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Week 9... A mild sense of depression washed over me today as I raced down to see the Hornet as it arrived fresh from the bead blaster, following receipt of the panels the weeks before last. You know the feeling you got when you finally worked out Santa was in fact a fraud, and everything you had believed in was effectively ruined? Well, in a very small way, today I felt like this... I'll let the photos do the talking! On a brighter note, we now have a new OEM front left side fender, door skin, and the drivers door, tail gate, bonnet, and front valance are all but repaired and primed. Nat actually got a visit from Warren himself yesterday, I'm sure wanting to 'see' this project that was consuming lots of his time.... and parts! The other positive is the weight reduction .. Nat suggested that each coat uses about 6 litres of paint, of which lets say 70% actually finds its way onto the car. As we had earlier discovered, (and the blaster confirmed) there were ~11 coats of paint on the shell. Accordingly, at ~1kg per litre, I roughly estimate the Hornet has lost the better part of 50kg. Nat suggested I might very well have the best zed out there after this project ... I suppose in an effort to make me feel better!! I'm getting closer on a colour too, something I have seen on a few SUV's, that is best described as 'tungston', that is not silver and not gunmetal grey... something in between. I think this colour works well; 1) with the shape of the body, without attempting to modernise it, 2) works well with either a silver, black or other wheel colour, and 3) allows the stainless window and chrome trims to still be a feature. The other colour is called 'metallic olive' which I have seen used on a porsche Cayenne, which also does all of the above. Having said that, it'll be a while before we're at the paint stage. We've also agreed to do what NZedder did with the interior, that is use stone guard paint throughout, with only a small use of heat / sound deadening on the firewall and transmission tunnel. Enjoy, Adam.

Hey Gaijin .. been watching this thing for a while and its completely insane ... will be an amazing car when finished. I am building 'the brown hornet' and after looking at the bead blasted panels I had done last week I can assure you its a good clean look and finish.. The body should be done in the coming weeks, so will post some picks of what it looks like afterwards .. They've got 11 coats of paint to remove from my car, so they'll have some work to get it done. Looking at your project certainly puts me at ease over my one !! Good luck with it, its looking awesome. Adam

Thanks Zedman ... my shifter is nothing like that ... I will have Nat take a look at it. Thats right Mike, i have the two controls on the console and the cig lighter is also at the front of the console just ahead of the shifter (in the removable ashtray). thanks guys ... will add this to the 'to do' list. Also Mike, i like the idea of spraying the stone guard paint Inside the car, hence the need not to sound deaden (ie add weight) unnecessarily. Car is looking excellent.

Mossy, I need a complete kit for my 240z also, but several have warned me off imported ones given different supposed quality. Having said that, I am only repeating the words of others and have no experience with this myself. Relating to the door rubbers on the MSA kits, do they just comprise one piece per side (as in a long piece with a rubberised compressible seal on one side, with the other side comprising a continuous metal clipping piece that is coated in rubber that has a fabric style pattern embossed into it). On another matter, when I spoke to Warren about his kits, he said they were made at the SAME FACTORY as the OEM items... Has anyone bought Warrens kits (allZspares) and can they confirm that the quality of these items are to exacting OEM spec? cheers

Mike ... mine's a 71 HS30 00683. Thanks NZeder, a photo would be excellent, as I think the issue for my car will be that the factory ashtray (in front of the level) will be difficult to install, given the shift lever is so far forward ... Just wondering if U bend it back 15 degrees or so will it fit? I went to considerable expense to buy the ashtray from e-bay and now i'm just wondering if it will actually fit, so that photo would be great (pls post with one in neutral and one in say 3rd to illustrate the angle. Cheers Adam.

have heard the 260 box is a better item right? is this your experience Zedman?

I guess its been done here before, but my 240 has a L26 eng and tran, and hence the gear change selector is further forward than standard. Prior owner has not properly addressed this, so you tend to dust your knuckles on the heater controls in 1st,3rd and 5th. .. Aside from bending the lever, is this problem easily recified? Is it because the 260 bell housing is shorter? Has anyone else had this issue, and how did they address it? Rgds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mag6NDN61mM I know its not a Datsun, but watching Clarkson on BBC (foxtel) last night, I saw this and almost fell off the couch. Its the real deal.... 20,000 hours+ work and over 15 years ... and he wants to do another one! Totally freaking amazing, and very inspirational.

Exactly Dazzed ... i need to get Nat to stick a dolly between the actual bonnet and the lip and to create a nice even channel. Once done, he can even up the inside lip with angle grinder or whatever. Sounds as though it might be the genuine item, but just a little hastily built. Then again, panel manufacturing and welding practices have come a long long long way in 35+ years ... need to remind myself of this.

Thats good Sleuthing Dazzed ... from looking at the underside of the hood, I does appear that the fold would be upwards, hence NOT implying it is a Twan copy and infact the real deal. Mike have a look at yours under the front lip and maybe take a photo to stick up so I can compare ,, that would be great. After all this, I forgot to mention that when I drove home from Nat's today I raced up (in my peugeot) to chase a completely standard auto 240z that lives around the corner from me... I have seen (and heard) this car like 1000 times, as the guy drives it daily. Its a very very neat original car in the OEM factory red (which looks more tangerine in the flesh). Has period alloy wheels, and the four digit number plate. '240Z'. The guy that drives it lives in a monster house with harbour views, and quite often his teenage kids drive it ...Its great to see that a guy of this stature still drives his 35+ year old 240 every single day ... and the fact they look after it perfectly. Can't wait to get mine on the road !! Will see if I can grab a photo of it at some point.

There does not appear to be any welded new parts or any aftermarket changes ... Aside from a tonne of bog on the top of the power bulge, where there appears to have been something dropped on it, the whole thing remains in one piece. When the car was in one piece, the bonnet did not appear to be poorly aligned, and this was certainly not discussed when Nat came to examine the car before making the decision to go ahead with the build. I may well be the correct factory part, but I was pretty surprised by the construction.

Is there any way of knowing if a bonnet is an OEM item, or a Taiwanese (or other) copy? Was looking at mine today (see Brown Hornet thread) and Nat and I were pretty surprised by the what is frankly a pretty shoddy quality item. For instance, on the underside of bonnet at the front (leading edge) there is a fold, where the thing has been shaped. From memory I think my 240Z from ten years ago this fold was very neat, with a consistent say 1" channel running the whole length, from one side the other (and it was a 260 bonnet too). My current bonnet does not have this channel, but instead looks to be just crimped together and beaten to all different angles in the same spot. On the edges of the bonnet, where the skin is attached to the frame, a similar level of finish applies, that is its just all kind of bashed together with the odd haphazard weld along the length holding it together (as if a bling man constructed the thing with a bloody big mallet). Nat of course said he could 'tidy this up', but I just wonder if this is the way that other peoples OEM bonnets are??? Let me know. Cheers

Week 8 ... Progress on the Hornet is now less obvious as the body is still being blasted, and the panels are now largely completed and sitting in primer. Went by this morning to see that Nat had repaired the bonnet, front apron and drivers side front quarter panel by pulling all the dents out, filing and priming. They've even unpicked the fuel filler face panel off the hinge mechanism, cleaned, primed and re-welded the whole thing together to ensure there was no rust. In a nutshell, we've ordered a new pass side front panel, and new pass side door skin. The door frame on the left door is pretty 'holy' as well, so this will be cut and repaired in the coming week. Next step is to get the body back and trial fit all the panels, and 'file finish' the body, before disassembly spraying, and then final assembly. I've added a few shots of the painted panels (yet to be hi-filled and filed). In summary, there really was not one panel that has not required some form of repair. Even the 'as New' rear hatch panel was full of bog on the top as it was dented... Again this has all been repaired and is straightened filed metal (did not get a shot of this, but again the work was amazing). Here's what I took today.. and a few silver / grey cars that really do it for me. One with silver wheels, the other with black. Still deciding on colour, but given i'm sticking with narrow body and small BRE front spoiler, I want to aim for that factory (albeit sleeper) look. Rgds, Adam

Hi Roastbeef ... are you in Australia I have my factory seats and dash out of the car at the moment and I'm wondering if you are looking to have your seats and dash done by these Lithuanians by sending them from here, or importing completed items from them? I suspect you're enquiring as to price of having this work done? I have considered all the options on recaro and other seats, but the originals when done properly to me look as good as anything available aftermarket. Just wondering if these guys sell kits for the seats or if they do the work in house. Would love to know the answers while my car is in pieces ,,, keep me posted. Also, does anyone have a top rate re-upholsterer they can recommend in NSW to have the seats done back to factory spec in leather? Cheers

Has anybody used the StreetLens clear parking light lens? Thinking of picking up a set and want to see what others have bought think about them?

What makes a classic 1) chrome bumpers and total weight under a tonne, 2) no emissions gear 3) Unassited brakes or steering 4) no computers! 5) unpredictable handling!

Well Done Mike .... I actually thought that could be the case and the next thing I was planning to do was get up underneath her to have a look for any other evidence of this ... Its got to be this, as I say it looks very factory (especially the indentation) and the bolt holes are very large, implying the requirement for strength in that area .. Nat will be welding it up !! Thanks everyone for you help ... Really appreciate it. Cheers

Right ...thats interesting, because I also have one of those large bolts that is used to screw into the wheel well to hold down the wheel. Also. if these are the strap holes in FRONT of the wheel, where might the corresponding holes be at the REAR of the wheel well to join to? My car only has these two holes, and none at the rear of the wheel well?

These are definitely not the holes for the straps that are used in the cargo area ... they are also there in their rightful place. The bizarre thing about these holes is the fact they Look like they were factory added, because of the depth of the indents in the tar based covering .. alternatively, they were added at a later point and bolted down tight such that the brackets sank into the tar based sealer.. in reality they could have been in there for 37yrs I guess. Another thought ,,, they don't appear to have been used for any sort of roll-cage as there is no evidence of any such cage anywhere else at all inside the car (either welded or bolted) i'd like to have them filled, but in really don't want to if they were infact there for a reason.

I asked Nzeder about these... I have two bolt holes in the rear shelf of my 240Z that appear exactly between the rear strut towers, and about 1 inch forward of the spare wheel well. I do not know what these are for, but they have been there for a very long time, as they seem to have held in two plates (about 2 by 3 inches each) whose shape are indented into the tar-based floor covering. In the following photo if you look just ahead of the wheel well you can see them... Anybody got ANY clues what they are There were no bolts in the holes when I bought the car, nor were there any brackets. I was thinking they might have been used to hold the diff up or some such thing ... but this was NOT on my last car (albeit that was 10 yrs ago). Do I get them welded up

Absolutely RB30... just done c-rails, floors, sill panels etc etc etc . have a look at 'the brown hornet' under the members projects page ... I had mine done a week or two ago ... I am having lots of work done ... cheers Adam (acf321)

I bought the new panel from Warren's .... $495.

I just sourced a brand new OEM front left guard .....

Just quietly ... I think Nat will be getting the hammer, dolly and mig out tomorrow at this rate !!! just off to the bank now !!!