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I've been traveling a lot recently, and been dealing with life, but I still managed to collect some cool stuff: I got hands on this cool vintage NISMO enamel sign from Japan: And this cool Poster, which shows a works GTS-II race car. The seller says he got it from a racing shop called Iwashita racing in Shizuoka, many years ago. According to Alan, it shows SCCN works car from the first round of 1972 Fuji Grand champion series on the 20th of March, with driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino. I also found this Dutch 1971 Datsun Advertising magazine. Usually I don't collect documents from other countries (there's just too many), but this one is special, because it shows an EU-spec prototype car. If you look closely, you will see the Fender-top mounted blinker / turn signals and the Rob Janssen homemade front spoiler, which led to the development of the OEM front spoiler for European cars by Nissan. Then I got a reproduction of the MK-1520 ZC car radio manual and a correct Swiss 1972 service / Warranty booklet for my car. After a bit of a search, I also managed to get this cool Nissan Oil Can: With the Elephant oil logo from the 240Z oil filler cap: I also got gifted a Center cap from a friend. Not the correct one for my car, but who am I to turn down freebies? I also found a set of NOS OEM FS5C71A transmission "monkey motion" shifter bushings. The original ones of mine were worn out, and I had them replaced with some red aftermarket ones, but these will definitely look better. Then I'm constantly on the hunt for the missing tools of the Datsun / Nissan tool boards, which I acquired recently. Luckily they pop up sometimes, and recently I got a bunch of missing ones: There are still quite a few missing, but 2/5 tool boards are complete now, and the remaining ones are filling up quickly. I'm currently awaiting more deliveries, so expect another update soon. Oh, You may have noticed that I've also reorganized my workshop and garage a bit for better usage of space.

Poppin' back in for a bit, although @conedodger and @Yarb see me quite a bit in The Rusted Zed Pub section. 😎 🍻 It's been a few years since I've spoken with Gary Moisant but I'm pretty sure he's still around up in Oregon. Can't get him away from the race cars! The last time I spoke with Keith @2ManyZs (many, many years ago) he was having some health issues. I reached out once by email a few years ago but never heard back. So, I popped back in here because I ran across something the other day that made me think of this thread. I saw my old Z for sale on Marketplace!!! She's about an hour's drive away and actually less than a mile from my mother-in-law's place! Paint still looks good (which I'm pretty proud of!) but that four-letter "R" word has started coming back with a vengeance! The guy who is currently selling, bought her not too long ago from the guy I sold her to. I stopped by yesterday on my way home from Austin, TX to see her, talk to her, and wish her well in the next part of her life. Still has good bones, but the level of repair is far more than I'm willing to tackle at this age and stage of my life. It was cool to see her again and I can't say I didn't shed a tear or two... We did go down the roadster route for a few years but not anything from Datsun. We did the Miata thing. Cool, fun little car that was a blast to drive. Helped that it was already set up for autocross which made street driving an absolute blast! Top down every single drive, even if we got caught in the rain (as long as you stay moving...)! But alas, as the wife and I both start looking toward retirement all of the toys have been traded up for a large center console boat for fishing down on the TX Coast! Grandkids are on the way and life's focus has just changed. The Z will always be a part of my life and I will die loving the sleek lines of the S30s, but I don't think there will ever be another one in our garage. Add it to the list of cars that "We should have never sold!" 😉 Y'all keep the rubber down and the RPMs up!

If you follow me on social Media, you might have noticed that I spent the last 10 days in Japan with my fellow S30.world friends for a very special once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'll post multiple detailed stories on this website soon, but I still need to process it all in my brain and go through thousands of photos. What I can show you already is what I brought home from Japan, aside from all the business-cars and fresh S30.world clothing (not pictured): First, a set of Papers with the "Nissan logo": Those are the ones that Nissan dealers usually put in new cars to protect the carpets. We had them at our Car show in Japan to protect the floor from tire-marks. As we had a lot of them leftover in the end, I thought i stuff two in my suitcase :-) I also got various stickers. From the old NISMO logo stickers, which I bought in the Nissan HQ Gallery in Yokohama, to a handwritten Kanji-version of my name, to various stickers of the event, and a sticker that me a local Honda dealer gave when we checked out their cars. Some went of course directly onto my new "Hall of Fame": I was also very fortunately to buy one of the very last RS-Mach "Ura Mach" steering wheel from the maker himself. I have planned a detailed story on this blog about the Mach steering wheels, so stay tuned, if you want to know more. He sold all the remaining ones he had on this very day and doesn't plan to make new ones. I also came home with a lot of Magazines and catalogues. From the Protec catalogue to the Nostalgic hero (showcasing the new NISMO DOHC head, which we would be able to check out the next day), to the nice Motorfan Fairlady special edition which I was gifted by Endo-San, To the new Motor magazine 70th anniversary edition by Editor Morita-san, which joined us during the first days of our trip. At RS-Watanabe we got gifted with a nice bag that also included a lovely box with their iconic Watanabe 8-spoke wheel as a miniature keychain version. Lovely! From Morita-san i was gifted the lovely pin in exchange for a document I gave him and from Jeff we got gifted some ZCon keychains and a group Z sports car club Bolt tray. The bolt-tray went directly on my car lift: Then we also got gifted a set of reproduction rubber plugs for the drum brake drums from a good friend and Endo-san handed out NOS spare bulbs in original packing, which will be excellent to put in the glovebox :-) In a local toy-store we found a box full of mini 240Z's for 90 cents a piece, so I got a bunch of them as a gift for customers :-) From one of the Japanese participants of the show, we got gifted these lovely 70ties scanned magazine covers from two Japanese 1971 "Autosport Young" magazines, which assemble to a nice poster when you put them together. Aside from the naked lady, you see all the Nissan Fairlady Z Works race drivers in front of one oft their racing cars. I framed it and hung it in a nice place in the garage: We also got gifted some copies of hand made sketches by Tamura-san, one of the original designers of the S30 car, plus a nice photo from a LHD prototype car: Then I also got this. I understood that this is some kind of rating chart and something very special, somehow linked to Sumo battling, but still have to find out what exactly it means. Another cool thing was this S30.world Japan expedition Lego kit: Which, when you assemble it, turns into an S30 under a Japanese Torii gate with the S30.world logo on it: I was lucky my suitcase didn't burst. I would have loved to buy more stuff, there was definitely no more room for that, and that's fine for my wallet too :-) Expect more updates from our Japan trip soon!

Probably need to put some thought into replacing the short lines. You need to do an evaluation of what condition of the parts you’re working with.

Grab a torch - propane will do - and melt the body lead out of that section. That'll give you a better idea of how that sheet metal is shaped and spot welded together. There will be body lead in various places all up and down that pillar. The lead will probably have saved the sheet metal up near the window flange - and may give you a good clean section to weld to at that end.

That's the first Z conversion I've seen that I like. That said, I'd like it even more if I didn't know it is (or was) a Z.

Well... it started life at Pierre's Z... saw it in 2001 at the Motorsports Auto Show. The best looking Z Convt. conversion I had seen. The body lines were beautiful..

I got the rotary replacement kit from the Z Store (ZStore.com) but not sure if they still have the kits.

Don't know what it is but it isn't a Z