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Time for an update! By September we'd checked fitment of all the parts on the 240Z so the 'dry build' was complete, so there was nothing left to do but pull it all apart and prep it for high-build primer. Annoyingly my painter decided to take a month off from Mid-September to Mid-October, so the project stalled for four weeks, but once he was back we could begin. My painter cast his critical eye over the whole thing, then once he was happy the WHOLE car was dry sanded inside and out with 240g soft pads, prep-solved, masked up and tinted high build primer was shot at the body & panels. With all that done and the primer dry, the body shell and front guards was back-taped, so the underside could have stone chip applied. We spent a LOT of time on the underside of the Z to dress any of our welding repairs and also fix any of the average work done by the little Japanese man on the production line in Yokohama... As we wanted to do a 'better than factory' job of it, the underside frame rails are also masked off so no stone chip is applied to them - this makes for a more atheistically pleasing look. The seams are then seam sealed, then the paintable stone chip is applied: And the inside of the guards: This whole process of masking, then de-masking takes bloody ages... But it's all worth it, because next the ACTUAL colour is applied!!! When I first received the Z it had been media blasted and all remnants of the original colour were gone - along with any paint code sticker. However not EVERYTHING had been removed and Epoxy'd over - there was the remnants of an original grommet for the fuel tank vent pipe - still holding on for dear life - and when I carefully peeled it back... YES!!! I consulted the factory colours for 1970 and there it was: Nissan 907 Green! So that's what it is being returned to. The body shell was then prep-solved, seam sealed, primed and Direct Gloss colour was applied (wet on wet) to the underside of the body over the stone chip, then the engine bay and cabin. All I can say is that it looks bloody amazing - even straight off the gun in DG! Needless to say my painter is a legend. I'm stoked and Tony the owner is over the moon to see colour on it finally! Now we start bolting the driveline in to make it mobile...

It’s been a long time between posts here, it’s been interesting looking back and seeing the journey I’ve been on with this car, so an update is due so I can continue to look back on this story in the future. There has been much progress over the years. Most notably, the Z now has a Les Collins built 3.1L stroker with triple webbers. And an engine bay make over. Speedhut gauges are in too and a bunch of rust repairs and body touch ups from Lurch’s shop. I’m over the moon to have the car at this point and it puts a huge smile on my face to drive. The sound is glorious. And it’s great to have the power to match the aggressive styling choices I’ve made. The car needs a repaint now but other than that, I consider the original vision I had for this car is more or less complete. Thing is, I’m no longer a young man and the vision has changed. I can’t really deal with no ac so that’ll need to be addressed. I’ve found inspiration from what MZR have done and where the restomod scene has gone recently. So an interior make over is now on the cards. And I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how to get a nice sounding sound system into the car. Browsing the forums, some people say getting good sound quality can’t be done, so just put speakers in the back or the kicks somewhere. I take that as a challenge and I have some crazy ideas cooking up. Luckily the interior stuff is more within my limited capabilities so I’ll be more involved with that. I’m half way through stripping out all the interior and doing 3 stage sound treatment - butyl rubber + closed cell foam + mass loaded vinyl. With only the back done the difference is big, engine still roars but I can have a conversation while cruising without having to yell. Lots of work to do, I have a list that feels like it’ll take another year to get through. I’ve hit many points where I’ve thought that financially I can’t keep up and the car will need to be sold, but feels like those tough times are done and I’ve got this car for life now. That’s it for now I think, I’ll try post more updates as I go.