HS30-H

See that? Three sentences that make me think I've taken acid and accidentally wandered onto zcar.com. I mean really, WTF? LOL... If there was any low-VIN bingo going on I certainly didn't notice it. Shame I missed it if there was, as I would have enjoyed the delicious irony. Here's a heads-up for you; The car in question is (according to the engine bay identity tag) an S30-prefixed, early 1970 production dated 'Fairlady Z-L'. Harry Potter would struggle to make it a "240Z". Even Nissan Shatai would struggle with that one.

Sorry, but this is utter fantasy. Nissan were simply not in the business or habit of undertaking such modifications. The (road traffic ministry related) ramifications alone make it a bureaucratic nightmare. If said G.I. wanted an LHD car, why didn't he just buy one? I'm sorry, it's just nonsense. I can imagine a situation where a local privateer 'shop' may have undertaken such a task, but where did the donor LHD parts come from? The further you get away from 1970 the less likely it all becomes too. Tall stories tend to attach themselves to such cars, and get bigger with the telling. Usually doesn't take much to dismantle them. I'd class this with your "factory race seats" claim. Doesn't stand up to any level of serious scrutiny. It's a (roughly) period-modded early 1970 Fairlady Z-L. Cool in it's own right. I think exaggerated claims and unsubstantiated 'race history' don't really help us to understand or evaluate the car as it stands.

OK, so names, ranks and serial numbers please? These "well known people in the Z community" are whom? If the car has been raced, there will presumably be event names, dates and results to back that up? The "President of his local Z club" has a name, I presume? If you make the claims - even by proxy - they have to be backed up. Hearsay is not good enough. I don't want to break a butterfly on a wheel here, but I see little evidence of the car ever being scrutineered and raced in period. First of all, who raced a 2-litre L-gata engined car in period (yes, names ranks and serial numbers please) and where is the factor max that proved the fact on the car itself? I see bone stock road car with period 'street' mods, not period-modded race car. Fuel system? Suspension? Brakes? Safety? Where's the scars? This car just doesn't have any aura of period race car about it. Not even a sniff...

Whoa there! Who said it was raced "by the factory"...? It would be news to Nissan, since they never took the 2-litre L-gata engined cars racing or rallying. They had the 432, 432-R, HS30 and HLS30 for that... I honestly don't see anything about this car that would suggest it was a proper race car in period. Wannabe street racer maybe, but more likely a typical Japanese street custom of the period.

It's almost impossible to take a stab at value in current condition with so few photos to go on. From what I see so far, it's in a bit of a mess. The true extent of the corrosion is a worry, as is the nature of the 'LHD conversion'. From your photos so far it looks as though wiper configuration was included, so perhaps radical changes to sheetmetal under the cowl (what happened to the heater inlet duct 'chimney'?). To reverse all that might be difficult, requiring RHD parts to replace. Properly restored? I think it's a moot point. Again, from the limited photos I see a LOT of original parts missing. Rounding up the correct parts for an early production LHD car is hard enough, but you can multiply it by a factor of ten for early RHD. If you start writing out a list it gets long pretty quick, and long means expensive. Proper restoration costs would easily outstrip the value of the finished car in your market. This is a car that needs to find an owner who will do what it takes without paying too much attention to the bottom line.

Yes, hood hinge and front bumper look to be correct for genuine Nissan-supplied items. Hard to value with so few photos though. Condition is important.

Some observations; 'S30-01036' would indeed be an early 1970 production (probably January or early February) S30-S Standard model 'Fairlady Z' or S30 Deluxe model 'Fairlady Z-L'. A closer look at your remaining trim and accessories should tell you whether it was a Standard or Deluxe model, but it's more likely to be a Deluxe just based on the law of averages and the stainless trim that I can see. The G-Nose assembly, whether it indeed is a genuine factory item or an early aftermarket copy, would have been attached to the car after (probably quite a way after) October 1971. The original colour of the car looks to be #905 red, which would be correct for a 1970 production Fairlady Z or Z-L. The 'Grand Prix Red' choice on the Fairlady 240ZGs was actually #110, so a different shade. It's kind of a moot point anyway as your car clearly isn't a Fairlady 240ZG. I don't see anything specific that would point to circuit race use in-period. The seats are aftermarket sports seats and are certainly not factory race seats, the centre drop bar brackets for the roll hoop look to be an aftermarket copy of the Nissan Sports Option items (yours appear simplified in comparison to originals) and there's an awful lot of interior re-trim with non-standard materials evident, along with a later centre console. It looks like a fairly typical 70s/80s 'street tune' car to me. The photo of the left door interior looks - to me - to show it is a later replacement. Does the engine bay tag match up with the body serial number engraved on the firewall?

The whole point of the vernier adjustable cam sprocket is that you set the cam timing to the cam card, using a degree wheel and pointer on the crank and a DTI on the valve spring cap.

Recently manufactured garbage. Much discussed (with choice four-letter emphasis) when advertised on Farcebook. I thought you were against trash, or is it just the cheapo 'Made in China' type you don't like...?

The Japanese market got the choice of L24-engined S30-series Zs when they were added to the domestic lineup in late September 1971, installed in the HS30-S 'Fairlady 240Z', HS30 'Fairlady 240Z-L' and HS30-H 'Fairlady 240ZG'. They were discontinued in late 1973 following the effects of the Yom Kippur War, the OPEC oil embargo and the consequent 'Oil Shock' in Japan.

No. A 'Dead Cat Bounce' is a drop followed by a small revival (the bounce) immediately followed by the final drop to the bottom. The analogy being based on the fact that a living cat will (proverbially) land on its paws and not bounce. A dead cat on the other hand will hit the deck and bounce once, then hit the deck and stay there. Live cats don't bounce. The bounce is proof that the real trend is down.

If by "non-locking" you mean the same thing: It's simply a 60 degree tapered collar that is crimped (lightly) to the shank of the nut, allowing it to spin freely and independently of the nut. That 60 degree taper sits on a matching 60 degree taper in the wheel, allowing the nut to tighten up onto the wheel stud and spin on the flat side of the collar. It accurately centres the (stud centric) wheel on the wheel studs, and saves the nut from galling the wheel. Simple. It's a fancy washer, in essence. Small Fords of the 1970s had a similar design (although 1.5 pitch) and RS Watanabe's in-house nuts do too.

Forgive me for being blunt, but you seem to be trying to make the evidence fit the crime here. A lot of what you are saying seems to depend on both non flame-resistant/flammable and flame-resistant/non-flammable being in circulation/use at the same time (if not, then why the stickers to denote a difference?). Having two types in production does not make any sense from a manufacturing or legislation-compliance point of view. There were many examples of changes to detail, content and construction on these cars over the years. You seem to be quoting (USA specific) MVSS compliance as a single point of reference, but the S30-series was designed, manufactured and sold for many other markets too. One of them was Japan itself of course, which was fast tracking new safety and anti-pollution legislation for the auto industry during the period we are talking about. Nissan had to keep a weather eye on being compliant in its export markets of course, but the new Japanese regulations were some of the strictest in the world at that time and many updates were made to Japanese market cars during the production run. Proof of compliance was the burden of the manufacturer, and numbered classification of compliance was noted on each vehicle (quite literally, on the engine bay tag) and on paper by chassis number. On the north American market cars the main declaration of compliance is noted on the door jamb tag. There was no need to label every updated item on every car. So we know that the 'Nan' sticker is for internal - sub-contractor/manufacturer - use, affixed to interior plastic panels to denote some sort of distinction. Exactly what that distinction consisted of is still somewhat up for debate, but when we originally discussed this on the forum the concensus was that the stickers were a quality controller-applied inspection sticker denoting parts that needed a little extra fettling/trimming/touch-up and/or re-colouring. There is evidence of re-finishing and re-colouring on many of these panels. They are large panels of fairly complex shapes, but quite thin. There is a moulded-in texture on the outer face. The material is a styrene based plastic and rejects at certain points of production (tooling warm-up, replenishment of raw material, colour change, snag-ups, etc etc) would have been common (I used to work in the injection mould tooling industry, so I know a little about this). I think there would have been the need for good quality control on these parts. I think the 'Nan' stickers were part of that. About the language side of this: I think if you show the 'Nan' sticker to any native Japanese speaker you'll get pretty much the same reaction. They will read it as 'Nan', and *translate* that into English as meaning 'Difficult' or [a] 'Difficulty'. Which in itself shows that proper *translation* of Japanese to English requires a little more depth of focus. Here's an entry from my 1968-dated Kenkyusha Japanese-English dictionary, which I think is a good indicator of common-usage in the period concerned: You can pair the 'Nan' Kanji with many other syllables to modify and alter their meaning, but the sticker itself leaves us hanging by using the 'Nan' Kanji on its own and therefore being rather cryptic. I think all evidence clearly points to it meaning - literally - 'Defect' or 'Defective' to the people using it. I'm guessing that the factory workers didn't bother removing the stickers after any rectification was carried out, and that any ultimately rejected panels simply got thrown into a recycling cage or dumpster at the moulding shop. I simply don't buy the flame resistant theory as these panels - even with 'Nan' sticker applied - are certainly nowhere approaching fire safe. They melt-burn and the thick black smoke they give off in doing so will kill you in short order. I'm interested to hear what others think.

It's an interesting theory, but I'm not convinced. For one thing, the 'Nan' stickers appear on the reverse of many interior panels that date well before 1973 (I personally have them on two 1970 build cars) so why would they be putting them on panels that early before your 1973 FMVSS? I can also vouch for having a mixture of 'Nan' stickered plastic panels and non-stickered panels on my cars, which doesn't seem to make sense in the context of fire retardency. Those panels are made from a Styrene based material which burns good and smokes bad. It's horrible stuff. There's nothing much flame-resistant about it and there's nothing much safe about it in modern terms. I think the problem for us in trying to decipher the meaning of the 'Nan' sticker is that it was never meant for our understanding. They were internal, manufacturer-applied QC labels which we - as civilians - were not supposed to see let alone understand. The kanji character used is somewhat cryptic on its own and is open to wide interpretation, as we can see. It's certainly a negative, but meaning what? If the sticker signified a distinction in fire resistance of retardence, I'd expect to see something specifically referring to the subject of fire, and 'Funen sei' ('non-inflammable') would be more along the lines of common usage, perhaps abbreviated to 'Funen'. We had another thread on this topic in the past with much more input from individual members, but I can't find it. There was more discussion of the panels themselves, in terms of finish/re-finishing, colouring etc all coming at the subject with the idea that the 'Nan' sticker indicated a negative in quality control. There's certainly a lot of evidence that points towards quality control problems and that re-finishing/re-colouring was common. I still feel we are looking at a 'Defect' quality control sticker.

Jason, Yes, I have a set but you'll have to prise one out of my cold, dead hand. Originals are not replaceable! I've shown them to a few engineering shops, most of whom don't want to know. Apparently they'd need to make a special fixture to crimp the 60 degree collar onto the nut *just right* (so that it spins freely), and minimum 5,000 off. Nuts.

Well, I'm all ears. If PerTronix has any clear British DNA, then let's hear it. Where's the (roast) beef?

A better translation of the 'Nan' Kensa sticker in this particular situation would be 'Defect'.

LOL. Especially to you, it seems. From Per-Lux, through Grote International to PerTronix Inc, there's no "British Engineering" connection: http://www.pertronix.com/about/default.aspx http://www.grote.com/about/history/ Loving the Canadian connection in there. I guess for you irony is how you get those nice crisp folds in your shirt.

PerTronix is British? When did this happen?

I may well be "as smart a$$" with "little minds", but I wouldn't be too sure the guy in the U.K. who (you say) bought this for 2k USD really knows what he bought. I see your location is listed as "High Dessert". Is that slightly north of Eton Mess, and to the south of Fruit Salad?

That photo gives a good view. Do you think there's enough clearance for the LHD rack casting to not interfere with the oil pan (due to the engine istallation angle?)? If not, that's good news. One less thing to worry about. The LHD exhaust manifold will have to be a completely different shape to RHD, but I think it can be done without looking too strange. About exterior colour/interior colour: When I saw your sketch I immediately thought 904 Grand Prix White with RED interior. I think it would look great with Export type exterior accoutrements (overriders, door mirror, etc) and the contrast of the dark 7J KS rally mags (with chrome dome nuts...). When I took a ride in your blue-on-blue '70 HLS30U my biggest impression was the blue interior. It really made me think of 1960s American car interiors, and goes so well with blue skies and sunshine. The factory red interior colour has a similar effect for me. So startling!

No Kats, I'm not talking about the short knuckles - although I have used them on all of my cars, and you will have no problems if you use a full size steering wheel. I was referring to the clearance cut-out in the 432-specific S20 oil pan/sump which is designed to accommodate the RHD steering rack casting. For an LHD S20-powered Z, I believe you will have to make a mirror-image clearance cut-out on the other side of the oil pan, to clear the LHD steering rack.

Hi Kats, I think it's an interesting idea for a project car, and your drawing skills are good. I think you have specified a lot of really nice 'special' parts that will fit well together as a spec package, but I'm interested to hear about your interior concept (steering wheel and seats especially). As noted in your sketch, tricky points will be the exhaust manifold/steering shaft clearance (I think you can make a special manifold to suit, as indeed the factory must have done for their LHD S20 powered Z experiments) and the mechanical throttle linkage (again, you can make something to solve this) and I also think you will have to modify the oil pan to fit around the LHD steering rack in a mirror-image of the RHD version. You'll need to source or fabricate the S20-specific engine crossmember, like I had to. I think the electrical side of things will be tricky unless you fabricate new sections of wiring harness that interface between LHD (L-gata specific) dash harness and the S20-specific engine room harness. I've been through the RHD L-gata dash harness/S20 engine room harness experience and it is complicated! I wonder if one of Nishi san's NOS/repro 432 harnesses could be adapted to LHD configuration? That would be simpler I think. So what colour is it going to be?

One question, though. At this point it's something of a pipedream, so you don't have to face reality, but what chassis designation would you give it? 'PLS30'? How about 'KPLS30' (K for Kats)?