jfa.series1

Agreed - the replacement hood and wonky front bumper suggests collision damage so give a good look where the hood mounts to the body and along the inner fenders / frame rails. How is the battery tray and surrounding area? Get inside and pull the carpets to check the floorboards all over and check the spare tire well. Run a magnet along the rocker panels and at the dogleg area. Check for rust on the tray under the hatch. Any repair records available from said mechanic? With a running engine but non-driver status, ratted-out interior, and visible exterior cosmetic items this is probably a $1500-1800 car IF you do not find other issues with your inspection. Remember - as a non-driver, you can't check out the driveline, brakes, steering, suspension. As the man said, good luck. Jim

Very nice looking car. On the bumper comment: the rubber/plastic end caps come much farther forward on a '78 bumper - all of the curve is in the cap, not the metal portion of the bumper as on yours. Do a Google on '76 and '78 models and check a few images. I like yours better! Jim

I have the MSA ceramic coated 6-1 header w/o smog fittings and the performance exhaust system. These are really nice products. The header installed with no problems and no clearance issues when the engine was dropped in. The 2.5" exhaust mates up very well with one small problem: a welded-on hanger bracket was not positioned correctly for the hanger on the differential. The supplied muffler is a bit noisy and has a resonance around 3k RPM - don't count on listening to your stereo system too much, it will be overwhelmed by the Symphony in Straight Six. The muffler installs best with center in and offset out; tilt it about 30 degrees outboard at the top for a clean fit up into fender cavity. Hope this helps. Jim

Congratulations on your find and having the good sense to grab it. Thanks in advance for all your future efforts to keep another Series 1 car on the road. Please share the VIN and build date with all of us. On your question about ball joints: the '69 and '70 cars had a smaller tapered shaft on the ball joint where it attaches to the steering knuckle. At some point the '71s were changed but I don't have an exact date in the actual production cycle. Reportedly, the older style ball joints are NLA, thus requiring '71 or later steering knuckles for replacement ball joints. Because my car is a 12/70 build date, I chose to get replacement knuckles from a dismantler to be sure. The steering on the Z is pretty quick so be cautious in opting for a quick steering kit - see the bushing comments below. Urethane bushings will eliminate ALL compliance in the suspension and transmit every pebble, road crack, and bump directly into the body and steering. I can't say this is wrong but do be prepared. With my urethane bushings, the steering has a lot of undesireable feedback and snap coming back into the wheel. This summer I will begin work to remove the urethane bushings and get back to OE rubber. I too have Tokico HP shocks and lowered springs. The gas shocks will firm up your ride and provide a certain amount of lift to somewhat unload the springs. Be sure to get bump stops all around if you go with lowered springs. Here are a couple of pics of my suspension overhaul. If choosing black color, consider using POR-15 paint. A bit tricky to use, but virtually indestructable from road chips. Again, good luck with the project. Wish you were in this area as I would love to be hands-on with another one. Jim

Chaser - I live in Richardson and could probably take a look at the car Blue found in post #7. I can't do a mechanical eval beyond driving it but I can sure check out the cosmetics and any available records. The price is a bit higher than your target but everything else I've seen you looking at will suck up that difference and a lot more. PM me with your contact info if interested. Jim

Here is my before and after. I went with a gloss finish on the repaint to reduce the amount of dirt that might stick. Don't overlook painting the five tabs for the grill mounts. Jim

There is some adjustment available to you with the bolts that attach the hinges to the body. Remove the grill to allow easy access to the bolts. Loosen the bolts a bit with the hood in full down position. If I recall correctly, the hinge position may block access to one bolt, so it may have to be loosened/tightened with the hood open. Gently push down on the front corner of the hood and see if you can move it into better alignment, lightly tap on the hinge while doing this to encourage it to shift. Hold the hood in place and tighten the bolts. Re-install grill. If this does not work, then the hinges may be worn and need to be replaced. Also, try some dry-lube spray on the hinge pins to be sure they are not binding. Jim

The P/N is 26029-E4600 (courtesy of the online parts manual: http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsunS30/DatsunZIndex/Electrical/HeadLamp/tabid/1677/Default.aspx A check of Courtesy Nissan's site shows it to be NLA. Other than a chance find on eBay, your best bet may be a parts car at a nearby wrecking yard. Your assumption it may not be unique to a Z is probably right so include other vintage Nissan and Toyota vehicles, including trucks. Good luck and glad to see you are keeping that Series 1 going! How about some additional pics in your garage? Jim

Congratulations on keeping a '71 OE radiator in service all these years! That speaks very well for the care and maintentance of your car. If it turns out a repair of your core is not practical and you want to maintain the look of originality, consider having your radiator re-cored with a 3-row insert. The extra cooling capacity is a big help and you give up nothing in appearance. Been there, done that. Jim

Post #8 suggests the large dia. vent hose is NLA. I purchased three of the four hoses for my '71 car from Courtesy in Sept. 2010. I think the P/N for this hose is 17236-E4601 and Courtesy's site shows it available from the warehouse for $101 (list). The hose I did not purchase was a small dia with no special bends. The other two special bend P/N's are 17235-E4601 and 17239-E4601. I think they also fit the '72 cars. If you replace the hoses, don't overlook the rubber seals where they transition into the interior - available from Banzai and perhaps others. Jim

Chris, You have pretty well identified the reason for the FSM to recommend replacement of the LCA assembly: pressing out the old bushing is not an easy task and requires exactly the correct dia. tool to hit the bushing and not the surrounding LCA. My approach years ago was to hacksaw sections out of the bushing until I could get enough relief to pry out the remainder. Pressing in a new bushing does not have the tool mating problem. Another paint alternative for your suspension parts is POR-15. A bit touchy to use but a resulting finish that is almost indestructrable. Good luck! Jim

Italian cars and Italian women... beautiful to see, wonderful to touch. Their personalities can sometimes be a bit challenging to live with. When all is said and done, a session with either will leave you with a smile of contentment and looking forward to the next interlude.

Sometimes you're good, sometimes you're lucky. Today you are both!!!

Here is my approach to the hatch weatherstrip issue. Hope this helps. Jim http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?42260-Hatch-Outer-Weatherstrip&highlight=hatch+weatherstrip

Hi Chris, FWIW, I can offer you my real world experience with Tokico HP shocks and urethane bushings. I don't have the knowledge to speak of spring rates and other technical details, just seat-of-the-pants and steering wheel feedback to pass along. I finished my resto last fall, full suspension rebuilds included. I have 70's vintage Mulholland springs all round. Unlike OE-style hydraulic shocks, the HP gas shocks provide some amount of suspension lift and seem to keep the car from fully settling onto the springs. The springs are in full contact, not loose on the strut - they just don't seem to be significantly compressed at rest. On the front, I have eccentric bushings on the LCA's for camber adjustment so no rubber or poly bushings there. I have poly on the T/C rods, steering rack, and steering rod. The front end ride is firm-to-harsh, road feedback thru the steering wheel is harsh and unpleasant - a lot of snap in the wheel from small bumps. On the rear I have full poly except for the moustach bar mounts - I did not want to fool with cutting out the original bushings with the pressed steel inserts. The OE bushings were in good shape, so I left them alone. The ride on the rear is equally as harsh as the front - every small bump is transmitted into the body as impact and noise. This summer I plan to begin replacing poly bushings with rubber to get the harshness out of the ride. My car is not a daily driver, just primarily a fun car for club events, shows, ...etc. Hope this helps in some way. Jim

That is a very nice looking car! Congratulations on a good find. Jim

BD also has them at $50 each for the left and right side. The stainless is nice; they come straight and have to be "warped" into the slight curve of the door edge. Jim

Here is the link to the spreadsheet. http://www.editgrid.com/user/mlwilliams/Z_Car_Registry And... Mr. Humble, please accept my thanks and appreciation for your wonderful book. I've spent many hours reading it while first planning my resto project, then again many lookups during the project. Jim

Ardmore is not that far from Dallas and we have a lot of active Z enthusiasts in this area. Perhaps you can bring your new treasure down to Cars & Coffee in Plano some weekend - it is always the 1st Saturday of the month at the BMW dealership. We would enjoy a bit of socializing with you. Jim http://www.zcluboftexas.org/

You can get a new one at Banzai for $7. Jim http://www.zzxdatsun.com/catRubber.php

Like you, I went with poly bushings throughout when I restored my car - and now wishing that I had not! Waaayyy too harsh a ride for a street car. I have eccentric bushings on the front LCA's for alignment with my lowered springs, so no chance of going back to rubber there. With poly bushings now on the steering rack, all absorbancy in the steering is now gone and twitchy / high feedback steering is a result. That leaves the T/C rods as a candidate for going back to rubber which I will do when the weather warms a bit. After that, I may go back to rubber for the steering rack. Jim

Consider contacting member Thorsten Link in Germany. He located and imported a car from the US in 2009 and may be able to give you some ideas on the search process and potential help on importing. Here is the link to his profile. Jim http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/member.php?22294-thorz

That looks like good old 920 Safari Gold - check out my garage. Jim

Here is the dash of my recently restored car. I installed a modest-priced Dual single CD unit with removable faceplate to get the USB and AUX ports. This is a standard single-DIN unit and it required a very slight relieving of the opening with a Dremel tool to allow the mounting insert to be installed. In addition to the standard switched power wiring, this unit requires a constant-on connection to maintain its memory settings. The nearby clock wire is constant-on and that is what I used. Hope this helps. Jim

There are relatively few S30's out there today that are still original and, I suspect, even far fewer that are in the beautiful condition as your car. On the other hand, S30's that are great candidates for mods are far more plentiful - and that is not attempting to include those rusting away to oblivion. With all that said, my counsel is to keep this great car in the original condition it is in now. Once you change it, the originality and uniqueness will be gone forever - it will become just another modded Z. Have a hankering to build one to your own specs (and I see you are a real car guy)? Then go rescue one that has fallen on harder times and bring it back to life just as you want it to be. Just my $0.02 worth. Good luck with your decision. Jim