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It has been a serious while since I was able to put some actual work in the car. I had some urgent projects on the house to complete, and then I managed to injure my hands, but now I'm back at it again. First, I had to re-install my tank. Since I sold my new fuel tank including rubbers and straps at the Japanclassic, to help somebody get is car running again quickly, I had to wait for a new one to arrive from S30.world. Unfortunately, new straps are currently not available anymore, so i had to go through my set of existing straps to get the best ones for temporary usage: First i had the rubber insulator blocks installed on the tank: And then had it all wrapped to avoid scratches on my brand new tank: And then everything installed. Thanks to my new transmission hoist, this was a lot easier than last time. And last but not least, i had the drain plug installed, which comes with the tank: Next? Front end work. Ever since I had my wobbly bent EU spec front spoiler installed, I was wondering myself which route to go. EU-spec corner valances with the mounting holes for the spoiler, but no holes for the Lower turn signals or other way? After thinking about it for a while, i decided to take the best of both worlds. Some might call it sacrilegious, but I decided to go what appeals the most to my eyes. US spec lower turn signals, but EU-spec front spoiler (which also helps stabilize the car and is not just for the looks). My original thinking was that the US-spec corner valances need to be modified with that "loose-nut" mounting brackets for the lip, but when checking my EU-spec valances, i realized that on the corner valances (unlike the center valance) there is only a simple hole. So the modification of US-spec valances to fit the EU-spec spoiler is simply to drill a 5mm hole in the right place. To get the right place, i made a nice little template from tape. Transferred it from the EU- to the US-valances, and drilled / cleaned it. Unfortunately, I found that on the LH-side somebody had previously drilled holes in the wrong places, for whatever reason. Probably they had some different spoiler installed? I'll leave that to the bodyshop. So everything set to install the spoiler completely? Almost. As you can see, the brackets on my worn out spoilers are quite bent. Some were even completely missing or "fixed" with a bit of backyard-engineering: After I bent all the existing brackets in a more-or-less correct position and installed it back on the car, i have to admit it looks quite good, even though it's still just a completely temporary mock up. I also had my replica US-spec turn signals installed (I will look for some good OEM-ones, as these lack the mandatory E-stamps on it). Which made the iconic, but also a bit ugly, EU-spec turn signals obsolete. Even though I don't think the look is too bad, I always have the feeling that they were just slapped on the car in a hurry, and are held on the bumper with only one nut, so they always look a bit off in their position and are hard to get it right (see previous photo). So I had them removed. The US / Japan spec turn signals always looked much sleeker to me, fully integrated under the bumper. Like intended from their designers. So for the moment, I'll stick to this setup. But I might change back to full EU-spec, if required. During this work, I was also able to fix two previous issues with the front bumper alignment, which is great too. From my point of view, the front-end (everything in front of the radiator support) is completed now. Next I'll focus on some other points. My 2-do list is getting smaller, and I'm happy with every task I can check off. I expect DHL ringing on my door with some nice stuff from Japan every moment, and i have some more things on the way here, so expect another update soon.

I have some urgent projects around the house which I hope to be able to finish in the following days, but I hope after that I have loads of time for the Z again. So this will be a very quick update: I got some nice documents from Japan again: The first one is the "Z-2" Service Shuho Book, which is the equivalent of the English bulletins. They have become quite pricey recently, so i stick to focus on the most important ones, but when Z-2 (introduction of the Automatic transmission cars) showed up for a reasonable price, i made sure to get it. Here's my collection so far. There are plenty more, which I hope to add to my collection whenever they pop up for a good price. The second document is the December 1973 Nissan sports option catalogue for the HS30 "240Z". It's probably the most extensive one, which is 12-pages strong. It focuses on the HS30 Fairladies only, which means most of the listed parts also fit my HLS30 car. The other catalogues are either much thinner, or focus on a different car (Z432, for e.g.) or a whole range of Cars (240 / 260 / 280Z). But basically, it was a good price and missing in my collection, so that's why I got it. I hope for more updates, soon, I have some things planned... And I have some very cool things waiting to be picked up by me, or on the way here...

I have some urgent projects around the house which I hope to be able to finish in the following days, but I hope after that I have loads of time for the Z again. So this will be a very quick update: I got some nice documents from Japan again: The first one is the "Z-2" Service Shuho Book, which is the equivalent of the English bulletins. They have become quite pricey recently, so i stick to focus on the most important ones, but when Z-2 (introduction of the Automatic transmission cars) showed up for a reasonable price, i made sure to get it. Here's my collection so far. There are plenty more, which I hope to add to my collection whenever they pop up for a good price. The second document is the December 1973 Nissan sports option catalogue for the HS30 "240Z". It's probably the most extensive one, which is 12-pages strong. It focuses on the HS30 Fairladies only, which means most of the listed parts also fit my HLS30 car. The other catalogues are either much thinner, or focus on a different car (Z432, for e.g.) or a whole range of Cars (240 / 260 / 280Z). But basically, it was a good price and missing in my collection, so that's why I got it. I hope for more updates, soon, I have some things planned... And I have some very cool things waiting to be picked up by me, or on the way here...

Over the last few weeks, i did some small things and collected a lot of stuff again. First, I exchanged my US-spec front lower valance. Before: And After: Euro spec valance: In case you're wondering, what's the difference? The euro spec has the additional mounting holes / nuts to install the Euro spec front spoiler lip. Here you can see the two side-by-side: This allowed me to temporary test fit my wobbly, worn-out, cheaply-repaired Euro spec front spoiler lip: I still need to change the corner valances to euro spec ones, but also the lip needs a replacement, as this one is beyond repair. But at least I could see how it will look: People often say they're impressed with what I'm able to find for purchase. But this time I even surprised myself. You might remember the Eaglemoss Fairlady Z Kit that I bought a while ago and came with a bunch of magazines? The set has dedicated folders / binders to put the magazines into. I always had two missing, so some of the magazines were stored "loosely". Luckily, I was able to find two unused Folders for exactly that kit in Japan: So all the magazines are now nicely stored: And my book shelve / archive looks much better :-) I also bought a small lot of vintage Datsun (Switzerland) Stickers. Some of which I haven't got yet in my collection: Then I also got a bunch of Documents: First, the Datsun Sports 311 Introduction Bulletin from 1967. Theoretically, it has nothing to do with my 240Z project. But with this car the FS5C71A transmission was introduced The original Overdrive transmission, used in a similar (albeit slightly different) configuration in the early EU-spec 240Z. To find information about it is a bit tricky. So when I saw that this booklet has more details about it, which I haven't seen before. I had to get it: Speaking of transmissions, I also got the Japanese Nissan Transmission service manual from 1974: This one includes the later FS5C71B transmission and some general information about Nissan transmissions, which is not found in the 240Z specific documentation: And then i also got another issue of the "Nissan Star", Swiss customer magazine from 1990, which always has cool insights into Nissan from those days: More to come soon.

I collected a few parts again, recently. Some stuff which is required to complete the car: First of all, one of those beautifully crafted S30.world reproduction fuel tanks and tank insulation rubbers. I sold mine at the recent japanclassic show, so I had to get a new one for my project. Secondly, I got a NOS euro spec front lower center valance (with the additional installation holes for the euro front spoiler): This means i can finally replace the crappy old one with the one that actually belongs there. Huge thanks to Alan for helping me with this! Then I got one of those original printed Datsun competition parts catalogues. I already have the Japanese versions and had this one digitally, but I always prefer to have the original printed stuff. For those who don't know the competition parts catalogue, it's basically a "sports option" and racing parts catalogue by Nissan themselves: I also got another issue of the "Nissan Star" magazine. It was a Swiss Datsun / Nissan customer magazine, which always has cool insights at how Nissan (Switzerland) operated back in the days. I also randomly came across this "Nissan 50th anniversary" catalogue from Switzerland. It's completely unrelated to my project, but since I have all the original "50th anniversary" badges, I thought it would be cool to have the fitting catalogue to it with the same logo on the front. Things are a bit crazy at work at the moment, so progress is slow, but I hope to jump back in the project soon. I made a major decision to have the car completed by some professionals, otherwise the project will drag on for another decade. But I still need to complete some tasks by myself, and more details on that topic soon.

Hey @HS30-H, thanks for sharing! Big thanks go out to @kats. Without all of his relentless research, none of my article would have been possible. I hope you all enjoy the read. It's really a topic often overlooked in my opinion, as these cars are quite special.

Recently, a friend and I were working on the 240Z Original R180 differential and we both were not happy with neither the state of the original factory-installed differential strap belt, nor with the replacement options. None of the available replacements look anything close to the original belts. After a b it of research, my friend found this one on AliExpress, which is some sort of V-belt or something: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005006145171328.html make sure to order the 12ribs pk560 type. NOTE: We realized all original belts had different lengths (probably due to wear and tear), so make sure to measure your original one (best done with a piece of tape) before you order. I also cannot guarantee that this will fit perfectly and was not able to install it yet. But so far it looks pretty good: The only problem: the replacement belt has some pretty colorful markings on the outside and is quite shiny. I tried different things, but the best to get rid of it was simply to sand it off with some 80-grit paper: After some manual attempts, I chose the belt-sander to get rid of the rest. Be careful to sand off a minimum only, if you remove too much material, the woven white threads inside the rubber will become visible. Not what you want. And here is the result: Left AliExpress replacement original, Center: Aliexpress sanded down. Right: Original Nissan Belt. I'm quite satisfied, and so far it looks like the most OEM-looking option I have seen so far. Somewhere in future, we'll see how well it fits, too :-)

You're of course right. The FS5C71A transmission (from my cars), have the Porshe style Servo synchros. If you look at the mixed bag of synchros you can see there are all kind of synchros (Brass and Steel synchros) So we were hoping that something might fight my transmission, or at least we figure out what car / transmission they belong to.

Recently, I collected a lot of cool, rare or needed Datsun / Nissan parts and documents again. Let's have a look: First, i got gifted this lovely 510 / bluebird Die cast model from my Lovely lady Myrtha. Big thanks again! She also brought me one of those famous green Datsun Switzerland folders. This one has all the spec-sheets of all Datsuns sold in Switzerland at that time. The specification goes quite deep. These folders were given to dealerships and were in the HQ for a quick check and comparison of technical specifications of all cars: So far I only had copies of the single Z-specific sheets, but now, finally, I have the missing folder in my collection. Very cool. And big thanks gain to Myrtha! Additionally, I got various random bits and pieces from Alibaba, thanks to some tips from my man Urs. Two different sized rubber plugs for the drum brakes (It seems that not all drums have the same hole-diameters?) And various Nylon washers. I will try to see if one of those fits the rear hatch strut damper. Since my original washers are either broken or damaged: My man Stefan also gave me a box of what appears to be Brass synchro gear wheels. We still have to figure out if they'd fit the Z, as they all came without part numbers or description, included in a big Datsun Parts lot. From my Man Dan at Japanese Allstars, I got this starroad Poster. Dan is an official starroad dealer in Switzerland, and he got this during his last visit. Although I'm not a huge fan of the Starroad creations, these days, I really like the photo on this large one-page calendar: After Months of searching, I finally found this 1994 NISMO 10th anniversary parts catalogue. I will put it on display with my NISMO 10th anniversary collection of Accessory catalogue, sticker, steering wheel and shift knob :-) The cool thing is, this catalogue came with an invitation flyer o the NISMO 1995 New year's garage sale at Nissan KN's factory: And even better, a two-page flyer invitation to the founding of the NISMO "club Le Mans". You can read more about that on the official NISMO page. And last but not least, I found this original printed Datsun 240-Z one-page flyer from Datsun Italy. Something very rare, which I've never seen before. Generally, 240Z information from Italy is very sparse, so I had to get it, when it came up for sale: I had some physical work done on some Z-parts too, so I will post another update of a little project soon, too.

I've been busy dealing with life recently, but that doesn't mean I forget spending money on more or less useless automobilia :-) First, the Japanese L-series Service manual. I have it in various language, but never had "the original" one from JP. And since it popped up for a reasonable price, I had to have it. Then i got another Datsun Switzerland price list. This time from April 1980. As usual, you can find all of them scanned in high-resolution for free download, here Some may know my List of various Japanese L6 Intake manifolds, carb kits and Turbo / Surge tank kits. And thanks to a hint, I recently acquired this lovely Japanese printed ad from the very first FET / HKS Turbo Kit. You can read a lot about it in my Intake / Turbo surge tank post, here. Thanks to a hint from Mymechanix, i got a beautiful Differential strap. The originals are usually worn out, and this replacement belt from Aliexpress has the perfect fitments and dimensions. All other alternatives come either in a leather look or rubber, this one is much closer to the original design. Unfortunately the surface is glossy and has some prints on it (see the one on the left) so i will try to sand it down, to get as close to the original look as possible.

So, I have been busy test-fitting various parts on my Z again. To set the alignment of the hood and fenders properly, I had all the hood hardware spacers, dampers and rubbers installed. Next on the to-do list was the rear hatch damper, so I can work on the hatch without having that temporary wood rod as a not-so-safe hatch holder. Wile both dampers I had were still working nicely, the mounting brackets were worn out on both and both had missing or cracked plastic / Teflon spacers. So after I got everything straight and assembled a temporary setup (I still need to find a good set of those plastic spacers). I finally had it all installed. Works perfect. It seems like that little-bit of extra-tension from the damper is required to have the hatch aligned properly with the roofline. I didn't expect the damper itself would already fix the alignment, but I'm happy it does. Now I only need to finalize sanding on the trunk spoiler and bring back the holes for the spoiler emblems. I also need to find a good rear bumper to test fit it. Mine both had a decent hit and are way too wonky to use them for test-fitments. Then, some people were suspicious about that extra sheet metal on my transmission tunnel (I have the updated body version from 1972, but still the early A-transmission, so I suspect they added that sheet metal to cover the hole?). Even though it's the original transmission of this car, it made me want to test fit it, just to be sure it all fits, before i paint the shell. So i had to assemble parts of the transmission first. Mainly the gear selector with the shift rod mechanism. For simplicity, I only used the center section of my FS5C71A five-speed transmission, because that's fine to test fit it. So I added the transmission bracket with the rubber insulator to it. And installed (Bolts only temporary, as usual - please ignore). And here we go. I can shift in all directions without hitting anything. But it's still a bit close to the front. I need to check if I put the directional insulator between the transmission and the mounting bracket in the right direction. And since I had an original center console lying around from my recent center console comparison i put it in there, just for fun's sake. Even though it's all only temporary test-fitting, it's really fun and nice to see all the bits and pieces come together nicely. I have already prepared some next steps on the interior, so stay tuned for another update soon.

Yesterday I got another bunch of NOS parts for my project, straight from the Nissan Stocks: Fuel tank sensor / sender Mounting ring and O-ring, plus the timing cover gasket. Front and rear bumper rubbers, Inspection lid foam rubber pieces and rubber seals Various spark plug wire brackets Hood bumpers, Hood stoppers and inspection lid rubber bumpers Window crank fasteners, Engine tube hose clamps and some heater panel knobs And last but not least, I also got a Swiss 260Z 2+2 brochure, which i for whatever reason didn't have in my collection yet: I also did some actual work on the car again, so stay tuned for another update, soon.

I've collected some parts again recently, so it's time for another update full of random bits and pieces. Reader RIP260Z pointed out that the Pump diaphragm is missing in the American Mikuni rebuilt kits which I got recently, but are included in the Japanese Mikuni rebuild kits. Luckily, I was able to find a guy in Japan who sells all OEM Mikuni / Solex parts individually, and I ordered plenty of parts, that were still available - Including the Pump diaphragms and many wear and tear parts like springs, etc. Speaking of Mikunis, I also found an original Japanese Solex NPHH44 service manual. I had a Copy of it before, but this is an original one, which is very nice to have :-) And on the left side, you can see an original German PHH44 manual. This is a completely different manual for the original Solex PHH44. Those were used on the NSU TT and TTS and the BMW E10, 2002, etc. if I'm not mistaken. The manual is quite useless, as the NPHH44 Mikunis / Solex don't have too much in common with these, but nevertheless it's cool to have a reference to the "original" design of these, with some German explanations. The explanation of the working principle in the German book is really cool, with all those hand-drawn graphics. The biggest part of the various deliveries was this Center console: It's made by VintageDashes in the USA. After he explained how he made it and so on, I decided to give it a try, despite the big price-tag. So far it looks very promising, but i have to check the details. I will compare it with the OEM console and the one from ResurrectedClassics which i also have in stock, soon. I found another Datsun Switzerland pricelist. This time from February 1978. As usual, I scanned them all in high-resolution, and you can download my whole collection here, for free. And then another useless, but cool part. The Eaglemoss-spareparts box. Which belongs to the kit, but sadly was missing in my set. If you want to know more about the eaglemoss 1/18 Fairlady set --> read here, and here. Aside from 2 empty binders (for the magainzes) and the original tool-pouch, my set is pretty much complete, now :-) I already have the next bunch of parts waiting in Japan, a delivery from Nissan directly, and I've worked a bit on the car too and did some research, so you can expect more updates again in a few days. Oh, and I also got a free heavy-duty grinder for my workshop, and cleaned / restored it a bit this week. If this is your kind of thing, then read the full story here.

I'm having a good pace currently and making some small progress almost daily. Currently, I'm test-fitting all the items so that they can go back to the bodyshop for final adjustment and panel-gap correction etc. The first thing I wanted t install were the rear quarter windows, but I quickly realized that some areas needed rework. Some time in the history of this Z, someone bent one of the mounting brackets heavily, so I had to get it straight again... And after spending 2 hours or so fixing various small details, the rear quarter windows finally went in, and fit perfectly: While working on it, i noticed the doors didn't fit properly. The reason? The door locking mechanisms were not installed. So the door was either not closed properly, or pushed too much inside. Before: And after. To get the mechanism in, i had to remove the upper door window frames out again. But that was a quick task. And on the opposite side, the locking counterpart went in. So now the doors can lock secure, are in the correct position for panel gap and body-line adjustments and are also safe for transportation and moving around, without the risk of the doors open by themselves. Next i got a bunch of O-rings and circlips for the rear differential, stub axles, handbrakes, etc. which were recommended to me by @Mymechanics (Great YouTube channel, if you haven't checked it out yet!) The next steps are already in preparation, I got some upgrades for my Workshop and have some more parts on the way, so stay tuned for another update soon

I spent some hours in the Garage again and got some tasks checked off my to-do list. First, I started to test-fit the taillight panels: So I was able to get the installation holes back into the replacement rear panel: Where the plastic rivets go. Luckily, I have a few for reference: It took me a while, but in the end, all worked out. I have to say, after studying a bunch of original, unrestored cars, those Panels are quite poorly aligned from the factory, and with a few adjustments to the rear hatch lock panel, they could have made this much more appealing, but at the end I wanted to have it looking OEM. After that, I installed the taillights too, just to see if it all lines up. Which, luckily, it does. Note that the panels are not properly locked into the brackets here, why it all looks "wobbly": While at it, I decided to also install the hatch locking mechanism, so that the hatch has the correct height. I own a set of NOS locks. But decided for testing the old ones will do. As usual, bolts / nuts are only temporary and might be the wrong ones, so please ignore those. The lower one was a bit tricky. I realized the space in the aftermarket panel is not big enough for the lock to fit through it. After a bit of hammering, though, it fits now. Still needs a bit of adjustment, though, as it seems the punches are not lined up properly with the bracket: While working in that area, I realized that this corner is also not straight. So I got that straight too. (Picture shows "before" state): In the end, I'm quite satisfied with how things fit. It's still all just temporary and needs a bit of adjustment and proper fitting here and there, but for the first mock-up, things at least fit, without discovering major issues: You might have noticed that the "chrome" (I think it's stainless steel?) taillight panel trim is missing. I had them removed before paint strip dipping, because the previous owner painted them black. Luckily, the paint could easily be chipped off with a carpet knife: And then I gave it a bit of polish with my "Metarex" metal polish wool: It still needs a bit of work here and there, but the first results after a few minutes of manual work are promising: Then I had to test-fit the door steps (or whatever you call those) back, as the replacement panels came without the holes to install them: So I had them test-fitted: And then got the holes and screws back in. Note it might look crooked, but that's just the reflection of the protective plastic i left there to avoid scratches on the new panels: I hope I can keep up the current pace. It's really nice to see things coming back together, even if it's only temporary.