26th-Z

How to Photograph Your Car I was just doing some web surfing and found this article. Haven't read all of it yet, but it looks very good. http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/howto/11678_photograph_your_car/index.htmlood.

Dan, To keep pace with an original investment of $29,000 on a Vintage Z in 1997, the car would have to sell for over $37,000 today. That was what I was trying to point out. Of course, Carl points out (to my chagrin) that it would cost well over $40,000 to restore a car to that level today. Either way, I think the cars are a great value.

While we sit around and watch the action perhaps we would like to talk about the restoration program. It was mentioned that parts were reproduced especially for the program. Here is the cover of a brochure that listed specific parts manufactured. Part design and specifications were released to private manufacturers to supply the program. Support businesses were also used. Carl mentioned the engines and transmissions. "A wide assortment of particularly detailed replica parts were provided by Banzai Motorworks in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Although Mike McGinnis of Banzai Motorworks did not restore any cars, he provided detailed replica parts including new identification plates to replace damaged originals. In addition to a wide assortment of rubber parts, Mike provided instructional and identification decals that were on the original production cars. As the program progressed, Steve Richardson of Courtesy Nissan in Richardson, Texas became involved and distributed updated air-conditioning kits for the cars. AER Manufacturing in Arlington, Texas, widely know for their capabilities and reputation with Ford products, became involved with engine remanufacturing. Automatic transmissions were remanufactured by Williams Technology of Summerville, South Carolina. A cast of thousands would appropriately describe the number businesses that became involved as the program expanded. Over eighteen different paint and body establishments repaired body shells."

I'm one of the 40-some-odd watching the auction. Best of Luck, Bob! $29,000 in 1997 money is $37,000 today. The prices we have been seeing for Vintage Zs is not low at all. In fact it indicates that the cars are depreciating in value. I would like to ask a favor from all of you. When you see a Vintage Z like the one Mike posted above, get the serial number please. And send me the info. Many thanks. If any of you have pictures of Vintage Zs, and know the serial number of the pictured car, let me know. Chris

Joseph, I have been branded one of the "Z Police" on this site and frequently write letters to publications about the inaccuracies and misinformation in their articles featuring the S30 / 240Z. Aside from the fact that I drive a BMW daily, I do not mean to be a prick and consider myself one of the milder, gentler Z Police. However the paragraphs written about the S30 are filled with mistakes. I would encourage you to edit your descriptive information to either include all the various model specifications or limit the discussion to what was exported to America. For instance, the HS30 is not the only right-hand drive model variation. Perhaps for the L-24 equipped models, but no mention is made of the L-20 engine or the S-20 engine! Probably the biggest glaring error is the discussion about Bob Bondurant, Brock Racing Enterprises, and John Morton. Bob Bodurant had nothing to do with BRE and John Morton drove the 240Z to two consecutive national championships in 1970 and 1971. Peter Brock was the owner of Brock Racing Enterprises and Bob Bondurant, a personal friend of Mr. Katayama, owns a school of high performance driving. Please forgive me if I offend, but consider that what is written about the 240Z / S30 on your web site offends me. You will find a wealth of information about the S30 type on this site. Far more than can be written in a few parpagraphs on a single web page. I admire your ambitions and encourage you to develop your site to be much more than just another source of inaccurate hearsay. We seem to have enough of them! Also, and perhaps this is nitpicking, the carburetors described as SUs are not SUs at all. They are Hitachi. Yes, they look very much like SUs and Hitachi manufactured their carburetors under design license to Skinners Union, however these are two completely different manufacturers. Calling the Hitachis "SUs" can only be best referred to as slang. All my best, Chris

Lovely car! I'm anxious to see how it sells also. I noticed that one of the pictures was already in my file from 2006. I also notice many things characteristicly Vintage Z and / or Pierre. Haven't seen a VZ on the market in quite some time. Doug, if you bought the 350, you could at least drive it. For the value of the VZ to stay steady or go up, you wouldn't be able to drive it much.

The PPG DX 520 suggestion is very good and close to how I prepared Her Majesty's body after she was dipped. For inside the frame, rockers, etc., I sprayed OSPHO with a garden pump sprayer and stuck the wand up inside the spaces. Then, I used a self-etching primer with the same sprayer. After all that was done, I cleaned the body like JimmyZ says; with the DX, gloves and a scotchbrite pad. One little section at a time so that I could wipe the DX off. This process took me forever. But now the body is in primer and the seams are all sealed up again. OSPHO is considered a "rust encapsilator" and is supposed to be a paint ready subsurface. It won't stop rust, but it is very good at getting a cleaned metal surface prepared for painting. I think some people might be thinking that the OPSHO will take the rust off. The rust scale must be removed and the metal must be fairly clean - like wire brush and sand paper clean - for OSPHO to work best.

I don't prefer the stripes but they are classic, no doubt. Thanks for the thermal tech link. That is exactly what I am looking for. The pictures of the lime car in the parking garage are terrific and one of the shots is my current home screen.

Opps, sorry for the second picture. I meant to post these. I don't know, Carl. I'm not coming up with a Datsun logo that looks like your Canadian brochure. Perhaps the brochure is aftermarket.

Carl, Thanks for confirming what I said to begin with. "It is a very authentic, period correct, after-market key fob and it looks like they used the correct DATSUN logo of the time." Now, I was surprised (and pleased) to see the logo you pictured from a Canadian brochure, however it could be just as easily said that it "looks" like they DIDN'T use the correct logo as no evidence is offered. The other pictures are not within the realm of the conversation as we are talking about Datsun logos. Now have a look at this! More pictures of the Datsun logo - in brochures and on the cars. But look at this picture I have of a Prince / Nissan "crest". Interesting, yes?

I would challenge the authenticity of that key fob. IMO it is aftermarket and not a "correct" logo, Carl. It looks like it is made of plastic. Early anything would have been glass on chromed metal, or what we call enameled. Here is what the "correct" Datsun logo looks like.

Directions on how to use OSPHO from OSPHO. http://www.ospho.com/directions.htm Do a web search on rust repair and use of phosphoric acids. We have been over this topic a million times. Use the search function on this site.

Dan, This is my eBay search link for items like this. http://collectibles.search.ebay.com/datsun_Collectibles_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQfclZ3QQfromZR10QQfromZR9QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsacatZ1QQsspagenameZSTRKQ3aMEFSRCHQ3aSRCH I picked up a brand new key FOB some time ago from this listing. The fob is aftermarket, but the Datsun logo is enameled. Best of luck finding a holder. Sure you could have one made. Chris

Thanks for the comment about the Vintage Zs, kats. And thanks for the pictures, Will. I would imagine that the thought behind using the pocket in the VZ program cars was along the lines of letting the new owner install their own audio system. By 1997 audio system far surpassed the radio that originally came with the car and would not be preferred. I would figure you to be a Rolling Stones man, Alan. Thanks for the ribbing.

That's pretty cool, Will. I don't think I have ever seen one of those before. And here I am thinking I'm all the tits for having an 8-track!

Carl, 8-track tapes are quite available, new and used. I have a brand new Datsun option 8-track player for the head unit in a 510. Interested? I'll even throw in "Alice's Restaurant". Frankly, it's more difficult to find an original player like Kats' that still works. Mine works. (Edit) BTW the part # for the player I have is 99993-00206-80 "8 track deck" universal chassis. Brand new in the Datsun box.

As far as I know, Kats, very few people have one of the 8-track decks for their Z. This is one of those things the Japanese got that the American export version did not. Very nice video.

Great pictures, Kats! Brass tubing, eh? Great idea. I have one of those hoses. I'll look and see if it has a part # on it.

Hey. Ya'll have a good time. I love the Mitty. Sorry to miss it this year. The weather will probably be real good since I'm not going!

I don't think they have fact checkers at Hemmings, evidently. IMO any mention of Goertz is absurd. But then, this is my hobby and I should know what I'm talking about. Thank you. The conversation about Mr. K makes me smile also. Please put into perspective that Mr. K is a very accomplished marketing genious. Marketing himself is his livelyhood and he is more than a pro at it. One can easily see it is his passion. He is also one hell of a nice guy. Yes, Gus, I did write a book (if you could call it that) on my research into the Vintage Z program in 1996 - 1997.

I would like to ad a couple of comments in support of Alan's post. Fact - Nissan was already exporting cars to the United States before Mr. K arrived. Fact - Mr. K was sent to California to conduct a marketing survey, nothing more. Mr. K was a marketing and advertising executive. His ideas about promoting the Nissan brand were fairly cutting edge to typical Japanese business models of the time. This is but one of the "inside corporate Nissan" issues Alan mentions. The other issue which is far larger, quite misunderstood by Americans, and hardly mentioned in the Hemmings article is the conflict inside the corporate world between business managers and labor unions. The issue is so large and complex that it is difficult to just label it as a conflict. One must study the business practices of the Japanese industrial complex during post WWII reconstruction to properly identify what is simply described as "friction". It was far more than friction. What Alan is pointing out is that what we understand about Mr. K is the way Americans would understand something so complex and outside of our cultural realm. The Hemmings article is a broad stroke of the brush and not anything close to an educated discussion of the circumstantial environment Mr. K prospered in. Ok, I'm out of things to say. Good post, Alan.

A very nice post, Carl. Something we have not discussed in some time and I am glad to see it come up again for the newer crowd on this site. I shall write to Hemmings as well. One thing that should be brought to attention, at least on this site is that the original design studies involved a convertible sports car and not the GT model studies linked to Goertz. Here are some pictures from 1966. Another interesting point is the similarity the S30 prototype study in 1967 had to the Maserati Mistal prototype. I recall a conversation with Mr. Matsuo about his shock at seeing the car and how coincidently similar it was to his own work at the time.

Hi Kats, I am surprised to discover that your sister car is silver also. Lately, I have discussions with several members about sister (twins) cars being the same color. You provide another excellent example! I wonder if Nissan, in the begining, produced cars that were the same color in groups of two or three or if this is just coincidence. Does anyone know of triplets? Chris

The kink in the water tube is certainly different from what I am used to. I don't think that would match the obviously early (1970) air box. Four screw round top carbs came with a drain plug in the float bowl and without. If the float bowls do not have drain plugs, the carbs are very early (1969). IF they do have drain plugs, they are the later type.

No, I had not seen your post, Mike. Cool tag! Ron, I saved all of our correspondence in a WORD file and added the pictures I scanned and collected to the text. The file is rather large because of the pictures - 9.7 mb but our conversations really gave me a much better, clearer understanding of how the cars were built and what all these date stamps mean. I can see that in this web site environment the topic is rather obscure, but what would you think about publishing our e-mail conversations for the interest of it?