CanTechZ

Mine leaks at the pin for the rocker arm. Just a very small leak, but it makes a hell of a mess over time if I don't wipe it up on a regular basis. To bad that pin is not serviceable.😢

Yesterday I removed the black vinyl from my transmission tunnel and the bulkhead behind the seats. I also removed the insulating material from the firewall and the jute insulation from the transmission tunnel, with careful use of a scraper while gently lifting all the jute came off cleanly with out much damage. I'm very happy that all of the insulating materials and vinyl can be reused. Next I will be removing the tar mats from the floors to inspect for rust. Before removal I am following the lead of @inline6and creating templates of the tar mats so that I can make replacements to use at re-assembly. Here is a pic of the first one, If time permits I will be creating cad profiles of the tar mats that would be suitable to make printable templates. If I get to this I will upload them to cad file section in our downloads area.

My plan is to trace the original tar mats on my car before I remove them and if I have time, create cad files from the tracings. If I am able to make the cad files I will upload them to our cad files section in downloads here.

Spent some time yesterday cleaning the dash and some of the ventilation system parts to ready for storage. I am storing select parts on shelves in my office the rest will in my crawl space and organized on shelves and bins in my garage. I under estimated the space required but I'm doing my best to be organized so that I won't have to rely to much on my memory when I eventually get on to re-assembly.

Great work on the floors. I will be using this as a reference when I get to this point on my restoration. I'm going to make templates from my floors soon, before I remove the existing sound deadening material.

Very nice looking car. Regarding head room, there are usually some hex shaped plastic spacers under the seats that can be removed. You might gain an inch or so of head room.

Interesting read, thanks for posting.

After recently removing my exhaust header I was able read the casting number on my E31 block, The casting number is located low on the left side, just back from center and in raised characters reads "0630I". Using the decoding method suggested by @katsthat would make it 50 years old today. Here is the old topic from back in 2004, where this was discussed:

I'm still at a loss as to why those screws would fall out on there own. While plausible l don't think it was a replacement issue, definitely not in the 42 years that I have owned the car. In the case of the right door, it still had the original vapor barrier in place and there was remnants of the factory plastic wrap over the door panel at the fastening points of the arm rest and opener. Still a mystery.

Over the weekend I successfully removed the instrument panel. To make it easier I first removed the steering wheel and column, gear shifter and e-brake. The dash is now safely mounted on the storage rack I previously built. Even with the great resources from this site, my FSM and Wick Humble's book, I still managed to miss disconnecting the flasher unit and a warning buzzer, both mounted at the top of the pedal box. Luckily my son has helping me to do the removal and stabilized the dash while I made those final disconnections, and a potential disaster was averted.

My next task is to remove the instrument panel/dash. I have a dash from a 12/70 parts car (pictured here) that I used to build a rack to safely store the uncracked dash from my car. I will be storing it on a newly installed shelf in my office, out of harms way.

Over the last few weeks I've made a little more progress. Removed the windshield washer fluid reservoir and drained all fluids, brake/clutch fluid and engine, transmission, differential oils. Removed most brake, clutch and fuel line tubes and hoses as well as the brake master cylinder, master vac and clutch master and slave cylinders. Removed the fuel system heat shield and fuel rail. Removed intake and carbs and the exhaust header and pipes forward of the resonator. Removed all remaining coolant hose and tubes from the engine. Getting closer to be able to remove the engine and transmission. I'm trying to decide if I should remove them as a unit or drop out the transmission first.

I have a pdf of the 520/521 Datsun Pickup parts catalog and in the explanation of Nissan parts number system it mentions the Nissan NES part numbering system for hardware type items, here is a snippet: This parts catalog doesn't have full detail of the NES system but with a google search i found some interesting info on datsun1200.com. There is an article on the evolution of Nissan part numbers. I can't vouch for it's accuracy but here is a snippet on the 10 digit breakdown that expands on what you describe above: Here is a link to the web page, http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=NES_Part_Numbers Cheers, Mike I think I found the topic you were looking for, funny its references the same site I found,

This is a good topic, I believe the finish on the underside evolved over time. My 7/70 car had the heavy tar like undercoating that was dealer applied. in all of the areas that I have removed it, the finish that is exposed is body color paint. This includes the floor underside, front and rear wheel wells etc. and no factory undercoating. Here is one discussion I have bookmarked:

I can respect that. It has the 2400 valve cover, which would be 8/70 or earlier, of course that could have been changed but I suspect it is original. Then again no mention that the engine is original, based on the asking price probably yes. Just noticed that the listing has been "deleted by author". Not sure what you mean by "meaning 1/70 car". My 7/70 has the same black unlit defroster switch. My 12/70 parts had the same switch location but it was amber and lit.