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Hello everyone! I hope this message finds you well. It's been a long couple of years. After my last update, which was exactly 2 years and 2 days ago, I spent 2019 moving a family of 8, along with 7 Datsuns, into a new house. Truth be told, the Datsuns, and all their parts, outgrew the space. We had to move! So 2019 was spent renovating the old house and getting it to market. We were handed keys to the new house in February of 2019, along with an ultimatum that the front and backyard landscaping needed to be completed within 12 months to avoid HOA "nasty-grams" threatening fines. 2020 started off promising. The economy was on fire. Work was great. We were planning to celebrate my 50th birthday in March with a road trip to wine country in #8701. It was definitely time to get back to restoring #187. But all those plans were temporarily placed on hold upon news of my father's health in late January. Within 2 weeks of finding out he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, he departed this world. It was a somber Valentine's Day 2020. We took comfort knowing he passed without much suffering. In fact, he reported no pain at all. Unlike many during the lockdown, we were fortunate to be at his bedside until his final breath at 77. Please indulge me while I speak of him. He was a descendent of generations of Vietnamese farmers. As such, he was destined to become one, but as fate would have it, he was drafted and placed into service. At the beginning of the conflict, Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") were arriving in theater, but they came without pilots. So a batch of Vietnamese Air Force officers were hand picked and sent to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Tx to learn how to pilot the Huey. Interestingly enough, I completed my officer basic course (OBC) at Fort Sam Houston 4 decades later and separated from service with the exact same rank as my dad. Upon returning home from Texas, he flew special ops mission, flying upwards of 3 to 4 sorties a day for 8 years. It was an amazing feat. One old combat vet that spoke at his funeral said, "When we would climb aboard the Huey, we would always check upfront to see who was piloting the bird. When we saw that it was MAJ Huynh, we knew we would be home for dinner." During the war, he was introduced to his future wife, a young lady who was a descendent of royalty. Her father was the nephew to the king. What does that make me you ask? Absolutely nothing. [emoji1787] I digress. They married months later and had my brother in 68 and I followed in 1970. On April 30, 1975, the Fall of Saigon, we were on the tarmac at Ton Son Nhat Airport awaiting evacuation to US naval ships off the coast. Needless to say, plans for an orderly evacuation were scraped when the North Vietnamese planes began bombing the airport. As such, Operation Frequent Wind was implemented. I don't recall much other than booming explosions and the ironclad grip of my mom's hand handcuffed around my wrist as she dragged us out of the belly of a Boeing CH-47 Chinook onto a Huey. Despite the uncertainty of our Huey lifting off, 30 passengers, mostly women and children, made their escape by helicopter onto the USS Midway. As a young boy growing up, I would watch footages of Bell Huey being pushed over the deck to make room for incoming helicopters, and not once did I equate those clips to my past. It wasn't until the 40th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, when a large ceremony was held on the deck of the USS Midway, now a floating museum in San Diego, to honor my father and his squadron did I come to appreciate the significance of that aircraft carrier. The USS Midway evacuated my family and thousands of other refugees to the new world. Unfortunately my mom's journey ended in Hawaii after succumbing to malaria and pneumonia. She passed at 27, and my dad, then 33, a widow with 2 toddlers, began life in America with only the clothes on our backs, literally. Given the umpteenth times he has cheated death as a helicopter pilot, I thought my dad was invincible, capable of living well into his 90's, certainly long enough to enjoy driving #187 after the restoration. After all, it was he who bought me my first Datsun in high school, a used red 1979 Datsun 280ZX with 77K miles. We picked it up in Fontana from a gentleman that races top fuel for a living. I remembered our trip home. We got on the freeway and he gunned it. My dad rarely smiled, but he did that day, and we smiled all the way home. Now that I've laid my father to rest, I can once again turn my attention to restoring #187. Thank you for indulging me. Due to COVID-19, the panels that Rod ordered sat in quarantine at the border for months. The parts finally arrived last month and he striped the car to a rolling chassis in preparation for the body shop. Sorry I don't have anymore pictures to share but I will in the near future. Here's wishing you all a safe and happy Labor Day weekend! P.s Not sure why my father was the only one on that helicopter with a life vest on. You think he would have given it to me. [emoji1787] Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

I bought this car for Mrs. Racer 1.0 back in 1992 for $2,000. When we divorced she said she didn't want it, and demanded I pay her for it. I pointed out the car was bought with money out of my pocket, and the title was in my name, and I would not be giving here anything for the car, and that was that. I drove the car off and on until 1998, parking it because the oil consumption was excessive, and at the time I was trying to defend a championship in my race Z. So the car sat in the back corner of the shop, collecting dust. Fast forward to this past August. I'm at work, and my manager calls me, says I have to go home. Contact tracing had resulting in me being identified as being at risk to Covid19. Not wanting to waste a two week paid "vacation", I decided to clean up the shop a bit and see how the old Z was doing. I charged the battery overnight, and the car reluctantly came to life, 22 year old gas and all. Being all original, and numbers matching, I won't be making any changes that cannot be returned to the as new configuration. But in the interim I plan to replace the tired engine with one of the many others I have lying about, and rebuild the original as time and money allow. The car as I bought it in 1992 (alongside my race car): Double Datsuns by Racer, on Flickr Brown Z Red Z by Racer, on Flickr And after sitting in the corner of the shop after 22 years, dust, dirt, overspray (I painted a tractor and even though I had a makeshift spray booth, overspray went everywhere) and spider poop. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr Not easy to see through 22 years of dirt. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr I washed it. Notice the red haze of overspray. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr After the first pass around with rubbing compound and a buffer. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr And after about 20 passes around the car. I put some Panasport wheels on it that were on a 280Z parts car I had out back. 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr 1972 Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr And finally a coat of Zymol wax. Sunlight On The Z by Racer, on Flickr Sunlight On The Z by Racer, on Flickr Datsun 240Z by Racer, on Flickr Now for some mechanical work. I am going to change the car over to a manual tranny. These cars should never have had automatics. I also have new carpet, weatherstripping, and interior plastic panels to change out. Stay tuned. Racer

Car arrived Friday from Miguel. The paint work is amazing as always. Since it has only been around 110 degrees F here in San Diego, I decided to do a little work on the car. Got the underside painted with POR-15 and then added a little undercoating. Painted the forward radiator supports, rear vent holes and the wire tabs. Started installing a few components that were ready to go. My son is going to lend a hand tomorrow so should be able to finish up the brake and fuel lines and install the suspension. She's looking pretty nice!

There's effectively no copyright on the original Kobe Seiko design, and several different companies have made replicas over the last 50 years. You cannot label or market them as Kobe Seiko items, that's all. The problem here is effectively piracy of M-Speed's IP software, molds and R&D. We all know how many of these Chinese factories operate, and to buy product from them - which others have invested time, know-how and money to - is effectively encouraging piracy. If anybody wanted these wheels, they were freely available for the last two years from M-Speed Japan at a price which reflected the time and expense in setting such a project up. Buying via the back door is bad for all of us in the long run.

Hi all Really looking forward to starting this project and getting all of your input and advice along the way! Im new to this forum, Ive spent lots of time lurking though! I have been posting on the australian forum but traffic is quite low on there so hoping to get quicker input on here. I did also consider hybridz but I think my resto will be more in line with classiczcars as Im not transplanting a V10 into mine... Names Ryan, I am the long time owner of a 1971 240z here in Perth Western Australia. Vin is HS30-001063 I have owned the car for 10 years. When I bought the car it was in rough condition, tried to get it running to enjoy for a while but the previous owner had neglected it too much. So I decided not to waste money or time and wait for a ground up resto. Then it took me 8 years to find a decent space to start the resto (my dads new shed). I started the tear down in late 2018 but then had my son so it went on the back burner for another 1.5 years. Now I am almost finished the tear down and excited to get some real work done. Unfortunately I have another baby due in November! Damn! Lol I have also started a YouTube channel to document the restoration. At the moment they’re pretty boring dismantle videos but I plan to make them better quality and more exciting in the future. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHZhre0vm7sL2Kl7hUQFVkg About the car: History unknown, bought it from a very energetic guy who pretty much ran it into the ground, was completely neglected and unmaintained. I knew I wanted to do a full restomod however, so this was not an issue for me. Car has a L20 engine and may be an originally automatic gearbox, hence the L20 swap and that the gear lever barely lines up with the hole in the trans tunnel. L20 will be thrown in the bin. Car is green originally and has had a terrible quality respray. Car had a relatively minor front end collsion, bent sugar scoop/front bumper support and some light repairs to radiator support Basically everything on the car needs replacing/restoration, nothing is reusable in a sense I can just rebolt it on the restored car. Plans for the car: Due to the car not having the original engine I see no point in going back to stock original. may as well create the car I want, so many things will not be stock - Color change, unsure as to color just yet, was leaning toward white but recently I have been liking safari gold - L28 stroked out - Triple Weber set up but thinking of keeping SU's initially to save some $$$ - BC Coilovers, techno toy tuning 3 point strut brace in front and 3 point apex engineering strut brace in rear - Initially all suspension components will be restored and reused to save $$$ (however I havent ruled out installing some pretty techno toy tuning/ apex engineering components at a later date) - Brake upgrade to front and disc upgrade to rear. not going big brakes as I dont like big rims on the 240z - Custom interior - I am an upholsterer by trade and am going to be doing the interior myself and upgrading some it. Think Alcantara and leather - wheels are undecided but something of the period, watanabes/rotas etc - Fender Mirrors for that classic japanese sports car look - Majority of the chrome will be painted in a satin black, I am not a chrome fan unfortunately.... (I know this will upset many of you) - Exterior besides the lack of chrome will be very stock, no flares etc, thinking about maybe doing a BRE style lower lip air dam thingy Here are some photos just before I started stripping it

My good friend TJ Lord and his father Gary were gunned down in their Virginia City gun store yesterday.TJ was a sniper and my sniper instructor when I decided to take that training just because as an officer, I could. He made me feel welcome when I think the other students thought I was just an elitist shouldering my way in to the training.Lately, I would see him at the range as I still go almost daily.We both made it back from Iraq with me spending time in hospitals for over a year. It's just so hard to have a brother killed violently when we both thought we were safe now... Well, as safe as you can ever feel after combat. We'd laugh about both trying to get the chair facing the door in restaurants. We'd tell each other when a nightmare woke us up. We'd laugh at ourselves for only knowing how to say "get on the ground" in Arabic. He taught my daughter how to shoot and how to clean her weapon. I never told him but she had a crush on him and told me but not him... People say 'thank you for your service," but truthfully, we did it for the man or woman standing next to us. TJ stood next to me. RIP brother...

Kats is fine, don't worry about him. We keep in touch and - as you can perhaps imagine - the Japanese airline industry is facing a lot of upheavals at the moment, so he has been seeing some changes in his work pattern.

I will try to get some more pictures for everyone this week. I think I might have located a 70 240Z donor car, and I have never driven this car, and don't plan on it until the rust/frame rail have been addressed.

I already went down the road with a 260 donor for a 240....it will ruin the value of your car to anyone that’s a collector down the road. Too much is different on the front end. Wait for the right car.

preface: I am working on the restoration of a 73 240z. A mentor of mine used to say “The enemy of good is better”. I adopted this saying but often times I unfortunately ignore it. Our car “the bucket” has what I believe is its original center console. It has a single slot on the driver’s side for the choke control. At some time in the past the original choke control arm and bracket were replaced with a generic pull out handle and cable mounted where the cigarette lighter would normally be located. It worked well enough with the previous owner’s conversion to a Holey 4 barrel. I returned the car to a dual SU setup. The choke reminder lamp was also replaced with a blank piece of plastic. I could have used the generic control for the SU setup, but “the enemy of good is better”. I looked at the Console and I looked at the empty slot for the choke control and once again I ignored my training – “the enemy of good is better”. I located a choke control arm, original cable, and a choke indicator lamp. I purchased a bracket to mount them on the transmission tunnel so that the 40+ year old plastic console would not be stressed by the mechanical action of the choke control. I wired in the lamp taking a silly shortcut using power from the rear defroster switch. I believe the switch plastic failed and that set up a nasty sequence of events. Ultimately a short melted the plastic choke control switch before it could be protected by blowing a fuse. The hatch defrost circuit has a 20 amp fuse. It blew but too late to protect the mini switch. I know better but I made a number of silly mistakes that I am not proud of but my errors led me to a fix that I thought might help you. choke control switch alternative: if your choke control switch is not working and you need to replace it this might help. Above is the original choke control switch. Normally it has 2 leads, but one was weak and it broke, which probably helped to create the short that melted it. It mounts to the control arm bracket with two screws thru the holes on either side of the switch. Above is the control arm bracket. The pen is pointing to the hole where the switch button protrudes when mounted. The threaded holes on either side are to mount the switch. I could not locate an original plastic switch. I decided to use a limit switch and bought the following on Amazon. MXRS SPDT 1NO 1NC 5.5cm Hinge Lever Momentary Push Button Micro Limit Switch AC 5A 125V 250V 3 Pins 12 Pcs. Hard to believe but 12 switches cost less than $7.00. Above is the original switch on the left and the switch that I bought on the right. The nice thing about this switch is that there are three pins which allow you to alter its definition. Depending on which pins are used the switch can be either normally open or normally closed. The issue for me was a mechanical one – mounting the switch. Naturally it does not mate to the control arm bracket in the same fashion as the original. There are two holes that go thru the body of the new switch. So the mounting orientation is off by 90 degrees and the red button is not long enough to protrude through the bracket like the original switch. I wanted to make as few changes as possible to the control arm bracket. Only one additional hole was necessary. I also cut part of the bracket to provide more clearance for the pin that returns to the indicator lamp . Above is the control arm bracket with the new switch mounted to it. The pen points to the lever (shortened) of the limit switch. If you look closely you see the red button that it contacts when the control arm (black handle) contacts the switch lever. The bracket is upside down in the picture. The control arm is in the activated position, equivalent to applying the choke for starting, pulling the cables, the indicator lamp would be lit. In order to mount the new switch I had to enlarge the mounting holes in the switch body. I enlarged them to accommodate #4 metric screws. There is at least enough room for this, just go slowly. The new switch is actually mounted to the horizontal plate that I bought separately to eliminate the need to attach the control arm bracket to the bottom of the center console. There are a lot of benefits to mounting it to the transmission tunnel. It is a real pain to remove/install the center console with the control arm mounted to it. The 40+ year old plastic is brittle and a common complaint Is that the control arm cable binds and the stress breaks the plastic center console. Above is a picture of the choke control in the inactive position, cables released. You can see the red button and the switch lever. They are depressed so continuity is broken and the indicator lamp is off. in the image above is the control arm and bracket. It is upright, the front of the car is in the direction of the keyboard. The arm is forward, the choke is off, the indicator lamp is extinguished. above is the control arm and bracket. Just in front of the original switch mount is where I removed a small part of the bracket for extra clearance for the pin the extends out of the new switch back. If you have any questions feel free to ask away.

Went over to Vancouver Island on Sunday and spent the day on a cruise with a bunch of Datsun folks, it was a enjoyable drive. Everyone did the social distancing thing. @zKars I think you would know most if not all of these cars and their owners.

Thunderstorms and rain last night. That should put the hurt on the fires and scrub some of the smoke from the air.

As I am today rebuilding another wiper linkage, I thought I would contribute some more detailed pictures of the fancy wiper park components for future posterity. Out of, ahem, "several" available wiper linkages, I have only a single one that has an unbroken spring. Thought I would include detailed pictures of it in hopes of some day creating new ones, as well as to show the assembly order and position of all the components Here is the little spring with oft-broken off hook engaged where it belongs Complete and broken example for comparison of where the break happens and how long the bent tang is Clever photography (ie move it around until you can see it), shows the shiny spots and wear on the bottom of the spring. All the bits and pieces in order from top to bottom. Top is defined as having the end with the (poor excuse for a ) snap ring/C-clip pointing up when you're taking it apart. I have used a real compatible sized E clip to replace that obnoxious soft C clip thing. This gives you a visual idea of how the eccentric cam part fits with the hole in the arm, effectively changing the arm length as the cam rotates. Another shot showing how the spring and the "millennium falcon" part with the slot are arranged in the assembly. Clearly this proves the designer of said space ship in the movie was a Datsun owner.

So I signed up for Youtube TV. I guess they call them "streaming services" now, we used to call it "cable". Basically you can watch programs on your computer. Or one of the new computerized TV's. Most of today's "TV"s are actually just very large computer monitors. Now I find that the commercials on the major main stream networks that I watch follow my latest Google searches. So Youtube, owned by Google, gets information from Google and tailors the TV commercials to match what I'm looking at on the internet. It's not even spooky anymore. Sometimes i try to mess with them by searching things that i want to see commercials about. Is that some boo sh...t? I don't even have TV commercial commonality with the rest of the world anymore. Just seems crazy that they spend so much time trying to drill in to my head. Many of the ads on the web pages are for things that I just bought on Amazon. I just bought it!! Why show me an ad for it. The above might qualify as a rant. I don't know. Edit - also just realized that this might all be in my head. Not sure...

Thanks for your review of the parts from KFvintageJDM, it's very timely as I might need some of the parts they offer. Regarding your question, on viczcar, about the fit on the outside edge of the front seat rails, mine has about a pinky finger sized gap.

Are you ready for the photo flood to start? Day 1 (or is it Day 0?) https://photos.app.goo.gl/xLN3ymszPDNSx87j6 This morning https://photos.app.goo.gl/UxdKfupPw7E6ZDyh6

The L28 is i think the most wanted z engine at the moment (of the L series), also a reliable engine. Over here i would buy it in a flash! For that price, only a good gearbox is more expensive than that! You plan to rebuild it.. if it was stored dry and sometimes turned and oiled.. it is very possible to NOT rebuild it. also.. nobody can look straight through the engine or gearbox, so it's always a gamble. Look for damage and wear, a bad cam says a lot of miles and a expensive rebuild..

Go LED headlights, reduces the current requirements to the point where relays are barely required to protect our sensitive old headlight switches. either Dapper OE7’s or LED H4 bulbs in Hella or Bosch (or similar) housings is the way to go. Dapper’s OE7 (and OE5) lights are astoundingly good and look OEM. Bright white light and sharp cut off. 2.1 Amp each on low beam. https://www.dapperlighting.com/products/oe7 BTW the blurry photo is caused by extreme speed and distraction of the photographer by the beauty of the subject matter...

Sorry folks, you may have seen the note we put up in our store, this Covid thing has forced a couple more guys to step down to take care of family, including James temporarily, and we were already short on warm bodies, so we've been a bit overwhelmed, but still standing and swinging. We have a couple of new guys starting soon, both of them Z owners, so if we've missed any of your emails or messages know we're working hard to get caught up. I was able to check in with Lee between his recent business trips. He is traveling (again), and having log-in issues, but I mentioned the Stainless issue to him and he said that the hardware is chromed steel, not stainless. Now that discussion is above my pay grade, lol, so I'll let Lee pick up any further questions when he gets back. It has already been answered previously, but that disc is completely there just to avoid possible air damage to the seal, by giving paths for the air to move freely if the bump stop comes all the way down. I guess they used to see it happen way back and thus came up with the disc as a simple yet fully effective solution. One of the projects that has suffered with the current situations is making a picture-gram of how the pieces go together on the strut just to add clarity. The sleeve and the bump stop go together like this image I took. I believe this was also described early on in this thread, but I never made it to making that diagram/image. Sorry about that. I'll make a real one soon with all the pieces. Then instructions are also something Lee is looking into, but those wheels turn pretty slow, especially with our current world. Somebody said it was done like that to make it work for all languages, which is exactly correct. We hate to see that anybody had any trouble with their struts, but it is great to hear from so many who love the performance. Ok, it's nearing 10:30 pm here in SoCal, back to answering more emails!

Hey I bet I can save you $8k, the suspension might look like it is shot and certainly the original rubber bushings are but you may be very surprised how well new rubber bushings make the car feel. There are more than a few guys here that have gone the poly urethane bushings route then turned around and replaced that with fresh OEM rubber. If the car is a dedicated track car that's one thing, if you're doing a mixture of town and country driving then the harshness of the poly can get old really fast. TTT's stuff is sexy for sure but all new rubber bushings and mounts is only going to set you back about $500, however, poly mounts for the steering rack really are a must. Just my opinion.

I am absolutely blown away by the responses! Haven't posted on too many forums but I usually get blasted on the first post no matter where it is. I looked a lot more into things last night and wow do parts get expensive! Not to mention machining and other things. I think I am going to cool it on my thinking about hp, I know these cars are light and do well with "lower" hp numbers. I am NEVER lucky.... I usually approach car stuff with a take it apart now and then price as I go, but I see with the engine I REALLY need to make a spreadsheet and plan for everything I am going to do and then execute later. As well as adding 50% to that and then probably spending double lol. I agree! Alright, next step will be getting it ready for a compression test and hopefully leakdown as well. That is an awesome stand, loved the videos, I may be interested to do it! So much more to think about...... In terms of my plans for the car, this list also goes in order of operations. I hope to finish the car with about 15-20k. This leaves about 3 or 4k for the engine, power is not my main concern atm and can be revisited later as I know these cars are fun stock and its simple enough to pull the engine and really get it done if I choose to in the future. I prefer suspension and tires over power as there are a lot of fun curvy roads out here and I don't like speeding tickets... Everything in this list is fully DIY except for the engine. Got the car for $1,000 Currently fixing body (its not too bad, almost all the usually non-structural rust spots) for hopefully ~$500-1,000 Painting at home for ~$2,000 (already priced out liquids and know where I am buying it) lets hope I can do it well 🤪 Fix engine... ???$ New wiring harness - ~$400 (I'm actually excited for building this, thinking about templating and trying to sell some to earn little bit of cash for the build as well as helping other with a high quality harness) Rebuild transmission - ~$500 (hopefully) Rebuild differential, maybe OBX LSD - $500-1,000 Hoping for a full Techno Toy build as almost everything under the car looks shot and I hate money. $8,000-10,000 Interior - ~$1000 This is quite an ambitious project, but I have about 3 months till my next job starts and look forward to putting 40-60 hour weeks into this. Please let me know if my plan is dumb lol. I look forward to asking for lots of help and learning a lot...🤓

A friend pointed out a very nifty electrical accessory he found. It is a battery mounted multi-fuse box with various inputs and outputs.. Seems brilliant given the multiple fused outputs, both low and high current, and compact fit-on-top design. And the price! A hefty £37 British pounds. Shipping for two of them cost me an additional £14 pounds. Pretty cheap. Did not come with any fuses, but they common types. MIDI and MAXI Hang a couple of relays on the side of this thing, and you could have quite the nerve center for any well equipped resto mod Datsun https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/1100 This outfit has lots of other interesting electrical bits too. Check it out when you have some browsing time

I’m in the business too, I can confirm that the prices have jumped More than 100% since spring. I was very fortunate to buy my lumber for my personal barn conversion to garage/workshop in the spring otherwise it would have cost me double in August when I really did it 😳... A 11$ osb 4x8 sheet in spring is now 23$ the last time I checked. here is the almost finished project that I will finish during the cold winter months!...

If it's gas Mig you'll pick it up quickly, it's very forgiving, however Datsun sheet metal is not, it tries to blow holes in itself. Start with small tack weld for the panels, jump around letting them cool and eventually join them all up.

I have the frost fighter grid on my 510 rear glass. It’s pretty tough yet thin. No problem cleaning it with a rag and invisible glass cleaner so far.

That was lifted from frost fighters website. Apparently there is no residual material after application---only the lines. A purpose built grid that matches in lengths, spacing and element thickness should be as close to original as one is probably going to get and in my mind would likely be a better performer than a mix of old and repaired segments or a new conductive grid with irregular thickness (hence resistive) properties. I appreciate your "do it myself" approach and applaud you for it. My only intent here is to see if there is interest in a quality one source solution that virtually anyone can purchase and install with a minimum of hassle and a maximum of performance.

LOL. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that......

Hi Dmuzial, I have a 78Z manual, and had this same problem about a year and a half ago....actually started a thread in the Engine and Drivetrain section since I originally ran across the problem when installing the diff...you can see it here: Lots of good responses to my questions by the forum members. Bottom line was that some of the drawings in the FSM were copied from previous year models and are incorrect. Like you, I initially installed the bar with the bushing cylinders aft of the mustache bar (per the FSM diagram) only to discover that I couldn't get the forward diff mount to line up correctly. It all worked out good once I reversed the bar so that the bushing cylinders were forward. Love this forum...never fails to get you back on track with whatever Z problem you're tackling at the moment!

As a Marine Vietnam veteran(1966-1967) I honor your father. Peace to you my friend. Can't wait to see your restoration. Cheers, Mike

I just read your story to my wife. I'm 70 and she's 65, and we lived through that era and watched the war on TV. My high school classmates (class of '69) went over, and some did not return. I'm glad your dad and your family made it out. He was clearly a remarkable and admirable gentleman.

The 510 made the big move today from the storage tent to the shop, hoping to have her road worthy for next spring.

Hi Jim Thanks so much for the warm welcome! Its really so exciting to be starting this build. Yes the shop is nice and spacious but im running out of room with all the parts coming off the car! It needs some upgrades though, no electricity atm, and want to give the place a good clean out! I swear my dads a hoarder. Yes Perth is extremely isolated! Not many z's left over here at all, I could count on two hands how many times Ive seen one on the road. Makes them more expensive and parts harder to find. But luckily we have you guys in US to buy parts from. Just have to get a mortgage to pay for the shipping costs! look forward to using all the knowledge and expertise from my fellow members

AMPCO was/is a majority Nissan-owned affiliate company, making parts for use on Nissan vehicles. Whilst the H2716 'Pop-up' pistons were not OEM on any S30-series Z, they were supplied by Nissan as a service replacement part on Nissan L-series engines. They are not 'aftermarket' or custom.

Update: Found a broken female spade connector om wire to resistor. Renewed it and now I have voltage to resistor....and the car runs nicely...THANKS!!!

Gentlemen, thank you for the advice. I changed to the AC Delco this morning and within A 15 mile test drive I can tell an enormous difference! I would agree that the synchros are probably somewhat worn add that to a poor gear oil choice and it equaled a bad grind. I feel like I’m good for now but I’ll probably dive into the transmission over the winter. I read somewhere that the earlier transmissions had “Porsche” type synchros? Is that not the case?

Please take more photos for us. It is rare to see an early Z that has been unmolested. These photos help us greatly in the accuracy of our restorations so they are very much appreciated 🙂 More close-ups in the engine compartment, the fire wall area, the area between the bumper and the radiator, up under the dash, etc... THANKS!

A very big thanks for outstanding customer service from MSA and KONI! Like a few others, I could not get the gland nut to adequately thread into place because the shock was not seating properly. My struts are squeaky clean inside with no foreign debris. As recommended above, I contacted MSA about the issue. @Joseph@TheZStore quickly responded and identified a Nissan mfg. anomaly where the bottom cap on the strut has an internal shoulder. Chipped paint on the bottom of the new KONI shock confirmed the interference. MSA had modified gland nuts on hand for this problem and sent a pair to me at no cost. Note the machined internal relief shoulder on the gland nut on the right vs. stock on the left. The relief allowed the gland nut threads to fully engage and get the gap well under 4mm. One front strut down this morning, one to go for tomorrow and then on to the rears. Jim

My favorite “in between the Nismo and Airtex” price point and functionality is the Facet FEP60SV or 477060E. Same form factor as the Original and Nismo, internal easy to change filter too. The best price is actually from aircraftspruce.com or or .ca Installed several for friends and myself, never had one fail. My two cents for the day

This is what I didn't know....Those areas are definitly not the same as a 240! The original metal is there it is just covered up with other metal I can only assume was changed for some sort of crash rating law changes in 74-75? Of course the radiator support vertical panel is wildly different to go around all that mess. It is such a bonehead move on my part to spend so much time, money and effort trying to keep this thing as original as possible and restore this car back to normal. I really just picked the wrong car from the start. It looked good but I didn't know what I was looking at and the crap body work from the previous owners covered up a lot of problems. The interior was also in such good shape that I thought it was a good platform to start with. I'm sure people have done more with less and maybe its not so bad but the thought of me having cut a 260 front off and put on this car makes me want to throw up a little now! In hindsight I should have bought a better car but whats done is done and I aint starting over!

Try pushing a WD-40 straw down the overflow bung to see if the float is stuck. You should be able to push down then see the straw rise back up slowly. The fuel valve could be stuck open letting fuel continuously flow through. Good luck!

Some more progress photos. Slow progress but we finally got some high build primer on the hood and doors tonight. The plan was to have color on by end of the month but looks like it will be a week or so behind! Getting there!

Well, I retired last month, so I finally had some time to build a work bench. I found a decent steel top, that was 8' x 3", which I ended up getting for free. Used 4"x4"'s for the uprights and 2"x4"s to tie it all together. Used 3/4" plywood for the shelf. I made the bench extra high so that I don't have to bend over to work on stuff. Also put it on casters so that I could keep flexibility in the shop configuration. I also picked up a really nice tire rack, so I don't have stacks of tires all over the place anymore. I will be getting the heater put in in the next few weeks. The lift is planned for the spring. That will about take care of building the shop. Now I need to find a new car project to work on!!!

well, a bit more trading and got this mug, not 240z but still kind of cool.

Original tubes thread?

If you're looking to spend some cash on a full kit with Japanese stainless fit and finish, I highly recommend the Fujitsubo twin pipe setup from RHDJapan.

Yep, I documented the C-2 connector in my notes to my customer. I try to have a work plan ready for paying customers so I don't rack up a bunch of hours on random diagnostics. The white/red wire feeds many fuses in the fuse box. My customer had another shop put in a disconnect switch due to a battery drain, so I used my ammeter to track that down. (Fix the problem, and don't use a bunch of band aids.) I traced it to that branch in the fuse box, and we removed fuses to see when the current draw ceased. That took a while because the draw would come and go somewhat randomly. Eventually I found that the passenger side door switch was wonky. There wasn't easy access to disconnect that switch, so we just pulled the fuse for now since he was not worried about the dome light or other lights on that circuit. I'll have to look at the other circuits in C-2 to see if there are other indicators of corrosion. The terminal for the parking light circuit could have overheated at that connector. It's not like I haven't seen damage to a lot of fuse boxes and wiring for the parking lights. The nice thing is that he is willing to get his hands dirty and does not mind providing assistance since that reduces the number of hours I charge. He seems willing to learn, too. He was thrilled that I was willing to inspect his car with him present and give him an idea of what issues he may have. What worries me, though, is that the rear brake MC reservoir was almost empty. I added fluid and bled the rear brakes, but the car is still HEAVILY biased toward the front brakes. I didn't have time to bleed at the MC, and I plan on looking at his front brakes on his next visit anyway. If it's the valve between the front and back brakes, that will be a challenge. The rubber hoses on the back need to be replaced, and I wouldn't be surprised if the front brake hoses are in the same condition. (Heck, ballooning in the rubber hoses could have caused the problems I felt in his brakes. There are many signs of bad mechanics or idiot previous owners working on the car. It will take some money to get things right (and safe). I just want this guy to be able to enjoy his car. Somehow I get the feeling that my retirement job will be fixing S30 electrical systems in the Atlanta area.