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I can confirm that my 240Z that was restored by Motorman7 did win Best Exterior at the 2023 ZCON in Ontario. I also did have Miguel do single stage paint, as I wanted it restored to the way it was when I drove it off the dealer's lot, which Motorman7's restoration achieved spectacularly. For the 2023 ZCON in Ontario, I did have it professionally polished (regular wax, not ceramic) before the show. The judges also seemed impressed with the condition of the undercarriage, which was Motorman7's work. (photo attached) It was that undercarriage that caused me to start down the rabbit hole of show competitions. Got 1st Place Stock at the 2021 ZCON in Colorado Springs, and 1st in Class at the 2022 Hillsborough Concours d;Elegance, but now the wife is complaining about her cleaning duties at these events... 😁 So it time to turn it back into a daily driver. Maybe turn it into something like the modded Z in the attached photo? 😆

From my list: Machine shop to remove a small amount of material from the left side flange of the differential - need to put the stock pinion shim back in and then check back lash with original side shims in their respective places. Then check backlash again after moving the one left shim to the right side. Compare the difference and estimate amount to have removed from left side flange, given side shim sizes available. Send driveshaft off for balancing, but... I have to put the differential in car and check drive shaft fit first. I may need to remove some of the shielding on either the rear of the transmission or the driveshaft. Tell Snake Oyl to proceed with the restoration of the seat belts I sent them in June even if reproduction date tags cannot be sourced (they have delayed for weeks because they haven't been able to confirm that they can get the tags from "their vendor". They will be able to get the labels. Cashier's check and additional parts are going out via UPS to them tomorrow. Buy carpet in bulk (still have to decide which). Cut to fit the car and have local company put correct finished edging. Or, purchase Auto Custom Carpets, Inc. kit from RockAuto. I may purchase this kit for day to day use... and have a custom set of carpets for show. I Purchased an Essex pile version of the carpet set available from ACC (Auto Custom Carpets) https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=6070062&cc=1209158&pt=1264&jsn=10419&optionchoice=1-A1168-0-1 Get gas door lock and ash tray grill chrome plated by local company - email with pictures of parts needing to be re-chromed sent to get quote Horns - these have to be re-plated before I can put them back together I also have the following fairly large lift items: Assemble the seats - fit new support straps, foam and upholstery covers. Repair/restore center console Test gas tank for leaks - source and install a new tank from S30 World if it leaks Find source of the electrical short circuit in the windshield wiper circuit Found it with @SteveJ help. So, some progress, but it still looks like I am going to run out of time to me. My windshield wipers were not parking as they should. They were parking higher than their range of sweep. That is not right. They are supposed to have a range of sweep that is higher than the park position. After reading related posts, I realized that I had not paid attention to the reassembly of some of the parts on the wiper linkage. In order for the linkage to park lower, the offset cam piece in the wiper linkage has to be in the position to make the linkage arm longer. Some pics: As found with the issue: cam/offset in the short position: cam/offset in the long position (note that you can see the edge of the of the back plate, and the linkage bar that attaches to the motor is extended to the left a bit more: After removing the clip and the top washer: After flipping the cam/washer piece with tang over - now with the tang at the top position, the link bar is in it's shorter length position. So the pic just above is CORRECT. This is the position of the washer with the tang when the motor is operating. When the motor reverses, the offset and tang will rotate 180 degrees. This will move the link bar to the "long" position which will extend the effective length of this arm just a touch. And it will result in a park position on the windshield where the wipers will be lower on the windshield than the normal sweep range. Also, I found that the best park position was set when the link bar (the piece that bolts to the back of the wiper motor shaft is in alignment as in these pictures. In other words, the ideal park position is achieved when the link bar is in perfect alignment with the long linkage bar it is attached to. Like this ------ -------. Not angled either up or down from the long bar, but simply a linear extension. I had to install the motor with the bag hanging off to the side so I could mess with the round cap on top of the motor that adjusts final resting location of the motor shaft. Then remove the motor again, put the bag on and reinstall the motor.

Many may find this excerpt interesting. It demonstrates how Nissan had to adapt Datsun products to North America well before the Z sports car was designed specifically for the North American market. (To replace their only sports car (roadster) in its biggest market) : Source: http://datsunforum.com/datsun-discovered-america-part-3/ Masataka Usami, a Nissan executive who lived in Greenwood Lake, New Jersey, and whose own car would not start in cold weather, reported back to Tokyo that Nissan could not have a car that started only two out of ten times. Tokyo was not very helpful. The alleged starting problems were impossible, the home office insisted, since it had checked Hokkaido – Japan’s northernmost island, where Datsuns started without difficulty – was just as cold as New Jersey. Usami replied that in Hokkaido those few Japanese who were privileged to own cars lovingly put blankets over the hoods every night. Tokyo asked why Americans didn’t do the same thing. Usami explained that to the Japanese a car was a privilege, but to Americans it was an appliance, and they expected it to work without pampering. I had the same experience first hand when I worked nearly 5 years for a Chinese company who designed and produced international products that were not selling here in North America. No one in head office listened to anyone in North America whether they were local or transferred from HQ. It ultimately caused so many missteps that the company had to pull out of this market. Nissan obviously did not do this and adapted their products to the North American market; otherwise they would have failed like the company I worked for. In the early to mid-sixties, it is because of Mr. K's perseverance, automotive knowledge, powers of observation, intuitiveness, logic, understanding of people, understanding of customer needs, and international corporate skills that he was able to align Nissan HQ with the North American market. The products followed suit and sold well. For being accused of turning up "late to the discussion": It is in the spirit of accuracy and adding new and useful content that I am contributing to old posts. This is very important for the organization of content on forums for the benefit of others who come across these threads in the future. The thread should be complete with the information contained within it, not scattered throughout the forum. People are not visiting this forum to look at time stamps. I have done this (updated old internet posts) on the technical side of Z's for nearly 14 years. My interests have changed slightly as I am now delving into the history and design of the Z; however, I am doing the same as I always did with respect to posting information helpful to others. With so much great historical and design data on this forum over the years from you, Carl, Kats, Chris, Mike and many others, it is difficult to find new and interesting content to add (as most has been put forth);however, even though I am "late to the game", I am fortunate to contribute some new data in this area that I hope others can enjoy. I think you may have enjoyed this example: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/33633-24th-october-1969-the-s30-series-z-public-debut/?page=2#comment-509152

Hi ZSaint, did you repaint the firewall? If so, did you remove the steering column before hand? Then you might remove the bolts that mount the steering column to the firewall (from the passenger compartment side) and chase the threads to remove any paint that is in there. I had a similar problem with no horn after I refinished the engine bay in my Z. I checked the fuse, verified continuity in the wiring with a DVM, replaced the horn relay, etc... all to no avail. It turns out that depressing the horn button grounds the low current side of the relay, and the path to ground is through the steering column and the bolts that mount it to the firewall. I learned this the hard way... If memory serves, the horn relay has three contacts: H, S, B. H is the connection to the horns, S is the connection to the horn button and B is the connection to the battery. Here's a quick way to check for a poor ground: remove the horn button pad. You should see a ring with 3 mounting screws, and a screw with a black wire. Get a jumper wire and connect one end to the screw with the black wire and touch the other end of the jumper to a known good ground. If the horns sound, then you most likely have a grounding problem in the horn button path, and cleaning those threads should help.