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Put on your party hats and toot your horns. Join me in celebrating the 54th Anniversary of the day I bought my 1971 240Z. Today, it sits in my driveway proudly showing its age. Unfortunately, I'm also showing my age and have a little more trouble getting in and out of it and working the pedals than I did in 1971. Great car, great fun, 54 years of great road adventures!

Last weekend we worked in the shop some Here is a seam in the leather fender covers. I made this with contact adhesive and clamps. I picked the padding out in the seam area so it was just leather to leather. We took Lily down off the cubes. A lot less sketchy than the way I put her up there. Still had to have a 6x6 on the jack saddle at this point Rolled her outside and it promptly rained... My windshield leaks and I will add some sealant under the weatherstripping soon. I also ordered tool covers for behind the seats from Zcardepot. They don't have the hinges. So they may not work for me... Since I don't have the old covers

Well done! Congratulations from another OO.🎉

I offer two different versions of my conversion bell housings to do the reverse tilt. One for the CD009 and one for the TL70. Most of the people that buy my head end up tilting them so I offer the bell housings to assist in that.

I should have a lot more updates and pics here as I have finished my summer home projects. Also, I am hoping the body and paint will be finished in the next month or two, so we should see some good progress. I appreciate all of the input here. I am always open to advice and the knowledge of those that have seen and worked on these cars in the past. Personally, I will listen to the panel of experts and then move forward with what seems to be the best direction. Also, as most of you know, I own a pretty much un-restored early 240Z that I grew up with since I was 9 years old (in the family for 55 years) , so I have a nice reference vehicle. That being said, I find it interesting that there seems to be a tendency to hold the ZCON judging in high regard. Personally, I do not have a very high regard for ZCON judges. In reality, many of them have never owned an original Z car or examined one closely. As a result, they make a number of mistakes in their judging, none of which can be contested because you do not receive the judging sheets until several months after the show. One of these days I will start a thread here titled "ZCON Judging Errors" and see who weighs in, in addition to the items I would list. A few examples are the deductions on my early Z for the weld lines on my oil pan. (FYI 0042 has the same weld lines so they will probably mark this off too). Another good example is the Franklin mint car losing points for having the 'Silver zinc' coil holder instead of 'Yellow zinc' holder. I have heard of judges insisting the original brake lines were stainless steel, the rear diff cover was bare aluminum and fuel hoses were not the 'cloth wrap' style. I am sure that I am just hitting a very small portion of the errors as I am only familiar with the cars that I have been involved with and what I can remember off the top of my head. Anyway, just had to rant a bit about the judging issue. Don't even get me started on the non-Z show judging. Regarding the Exhaust manifold finish, that is an interesting discussion. For most of my restorations, I have always consulted Les Cannady at Classic Datsun Motorsports and never questioned his advice (He was just 10 miles down the road) . If I am not mistaken, I think only his shop and Pierre Z were the only shops approved to build the Restoration Z's. Because of that, I have always used the gray powdercoat that he recommended as the default finish. However, given the current discussion and comments, sounds like there are several other options out there that might be more true to form. After looking at a number of different options and comments regarding the color, I am happy with the graphite finish option. Two of the items that lead me in that direction are pics from the Nissan engine service manual and pics of my own motor disassembly that are pictured below. Both pics show a dark cast iron finish, not a light gray finish. So, I am sticking with the graphite and will probably go with that in the future as well. I installed the exhaust manifold and intake assembly to the engine. Pics below. (Also looking for a correct rear engine hoist bracket) I finished up the steering column, and replaced the connector on the turn signal assembly. The main shaft was sanded and re-painted and all the electronics cleaned up. I re-finished the steering wheel that now looks much better, but not sure I will stick with this. The wood finish should be more redish. Problem is that the wood veneer is very thin and I am not sure how much was removed in the restoration attempt from the previous owner. Previously, the nubs on the opposite side were sanded through unfortunately. I will let it be for now, but may revisit it. The center metal portion looks good though. I cleaned up the brake and cluth pedal box. Ready for install. I have no idea what is written on that silver can below.

But the price of obesity drugs are much cheaper.

As I've been saying for some time now; the upper middle class collector car market has been depressed for at least the past 10 months. Yes, should have taken the 90K.

Too many projects are IMG_2691.movIMG_2691.movdelaying this RHD hs30… Heading to the wetblasting area to determine if anything is left to work with……

I had her up on jack stands and stood about a 12" piece of 6x6 up on the jack and lifted her up. But the block and jack wanted to slide out once she was up high enough. I had to hold the jack in place while someone put the cubes under the tires

I stole this cassette from my step-a s s hole when I was a kid. When cassettes where still off white colored, before the clear ones. I listened to it so much I still know every word to all the songs but this was my favorite.

I had their greatest hits album when I was a kid. In retro my parents were probably concerned.

That rubber glue may be the least of your problems! I've done a Z dash pad restoration, starting with something that had only 25% of the deterioration that yours has. Even at that, it was a time-consuming job. Not only does the pad surface need to be levelled (not easy to get right, given the multiple contours), it's also necessary to 'V' and then feather-edge all of the cracks so that the filler won't crack along the seams. I'll bet it would take you 20 man-hours of effort (or more) to level, edge-treat, fill, sand, and paint a dash pad like yours to a decent level of final finish. But before you even get started down that road, you'll need to convince yourself that what's left of your original pad has enough structural integrity to prevent the pieces from moving around independently when the cabin temperature goes up or down. With its many full-depth cracks, I don't think I would trust your badly broken-up dash pad to meet that requirement. As a litmus test, it would be interesting to know whether a professional dash restorer like Just Dashes would accept your dash for restoration. Maybe you should send a picture and ask them. IMO, your best path forward will be to either: 1) buy a used dash that offers a better starting point for a DIY restoration (as Siteunseen suggests), or; 2) buy one of the replacement dash pads that have recently become available. In the latter case, you unbolt the old pad from the underlying steel structure (known as the 'armature') and then bolt on the replacement pad. There are a couple of threads on this site that discuss these replacement pads. As a third, lowest-cost/effort alternative, you could just replace your old plastic dash cap with a new one.

A few dollars a month will eliminate the ads. Well worth it IMO.

Winner winner chicken dinner, we have spark Now im gonna look into some heat sink and stew on where i want to mount it. Time to move on to the fuel system. I know the fuel is toast and the tank will need to be cleaned. I’ll probably start on removing that and see what condition the lines are in. I’m excited!

A work colleague of mine and I spent about an hour yesterday getting some video of the 240z I restored (got it on the road on Dec 31 last year). Unlike me, he has skills and talent for editing and creating videos. Have a look! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ3ieeuqjwI

Yeah, hopefully it should be easy to tell. In any event, it's got to be better than this!!! Hahaha!

When I spoke with Sean @ ZStory, he recommended the Street-sport or Race-sport for my build. I'm leaning towards the street-sport, but as my build increases in cost, I may just re-use the MSA header I have for now and get the ZStory later, especially with the tariffs and all...

I'm installing new KYB's I like the idea of a light coating of lube on the inner walls.

Sold for $101K on BAT in 2019... Adjusted for inflation, to break even it needed to sell for $129K in todays money. Nonetheless in todays market - $90K was a pretty strong offer.

To get my plug out I used a small pipe wrench and a bottle jack to loosen mine. Situated the wrench so I could get the jack under the handle then pumped the jack a few times and it loosened up.

Yes you're correct. However, will a customer accept an exhaust manifold that will start to show corrosion almost the minute he leaves my shop after spending X amount of $ for a Y operation? Asking rhetorically as the answer is obvious. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE was very happy with the Jet-Hot cast look including, but not limited to, the Franklin Mint car.

Yes, nice shade of yellow. Looks a lot like mine. This is a Chevrolet color...'Rally Yellow'

Cody continues to make progress on his car. Thanks to SteveJ for helping us sort the engine bay harness @SteveJ He has the harness in and has started sorting out the electrical issues. There are quite a few We think we have a solution for the throttle control. It's loosely based on Ken Firch's cable system. His bracket won't work but we are working on making a heat shiel that will also hold a throttle cable and hooks for the throttle return screws. It will mount to the two lower studs on the SU's. The smaller SU's only have two studs and they are set diagonally. We are planning on using the the mounts at the balance tube to add a different 10mm OD tube with a donor part from a 240z. Which will supply a ball end for the cable to connect to I worked on a template for the heat shield today. I don't have a good way to brake the sheet metal so we will need to sort that out. We are leaning towards using 1mm stainless sheet...

This one’s got four wheels!

FWIW.. subscribing to a VPN like Surfshark or Nord, etc... eliminates at least 90% of the ads.

Actually...

So. I have been honored to help many of you here with your projects by shipping parts to you that I’ve accumulated over the years. I’m not a business, I don’t do it to feed my family, I do it help friends with their projects and to maintain my social circles. Recently, and I know I’m not alone, I and my customers have been faced with a massive increase in costs and effort shipping items to the US. I’m about to consider abandoning this service as it appears to no longer be practical. I can’t imagine what devastation is happening to Canadian small businesses who’s customer base is US based. I’ve heard rumbling on FB forums from others about crazy costs shipping both into and out of the US. I’d like to use this venue as a place to share our shipping stories and perhaps what worked better for you, or what services or techniques to avoid. So, to begin, I’ll share two stories that I’ve recently had, to help to both illustrate the difficulties and demonstrate solutions.

Story One. Shipping a personal gift to family friends in the US. I almost ALWAYS ship postal. Always cheapest, minimal or zero duty or brokerage charges (especially US to Canada shipping) Well, effective sometime in September I believe, there is a duty and taxes pre-shipping cost calculator application that has now inserted itself into the Canada Post shipping process. In a nut shell, shipping anything to the US requires you sign up with a company called ZONOS. This app sits between my Canada post shipping app where I make labels and pay for them, and my printer. I’ll explain. As I make the label, I (as always) I have to describe each items that I’m shipping. Now ZONOS gets in there and determines what specific trade type item each thing is and assigns a duty / tariff / tax amount to charge you. After you clear this hurdle it lets you pay for the shipping and lets you print the label. Now the fun part. First let me say, for Canada Post at least, THE SHIPPER (ME) MUST PAY THE DUTY/TARIFF/TAX, not the receiver in the US. So fine, I need to pass that cost on to the receiver by raising my shipping price. So I have to know what that cost is, right? Well I will know it, but not until I receive my monthly invoice from Zonos. NOT AT THE TIME OF SHIPPING!!! So, am I supposed to say “look, shipping is X$X today, but at the end of the month, I will ask for YY$$ more when I see your duty/tariff costs blah blah blah”. Oh I can’t ship that precious part you need for your restoration for 3 weeks while I wait to see how much that YY$ is and you send that $$. Oh and BTW, that YY$$ is going to be 500 times more than the 2$ part I’m shipping you. Are you a happy customer yet? What’s that, you don’t want that part anymore? Surprise!!!!: So back to specifics. We shipping a couple of hand made baby blankets and a bag of chips (don’t ask) to a family friend in US. Described it as a gift. Shipping costs were $25 bucks I think, but at the end of the month the Zonos invoices added $34 to MY visa. Sorry no more postal shipping to the USA

The passenger side was exceptionally bad in this car relative to other sections . The car sat outside on a rotisserie for years on its side with the passenger side down . Probably gathered water from rain . When I finally dug into this I was grateful I had scrap pieces to do some of these repairs . Somehow I was missing a hunk that I had to make - but it’s was a small hunk . Removing the firewall and all its spot welds really tears up the kick panel . That and rust required some patching work to make the kick panel strong again . I probably will end up ordering the panel for under the battery tray from KF Vintage . I don’t think my skills are up to fabbing that panel .

Seat cover fit might suffer. In essence, you'll be increasing the height of the side bolsters by 1 inch. The centre panel of the seat cover would end hanging in space above the carved-out foam. Occupant weight will force the cover down onto the foam, but the look (baggy) when the seat is unoccupied might make you wish you'd never tried it. I suggest that you run the idea by an experienced auto upholstery pro before you break out the carving knife

Just leave the condenser disconnected. You don't need it for now. You can also just connect both of the wires from the ballast resistor (the block) to the coil positive. You don't need it when you use the HEI module.

I would add some details of how, exactly, you are evaluating "spark". With a spark plug at the end of a plug wire, through the coil center terminal, with a spark tester...? Are you cranking the engine when you do this? Have you disconnected the original module by the fuse box or did you resintall it? And, or, but, I have noticed that you do not have any battery power going to the coil in your picture. You only have the coil connected to the module and no pwer to the module either. You need power to the coil positive terminal. Also, use your meter and make sure that the mounting screw of the module has a good ground. And make sure that it's the correct screw. Only one of the screws completes the ground through the module, it has a thicker ferrule. Looks like you have the correct screw but you might not have good contact through that screw head or where it seats on the TB. The TB is not the best place to mount it. That's where all of the coil current flows when the module is doing its thing. And, it you plan to run it for long you need a proper heat sink under the flat part of the module. It gets hot and heat will cause them to fail.

Here's a good read on what you're doing. You might read something helpful.

Look between 1st and 2nd spark plugs to see what head you have. Should be an E88 or N42, maybe N47? That will tell us what exhaust port shape you have and whether or not you have the injector notches. If it's an E88 you can use the 240 gasket. Fel-Pro has a universal diamond shape exhaust manifold gasket but it has the injector notches too. From what I remember it will work with carbs but I've never used one so maybe someone can tell us? If it's the OE E88 I would use the right gasket with round intake holes and square exhaust ports. I bought mine through Nissan dealership but zcardepot.com has them too.

Congrats and keep going! All the best to you and your "Z"

I believe that all the tapered fittings are BPT. Probably dictated by world manufacturing climate at the time. Some of the BPT and their respective NPT counterparts are different enough to easily tell the difference, and some of them are really similar. For example, with some thread sealant, it usually seals if you stuff a 1/8 NPT plug into a hole threaded for 1/8 BPT. But, I think the BPT is correct. There also does exist some locations where a straight thread was used (temp gauge sender unit for example), but I've found them to be straight up metric thread, not BSPP.

You can get them for a 4-wheeler at your local motorcycle shop. They have those metal bands that work great instead of the e-bay ones that send you zip-ties.

It will be interesting to see how the BaT S30.world/Garage 44 auction goes when it is (eventually) listed. Im guessing the 240-Z has been shipped to the USA to sell rather than be passed in.

Any oil will do.

Hi, I don’t know much about originals of our cars, but if this helps for your reference that would be nice. The L20A is for a Skyline GT but it can be a useful reference. The Kaku -U crew inspecting the cylinder head that was a screen shot from the video of 1969 US & CANADA test drive. Kats

Quite true, thanks.

I've seen good results achieved by hammering the metal over the long edge of a length of 6" structural I-beam. Use Vise-Grips to clamp the metal to the I-beam. Then hammer from one end to the other, making 3 to 4 passes to get from flat to fully bent.

Wow, that dash has got some issues! I guess the answer depends on your budget and focus. You could always find another one and go that route, or you can send it to a restoration shop like Just Dashes. However, with the screws and missing foam, you are probably better off finding a better dash to use as a base.

Is the clevis pin that connects the slave cylinder to the brake pedal worn?

If it was mine I'd watch the play at the adjusting nut on the rod. Press the fork against the pressure plate fingers using one hand and run the nut in until you have contact with the fork with the other one. That would be zero play. Then back it off 1.5 turns. Easier to do the adjustment without the spring attached, since you'll be able to feel when you're on the pressure plate fingers. I've never done one but I think I understand what they're trying to accomplish. 2 mm of play between bearing and pressure plate when the slave clyinder is at the start of its stroke. Don't forget to check the pedal adjustment at the MC also. I've adjusted play there in the same way. Just max out the adjustment rod, being careful not to press the piston in to the MC bore, then back it off a bit. Another feel by finger job. And you don't need to remove the clevis you can turn the rod with a pair of pliers or a strong grip while everything is assembled.

dzcg might be having seller's regret. 🤢 Everyone knows about ad blockers. They work. Good luck.

He hasn't been around lately that I'm aware of but he may get an e-mail if I "tag" him @S30Driver Good luck!

I have used the Zcardepot style pans in the past. It is a lot of work getting them to mate up well to the tunnel. If it were me, I would get the KF pans. I think they are better pans and will give a better finished product. You may not care today about an OEM look today but you might in ten years...

I just wanted to chime in, since I'm also a member of S30 World, a later edition, so not in the group photo with Takeo Miyazaki, which took place when the museum opened. However I am thrilled to have been asked to join in and represent the Australian part of the team, as mentioned Chris' goal is to ensure we have a global perspective on these cars and I've been the local train spotter in the Australian market for many years now, having got into my first S30Z back in the late 90s and joined this website in year 2000 I believe? I am also the owner of a couple of low vin # Australian delivered cars - which have their own unique differences. Even though I've been passionate about the S30Z for 25+ years, I still have things to learn, especially when it comes to cars delivered to markets outside Australia. I think we are all still learning, which is why the S30 world project and website is important, to help educate, discover and document. I'm also thrilled that through the restoration work Chris has spearheaded new parts have come to market to provide quality OEM-like reproduction bits and pieces (eg: fuel tanks and door seals just to name a couple). I was fortunate enough to see the quality of work first hand back in 2017, a local Australian had his car in display at the Nissan Datsun Nationals in Sydney. (attached photos). I've seen many 'restored' cars over the years and this was indeed top notch! Obviously not a 'factory style' restoration, but a superb finish none the less. The quality of finish achieved on cars completed since then has only improved! On a personal level, I feel the S30Z series have been greatly under appreciated for many years, however it would appear that more and more are starting to appreciate these cars these days and I'm very happy to see more cars getting quality restoration work performed at this level.