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I think you hit the nail on the head. I'll add that I think the S30's are very well engineered cars that can be worked on with a good set of metric tools and without many specialized tools. My 280Z also doesn't generate the same level of frustration of other older cars that I have owned. Caution: I may be biased and have an unnatural love for Japanese cars. There's no cost cutting measures that are prevalent in American cars (nothing frustrates me more than finding something stupid, like a $75 relay buried behind a dashboard assembly or door handles that just fatigue and break repeatedly, or overheating problems that never go away), no inherent complexity or need for special tools like German cars require, or reliability issues with other European makes. The only issues I have found is that my clumsy, large American hands are often too big to fit in small spaces. I think I said it before, but Japanese cars built up to around the mid-1990's were probably the pinnacle of automotive engineering, and that likely started somewhere around the time of the S30. Unfortunately, this golden age ended in before the new millennium, when Japan started playing the same game that all the other manufacturers do now, with impossibly difficult maintenance items, needless plastic and foam rubber coverings in the engine bay, technology that becomes obsolete in a few years, and components with limited lifespans only designed to last until the warranty expires. It is a joy to open the hood of the 280Z and just look at the L-series inline 6. I also love explaining to my kids or whoever else will listen what each component does and how it functions. I have become somewhat of a self-taught expert, using my mechanical aptitude, reading the factory service manual and fuel injection bible, and also with the help of the great members and resources of this forum. They no longer make cars like the S30 and never will again, which is why I intend to keep mine alive and driving for as long as I am able, as well as trying to cultivate and grow interest with my kids. The next generation will likely not understand how to drive a car with a manual transmission, or without backup cameras, blind spot warning lights, lane assist, traction control, power steering, and all the other electronic nannies that are present on modern cars.

Hey guys, I've got some replacement parts for the transmission, like a new shift fork boot and throwout bearing (now installed on the sleeve). I wanted to get all new bolts to reattach the transmission to the engine so I ordered them from ZCar Depot. I just want to give these guys a big public shout out. I got this E-mail: I think it was really cool that they checked it with me. I don't mind of course. Not like the bolts will be visible once it's all back together anyhow, but I know it might be an issue for some folks so it made sense for them to contact me to check. I just wanted to give them some recognition. Never had a bad experience with these folks yet.

Capricorn One (1977)

Dry ice may do the trick. Freeze it and chip it off.

Although I'm constantly tinkering with my '74 260z, I find it very rewarding when I make a discovery, learn to do something new, or fix a system that I never knew how to fix. I definitely spend more time under the hood than in the driver seat. I was reminded of how enjoyable it is working on this Z today when my 10-yr-old Chevy Volt stopped recharging and I had to take it to a dealer. My OBD II scanner could not read hybrid codes because I needed the $5K unit to read the recharger module codes. The dealer charged me $180 to start diagnosing the problem then told me to continue trouble shooting the problem I needed to give them $700 more. The cause of the problem was one of three issues. The cost for the most likely problem, a recharge control module, would end up costing me $3K+ to replace. This on a car worth $4K. I got lucky and after the 1st $180, I called a small repair shop within walking distance of my home and found out that he has personnel trained in working on rechargeable hybrid cars. I'll still have to pay $1.2K for the part, but I can avoid the near $200/hour labor.

They've been the source for most of the parts I've bought for this project and that looks to continue.

Moving along, although the day was cut a little short by a storm coming in Started by making the rear cap for the rocker A little forming work to get the fold & profile right tested the seam sealer compatibility with the spot welder - looks good, so I used it on all the spot weld seams seam welded the upper junction with the MIG after this To deal with the drainage channels, I just drilled holes in the sill and tapped the edges with a ballpein hammer to contour them slightly concave proceeded with fabricating the rear half of the outer rocker skin step in forward edge to tuck under forward rocker repair panel cut the square holes needed to retain the sill covers - those are from later 960 series, which is what the forward rocker repair piece was cut from. That way, I had guide holes to follow in terms of spacing, offset & specific dimension Prepped the outer sill lip & the backside of the sill so I can spot weld thru. Had to add another clamp - this one clamp wasn't providing sufficient conductivity for the spot welder to operate Only got as far as spot welding the sill lip, and the rearward overlap -by then the storm was moving in pretty quick, so I packed up for the day. Should be able to finish the outer skin work tomorrow. Lightening was coming through that darker cloud bank - I had about 5mins to pack up before the downpour

I've been meaning to say something similar. I purchased well over 100 different parts for my car while I was working on it and while @grannyknot was working on it. The parts came from a lot of different suppliers. Z Car Depot was the best supplier I dealt with by a pretty wide margin. I look on their site first now.

That’s Matt that was responding. Been there quite a long time.