My two swiss S30Z Fairlady Restoration build thread

[niushork]

My father was a panel beater and I grew up at the shop (my brother runs it now)

I do not think he is using any filler. 

It looks like proper body work not what I saw in the USA which is basically filler based.

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

20 hours ago, Patcon said:

What is your body man using a filler? Is it lead or tin?

From what i understand he uses tin.

19 hours ago, niushork said:

My father was a panel beater and I grew up at the shop (my brother runs it now)

I do not think he is using any filler. 

It looks like proper body work not what I saw in the USA which is basically filler based.

It's not that americans can't do it right. Just look at all those Mopar builds. But with the low prices the Z's had in the US in the past, it just was the cheapest way to repair. Throw a ton of bondo on it and make it look good.
Times are slowly changing though. even in the US, the restauration quality for standard Z's are getting better. But not all of them.
Mind that most of the cars we see today with much fiberglass and bondo repairs have been done many years ago...

[Patcon]

The quarter was slicked out around the welds with some kind of metal, from the looks of it. Traditionally that would be old school lead, I wouldn't be surprised if it was tin. The work looks really good. Plastic fillers work fine if they are used properly. That means they need to be thin and properly applied. That also means you need to get a good metal man to remove the majority of the dents and waves, but those guys are getting rare. There are very few shops here that make all metal repairs and the ones that do are doing that work on high end cars because it's expensive work. Your cars repairs look exceptional

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Getting a bit Off-topic here. but nevertheless. He said he "tinned" it, but in switzerland this is a generally used word like "welding" and doesn't specify the material used during the process.

Yeah. it's not like we don't use bondo here in europe. But more than often we've seen terrrible amounts of bondo on imported classics over here. that's why we generalize all americans to do so on all cars. of course that's not true.
Sometimes i see those bare-metal chassis from the classic muscle car guys and can't believe my eyes about the incredible work. But as you said. those guys are getting rare - all around the world.

BTW: Just saw you're from spatanburg. just had a business guest here from there the last three weeks ?

[Patcon]

4 hours ago, JDMjunkies.ch said:

 

BTW: Just saw you're from spatanburg. just had a business guest here from there the last three weeks ?

Cool! Small world. I enjoy watching the metal work come along. The construction project is cool too, as that is what I do for a living

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just another of these little things that sum up in a lot of time and money, but another little step is done: The inside uf the fuel filler cap - the fuel pipe mounting plate (or whatever you want to call it) is sandblasted and welded back in the car. Will visit the bodyshop on friday and have a closer look at those details:

 

 

Oh and at the japanese classic car meet in Rhotrist last week, i got this german Datsun Book from my Buddy Stefan. Thanks for bringig it along ? Haven't looked inside yet, so i'm curious how it is ?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Had a visit at the Bodyshop today to discuss some next steps. Then i realized you guys haven't seen the car as a whole in a while, so i made some pictures. only to find out back at home that the camera settings were wrong and all the pictures were blurry. Nevertheless. here are some (blurry) pictures of the car in it's current state. Next up will be the work on the floorpans ?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Got some stuff today which i found lately for sale online.
First a set of original Nissan Parts manual Microfiches from a German workshop liquidation. So it's the european Parts manual. Unfortunately one page (body) is missing, but since i have a digital copy already it's only for completeness sake. and the price was great too ?


 

You would usually need a microfilm / microfiche reader, but i think a scanner with a high resolution should be able to handle those too. I will give it a try. It just was a too cool piece of history to not buy them ?

 

Then i got a copy from an original German User manual for the 240Z:

 

The colours are wrong since the seller seems to sell a lot of copied manuals with all the same colour sheme for some reason, but still it's better than nothing and it was a lot cheaper than an original, old, brittly, used service manual that is currently for sale for 130 Bucks on ebay. So i decided a copy has to do it. Also i know the original colour sheme anyway, so i can  create my own copy with th e original colours whenever i want to:

 

It's good to finally know all the details:

 

And it got a wiring shematic too, which is great ?

 

More parts are on the way, so expect more by next week or so ?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Well, the workload on the house / Garage / Workshop project finally slows down a bit, so i have a bit of time and a few bucks here and there to spend on my other, car related projects again. I have found some missing parts which are currently on the way to me, which i will of course post once they're here. But first i got some parts today from my Buddy Stefan at Cagedude.


 

Ag ain he was responsible for recreating some damaged parts with his awesome fabrication skills. This time he built me set of 240Z vertical Grille finns, which hold the horizontal fins together. As you can see my original set (black) was totally bent and broken. Super happy and i will have to reassemble my grill soon i guess ?


 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So since i have all my parts from the grille together now i thought it's time to puzzle them together. So here we got t he single pieces:

 

First test assembly (works nice with a cushion below). Looks a bit out of shape:

 

Realized that the double-fin on top still has a major dent at where one of the vertical pieces attach:

 

Tried my best hammering skills to get it sort-of straight again:

 

Second test-assembly. Starts to look nice.
Need to sand the edges a bit on the vertacal pieces and then will replace all the rivets, before i put it all back together with new bolts and nuts ?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i got one of my ebay ad finds: The plastic radiator surrounding Panel / shroud. It's a bit rough around the edges, has a lot of black paint stains, but overall it's in great shape and the price was too good to not buy it. Another missing part of the puzzle in storage ?


And had to give it a clean immediately before i put it in storage ?


Much better already. Not sure if i will use it anyway, since i have the Koyo radiator. But it was only a few bucks and it's good to know i have all the OEM Pieces to put it together back in original condition if i ever want to. Better get those items now before prices rise further ?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

While strolling the webs for good parts deals i stumbled upon this:  A  Niles Cigarette lighter with a built-in Thermometer. It's so useless and so japanese in a way, i couldn't resist. It was only a few bucks and i found it in greece of all countries:

 

Btw: Niles is the company that made most of the electronic relays and switches in the 240Z and many other Datsuns / Nissans of that time. So while this item was never sold by Nissan, it somehow gives the whole thing a bit of a period correct OEM feel:

 

And to be honest, it's so weird and odd, i just had to have it.