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Now this set of seats is available , only 12 hours left. This is Mr.Sudo’s work , I think his work is the best in the world. Not only using original materials from the manufacturer , but also his technique of sawing, shaping , creating a better support and better comfort. It is a real craftsmanship. I can say they are ‘better than new’. It is very unusual his seats are available on auction sites . Unless you find a set of super mint condition original seats , you will never wish to sell them . Mr. Sudo can do for both 1970 fat seat back with rubber-belt seat bottom and later slim seat back with spring-tension seat bottom. This set as you can see , September 1971 and later ‘slim seat back with spring-tension seat bottom . Mr. Sudo is no more making S30 seats , so , if someone want nice seats, I think it is a good buy . Paying for an original radio or an original dash are so expensive today , but how about seats ? I don’t think people care about it seriously , so the price will be seemed high at the moment. Kats

Things will get more clear when you get that used damper and test fit it. The woodruff keys are available. There is a recent thread on the forum from a guy who was having trouble getting the damper on without pushing the key out of its slot. Some good details in it, I'll see if can find it. I wonder if those seal parts that you found aren't from a previous seal. That's a 280ZX damper on a 260Z. Somebody's been in there before. Here's the part number for the woodruff key. #10. Search the part number and you'll get lots of hits. Your local auto parts store might even have it. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/engine-240z-260z/piston-crankshaft

Everything I've seen says the original 77 shift knob was the green faced one in your other post. And it's a hard rubberized plastic (maybe vinyl?), not leather. I've got one of those here and it's available. Problem is putting a price on such a thing. I've not seen one for sale in quite some time, so I'm not sure how to value it. Send me a PM if you want to talk about it. Here's your pic from your wanted thread: The original knob surface was textured to look "leather-like", but most of that texturing wore off quickly and became smooth where the knob got the most grab.

My thoughts on the knob you bought from ebay... It sure looks like a stock knob to me. What was throwing me was the shift map doesn't look green like it's supposed to. Must be a trick of the light. Looks pretty much black in the pics, but it's probably green and just taken with weird lighting. Other thought is that most of the stock knobs are stripped out in the bottom where the mounting threads are, and I suspect the one you bought is just like that... Threads all gone inside. Not an insurmountable issue, but something to watch for. At $40, a good buy. You'll have to probably fix the threads, but that's not unusual.

Story of my life. lol... Well, the whole point of this was to teach the kids some mechanical stuff, so mission accomplished!

I found the thread I was thinking of. It's actually just a portion of a longer thread. The weirdness starts at post #24.

@Captain Obvious and @Racer X I have sourced a used replacement from @Terrapin Z and will be sending it in for refurbishing. I got a strong light in there and bumped the engine around with a remote starter to inspect the end of the crankshaft and don't see anything obviously chewed up, will get in there and do a thorough cleaning/inspection before proceeding any farther. And yeah, someone has done A LOT of updating on this car in the past... The balancer is a later model, the carbs are from a 240Z, there is a five-speed transmission(!)... I wish I knew who had done all this work years ago just so I could pick their brain about what else lies in store. LOL...

Can't find it but this one is interesting -

From my (limited) research, that's a good price. Haha! I don't think I'd let mine go for that!

Actually, those two knobs do look a little different. One seems to have the "splits between segments" at 120 degrees and the other has them at 180 degrees. In other words, one of those knobs simulates two pieces of leather, and the other one simulates three pieces of leather. The one I'm familiar with has the splits at 120 degrees. Here's a hoovered pic showing a couple of the different knob offerings over the years. Not my collection, but a good pic hoovered from the web some time ago:

That looks just like the knob that my dad had in his 77 280 when I was a kid.

Couple thoughts: After watching the video, you can see that BOTH sides of the Woodruff key shot have cracked. You can see the rough grainy surface of the cast iron on both sides of the groove (or where the groove is supposed to be). One side is a huge chunk missing. Other side is a smaller piece missing. It would be important to find all the loose metal. The little rubber ring and round spring are what's left of your front oil seal when it disintegrated. So when you say "The seal itself looks fine"... That would not be the case. The little rubber ring is the sealing lip that has been sheared off, and the round spring is the garter spring that is supposed to provide the pressure on the back (wet) side of the seal. I'm coming back to thinking it was broken upon installation and has been cracked for some time. Surprised there was still enough of a seal to keep it from spraying oil out at an impressive rate, but I guess it depends on just how much oil is flinging around behind that pulley. Maybe the oil slinger was doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Woof. Last thought is about having that balancer rebuilt... I'm no expert on the topic, but I don't think you're going to find a company to fix that. The companies that rebuild those things specialize in vulcanizing rubber and balancing the result. I would not expect them to make new parts, just rejoin old parts.

The only leather on my 1977 is the shift boot lace.

I have used Damper DR in Redding Ca. They did a great job , but cost was $225 with shipping. You have to supply the damper as they mostly do American cars.

You could call Damper Dudes in Anderson, CA and see if they do Z dampers. They did a SBF one for me a couple years ago for $78 + $15 shipping. Or Damper Doctor in Redding, CA.

Beautiful, even the seat vents look authentic. Keith

Here's a video I just now shot! Also now that I have a used one on the way (thanks to @Terrapin Z!), does anybody know who rebuilds these? The only company I have seen advertise this service is Godzilla Motorworks out of Texas and they charge $350.

There is oil spray on the surface too, and most notably the out of true groove. I would venture to say that had been broken for some time while it was a runner. Hopefully mine will get him on to the next stage.

You can certainly tell those seats were assembled and re-covered by someone with excellent skills.

I bought some generic door weatherstrip from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NELWRJ4 I believe it worked well, and it installed easily. I go into more detail in my thread on waking up my 73.

Here is a close up picture showing the difference in texture and color of the old and new scuff plates. I purchased the old vinyl wrapped one in 1984 and got the newer texture painted one in 2015, neither one has been used. Another interesting fact about the early ones is that they first came with a five hole pattern, and the holes are dimpled. I still have a rough five hole one that I saved when I put on a replacement in 1984. The inner rockers on my car, both have five holes to match. For reference here is my collection. The two with pink tags have been on my 7/70 car from 1979 and 1984 respectively, until I removed them for my current restoration.

I agree about the period Japanese magazines. They are very technical and the access to major players such as Namba san and Takashi 'Waka' Wakabayashi san gave a great behind-the-scenes insight. I still think they held back on some of their activities though. Always lots of secrets! Auto Technic magazine's 'Rally & Rally' special editions were superb. See if you can seek out the 74-11 edition. The European magazines did get hold of some cars to test. Autocar magazine (UK) were allowed to borrow Rauno Aaltonen's 1970 RAC Rally car '695' after the event, and clearly it was very tired. Not surprising really. The journalists didn't seem to know too much about the spec of the car and the team probably didn't tell them much either. There are some mistakes and misapprehensions in the article. Echappement magazine (France) tested Aaltonen's 1971 Monte Carlo Rallye car '985' and it is a little light on detail and spec but has some great photos. Autorevue magazine (Holland) got hold of '988' (just after it had been used as a Recce/Fast Service chase car on the 1971 Monte) and similarly it is a little light on detail, with some nice photos. I think the team staff were playing their cards close to their chests with regard to some of the details of the cars. Perhaps understandably.

Have a source Roo, just need to get them in my hands!!

Just checking in to see if you have made any progress on this?

I currently have a '72 with build of 12/71 purchased from the original owner that has the same belts pictured. I've owned a couple of 1973 cars and they had the plastic sleeves at the base.

Prepping hardware... Will it ever end??????????? 🙂 Only a vague idea if this is good enough. Perhaps, some of it is overkill. Thanks for the guidance about prep level on the hardware. I have probably been going overkill on some. I hope I can finally send everything off in a couple of weeks. A lot of the larger stuff (wiper linkage, hard lines, etc.) is not shown here:

Like the picture in the FSM.