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Today i got a special delivery from Japan with some rare NOS items. I've never been actively searching for these, since i knew they're sold for astronomic prices and are no different from what i already have. But then this nice set popped up for a fair price, so i had to get it of course. 1) A NOS NISMO 10 anniversary steering wheel. It's a factory re-issue from 1884 from the Datsun / Nissan Competition steering wheel, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of NISMO. 2) A NOS NISMO 10th annivesrary shift knob of the same origin. what make the two NISMO parts a bit special are the fact that they come in the orignal box / Packing and have never been installed before. 3) Additionally i got a nice NOS Choke cable today, which my man Stefan has been storing for me since a while and today we finally met to swap some parts. Thanks mate! 4) And i also got a bunch of taillight panel plastic clips. which i realized were missing and the previous owner put some sheet metal screws there instead. Those are important for my panelbeater to make the right holes and align the rear-end in the bodyshop. Luckily those were still available from Nissan.

Car has been operated on private road twice, < 1/4 mile each time with lug nut torque checked before and after, will not see public roads until this issue is rectified. I'm not new to working on cars, but mounting this one rim seems to be the only problem child in the scenario. Rear wheels are secure, drivers wheel is secure, no clearance issues otherwise so I think this may be an isolated issue with the studs. I do appreciate your help and advice, and I will make sure/verify the studs are pulled in and look at the angle of the studs as well as cleaning up the hub surface.

At first I was going to say aftermath of Mt St Helens, but that looks painted on instead of deposited from above. And big eruption was 1980. Maybe a movie set? I see something interesting on the Z. I have never seen it before other than on my first Z and I thought it was something added by the owner - not a factory item. There is a rubber seal or weather strip just above and in contact with the the window frame of the door.

This is the first time I've tried them. I've never had an issue with the twist nuts, and I have plenty of them, so I will likely continue to use them. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't realize they were there in the warm weather. Since rain is in the forecast, I decided to dig off the south side of the garage, where I had just removed that plywood. So that I could figure out how bad it is. This is as far as I got before my back said that was enough.

I think @Captain Obvious conclusively proved that wrong.

A little quiz for you Zed trivia lovers. These are a couple of shots I just found recently while going thru a stack of old pictures. Can anyone guess what they are from. Hint, I took these pictures 38 years ago in Vancouver, BC. Cheers, Mike

Hey thanks! That was a wild arse guess and I couldn't remember all those details except that a photo of it was on the cover of Progressive Architecture at the time. Waaay back in my career! Your picture reminded me of the sculpture.

We have a winner. The principal architect/artist was James Wines and it was created at and for the worlds fair, EXPO 86, that was held in Vancouver BC. The theme of the fair, held May to October 1986, was transportation and communication. The exhibit/sculpture was called Highway 86. Here is a picture of a sign that was posted at the exhibit (thanks Wikipedia). It's cool that the 240Z was selected as a "culturally significant" vehicle even 1986. Here are couple of interesting links: https://www.behance.net/gallery/8489821/Highway-86-Expo-86 https://www.archdaily.com/783491/interview-with-james-wines-the-point-is-to-attack-architecture/56e0304ee58ece865a0000e6-interview-with-james-wines-the-point-is-to-attack-architecture-photo?next_project=no

That is from a sculpture of an undulating highway done by SITE Inc. and was on the cover of Progressive Architecture? I can't find a picture.

I'm not an electrical expert but I believe acceleration should be increasing voltage in the car and so maybe the horn only works when you accelerate because at idle your voltage is too low. Have you tested voltage either across your battery or across the leads to the horn? I don't know what values they should be but it does sound like increase voltage is enough either through the relay or at the horn to make it work when you accelerate.

Cosmoline? Protective coating for over water shipping.

That's the thread I was thinking of but I couldn't find it. Unless the comments are in the one I linked. My general impression has been that the vapor lock problems caused people to make changes. And swapping to round tops from flat tops was a common change. Going back to what was known. Kind of like removing "emmissions junk", or going back to carbs from EFI. The past always seems more comfortable.

After taking a second look at the closeup picture, I realized that the positioning of the passenger side linkage going to the pivot was wrong. I installed the linkage on the outboard side of the pivot, not the inboard side per the picture. Common sense should have told me that it was oriented wrong, but a picture is worth a thousand words. Once corrected, the wipers work like new. Thanks again for the pics, Richie, I'll be sure and take more before I tear anything else apart.

Bill Rhodes of Bill's Datsun Shoppe in Clackamus Or has been building Datsun street and Race engines for over 37 years. The guy knows his stuff.... For break-in I believe he used Delo 30wt HDEO oil. It's only in for about 75 to 100 miles. After 100 miles of breakin, he recommends a Pennsylvania Grade Dino oil such as Pennzoil 20w-50. After 1,000 miles you can switch to a synthetic or stay with a Pennsylvania Grade base stock oil in a 10w-40 or higher viscosity. The reason for the 10w-40 rating or higher is that those weights do not meet Energy Star ratings because of there viscosity. Thus they do not have to comply with SM or SN ratings and are frequently formulated for use in older engines. After 1,000 miles you can stay with a Pennsylvania grade oil such as Pennzoil oil. But he recommends at least a 10w-40 for the reasons mentioned above. I've had the same recommendations from the machine shop who's been building my race and street engines for the last 30+ years. I've followed their advice and have never had a Cam Lobe or lifter wear problems on any of my engines. This was mainly on SBC race engines. Dino oils seem to be fine for our engines. With stock cams and springs they are not hard on Valvetrains. And the spray bar system keeps the cam well lubricated ( If its not broken ) . I choose to use the best Synthetics that I can because: 1: I've had excellent experiences with high end Synthetic oils. I've seen the tear downs for my race engine freshening and the results are always excellent. For the last 30+ years. So my engine lubrication choices are obviously working. 2: The Z gets stored for long periods of time. One of the big advantages to Synthetics is that they cling to metal surface much better than Dino oil. Your worst wear occurs when an engine is dry started. Synthetic oils reduce that wear. That is a proven fact. BTW... the build up and maintainence of a ZDDP level ( Boundary layer bearing protection ) is one of the main reasons to use a higher ZDDP engine oil in Vintage cars or cars that do not get driven much. 3: Oil is cheap. My engines aren't. I've used Amsoil, Redline, Motul, Liqui Moly and recently Rotella T6 5w-40 in my Audi ( since 2006 ). The Audi has 225,000 km's on it and engine looks like new. All the time I've owned it it's been on mainly Amsoil 5w-40 Euro Blend, or Rotella T-6 5w-40 full synthetic. Amsoil is great, but you can't beat the Rotella T-6 price point. I prefer a slightly thicker oil for the Z and SBC engines ( at least a 10w-30 in something like Amsoil ) because they are older designs and a 5w-30 or 5w-40 is too thin for the bearing clearances that the car is designed with. My SBC engines got the best 10w-30 synthetic I could find. That was usually Amsoil or Redline. Amsoil has great HTHS properties, as doe Rotella T6. Mobile One I tend to stay away from as it breaks down under high temperature and loads. I have seen this for myself on numerous occasions. The old Mobile One formulations ( 1990's ) were good. The new formulations are crap. Exception possibly being the Mobil 15w-50race oils, which are apparently still the old formulation... and not Energy Star compliant. Are we starting to see a trend here folks?? ( Energy Star = bad for HP and Vintage engines ) Castrol products? I try these every 10 years or so when they go on sale..... it takes me that long to forget how bad their oils are. Immediate increase in mechanical noise, coloring of oil and reduction in idle RPM are warning signs of increased friction. Every time I try ANY Castrol motor oil I end up with the same results and end up draining and refilling with a better oil. Just my .02c. YMMV