JDMjunkies.ch

A few weeks ago my Bodyshop guy asked me if i could get him the now-missing taillight surroudning panel mounts, which he had to remove during repair of the rear-end. I researched a bit and found that JDM-Car-Parts makes them. They weren't cheap but well... Today they arrived in the mailbox. And while shipping stuff anyway, i decided to add a few small bits and pieces to the order. Like the chain that holds the Fuel filler cap in place: The rubber piece that goes behind the fuel filler cap: And some headlight gaskets, since my original ones are completely toast:

A few weeks ago i saw a german guy named tim on facebook, showing some Choke lever adapter plates he designed and made for the Z. He made a few more and sold them. I guess he didn't expect them to sell like hot cakes, so he had to make a few more. And that's how i got one in the mailbox today. The plate is made from 3D Printed plastic, which is then hardenet to improve strenght a lot and make it thermally stable up to 120°C. He designed and made those in first case for himself, and told me a lot of testing went into it to get the process right: The original choke lever is prone to be a bit "wiggly" which wasn't the best design from Nissan. The plate will improve tha stability of the choke lever and also prevent the Center console from cracking it that area (which can happen due to the loose choke lever) Once it's installed it is completely invisible. In my opinion clearly an OEM Upgrade worth it, even with completely stock cars. All pictures except the first one are courtesy of tim.

A while a go a i scored an (incomplete) set of old Nissan / Datsun Microfiches of the 240Z / S30 chassis in germany for almost nothing. I tried to scan it using a flatbet scanner is some suggested but the results were terrible. When i found out that my company (beeing a several hundred years old machinery company) has several of those in the mechanical department, i asked if i could borrow one to check my microfiches. and today i brought one home: Microfiches are like Dia's, a kind of minimized drawings or part lists on a film type piece of plastic. The microfiche reader is more or less a projector. You insert one of the film cards, which is labelled for example with "S30 Chassis": And then you can zoom in. By moving around the card you can check the different sections. and then zoom in more and more until you get the page you want: Like for example the steering section: The data in the microfiche is nothing special. it's available in digital form (Nissan FAST or E-Fast software), printed form (Parts manual / R-Drive parts lists) or even as scanned versions of the Microfiches. However it's fun to tinker around like they did back in the day and i will sure have my fun during the COVID-19 Lockdown time to go through the microfiches and check for some data i didn't know yet. Since those Microfiche readers are for sale cheap, im thinking of buying a second-hand unit just for fun and for having the parts fiches accessable directly in the workshop.

Soo. sorry for my late reply on this topic. 1) The one i got was claimed to come from a 260Z 2+2 by the original seller, but the European parts fiche says it's actually the same part number as used in the 240Z If you look close at the bottom of the following picture, you can see it's marked with up to "08/74" = August 1974. 2) I took some additional pictures of those rivets. I think the footrest is completely original down to the bolts, rivets and paint. Which was also told to my by the original owner: Not sure if this should be a straight 90° angle and was bent, or if it's this shape from the factory to fit the original floorpans shape? Will have to confirm this on my car... 3) If you ever make another batch of those rubber-pieces, please let me know. This would be excellent to refurbish my footrest back to original condition...

Good news. My Panelbeater is working hard on my car atm and there's some progress, so i visited him (with 2 meters distance of course, because #Coronavirus). So the passenger floor pans are in and will be completed soon: Looking good in my opinion: To get everything aligned was a bit of a headache, even with the best parts available, but looks good now. So today i brought him the front fender. It needs the original edge line hammered back in, as some previous owner decided to hammer that flat.. terrible.. Luckily it's the kind of job my panelbeater likes ? Starts to look like a car again, doesn't it? Allthough the rocker panel needs some adjustment. View from the rear. Also brought him the hatch to adjust everything but we didn't test fit it yet. Still a few days of work to adjust the rocker panel, get the floorpans welded in completely and have the Seat rail mounts back in. But then it's up to the other side. which is luckily in much better state and i have much bigger, better and OEM Panels ready. so i hope work will be faster. I say that, knowing that my panelbeater takes his time to get it done right..

Those valve covers are currently for sale in Japan. Pretty easy to find, if you just google it. I didn't want to generate a hype and see how the prices are ending up atm...

There we go. That was my assumption too, but couldn't find any evidence on it. Thanks for your inputs.

A few days ago a car-buddy of mine asked me if i knew anything about Plastic valve covers and sent me a link. I had a look and had to admit i've never seen it before. Information was hard to find (but maybe i was looking for the wrong terms)? There are currently a few for sale but i wasn't able to find it in any of the Options catalogues, or in an FIA Homologation or something. Does anybody know anything about these and how "rare" they are? Which cars /years where they installed in? Some sellers state that it is a "final" racing version which is sealing better compared to the standard metal items? Not sure about that statement though. Another seller says it came off an E-HS130 (280Z-T 2+2) The quality seems to be OEM at first sight. Does anybody have some background information on this? Not sure if the blue colour is original either. another one is black and a third one black/red thanks for any input

I think it's an ironing board without the textile cover. Thought the idea was quite smart when he sent me the picture. You can easy hang things underneath with some hooks if they need to dangle freely. And it can be stored easy when folded together. I guess i need to look out on local scrapyards for an old ironing board now too ?

My bodyshop guy promised me to work on my car until end of march. so i hope there is some progress. the first update he sent me was from the area behind the passenger seat. There was some rust do to the previous owner storing it without a sunroof installed, during swiss winter, so snow collected inside the car and we know Z's dont like any kind of moisture. Now looks better than ever and is nicely protected.

Well the last week have been pretty busy at work, and i'm still working on some details of the house. but everything is finally calming down now and i have plans to kickstart the Z-project again soon and get some long overdue work done over the next months. So i got in touch with my Bodyshop guy to discuss a few details and then i just got an update from him from today. The old seat brackets got removed and sandblasted: Primered: And test fitted on the old cutout floorpan: And theis is how they look on the new floorpan, ready to weld it all back together:

Thank you so much for clarification. I'm just super busy this and next week with the office full house, but i will try to get a detailed answer to this asap. Also the rubber piece sounds like an interersting thing for me, since mine has a crack on the backside and needs replacemend. i haven't seen those sold individually. only the complete footrest. do you sell them individually too?

Thanks a lot for your insight and pictures on this. very interresting with the two versions, Patches, etc. Will definitely have to investigate a bit further on this topic. Haha yeah they are definitely self tapping screws for holding the metals together temporary. Rivets will only be used where there were rivets from factory side...

Nothing huge to show you, but i got another update from my Bodyshop guy. The area behind the passenger seat got formed out of a piece of sheetmetal and installed. ready to weld in all of that stuff, including the floorpan.

Two weeks ago i found a footrest for the 240Z for sale on a local ads-website. I remember i've seen them before but never really investigated about them. Both my cars came without them. This particular item was from a 260Z 2+2 and got a fair price-tag, so naturally it gathered my interrest. Turns out that the parts fiches say that it's the same unit as used in the 240Z (both LHD and RHD) and was an optional item. I love optional stuff. and since it was cheap and seemed to be in easy restoreable shape, i had to get it ? And yesterday i finally got the package with it. It's a bit rough around the edges but when in bring my next bunch uf parts for sandblasting and powerdercoating this will go in the same delivery: I'm not really sure how "rare" this item is, but i think i've never seen it on a swiss car. And as a serious parts-hoarder i love to collect these things anyway ?

Well yeah, i have yet another two new books to add to my ever evolving list of Z-related books i have to read and translate when i find some time. 1) Fairlady Z Story and history, Vol. 1 - The 50th Anniversary Chronicles. A book about the history of the Z including the development It contains some backgroundinformation. for example about road testing in America: And some of the racing cars. I've just been flicking through it yet, but it seems it seems to focus on the car globally with pictures showing old woking station, american race cars but also the japanese. so this might be an interessteing one ? 2) Japanese masterpiece series [Vol.12] - Nissan Fairlady This book is actually a bit older (released in August 1973). The cool thing is, it contains some backgronud information but also a lot of nice drawings and technical information about the different version. as shown below. Still have to read it as well, but they seem to be (aside from the factory books) some of the more promising and serious books i bought. But i still have to prove my initial feelings about them ?

So, My panelbeater started work on the passenger side floors. Those hungarian-made floor pans came in.. before: After: Still have to be welded etc. but overall fitment looks nice. Here is the bottom side fitment together with the NOS frame rails. Seems pretty spot-on!

Just another update from my Metal-wizard. The driver side lower frame has been cutout A new piece has been fabricated And now it's back in. I guess the next big part will be the LH rear quarter and inner wheel well.. I'll go to have a closeup look soon ?

Got some more news from my bodyshop. Nothing big, but another step closer to a finished shell. The spare wheel well is back in and primered with rust protection and also sealed:

I don't want to contradict. I just was refering to my Japanese Sport option catalogues which i have. All of them from 1971.11 to 1973.12 still list the "Izumi" type steering wheel as the optional item. (which seems to be the one to the left in your photo) And then the next sport option catalogue which i have is from 1979.10 which is the the oldest one i have which lists this type of steering wheel. Also i just noticed that the one you have has the holes covered? do you have any background information on this? Yeah i was thinking the same. but i thought it might be closer to the original story than most other english books. However i tend to read these kind of books with a big grain of salt and it's more of an entertainment thing when i have a few free minutes.

After a long time i got some parts for my Z-project again. The first item is a book about Yutaka "Mr. K Katayama". Some people think that his role with the Z is a bit overrated by the average media. But since the book is written originally by Japanese Takashi Ashikawa in japanese and has been translated since. i guess there might be more truth behind it than the average glorifying of Mr. K. I haven't read a single word so i have to dive into it first befor i can say anything more.. It might sound repetitive but the coolest things i tend to find when i don't look for them. I have seen the "competition" steering wheel for sale in the usual Z-specialist shops but i never planned to buy one. Unti recently one popped up new for a good price in a local secondhand website. It even came with the Japanese "fairlady Z" Horn button. A bit of research before purchase revealed that this is most probably one of the pretty good JDM-car-parts replica items based on an original Mold (o a mold from an original competition steering wheel). Anyhow the quality is outstanding and it's nice to have! And here some siza comparison shots take next to the original "fake wood" steering wheel of my 1972 Z's: Those "competition" steering wheels were introduced (to my knowledge) years after the original S30 was released (back then a different steering wheel was optionally available) but has sine been a popular mod on the 240Z and or Fairlady Z with prices for original ones skyrocketing. As far as i know t his has also been sold for the "Hakosuka" skyline but with different horn buttons. I'm not 100% sure but i believe to remember that there was even a second version of this steering wheel which was deeper. but i might be wrong. Here's a shot from the 1979 Nissan sports option catalogue: After all it's a really nice piece to have so i'm happy with my purchase ?

Thanks a lot sir. Only problem with this thread is the slow progress, lol ? but since the house is finnished now, i hope i slowly find more time to get back into the project ?

Good news. My bodyshop guy is back at work with my car. First he welded back the sandblasted rea bumper mounting brackets: Then the inside of the trunk floor got sanded and painted with rust protection: Before the rear lower valance got fitted and welded back in blacke. Finally i got a rear end again. Wow ❤️ Next week the spare tire wheel well should go back in, before work on the left rear quarter starts ? This should go faster compared to the left side, since i have a complete NOS quarter panel and it doesn't have a fuel filler neck ?

Finally, a lifsign from the bodyshop. Nothing big. but the little update came along a promise that he will contune work on the car again soon. which makes me quite a bit happy. Today he got the brackets for the rear bumper sandblasted, so i assume the plan is to get the rear valance welded back on the car soon:

Yeah it has been way too long since a last project update. The garage is still far from done, but it's slowly getting there (more on that in an other post). Last week i got the EK9 in it's new home. Finally: So i think it's time to carefully crank up the "Fairlady Z" project again... What better way to re-start a project than buying new tools? exactly ? Got myself some air tools like a rattle gun and tire filler tool with Manometer. And a little extension hose drum too ? In order to make some space in the new garage, i decided to put the ole L24 on the motorstand instead of having it on that old wheel on the little dolly which is quite unpractical. To do so i had to take of the clutch. thanks to the new rattle gun, this was a piece of cake: So i had her lifted on the engine stand: Tadaa... looks much more professional and is way more practical too ? And while at it anyway i decided to remove the old fan clutch and fan blades too: Here we go... Hoping for more news again soon. still a lot of other work in the house / workshop / garage, but i see some light at the end of the tunnel ?