26th-Z

Carl, I just wanted to get the slang out in the open and alert the crowd to the fact that Nissan offered aerodynamic devices on the Z. I think Car and Driver missed the boat on the "chin" spoiler. Obviously, no matter how small, it has some effect. So I don't subscribe to what they said. Poor journalism, in my opinion. Glad to hear that headlight covers decrease drag. How many miles of driving do you think it will take to pay off the amount I paid for them?

Nice conversation and a couple of comments; This conversation is limited to American import HLS30 versions and we should make it clear that similar variations encompass the home market cars and other exports. In those cases, parts and accessories never included with the American exports are included in this subject. After discovering what the differences are between the various model years we got, it is fun to explore what the rest of the world got. Her Majesty will sport some of those differences. The subject is quite wide. Zhome has a pretty darn good explanation of our production changes, but indeed, parts were used up in production across the official change date. That seems to be quite common. In the case of my early cars, certain parts were used that were part of the prototype development as well as standard parts from other cars - like the roadster - seat belts and ignition systems, for instance. The parts themselves changed during their production runs and we see evidence of various manufacturing changes not necessarily associated with a specific model change. The screws holding on the face plate of the speedometer (early, early) are slotted type and not phillips. I own three distictly different series one air cleaners. So this is a great subject and can get quite trivial. I know Carl is collecting photographs to establish a "concours" reference. Post pictures!

Ben Millspaugh wrote a wonderful article about aerodynamics in the March / April and Summer 1995 issues of Z Car magazine. As much as I admire the effort going on over at HybridZ, and I will keep up with their reports, I don't suspect much new ground will be broken. In my opinion, it is going to be difficult to beat the stock Nissan front spook and rear spoiler - ala BRE to us "Mericns" call them. Should be an interesting project.

Sorry to come into this so late. The engine comp. ID plate is attached with phillip head screws and the door jamb ID plate is riveted with an aluminum rivet smaller than 1/8" diameter - obviously metric size. The plates for 27th are the same however they are still on the car.

These scans from the latest issue of Sportscar magazine

Thanks for the link, Arne. At first, I was quite skeptical, but after reading the Triad article and then realizing who wrote it, I find validity in what appears to be outright craziness. Learn something new every day!

I second the recommendation for Norm Murphy.

I would have to agree with you on this one, Carl. From what I have seen recently, and I'm not paying close attention like I used to, choice cars far superior to this auction example are trading privately. I am just astounded at what I have seen lately.

Oh, now you got me jealous, Will. I finally found a red dot, Mark!

I have two Z friends with convertibles and I think the 240Z looks sharp topless. A stabilizer bar across the rear shock towers would easily solve the chassis stability issue and depending on how well the body was done, what condition the rag top is in, as well as the rest of the car, $5,700 could be a deal for a very interesting and attractive Z modification.

I'm still alive! 26th is sitting in my body shop - in primer - most all of the seam sealer is in - the floor tar insulation is in - and I hope to be green by Christmas. I'm dreaming of a green Christmas!

You are maybe the third or fourth guy I know with something like that. Congrats. They are rare.

If they are fairly reasonable to get, let me know. I would be interested in a set. They show "up to" 7/73 in my book and optional.

Mark, Depending on your date of manufacture, you may have an ignition switch that looks like this. The terminals are different from the upgrade part, however everything plugs into the harness the same. I would have to look it up, but this early switch was upgraded and the barrel is indeed a different size. You can't replace the guts of these anymore. You have to get the whole bracket.

Kats, What a great collection! You should know that the 20 December 1969 owner's manual came in two versions of the cover. As much as I can tell, the only difference is the cover. These are for 26th and 27th. I see you note "3 holes" for the service manuals. Yes indeed the early service manuals were punched for a three hold binder. The paper used for the cover is different than later years also. It is a pebble textured paper. All the rest I have seen are smooth finish. My service manuals date 1 November 1969 and 15 August 1970

I should get a home equity loan, come visit you, and we would go shopping for a Z432.

Series one ash trays did not come with a teak handle. Although it looks pretty good, probably matches the rest of the teak interior, it is not correct.

I'm working with my second welder and I talked to fifteen body shops before I found the guy I'm working with. I didn't like the welding work from the first guy and had to have some redone. There are some interesting VHS tapes available from Eastwood Automotive about welding and sheet metal fabrication for restoring old cars. Steve Covell? Is that right? They can give you an idea of what to expect. There are plenty of sheet metal forms around. http://www.rustrepair.com/ and for the trickey stuff, you have to find a donor body shell. But be encouraged! There are plenty of guys doing it and coupled with the rest of the car restoration market, you shold be able to find someone to help you out.

I bought 26th from the estate of the original owner in 1984. She was probably the first Z I ever saw. 27th came to me a year ago.

Greetings Greg! This calls for a celebration! I hereby convene a meeting of the Low VIN club. The best shop I can think of closest to you for restoration of 379 is Banzai Motorworks - Mike McGinnis - http://zzxdatsun.com/ in Maryland. He just took a Gold Medalion at the Dallas convention. Mike is top drawer "most correctest". But that's just one of my top three recomendations for the restoration technique know as; "send your car away and have it return flawless, eleventy guzzillion dollars later". My personal technique of choice is to spend the eleventy guzzillion dollars by sub-contracting work out and providing all the grunt labor. Here is a page on what I am up to. http://home.earthlink.net/~cwenzel/index.html You are going to find a wealth of information and friends here. Frankly, I didn't even realize what I had until I found this group. That was right after I met Carl and decided to surf the web one day several years ago. As far as I knew, I just had this old Z that I though might be worth something some day. But the timing was right and I took 26th out of storage and she became my hobby toy. I have had fun studying Z history and exchanging information about where to get stuff restored. It was quite a miracle that I secured 27th a year or so ago. I loaded up on parts first and I'm glad I did. Prices are on the rise. So congrats on securing 379th. You are going to find she is quite unique and it is great to see another early car come back to life! Chris

Sorry to jump in on this so late. I have been up on my roof for the last week. Almost finished with the new roof. Metal A couple of comments about this subject. The S30, HS30, HLS30 and PS30 prefixes all carry the same VIN sequence. In other words, #26 exists (or existed) in all four model versions. My 26th-Z is really the 26th HLS30 and not the actual 26th Z produced by Nissan. "Kats" from this site / club has presented some very interesting information about the production sequence of the very first cars. He presented information about how many cars were produced during the last four or five months of 1969 and then presented evidence of which particular VIN was produced during each month. It was a fascinating conversation for me and if I stretch the math a bit, I can suppose that Her Majesty was really in the 50s range of actual production sequence. I have photographs of the HS30-00026 and HS30-00027 versions. Both were RAC Rally cars in the United Kingdom. Kats also has quite a bit of information about the cars that were brought to America in the fall of 1969 to be test driven before the 240Z was released for sale. We have narrowed down the VINs of those cars and that information addresses the paragraph Carl has on his web site about the very first HLS30 models being test mules. I personally believe that they were not "pre-production prototypes" but rather production models that were not sold. There is a thread in the archives about S30-00002 including pictures. That was a very interesting conversation and I wouldn't be surprised if the car gets restored. Finally, to the best of my knowledge and understanding, Nissan did not look favorably on the S30 and during a dispute between management and labor during the late 70's, most of the official records, molds, and forms were destroyed - intentionally. VIN #1 is neither in a museum in Japan, nor are there historical documents of what happened back then. We have bits and pieces of knowledge and it would be lots of fun to think about finding one of the earliest, eh?

Didn't that car just come from Texas? Fred? Isn't that the car we were talking about?

Well...for the most part, these responses and your mirror observation are correct, but the full answer to your question is a long, drawn out explanation of what was sold where - world wide. What was imported into the United States was known as the Datsun 240Z. America did not get the full line of models developed for the S30 and many of them, including the cars sold in Japan, were right-hand drive. Early Fairladys had a 2.0 liter engine as opposed to the 2.4 liter engine America got. The Fairlady 432 and 432-R got the S20 engine. Later Fairladys got the 2.4 and 2.8 liter engines. So you see that the answer is really worth searching the archives for. I might also recommend the book; " Datsun Z - Fairlady to 280Z" by Brian Long. Chris

Hi Kats, The red dot arrived. It is in very nice condition . Just one nick in the plastic cover. Ever Wing. The glass mirror must be replaced. Any ideas about who might repair the glass mirror? I have a copy of the small Fairlady manual. Alan sent me a scan so that I could make a correct cover for it. I did not realize it was so small! My copy is large. Very nice parts listing for S20 engine! With this Fairlady catalog, I found the correct exhaust manifold I was looking for.

New guy on the block http://www.datsunspirit.com/ Give him a try. this is his blog and you can read about his projects. http://blog.livedoor.jp/datsunspirit/ One thing about carpet. The rear deck matt often comes with a sewn slit down the middle from the front. This is for access to the tool doors. If your car has the plastic covered tool bins behind the seats, it should not have the slit in the carpeting. Instead, the front of the matt has little indentations for the lugggage strap bracket.