Congrats to Saint for winning the member of the month status for October. Saint (and his partners in crime) have put a LOT of work into his newly finished Z.

A complete picture archive is available in our member gallery of this fine car. Take a look when you get the chance because these guys sure have spent a lot of time getting this beauty to shine.

Don't worry, Saint. We forgive you for the picture titled "70's Wanker Shot"...

I enjoyed that pic..

Well done Saint! You've got one of the best cars here - I just adore everything on it. Totally perfect...

:D

Awesome!! Thanks guys for the compliments and Car of the Month. I'm very proud of her. The boy's at Fourways have done a fantastic job and I couldn't be happier.

gotta love silver, what seats are they?

Guess being the ride of the month beats a 5 star rating huh??:cross-eye

The seats are Porsche Carrerra circa 1984. But being that Porsche tend to stick to tried and true formats I'm sure most years will be the same or similar. They are the bollocks to sit in! Much cheaper to get from a wreckers than a new set of Recaro's (and they're leather Recaro's anyway) Adjustable and heated. The connections are straight forward as well.

Yeah, Ride of the month is great but costs more:ermm:

And it's not jst any sort of silver... it's some sort of light creamy silver... beautiful...

The silver is Mercedes 774. I wanted a more contemporary colour. It makes the black interior and bits seem cleaner.

It appears that this was a left hand drive car in the early photo's. When completed, its suddenly a right hand drive. Was this car converted from a left to a right hand frive or was the picture reversed?

Saint, I'm a bit of an 'originality' nut who doesn't like to see cars repainted in non-factory colours and then called 'restored'. However, you have had an excellent job done there and when I 1st saw the silver colour I caught myself hoping that this was a rare factory colour I'd never heard of! So.. I'll make an exception, the silver you chose definitely suits the car and its era.

Given that you now have our small z-world focussing on your car, how about typing out a short history for us all. Where and when did you get it, what was its condition, how long and how expensive was the restoration? What about the engine, any tweaks?

Again congratulations.

No probs.

OK....my wife and I moved to the UK from New Zealand and have been living here for around 2 years. The best place for a car nut to live. The brits love their cars and their racing - not that the government gives the industry any help! The place is steeped in racing history and their inventiveness and enthusiasm know no bounds in terms of car creation.

When I was much younger I had an Australian 260Z (among others) that I pulled to pieces and put back together. It cost me a bomb but I loved every minute of it! That started my appreciation for these awesome cars.

At the beginning of this year I was sitting down with not much to do (this is always dangerous) and was contemplating buying a car for around £10000UK - $15000US to go touring in. Not as easy as it seems because there are a lot of cars you can buy for that.

I was reading a Classic Car magazine and there was an article on Fourways Engineering in Kent. Geoff Jackson had been racing and rallying 240Zs for years and had a business restoring Jaguars, Ferrari, Aston Martin's and 240Z. His own car was pictured in the article. I've already posted photos of his beautiful green 240Z.

The choice was, I can either buy a new car and have it depreciate, or I can pay for someone to restore one and have it appreciate. As I believe the Datsun 240Z to be one of the most important classics in motorcar history and I love them the choice was not an issue. If there was an issue it was finding a professional bunch to do it. One trip to Fourways was enough to con firm their commitment to the brand and the quality of restoration. He has also amassed good reserves of original spare parts.

In London the word “garage” has no meaning and I therefore have screw-all opportunity to get under a bonnet myself. I decided to pay Geoff a visit and get a quote.

I basically just asked him how much he believed it would cost to restore one to the condition of his. Geoff said approx £10000. I'm very lucky to have a partner-in-crime that is very supportive (she's from Perth, Australia too, Halz). So we committed ourselves to bringing a Californian model back to life.

Geoff was ordering up a couple of vehicles - he imports them from California or Australia and marries the wonderfully clean body shells from the hotter climates to the UK interiors (dashes are more likely to drown than crack here!). He also converts them to right hand drive for the UK. This is a bonus due to the fact that New Zealand is also right-hand drive and it may ends up back there in the future.

We started in February and it's taken till now to complete…..didn't want to rush it. To tell you the truth, it's as much fun watching the project grow, as it is to actually drive. I would have loved to get my hands greasy but I’m also realistic and that just it's feasible where I live. Stuck to finding and making hard to find items and bugging Geoff with my weekly photographic pilgrimages out to his workshop.

Anyway, the spec is a 1971 Californian body No. 28120 born in April and in it's original yellow. I wanted to achieve a car that looks European in flavour. Hence the Mercedes silver. It's a creamy colour, wonderfully sprayed up by Geoff's in-house painter Barry and complements the Z perfectly. It brings it into the modern world. (after all I want it to be around for another 30 years!)

The engine was rebored to 280 spec and had its seats hardened. Short stroke. I also asked him to anodise and rebuild the twin carb set up. It has a stainless exhaust manifold and stainless Janspeed exhaust system. The suspension is lowered around a turn and a half and we’ve replaced all shocks with Nissan originals. All bushes, u-joints etc replaced.

While Fourways were cracking into that, I was hunting down suitable replacements for the wheels, seats and steering wheel. The Australian Superlites are very period and suit the car perfectly. The Porsche Carrera seats rock! While having much larger side support are of a similar shape to the originals so again suit the car. They are also adjustable and heated!!! I went for a Teckniq detachable steering. While I like the anti-thief value of this system I’m now not so sure on the size and look. Could be paying Moto-Lita a visit shortly. Everything else is original.

The wheels were around £450- $675US, the tyres are 205 /15 /60 Bridgestone 720 Potenzas, The seats were £600 - $900US.

Interior wise, the carpets have been replaced. The only things left to do are to order up new rear plastic panels as the old ones are a little tired and find some bumpers as the ones that came off the original car where crap (bugger!) The ones on the car at the moment are fibreglass. Not particularly comforting.

That's about it. Was that short enough?

FWIW I like the looks of the fiberglass bumpers painted body color. I know they are pretty much useless as a bumper in the event of a minor ding, but they do look good. The only other bumper that would look good on your car would be the "Euro" chrome bumpers without the rubber rub strips, luckily they are still available. A bit expensive perhaps, but they have a nice clean look that would suit the car.

I can think of only two things that could possibly improve the car, a set of the clear front turn signal lenses to match your taillights, and a set of the good Nismo headlight covers.

As far as the color goes, I think it looks fantastic. The one thing that Nissan didn't do when they built the Z's is offer much in the way of good looking color choices. Of course the paints of that era weren't the same as what we have to choose from now. Some of the later Z's had some colors that had some real "eye" appeal but the early cars I think suffered a bit with the colors that were offered.

Where would I look for the EURO bumpers?