C.A.R.

With the rear quarters clamped in position, then next thing we had to do was fit the rare spares door skins. Rare Spares has a sticker on ALL their panels stating that: "This is panel is only a vague approximation of an OEM panel and shitloads of work will be required to make it fit correctly." Paul clamped them onto the rebuilt door frames to check fitment and... well... there were issues. The door handle recess was 'low' in one skin in relation to the body line. The door handle recess in both skins was 'sucked in' when a ruler was run across the body line. The handle holes were in the wrong spot. The upper body line was not sharp enough or not there at all... Paul spent 3 days rectifying these issues - we worked out it would have been quicker to make new ones from scratch! But eventually they were fitted to the frames (after I removed the e-coating): Before the skins were fitted I Epoxied the insides of them and applied a coat of KBS Rust Seal to (hopefully) keep them rust free forever. We are aiming for a 5mm panel gap and it appears we will succeed in obtaining that measurement.

Once these manufacturing 'defects' had been identified, we started on rectifying them. The vent hole and side repeaters were filled, the filled smooth. The RH panel aalso had the fuel filler 'bucket'(?) fitted. This was removed from the original quarter panel, media blasted, repaired and welded into position: While the Z was in storage in 2022, I was informed via socials of a company in Atlanta USA called 'Resurrected Classics' that were having other 'difficult to obtain' panels made in China. Items they were having made were - amongst others - early vented Z hatch's, tail light panel and reproduction tail lights.. This was a HUGE bonus as this Zeds hatch was pretty bad - rust, bog and lots of damage. The rear valance was also toast and I'd consigned myself to remaking it, but with a suitable one-piece tail light panel now available, it was going to be much easier and cheaper. So I ordered them during this time, and fitted them up together with the rear quarter panels. These panels also needed work to make them nice, but it was a great start.

In May a friend of mine mentioned that global freight prices were slowly coming down, so I decided to take a look again at the KFV rear quarters. KFV had changed freight company's and to my great delight the cost had come down to $1200AUD! Still expensive, but at least it was palatable... I spoke to the owner and he agreed to the purchase and continuing the project, so he sent me some more $ and I went and ordered the rear quarter panels. They duly arrived in June and I sat them on the bodyshell. They were good but they were going to need work to make them 100% right. The two glaring issues is the US spec side repeater hole would have to be filled and the quarter vent hole also filled as the early Zeds had the vents in the hatch. Some main bodyline was far to sharp. The pressing around the tail lights was not consistent and to wide. The step joint to the tail light panel was in the wrong spot. Fixable but also annoying...

Time for an update! Back in March '22, #211 it went into storage because we'd gone as far as we could with the chassis repairs. This was because of the rear 1/4 panels... Yasee I deemed the originals beyond economical repair, as due to the previous 'repairs' to them, I had to more or less butcher them to remove them from the bodyshell. We toyed with the idea of making them from scratch (we have the capability), but when I estimated the hours require to fabricate them, it would not be cost effective. However I'd heard a rumor that KF Vintage in Columbia - who make the green panels - were nearly done prototyping FULL 240Z rear quarter panels. Joy! And so we waited. And waited... And finally at the end of '22 they became available to purchase! I placed an order and got the freight quote... I nearly fell off my chair: Nearly $7000AUD just for the air freight! This was outrageous and the owner of the Z agreed. I contacted the owner of KFVintage & he agreed to look at other freight options and failed. Apparently getting freight out of Columbia is an issue due all the corruption (this is a story all on it's own). I had to do something so in January I retrieved the Z out of storage so I could reassess the situation: We looked at other options... Somehow repairing the originals. Looking again at making our own. But neither of these options appealed to us, so the shell was pushed around the shop for a few months while I did other jobs on the project (more on these later).

Alexandria - Black spur - Healsville - Cockatoo, apparently! Someone should have read a map before they left! Hume, then the Monash would have been far easier...

According to my PPG paint rep - Nissan 918 Orange.

Back into this again after it's sat up on block for the last 18 months... I must get out in it again. I have a brake shudder to deal with (suspected rear discs) and it really needs new tyres ($$$). Once thing that has been annoying me is the sunroof, so I moved it into the workshop & pulled the sunroof out. I removed the paint, cut some 1mm steel out, flange'd it, wheel'd it up & cleco'd it into place. I'm just waiting on some panel-bond so I can glue it into position. Then a thin skim of filler and paint.

Do you know in what direction it went?

I went looking for the new ones, but I couldn't find a listing. MSA used to stock them...

Do you know in what direction it went? In all seriousness, I've got one but I have NFI it's condition. You'll need to get it checked out by a radiator shop. $100 - PM me if you want it.

Thanks and I hope you enjoyed this restoration!

The EFI will cost more to install over the 40phh Mikuni's, but it depends on what you are trying to achieve...? Although by the sounds of it, you are set on EFI anyway.

When Robbie got his Z on permit and started driving it, the poor shift quality of the old 71A flange drive gearbox became apparent. As he has been driving his 240Z quite regularly, this gearbox issue was detracting from this whole experience. The monkey motion shifter mechanism isn't great after 50+ years, so the best fix is to fit a 71C gearbox from an S13/14. The 71C box has a tall 0.75 5th gear ratio, so this allows a shorter final drive ratio to be used - 4.44 is perfect as at 100kph the engine is still only doing around 3000rpm in 5th. So Robbie & I started forming a plan to convert his Z. The WRX STI 4.44 ratio diff was easy enough for Robbie to procure, but finding a decent S13/14 box locally was a bit of a challenge... That was until another member of this forum who was planning the same conversion had bought from Nissan a NEW S14 gearbox, however he was offered good $ for his early 240Z so he sold it - leaving him with this new S14 gearbox... When I found all this out, I told Robbie to go buy it - which he did! This gave us the major parts for the conversion. All I had to do was find a L series bell-housing & tail shaft... With an L series bell-housing obtained, I had it hydra-jet blasted and then sent off for machining so it could be swapped onto the S14 box. Likewise I procured a tail-shaft - this was sent off to be rebuilt & shortened. Once I had workshop availability, Robbie dropped the Z off - along with the diff & box - so we could perform the conversion. The new Nissan S14 'box! The WRX diff stub axles are 27 spline which means that the 24 spline 240Z stubs cant be fitted. Thankfully Kameari make new stub axles just for this conversion, so they were duly fitted. The pinion flange was swapped over along with the mustache bar mounting studs in the diff cover as the WRX studs are longer. The WRX diff was installed and that was when I noticed it: Blast! Why it wasn't done previously I don't know, but obviously this needs to be rectified now. Out came the diff again & I went off to hunt for the required parts. I managed to find the later model curved transverse link & a good 2nd hand diff mount, but I didn't have a mustache bar. I had another customers mustache bar in the shop so I thought I could copy the bend & bend the original one to the same profile - my little shop press protested but I managed to bend the correct offset profile into the early mustache bar - success! Next was the diff strap mounting points on the body-shell - some new nuts and I extended the mounting pads: N Not my neatest work, but it'll do the job & it looked fine once I'd painted it. The bell-housings were swapped over, along with the original fork & TO bearing & carrier into the 71C box. Next the gearbox cross-member was modified & painted, as the 71C box mounts further back in the tunnel: And then we installed the 71C box into the Z: P Perfect. The shortened tail-shaft was installed with new bolts, and all the fluids were topped up ready for a test drive! I also cut & shut the gear-stick as the thread on the 71C stick is 10mm compared to 8mm for an early box - just so the original knob could be used: And that's that job done! It drives SO much nicer now with the modern box and it's much more entertaining to drive with the shorter diff ratio. Robbie - you are going to love it!

Just go through the process on the website - it'll give you freight cost at checkout.

Brain was faster than the fingers Fixed*