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Got a text from our cousin who is at a local Nissan dealer said "It's here". Since the weather is clear I took mine down. Yes, I drove it! Had no trouble doing a little fishtail accelerating on the freeway on ramp.

Hitachi was the brand of the original radio in the USA, In europe we had Clarion. They only had AM in Europe. That was original for the 240z. My 280zx first edition has a mono Clarion and a stereo Hitachi cassette! It has 1 single speaker on top of the dash for the mono radio and two speakers in the back sides! So you could play them at the same time as they were completely separate units! Funny but original!

It did feel larger, but not very much. Looking at the nose to nose they are not that different on length, but the new one is higher and definitely heavier. Sitting in it kind of felt like home but it's definitely not as roomy as my 240z. The 3 gauges on the dash were left - low speed turbo, center - high speed turbo and I think the right was a clock (I didn't get that far right on the gauges). The dash is a screen that you can set up how you want it. Driving the car was night and day different from my 240Z (I do need to go through my suspension). Man, it's a goer! I would need some time to get used to it. The car was definingly silent! I killed it right off the bat. The controls are way tight. Feels like electric power steering, really touchy brakes. 1st gear seemed like it was lower than I expected it to be, but when you stomp on it in 2nd (pointed in the direction you want to go) it just GOES! It feels like it's very agile.

When I bought my orange 240 it had a Jensen cassette radio. When I got it home and went through every nook and cranny I found the OE Hitachi under the driver's seat. Oh how happy that made me. Don't throw the metal thing away in these pictures if you have one. It holds the OE radio in place.

I'm working for the best customer you can imagine, Dave just dropped off the best Xmas present I have ever received. An ESAB Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 30+ plasma cutter! This thing is such a sweet toy, I used it today to cut out the last reinforcement plate for the D/S rail. I have wanted one of these for years so it is going to get a lot of use. Repairs on the wheel well lip can be a real bugger, the quarter panel and inner wheel well liner are so close there is very little room to work with. Fortunately, the off cuts of the KFV dog leg panels came in handy as they are a good match for the lip. Both floor pans are in now, if you install the rail first you can end up with a gap under the front seat mount even though it is at the correct height. So on the D/S I installed the seat mount first but found the rail to have a big gap, had to slice the end of the rail so I could get everything to line up and then weld it back together.

Most if not all welds in these pics aren't completed yet, I'm just trying to get the bulk of the metal work done before Xmas. Filling them in and finishing will be in the next stage. The front triangular sections of the rails were pretty banged up so I hammered them back into the best shape I could and now I'm adding 2.5mm plate on the bottom to add some strength and make them into jacking points. Dave stopped by with the rebuilt brake booster, they did a beautiful job. Two full days to figure out the deck lid supports and add the new deck lid. The KFV parts in this area are not all that accurate so lots of massaging was needed. Here is a little addition I wish Nissan had added back in the day, the original channels dump the water right into the corner of the deck lid and then it just sits there, rotting the metal. This extra 4" of channel has the water clear the deck lid before draining on to the ground. Made from the off cuts of the KFV panels.

Aftermarket

Body filler must be very expensive where he lives! 🤣

Part 2:

Update:

Yep, that was kind of mesmerizing.