A few days ago i got a call from my Panelbeater that they finally got the chassis out of storage again and re-started work on it. This time with two people. Nice! Today i went over to have a look and discuss some next steps and details. Well the progress was much better than expected. First i was greeted by a more or less complete upper front end body. Here you see the two masters in charge of my project. They also proudly showed me their spot-welding machine when i asked how they weld some of the parts. I’m unfamiliar with spot welds but it is quite the machine 🙂…

Today i got another thing i’ve been looking for for quite a while. Factory Nissan “Race and Rallye Preparation Manuals”. The one on the right side is the “early” version which i had and wrote about already before, but the slighty thicker later version (on the left side), has always been missing in my collection. Luckily i stumbled  upon a set of both recently, so i had to get it. The book describes how to prepare your S30 Fairlady Z, 240Z or Z432(-R), with some generic modifications and settings, but also using all kind of  “Sports option” or  Nissan “Competition” parts. The difference between the early and the later version…

Today i got a package from japan with something i’ve been searching for for quite a while: A complete Nissan Fairlady 1/8 Scale magazine Model car kit by Japanese company Eaglemoss: It is a set that was issued around 2014. It consisted of 100 pieces weekly subscription magazines wich each came with a box including some parts, so each week you would build your part of the Fairlady until you had a complete, huge 1:8 scale model: It is incredbly detailed too, with lots of electronics, mechanically working details And lots of small bits and pieces to assemble: Most parts are bolted and not glued, but of course there’s also…

Recently i went shopping a bit in japan again and the first delivery arrived today: It consists of two pieces: the first one is a NISMO generic purpose electric fuel pump: I’m not sure if this will end up in the Z, but since i stumbled over it while shopping i thought i  better secure one of those, as long as they’re still available: Here are some specs from the NISMO racing parts catalogue: The second interesting thing i found was a Japanese “change of service provedure” manual. In my opinion it’s basically the japanese version of the “technical bulletins” that were vailable in all kind of variants both as…

Today i got a long-awaited delivery from Japan. it constisted of three parts: 1) An OEM Adjustable factory competition suspension by KYB. I still need to investigate a bit. I’m not even 100% sure if this was intended for this specific version of car, and i know there were many different versions of adjustable suspension around. Especially this part (I assume it’s to adjust the push / pull pressure rate?),  ius not seen on all of these adjustable suspensions. As you can see it’s not in the best, but restorable condition and one spring is missing, so i got it quite cheap. that’s the reason i bought it. Mainly to…

Recently, at the bodyshop i got asked what piece of metal this is between the original floorpan and the repair patch they put over it. I had to admit that i don’t know if it was original or not, but the welds definitely looked like OEM Spotwelds. After asking on the Classic Z Forums, i got the information that this was a factory reinforcement plate for the floorpans. Unfortunately it was not listed in any of my parts books, so i guess, it was either added to the cars during the assembly process withohut proper documentation, or it was part of the original floor pan part and never sold separately.…

I have two dashboards hanging on my wall, both with the hand marked Japanese Su-i-su katakana characters (ス イ ス), for destination switzerland. We all know that those dashboards all crack sooner or later crack on the top and mine are no exception. So far there were these options: – Repair it yourself with some backyard-engineering. It will most probably crack at a different location soon, or look terrible – Have them repaired in the USA by Justdashes. Seems like a nice option but two-way shipping costs would be overboarding. – Find a NOS Nissan dashboard. I got offered some, but as expected the price is exorbitant, and who knows…

So i got a few cool British Datsun price lists from my Friend Daniel. It was nothing i was really looking for, but always nice to have some stuff like this in the collection. From left to right: October 1971, July 1976 and August 1978 Price lists by Datsun UK Ltd. I think the design was somehow foldable, why you will find half of the prints on one side upside-down.

In a recent discussion about safety measures, a friend pointed out that the Tension rods on the Z tend to snap, espepcially on lowered cars with hard bushings, as the tension gets too high. You can either switch to an adjustable tension rod kit, or as an alternative, use an Oldschool Bearing kit, which allows the T/C (Tension Compression Rod) to have a slight movement and therefore reduced tension. Today i got one of those kits. This kit is an vintage NOS item which was made by Kontrolle Automotive products in the USA. But i think they were made by different manufacturers and MSA still has them on sale new.…