26th-Z

"dJACEY" and "abas" come to mind also. Try replacing the fuel filter first and see what happens. It wouldn't hurt to drain the tank, but if the filter clogs up again with trash, the gas tank and fuel lines are the problem. It has always been my experience to leave the carburetors alone as much as possible and seek all other solutions first. There is a UK Zclub website like ours, and even though I would rather you hang around here, the chaps over there might be able to help you find a mechanic. www.zclub.net

Thanks Alan, I just saw that plate. Evidently, we are seeing pictures of the same car in Canada and it makes me wonder what happened to the other one. Coincidence probably. Thanks kats, your information is superb! I am clear about the production numbers now. It is fascinating to discover the process by which Datsun produced the first cars and brought the design forward. Your explanation of the Japanese terminology brings life to the story. The conversation about saving weight is quite interesting in that by saving weight and reducing the amount of material, cost is conserved as well. We have discussed this "value engineering" topic before, and it is testimony to the designers how well thought out the S30 was. Andrew, count me in on the fabrication deal. Let me know if I can do anything to help. I was talking to Mike McGinnis from Banzai Motorworks the other day. He said it will take a strong willed person to restore a car to such standards when most of the show judges are not aware of such peculiarities.

Bill, I no your pain,man. Feel it in my bones. Why dont you try this cap on for size. You glue it in place with silicone and block it down for 24 hours. Gives the dash dash a fresh look. PM me.

Mark, If I may beg permission to use kats' photo of his restored seat, I'm talking about the plastic corner guard screwed on to the seat frame. I don't know anyone other than kats who knows what those are. Even the low-serial-number gurus in Tampa have never seen them. I can't find a part number nor any reference to them anywhere. I used to have a set on Her Majesty. They are not attached very well and when you plop down into the seat, the upper edge digs into your thigh. Of course, they break, as they are plastic. The pictures of the seats in my parts books illustrate them with no part reference. Her Majesty has authorized the restoration engineer to aggresively purchase a set.

Alan, I arrive at the same conclusion and thank you for the explanation of the "extra" column in the production schedule photographs. I have all of photos you e-mailed me which led to my previous comments. Incredible as it may seem, I believe the test cars were HLS30-2 and 3. They had to be made prior to October. Nissan Motor Corporation!!!!:stupid: Were the cars crated and flown to California? I don't have a still shot of the video showing a license plate. None-the-less, excellent stuff. Research with the California Department of Motor Vehicles is called for to determine the tag issue. I find it hard to believe two cas would be licensed the same 2177.

It took me quite a while to find this old thread, but we need to reference it to this conversation. Good stuff. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9318&perpage=15&pagenumber=1 I found the pictures I was looking for, Alan. They are in this thread along with some of yours from the '69 Tokyo Auto Show. Kats, you say the cars were taken out of their crates at NMC. What is NMC? The drive to New Orleans first would have taken Osawa san and Uemura san through the low desert at a very hot time of the year and from Texas, East, during the later part of hurricane season. They drove up North along the west coast highway in late fall and down through the Teton Mountains some time after Thanksgiving - early December. A testimony to the cars and the team. What an adventure! I still don't have pictures showing 3 different license plates. The picture from the Phoenix Dog Track shows both cars with identical front plates - 2177 perhaps Japanese - and the Canada pictures show 060 ACJ on one car. Would the third plate be the other car in Canada? Kats, you pose an interesting theory about the VIN #s for the Canada cars. My data shows 12 HLS30s prior to October, but that does not agree with the production schedule you are using. Also, when I read the production schedule, I see two listings for June. It follows: 1 export car May 1 export car June 2 export cars July 1 export car August 2 export cars Septermber The schedule shows 17 total cars (dom and exp) built through August and 28 by the end of September. I don't think it is possible for HLS30-00004 and 5 to be the NA test cars. It seems apparent that cars produced up to October were used for study and those produced after October were intended to be sold. Depending on which information you believe, 12 to 15 HLS30 examples would need to be accounted for prior to October. I am begining to think the figures from the Parts Catalogs include October production as the production schedule from kats does not agree with 13 HLS30s prior. Beck accounts for HLS30-00006, 7, and 8 on his site, and shows them as October 1969 build dates which would coincide with the 52 export cars built that month. Getting on to the parts that may have been modified or added due to the testing...very early cars do not have sound tar on the rear deck. I know car #s 16, 19 and 26 have clear hatch glass ( no defroster ) and I had seat corner guards at one time. The air filter box without the air damper is early. Would it be safe to say the early series one modifications were made as a result of the adventure?

I just got off the phone with Jim who talked to Burt this morning (Tuesday) Someone came to look at the car over the weekend, called his buyer on his cell phone, told him it was the real deal, and the bidding went up from there along with a conversation about the arrangements with the buyer's agent. This morning, Burt contracted seller's remorse, didn't know what to do and pulled the car. I haven't had a chance to talk to Burt myself, but evidently the car is not for sale - at the moment - at this time - for now - who knows. Stay tuned for further developments.

New batch of photographs. Here is the VIN page I was talking about.

Halz, Go back a couple of pages and check out the map kats posted. What a great time those guys must have had! What a drive! Take for instance, the leg South from Canada down to Los Angeles. That drive was through the Grand Teton Mountain range just West of Yellowstone and down into the Great Salt Lake Basin. Further South, they drove through the Indian reservations just North of Grand Canyon and then West through Zion and Las Vegas on their way to L.A. Striking country, this land will really make a believer out of you. The Southern leg to New Orleans and back would have taken them through the low desert along the Mexican border and then further East into the high humidity region of the Gulf states. On their way back, they drove through vast areas of farm and cattle land to the high desert in Death Valley before descending to Los Angeles. I can't tell you what a life's accomplishment it would be to drive that route and all the people involved should be honored for what they accomplished and what they hold in their memories. Just awesome. They experienced every climatic condition to extreme and did it all without cell phones. The North American test drive is something to really appreciate and admire in it's significance. It is not a normal thing to do and the drive would surely stress any automobile to it's limits. Not to mention the people who did it. The counrty is rugged and the weather conditions could be horrendous - ice and snow to extreme dry heat, blowing sand to blowing buckets of water. It kind of makes me laugh when I think about it, and I'll bet a lot of the members here would chuckle too. "Lets take a couple of cars over to America and drive around for a few weeks - see what happens".

I just posted on "Z Car Value" thread. It is Burt's car and according to Burt in this morning's e-mail, negotiations for the sale of the car are underway - evidently a deposit has been made and it looks like the deal is going forward. Burt did quite a bit of work to the car, however I can't tell you first hand about all the details. I took some of the pictures in the eBay add http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2479364353&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT when I saw it in Florida last fall. Burt regrets selling the car, but felt it was more of a "trophy" and feared driving it for what might happen to it and the additional mileage he would put on it. Burt will be with us at the National convention in June.

In the morning e-mail was a note from the seller of this car. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2479364353&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT You may want to take a look. I know the car and took several of the pictures in the add. How about that for price!

My HLS30 data is that exact page - thanks.

Hello Alan, Your L20 response drew an; "Oh...of course" from me. Yes, I could see the handwriting all OVER the wall. I would have thought just the opposite about an S30S - fully loaded "super" bersion complete with Hitachi Surround Sound and Tokico heated seats. I was hoping you would comment on the printed data showing 12 VINs unaccounted for. Beck posts an interesting article which should be referenced; "The First Load of Z Cars to the United States" for our discussion of how to consider the production volume. He locates several of the early numbered cars demonstrating their existence and supposes what happened to the rest. I might take issue with which cars were on the first boat, my car breaking the rule Carl proposes. My car went to the East coast. True, it could have been off-loaded in California and many years ago I was told by telephone conversation with Nissan that my car was transfered from an Arizona dealer, but my documentation does not support either theory. Nor do the dates of delivery fall within the time line. Similarly, why would the Parts Catalog show C/# 00013 if the first car sold to the public was C/# 00016. I'll go out on a limb and support inclusion of the cars not sold to the public with the total production figures. C/# 00001 may have been destroyed, but evidence supports the fact it was built as a numbered chassis indicating commitment to production of the model. I do not support inclusion of the "white body" chassis or those without VIN stampings, rather viewing them as spare parts. I can just hear us go into the part number one discussion, but I just can't subscribe if the part doesn't have a part number. I'll get a picture of the Parts Catalog page tomorrow. I don't know what one might surmise other than a printed source of date / VIN relationship. The technical bulletins would have to support the data.

I can't remember what I had on my mind when I wrote HR, Alan. Thanks for the edit. What is an S30S? I just received one of those fancy blue parts books - this one "revised 1 December 1973" - USA and Canada Parts Catalog. In the introductory chapter it says without explanation: C/# HLS30-00013 from Oct. 69 C/# HLS30-21001 from Jan. 71 C/# HLS30-46001 from Sep. 71 C/# HLS30-120001 from Jul. 72 The VIN digits changed BEFORE the 260Z! Further: C/# RLS30-000001 from Aug. 73 C/# GRLS30-000001 from Oct. 73 If you view the beginnig of a car from the time the commitment was made, ie. the time the chassis was assembled and stamped, I would have to agree with you, Alan. Pretty much, the commitment was made to build the car when the chassis was built and stamped. No matter what equipment was placed, the technical bulletins would establish that time line.

The simple "HLS30" doesn't give you the whole story. The automatic transmssion car would have actually been HLS30A or more specifically HLS30AU for a USA car with automatic transmission. So many more standard transmission cars were made than automatic transmissions that the VIN number difference makes perfect sense. When they built the automatics, stronger bolts were needed and they just changed them on all cars at that point. The service bulletins give us a great reference in time and I know guys who collect them. I just don't have access to that information right now. What appears to be happening as I get more into this thread, is the idea that the actual VIN number can tell us a lot when compared to the service bulletin. Actually, my VIN number is HLS30U-00026 athough the only place it appears is in the sales documentation. HLS30 was stamped on the chassis before it was ever determined if it was going to be an HLS30U, or HLS30UN. The proper designation letters following the S30 appear to be "silent" and I propose that the determination of what the car was to be was made on the assembly line. Am I correct? All chassis were stamped "HL" or "HR" or "H" and the final determination of transmission type or destination was made later. What is the letter designation for the L20 engine? Lets say an automatic transmission car was going to California. An HLS30 was set on the assembly line and fitted with all the proper equipment as it moved down the line. Finally, when the OK sticker was slapped on it's arse, the car breathed life as HLS30AUV. Actual birth.

Yes I mean Mr. K's car! What else c o u l d you call it? I guess "American marketing version" was too polite. It irks my craw to see that car on posters, billboards, television all across America. For goodness sake, there's pictures of it on eBay right now! Pictures of it clad with naked women...For sale! Why didn't they just give him a real one? Wire wheels :stupid: As far as North American cars are concerned, the letter designations before the S30 are: H for the L24 and L28E engine (G added), L for left-hand drive, and R (RLS30 with a G added for 2+2 versions) for the L26 engine. After the S30 letter designations are: A and F indicating automatic and five-speed transmissions, U for Federal USA cars, UV for California (sun protection), and UN for Canada cars. GHLS30AUV would be a 280Z 2+2 automatic for California registration. The VIN changed from five digits to six digits with the introduction of the RLS30 to the best of my knowledge. Now back to that yellow thing....

I'm with you mtdripo, could have made more money as a bar tender. Count me in as highly educated, never grew up, don't intend to, and doing what I was trained for.

Same car - same dealer.

Your pictures are very helpful, Alan, for understanding how that all goes together on the chassis. Thanks. The car I pointed to a couple of threads ago seemed to have the FRP headlight extensions and I was wondering about the rest of the panels. The ducting is a good illustration of how Nissan / Datsun were attempting to control the air flow at the front of the car and reduce lift amongst other issues. Of course aerodynamics have come a long way, but this is characteristic design thought of that period. Why is the American marketing version of the ZG painted yellow? You know, the ZG on all the Datsun posters and advertisements you see around. Remember the video of the kid chasing his baseball? The ZG is painted bright yellow. Trivia Enjoy the ride.

Thanks Z kid. That was very helpful. Nice web page

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6187&item=2479364353&rd=1

I'm curious about the first advertisement. That's the first time I have seen construction particulars about the ZG nose. Am I correct in assuming that's a real HS30H?

The ring on the rear side of the hub. An ink mark made with a rubber stamp.

I have been sent to the boxes! Woe is me. Steering wheel - 10/69. Never really noticed the factory mark on it before.