motorman7

Yes, nice to have the correct battery cables in. So much nicer. I stripped all of the hubcaps and prepped a couple for paint with the green tape. Unfortunately I ran out of paint, so will order some more from Amazon. The first one came out nice.

Here are the new battery cables installed. The ty-wraps are not stock, but it looks a bit nicer this way.

Got the radio and heater/vent control panel in. Radio lights up and works. The antenna control switch also works and runs the antenna up and down nicely. Interior is just about finished, just a few rear panels to finish. Will also add the sound deadening material in the back panels. Got the battery cables in today. They look very nice. Will take pics of those tomorrow.

Yes, will do that tonight. The open part of the hook is toward the center of the car.

Just a few quick updates. Got the new starter in. I put the old starter and new starter side by side just to see the difference. New one looks much better in the car. Did a gentle sand on the stick shift knob with 320 grit then stained with Red Oak wood stain. Put a clear coat over that. Got the OEM style muffler tip that Jay makes so at least the muffler looks fairly close to original from the back end.

Hi Steve, The car belongs to a gentleman up in the Bay area who is the original owner. I believe his plans are to hold on to the car and take it to shows. Hopefully, he will keep me abreast of how the car fares. Yes, this is true. Fortunately, it is my preferred hobby and I really enjoy the work. With all that goes on in life, working on a Z is therapy for me.

This came in today. Thanks @Zup! This is a work of art. Will install tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone, things are coming along nicely. Got a lot of the interior in as you can see in the pics. Most electrical is working except for blinkers so will have to troubleshoot that. My meter shows that I am not getting power to the turn signal lever. Kind of weird because all the running lights, headlights and dome light work. Will play around with that today. (Edit: that was a quick fix, one small bullet connector near the fuse panel...all better) Also will be detailing hubcaps, horns and stick shift knob. Found a nice pretty new starter from @Zup along with the correct battery cables. I am looking forward to those coming in. That should really set off and complete the engine bay.

I took her out for the inaugural drive round the cul-de-sac. Had to watch out for the snow and ice in the corner but....oh wait, I live in SoCal. It's 80 degrees and sunny. (Just had to throw that in for the East coasters). Anyway, car is running great and is very nice to drive. Now I just have to finish up a bunch of details and she is good to go. Boy, it drives nice! Love having the new shocks and bushings. It is very smooth. Looks like the short engine video is loading. Feel free to turn the sound up Engine Vid.mp4

Another Z article out. Always an interesting read. http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/street-smarts/is-nissan-killing-z-retrospective-article-1.3723803

Thanks for the contact! I just sent him an e-mail.

I know. I am on e-bay quite a bit looking for those, but very hard to find. Jay at JDM parts has some of the repro pieces but not the whole system. Also hard to find OEM battery cables.

IT'S ALIVE!!! Yes, she is up and running! Very nice to have the car running. The motor sounded very nice and smooth. There was a little popping out the exhaust, not sure what that is from, but still need to set the timing. It was getting late so I will do the adjustments in the next day or two . I took a video of it, but it is 18MB. I will have to figure out how to make a lower res video so I can get it on the site here. It started up fairly quickly. I used my vacuum pump to suck the fuel up to the fuel pump, then just turned it over from there. It started up in about 15 seconds which was great. Although as perfect as this may all sound when I post here, I did overlook two things. I forgot to put a hose clamp on the fuel return line just below the fuel pump. This dumped about a quarter cup of fuel on the floor. Also did not have the oil filter fully tightened. Dripped about a tablespoon of oil there. Surprisingly there were no water leaks. That is usually the culprit. Anyway I fixed those two items and shut it down for the night. I got a ton of stuff done today. I got the exhaust painted with high temp paint and installed. I will change the tip to the OEM slant style when it arrives. For now I threw on the chrome tip that came with the exhaust system. I got a lot of the interior done. I like the OEM jute that the car came with, so I just cleaned it off and re-installed it. And, the carpet is very nice so I installed that also. The only concern is the rear hatch carpet is faded. I will have to see if I can get that dyed. Otherwise, it is in very good condition. I installed the door weather stripping and threshold finishers. I tried to repair the plastic on the door finishers but that did not work very well. Fortunately I had a nice set so I put those on. Also got the choke cable installed along with the stick shift handle. I got the rear brake cable cleaned up and installed and the drive shaft as well, before the exhaust of course. Got the clutch cylinder filled and bled. Also got the battery cables in along with the hard to find battery cover. Anyway, pics are below.

Hi Ray, I will have to check with the owner on this, but it is doable. Mike, the guy who runs the site says there is a way to convert the entire thread to PDF. That would also be a good way to go. Nice bit of history there. I love the construction and design with the wire frame. It is very artistic and detailed. It also reminds me a bit of those large cables on the Golden Gate bridge as main supports. . Didn't notice that, yes . Thanks again for the kind words everyone. It's pretty exciting to have is this far along. I am looking forward to hearing the motor run. Will have to see what i can do to get a video of that on here. My camera can't do videos, but my phone will.

I finished most of the electrical connections except for the center console. Also put in new battery cables. Turned the key and the motor turned over nicely Woo-Hoo. It's nice when things work like they are supposed to. Now I just need some to put in the exhaust system and throw some gas in the tank and she should start right up. I should have a little time with the holiday break so should have her running by Tuesday at the latest.

Got the windshield in. That was a piece of cake and took just about an hour from start to finish. Wife helped out a bit on the install. The more challenging item was the stainless metal trim installation. It goes pretty well if you use Windex to lube everything up and then roll the windshield rubber over the edges of the trim. Also got the windshield wipers on, love those things. Now its back to the interior.

I added some more soundproofing to the floor pan. Looks a bit nicer this way. Still need to clean off some of the overspray on the vinyl on the right. I cleaned up the antenna. The antenna would not work when I hooked it up to my 12V power supply. I took it apart and cleaned up the motor area that contacts the brushes. Also opened up the cable area and cleaned that up. Quite a bit of rust in there. I used electrical spray cleaner to clean the motor and cable area. I also applied a bit of lube to the cable before closing things back up. Then ran it up and down a couple times to spread the lube. Antenna operates nicely now . I cleaned up the old parts a bit but they are pretty oxidized. I need to go through my stash and see it I have some nicer parts, so just put the antenna in loosely for now.

I cleaned up both head light buckets (a lot of overspray from previous paint job) and installed them along with the Koito headlights. The only problem is the Koito's don't match . The passenger side headlight has a fine glass grid while the Drivers side has a larger glass grid. So, I will have to find a third headlight that hopefully matches one of these. Preferably I find the a fine grid Koito as I beleive that is the correct style. That is what the '70 has anyway. You can see the difference in the pics below.

Got the new brake cylinder caps in. Also got the rubber seals for the air filter installed along with the carb gaskets. Got the battery put in. Still need to get a battery cover and cables. Need to put the guts inside the engine light. The original switch toggle was broken off, so I will replace that with a spare that I have. I am still toying with the idea of putting in a metal switch and painting the toggle white. Most plastic switches out there are pretty oxidized. I cleaned up the floor pans, painted with POR-15, and installed the new sound dampening material. I put it where the old material was but will probably extend it aft a bit. I think that will look better (although no one will see it since it is under the carpet) . Seems like it would look better going all the way back to the seat frame. Got the under dash electrical connections made on the passenger side. Also got the heater fan put in. And, got a nice new custom fit car cover from the owner for it

I put the sound dampening material in both the drivers and passenger doors. Wow, what a difference! Without the material, the doors are kind of tinny sounding when they are closed. With the sound dampening, it is a nice solid 'thunk' when they are closed. The added weight also gives them a very nice solid feel. I love it and need to do this to my cars as well. I cut the material into about 7 inch wide strips and attached a piece above and below the door center rail, biased aft. I then put a piece on the forward end that passed over the center rail. Very nice material to work with. I got the passenger door panel and parts installed , except for one missing pull handle screw cover. I know I have one of those laying around some place. I also made a clear plastic cover to seal the door, under the panel. The drivers side panel has small separation on one end. I was thinking about trying to fix this myself, but will most likely take it to an upholstery repair shop. That is a bit of a bummer as I was hoping to have the doors finished off today. I got the interior heater hoses installed along with the new shut-off valve. Also re-attached the vinyl around the windshield frame. It was detached for the paint job and needed to be re-attached before the windshield goes in.

Thanks, will post here if things get dicey, but looks like we are OK for now.

Yes, I think. As long as the wind continues to blow to the west I am fine. If it shifts to southeast I will be on alert. There is quite a bit of concrete around me so not super worried. Last time it came close I sat in the back yard with my painters breathing mask, goggles and the water hose.

I got all of the connections to the fuel tank completed today. It is pretty much like an octopus under there with all of the fuel vapor/smog hoses. Also got most of the electrical in the back end hooked up. Put a few more hoses on in the engine compartment. So this completes the fuel system which is nice to have done . The brake system, clutch system, suspension, and steering are all complete. The engine compartment is also nearly done. Just a few more details here and then I will tackle the interior. Finding a new windshield has been a bit of a challenge. RockAuto is out of stock and Motorsport has a two month lead time. I called Les at Classic Datsun Motorsports and it sounds like he can set me up there. I would like to get that in this weekend if possible. The current windshield is not OEM and has a couple of significant rock dings so I won't be able to use that. The glass guy said that a repair of the rock dings would most likely be noticeable. A few pics of the gas tank connections are below. (sorry for the poor flash pics)

Just had time for a few small items. Seems the Holidays are always the busiest time of the year. I got the sound deadening mat in. This stuff is interesting, like rubber covered led. It is surprisingly heavy for how small it is. I will use this on the floor, in the doors and on the rear section of the car. I know it is not stock but should make the car a bit quieter inside and will not be visible once everything is assembled. Got the speedo cable in and the carb linkage completed. Also spent some time aligning the bumper. I just need to attach a few more hoses (waiting for more clamps;my original order was short the hoses at the fuel tank) and a few vacuum tubes and then I will be about ready to start her up. Oh, after I get a battery. Will go to Costco for that. With a few minor mods, their batteries can look pretty retro and original. Anyway, here are a few pics for now.

I cleaned up the brake master cylinder, brake check valve bracket and starter. Also installed them. The brake vacuum line looks great. I need to replace the brake cylinder caps with the metal ones, but will leave these on for now. I installed the starter, but am not really happy with it. I cleaned it up as best I could but most of the yellow zinc is gone so it looks kind of old. May look online and see if I can pick up a new one for relatively cheap. Pics are below.