240Z: Fender Works, Carb works and many parts and documents

Time for another long-overdue update: I’ve been busy working on many corners of my 240Z restoration project. Since it’s mostly small works here and there, I wanted to save the work until I have enough together for a proper update.
I’m trying to use my time and money wisely, to ensure the car is ready to go to the body shop in August / September. So the first thing I did was to drill holes in my NOS fenders.

Some might say this is blasphemy, but I need those to install my NOS fender mirrors, which I really want to put on this car:

And then checked my NOS fender hardware:

Then I went through all my Boxes with NOS and reworked parts, trying to figure out what is missing:

Luckily, I’ve collected quite a few things over the years:

Nevertheless. There is still plenty of stuff missing. So I started up Excel and made lists, of what is still required for the body. Trying to source all the hardware:

I placed various orders and the first bunch of hardware already arrived from Nissan. It’s surprising how many parts you still get from Nissan. Some really obscure plastic pieces, for example. But then most of the fasteners have been replaced by blue-passivated (vs originally yellow zinc) or blued (black) hardware. Which has the correct specification but wrong surface finish. Nevertheless, I’m getting there.

I also managed to find a bunch of cool, rare stickers locally:

Speaking of stickers. Kats managed to find me those. Which I’ve been trying to find since I got that RS-Mach wheel. Very cool and thanks a lot!!

While at it, I also was able to buy an early A-type five-speed transmission rear extension housing, which is not something you see every day. I had mine removed from the car (temporary test fit). so here you see my original one, vs the NOS one:

I also got a ton of new documents from Japan:

Some highlights are the Nissan Graphic customer magazine from the late 1969 and early 1970ies. There is not really much relevant stuff inside, but it features some cool photos and ads from the Z:

Another highlight was this folder with random Service Shuho bulletins:

While I already had most of the Shuhos. The folder itself is something I haven’t seen before. It was all at a very low price. So I had to have it. And now I can store my Z-related Shuho’s in that nice original Japanese workshop folder, as intended. There are still a few late ones missing from the Z-series, so I’m still trying to hunt them:

I also liked this late S30 / GS30 poster very much, and luckily, I had an old, fitting frame lying around, so I framed it and will hang it somewhere:

Today I got more rare documents, this time from Germany. That one green Bulletin was missing in my collection, and the Skyline stuff is for my friend.

Then I went to collect a few parts for my build Not necessarily the best condition but much better than what I have now. So now at least I have two doors with the body line still intact, and to somewhat straight EU-type bumpers. The lot also included some freebies:

I also managed to find a set of brand new correctly sized Butterfly flaps for my Mikuni carbs.

So, I packed them together with all the other Parts and the PHH’s themselves

And went to my new Carbs guru. He is worth a dedicated story himself. But I tell you he’s really passionate about carbs and has a long history, rebuilding carbs for anything from classic formula one cars to whatever obscure stuff he finds only, which he rebuilds just for himself for fun. Here is one of my carbs on his home-built test bench (part thereof):

A bit of original vintage Solex France goodness:

And here some Sanyo-Kiki Carbs from an Opel race car, which he rebuilt for his own collection:

He will now rebuild my carbs, and update me constantly, so expect some posts about that. I also just placed an order for some shiny new bolts so he can use those shiny bits instead of the faded old hardware.
Speaking of Shiny bits. My mate Stefan gave me a nice Box of NOS and used parts.

That included quite the load of (I think?) door switches, horn relays and other electronics:

Now I’m waiting for all these hardware orders to arrive. And after spending so much time in front of the computer, I’m very excited to continue work on the car itself. There is plenty of stuff to do until all the fasteners arrive and I can finally start with the Final assembly before the body shop, with all correct and “good” hardware. As usual, I’ll keep you updated.