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A good friend of mine just recently sent me this photo and said i need to visit him ASAP, he got hands on some cool stuff. Who i am to turn such an offer down? Especially the boxes, martketing material and stuff made me a bit curious. it's not usually stuff to be found at dealerships or at collectors, but only at the Import Company Datsun Suisse SA, back in the days. And that's exactly where these parts come from. A former employee of DSSA took home random stuff which they wanted to scrap at some point, due to lack of space or some other cleanup. He stored the parts for many years, before putting them up for sale. A dealership at the other end of switzerland bought them and now they put this up for sale too. That's where my buddy Jumped in and made sure it ends up in good hands. It's pretty random stuff with many boxes of documents, a lot from the 80ies sadly, but also some really rare stuff.. There were also plenty of parts, but mainly for the Patrol car and some various less sporty Datsuns from back in the days. (Micra K10 anyone?). I helped unload a bit of the stuff, pre-sort some things and went through all the boxes. I was able to get some of the documents, but there were unfortunately no big Z-parts to take home. Nevertheless. i ended up with quite the lot of random datsun and Z documents: The lot also included a set of Triple Webers which datsun switerland used to test, including the test reports. I will tell you more about this pretty cool story in the coming days. My friend will keep this for himself as it's understandable One-off piece of swiss datsun history. But as i said, it consisted of mainly documents. Many of them not being very rare. But then again things like a NOS E88 head, NOS propeller shafts, or how about a complete NOS Datsun Cherry A12 Engine GT Racing kit? Speaking of cherry, the Lot also included multiple packs of Cherry advertizing stickers, straight from Japan: Loads of Posters and Training charts. Unfortunately mainly for boring cars. Please ignore the grilles in the background, they were not part of the lot and belong to my friend) And then some probably very rare Nissan Motor Co advertizing and training movies on 16mm FIlm: One from the 1972 East African Safari rallye: Or one from the 1969 Japan Grand prix race. We're currently trying to figure out of they're still usable and how we can digitalize them. Some of the roles had pretty cryptical names like "Group AZ" or something. I hope we can rescue them. If not the boxes themselves make a beautiful decoration. At the end, this is what i got home with me yesterday. That includes a set of nice original Datsun sales bags and spare parts wrapping: I like it so much, i will frame it an dhang it on the wall. A set of absolutely mint swiss (german / french) Datsun Z and ZX series operating manuals (including the correct 1972 one for my car!) Some sales brochures and price lists of the Z and ZX series A load of empty Datsun folders, which i like to put my Documents inside (already have plenty, but you never can have enough of those :-P) Also a NOS oil filter removal special tool and some small items (not part of the lot, but took them with me anyway :-P) A special yellow Datsun "advertizing" folder, which i've never seen before (empty) and a Datsun / Nissan special tool overview folder: Now this is the rare stuff: Documents used internally at Datsun Suisse SA to make notes, approve modifications on the car, to send with documents, or to make notes after the car returns from a repair: Also various unused workshop documents like the warranty claim form, Repair log pages, and carts as well as a specs-and-data booklet. On one of the boxes i also found s sticker of the shipping company, who was most probably given the task to import the spare parts from japan: The set also included a few factory Dias from the 240Z, and some customer photos of tuned Z's and ZX's: Also included were some newspaper cutouts and reviews from magazines from back in the day: Some cool manuals, which i so far only had in digital form (AUtomatic transmission in french, the S30 Heater manual and the American Competition parts catalogue): Also included was a complete folder full of original homologation specification sheets, used to get the cars homologated in switzerland! You still can find a copy of those in every registry in switzerland: This one is also nice: A users folder including service folder, the sticker that came with every new car, a three-year warranty card and the exhaust emission document: Then a few cool Nissan / Datsun documents, like letter drafts, or management training manuals, some shareholder documentatipmn, and a cool manual on how to use the digital satellite parts ordering system, if i got that right: The lot also included a set of Datsun 240Z information (mainly copies from the FSM, but still have to check it in detail), and a nice advertizing flyer template, which the Z on it: I still have to check them all out in detail and will post more in the coming days. Nothing crazy at the end of the day, but then again all those small, rare items, so i'm very happy at the end. great stuff. This will also allow me to update a few details in the Big Datsun Switzerland (Hi)story post. There was also a discussion about some bigger parts lots which still need to be picked up, so i hope i can help there too. even though it's more fun than work. Stay tuned...

Passenger side was a bit more interesting. The Z had a dealer installed AC system which was poorly done with holes cut into the firewall to route lines. I’ll be installing AC again in the car, but in a different manner. There was also some corrosion where the RH floor met the bottom of the firewall, below the battery tray. Rather than patch the holes from the AC and the rust, I opted to replace the whole section of firewall. I’ll also route the electrical elsewhere so this new panel will give me a clean start. Found these panel clamps at Harbor Freight. They’re great!

Pacing myself and double checking measurements, the drivers floor board was a straightforward job. First removing the frame rail and then drilling out the seat bracket spot welds. This allowed me to use them as temporary locating features for placing the new floor. Once the panel fit the body correctly, we then removed the seat reinforcement brackets and staged the floor for welding didn’t grab a picture of the drivers side, but the factory frame rail was first welded down before installing the Bad Dog reinforcement rails. In theory you could install only the Bad Dog rails, but I couldn’t get a good fit and finish with them alone.

The auto parts store refrigerant cans are a gamble. I'd take it to a pro. Or at least buy the proper gauges, high side and low side so you know what's what. https://www.amazon.com/Orion-Motor-Tech-Conditioning-Maintenance/dp/B08V5JWJSB/

Passenger floor and frame rail final fitment before welding in. I’ve yet to use one of these Klassic Fab panels that wasn’t a top notch piece. Now the Bad Dog parts, that’s a different story. The rails and extensions needed a lot of work to get them to fit. So much so I feel making my own would have been easier. Was really surprised how bad they were (no pun intended). You can see above how off they were from the rear floor supports. This was the best fitting part of the set. Fortunately I was able to salvage them and wrap up the floor pan job.

After blasting the shell and bits were sealed up with a DTM primer in preparation for metal work/panel replacement. First area to address were the floors. Drivers floor showed little corrosion, but a good amount of damage. Passenger had both unfortunately. To fix this I ordered the complete floors from Klassic Fab JDM as well as the Bad Dog rails and extensions. Figured these would be a good improvement over the stock rails, especially when we throw a bit of horsepower at the car.

Figured I'd post up another build thread we've been working on for some time now, if anything for the entertainment of others to view. This is my personal Z I've had for some time now. Was actually in the process of tearing it down when a Series-1 came up for sale locally, temporarily putting the project on hold. If you're more interested in a completely bone stock resto you can hop over to that build thread here: Restoration of HLS30-12070 Back on the current build and some history on the car. It’s a late '72 build that had been sitting since '86 in dry storage when I bought it. 51K on the clock, few bumps and bruises but a very solid and complete car to work with. We did the typical work to get it road worthy again - brakes, suspension, fuel system, etc. Overall not a great deal of effort to get it running and driving. From there I drove it as-is for 6-7 years. Was really a great car, decently comfortable and reliable in stock form. Then I got the great idea that it was in dire need of some improvements, and the whole 'While I'm Here" mentality eventually lead me to stripping the car down to a bare shell and starting from scratch. More post to come from where the car started out to the latest progress on the project.

Laser cut, welded, powder coated and ready to install! Clocking and bend is about perfect from stock. Stoked

Love Navin! "These cans are defective"

It isn't really complicated, but some knowledge of how it works, and understanding the components is helpful in making an informed decision regarding the performance of the system.

You vented the refrigerant to the atmosphere? Watch out, the air police will get you. The system should have a specified amount of refrigerant required, the documentation that came with it should tell you how much. It can only be charged using a refrigeration machine made for automotive air conditioning systems. A vacuum must be drawn on the system, and then the correct amount of refrigerant is added. By messing with the system using the $20 refill can with a gauge you haven't fixed anything, and potentially have made things worse. The system has two ports, for each side of the loop, the high pressure side, and the low pressure side. Using a proper dual gauge setup for checking and diagnosing air conditioning systems is the only way to check system pressures. Take the car to a qualified mechanic who has the proper gauges and refrigerant recovery/charging equipment. You don't need a Z expert.

The comment "be sombody" by Navin R Johnson 😜

To each his own, I guess. It reminds me of the Excalibur from the sixties.

This just popped up on BAT. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-nissan-300zx-27/ Built on a 1985 300ZX 2+2. Who owns and drives something as gaudy as this?

Same process I used on the Silver Z, we had the entire shell dustless blasted back to bare metal. I did have them avoid the roof to prevent potential damage. Being that the quarter panels were mainly original paint, they required very little effort to blast and a low risk for damage. Doors, hood, hatch, fenders - these only received blasting on the interior surfaces and around tight areas sanding would be difficult to complete. For these exterior panel surfaces we'll take those down to metal manually.

First major milestone - strip the Z down to a bare shell and get it on the rotisserie for media blasting. Took pictures throughout so that I could use as reference and documentation. Overall pretty solid car. Didn't uncover anything major (yet) on the body during the tear down. You might pick up the group of Klassic Fab JDM replacement panels underneath the car. I'll get to those shortly.

Close…..still my favorite color @siteunseen.

Hi Wally, It looks like Maserati Compound has two ducts in stock matching the visual description. $48 each https://maseraticompound.com/search?q=240z+main+air+duct Did not see any on eBay right now. You could try calling Junkyard Jenny too. Great service and good prices. zcarcrazy702@gmail.com Good Luck Nate

And it's NLA. That's no big surprise.