Safari Brown... I mean Gold - The NSW Project

[260DET]

Very nice tail lights, looking boss.

[EJ101]

what TAFE class/course are you doing?

[gav240z]

what TAFE class/course are you doing?

This course.

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/9963-tafe-course-sydney-st-george/

[gav240z]

No updates in here for a while...

 

I splurged a bit... decided if I was going to build an entire engine then I might as well go Triples and nothing better than Solex / Mikuni's on an L-series engine.

 

I got a pair of 44's (Type 5) and picked up a pair of 40's (Type R) at the same time for a bargain basement price, guy in WA sold them nice and cheap with a bunch of jets, floats, velocity stacks, filters and misc bits and bobs (rebuild gaskets) etc.. Only problem is I need to track down a third carb now to make a matching set of Triples... got a few leads on that though!

 

I already had a set of Triple 44s I bought many years ago, but they were always meant to go on the 72 240z, so I decided to source these as an additional set. I'm looking forward to learning about how to set them up and tune them.

[gav240z]

Thanks for the photos, Gav. I'm always interested to see all the different versions.

 

The OEM ( Kotobuki-made ) versions were made from FRP but with woven cloth ( roving ) rather than chopped strand. I've actually seen several versions of what were supposed to be OEM ones and I believe they changed the design a few times during production.

 

There are captive threaded studs in them: One either side of the central cut-out for the tailgate lock/pushbutton about mid-way along the width of the tailgate, and then two sets of two on the outer edges. There's a factory template for the hole drilling. The bottom ( mating ) edge was closed, so the spoiler was roughly triangular in section.

 

It's always bugged me when well-meaning people push the cars using the spoilers. I find myself shouting at them... Probably need an aircraft-like 'NO PUSH' stencil on the back. There's not really that much holding them on, so they are vulnerable to the forces of the well-meaning pit pusher...

 

I wouldn't recommend Sikkaflex or the like unless it was combined with nuts & bolts. There are OEM access holes in the lower closing panel of the tailgate precisely for the rear spoiler attachment nuts to be tightened through (another example - like the factory four-point cage mounts - of Nissan engineering the car to suit the Sports Option parts that were available for them in Japan ). Just remove the rubber bungs and hey-presto. The outers are outside access. I recommend you engineer some captive studs in the spoiler for the strongest and safest attachment.

Just on this topic I noticed on Classiczcars.com this conversation came up recently.

 

http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/56145-genuine-datsun-240z-jdmeuro-spoiler/

http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/39112-option-genuine-rear-spoiler/

 

Kats provided some really good examples of the early style spoiler with the mounting points etc..

[gav240z]

So I found this receipt this afternoon going through a box full of paper work that came in HS30 00150.

 

There is a receipt for the purchase of a 260z from a P. Dennis. Registration No. IHR 497

 

The signature looks like Phillip J. Douglas but I can't tell for sure.

 

I believe they were a member of the Nissan Datsun Sports Owners Club circa 1991.

 

There was also a receipt for an address 35 Eton St Preston. Which appears to be Fetter Motors now.

http://www.fettermotors.com.au/

 

Also a business card for Oakleigh Panels.

 

Run by Robert Pinzana and Laurie Pinzana. They appear to still be around.

https://www.shannons.com.au/club/directory/oakleigh-panels-autobody-oakleigh-3166/

 

If anyone knows either of the 2 names on the receipt let me know? I'd love to find or track down a previous owner.

[gav240z]

So more detective work.

 

Before HS30 00150 was ENR 466 registration. She lived a previous life as LMK-133.

 

My old 240z was LCU 540 (her original registration since first registered in 1972).

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/11823-evie-1972-datsun-240z/?p=187711

 

So LMK-133 must have been issued a couple of years after #150 was first registered back in 1971 since LMK comes after LCU.

 

Perhaps because she was a dealer demo car to begin with? I've often speculated that may have been the case for the very first ones to arrive here.

 

Perhaps it had temporary dealer plates until it was sold in 1972 at some point to it's first "official" owner.

 

Anyway just like my 72 I found a couple of old paper advertisements for my 1970 Datsun 240z in the paper.

 

Saturday May 2nd 1981 is when it first appeared and the same add ran on:

Wednesday May 6th 1981

Saturday May 9th 1981

Wednesday May 13th 1981

 

Unlike my 72 this ad is light on details.

 

It just says:

 

Datsun 240z Two in stock, a man and an auto. AFM465 is $5650 LMK133 is $5350. LMCT 598 Fin, trade. 813 2433

09 May 1981, Page 123 - The Age at Newspapers.pdf

[PB260Z]

So LMK-133 must have been issued a couple of years after #150 was first registered back in 1971 since LMK comes after LCU.Perhaps because she was a dealer demo car to begin with? I've often speculated that may have been the case for the very first ones to arrive here.Perhaps it had temporary dealer plates until it was sold in 1972 at some point to it's first "official" owner.

Or maybe

The first registered owner fitted personalised plates when new and LMK was fitted at the first change of owner.

[gav240z]

That's also possible.

[gav240z]

So I found this receipt this afternoon going through a box full of paper work that came in HS30 00150.

 

There is a receipt for the purchase of a 260z from a P. Dennis. Registration No. IHR 497

 

Receipt was red herring.

 

Lindsay at Zshop told me the following:

 

IHR-497 was a Z Spares early 260Z race car we bought off a farmer between Werribee & Geelong in the 1990's. Unfortunately my eldest daughter Michelle wrecked it.

 

So, not relevant to #150.

[gav240z]

Finally found a third carb to make a set of Triples... They will need to be water jet blasted and rebuilt to spec.

 

[Brabham]

Nice, are they 44s or 50s Gav? I would suggest possibly glass beading them rather than water jet, looks more original. I saw a set of Mikuni's that had been water jet blasted and they had a kind of wet cast look, IMO it ruined their appearance, seems to work better on rough castings like gearboxes. Perhaps that vapour blasting you saw might be a better bet?

 

Cheers

[potter260]

I wouldn't be allowed to bring car parts into the house let alone the dining table

[C.A.R.]

I would suggest possibly glass beading them rather than water jet, looks more original. I saw a set of Mikuni's that had been water jet blasted and they had a kind of wet cast look, IMO it ruined their appearance, seems to work better on rough castings like gearboxes.

 

I strongly disagree, Alex:

 

From this:

 

To this:

[Enzo]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[gav240z]

Nice, are they 44s or 50s Gav? I would suggest possibly glass beading them rather than water jet, looks more original. I saw a set of Mikuni's that had been water jet blasted and they had a kind of wet cast look, IMO it ruined their appearance, seems to work better on rough castings like gearboxes. Perhaps that vapour blasting you saw might be a better bet?

 

Cheers

 

44's, 50's didn't come in this style of carb body. Refer to the photos Lurch posted for what 50's look like (they look like Type 2's). These are Type 5 Mikuni's with the cooling bodies on them.

 

Strictly speaking I think water jet blasting does make them a little more glossy than OEM (flat) look but I am fine with that. After seeing it done on my cylinder head and valve cover I was hooked. I also had the gearbox in the 72 240z done via water blasting.

 

 

I wouldn't be allowed to bring car parts into the house let alone the dining table

 

It was a bit cheeky, and I'm sort of flooding the house with car parts at the moment. However it helps if you invest in some insurance when coming back from an overseas adventure. These wine bottles help I'm sure.

 

 

I also brought home some D caps... they are not perfect (1 has some minor chrome flaking) but very good used shape...

 

Every time I go to California I expect to see more S30Z's but despite how many you see on eBay or Facebook they are actually very rare to spot, even in a dry state of California. This time I did spot at least 1 S30Z though.. a 280z.

 

[Brabham]

Hey Locky and Gav,

 

Finish from water jet does look good, just not to my taste I guess on the carbs which are a smoother casting. I'd happily do it on a gearbox and head but not carbs or a rocker cover. If you look at the trumpets before blasting they are a bit more glossy, same with the rocker covers. The inlet manifold is very similar before and after. The water jet makes them look a bit more matte. Just a personal preference thing I guess. I was going to get my rocker cover polished, so maybe I prefer more bling! Locky if I need a gearbox doing I will send it your way You very rarely see old cars on the road these days Gav

[gav240z]

I picked these up today, first time sending large items like this via sea freight. All worked out well...

 

These Topy's are technically Roadster ones because they have the tabs for the smaller hubcaps that fit to the roadster wheels. They can either be ground off (look spot welded on) or use a grinder to remove them. But they don't actually interfere with the fitment of a D cap.

 

These are 14x4.5j in size just like the early 240z sizes.

 

 

I test fitted a hubcap.

[gav240z]

I haven't updated this thread in a bit, so thought I would provide a tiny update. This undertray was a little beat up and looking sad with flakey paint. So because I was spending some time in the sandblaster today I decided to give it a clean up and beat it back into shape.

 

It's looking pretty good now, but there was a dent on 1 side that's caused it to stretch a bit and I tried to heat shrink it without too much luck... It's not that obvious and it's only an undertray so I'm trying to decide if I just paint it as is or spend more time trying to straighten it out. It is after all an undertray...but I feel my OCD kicking in.

 

[260DET]

Looks alright to me, shove it back on

[Brabham]

Looks pretty good Gav, what color were these painted from factory?

[gav240z]

Looks alright to me, shove it back on

 

I might give a bit more heat shrinking a go, as I managed to get most of other dents out of it and restore it to look pretty straight. I'll ask the Tafe teacher for help since heat shrinking is still a bit of a black art.

 

 

Looks pretty good Gav, what color were these painted from factory?

 

I have to say, I'm not really sure what the factory colour was... I suspect it was both light grey and black!

 

Check out Kats 903 Blue 240z and his cars under tray..

[gav240z]

How the bonnet is looking so far...

 

The leading edge has improved (although hard to tell) still needs more refinement and will probably get lead filled to fix the front-edge where I haven't been able to get it perfect.

 

I've made a lot of mistakes repairing this bonnet, I suspect once it's painted and a skim of filler is used nobody would be any wiser, so I plan to finish it anyway, but I'm working on obtaining another bonnet in better shape. I have a spare non-fluted bonnet for my 72 240z in Melbourne but it's also had a light front-end nudge and has some bondo in it. Won't know how bad until I strip it back... but between all my cars and their bonnets I'll hopefully be able to make at least 3 good ones for each car.

 

Accident free bonnets are incredibly rare... I honestly think most people don't realise their bonnets are bent.

Take for example this car that was recently repainted.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Datsun-240z-RHD-JDM-Nissan-Fairlady-Z-1972-/222597966228?rmvSB=true

 

It's bent like a banana in the middle...serves as a good comparison with my bonnet repair haha.

 

 

[gav240z]

As per this thread on bonnet skin and frame work. The skin and fame are now back together.. What a mission it's been!

 

Still lots of dressing up to be done and tidying up etc..

 

 

So the other thing I did last night was tidy up the worst of the 5 Topy wheels I imported. This 1 was by far the most corroded, but I was kind of inspired to clean it up after seeing this video. I was always going to get them powder coated until I saw this video. maybe it's his enthusiastic voice?

 

 

How it was before..

 

After blasting I found this problem around the lip.

 

Good thing about Steel Wheels is you can weld them easily!

 

After grinding etc.. now for paint..

 

Only challenge is some surface pitting, I am hoping high fill primer will take care of that though?

 

Since this is the 5th wheel if it doesn't turn out as nice it can become the spare wheel.

 

[gav240z]

Well... this valve cover has a bit of history alright. It was on my 260z 2+2 (which had a P90 head). These are quite hard to find and I refer to them as the "BIG NISSAN" covers. You can tell the difference between the big and small version because the N at the end just goes past the spark plug bracket holder, where as the smaller version N on the end finishes before the bracket!

 

Example small version - recently sold this cover.

 

Anyway I've had the larger version in storage for many many years now and always intended to do something with it, just wasn't sure what? Polish it? Chrome it? Powder Coat it? Water jet blast? Wrinkle Finish? Red? Black?

 

I bought a can of VHT wrinkle red over a year ago and because the valve cover was greasy and needed a clean I sort of put off trying it. I was going to take it to water jet blast it, then decided well.. if this wrinkle red looks like dogs bollocks. I'll just get it blasted off anyway, so may as well try it and seeing this video here also gave me a bit of motivation.

 

So this evening I cleaned under the baffle piece inside the cover, removed the old adhesive (had to chip it off with a chisel then sand it off and use a razor blade) PITA! That's why I wanted to blast it and save myself the grief, but nevermind..

 

So once it was clean, I water blasted it with my gurni (hose etc..) and then wax/grease remover over the top to give it a clean finish.

This is what it looked like once it was prepped. I taped up the oil cap area, spark plug mounting bracket points and tried to cover the valve cover bolt areas (this didn't work as well as I'd hoped), If doing again I'd probably find suitable size washers and place them there, but instead I put the bolts back in with tape over the heads..which didn't quite leave a perfect circle with no paint. Not to worry though as you won't see this when the bolts are installed anyway I suppose..

 

The stuff comes out quick thick, so here is what it looked like after the first coat. As you can see coverage is good.

 

After coat #2.

 

After coat #3 (and a half ).

 

So after this, I got a bit confused by the instructions on the rear, it said allow to air dry, but it also said to bake in an oven or similar to get the wrinkles to come out. I have a heat gun, so I wasn't sure if I should wait for it to try or start with the heat gun right away. I let it dry for about 10-15 mins after the last coat. Then decided to gently use the heat gun from a distance and see what will happen (on the rear of the cover)...

 

The lighting in the garage is poor at night, but I could see the wrinkle start to come up. I was careful to move around the cover and apply heat as evenly as possible. But it is a bit exciting when you see the wrinkle finish start to come up.

 

I removed the tape to expose the areas I masked to get an idea of what the raw alloy would look like.

 

I must say so far I quite like it, I plan to remove the wrinkle finish from the border lines around the "NISSAN" embossed section, but will wait until the paint has had more of a chance to set over night (24-48 hours) and then use a razor blade or sand paper etc.. It probably would have paid dividends to get a dremmel tool first and polish up the letters etc.. before painting, but as this was kind of my first attempt I just wanted to give it a go and see how it would turn out.

 

I'm still up in the air about the finish of red, I've seen some LY powered engines with red wrinkle covers.

 

But I've also seen them with a black finish... Here is another (small NISSAN cover) I found on the web, done in black wrinkle.

and here is a red 1 I saw someone else had done.

 

Then of course I'm not sure which car to fit it on? The red 240z in Melbourne? Or the Safari Gold car? I quite like the contrast of the red cover in a Safari Gold car engine bay.

 

I guess I can always swap them around, I'm still trying to locate a NISSAN 2400 OHC cover (early style cover) for this car, because although it wasn't fitted from factory I just like the look and think it jells quite well with an early 240z.