HS30-00211

[C.A.R.]

Update time!
Late last year (2024) we moved premises to a larger facility, so that slowed progress on the 240Z.
However progress WAS made and the Z was moved closer to paint.

Since the body was painted in tinted high build primer in October, it's had enough time to cure and we've assembled more of the drivetrain, so much so we are VERY close to starting the engine.



But before we do, we decided to sand the primer in preparation for paint.
My painter prefers to have the front guards and doors attached and the vehicle able to be moved under it's own power as it's easer to deal with once it's in the booth.

So Graeme DRY sanded the primer to 240g with the splines then 400g on the DA:







The grey patches are spot primer to cover any cut-throughs.

Tony - the owner - wants to come down from Sydney to be here in person when the engine is started for the first time - I'll post a video when this happens.

Edited March 5, 2025 by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

So 3 weeks ago it FINALLY happened!
PAINT!

My painter took the Z and performed his usual checks, picking up & correcting anything we might have missed, before wheeling it into the booth.
This is a full day exercise, with masking up of the bodyshell and panels, before 3 base coats are laid down, followed by 4 coats of PPG's finest clear.













Now for reassembly!

[C.A.R.]

While we were getting the Z into the paint booth - on & off the trailer etc - the clutch started failing. So once the Z was pained and back in the shop, the engine came out again for a replacement clutch.
However this didn't stop us from reassembling it.

Headlight buckets and headlights went in:



I'd purchased from Japan via eBay some preproduction indicator assemblies. These were installed into the panels, then bolted to the underside of the headlight buckets:




I actually found some NOS indicators on YAJ, but FBD the price they wanted...

New tail lights and painted tail light panels:



All the hatch &door seals were installed, and the doors reassembled with new outer handles and refurbished locks.



The original license plate light is pretty sad: the plastic is brittle and the housing warped, but Graeme did his best to clean it up and get it functional.
Reproduction's are available ex USA at an eye watering price, and its easy to change if Tony wants to spend the $ later.





I got onto a guy in Adelaide who has a lot of Z spares, and upon hearing of the project has bee happy to sell me parts.
The wiper motor being one such thing, but unfortunately it's a later model 240Z unit in a bag. Early 240Z's had a hard plastic cover, that is now impossible to obtain.
Even so it will still do the job.



The original early 'solid' spoke steering wheel was pretty sad.
Gav reckoned he could repaint it, so I posted it to him and over the course of the next year or so, Gav sanded the spokes and painted them in stain black.

The rim - we found out - is made up as a compressed wooden fibre infused 'faux-wood' plastic resin.
Fortunately it's straightforward to refurbish: Gav rubbed it down with 00 steel wool till it was smooth, the a few coats of timber Urethane were applied.
I was stunned at what it looked like!




It was complemented with a new horn contactor ring and nut.

With these small jobs done, my booking with my Trimmer came about so the Z was winched onto the trailer and delivered to him.

Black was used because that was the only interior colour option available in 1970.
The headlining on a Z is glued directly to the underside of the roof panel. But before this can happen, the form around the header rails needs to be cut & clued into position.



Then the vinyl is cut and clued into place - especially around the rubber seal lips.
Next the roof lining is made - using templates - with the foam being glued to the vinyl. Both sides are glued, before CAREFULY gluing the headliner into position. You don't want to mess this up!





Done!

Next the diamond pattern vinyl was glued in place on the tunnel and rear strut towers. Tony had purchased this some time ago from a supplier, so I saved us having to track a kit down.





Next the carper underlay and carpet was made & installed. I could have bought a carpet kit from a local supplier, but my trimmer had seen one before and said the fit is 'ok' but not suitable for this Z.
So he made a completely new carpet to suit this Z.



Lots of time was spent insuring the underlay fitted correctly.
And you can see the effort that went into getting the carpet fitting nicely & binding the carpet around the edges.





And the result:








*chef kiss*

With these small jobs done, my booking with my Trimmer came about so the Z was winched onto the trailer and delivered to him.

Black was used because that was the only interior colour option available in 1970.
The headlining on a Z is glued directly to the underside of the roof panel. But before this can happen, the form around the header rails needs to be cut & clued into position.



Then the vinyl is cut and clued into place - especially around the rubber seal lips.
Next the roof lining is made - using templates - with the foam being glued to the vinyl. Both sides are glued, before CAREFULY gluing the headliner into position. You don't want to mess this up!





Done!

Next the diamond pattern vinyl was glued in place on the tunnel and rear strut towers. Tony had purchased this some time ago from a supplier, so I saved us having to track a kit down.





Next the carper underlay and carpet was made & installed. I could have bought a carpet kit from a local supplier, but my trimmer had seen one before and said the fit is 'ok' but not suitable for this Z.
So he made a completely new carpet to suit this Z.



Lots of time was spent insuring the underlay fitted correctly.
And you can see the effort that went into getting the carpet fitting nicely & binding the carpet around the edges.





And the result:









*chef kiss*
With these small jobs done, my booking with my Trimmer came about so the Z was winched onto the trailer and delivered to him.

Black was used because that was the only interior colour option available in 1970.
The headlining on a Z is glued directly to the underside of the roof panel. But before this can happen, the form around the header rails needs to be cut & clued into position.



Then the vinyl is cut and clued into place - especially around the rubber seal lips.
Next the roof lining is made - using templates - with the foam being glued to the vinyl. Both sides are glued, before CAREFULY gluing the headliner into position. You don't want to mess this up!





Done!

Next the diamond pattern vinyl was glued in place on the tunnel and rear strut towers. Tony had purchased this some time ago from a supplier, so I saved us having to track a kit down.





Next the carper underlay and carpet was made & installed. I could have bought a carpet kit from a local supplier, but my trimmer had seen one before and said the fit is 'ok' but not suitable for this Z.
So he made a completely new carpet to suit this Z.



Lots of time was spent insuring the underlay fitted correctly.
And you can see the effort that went into getting the carpet fitting nicely & binding the carpet around the edges.





And the result:









*chef kiss*

Edited Tuesday at 10:52 AM by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

I've realized I didn't finish the seats refurbishment.
I'd given them to my trimmer well before he received the Z and he's set about putting them back together with re-chromed fasteners, plastic insulators etc. in time for when they were ready to be installed in the Z:

Edited Tuesday at 10:49 AM by C.A.R.

[C.A.R.]

We continued on with reassembly.
The horns were stripped, cleaned, painted and reassembled. Then checked for tootness, before installing into position.





Followed by other items:
New glove box liner (that's made of stapled carboard!)



New kick panels



New jack and tool pouch covers:



New heater control panel and the upgraded fuse box:



The centre vent is in poor condition, but I've obtained a good 2nd hand one.

And the remaining interior plastics have gone back in:



Originally early 240Z's came with an AM radio and only lowly Hitachi speaker in the LH rear quarter.
I have the bracket, but no speaker. So we decided to make a 2nd speaker bracket and install 2 new speaks in the rear quarters:





Unsurprisingly being a '70s carburetor car, it has a manual choke.
Oddly, it also has a hand throttle-up leaver that pulls a cable attached to the accelerator pedal arm in the footwell - think of it as a crude cruise control...
I'm sure there is a reason Mr. Nissan added it to the vehicle, but by '71 this 'hand throttle' was deleted. Probably for good reason if you think about it...
The assembly is attached to the underside of the centre console.

Graeme stripped the assembly, clean & painted the bracketry and reassembled the unit.






The original fibreglass centre console was a mess: cracks, sections missing, surface crazing. It was bad.
Replacements can be obtained via the USA, but reports I read online said the fit & finish was average at best.

Some months back I asked my painter - who is pretty good with FG - if he could repair it and re-apply a suitable textured finish. He said he'd give it and go.
And he delivered!
Here it is upside down with the choke assembly installed:



And bolted back into it's rightful place:

[C.A.R.]

The clutch was supplied with the Z when it was delivered to me, so while it looked new it obviously wasn't right.
Les at LCR organized a new clutch for me, but then said: "The engine dyno is free at the moment, so bring the engine in and we'll dyno tune it now, rather than road tune it later".

Les bolted the engine into position on the water-brake dyno and spent a solid 2.5 days on it, running it in and getting the tune sport on.
They changed carb needles twice, and fitted new bob weights to the dizzy to chance the advance curve.
With slightly more static CR, 1mm overbore, lightly ported head and a Wade 733a cam grind, the end result was a stout 177hp at the flywheel on stock carbs and exhaust manifold. Factory was 162hp...
And it still looks OEM original.



We reinstalled it back into the Z the following week, and it fired up without an issue.



At this time Tony said he wanted to fly down from Sydney with his wife too see the Zed in person, so the pressure was on!
I was determined have it run, drive and stop so I could attach the trade plate and have him (and me) drive the Zed for the first time!

He booked the flights and on Friday 19th September, he and his wife visited the workshop. Keep in mind, in the last 4 years I'd never met him in person!
Greetings over and I reveled his Z from the cover - he just stood there saying "Wow"...
We talked about it and then we took it for a drive up the road with Tony driving. A short 10 min squirt up the road with Tony driving put a smile on his dial a mile wide - he even took his wife for a drive together around the block:



Now for the last 5%...

[C.A.R.]

After Tony had visited, we had a few items to finish off.

The bumper over riders needed to be re-chromed, but my regular chromers & electroplaters were out of action due to a factory fire(!), so I sent the over-riders to a company in Sydney. Like everything these days, I was going to be in for a wait...

When the Z was delivered, it was rolling on a set of 15" mag wheels. Obviously these weren't original, so I needed to track down a set of factory 'Topy' steel rims in 14x4.5", date stamped 1970.
"Were the heck was I going to find those..."

I started making calls and talking to people... The weird beard in Ipswich didn't have any, The guy in Adelaide had 2 but that was it. Nothing. Shit...
Then I posted a wanted ad bookface & a guy in Bendigo messed me saying he had a set of 4, later '74 260Z 14x5" Topy's in good condition. And he was happy to trade them for some left over parts I had.
And he was coming past in a few weeks and could deliver them. Score!
At this stage I didn't care about them technically being the wrong model year, as I had no other option...

He duly dropped them off, we exchanged parts and I had a set of rims!
I took them around to be media blasted, and then my painter painted them in gloss black 2k.






(Photo complete with workshop dust)
These were then wrapped in Bridgestone B249's in 185/75/14

The next issue was Hubcaps.
Early 240Z's were factory fitted with an ugly-as-sin 'D Hubcap'. Finding 1 in Australia is an achievement. Finding a set of 4 in good condition - forget it.
They pop up on US ebay from time to time, but a good set will cost AUD$4k by the time they arrive here.
Fortunately, Resurrected Classics in the US had D Hubcaps reproduced last year. Max at RC said he was super happty with them & said if I wasn't happy, he'd refund me.
AUD$1100 they arrived in the shop, and I was REALLY impressed with the quality:



There was a few hard to find interior items missing when the Z was delivered: choke lever cover plate, coin tray and the ash tray lid was completely cracked.
I managed to locate some NOS items online in the states, but the asking prices was insane and Tony wasn't interested in paying $1000USD+ for a NOS ash tray assembly...
While I was searching on eBay, there was a guy called in the UK that was 3d printing a heap of early Z parts, but on closer inspection, I could see print lines in the parts. And that wasn't good enough...



He had hatch vent gaskets though which we needed and as these aren't seen, I ordered a set.

Then I randomly got a WhatsApp message from the seller, Chris: "Is there anything else I can help you with? Combined postage is cheaper."
I told him I'd love a coin tray, choke lever cover and Ash tray, but I could see the print lines and they weren't good enough for my restorations.
"Oh, OK. I'll tweak the file and print new ones for you in higher definition ASA. I'll send you a photo & if you are happy with them, I cant send them to you with the gaskets."
It was too good of a deal to pass up, and sure enough the new items were great, so Chris posted them & they arrived a few days later.



Still a couple of print lines, but not bad considering...

Seat belts were actually pretty easy.
The original 'overlap' static belts were lone gone, but there's various suppliers around Australia that sell static and inertia-reel seat belts for Zed.
After discussion with Tony, new Static belts were ordered and installed:



Another thing I needed was a engine splash guard. This are almost impossible to find for 240Z's as the bolts used to snap off in the chassis rail, so owners used to bin them as they couldn't reattach them.
By luck I was able to acquire one though a guy who races a 240Z in historic's, after some 'horse trading' took place...
It was a bit beaten about, but after some fettling & farknarkling, it was repaired, blasted & painted in 2k chassis black before it was bolted back into place under the front of the Z:



While I'd bought a NOS 'cigar lighter', we didn't have a bracket to mount it. Ol' mate in Adelaide sent us some dimensions and Graeme made one up out of mild steel, the painted it:



The original shift knob I'd obtained via Marketplace was well worn, so Graeme sanded that back & re-lacquered it be fore reassembling it.



The choke knob & throttle up knob was a problem - We didn't have any.
NOS items are obscene $ if & when they come up. We couldn't justify that cost.
However through my networking, I got onto a guy in the Sydney Z club who said he reproducers early Z knobs for the heater controls, heater fan and... choke & throttle up knobs.
He sent me a set and I was stunned at how good they were: not perfect so as to look like new, but perfect in an original 70's way.



They aren't 3D printed, I know that much. But he wasn't going to tell me how... I suspect it's deceptively simple.
Regardless I was vey happy to have a pair!

Previously I mentioned that the brakes had been rebuilt?
Well... Ever sine we bled up the system, the pedal wasn't great. We bled and re-bled the system.
Then it happened: I came into the shop one morning & noticed a puddle of flued under the rear tyres. FFS...!

The rear wheel cylinders had definitely been re-kitted, but the rust and scores in the bore told a different story. Someone did a dodgy.
Power Brake in Adelaide to the rescue. The cylinders were bored & S/S sleeved with new kits - $380 later...
We stripped the front brake calipers & they were good, so nothing to do there.
However we fitted a new M/C as it 'looked' NQR...

I learnt a lesson here: Don't trust the word of anyone.



Reco'd:



And just before Christmas '25, the F&R over-riders arrived, so the F&R bumpers were assembled with the bump-rubbers and installed onto the Z:

[C.A.R.]

And finally...









And on the 28th of December 2025, I borrowed a mates enclosed trainer, loaded the 240Z up, drove to Sydney and personally delivered to Tony the mother of all birthday presents:





4 years (with 6 - 8 month break in the middle).
1682 Hours (lots not accounted for).
Lots of lessons learnt.
One VERY happy owner of 240Z HS30-00211

Would I take on a project like this again?

You bet I would.

Edited Tuesday at 09:03 PM by C.A.R.

[NickF]

Great job

 

[gav240z]

Hey mate,

I think the images aren't loading because they are referencing performance forums attachments which may not allow the images to load from their web service. So they are coming through as blank. Perhaps from your computer it doesn't look that way because you were logged in to their site?

[gav240z]

Found your Performance Forums thread for anyone else interested in seeing the photos.

https://performanceforums.com/forums/forum/car-corner/pf-street-cars/7331507-fu-king-rusty-datsun/page16

[C.A.R.]

10 hours ago, gav240z said:

Found your Performance Forums thread for anyone else interested in seeing the photos.

https://performanceforums.com/forums/forum/car-corner/pf-street-cars/7331507-fu-king-rusty-datsun/page16

Indeed I was. They've just updated the forum & it's borked the latest images for some reason...