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I appreciate that, my primary goal is to be respectful of the original details for the car but I am deviating in a few small places. I was able to inspect an absolute time capsule of an S30 owned by a friend and compare some lines/angles. I’ll have the shop round the edges on the rear a little more. I should have mounted mirrors on the car to check, though all the data points are lining up thus far and I’m feeling good about the fenders as they are.

Getting so close, looking for opinions on some details, specifically the rounding of the corner edges on the rear of the car. They feel a little sharp right now, though I know it’s difficult to see in the photos.

That looks pretty close, I'll get a measurement from the inner fender to the mounting spots, but I'm not as worried based on your information. Thanks!

Frustrated at myself for not checking this sooner, but I’m not 100% the fenders are original to the car and I never checked the mounting location for the fender mirrors. I know that the mirrors were positioned asymmetrically from the factory, and that there isn’t necessarily a “correct” but for a RHD car does the driver’s side sit further to the nose of the car than the passenger side. On my car the right side (driver’s) mirror is about an inch and half closer to the front of the car compared to the left side.

Heading into first stage of primer:

Thank you so, so much Alan. This is exactly what I was looking for. Never knew about the rubber seals, another neat detail.

Apologies for the delay in responding, thank you Alan for confirming the location of that bracket. Curious if there are any photos I can reference for how to refinish the underside of the rear spoiler. I have an early ribbed spoiler (PZR I believe it is referred to as) that I purchased from Japan. To my understanding (read: hope) it is a factory piece. From what I've seen on other cars, it looks like the underside is meant to be left open, instead of having a flat plane/base? Here's a photo of the underside, I can get more from the bodyshop as needed.

Nearing primer, but a spare piece of the body (perhaps?) remains and I'm not sure where it belongs, if at all. Does this look familiar to anyone? EDIT - Looks like this is for mounting the washer reservoir, which my car at one point had two (as pointed out by Alan previously) and that has since been addressed, so this piece most likely came from the left side mount that was removed.

Might have found what I'm looking for, should have waited to post. Looks like I might have a bar for a 260z?

Hey guys, the bodyshop is test fitting my rear suspension setup and we may have hit a snag with the rear sway bar. The car is an early model Fairlady Z, and the sway bar is a Nismo, 22mm I believe. The car will be running on coilovers and adjustable rear A arms, the issue is the sway bar (suspension under no compression) seems extremely close to the body of the car. Seems like even under mild compression it would hit, am I missing something? Curious if anyone else has run into a similar issue, I haven't gone to seen the car myself yet so I only have a few photos they shared with me:

Work continues. Spoiler mounted and frame rails adjusted to make room for sway bar. Next up is figuring out the exact locations for where to drill on the rear inner deck lid panel, for mounting the taillight panel and license plate lamp. I don’t suppose anyone is aware of measurements/templates for that. Trying to be as close to factory as I can.

Yep, it's the FS5C71A. I'll probably be posting here when it comes time to rebuild, once I know what needs fixing.

Something else the car does not have is the inner fender guards / splash covers. Are there any variance in these for the earlier S30s? These are the panels I'm referring to:

Oh for sure, I wish it was an S20 but then I think the price tag would have been (significantly) higher. I have the 71A and will be rebuilding it, a very vital part of the project in my eyes. It's also my understanding that installing a later model 5-speed requires tunnel/shifter console work which I am totally opposed to. I haven't decided if I want to run the L20 or build out an 3+ liter out of an N42 long block. I already set aside a Spirit Garage header + exhaust which would be overkill on a 2 liter...but first I have to get through all the bodywork.

Going through this process, I can totally see how things can get mixed up super easily. When I got the car, Mike provided an L20A but it's my understanding that's not the original motor?

This is great, thanks Bleach. When you disassembled the car, do you recall what happened to the many bits like the original throttle bracket? Did those items go with the car when you sold it?

I asked the shop to take a photo of the bracket, here’s the back: I’m missing most of the linkage components and a lot of the pedal assembly parts as well. Not the end of the world, but certainly an additional hurdle.

Wow, great tip on the accelerator bracket, the version I found in Japan has the bolt holes so maybe I got super lucky there? I'll send some shots of it a little later, struggling to find photos at the moment. Unfortunately the floors were in very rough shape when I got the car, it kills me that the footrest indentations/holes weren't there to save. I'm looking to find the factory location for where the footrest mounts. I do have one (somewhere in the garage) but I'm not 100% sure it came with my car, it's also in quite poor shape so I'll need to find another one most likely.

Some photos of the progress:

Thanks guys, I'm trying to do right by this car. In regards to the rear sway bar, should I be surprised to see rear brackets on an early S30? My understanding is those brackets started showing up on 73s but even those didn't always have a rear sway bar installed from the factory. Of course, a previous owner could have modified the car, but looking at some other Zs on Tea Valley's I noticed a 70 with the brackets in the same position as my car. One of my most pressing items to figure out is how the accelerator bracket mounts to the firewall. My car did not have one when I acquired it, I searched for a long while and finally came across one in Japan. I see the three mounting holes, but in all the photos I see of these brackets they don't appear to be bolted on, rather they seem to be spot welded? I'd like that detail to appear as factory as possible, so if anyone has insight on the correct way to handle that bracket I would be grateful. Reference photo from Tea Valley:

The shop will be correcting based on the photo you shared, thanks Jeff.

Another save, forgot that I was planning to run a Nismo bar in the rear and this would cause me issues. I’ll bring it up to the shop when I see the car, is that lower plate under the bar for reinforcing where the mounts connect?

Forgot to note the floor support channels as well, the floors and channels on it were in exceptionally bad shape, probably the worst (save perhaps the rear passenger quarter) and so I thought it wise to extend them and add some extra strength. The only body modification of note is I removed the battery tray as it was completely rotted. I’m planning on relocating the battery and so that made the decision a little easier.

Ha, great catch, you described it exactly. The top left wing panel was pretty rotted out, don’t know how I didn’t catch the washer bottle mount. I’m going to see the car in person tomorrow morning, if it’s ok with you I would love to get your eyes on some details before it gets primer applied. I have so many questions/details to figure out, I’m doing my reading but I hope I won’t be a bother asking some questions here pretty soon. As always Alan, your insight and knowledge is unequaled, thank you for catching what could have been an expensive headache.

Thanks Alan, is there anything I should be concerned about? I’ve noticed other cars don’t have those exposed sections on the top (in your red boxes) is this something unique to earlier cars, or does it need to be corrected?