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“We got to run on heavy, heavy fuel…” The gas tank is in, the vapor tank is in, all the fuel lines are clamped down, the filler neck and cap are in, the pump and sending unit are wired up, and the system is closed from the hard lines back. I got hung up because I forgot to refurbish the straps, so that knocked a day out while paint dried. I also never found the right filter bracket, so I picked up a shiny new one for a Suzuki outboard motor that holds the OEM Nissan filter perfectly. The only things I’m a little unsure about are the straps being less tight than before because the stainless Z Car Garage hooks don’t tighten as far as the OEM ones, and not having rubber boots on the sending unit wires. The plastic connectors don’t cover the nail terminals as well as I expected so I may need to make them more weather proof. No, I didn’t go with e85+ hoses. I struggled to find the right sizes in lengths shorter than 50 feet and got tired of holding up the project, so old school FTW. I did use modern stainless steel strap clamps, though, because I’ve read they provide a better seal than those OEM Nissan wire clamps. All the braided hoses came from JBugs California Pacific and are metric. The 12mm hose was the only troublesome one because the metal tubes want something more like 13 to 15 mm, but the 5, 7, 9, and 17 were perfect. The vapor tank hose with the shepherd’s hook bend you can still buy is 12mm also, so I guess we just have to struggle with that. So yeah, I can technically put gas in the car now. ⛽️

A while ago i finally saw something for sale which i've been searching for years. And even in Photo form i have only ever seen two of those. The only problem - it is a 6 hour drive away. Well today i spent more or less the whole day driving to middle of germany and back to pick this up: The thing i bought was the Datsun workshop tools from the mid 70ties. It's quite an interesting setup. It's basically a printed foil by a company called "Genku" on a Perforated sheet metal plate. It seems that you could probably buy the foil with the tools as a kit, but you had to put it somewhere yourself, because the foil and the sheet metal don't align 100%. The tools are diveded in 4 sections (from left to right): Motor, Front axle, Rear Axle and Drivetrain. Anyway it was mostly complete with a few bits missing. and then plenty of nice extra tools (Valve spring tool?!) which i didn't have yet and will come in handy. The tools are not all exclusively for the Z but some are. It came from this little former 70ies Datsun Workshop, but the other (the dad of the seller) decided to switch to motorcycle and bicycle repairs in the early 80ies, because he couldn't fulfil the showroom demands from the car companies. Since then the tool wall hung mostly untouched on the same wall. The tools however are labelled with "Kent-Moore" but have the original Datsun part numbers on it. Every tool also has such a kind of sticker on it from the original purchase (Similar to datsun / Nissan spare parts back then): Funny enough i got a "Kent-moore" Datgsun special service tools book / Catalogue a while ago, and i also own the original Datsun / Nissan tool catalogue. so i will definitly do a bit of page-flipping to find out exactly which cars and work each tool is intended for. To my surpries the seller also found a pair of very cool, (child sized) datsun workshop jackets in an old workshop locker, which he gifted to me. These are so rare and almost unused condition, of course i gave him some extra money for those. My guess is That the Owner got those for his kids to "help" him in the workshop. That used to be a pretty common practice, before parents got overprotective and started to keep kids away from all the fun (and danger) of a workshop. At the end he also pulled out a box of random Castrol 70ies / 80ies PR-stuff like stickers and oil-change tags. so if course i grabbed a few. The seller was a bit sad to see his childhood and his dads (who passed a way a while ago) life being sold, but i promised to give it a good home, take care nicely and send him some updates when it's all at it's new place in my garage. That seemed to make him happy and me too. I will definitely try to find the perfect spot for it in my garage or workshop in the coming weeks. I love to meet these kind of people, the stories behind the stuff they have and why they sell it. it makes a 6 hour car drive to pick up some tools worth it even more. Stay tuned. I have plans to pick up another bunch of parts tomorrow after work 🙂

Whenever I see pics like these and others far worse I am reminded of how fortunate I've been to have a salt-free, garage-kept car all these years. The only rust on my car was some surface rust on the interior floor courtesy of the dealer-installed A/C unit. I am in awe of the skills and knowledge I see in making repairs like this.

This is the easiest way I've found to get an idea if the floats are off. Small clear hose from hardware store is all you need.

I started digging into the rust this week, j

That's good progress!

Good one Site! Didn't know that title but the number i know very well, i listened till the end! Much better than all the sh*t they (almost everyone else) are making lately hahaha...

Beautiful Work there friend!!

Messing around with your Z, you have to... ...or you'll loose something important.

If they still made affordable cars that are fun to drive (Miata for example), young people would learn to drive well and love it. Sadly, our oldest son and our daughter both started with a Camry and a Corolla. They still drive boring cars. The good news? I came to my senses and started our youngest son with an 81 RX7. He likes fun, fast, small cars to this day, and loves to drive.

Unfortunately, this is the future I think we are heading towards. To that I say they will have to pry my steering wheel out of my cold, dead hands. I enjoy driving, even in traffic, far too much to give it up, much less to an automated machine. It's only a matter of time before they become self aware and determine our fate in a microsecond. Of course, I also hate the digital dashboards, touchscreens, and all the driving nannies that most modern cars come with now. I guess I'm getting old. But, I am likely in the shrinking minority. I think my wife and daughter would welcome being chauffeured around by AI, I'm holding out hope that my son inherited the driving pleasure gene from me. That's what I got my 280Z for, to pass on my knowledge and passions to him.

"Proceed with caution", "Full speed ahead!", and "To infinity and beyond!" all work as you tap the proceed button on the app screen. 😄

Hihi.. What does one say when you want the car to continue? Engage? (Captain Picard!) 🤣