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Hi Ian, THanks for your thoughtful inputs, as usual! I have exactly thos window rollers as replacement, already, that's why i removed the old ones. they seem pretty well made, if you ask me. The original ones were all pretty toast. Oh, those bearing look neat. I just got a set of ptfe bushingsthis morning (update-post is in the works). But now you really made me think i should use the bearings. I never thought about such small needle bearings, but they look cool and are definitely an option. I might place an order. thanks!!

Last weekend, I met my Carb specialist, and was able to hand over all the missing parts (and some goodies) to the man. So he immediately started with the assembly work, as everything else was already prepared. Using the tools, which he recently acquired during a visit to one Mikuni specialist in Japan: He started to assemble everything. the body was glass-bead blasted. some metal parts got nickel-plated, and all the other parts remained origina brass, or the original blue-zinc or yellow zinc as they came from Mikuni or the aftermarket suppliers. You can really see here's a specialist with a racing background, as he tests everything multiple times - also adding securing color dots, etc. You can also see that now an additional retainer spring has been added (thanks, however gave me the input!). For better throttle response and feel. My Carb specialist was quite happy with the effect of it! And, h ere we go: Once done, he tested everything on his homemade bench (sorry for the blurry photo), to adjust everything, etc. His setup is only made for twin carbs, so he has to test them two by two. but nevertheless, still a very cool homemade test bench! Aaand drumroll here we go. All three done! Well, almost. We figured out that I had ordered a wrong sized main jet, so I had to order three new ones, and once those arrive, everything will be set up correctly. I'm more than happy! Remember, this was the exactly same set, when I got them. Quite the difference. We also discussed some details regarding the Intake manifolds, spacers / Insulators and throttle linkage, fuel lines, etc. And that made me think about some details which I haven't thought of, before. I have both a FET and a Nissan Compe intake, and having them in my hands, I thought it was about time to get those nice, and shiny, too. Using my "winged-nut-plus-counter-nut" method to unbolt the studs I disassembled everything from my two intakes. Masked them off And then got them into my, now upgraded, blasting cabinet: 30 minutes or so later. and the result is stunning, if you ask me. Below is the glass-bead-blasted FET Intake, while above is the NISMO / Nissan sports option intake, in it's originaly aged dirt: After the succesful tests with the FET, I decided to give the Nissan item the same treatment, and it turned out great as well. So what next? I removed all other hardware, and I'm currently getting it ready to be replated, together with all other stuff. I also made sure to oreder plenty of different linkage hardware, bushings, spacers, and whatnot, to test different setups. I'm really looking forward to assemble everything and have all the nice and shiny bits installed on these, together with the freshly restored carbs. Massive thank you to my Carb specialist (You know who you are!) for the outstanding work and service!

Time for a very long overdue update on the project. I wasnt silent because of no progress. Quite the opposite, actually. I was so busy with all the small things that I simply found no time to post here. And also you don't want to see every bolt I spent an hour on cleaning it. So instead of boring you with all the small details, I rather post a little summery. So what happened in the last few weeks? In the last post, I thought I had everything disassembled. Well, turns out there was more stuff to dismantle. for e.g. the windows: I also decided to disassemble the window regulators, which requires drilling out the rivets (or whatever you call those), because all the old plastic rollers were completely wasted. And last but not least, the door locking mechanism. Which consists of surprisingly many individual parts: I also disassembled the rear quarter window frames completely. While they looked OK from the outside, I knew from one previous case, that the L-shaped brackets that hold the frame together are the weak point that often rots away. this one was no different. Luckily I was able to find some sets that survived. So first was to remove all the gunk and old rubber from them. which alone took a few days (Soak it in kerosine worked nicely): After everything was cleaned, I sprayed all the rust-prone points (everything that is not stainless-steel) with a special rust-protection / epoxy primer (Swiss product, called Brunox). This stuff is amazing. It reacts with the metal and turns it purple-blackish, and at the same time adds a clear primer coat. You need to apply 3-4 layers, but once dry you can paint straight over it. So once that was done, I painted all the areas which were originally flat black in - you guessed it - flat black again. I will now use the best set to reassemble some rear quarter sets for me. The last step was only to polish the stainless steel again and remove some of the minor scratches. Still needs a bit of work but they're more or less ready for reassembly. Speaking of reassembly: I had a few EU-spec rear bumpers (without overriders, but with the additional holes for the additional lower number plate lighting). but either the brackets were rusted away, or they were damaged beyond repair. Well I had collected so many over the years, so I took them all apart: And managed to assemble one pretty solid one. With some cleaning and my NOS fasteners and brackets, it almost looks like new. It has some nasty spots under where the rubbers originally where, so I will have to have that fixed and rechromed again. but at least it's straight and complete... As my original doors had the body-line removed (cleaned) by some previous owner, I thought it's easier to replace the entire doors than to have somebody fix that. Especially since they needed some rust repairs anyway.. Luckily i still had some spare doors and found an additional set. Just in case: I brought them to my local paint-stripping company. They use an alcoholic solution which is relatively PH neutral compared to acid based solutions others use. Also they dip the parts in a weldable KTL-primer if you want so. (that strange olive-green color): I marked all the damage and then chose the best sets to go on the car. While hunting for parts, I also found a used, originally Swiss-Car FS5C71A early 5-speed ("Competition", in some markets) transmission and decided to bring it back to Switzerland as a spare, in case mine fails (It's kind of hard to find parts these days): Speaking of Parts: I have meanwhile collected all the required parts to rebuild my Mikuni PHH's My Carb specialist was in Japan the other week to learn from the experts and I made sure he ahs the correct tools for it too (more details on that soon): I also got some missing documents and cool parts from Japan: That Brake Master cylinder repair kit is quite neat: I also got some stuff from USA for my collection and some parts needed to assemble everything on the car: Now I'm slowly starting to assemble things on the car with all original Nissan Hardware. It's still just temporary, So some items might be missing, but I replaced the J-hooks and tank straps with new / replated items. Got my NOS front bumper brackets in stalled: And also all the mechanical hardware for the inspection lids. This stuff needs all to be installed for the bodyshop to make all the adjustments and some will even get painted-over. Just as it was from the factory. I have a constant stream of new Nissan factory parts arriving here. Some don't have that original yellow passivation on them like the old units did (Chrome VI+ is banned in many places due to the hazard, but it's still possible if you find an accredited company with all the neccessary paperwork and precautions). So these parts need to be replated, despite beeing new: I was very lucky to find a reasnobly priced set of NOS FRP headlight buckets with the threads for the original Nissan headlight covers in it. very nice. And also foun two Sets of NOS MK63 brake pads. Some say they contain asbestos. I don't plan to use them (I have project u brake pads in stock) but I I think they look so nice with the factory color marks and will but them on display. I also found some nice color charts and other stuff in Germany recently. Just for my archives :-) And then the game-changer arrived. I present you "The beast": My old compressor was simply to small and not enough powerful to cope with my now almost daily blasting work. What was supposed to take an hour, took 3 days of work because of the lame compressor. So here is the new one, including some chemicals for my parts cleaning production line... (Ultrasonic cleaning fluid, Parts cleaner degreaser, and Evaporust, plus some hand-soap :-P) I also heavily modified my blasting cabinet for improved LED lighting and dust-suction so now it's really a blast (pun intended) to do some work. Some examples: Engine mounts and crank pulley washer, before: After (I mainly use Glass-bead blasting at 8bar pressur with a 6mm Nozzle), for that smooth, flat and dense surface finnish. Hand-brake mechanics, before: after: So the reason i'm doing all of this is that I plan to drop off a massive load of parts for zinc plating and yellow / blue passivation. I'm currently negotiating and trying to find the best shop. Some can do big loads of small parts in rotating drums, others do it all manually. Some can still do the original Chrome VI+ Yellow passivating, others use replacement methods. Some with the same effect, some not so much yellow. I hope I find someone good. It seams that at least one company is less of an industrial plating company but more specialized in classic car parts. Probably the most expensive one, too :-P I'll keep you updated and hope I can keep the pace...

I want to avoid strong Lye / Acidic solutions, as the will attack other parts like plastic shims, etc. and if you don't rinse it off and neutralize it correctly everywhere (in cavities, or between moving parts, etc) you will end up with more and faster corrosion than before, Also you have to be carful when handling strong acids / basic lye solutions and you don't want to have strong acidic fumes in the workshop all the time, as it will force flash-rust on basically every surface in the room. i cannot ventilate my workshop very well, so other stuff works better for me. Also from an ecological point of view. I was also told to not heat up more than 50°C to avoid losing the tension of spring metals, or cause damage to special (for e.g. brass) alloys, Aluminum, etc, in the ultrasonic cleaner. The professional company I talked to said they set up their process to 43°c, which works with everything wthout the risk of any damage. Be careful when using 60°C, this might ruin your springs, or special alloys physically without any visible damage, allthough most metals are probably safe for this temperature! I do also not recommend a wire wheel, if you plan to replate the parts without any further primer / paint. it will leave small scratches in the surface which are still visible after plating. I made that mistake before..The factory zinc platiting / yellow passivation is very thin, so there is no material to fill any small scratches, and therefore it requires a very careful treatment before plating, if you want to keep the glossy factory shine. This is how the same hood hinges, which I showed a few photos earlier with the red primer on, after soaking it in Evaporust for 2-3 days:

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been experimenting thoroughly with varous methods to remove dirt, grease, paint, primer, bondo and especially rust from all my parts, in preparation to get them repainted or plated with fresh zinc. Especially for that, you waant to have a nice and smooth surface, to get the OEM look. I tried electrolytic rust removal, various acids and bases, petrol based fuels, paint stripper, etc, and used a variety of tools, like the ultrasonic cleaner, parts cleaner, rotary tumbler, etc... Here is what I figured out works best for me: 1. Degreasing. For big parts, I use the parts cleaner. Currnently there is a petrol based degreasing solvent inside, but I want to try more modern, more ecological and solvend free solution in the future. The workshop is full of petrol fumes after using it, and those new fluids should not evaporate, and also are biodegradable. Make sure to remove big chunks of grease manually beforehand to not mess up the degreaser fluid too much. This was the result after a quick wash. I have figured out that if there are no critical parts (rubber, etc) on the parts you want to clan, you can easy soak it in the parts cleaner overnight for a deeper penetration. For smaller pats, I use a household ultrasonic cleaner with a simple industrial cleaning soap solution (5 parts water + 1 part solution). I let it run for about 20 minutes at a temperature of about 35°C. Some metals lose their specification when getting too hot, and that is not what you want (for e.g. spring-steel loses it's tension, etc.). You can obviously run this for as much as needed. The results are usually quite good. But this will only remove dirt and grease and no corrosion or anything like that. 2. Paint stripping. Before paint stripping, ensure that you have degreased the parts and roughly cleaned them. Parts which were originally sand-cast and have a rough surface anyway, or those that will get primered and painted anyway can be sandblasted: I use standard sandblasting media "Normalkorund" in German. and the results are quite OK if you ask me: For parts that need to have a smooth surface in the end, I use paint stripper. Unfortunately, that strong stuff is prohibited here now, so I have to use whatever home-depot is offering. It's usually some kind of gel, which you put on the paint in a thick layer. Optionally you can wrap it in tin-foil, I figured out that keeping it in a closed plastic box also works well: Usually, I leave it overnight, but it should look like this after 1-2 hours already. some modern paints come off harder that some old stuff, which gets wringky as soon as you apply the stripper. Use a spatula or natural hair (no plastic) brush to remove the paint, preferably under flowing water: I realized that those paint strippers often do not work very well with rust-protection primer (red stuff in the photo), but i have a solution for that too, see below. 3. Rust removal (and old zinc layers) Ensure the parts are degreased and the paint is stripped before removing rust. I figured out the best stuff for me is Ecvapo-rust. An american product that has no solvents and fumes, is biodegradable, harmless, reusable and works really well. You throw in the stuf fin a bucket with some of that evapo-rust: And after a few hours, or overnight, the stuff is free from all rust, without removing any of the metal, or without atticking ruber, plastic or other stuff: I threw in this heavily corroded bracket for two days: And afterwards all the rust was magically gone. the rough surfase comes from the rust, and not the product itself. but as you can see, all the rust is gone: Note: This product will also remove old yellow or blue zinc passivation (which is great for re-plating). Also not that the metal is completely unprotected after this, so flash-rust will appear within minutes if not treated further. But, if you plan to zinc-plate. the stuff will have surface-rust removal anyway again, so don't worry about that. 4: Primer removal: I have figured out that evapo-rust will also remove rust-protection primer. My guess is that this has to do with some chemical or physical reaction of that rust-protection paint itself. because evapo-rust would theoretically not attack any paint or primer, but it even removed some old paint in some cases. most probably because it attacked the corroded metal layer underneath. anyway. this worked better for primer-removal than paint-stripper!! 5: Old rubber & glue removal I tried various products again, to remove old (sticky, partially hardened, degraded) rubber parts from my rear quarter window frame, and then some old glue, too. An orange-oil based label-off cleaner worked partially, but I figured out the best way is to leave the parts in the parts-cleaner with petrol-based grease-remover overnight and then remove the stuff with a plastic spatula (blue part in the photo). Sometimes 2 or 3 attempts were required to get those really hardened parts out, but it worked very nicely: 6. Surface treatment (rotary tumbler) Some might remember that I used my rotary tumbler to clean parts in the past, but there are two flaws: It won't remove any old paint, nor will it remove rust deeply, and then it can really smoothen out sharp edges, which is not what you always want. Due to the size and shape of the delfir-chips I use, it is too large to attack any threads on bolts, and screws, etc. but it will give a nice surface and smooth edges to parts. After rust removal may leave "cancer surfaces" afterwards, this can be used to smoothen it out. Note that this stuff is abrasive, so you do not want to use this for any structural important part. This is how the water look after 24 hours of tumblering. I figured out that about 250ml of water with 1 cap (ca. 15ml) of compound works best for me together with 2kgs of delfir chips. and those chips last very long! I talked to a specialst who manufactures those abrasives and he told me that this process should always be done with water and compound, because the water-solution will remove the dirt and dust that would otherwise remain on the chips and reduce their effectiveness. Note, this might also remove old zinc plating, etc... You can also use walnut shells to polish things. Ore use ceramic chips for more abrasive processes, but be careful as this will remove way more material from the metal. My setup also worked very well to smoothen (almost polish) aluminum parts. like the horn membranes of my 240Z, which are a thin alumium plate. 6. Metarex metal polishing wool. This is one of my secreat weapons. Metarex is a wool soeaked in some polishing fluid for metal. you simply rub it on any metal and it will polish it nicely. I tried to remove some corrosion on some metal parts, but it worked so well, that it also removed the thin, old yellow-passivation on zinc plated parts within a short rub. You can see it here. So, While i can recommend the product for many, many applications, cleaning passivated, zinc plated parts is not one of them. Often, a combination of of multiple of the mentioned processes is required. for e.g. Degreasing, then paint stripping and then, finally, rust removal. Sometimes manual intervention with a scalpel or so is required, to remove small bits of paint and stuff, that won't come off with the mentioned methods, for whatever reason. I will try to improve my processes on the go, and if I find any significant things, I will let you know.

Today marks a big day in the Project. Well somehow. I have disassembled every single fastener on the car and its subunits. Well almost. I left some parts for the specialists. Mainly the Engine, the SU carbs, the Mikuni carbs (currently at a specialist), the Transmission (partially), Differential (partially) and the shafts. Other than that, every bolt, nut and washer that you can find on the car is removed and documented. I don't want to show you everything (would be hundreds of photos) but just some examples: Blower assembly: Heater box flap control mechanism: Fresh air vent flaps: Horns As the housings needed a proper cleaning and re-plating, I even drilled out the whole electromagnets and membrane assembly, and will rework everything. Line hardware including brake line proportioner and T-shape distributor pieces units (I've further disassembled them but not visible in this photo) Carb Intake, linkage, balancer tube, etc. As said, I'll leave the carbs themselves for the specialist: Aside from the few mentioned parts, everything now is disassembled. I went through all my storage boxes and marked them with to-do's. Every color has a meaning. As you can see, plenty of work is awaiting. But it's a turning point. from now on it's no disassembly or organization, it's cleaning, replating, repainting, replacing and - eventually - reassembling things. I'v already started the cleaning process and I'm currently doing some trials, research and upgrades to my workshop hardware, so stay tuned for another update, soon.

Thanks a lot. I saw some of your old posts while doing the research. I will definitely do some trials once I have everything ready :-)

I'm having a bit of a good momentum, lately. So I've decided to take advantage and continue dismantling things. The reason I take everything apart atm, is that i plan to have all parts cleaned and zinc plated at once soon. So I have everything ready for assembly when the other parts are ready. It also gives me the opportunity to check all the various parts in stock. Go through my parts in the "random parts" boxes and sort them into the correct boxes, and so on. Some of the shown parts will only be spares, as I have new / restored parts in stock. but it's always good to have a selection to choose from: First: The dashboards: Tension rods: Propeller shaft and drive s hafts. I will leave the greasy part to the specialists, here. As you can see, every single part on one of my cars suspension have ben taken apart, painted red and been assembled again. mostly with the wrong fasteners. makes it quite fun to puzzle it all back together. the good thing is that I often have a second set where many parts are still original. And then I have a big box with random re-plated fasteners which I bought from someone a while ago. And many of them appear to be the correct ones for various areas of the car, for e.g. these shiny replated bolts and nuts on the left for the drive shafts. Hand brake assemblies (Sorry, no fance photo): Hood release cable: Wiper linkage and arms. I went the extra mile and took apart the whole assembly. you can see everything on my car is heavily corroded. And those clutch springs are broken. I'll make a special post dedicated to those springs and its function. I have ordered some generic spring steel wire and I hope I'm able to reproduce those myself. Starter motor. Well I did this one more out of curiosity and because I had three of them, one in very rough shape. This one is clearly beyond repair, all internal parts are heavily corroded and rusted. I'm sure it would still run, but it's not really safe. I will have the easy replacable parts re-plated anyway, just in case. It could be remanufactured / refurbished, but since a new hitachi starter is only about 120 bucks or so, it's not worth the effort only to have a very old starter that looks good but doesn't work properly, or will fail after a while. None of my cars came with red interieor, so I'm not sure how these sun virsors ended up in my collection, but it was good to take them apart for spares. I had to cut the foam / vinyl open on one side, to understand how the L-brakets can be removed. The factory design is quite a bit ingenious on these. Also note the glue on the vinyl. I guess these might come from my first, white car where the whole interior was covered in blue plush fabric, when I bought it. That should have been a sign to NOT buy that car. I learned my lesson lol. And then, finally, I was able to find that one missing service bulletin for my collection: Whlie it looks like I only took apart things and put them back in storage, it's only half the truth, I plan on ordering plenty of spare-parts, have the first orders on the way and also plan a lot of follow-up work to restore individual items. Etc. Also I have planned a special visit tomorrow, so stay tuned for more updates, soon!

I spent more days digging through all my collected parst and boxes, and getting stuff organizied for the final phases of the project. And then realized that I still need to replate many of the original fasteners. Since I mostly have 2 or more pieces of each item, which I need, I decided it's better to also disassemble the spare units and take loads of pictures. this will help me put everything back together later, but will also allo wme to have nice spare-parts ready or make one-out-of-two, and so on. So i spent the recent days disassembling loads of stuff: Like the master-VAC / Master brake cylinder and brake balancer: after: Clutch slave cylinder. Naster cylinder: OEM brakes: All of them disassembled: Alternator. I don't know what happend to my car before. it appears like there was an oil explosion at some point. ALL of the engine-compartment parts have a thick layer of black greasy (oily?) coating on them. Before: After. I didn't want to go further to not damage anything that doesn't need repair, but wanted to do this to get some parts replated: Fan, Clutch and water pump pulley. As you can see, I also took the opportunity to find the correct parts that I had collected over the years and store them in the same box now. That makes things so much easier: Thermostat / housing: Disassembled: Some parts were pretty heavy corroded (including holes). luckily I was able to find spare parts for many fasteners and small bits in my collection: Like this thermostat hose adapter: Engine water piping (from two cars): Again, i have plenty of new stuff on hand: It's so much fun to find all the correct little pieces: Sometime sit raises some questions too. One of my cars had a water pipe piece that missed that little Y-pipe joint. A bit of scratching and I quickly realized that someone had weld it shut in the past. And of course that weld rot away, so there is a hole now :-) I did a lot of other work as well. wait for tons of new fasteners, I removed some tomporarly installed parts from the car, I'm selecting different items from my stock to be installed on my car, I'm discussing with the zinc-plating companies, as it's a bit tricky (Chrome 6 is prohibited now, which was the previously used yellow plating, but there are solutions), and there is so much more. Despite the lack of daily updates, I'm spending many hours in the workshop every day and it's very rewarding, to say the least.

Thanks for the hint. I'll have a look 👍

I asked him the same question: He said he used a Dremel tool and manually removed everything with different Dremel tips, like small wire-wheel and sandpaper-tip tools to carefully remove everything. Tomorrow the parts will additionally go for glassbead blasting (will smoothen and tighten the surface density, to avoid easy corrosion in the future). Another option would be a surface treatment with head and some kind of annodizing, from what i understoud. this would give the carbs some kind of blueish hue, but make it even more resistant against corrosion. He did this on these sanyo-kikis. It looks much less blue in reality, but you get the idea. It's not my cup of tea, so i won't do that, to keep it close to the OEM looks:

So, my Carb guy started to work on the carbs and sends me regular updates. First he dismantled everything. Some bolts were glued in by the previous owner and it was quite tricky to get them out: He checked and measured each individual component to see the state. As you can see some parts were bad, despite looking good. For e.g. this butterfly / throttle body shaft was bent and requires requires replacement https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Throtthe-shaft-bent.mp4 One everything was dismantled, it was time for a a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner: The internals came out beautifully, but we realized that the jetting is wrong for the L24 engine on some of the carbs. Some bodies show heavy signs of corrosion after the bath: Once he removed all the corrosion and cleaned everything, they turned out like this: here is a better photo: Before assembly, the parts will get an additional glass-bead blasting for a smooth and tight surface: I also got an order list and was busy ordering small bits and pieces. The first ones already showed up, but I still have a few orders pending: In case you're wondering: We used this referance table from upgrade motoring for the jetting of the carbs. At least as a starting point.

Lovely, thanks a lot.From what I can see on the photos, my carbs came with this spring? But they look grey and old, so i ordered a new set since i've made a big order anyway. Cheers!

Hey Ian, Thanks for the Input, as always. I just spent a fortune on PHH spare parts, but this spring is new to me. Do you have any photo of them installed, just so i undestand where they go exactly? Quite curios, but sounds like a great idea.

One task of the body shop team is to clean the heater cores and pressure-test them (for leaks). So it was about time to remove them from my two heater modules. As you can see, the first one was quite rusty, and what you cant't see is that that big middle plastic piece was molten in some areas, for whatever reason. There is plenty of surface rust inside, but nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of sandblasting and some fresh layers of paint. Those springs and mechanical parts will be a bit more tricky to replace, but I'm sure there is a solution. Luckily, I have some parts replated already, which will definitely be helpful to restore this thing. Completely disassembled. With plenty of rust and dirt who fell out of the box: While at it, I thought I better take apart the second one too, which was visually in much better condition (except that tacky wiring job). All controls, wires, and plastic pieces removed: I was struggling to remove one of the hoses, and it needed replacement anyway, so I took out my trusty garden-hose cutter (from a gardening project). Ah, sometimes it's nice to have all those special tools on hand :-P After all the screws were off, I was finally able to remove the second heater core. The second box was indeed in much better condition. the yellow zinc parts are corroded, but still visibly yellow. And It had all the original stickers, quality stamps and part number stamps on it: I'm not an expert when it comes to these things, there is corrosion and parts of the paint peeled off when I vacuum-cleaned the dirt of the heater cores, but otherwise They were much better than what I expected. I hope a professional wash will make them look shiny again. During some recent work, I realized that the first body shop has accidentally closed two of the VIN-tag plate holes. But instead left a new one. So it was time to get those missing holes back in: Here we go: Yes, one screw was missing (new ones are ordered) and the plate itself needs to be redone, as one corner broke off when I removed it years ago, and then I want to have a nice and shiny one anyway. Luckily, good replicas are available, and all you have to do is to stamp back the numbers. I also double-checked if the engine is still an original "Matching numbers" engine, and yes indeed, I still have the correct engine for this chassis. Which is great :-) Plenty of other works and updates going on in the background, so expect more updates soon.

Time for another long-overdue update: I've been busy working on many corners of my 240Z restoration project. Since it's mostly small works here and there, I wanted to save the work until I have enough together for a proper update. I'm trying to use my time and money wisely, to ensure the car is ready to go to the body shop in August / September. So the first thing I did was to drill holes in my NOS fenders. Some might say this is blasphemy, but I need those to install my NOS fender mirrors, which I really want to put on this car: And then checked my NOS fender hardware: Then I went through all my Boxes with NOS and reworked parts, trying to figure out what is missing: Luckily, I've collected quite a few things over the years: Nevertheless. There is still plenty of stuff missing. So I started up Excel and made lists, of what is still required for the body. Trying to source all the hardware: I placed various orders and the first bunch of hardware already arrived from Nissan. It's surprising how many parts you still get from Nissan. Some really obscure plastic pieces, for example. But then most of the fasteners have been replaced by blue-passivated (vs originally yellow zinc) or blued (black) hardware. Which has the correct specification but wrong surface finish. Nevertheless, I'm getting there. I also managed to find a bunch of cool, rare stickers locally: Speaking of stickers. Kats managed to find me those. Which I've been trying to find since I got that RS-Mach wheel. Very cool and thanks a lot!! While at it, I also was able to buy an early A-type five-speed transmission rear extension housing, which is not something you see every day. I had mine removed from the car (temporary test fit). so here you see my original one, vs the NOS one: I also got a ton of new documents from Japan: Some highlights are the Nissan Graphic customer magazine from the late 1969 and early 1970ies. There is not really much relevant stuff inside, but it features some cool photos and ads from the Z: Another highlight was this folder with random Service Shuho bulletins: While I already had most of the Shuhos. The folder itself is something I haven't seen before. It was all at a very low price. So I had to have it. And now I can store my Z-related Shuho's in that nice original Japanese workshop folder, as intended. There are still a few late ones missing from the Z-series, so I'm still trying to hunt them: I also liked this late S30 / GS30 poster very much, and luckily, I had an old, fitting frame lying around, so I framed it and will hang it somewhere: Today I got more rare documents, this time from Germany. That one green Bulletin was missing in my collection, and the Skyline stuff is for my friend. Then I went to collect a few parts for my build Not necessarily the best condition but much better than what I have now. So now at least I have two doors with the body line still intact, and to somewhat straight EU-type bumpers. The lot also included some freebies: I also managed to find a set of brand new correctly sized Butterfly flaps for my Mikuni carbs. So, I packed them together with all the other Parts and the PHH's themselves And went to my new Carbs guru. He is worth a dedicated story himself. But I tell you he's really passionate about carbs and has a long history, rebuilding carbs for anything from classic formula one cars to whatever obscure stuff he finds only, which he rebuilds just for himself for fun. Here is one of my carbs on his home-built test bench (part thereof): A bit of original vintage Solex France goodness: And here some Sanyo-Kiki Carbs from an Opel race car, which he rebuilt for his own collection: He will now rebuild my carbs, and update me constantly, so expect some posts about that. I also just placed an order for some shiny new bolts so he can use those shiny bits instead of the faded old hardware. Speaking of Shiny bits. My mate Stefan gave me a nice Box of NOS and used parts. That included quite the load of (I think?) door switches, horn relays and other electronics: Now I'm waiting for all these hardware orders to arrive. And after spending so much time in front of the computer, I'm very excited to continue work on the car itself. There is plenty of stuff to do until all the fasteners arrive and I can finally start with the Final assembly before the body shop, with all correct and "good" hardware. As usual, I'll keep you updated.

Yes, I agree. Over here (and I guess anywhere else) in the 80ies it was a cheap Asian car, that nobody wanted, so the owners were often young kids who couldn't afford their expensive dream cars like a 911 or so. Instead, they would buy a cheap 240Z, do questionable modification, cheap repairs and hack-jobs, install a high-power audio system, and do stuff like illegal street racing. So many of the cars weren't treated very nicely, until they started to become sought-after collector cars again.

Recently, I was very lucky and had the rare opportunity to buy something large, original Nissan and a big wooden crate arrived here a few weeks ago. Inside was a pair of New-old-Stock (NOS) Left and Right Front fenders. Original Nissan parts still in its factory packing and with all the labels, etc. But more about that in a second. First, I spent some time inside the car to remove all factory seam sealer. It's not something I had planned to, but once I realized that surface rust is hiding underneath (nothing critical), I decided to remove it all. It's not really visible in this photo, but I think I ended up removing a few kilograms of old brittle Nissan Seam sealer, totally! Now that was done, and cleaned up, it appears like a nice base shell to work on, again. The next job was to remove all body panels. Some were only placeholders for "good" panels, which I had installed as a test-fit to see where the body needs rework. So a lot of parts will get replaced, soon. My first body shop working on the car "kindly" put some undercoating on the car's front right inner fender (which we never agreed on). Meanwhile, I think he had some leftovers from another project and just wanted to use it and charge it to me or so, also it appears he covered some not-so-nicely-done areas up with that. So I spent a few hours with the heat gun and spatula, to remove all of that: And here we go. That red stuff you see is a rust-protection primer, which is fine. But I wanted to avoid paying the next body shop for all the hours to remove it (And it's surely not a job they like, either): I went through my collection of Body panels and decided it would make sense to have a EUDM and USDM front lower corner valances prepared and painted in the original color, so I can switch between the two looks at any time. One corner valance appeared to be from a car without the EUDM front spoiler, so I had to ensure the hole is there, before they paint it (ignore all the wrong holes, the bodyshop will have to close those) In my opinion, the shell and all panels are now ready to be test-fitted. I will have to place a fairly big order for all original Installation hardware. I was asked to install all panels with the correct ones, as some will be installed before the paint goes on, to maintain the factory look. Now back to those fenders. You might be wondering why I bought a set of expensive NOS panels when the car already had a set? Well, the point is that the green ones (special primer after dipping) had the bodyline removed by a previous owner who thought it was nice to have the car "clean". It took me a bit to realize that and now it was too late. It's possible to get the line back in, but it's a shitty job, and when the opportunity came to buy a set of NOS panels, i decided to go for it. Another few hours of bodywork saved. Time to put them on the car: Here you see the body line / kink on the new fenders, vs "cleaned" (unexisting) one in the door. Those aftermarket panels have come a long way since this project started, but nothing yet beats the look and feel and fitment of original Nissan Factory panels: I have plenty of cool stuff in the pipeline, so stay tuned for another update, soon!

Recently, I've been quite busy with 240Z related projects and work, but not so much busy posting about it. Time for a little wrap-up of the last few weeks. As my car will go to the body shop soon for some final work I'm a bit under pressure to prepare everything and find the missing parts. So first, I decided to remove all the parts that are not required for bodywork or which were only installed temporary. I also removed all labels and stickers from the panel. Every hour of work that I can do, instead of the body shop is an hour less I have to pay. And honestly, it's not the type of work that panel beaters like to do, so I prefer to do it myself. Like also removing some of the remaining seam sealer: I was a bit surprised, to see how much rust was hiding under the factory seam sealer. Nothing to worry about, but I guess if you do a restoration at that level, make sure you remove it, clean it and apply modern seam sealer. I was also surprised to see the bad quality factory welds (including remains of welding rods, etc.) hidden under some of that sealer. I also need to figure out many small bits and pieces and order what is missing. Time to go through my boxes of stuff I've collected over the years: And figure out what goes where, and what needs replacement: I was recently also quite lucky to buy some good lots of parts and documents, like this delivery from Japan: And another one (note same books as in previous post, these are for a friend): And a bunch of Swiss / French Datsun stuff from that period from France: And another bunch of rare Stickres, which I've found in Switzerland, recently. I have most of them already, but some I have never seen before. I was also lucky to find some quite rare and cool Parts for my Project, but I'll save that for another update soon. Promised.

Hi Kats, I totally missed this thread, so I'm a bit late. I just wanted to say thank you again and repeat what Alan already said. Your organization was absolutely perfect. The location, the tour, the invited people and cars, Our trip to Yokohama and much, much more! I will never forget it. It was definitely a dream come true! Thank you so much again. And having a ride in Ise-San's LY, hearing the Tomitaku OS-giken engine and the Z432-R's, driving in your Z432 and being on tour in the ZG's were all really special moments for me. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I'm so happy was part of it. And let's not forget the Zama collection and the visit to NISMO. So many things in such a short time. I'm still overwhelmed when i think about it :-) Thank you so much again (And also big thanks to Alan and Glenn for your translating work, public-transport-guiding and everything else!).

Long time followers might have realized that the project lost a bit of its original momentum. As much as I loved to take everything apart and attempt to fix it myself - at one point I had to realize that with life evolving and me becoming more involved my job, I simply don't have the time and energy left to spend every evening in my Garage. The Project was always meant to be a "learning-by-doing" project, but from that crappy rust bucket it once was, it has meanwhile evolved in an expensive quality build, and I also simply lack the knowledge to give the car love it deserves to become the good-looking, mechanically flawless, but also safe-to-drive car I look to own one day. I had several setbacks over the years and I have definitely learned my lessons, but you've mainly seen me do small tasks here-and-there, rather than attacking the big chunks of work which are still to do. So I've been thinking of how I can solve this in the best possible way. Luckily I can count myself being a part of the S30.world team, and they happen to have the best S30 mechanics and restoration team in the world, in my opinion. The work they do is truly outstanding. Chris finally agreed to put the car on his project backlog, and recently he came to Switzerland to assess the car. We made a first rough sketch of what needs to be done. Then this week, I flew to Budapest in Hungary to discuss a few other S30.world related things, but since it's also where they do the bodywork, paint, and mechanical stuff, it was great to see the team again and refine the plan with them. We discussed many options and I still wanted to do a few things myself, but we agreed on the fact that they should do everything that is impossible for an untrained person like me to do properly in a first attempt. So we agreed on the following: - Put the car on the measurement bench and make sure it's straight. - Fix some body issues that the previous body shops didn't get right, or messed up. - Paint the chassis in factory 904 white, including cavity sealing, seam sealer, undercoating, blacked areas, charcoal panels, engine block blue, etc. - Restore the engine (with a little twist) including the Mikunis - Restore the original and competition adjustable suspension - Restore the MK63 brakes install them with new brake lines, fuel lines, etc. - Restore the 5-speed A-type Gearbox, differential, drive shafts and propeller shaft - Install the roof liner, and difficult-to install a-pillar parts, etc. - etc. So the plan is that I get back a Car with an excellent body, restored drivetrain, sitting on the suspension and wheels. They calculated roughly about 11–12 months of work and I will go and check it out regularly. Starting point is expected to be in August / September 2026. After that, my work will be to install electrical wiring (my specialty), finalize the interior and all the missing bits and pieces from the body, exhaust, etc. That still will give me 1–2 years of work, I guess. Until then have plenty of work to do to prepare the car. I'll remove temporary installed stuff, attach other stuff correctly, find a few missing parts and prepare all individual items of the above list for shipping. While it will be a lot of work, it will also be a lot of fun, I hope, and I'm really, really, really excited to see Gustav, Tom, Lesly and co work on the car.

If you're in the Netherlands, then you must absolutely visit S30.world. They do outstanding work and have a great museum in Buren. What I have realized is that some people do great bodywork, but when they're not Z-specialists, they do not know the details. For e.g. my last shop was a VW specialist (like your beetle guys in CZ). But when they do not know all the little details, they will absolutely get some small stuff wrong, or need a lot of time to research details, which costs time and money. If you, however, have a shop that is specialized on Z's, it will maybe cost you a bit more, but they know their cars in and out, have templates to make the correct sheet metal, and usually have a few complete cars on site to check some details. So if I can give you one big advice, which i've learned the hard way from my mistakes: Bring your car to a Z specialist. As good as any other Bodyshop might be, they will never know the car as good as the Z-specialists. who knows exactly how to remove each panel, where the rust sits, and how to correctly replace things.

Those who follow the story of my Z's since the beginning, might know that this project started over 15 years ago, and since then, I never had a complete S30 that drives. It has always been a hobby of mine, and it was intended for myself to gain knowledge about car repairs, how they work and just enjoy building something with my hands. What was once intended to be a quick-fix over 1–2 years, quickly escalated in much more than I could ever imagine. And that in a good sense. I've gained many new contacts, knowledge and friends. In recent years, however, I feel that I lack knowledge and experience to get to work on the more delicate parts of the car - like the body. I have given it to professional bodyshops twice, but it didn't turn out as expected. It took them much longer than expected, costed much more than originally stated and the quality was not up to my expectations. So I lost a bit of motivation. I thought about doing it myself and learning how to do it, but honestly, my work kept me busy in the past few years, so I didn't really have time to get into it, buy all the required tools, and so on. But also, I have spent way too much on the car to stop the project and despite all the hassle and costs, I still love it. It just makes it more special, once it's finished. Long story short. I have finally agreed to bring the car abroad to a real S30 specialist and get it done. Once we have settled the details and timeline, I will tell you more. But for now let's keep it like this. Next week, I'll get a visit from the specialists to assess the car and discuss the details. I thought it's about time to prepare myself and the car as good as possible. So I went to my to-do list and wrote down every known issue on the body: Took it to the car and checked everything in detail: There are some minor areas which still need a bit of love. There are some modifications which I'd like to incorporate, while at it. There are some previous repairs which seem to be incomplete and need to be checked. While at it, I also realized that there still was some seam-sealer here and there, so I took the opportunity and removed it. Which was a good thing, since I found some surface rust underneath at some points. So now this can be tackled before paint. Now, I have a very detailed to-do list with about 40 tasks that need to be done for the body with photos, descriptions, marks on the car, and so on. It will be a challenge since it's sometimes tricky to fix a previous not-so-nice repair, but I'm sure I have found the best choice of people for this job, and I try to make it as easy as possible for them by finding NOS parts, like NOS cable mounting brackets, and so on. I really hope to close this chapter now after so many years and go forward with the next steps. The good thing is, in the meantime, I have collected so many good parts, documentation, knowledge and also nice contacts. So while it won't be easy to finish this project, it will be definitely much easier than before. I'm curious and excited to see where this story goes, but I really hope this gets a good boost now, which motivates me to get some stuff done on my side and prepare for the next steps. Fingers crossed.

@RIP260Z : In the meantime, I got the following photo from an 1972 Nissan Image brochure, which shows the designers (Tamura san on the left) working on an S30 clay model, that seems to confirm what you wrote about the clay above. But to be honest, it's difficult to say if it's the same material. My model is mostly covered in paint and the small areas where it isn't are tricky to judge. Many modelling clays are reddish, so this isn't a confirmation that it is an official Nissan Model, but it also doesn't deny it either. Looking at the one in the photo below it is clearly a bit larger than mine and has many more details, while mine is a relatively rudimentary. But depending on the purpose, it maybe wasn't necessary to spend time on all those details. BTW: I can see that Chavant is still active in the Automotive design clay supply business: https://chavant.com/industrial-design-clays

Due to some stars aligning, I was able to collect loads of documents for my Datsun project from various sources. Some of those documents are quite rare and some which I've been trying to find for several years now. With this delivery I've been able to close a few big gaps in my archive, and this will definitely help me to write more complete knowledge posts in the future. Let's quickly go through what I got in the recent weeks: First, I was able to obtain a 1973 Press release folder from the Geneva Auto show, where also the 240Z was shown. So far, I only had the French version, but now, finally a German version, which came with this really cool cover page: I also got some missing Swiss price lists for my collection (free download of all of them here) and the "World of Datsun" brochure. I have quite a collection of this "World of Datsun" styled advertising material, but i've never seen this one before. So it's cool to have it :-) I got a few Datsun USA Service gauges / guides, which i think are quite cool: It also came with this "Datsun Saves" Gas per mileage saver calculator-gauge. Which goes nicely with the original can and Ad: I Also got an original Mikuni USA PHH Service manual And a Box for spare needles and Jets (empty): Found another full set of sports option catalogues. I didn't really plan on buying them, but I was the only bidder, so I got them for a good price. The seller also had some other ones for sale, which had an even better price. So I couldn't resist: Speaking of Sports options: I also got a bunch of Datsun / Nissan Motorsports / Competition parts catalogues from the USA: And a few very early ones. The one at the bottom is from 1974 and came including a price list: In regard to catalogues: I also got a bunch of Japanese market parts catalogues. Left the folder version and on the right the book version. I've never seen one with the "Nissan" marked protective plastic sleeve still on it. Very cool. I also came across an export market RHD (R-drive) Parts manual book for the 240Z / 260Z. So far, I only had the folder versions. Speaking of folders. I was very lucky to find these Datsun / Nissan Service journal binders Vol.3, Vol 3. and the empty one on the right side: Those folders on the left include loose early service bulletins of various cars and general information, but also the green Service bulletin booklets. This makes my collection of 240Z Related bulletins almost complete. There are still a few missing, unfortunately: I got also a later book version with the Technical bulletins in a book, and the Japanese Z-7, which is basically the same as the green ones, just for the Japanese market. Now I think only the Z-5 is missing in my collection (And some later ones, which I don't really care about): Also got these. The left is from a different car, but the right is a similar Service bullet in new design. I know this one was also available as a green booklet. Also got some S30 related service manuals, that were still missing in my collection: On the left you see the BW35 Borg Warner Service manual for different cars. And on the right side a Datsun USA Engine analysis book: Then got a bit of random items. From top left to bottom right: - A ZX Documents pouch (Came with some other stuff) - Datsun USA Parts Name numerical number index - 1972 Warranty and Service booklet - Tokyo Motor Show 1969 original admission ticket (Where the S30 was shown to the public the first time) - A service Technician record booklet - Hayashi racing brochure The Datsun Service technician was kind of cool: It was issued in September 1972 to this technician and has several certificates and stamps of completed trainings inside: And last but not least some random magazines. Like the Car Graphic one on the left. It was issued when the RZ34 prototype was shown and has a nice story about former racing driver and Central 20 owner inside. I still have some small items which haven't arrived here, and will do a proper archive overview once everything is here, since some followers requested this. And I also have some update on the actual car project.