My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[HS30-H]

11 minutes ago, CanTechZ said:

There's some interesting reading in Bill Fisher and Bob Waar's book:

"how to modify DATSUN 510 610 240Z engines and chassis"

I have a copy from 1973, it's a good read. Here are a few snippets related to isolators for Mikuni/Solex carbs,

So, isolators commonly required on fours, but much less so on sixes.

On other marques & models I've been familiar with over the years (quite a lot of Italian, French, German and British stuff), rubber/metalastik isolators, MISAB plates (basically a gasket with an O ring in it) rubber bobbins, contraptions like the dreaded Thackeray Washer and all sorts of other funnies were dreamed up in an effort to mitigate heat soak and fuel frothing. Almost always on inline fours, with their inherent harmonics.

I think in most cases they are just not necessary on a Nissan L6.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

On 12/9/2021 at 10:04 PM, munters said:

and good luck to pass the inspection in Switzerland. the triples without Veteran status yes. the filters and max 73db no way. At least not in Zurich.

Yeah i know. that's why i plan to build two engines. You might know i have quite some experience with homologating cars (from my Honda project, where i did a complete homolocation of a car, which was 7 years of work spent...).
 

On 12/10/2021 at 2:37 PM, RIP260Z said:

If you weren't aware, the U20 Solex carb insulators (16174-25501) have a gasket either side of them, one manifold, one carb. There are also 50mm versions of these.

Yes, but only the insulators itself were still available from nissan, from where i got those for the U20.
The L6 insulators also have those insulators on both sides of the gaskets. as seen in the options catalogue, etc.
The ones i've got for the L6 have gaskets on both sides, but in the photo only shown on one side, because i was too lazy to remove all the nuts on the other side of the insulators, just to get those gaskets off for the photo. 😉
See here the race and rallye preparation manual for the 240Z: (#3 are the gaskets, #2 is the insulator)

 

On 12/9/2021 at 9:18 PM, HS30-H said:

Surprised to see you intend to use that type of rubberised insulator on a six. I don't recall Nissan ever using anything other than the solid, phenolic type insulators on the sixes. 

On the L4 yes, but not L6.

Hmm good input. Honestly i never really thought about that detail. I just got what was available and thought it is close to the originals. I've sadly never seen an original set in real, so i don't have anything to compare or even start with.
I'm not sure how much of an impact that detail has. I think my setup is quite "experimental" anyway (at least to me). So i'm curious to find it all out by trial and error. Currently i just collect random parts and then try to puzzle it all together later into something nice.
Luckily there weill be a second  (more or less stock) engine to put into the car, so the parts shown here are for a little "fun engine" side project. 🙂

[HS30-H]

11 minutes ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

See here the race and rallye preparation manual for the 240Z: (#3 are the gaskets, #2 is the insulator)

 

 

That's for the 44PHH upgrade (over the 40PHH) on the S20 engine in the PS30-SB.

The #2 in the parts list and diagram (16177-A0220) is the solid, phenolic insulator. Same type as stock on the S20 engine, just bigger.

[RIP260Z]

4 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

Yes, but only the insulators itself were still available from nissan, from where i got those for the U20.

FYI- All the roadster North American vendors sell reproduction gaskets for the U20 Solex insulator, as that is the only source now (though I did have some NOS ones a while ago and sold to a European roadster specialist). And repros are widely available from Japan also.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

The big Sea-freight shipment from Japan, which arrived last week and constisted mainly Honda Parts, also included something nice for the Datsun Project. A set of Seats:

Seats? Why more seats? Longtime readers might know i spent quite some time and money on finding "vintage" japanese seats - and i ended up buying Bride histrix seats.
I really like them, but they never really looked that oldschool. They're new seats with a vintage touch.
So when i found a set of genuine japanese Autolook type A Seats for sale recently i had to get them. And personally i think they fit the car perfect, At least for my "Japanese street tuner" Style setup.
Here shown withot seat rails, so final position will be slightly higher.

 

Luckily i still fit into them, allthough i shouldn't gain a lot of weight 🙂 Here's a comparison between the bride and the Autolook. I think the bride's look way to modern with the glossy Carbon fiber bucket shell on the back. Also it won't be suitable for racing harnesses and has no headrests, so not exactly safe.
And the shoulder "wings" also make the fitment in the Z a bit tight, even tho they DO fit. Personally i just think the Autolook is more authentic and the shape just fits better in my opinion.


Now for a little history: In the early 80ies a Japanese Company named Autolok started to build these seats, called type A. It was one of the first Japan made racing seats. Here's an advertizment in the 1983 carboy magazine:


And here another one from the same area:
 
 

The Autolook brand is now owned by the japanese company Latirips, which still makes racing gloves etc under that name. Amon Classic cars used to make the Autolook type A Replica seats (with black instead of yellow buckets) under licence of Latirips, but while still shown on their website, they're sold out since many years.
But since i got the originals one i don't want the replicas anyway. As you've seen they're a bit worn, to say the least, so they'll also need a bit of reupholstry. but in my opinion these seats are just the perfect ones for my build. And don't worry i still have my original Z-seats if i ever want to switch back to original.

[Patcon]

On a separate note, the door strike area of the door jamb has 3 round stud looking projections. What are those? In the US we just have a threaded plate inside the jamb to accept bolts.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

12 minutes ago, Patcon said:

On a separate note, the door strike area of the door jamb has 3 round stud looking projections. What are those? In the US we just have a threaded plate inside the jamb to accept bolts.

these are the original mounting bolts for the door locking mechanism. I left them in place because there's a plate on the inside of the rear quarter area and if you remove all three bults, it will fall down on the inside. at least that's how i understand. so i just removed them one-by-one and put them back immediately to secure the plate on the inside.

[Patcon]

I believe the plate is captive and held by some tabs inside the quarter panel. My are and I can't imagine them being different for different markets.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

On 12/19/2021 at 8:26 PM, Patcon said:

I believe the plate is captive and held by some tabs inside the quarter panel. My are and I can't imagine them being different for different markets.

I just double checked on my car. They're definitely held in place with something on the inside. So you can definitely remove all three bolts without the threaded plate on the backside getting lost on the inside of the quarter.
But the threaded plate on the inside is somehow movable. I guess to adjust the position of the locking mechanism to align the door straight. So yeah, i can remove those bolts then 🙂

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Recently i ran into a NOS lot for sale again. Turns out a still active Nissan dealership in germany is cleaning out his parts warehouse and wanted to get rid of all the old parts without any stock movement. Well, i signed up for the whole package and got the deal.
It were not exactly many parts, but some really nice scores and some parts are not very common to find NOS.

I checked the partnumbers beforehand and all of them are definitely S30 parts. but not all might be correct for my 240Z. Nevertheless, i got a good package deal, so i took all of them.
The first one is an exchaust front pipe. It has a few scratches from storage, bot otherwise completely NOS with the factory sticker still there:

Then an original L-series Oil pan. in excellent shape (Except it needs a bit of dedusting)


Front lower control arm. I think the Partno. was listed for the 260Z, but i couldn't see any difference on the first glimpse. i'll have to re-check:

These are pretty cool: NOS rear bumper mounting brackets:
 

A set of genuine Akebono rear drum brake shoes:


And a set of genuine rear strut inserts (replacement units):

[CanTechZ]

Nice score, FYI those "mounting brackets" are for the front bumper.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i had my Datsun-Mate Dan over for a visit and as usual we exchanged a few documents and things that we've collected for each other over the last few months. today i got some nice things from him:

First of all a few early swiss Datsun pricelists, including the ones which were missing in my collection. Like one of the very first ones from 1968! Now i'm finally ble to put the complete series of pricelists from 1968 to 1979 online!

Then i've got a bit of a curiosity: a Datsun branded Padlock. I first thought it was a random engraved lock like you can buy it at many places, but Dan said he had a second set which looks exactly the same, and what is also interesting is that the "Datsun" name is not only engraved in the Lock itself (easy to make), but also cast into the keys, which makes it more likely something either officially sold by Nissan / Datsun or something from a local marketing campaingn or at least something from a big 3rd party supplier. Nice to have anyway 🙂

Last but not least he once ordered a set of Air intake box repro-stickers and was kind enough to order a set for me too. The biggest sticker doesn't belong to our european 240Z's, so i'll only need the other ones. still good to have, as my original ones are looking bad.