SpeedRoo

Unfortunately you are always nitpicking and calling out anybody who doesn't agree with you. You always have blinkers on when it comes to Japanese cars for some reason. I wasn't making your point, just answering a simple question which you then had to spin after saying it was "Straight, no spin".

No need for guessing at all. Resin to reinforcement ratio would be 1 to 5% by mass depending on the manufacturing method, reinforcing material, its porosity and orientation. One of the reasons molded steering wheels were produced was to meet safety standards, traditional wood rim wheels could splinter in accidents and injure the driver.

"DATSUN 240Z SPORTS MODEL S30 SERIES 1971 LATE MODELS" flows so easily off the tongue, understandable why it's not commonly used!

@26th-Z a solid piece of wood rather than wood fibers or sawdust. As you say the wood is cut and shaped to fit around the wheel frame; it is not a molded composite of plastic and wood like the Datsun one.

Also has the original Yazaki spark plug leads, unusual to see these 51 years after the car was built.

The steering wheels on my Aston Martins are wood rims, made from shaping a solid piece of wood. These are the traditional style of wood wheels built this way for a hundred years or more. When composites came along and combined resins/plastics with various reinforcing materials the rim was shaped in a mold using pressure and heat. Not many people consider these "wood" in the traditional sense. Hence, its understandable why some people call these plastic...and they are partially correct. I would not consider the wheels in my 240Zs as wood but as a molded composite. Trying to correct people and their use of various naming conventions becomes quite petty, we are all correct but in various different ways.

The wheels are actually a composite using wood fibers as the reinforcing element and the resin being the plastic. It is understandable some people refer to them as "plastic" rather than wood. Generally a "wood" steering wheel would be made up of shaped pieces of solid wood attached to a metal frame.

Thanks Thomas @xs10shl appreciate the update. Someone went to a fair bit of effort to make up that Kanri number badge, great to have the background story.

Even though Yazaki is printed on the ignition wires/plug leads it seems there were a number of companies producing them back in the 1970s. Most of them used the same rubber boot on the plug end but the distributor end had a unique rubber boot, that's the one I'm after. Here's a picture from @CanTechZ It seems Yazaki and OYS used this boot, so the hunt is on for an original. Once I find that it's full speed ahead making up a set to test.

I'll only reproduce the plug wires if they are exactly right, no half measures. Without a sample of an original it's almost impossible to match. Come on someone must have an original plug wire they can loan or sell to me so I can get this to happen.

If anyone has a spare original 1970 Yazaki plug lead they wouldn't mind parting with please let me know. I'm looking for the rubber cover/boot on the ends of the lead so I can match them either by sourcing from NOS or having them remade. I've found the boot/cover that goes on the spark plug end, I just need the one for the distributor end. The leads and the screen printing I've also got sorted.

@xs10shl do you have a list of the Kanri numbers for the rally cars? I've seen some that start with "RF" and others with "8D", they must have come out of different workshops. Some of the race cars have the "8D" prefix as well. How did your car end up with the Kanri number on the dashboard?

In the more recent photos the "Kanri" code is also visible but not on the rear valence. Anyone care to hazard a guess where it can be found?

Were the approximately 20 PZR lightweight rally cars in addition to the approx 35 PZR lightweight Z432R built?

@xs10shlAre the twin exhaust cutouts on the rear under the bumper to the sides original or added later?

Windscreen electric heater element. Not sure how much of the screen it would clear though...probably more use as a sight line to for positioning the car. On aircraft we have sight lines on the "A" posts for positioning in reference to the horizon. Also the lovely rally clock and special 8,000 RPM tachometer.

They also made custom center consoles to go along with the driver side mounted handbrake. I'll have to look up the FIA homologation papers to see if they are listed. Also the choke lever is deleted as the triple sidedraft carbs didn't have chokes fitted.

The Lazorlite code for suspension parts is: Bearings L81 Driveshaft L82 Steering L85 Suspension L86 Mounts L87

A lot of NOS suspension parts can be found on EBay under the Lazorlite label. They are parts from the Nissan suppliers just with a different name on the box, sometimes they even have the same Nissan part number.

How else do you carry your windsurfing equipment to the beach Bart? Works well on mine!

As Nissan sourced many parts from outside companies it meant enterprising parts houses in the USA could source the parts directly rather than from Nissan. World Parts, Beck Arnley, Lazorlite were some of them that actively sold parts for the 240Z, and many others Asian cars, in the North American Market. Once you have the parts cross reference numbers its easy to find what you need through EBay and Craigslist etc. Sometimes the same Nissan part number is also used. The other day I got a rebuild kit for the rear brake cylinder on my 8/1970 240Z, Nissan # 44100 E4127, off EBay. The Lazorlite part number was identical to the Nissan one and in the box were Tokico parts just as were originally used on my 240Z. Amazing how you can still find NOS parts for our cars. I've also sourced suspension bushes, wheel bearings, seals, from Lazorlite. The front suspension ball joint on the 240Z was made by 555 and supplied to Nissan, they also sold to the US parts houses. I'm slowly building up a cross reference list of the part numbers for the 1970 240Z. I just picked up some inner rear wheel bearings for $15 each. Nachi make them and again they put the same Nissan parts number on the box, #43210 E4100. They are exactly the same as the original ones I just removed from the rear hub carrier.

I suspect the 9 is the year, i.e. 1969 and the 12 is the month December. Strikers probably made in December 1969. Nissan used similar dating method on the seat rails and engine blocks as well.

Thank you for the positive feedback everyone. Seems the consensus is to keep all the goodies on the car. I'll explore ways of attaching the spoilers without using bolts to see if that will work, if it does then it's a win win. The car does drive really well with all the BRE/Mulholland upgrades, must have been amazing back in the early 1970s when they were fitted. In the stash of parts that came with the car were original BRE stickers that came with the parts.

Thanks for the ideas. I've never driven a 240Z with the standard original suspension setup, will be interesting to bolt on the newly restored pieces to see what it's like. Only thing I'm concerned about is the holes in bodywork needed to mount the front and rear BRE spook/spoiler, is there a way to fix them to the car without using bolts through the metalwork. If I could use double sided tape then I could remove them and the uprated suspension if someone wanted a standard spec car. I've even managed to find NOS Mulholland struts for the car, I wonder if the modern KYB ones are better performing? One thing I did find in my search for NOS OEM parts is that Lazorlite repackaged a lot of them and sold them in their boxes. Seems a lot of the pieces came from the same source and have the same markings and part numbers on them, especially the suspension and brake pieces. Slowly putting together a cross reference list of part numbers for Nissan/Datsun OEM parts and their Lazorlite equivalent.