Hs30-01415 - 904 White And Blue Interior - Auto - 71

[gav240z]

Since I saw the car and the wheels on it, I've been curious about their origins. As you probably know I got some advice from various experts via Facebook that they may be Fuji Auto Cobra's. Google Searching revealed nothing! Nada. Zip...

I put up a listing on a few Facebook groups specialising in vintage / unique JDM style wheels.  Which gave me a brochure from 1981 showing the wheel design and a small blurb.

After talking to Alan about them @HS30-H he hazard a guess that they (Fuji Industries) were importing the Cobra wheels and wholesaling them to other retailers throughout Japan. 

to paraphrase Alan a bit: 

Quote

'Cobra Automotive Products' were a UK company based in Warwick, Warwickshire. They manufactured wheels under the Cobra brand, but also for other companies. I believe your wheels were either made in UK and distributed in Japan, or made under license in Japan and distributed there by Fuji Auto Electric.

I was also under the impression they may have been 15" but after seeing the size specs, I had a look and low and behold they are 14"...

Given the lock down we're all under now I'm thinking now may be a good time to pull them off the car, polish them up and paint the centre a gold colour and re-anodize the black bolts.

I'm thinking of some white letter tyres to go on them. But 14" tyre sizes are limited and especially with nice white lettering for that 70s period look. Any suggestions on possible tyres? (The ones on there are from 2007 so 13 years old now and quite hard).

 

[gav240z]

Another issue with the car was that I heard a squeaking noise if the car was left to idle low for a while.

Can you guess why? The damn oiler bar snapped off at the end and was sitting in the corner of the cylinder head. So the rear #6 valve train doesn't get appropriate oil at idle, at higher rpm it's fine because so much oil is flicked about it gets lubricated.

I had the old oiler bar off the E31 in #150 - since we converted that to an internally oiled cam when it was rebuilt. But since #150's engine was sitting with blown head gasket the oiler bar was rusty inside on 1 end. I had noticed also the oiler bar was quite bent so the sandwich plate didn't sit flat on the rear, which would mean oil would be lost out the gap and not go into the channel with the oil squirter holes.

So I think I'll source a better oiler bar, than try and clean this 1 up. Plus it's also got a loose end bit like the 1 that was on there..I really hate the oiler bar. My first 240z (73) had the same problem with a snapped oiler bar in the head (same end of the motor too). But for now I don't plan to change the cam over so I'll just need to find a good 1 and install it.

I haven't really started it up in the last couple of weeks because I was waiting for the oiler bar issue to be resolved.

If I am going to pull the cylinder head off this car at any point I'll change the cam/oiler bar set up and remove the brass valve seats at the same time. But for now I'm keeping it as is.

I had intended to have it on the road by now on club registration but with the Covid-19 lock down it's put things on hold for now.

However while it was on temp registration for 20 odd days, I used it to pick up the keys to our new house on settlement day. She looks at home next to the Stagea :).

I've since put a car cover over it.

Oh and sadly the clock I had restored by Ron has stopped working, so I need to pull it out again! Damn...

 

[CroS13]

nice! when did you get the Stagea lol?

Is the plan to bring all the cars down to Melbourne?

[gav240z]

I bought the Stagea about a year ago to replace the Jimny. I was doing a lot of interstate travel and the Jimny wasn't freeway friendly. Plus the missus and I are expecting our first child in August. So the Stagea is a GTR for a family man.

I've had my wife and 2 friends in the back plug the dog in the boot with it. It's quite funny. But fun.

All my cars are in Victoria now and all the parts with it. Big effort. Don't wanna do that again.

[gav240z]

When I got the car it has side mouldings that were coming off. I attempted to put them back on, but when using 3M adhesive I put them on thinking I could adjust them straight. But the mouldings had warped while off the car and looked wavy on the driver side.

When attempting to fix this it pulled some paint off (flaking off) so I didn't touch it.

Fast forward I couldn't back it being wavy and decided to remove it, knowing paint would come with it.

Anyway it's all gone as you can see from the photos. It does look better without it but I'll need to touch up the paint in places, I've attached photos of the condition of the paint so you can get a sense of what I'm working with.

The car will need a full repaint in future but I'm unlikely to get around to it soon. So for now I'll have to live with it as it is.