My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i got a package from japan with something i've been searching for for quite a while:
A complete Eaglemoss airlady 1/8 Scale magazine Model car kit:

It is a set that was issued around 2014. It consisted of a weekly subscription magazine wich came with a box including some parts, so each week you would build your part of the Fairlady until you had a complete, huge 1:8 scale model:

It is incredbly detailed too, with lots of electronics, mechanically working details


And lots of small bits and pieces to assemble:

Most parts are bolted and not glued, but of course there's also glue involved:

The body parts and chassis are made of metal and the kit is quite heavy:

Each magazine includes a lot of history about the Z-series cars and Japanese Car culture of the time in general, Assembly instructions, interviews with involved people and much, much more.
This is the first complete kit i've seen for a reasonable price. The reason might be that some parts (very few) have already been assembled, and probably 2/3 of the boxes have already been opened. but since i plan to assemble it anyway and i was also quite interested in the magazines, i don't care.

The set also comes with a display stand:

And three folders, where you can store all the magazines.

It also included a tool-set in a (sadly missing) nice pouch, a little cleaning towl, a Z hood ornament key chain and a CD with some nice movies of the real S30 fairlady development and testing and additional background information.


I guess i know what to do in those winter days 🙂

Edited October 4, 2023 by JDMjunkies.ch

[Namerow]

Impressive level of detail.  I originally intended to ask whether you have any pictures of what this kit looks like once fully assembled, but then I found this video on Youtube...

I'm really impressed.  These kits can be disappointing if the proportions are off.  This one looks perfect.  Except for the wheels...

Edited October 4, 2023 by Namerow

[JDMjunkies.ch]

@Namerow I saw your requested and just wanted to post the exactly same picture. so there you go. However looking at my pictures, it seems that my car came without a rear wing, overfenders and with the factory Steel-wheels with hubcaps. I have to see, maybe there are some option parts in there, going step by step.

Today i got another thing i've been looking for for quite a while. Factory Nissan "Race and Rallye Preparation Manuals".

The one on the right side is the "early" version which i had and wrote about already before, but the slighty thicker later version (on the left side), has always been missing in my collection. Luckily i stumbled  upon a set of both recently, so i had to get it.

The book describes how to prepare your S30 Fairlady Z, 240Z or Z432(-R), with some generic modifications and settings, but also using all kind of  "Sports option" or  Nissan "Competition" parts.

The difference between the early and the later version is, the later versions has a few additional information about standard car parts and competition parts which were introduced after the first version got released, otherwise they're more or less the same. Before you ask. the double "early version" book is not for sale, it's already promised to someone.

The third book i got is the "Private Club" LL型 (L-Gata / L-Series) Tuning book. Funnily "Carboy" later released a very similar book with almost the same photo. Not really sure if and how the two brands are related.

It's all japanese with many photos and basically describing how to tune and modify your L-series engine for performance and reliability:

It's split into different chapters such as block, head, carbs / intake, exhaust, etc..

Tomorrow i'm going to visit my bodyshop to check out the car. There are some rumors they started working on the car again... An'd im going to pick up something very cool and rare for my Friends C110 Kenmary Project which i found close to where i work. So expect some updates soon.

[kats]

On 10/3/2023 at 11:54 PM, JDMjunkies.ch said:

Today i got a package from japan with something i've been searching for for quite a while:
A complete Eaglemoss airlady 1/8 Scale magazine Model car kit:

It is a set that was issued around 2014. It consisted of a weekly subscription magazine wich came with a box including some parts, so each week you would build your part of the Fairlady until you had a complete, huge 1:8 scale model:

It is incredbly detailed too, with lots of electronics, mechanically working details


And lots of small bits and pieces to assemble:

Most parts are bolted and not glued, but of course there's also glue involved:

The body parts and chassis are made of metal and the kit is quite heavy:

Each magazine includes a lot of history about the Z-series cars and Japanese Car culture of the time in general, Assembly instructions, interviews with involved people and much, much more.
This is the first complete kit i've seen for a reasonable price. The reason might be that some parts (very few) have already been assembled, and probably 2/3 of the boxes have already been opened. but since i plan to assemble it anyway and i was also quite interested in the magazines, i don't care.

The set also comes with a display stand:

And three folders, where you can store all the magazines.

It also included a tool-set in a (sadly missing) nice pouch, a little cleaning towl, a Z hood ornament key chain and a CD with some nice movies of the real S30 fairlady development and testing and additional background information.


I guess i know what to do in those winter days 🙂

Congratulations on your hunt! Me too bought the complete set. I wanted to have the series of magazines and the DVD, they are so interesting and rewarding, highly recommended. I am not interested in the model car so I still let all the pieces un opened, properly never will be assembled. Because I have 1/1 cars to play.

Kats

[JDMjunkies.ch]

On 10/5/2023 at 4:41 AM, kats said:

Congratulations on your hunt! Me too bought the complete set. I wanted to have the series of magazines and the DVD, they are so interesting and rewarding, highly recommended. I am not interested in the model car so I still let all the pieces un opened, properly never will be assembled. Because I have 1/1 cars to play.

Kats

Thank you,  it was indeed a bit of a hunt 🙂 I already started the assembly and it's so satisfying and fun.

A few days ago i got a call from my Panelbeater that they finally got the chassis out of storage again and re-started work on it. This time with two people. Nice!
Today i went over to have a look and discuss some next steps and details. Well the progress was much better than expected.
First i was greeted by a more or less complete upper front end body. Here you see the two masters in charge of my project.

They also proudly showed me their spot-welding machine when i asked how they weld some of the parts. I'm unfamiliar with spot welds but it is quite the machine 🙂

So what happened since my last visit? The right-hand floor pan and inner door sill has been completely replaced and the original seat rail mounts are in the proces of being reinstalled.
The bodyshop claimed that some of the welds from the previous bodyshop were not so good so he ended up ripping out everything in order to get it done professionally and replace the self-made panels with the spare KFV Panels i had given them for "just-in-case" requirements like this. While it is extra work and cost, i absolutely approve what they do and i'm more than happy i switched to these guys. True masters of their craft.

So the floor / Firewall / Front end section is more or less complete. except maybe for the RH outer side sill which is still under debate:

On the LH the KVF lower outer side sill has been modified to fit (still needs some adjustments). What is left missing is the line in the door, which some of the previous owners thought was cool to "shave", so they have to hammer it back in.

The roof skin (which was full of small hammer-dents due to a previous damage / repair) is meanwhile also repaired (i wasn't able to see it today, as it was in storage), so after they adjust and finalize all the small details, there are mainly three big tasks:
- Fit the rollbar
- Replace the LH Rear quarter (and inner wheel well)
- Replace the roof skin.
Of course there is also hours of detailed adjustments and a chassis-alignment scheduled, and primering of all uncoated surfaces to prevent rust.
I have to bring them some parts in two weeks to proceed, until then i'm on a business trip and i really hope they keep up the pace until my return.
There is also a new timeline due to various delays and another big (bentley) project, so the body should be ready in Q2 next year. Fingers crossed...

Oh, and a bit off topic, but i also managed to find a NOS 240K-GT (Aka GC110 Kenmary skyline) Radiator and Hose at a very old radiator shop in switzerland, which will now be used in my mate Stefan's Datsun 240K-GT Restauration.

Edited October 6, 2023 by JDMjunkies.ch

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Went to unload loads of parts to the bodyshop which he needs to continue. I was expecting some progress, but they had plenty of other cars to work on, so mine got pushed back a bit again. Nothing to worry about. They still managed to fine-tune a lot of details since my last visit: They finished the floorpan work and had to hammer it a bit so the original seat rail mounts would fit perfectly again:

They also closed the hole that the previous bodyshop left in the tool-tray area behind the passenger seat, but it still needs some work. At least there's no gaping hole anymore.

On the other side, th e adjusted the side sill so the door would fit flush again and finetuned some things here and there.

On the outside they also opened some areas which will be replaced to see how it is underneath. you can clearly see some previous repair attemts (from before i owned it). you still can see the welding lead poking out there...
Luckily the whole rear quarter and inner wheel well will be replaced. so happy that all this rust will be gone.

Otherwise not much progress. at least i couldn't see a lot, because the car was surrounded by stuff, so i couldn't really get close. But no problem. I'll visit them again soon to see more progress.
Oh and while unloading the parts into their storage area, i could catch a quick look at some of their other work in progress projects. This is only a fraction of the cool stuff you find there. Nice.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

When i recently talked to Florian at Datsun-autowerk.com/. he reminded me of his stock of nice parts, and we made an exchange deal of some things. So i got this nice delivery of NOS (New-old-Stock) parts today, and some extra:

It includes a set of inner and outer door handles:


Various Door stoppers, hatch stoppers, door lock mounts, etc.:

A heater valve and a clutch Cylinder piston:


Inner door steps, Door seals, some rubber stoppers and seals:


And it also included a nice Japanese Real-X 1/72 300ZX Z31 Model car (thanks for the freebie, mate!)


And also a set of nice Japense market Fairlady Z brochures, which were still missing in my collection!


Thanks as usual for the excellent service, mate!
And stay tuned. another nice Parts delivery is on the way, i bought some more Documents from Datsun Switzerland, and on sunday i will pick up something Cool for the Datsun fans, which i've been searching for for quite some years. And i guess i should visit the bodyshop again soon to check out the progress there.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

A while ago i finally saw something for sale which i've been searching for years. And even in Photo form i have only ever seen two of those. The only problem - it is a 6 hour drive away. Well today i spent more or less the whole day driving to middle of germany and back to pick this up:

The thing i bought was the Datsun workshop tools from the mid 70ties.


It's quite an interesting setup. It's basically a printed foil by a company called "Genku" on a Perforated sheet metal plate. It seems that you could probably buy the foil with the tools as a kit, but you had to put it somewhere yourself, because the foil and the sheet metal don't align 100%.
The tools are diveded in 4 sections (from left to right): Motor, Front axle, Rear Axle and Drivetrain.
Anyway it was mostly complete with a few bits missing. and then plenty of nice extra tools (Valve spring tool?!) which i didn't have yet and will come in handy. The tools are not all exclusively for the Z but some are.

It came from this little former 70ies Datsun Workshop, but the other (the dad of the seller)  decided to switch to motorcycle and bicycle repairs in the early 80ies, because he couldn't fulfil the showroom demands from the car companies. Since then the tool wall hung mostly untouched on the same wall.

The tools however are labelled with "Kent-Moore" but have the original Datsun part numbers on it. Every tool also has such a kind of sticker on it from the original purchase  (Similar to datsun / Nissan spare parts back then):

Funny enough i got a "Kent-moore" Datgsun special service tools book / Catalogue a while ago, and i also own the original Datsun / Nissan tool catalogue. so i will definitly do a bit of page-flipping to find out exactly which cars and work each tool is intended for.

To my surpries the seller also found a pair of very cool, (child sized) datsun workshop jackets in an old workshop locker, which he gifted to me. These are so rare and almost unused condition, of course i gave him some extra money for those. My guess is That the Owner got those for his kids to "help" him in the workshop. That used to be a pretty common practice, before parents got overprotective and started to keep kids away from all the fun (and danger) of a workshop.

At the end he also pulled out a box of random Castrol 70ies / 80ies PR-stuff like stickers and oil-change tags. so if course i grabbed a few.

The seller was a bit sad to see his childhood and his dads (who passed a way a while ago) life being sold, but i promised to give it a good home, take care nicely and send him some updates when it's all at it's new place in my garage.
That seemed to make him happy and me too. I will definitely try to find the perfect spot for it in my garage or workshop in the coming weeks.
I love to meet these kind of people, the stories behind the stuff they have and why they sell it. it makes a 6 hour car drive to pick up some tools worth it even more.
Stay tuned. I have plans to pick up another bunch of parts tomorrow after work 🙂

[grannyknot]

Amazing find, is that timing chain wedge made out of wood?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

20 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Amazing find, is that timing chain wedge made out of wood?

Haha yes ST 174-20.001 Kent Moore Timing chain wedge, wood 🙂

Last week i got offered another bunch of parts from a seller which i've bought parts from before. His packages usually contain a lot of mystery parts from other generation Z's, some random Z memorabilia and then some really nice and rare bits for my project in a package deal.

This time was no different and the parts arrived today. The lot incldued two very nice hubcaps and two pretty worn ones:


A bunch of NOS parts and refurbished ones. I was told the switch with cable on the top center is a "Joker" switch for those blind spots in the center console. I have to figure that out and confirm it first. One of the most important parts for me definitly is the Handbrake divider thing, which was still mising in my parts so far and that "Datsun" horn button on the top left (no brand, but i guess it's aftermarket) which might be nice to fit to one of my aftermarket steering wheels.

A set of random new and re-plated fasteners. Some which i can immediately identify as S30, some remain a mystery. Also not all of them are in very good condition despite being replated and beyond usage.  But that's no problem, i have most of those parts either new or in refurbished good condition and will just keep them as "spares" in my nuts and bolts box 🙂


The set also included a newer "Option" Magazine about the fairlady Z, which included a starroad tuned S30 and a Car with the  Datsunworks Crossflow head. And then this metal model of an 1932 Datsun. The box looks old but i wasn't able to see a manufacturer at my quick first look and i've seen a few of those for sale over the year. anyway. Nice to have in my diecast-corner.

And then some other bits and pieces which might or might not be useful at some point of the restauration. that 260Z (i think) center cap is absolutely mint, so i will probably put it up for sale and that bob sharp keychain is definitely nice, at the end it might look like a useless lot of random parts, but from my experience you can never have a good enough diversity of all those small bits and pieces, because i assure you that definitely one of these small little bastards will miss during your assembly and that 50cent item is blocking your assembly for weeks.

I have a few nice documents coming in soon, plan to visit another seller soon and also hope to have a visit to the bodyshop again soon. Stay tuned

[JDMjunkies.ch]

I got myself the encyclopedia of japanese cars the "a quet greatness" books:


They cover all the bigger and smaller brands and are written by some well known japense car collectors Brinker and vernis

As an S30 owner I'm espeically happy to see many rare and nice photos and a big chunk of one book dedicated to the Fairlady Z and 240Z:

And the PS-30 get's it's fare share too, Since one of the authors owns a real Z432:


It's limited to 1000 pieces, and not exactly cheap, but definitely worth for the real enthusiast and collector of japanese cars. thousands of beautiful photos, quite well researched and covering anything from the Autozam AZ-1 to the Zagato Autech Stelvio 🙂

[JDMjunkies.ch]

It's done! After a few weeks of tinkering around i had it finished. Well, actually, quite a while ago. But it's finally time to show you some details.
The kit took me approx 2 weeks of work every evening 1-2 hours. it's not too much of work, and pretty straightforward. the Manual is idiot-proof despite being in Japanese it's easy to make. The difficulty level is so-so. It will be tricky if you never used a screwdriver before. But for me, who didn't really have any experience with such kits it was doable. In my case the previous owner messed up a few things which i had to fix. The kit is intended to be only installed with screws (no glue!) but in some cases, it was nessecary to add some glue to make it more fixed. Some of the parts require quite some force to be installed, while being fragile at the same time. I broke 2 small things, but nothing a bit of superglue could'nt fix. At the end it's a super detailed model car of a Japanese Fairlady Z (with L20 engine). There is light, door light switches, brake pedal switches, many controls are movable (heater control knobs!), and it's pretty much close to the original car, from the chassis frames to all the engine bay and interieur details, it's absolutely incredible. It's a super fun project and well worth the hours spent:

Here arew a few details. Frame rails and front axle with steering rack installed:

All the lovely details of the L20 engine (yeah, you have to install every ignition wire manually!)

Rolling chassis with transmission Propshaft and engine installed:

Time for the interieur:

Here's an example of all the details. the battery alone is for e.g. 17 Parts:

And completed:

Or look at the hood hinge: Incredibly close to the original design 12 screws for one hinge alone!!

Some parts, like the door lock is as tiny as this:

The window have an actual working crank mechanism:

Body completed:

Time to put it all together:

This part was a bit tricky:

Batteries for the interieur, headlights, brake lights, etc:

And done, including the nice display stand:

The interieur is really lovely:

And all the details in the engine bay:

The tools and towel that came with the kit (original tool pouch got lost by the previous owner):

The spare screws, which are leftover at the end (each screw comes with at least one spare):

It's not going to be my hobby and i had to swear more than once, but at the end it was a super fun project with a really nice result. And the magazines, dvd's and the car itself are well worth it.