So with every day the small bits and pieces at the house are more and more finalized and slowly i start to have more time (and money) for the car again. I rather do one thing, but that right, instead of having 10 different projects at one time. So the car was a bit on hold over the last two years, but i really hope that i find more time now.
Before i start work, i decided i need to get a better overview of all the parts, so i went through all the boxes, labelled them (I will improve that) and made sure all parts are in the shelve and away from the shop floor. Picture does not show the finished state.
I also sold a big box to germany, which gave me some additional space on the shelve.

Then i decided to remove some “bolt-on” weight from the engine which is stored on the engine stand. Makes it look a bit better in the corner and avoiding me hurting myself while i move around itwhile working around the Lift. Before:

Alternator gone

Heater hoses off

Engine mount brackets off:

Oil filter off:

Oil pressure or temperature sensor (i guess) off:

Fan / Waterpump pulley off:

Nasty old water pump off:

And this is how it looked at the end. still ugly and dirty and greasy as what, but at least all the bolt-on parts are gone. since i don’t know yet when it will be rebuilt, i decided to keep it assembled together to protect it against damage or corrosion.

It was the first real work performed in the new garage and it’s so much better with proper lighting, all tools in reach, air pressure tools on hand, etc… took me probably two hours including all the shop cleaning, compared to maybe two weeks for the same work in the old garage….

The covid crisis apparently gives me too much time to browse the online classifieds for nice stuff. so i stumbled upon a german Ex-nissan dealer who had a lot of old manuals for sale. Luckily he had a set of Transmission manuals for the 240Z for sale. I own a FS5C71A transmission, but he only had the B-type and Automatic transmission manuals.

But the price was great and they’re rare to come by. Especially the german language ones (for automatic at least), so i thought i’d grab them to put them in my knowledge collection. maybe they’ll come in handy at some point.

I also have plans to update my big transmission knowledge post whenever i find time and motivation.

More stuff is on the way, so stay tuned 🙂

I stumbled across some cool parts once again. This time in Germany (online, since borders are closed due to the COVID crisis). Luckily the parcel-services still work international 🙂
This time i found a set of NOS splash panels / Mud guards, for a nice price from a guy who knew my project. He got the panels with his car when he bought his personal Z from a Nissan-dealer a few years ago, but didn’t need them.

First i thought that i didn’t need those, but after looking for the original items from my car, i realized (and remembered) that those were completely missing on my car. I guess since they’re not really important for the car, and probably prone to rust at an area so exposed to water and salt, they’re something that people just used to remove when rusty back then. So i’m really glad i found a set of those.

Just another missing piece in the puzzle. And finding old treasures of NOS is just part of the whole fun of restoring an old car, i guess 🙂

Lately it seems like more and more companies are making panels for the 240Z and other japanese classics. great 🙂 A while a go a guy contacted me to discuss the market situation and i suggested to make some panels for the 240Z which aren’t available yet. Well – turns out he followed my suggestion and now KFvintagejdm.com is offering the first batches of panels for the 240Z. They’re also known by the brand KlassicFab for many years in the classic Volkswagen community.

The owner is living in the US, but he is originally from Bogota, where also the factory is. The parts where shipped from there. I still have to see the fitment and i guess they need to be a little adjustment here and there, as usual with aftermarkte panels, but overall they look good and solid. the Packing was nice, the shipment really fast and the contact by mail very nice and supportive.

Lets see when i bring them to the bodyshop as soon as the COVID lockdown is over. Also i’m expecting a set of NOS panels to arrive here soon 🙂

PS: I read rumors that someone sent a complete NOS rear quarter for the 240Z to tabco for scanning and future reproduction. don’t need them anymore now, but sounds very interesting for many Z-owners i guess. the future is bright 🙂

Thanks to the Covid-19 crisis my Bodyshop had to close for the time beeing, since he has trouble getting all the stuff he needs atm. Nevertheless i was able to visit him today, deliver a few small bits and pieces and test-fitted some parts.
This is how it looked a few days ago, before the shut-down:

And this today when i visited him. still a bit of work needed, but keeps on looking better and better. Frame-rail is welded on too, but forgot to take a picture.

Instead of bringing a whole seat i brought the bride seat rail which has the same pattern to test the bracket location (will be in original position). The brackets will need some touch-ups too. if you look closely, you can see the front one has some rust holes…

We also had a look at the new taillight surrounding panel brackets. We didn’t figure out yet how it is intended to paint those brakets or the area around them. Probably bend them up a bit?. but at least they fit perfectly and look good 🙂

We made a little mock-up with one of the taillight surrounding panels. The position is not correcti n the picture, but you get the idea 🙂

And the trunk is on there too. The damper and the rupper-pockets and spacers are missing at the top yet. but i brought them along today so he can adjust everything nicely and make sure are the panelgaps are straight and tight.

A few weeks ago my Bodyshop guy asked me if i could get him the now-missing taillight surroudning panel mounts, which he had to remove during repair of the rear-end. I researched a bit and found that JDM-Car-Parts makes them. They weren’t cheap but well…  Today they arrived in the mailbox.

And while shipping stuff anyway, i decided to add a few small bits and pieces to the order. Like the chain that holds the Fuel filler cap in place:

The rubber piece that goes behind the fuel filler cap:

And some headlight gaskets, since my original ones are completely toast:

A few weeks ago i saw a german guy named tim on facebook, showing some Choke lever adapter plates he designed and made for the Z. He made a few more and sold them. I guess he didn’t expect them to sell like hot cakes, so he produced a few more. And that’s how i got one in the mailbox today.

The plate is made from 3D Printed plastic, which is then hardenet to improve strenght a lot and make it thermally stable up to 120°C. He designed and made those in first case for himself, and told me a lot of testing went into it to get the process right:

The original choke lever is prone to be a bit “wiggly” which wasn’t the best design from Nissan. The plate will improve tha stability of the choke lever and also prevent the Center console from cracking it that area (which can happen due to the loose choke lever)

Once it’s installed it is completely invisible. In my opinion clearly an OEM Upgrade worth it, even with completely stock cars.

A while a go a i scored an (incomplete) set of old Nissan / Datsun Microfiches of the 240Z / S30 chassis in germany for almost nothing. I tried to scan them using a flatbet scanner as some suggested, but the results were terrible.
When i found out that my company (beeing a several hundred years old machinery company) has some of those standing around in the mechanical department, i asked if i could borrow one to check my microfiches. and today i brought one home:

Microfiches are like Dia’s, a kind of minimized drawings or part lists on a film type piece of plastic. The microfiche reader is more or less a projector. You insert one of the film cards, which is labelled for example with “S30 Chassis”:

And then you can zoom in. By moving around the card you can check the different sections.

and then zoom in more and more until you get the page you want:

Like for example the steering section:

The data in the microfiche is nothing special. it’s available in digital form (Nissan FAST or E-Fast software), printed form (Parts manual / R-Drive parts lists) or even as scanned versions of the Microfiches. However it’s fun to tinker around like they did back in the day and i will sure have my fun during the COVID-19 Lockdown time to go through the microfiches and check for some data i didn’t know yet.

Since those Microfiche readers are for sale cheap, im thinking of buying a second-hand unit just for fun and for having the parts fiches accessable directly in the workshop.

Good news. My Panelbeater is working hard on my car atm and there’s some progress, so i visited him (with 2 meters distance of course, because #Coronavirus).
So the passenger floor pans are in and will be completed soon:

Looking good in my opinion:

To get everything aligned was a bit of a headache, even with the best parts available, but looks good now.

So today i brought him the front fender. It needs the original edge line hammered back in, as some previous owner decided to hammer that flat.. terrible.. Luckily it’s the kind of job my panelbeater likes 🙂
Starts to look like a car again, doesn’t it? Allthough the rocker panel needs some adjustment.

View from the rear. Also brought him the hatch to adjust everything but we didn’t test fit it yet.

Still a few days of work to adjust the rocker panel, get the floorpans welded in completely and have the Seat rail mounts back in. But then it’s up to the other side. which is luckily in much better state and i have much bigger, better and OEM Panels ready. so i hope work will be faster. I say that, knowing that my panelbeater takes his time to get it done right..

My bodyshop guy promised me to work on my car until end of march. so i hope there is some progress. the first update he sent me was from  the area behind the passenger seat.

There was some rust do to the previous owner storing it without a sunroof installed, during swiss winter, so snow collected inside the car and we know Z’s dont like any kind of moisture. Now looks better than ever and is nicely protected.