My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Recently i acquired two pieces of Nissan sports option aka Datsun Competition aka the Triple Mikuni carb heat shields from Japan. One was in a good, used condition. the other one seemed to be restored on the first sight. But after i received it and inspected it closer, i quickly realized that they just sprayed it with some silver paint that came off upon touching it.

After looking at it again, i also saw that it was not straight and had a few cheap weld repairs. Here is the "good" side, which only needed a bit of flattening with the hammer (probably from wiggling it off the previous installation):

And here is the bad side from the inside You can see the corners and the holes have some weld leftovers and do not look nice:

And this is the outside (after i already started to work on it). You can see some rough remaints of the welds:

And this is how it all looked after an hour of filing and straightening everything with my recently bought bodyshop hammer and file set:

Now it's Much better than before. Everything is straight and the surface even, and the curvatures / holes are round again. After i took the picture i sprayed it with some rust primer, but i will have to have the whole thing resprayed once it's going to be installed. I also finally managed to get the car back on the lift again and hope i find some time during the christmas holidays to get some stuff from my to-do list checked off!

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So, Over the last few days i got a few nice parts again. First a set of Nissan 50th anniversary badges in black:

I always had a red and blue one but the black one was missing. now my set is complete and i got a few black ones for spare too 🙂

Then i got some Parts from S30.world.


The first item is the Handbrake cable including all installation hadware. Just look at all the details. it's as close as it can get to the OEM part. including all the little hardware details!


The Second set was the fuel tank installation hardware straps including the rubber insulation pieces. the rubber blocks for the fuel tank and the installation hardware.
Again excellent quality parts down to the smallest detail.


This should allow me to install the S30.world reproduction fuel tank on my test-assembly soon. Thanks again Chris for those awesome parts.
Make sure to check out their ever-growing lineup of parts on the S30.world shop:

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i got something very special, which i found in the USA: A box with "Maintenance of the Datsun 240Z Sports" Service slide films.

Let me explain: The Box contains 7 small, numbered plastic cans. Each can has a dia film of colour photos (aka "Slides"). The booklet was Printed in November 1969. So it is from the very beginning of the 240Z.

Additionally, there is a booklet which is called "Slide narration" the booklet contains the text to each slide.

My understanding is that this was used to train workshop employees. Whoever trained them got a bunch of coloured slides which show how to maintain the 240Z in a workshop, and a book which shows what to mention for each slide. The purpose of the whole kit is also mentioned in the foreword on the first page of the booklet:
 

I have never seen such a box before and think it's quite cool. It's basically a Service manual in colour photos. Some photos appear to be actually the same as in the black-and-white printed Factory Service manual. There are some awesome photos of Nissan works employees working on the cars. I still have to read it all and look through the photos.

There are also many graphics and drawings shown, which I have never seen before, and most probably were made specifically for training purposes.

I'm already looking for a dia scanner to digitalize them all and if I find time, I will share some of them with you.

More updates in the coming days. I have planned some work and there is a sea-freight crate from Japan waiting for me to be picked up.

Edited January 24 by JDMjunkies.ch
Typo correction and added two pictures!

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Recently, I went Datsun NOS parts hunting again. Well Sort of. I found a bit of a cryptic Ad online about a guy who was trying to sell a complete Lot of old Datsun spare parts inventory from the 70ies and 80ies.
After finally getting in touch with the seller, I realized it's quite a bit of a ride for me to get there, so I asked my Man Cagedude (who is always looking for such kind of lot's to buy) to pay a visit, as he lives much closer.
Fast-forward a few days and here we are, with a complete bus full of NOS parts in his possession.

Naturally, I had to check out the parts and see if there was anything useful for me (Luckily, Z-parts are pre-reserved for me). But yeah, it will take some time until we (he) have checked out all the part numbers and figured out which cars they belong to.
Nevertheless, if we are lucky, some parts might be very valuable. Like these (possibly) brass synchro gears:

So far the findings were limited, but i didn't go home without anything.

He had a Z clutch cylinder waiting for me since a while

I also got this Choro-Q toy car as a gift from his last trip to Japan.

These usually are installed on top of the BOSS brand coffee cans, so i had to put it back there to the can i have in my workshop. Perfect 🙂

And then there was this early European Service manual with the early 5-speed A-type FS5C71A transmission:

Another reason i wanted to visit him is to check out his collection of amazing cars:

First, his original Swiss four door Hakosuka C10 Skyline 2000 GT

Then his Portugal spec four-door Yonmary C110 Skyline 2400K-GT

Then, there is another European spec 2000GT four-door Customer Hakosuka in the workshop.

And last but not least his S14 Silvia, which is buing built up from ground, after the original car got completely drowned in the garage during a flood.

This is only a small fraction. There were customer cars being converted to partial tube-frame chassis, his RX-7 FC drift machine, and another S14 chassis waiting to be converted to a shop show car in some future.
Thanks for the Hospitality, mate and thanks for checking out the parts. I hope to see you soon again!

Edited January 25 by JDMjunkies.ch

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today I was able to pick up the long-awaited sea-freight shipment from Japan with some parts I bought as long ago as June last year.


I almost forgot what I bought back then, so I was excited to see what i got.


The shipment originally included parts which were not for myself, so when the shipment was ready to be loaded on the boat, and then these items popped up for a good price, i just bought them blindly to use the opportunity of almost free shipping. This set is what i think an original Nissan factory adjustable suspension. I still have to check the numbers and all the details.


But ut looks like it could be an original nissan set.

The other (rear suspension) set looks like a reworked original strut. It has some Nissan stamps on it and obviously got repainted at some point, but it was quite cheap and looked close to factory (not like these modern designs), and it came with multiple boxes of what appears to be original Nissan suspension parts, so I added it to my delivery.


The third item was a real win. a set of genuine Mikuni JP PHH44 Carbs. The price was very low, because it looks really rough.


But if you studied the details thoroughly, you would see the inside is in pretty damn good shape. All the original parts are included, and the plating is still nice on most parts.


And it came with an old school heat shield (not sure if original Nissan) plus a set of two modern style heat shields. Both still unused. The price was a real bargain for what you pay for those these days. And it seems to my untrained eye, that all it needs is cleanup and set of fresh gaskets. but we'll see..

Not from Japan but also delivered today was this used DiaFilm scanner which I bought online recently.


So I gave it a try to scan those first original Nissan Maintenance training slides, which I bought recently

I still need to figure out that colour correction and other stuff, but the first results are promising. and those slides are really, really cool! My goal is to digitalize them all.

[HS30-H]

Hi Nils. You've had some happy hunting again I see...!

Your ATSUGI Sports Option front struts look just like a pair of E4621s that I've got. They are oil-filled but gas-charged to help stop the oil from foaming. Don't let the gas out!

 

Those red-painted rear legs also look like Nissan Sports Option items to me. The welded-on (steel) threaded sections are very characteristic. The strut tubes themselves look very long so I'm wondering if they might be the late Nissan Sports 'Rally Option' with the adjustable lower platform which superseded the fixed-platform E7220s? The part number should be engraved on the tubes same as the Atsugis. 

[kats]

6 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

Today I was able to pick up the long-awaited sea-freight shipment from Japan with some parts I bought as long ago as June last year.


I almost forgot what I bought back then, so I was excited to see what i got.


The shipment originally included parts which were not for myself, so when the shipment was ready to be loaded on the boat, and then these items popped up for a good price, i just bought them blindly to use the opportunity of almost free shipping. This set is what i think an original Nissan factory adjustable suspension. I still have to check the numbers and all the details.


But ut looks like it could be an original nissan set.

The other (rear suspension) set looks like a reworked original strut. It has some Nissan stamps on it and obviously got repainted at some point, but it was quite cheap and looked close to factory (not like these modern designs), and it came with multiple boxes of what appears to be original Nissan suspension parts, so I added it to my delivery.


The third item was a real win. a set of genuine Mikuni JP PHH44 Carbs. The price was very low, because it looks really rough.


But if you studied the details thoroughly, you would see the inside is in pretty damn good shape. All the original parts are included, and the plating is still nice on most parts.


And it came with an old school heat shield (not sure if original Nissan) plus a set of two modern style heat shields. Both still unused. The price was a real bargain for what you pay for those these days. And it seems to my untrained eye, that all it needs is cleanup and set of fresh gaskets. but we'll see..

Not from Japan but also delivered today was this used DiaFilm scanner which I bought online recently.


So I gave it a try to scan those first original Nissan Maintenance training slides, which I bought recently

I still need to figure out that colour correction and other stuff, but the first results are promising. and those slides are really, really cool! My goal is to digitalize them all.

Hi Nils, you are the only one who got the films except me, 

I too digitized them all, I can spend all day just watching them. So interesting. 
You can see some tiny tiny details which we have never seen before. Enjoy!

Kats
 

[RIP260Z]

18 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

The third item was a real win. a set of genuine Mikuni JP PHH44 Carbs. The price was very low, because it looks really rough.

Nice Nils! These are type 4 PHH 44's, there are different types, and gaskets differ a little. I restore and rebuild these in my spare time, so by the time you replace all the gaskets, its essentially a strip, clean and rebuild. The pump diaphram at the bottom of the carb is where most of the crud sits, and the diaphram is worth changing. I find them a nice project to do.

Here is my before and after;

[JDMjunkies.ch]

19 hours ago, HS30-H said:

Hi Nils. You've had some happy hunting again I see...!

Your ATSUGI Sports Option front struts look just like a pair of E4621s that I've got. They are oil-filled but gas-charged to help stop the oil from foaming. Don't let the gas out!

 

Those red-painted rear legs also look like Nissan Sports Option items to me. The welded-on (steel) threaded sections are very characteristic. The strut tubes themselves look very long so I'm wondering if they might be the late Nissan Sports 'Rally Option' with the adjustable lower platform which superseded the fixed-platform E7220s? The part number should be engraved on the tubes same as the Atsugis. 

@HS30-H Thanks for your feedback, Alan!
I just checked the Numbers on the strut housings, and it seems they are a later version of yours with the last digit being one number higher.
Fronts are: 54303-E4622 & 54302-E4622 (Atsugi)
Rears are:  55303-E4622 & 55302-E4622 (AMPCO)
On all four strut housings, each of the two platforms / adjustment rings are adjustable in height and none is fixed.

So i guess i was really lucky to find a complete set of factory adjustable suspension that "belongs together". Even though they are from different manufacturers and i bought them from two different sources 🙂 The guy with the orange ones also sold a front set but the description led me think that it was an aftermarket selfmade adjustable suspension system.

The fronts have an additional (Aluminum?) spacer on top, which i have to find out yet if it's a factory option or not

My guess is that the these "open design" original strut inserts, which came in a separate box among with loads of other parts, belong to those orange rears.
Not sure if they are still usable after somebody opened them and let that Gas, you mentioned, out? My guess is that you still can replace them with some standard japan market spec strut inserts, or are those different in length / rates from the standard struts?


As far as I know these "open design" inserts were only ever installed as original factory supplied struts and all Nissan replacement parts were the closed "cartridge type" strut inserts? This is from the installation guide that came with a set of NOS 260Z 2+2 European standard spec cartridge inserts, which I have:

Last but not least, the whole delivery came with a box of four additional springs and shock inserts, which i didn't remember buying, so they must have been included in one of the two sets i bought. they don't seem to belong to any of the adjustable kits though. the Dampers are all aftermarket (KYB) and springs seem too long for the adjustable strut inserts, which have much shorter springs. at least at first glance. The colour markings on the springs are also from the previous owner (L + R) and no factory markings. The small tags that you see have some numbers written on it, so i guess they are spring rates.

17 hours ago, kats said:

Hi Nils, you are the only one who got the films except me, 

I too digitized them all, I can spend all day just watching them. So interesting. 
You can see some tiny tiny details which we have never seen before. Enjoy!

Kats
 

@kats I thought at least you or Alan must also own such a set of microfilms. They are so cool! I still need to scan the other slides.
It seems that yours are in better condition than mine. I only checked film 1 so far, and it's not in a plastic bag like the ones you showed. The photos (even in the original dia) have a heavy red-pitch. I hope i can fix that in photoshop, but it will be hard to bring the original colours back nicely. especially since i'm not a specialist 🙂

5 hours ago, RIP260Z said:

Nice Nils! These are type 4 PHH 44's, there are different types, and gaskets differ a little. I restore and rebuild these in my spare time, so by the time you replace all the gaskets, its essentially a strip, clean and rebuild. The pump diaphram at the bottom of the carb is where most of the crud sits, and the diaphram is worth changing. I find them a nice project to do.

Here is my before and after;

@RIP260Z Wow, those turned out really nice. I guess you had all the yellow parts cleaned and re-plated?
May i ask you how you cleaned the cast housing parts? Any special technicue or fluid? Blasting or Ultrasonic cleaner?
I have a set which seems to have been blasted at some point and you can clearly see that it created rough surfaces in some areas. I have a "rattling" machine with some soft abrasives. so that might be an idea to give it a try.
The state of yours look pretty similar than mine.

[Patcon]

I would think Vapor Honing would be the way to go. It shouldn't texture the surface that way

[RIP260Z]

9 hours ago, Patcon said:

I would think Vapor Honing would be the way to go. It shouldn't texture the surface that way

The texture is what's left after the serious corrosion on the trumpets was removed, not from my work. I could have changed the trumpets out, but the other carb has a cut-away on the trumpet particular to a car model, so not something I wanted to try to replicate, therfore let someone else change.

13 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

RIP260Z Wow, those turned out really nice. I guess you had all the yellow parts cleaned and re-plated?
May i ask you how you cleaned the cast housing parts? Any special technicue or fluid? Blasting or Ultrasonic cleaner?

I strip the carb, thread holes cleaned with the correct size tap, everything goes in an ultra sonic bath (with plenty of soak time without ultra sonic [I have some laboratory neutral detergent]), cleaned, dried. Blasted (wet) as its easier on the surface (not with anything really abrasive), cleaned, dried, checked. Steel parts get the same treatement before yellow zinc. New genuine gasket kits and replacment parts, esp idle mixture screws replaced wether needing or not (as a groove can get worn creating inconsistent idle).

Its quite a bit of work, takes time.

[HS30-H]

16 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

I just checked the Numbers on the strut housings, and it seems they are a later version of yours with the last digit being one number higher.
Fronts are: 54303-E4622 & 54302-E4622 (Atsugi)
Rears are:  55303-E4622 & 55302-E4622 (AMPCO)
On all four strut housings, each of the two platforms / adjustment rings are adjustable in height and none is fixed.

So i guess i was really lucky to find a complete set of factory adjustable suspension that "belongs together". Even though they are from different manufacturers and i bought them from two different sources 🙂 The guy with the orange ones also sold a front set but the description led me think that it was an aftermarket selfmade adjustable suspension system.

You probably already have this data (?), but the March 1976 dated Nissan Sports Option list for the RS30 and GS30 models includes the E4622 suspension kit. It shows that they still used the previous E4621 springs with the kit, giving free lengths for the springs as 171.5mm Front and 205.5mm Rear.

16 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

The fronts have an additional (Aluminum?) spacer on top, which i have to find out yet if it's a factory option or not

The same March 1976 Sports Option list gives a part number of 55037-E4620 for a "Spacer Rear Strut MTG", stating that it is made from Aluminium and with a thickness of 20mm. Seems to fit the bill. I've seen these used on the front as well to give a little extra lift. I have some that are made from steel, but don't know if they are (later?) factory items or if somebody copied the factory items.

16 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

My guess is that the these "open design" original strut inserts, which came in a separate box among with loads of other parts, belong to those orange rears.
Not sure if they are still usable after somebody opened them and let that Gas, you mentioned, out? My guess is that you still can replace them with some standard japan market spec strut inserts, or are those different in length / rates from the standard struts?

Yes, they are the original 'Wet Leg' type dampers. If they match up with the strut tube length then I reckon they could be re-used effectively without the gas-filling (it was only there to help mitigate aeration/foaming of the oil under hard use) and indeed the early standard struts used the same system without the gas-fill (and - years ago - the 'hot tip' to upgrading these was to replace the factory type Nisseki A-1 oil with a heavier grade oil) as long as you are not planning on heavy track use...! They are actually very nice to use and I reckon the thicker piston rods are a boon. A friend of mine in Japan made up a system to re-fill the gas charge (he added a valve on the lower body) but it's a real hassle.

On the other hand it is easy to convert these struts to use cartridge type dampers as long as you choose the correct length of cartridge (and Bilstein would be nice!). I've had Nissan Sports Option (and even some Works rally version) struts through my hands in the past which - when opened up - revealed aftermarket cartridge units inside. Obviously replaced some time in the past.

16 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

Last but not least, the whole delivery came with a box of four additional springs and shock inserts, which i didn't remember buying, so they must have been included in one of the two sets i bought. they don't seem to belong to any of the adjustable kits though. the Dampers are all aftermarket (KYB) and springs seem too long for the adjustable strut inserts, which have much shorter springs.

Yes, those springs are not correct for the Sports Option adjustable platforms. They should have a flat lower section to sit on the platform. You can get springs made to suit the adjustables. There are certainly companies here in the UK who can make to spec. Let me know if you can't find a supplier.