My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i got an odd little NOS piece set in my mailbox. I found these turn signals a while ago in Germany. 

When i checked the part numbers, i realized the European Microfiches say it's a "West germany" Spec part.

1x Left side 26165-N3600 and 1x right side 26160-N3600. This made me even more curious, so i got them.

I'm not sure why they're different. Must probably have been some local law or regulation (Similar to the french taillights), which required different blinkers.
Here is a comparison of three different types.
Left: West germany".  It has a tilted rubber piece, for a more angled turn signal, and a long tail connecting cable.
Center: Original ones that came on my 1972 swiss (european spec) cars, with straight rubber. Unfortunately the cable was cut, so i have no reference here.
Right: Some asian Turn signal reproductions with a short tail cable and different connector and "straight" rubber.
 

I wish i could find out the reason behind this. An odd and probably rare piece. Nice to have in my collection.

[RIP260Z]

16 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

An odd and probably rare piece.

Rare would be the East German version??!!

[JDMjunkies.ch]

1 hour ago, RIP260Z said:

Rare would be the East German version??!!

Theoretically yes, but overall only a handfull of 240Z were sold in germany at all (they were one of the latest to join the party) so it means in general everything that is specific for the german market 240Z is a bit rare.
"East german" specific parts are not mentioned in the BOM, so i guess they either didn't get the car at all, or it was just the same as the standard European specification.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

When i got my "west germany" Spec turn signals last week, i went through my own parts to compare them, and realized i have everything ready to assemble a nice pair of restored ones. A perfect task for a saturday morning. so i got everything ready and started the project:

From the three complete sets i have, i realize only one of the amber lenses was still without cracks:

What a difference a little cleanup in warm soap water makes:

Then i cleaned the rubberpieces and chrome trim with a bit of warm water too and had the rubber seals greased up with a bit of petroleum grease (Vaseline) and the chrome trim cleaned and polished with my secret weapon called "Metarex"


And here we go, everything cleaned uo and assembled. looks like almost new. I will probably take one of the lenses from the "west germany" spec signals, as they're exactly the same. but until then, i just keep them as they are. Oh andi need new bulbs, the old ones are both quite corroded and i want some nice ones 🙂

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Good news. The Z project is back! Well it was never gone and i've been continuously working on it, but due to an management education i had on the weekend for the past two years, a big step forward in my job and many other things in life, the project was progressing much slower than i wished. But i'm a guy to make long-term plans and i've always had the plan to get things done when life allows me to. So here we are. My school is completed. Well i still have my exams in mid april so i'm working hard on that, but until then that and my job will still occupy most of my free time. The advantage of my new job position is that i earn some more money and in the meantime i've saved some especially to complete this project. I've also really longing to get back into the garge and get my hands greasy. Over the past weeks i've been looking for a bodyshop to complete the work. The old one was OK, but there was a bit of a difficulty when it came to communication and it was always a side-project for the bodyshop, which was earning money with small repairs, insurrance cases and fixer-upper projects of US-cars. He had a strong history in japanese cars, but i had the feeling he lost a bit of interest in my project. The other thing is - he was a talented panel-beater, but didn't have the tools himself, so whenever he had to bend some sheetmetal, he had to go to his friends shop. this was time consuming and i had the feeling i paid for much of it. So i decided instead to go to a more upperclass Oldtimer specialist, which usually deals with cars in a different price range. I was asking around and got some good tips. Finally i have a nice bloke coming over to check out the car and details in the coming days. we'll see how that turns out. so far i have a very good feeling. But i also started to collect all the panels required to complete the project

Yes, puzzle time 🙂 Only the box section on the LH side is missing, but i hope the panelbuilder can make this himself.

Labor is expensive in switzerland, so i decided to get these ready-made patch panels from the US, to delete the US-spec turn signal holes on the US spec rear quarter panel, which i got. Why pay a dude an hour of work to measre and create such a panel, i can buy a ptch piece for 20 bucks?

Additionally a collected a few NOS items from some nice guys.- like an original hood hinge:

And a complete choke cable assembly (ok, this one isused, but in almost mint condition!):

and some more parts. Engine gasket kit, Starter solenoid, Rectifier diode, SU carb gasket kit and a wheel bearing:

I also (again) bought a nice set of vintage swiss Datsun stickers. You may have seen them before, but the special one in this set is the white one:

Its from the early 70ies and the slogan "Datsun bringt neue Werte" (Datsun brings new values) was used on many of the original Swiss Datsun (240Z) Documentation:

Here is an 1971 advertizing where you could order above stickers for free (see center)

I also found this nice swiss Datsun keychain from the early eighties. it was cheap, so i had to have it 🙂

From the same era is this 1984 Datsun / Nissan brochure, which i will use for my Datsun switzerland chronicles story which i'm working on. The swiss Prince / PMC Mikado pricelist from 1966 has already been added to the "Prince" part of the story

For the coming "commercial vehicle" chapter, i obtained a few nice and rarer brochures of commercial vehicles, like this datsun Homer, King-cab, Urvan, and Vanette brochures:

That's it for today. I have some more documents for the story on the way currently, and also a nice JDM-only piece for the Z is on the way from Japan. so stay tuned for more news soon...

Edited March 3, 2022 by JDMjunkies.ch
Added advertizing for sticker

[Namerow]

Those NOS lower frame rails (and the LHS upper frame 'horn') are real unicorn pieces.  Where did you find them?

Also:  If time permits, it would be of interest to some of us if you can show some pictures of the internal details of the lower frame rails (reinforcement pieces, weld-nut fasteners, etc). 

Also: What metal gauge was used for those lower and upper frame pieces?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

25 minutes ago, Namerow said:

Those NOS lower frame rails (and the LHS upper frame 'horn') are real unicorn pieces.  Where did you find them?

Also:  If time permits, it would be of interest to some of us if you can show some pictures of the internal details of the lower frame rails (reinforcement pieces, weld-nut fasteners, etc). 

Also: What metal gauge was used for those lower and upper frame pieces?

Here is another picture from the backside: https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2013-01-11/240z-new-frame-rails/ i think there more pictures on my website, but need some time to find them.
I haven't checked in detail, but usually the KFvintageJDM parts are pretty close to OEM when it comes to such details.
Here is where i found them in 2012: https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2012-09-28/240z-datsun-parts-heaven/
Here is where i found most of the pother parts last year (also includes a set of frame rails, but all these parts have ben sold already): https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2021-02-23/240z-the-big-barn-find-parts-lot/

[JDMjunkies.ch]

On 3/2/2022 at 5:05 PM, Namerow said:

Those NOS lower frame rails (and the LHS upper frame 'horn') are real unicorn pieces.  Where did you find them?

Also:  If time permits, it would be of interest to some of us if you can show some pictures of the internal details of the lower frame rails (reinforcement pieces, weld-nut fasteners, etc). 

Also: What metal gauge was used for those lower and upper frame pieces?

@Namerow: Since you cought my interest on this, i decided to have a deeper look into this. I have two different sets of NOS frame rails, one is grey and the other one black. one set is already sold, one grey item has already been cut up by my previous bodyshop to fix my chassis:
Here you can see the two sets with the partnumbers labelled on it.

The main differences are the mounting brackets (see red circles), some "wings" which were added on the grey version (see blue marks), and the extended length of the tension rod mounting "buckets" (sees green circles)
Otherwise the two are pretty much the same, aside from some small clamps and brackets which have been added:

-E4150 is used up to June 1972 according the european microfiches. and it also seems to match with my late 1971 production chassis i have.
-N4150 is not clear. i didn't find it in any of my parts list, it seems weither to be from the 2+2 nor any other model, but because of the part numbering system, i just think it's an July 1972+ item.

I didn't measure every single part, but wherever i checked on approx. 5 random spots, it was always 1,5mm thickness of sheet metal:

here are some additional photos, see additional cable clamp in the black version,

Additional "Wing" is well visible here:

extende shape of the inside reinforcment:

 

slightly different shape of the inside mounting bracket / reinforcement (left edge):

Here you can see the end "wings" on the grey one, but it seems like the "leftower" piece on t he black ones have just been bent up in the grey version.

Small additional bracket on t he grey version (center)

Here you can nicely see the different style of mounting brakets: (the center one of the grey one is bent, i t would look similar as the other ones on the grey one.
the additional "holes" on the left side are because the bracket on t he inside has been drilled out by the bodyshop, these wouldn't usually be there:

Here's a closeup:

Here the overall sisize difference of the tension rod mounting bucket is well visible:

From what i can see and what i've experienced so far, the KFvintagejdm parts (no advertizing here) come pretty close to the black ones from the picture. The only part missing here is the "bucket" for the tension rod:

they currently sell them only in two pieces, but if you look at the photos and drawings in the parts manual exploded view, you can see even the original ones where produced like this and then welded together. so in my opinion this is the best you can get if you can't find OEM ones. It's not well visible in my photos above, but even the "teeth" visible on this one seem to be as on the original ones (the part where the upper and the lower part join). Look closely in the last photo which i posted above, then you can see the "teeth" on the original grey one from a side view):

 

 

[zed2]

On 12/21/2021 at 9:21 AM, JDMjunkies.ch said:

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.

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

Great acquisition of parts.  What is the part number(s) of the strut inserts?

Thanks,

Keith

[JDMjunkies.ch]

1 hour ago, zed2 said:

Great acquisition of parts.  What is the part number(s) of the strut inserts?

Thanks, Keith

They're Part No. 56105-N3785 from the 260Z 2+2, so they're not the correct ones for the 240Z, allthough they would most probably fit. i just got them as part of the package deal and use them as a reference for my Suspension post
You can find the correct part no for the 240Z in the parts manual or here: in the said suspension post

[Namerow]

22 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

@Namerow: Since you cought my interest on this, i decided to have a deeper look into this. I have two different sets of NOS frame rails, one is grey and the other one black. one set is already sold, one grey item has already been cut up by my previous bodyshop to fix my chassis:
Here you can see the two sets with the partnumbers labelled on it.

The main differences are the mounting brackets (see red circles), some "wings" which were added on the grey version (see blue marks), and the extended length of the tension rod mounting "buckets" (sees green circles)
Otherwise the two are pretty much the same, aside from some small clamps and brackets which have been added:

-E4150 is used up to June 1972 according the european microfiches. and it also seems to match with my late 1971 production chassis i have.
-N4150 is not clear. i didn't find it in any of my parts list, it seems weither to be from the 2+2 nor any other model, but because of the part numbering system, i just think it's an July 1972+ item.

I didn't measure every single part, but wherever i checked on approx. 5 random spots, it was always 1,5mm thickness of sheet metal:

here are some additional photos, see additional cable clamp in the black version,

Additional "Wing" is well visible here:

extende shape of the inside reinforcment:

 

slightly different shape of the inside mounting bracket / reinforcement (left edge):

Here you can see the end "wings" on the grey one, but it seems like the "leftower" piece on t he black ones have just been bent up in the grey version.

Small additional bracket on t he grey version (center)

Here you can nicely see the different style of mounting brakets: (the center one of the grey one is bent, i t would look similar as the other ones on the grey one.
the additional "holes" on the left side are because the bracket on t he inside has been drilled out by the bodyshop, these wouldn't usually be there:

Here's a closeup:

Here the overall sisize difference of the tension rod mounting bucket is well visible:

From what i can see and what i've experienced so far, the KFvintagejdm parts (no advertizing here) come pretty close to the black ones from the picture. The only part missing here is the "bucket" for the tension rod:

they currently sell them only in two pieces, but if you look at the photos and drawings in the parts manual exploded view, you can see even the original ones where produced like this and then welded together. so in my opinion this is the best you can get if you can't find OEM ones. It's not well visible in my photos above, but even the "teeth" visible on this one seem to be as on the original ones (the part where the upper and the lower part join). Look closely in the last photo which i posted above, then you can see the "teeth" on the original grey one from a side view):

 

 

Thanks.  Great job of assembling photos and details.  These will be an useful resource for anyone planning to do a front frame rail replacement.

I've always been intrigued by those 'teeth'.  Its an odd design detail.  Maybe a strategy for reducing warpage along this flange during the factory spot-welding process?  If so, why wasn't it used along the other (longer) flanges?  Any ideas?

[Patcon]

It would be great to cut the post on the front frame rail differences and pictures into a separate frame rail thread to make them easier to find in the future