also reach out to Courtesy to see how many requests they get for these things each year. Open to other ideas!

Simply incredible car and great photography Brandon. Now do the rest of them and a family shot with a cool background.

Interesting read, thanks for posting.

After recently removing my exhaust header I was able read the casting number on my E31 block, The casting number is located low on the left side, just back from center and in raised characters reads "0630I". Using the decoding method suggested by @katsthat would make it 50 years old today. Here is the old topic from back in 2004, where this was discussed:

As usual, stunning.

Well funny you should say that chap! The other eve I was having similar thoughts and ordered some of these for that exact reason! [emoji106][emoji106] Interestingly, I am making my own RT mount equivalent as my rubber insulator had totally failed - now that insulator is a true example of bad design working in the opposite direction. But I guess 43 years is 43 years wherever the rubber is. The point being that I bought the bushing used in the TTT mount and I find it to be rock solid. So I’ve bought more of those rubber washers above with a smaller ID to space it out with - that way I get a little bit of give for reducing high frequency noise but the solid resistance to lift of the red poly bush. Here she is, mocked up out of aluminium and masking tape ;) final version will be 3mm steel. This is definitely stronger than the giant rubber band ;) I call this the AK mount !![emoji1787]

Fantastic photos @five&dime!

Thanks Brandon! The Datsun 240Z is an incredibly beautiful automobile design and you have certainly brought that out in your pictures. The best shots of the 311 pictures you took.....nice work!!!!

He doesn't want much for it. I assume that he wants it delivered though. "I’m looking to trade for a full-dresser. Let me know what you have."

Oops. I use a big adjustable wrench, aka Crescent wrench.

Almost ready to put this stuff back in the car. . .