Datsun 240Z 1972 Restomod from Germany

[Radeon]

Hey Guys!

First and foremost a little disclaimer: I own my little Z since April and finally am going to post about her here!:) Since May I posted some posts in my blog already. The blog is and will be the priority from where I most of the time simply copy and paste my posts onto here, so the pictures are hosted on the blog and linked onto here!:) I will however slightly edit stuff for the forum, so everything makes sense!;) To not flood the thread right in the beginning I will delay my post with one or two days in between with the write ups that already accumulated on the blog as of now!:) To whoever prefers to read on the blog itself, or is too curious right from the beginning and wants to read everything that's available right from the get go, there you go:

Datsun 240Z 1972 Restomod

First a short introduction. I’m a Director of Photographer to be, living in the South of Germany,  around Stuttgart right next to Zuffenhausen, for you 911 guys out there!:) 23 (24 now ) years old at the time and quite the car and motorcycle nut. Mostly vintage though! I restored and modified a Honda CB 550F from 1976 to a Café Racer/Brat Style within the last two years, after I’ve owned two Yamaha R6 before, which are only fun at the racetrack, not on public roads. Crashed them both. 

Here’s a picture of my Honda:

As you can read in the next post I recently purchased my next project, a 1972 Datsun 240Z which progress I will post on this blog (forum!:) ) for the next months and year(s) to come!

My new to me lady:

After months searching for the perfect base I finally found my dream car! Even though I searched throughout Europe and started to think about importing one from the US myself, I found her just 200km away near Munich. Lucky me!

After quite the cold ride on my 1976 Honda CB 550 Café Racer one and a half months (now six!) ago I arrived at the old barn where she sat for quite some time already. I liked her, a deal was made and am ‘now’ the proud owner of my own Fairlady!

I have to excuse the poor quality of the pictures, the future will bring better ones!

She’s a California import and has been imported in 2006, never registered in Germany however.

Structurally in great shape, no prior rust repairs and almost no rust. Up until now I only found a small hole in the drivers side door, a hole under the windshield and the battery tray has a tiny area under a square centimetre. I will however remove the sheet metal under the hatch to be thorough!

Also mechanically sound, the matching numbers L24 runs great as well as the 4 speed manual transmission.

The suspension components are shot, as one would expect. As well as every single piece of rubber and pretty much the whole interior which was in awful beige and has been covered with a blue bathroom rug as it seemed some time ago:D.

Bringing her home:

Exactly one week later my parents joined me to get her back to my garage. Had to wash her thoroughly first however! And sadly the battery was shot after the ride home on the trailer, so we had to push her into her new home.

Previous owner and me

That's it for tonight (in Germany), will post the next chapter tomorrow evening, if the demand is not higher!:P

All the best to you guys!

Fabian

 

[Diseazd]

Fabian....Looks like a really nice Z..,,,,Congrats!

[Radeon]

On 23.10.2016 at 9:08 PM, Diseazd said:

Fabian....Looks like a really nice Z..,,,,Congrats!

Thank you!:)

On with the next two blog posts!

Exterior disassembly

Couldn’t leave the car left untouched for long and started with the exterior. Just as a side note, I try to combine work of the same topic within a post, doesn’t necessarily mean it was exactly done in that order!

At first I removed the cowl panel to clean up inside, as debris of who knows how many years collected inside them and was wet after I power washed her when I brought her home!

Next thing where the front and rear bumpers, as well as the side trim which wont get it’s way back onto the car and will be sold. So whoever is interested in the side trim, let me know (in Europe only!)!

Stripped both bumpers of the rubber as well as the vertical guards and the bar of the rear bumper. No pictures of the front bumper as of now.

The vertical guards and the bar will be sold (in Europe only!).

I then stripped the front end and more and more of the unibody saw it’s first sunlight after quite some time I guess! All the metal is in great shape!:) Didn’t get the grill loose yet, two phillips head screws are still stuck, and don’t mind any form of penetrating oil I put on them yet. Heat and this ‘screw extractor’ which you hit with a hammer and it then turns in the loosening direction didn’t work either.

The rear had to shed some weight as well as the taillights and panel had to go. Some idiot routed a fuel vapor line through the wiring of the right taillight, so it still sits in the rear of the car.

 

Interior disassembly

The interior had to go as well! Most of it was shot, and in ugly beige/blue anyway. The ugliest part though was the blue bathroom carpet someone thought was pretty. The carpet itself was no longer there, but the remains where all over the place! So was the leftover glue on the original vinyl!

Together with the dash, the heater components as well as the air condition came out. A/C is for grabs, if someone wants to restore it. Have never seen it working myself (in Europe only!).

Quite empty and roomy in here! Sounddeadening in the rear is out already, for the floorpans and tunnel I am going to get some dried ice! You can also see the right taillight still in there, as a fuel vapor line runs through it’s wiring like I mentioned in the exterior disassembly post.

Soon to be trash, going to keep it until I have new vinyls! Every bit of plastic is destroyed though.

 

Until tomorrow night!:)

All the best!

Fabian

[grannyknot]

Man, your on fire! That is a lot of disassembly since your last post. The screw extractor you mentioned is called an impact wrench and you should be very careful using it on your front grill, the grill is quite delicate and so are the 5 little brackets that support it. Since the screws are toast anyway you might try a pair of Visegrips on the head of the screw or maybe drill them out.

Have you found much rust yet? The car looks pretty solid from your photos, looking forward to your progress.

Chris

[hr369]

Wow, those door panels are straight out of 80's california.

I was amazed to see germany passed a new law recently.

By 2030 only electric  new vehicles will be sold in  germany  and by 2050 all petro vehicles will be banned in germany. 

2030 is only 13 years away!

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by hr369

[Radeon]

Hey Chris!:)

As I wrote in my first post those are the blog entries from my restoration blog on fabianspeth.wordpress.com. They reach from April until now!;) A mechanical impact wrench in this case though!:) I had to drill those screws out with a counterclockwise rotating drill bit, if I recall it right one came actually out with it, the other one lost its head and I will have to weld a nut on it to get more leverage to extract it!:)

The body is indeed in great shape! I did however found some minor rust, will be postet here in the next days, or you can already look in up on the blog!:) I don't want to bloat the thread right from the beginning in posting all blog entries at once!;) Main area is under the sheet metal under the hatch, a tiny area under the windshield gasket and some small holes in the doors.

Hey hr369!

Haha, right?:D

There is no such law that passed!;) It's an idea from "Die Grünen" party, which are the ecological party here in Germany. And even if the law would someday pass, it only affects NEW cars. That - in theory - from 2030 on no cars with petrol or diesel engines could be registered if they were build in 2030 or later!;) The 2050 ban (idea) for all petrol/diesel cars is also false (as of now), they originally wanted to ban NEW petrol/diesel cars by 2050 as of last year, this year "Die Grünen" even want it by 2030. I highly doubt it will come that far by 2030, and even if it would, Germany has always had a sweet spot for historic cars, so they would get an exception regulation. As it is in the big cities now, normally there are emission standards for all cars in major cities, if the car does not pass it doesn't get a green (all cities) yellow (some major cities) but a red (no major cities) sticker in the windshield. Historic cars (with a H license plate though - period correct modifications of max 10 years earlier!) can drive into all cities and don't even need a sticker at all!

Hope that cleared some things up!:)

 

Okay, since I had no time yesterday evening here are two new blog posts, and I will post two more by evening! Will also post two more tomorrow morning, then I'm off to Munich and Berlin until Monday!

Engine bay cleanup

The first round of engine bay cleanup includes emission control and A/C removal.

Messy engine bay before

All the emissions control related items. The air pump is the biggest scam, pumping fresh air into the exhaust clearly reduces exhaust fumes…right.

All the A/C components removed. If anyone wants to restore it, I’m happy to sell it! Didn’t work in my car, but wasn’t charged anyway (again, Europe only!:) ).

After a few recommendations in the Z forums I decided to get the Odyssey PC680 as a replacement battery, since the one which came with the car was shot, and the Odyssey is a extremely lightweight alternative. Starts the car without any problems. Planning to mount it under the passenger seat, hence the mention in the engine bay cleanup post!

Still a lot to do! The coolant reservoir has to go completely, or a better looking unit will be moved in front of the radiator support along with the coil. Planning to clean up the engine bay a lot, Taryns bay is the inspiration! Mechanical fuel pump will go as well, only an electrical one will be installed at the fuel tank. I want to reroute the fuel lines and plan to delete the return line. A new engine wiring harness has to be done. In the far future triple Webers are planned. Until now the SU carburetors will be restored. If anyone has tips for the engine bay clean up, I’m happy to hear them!

Still messy enough engine bay after

Spare parts

There came some spare parts with the car, quite a lot of them have to be identified still! If you know anything about the following parts please share the information!:)

The most important thing I found, because ‘murica!:D It’s a California import, so there’s that!:)

Two rear strut spares

New clutch and clutch cover, haven’t found out if its for the 240Z yet.

‘New’ 280ZX Front rotors. Not sure if they are reusabel with the surface rust. And the 240Z doesn’t have vented discs originally, so they won’t work with the stock calipers. Not yet sure which brake setup I’ll be going with, because the car has to stay within the oldtimer registration restrictions in Germany, which says that modifications have to be period correct and can only be 10 years newer than the car. Not sure if thats ’72, or ’78 +10 for the whole S30 series.

Is there a use for 280ZX rotors on a 240Z? Only heard about the newer Toyota Hilux (4x4) calipers with 300ZX rotors, or the older calipers with the original 240Z rotors.

Alternator Belt seems to be for the 240Z. And a spare inspection light, which doesn’t fit into the clean engine bay theme anyway.

Correct rear crank shaft Seal?

Correct release bearing?

Clutch slave cylinder for the 240Z

Crankshaft seal?

Clutch spigot bushing

 

An array of gas struts for the hatch and all of them have differences compared to the original on the right which is totally shot. Not sure if any of them will work in the car.

Whoever can shed some light on some parts is very welcome!:)

And for nostalgia reasons; the original California blue plates!:)

Thanks for any input from you guys!:)

We read each other in the evening!:)

Fabian

Edited October 26, 2016 by Radeon

[charliekwin]

Just wanted to say welcome!  Cool to see you're from Stuttgart.  My mom grew up there and her side of the family is still (mostly) there.  Visited many times!

[Radeon]

Just now, charliekwin said:

Just wanted to say welcome!  Cool to see you're from Stuttgart.  My mom grew up there and her side of the family is still (mostly) there.  Visited many times!

Hey Charlie!

Well next time you're in Stuttgart you come by and say hello!:)

As promised the next two iterations from the blog:

Dashboard

As with all sun damaged Zs the dash is in sad shape as well, sporting some hefty cracks. I’m going to try to restore the dash with the tips found online, hopefully the result will be pleasing!:)

But first I stripped the whole dash of all the components!

Speedometer will be changed to the proper way of measuring speed, kilometres per hour!;).

Completely striped dashboard, foam skin and metal structure underneath will only be separated during restoration, as the foam is brittle enough.

 

Engine and transmission removal

"Finally a new blog post!:)" Work on the car was a bit slow in the last three months (back then), but far from no progress at all! The engine and transmission had to get out of the chassis.

Since it wasn’t economical to rent an engine hoist I actually purchased one, even though I’m already running low on available space! At least I’ll be using it at least three times more on this car alone!

As the height of my garage wouldn’t be sufficient I dragged the car outside on the side of the road – an image very unfamiliar in Germany. Nobody works on their car on the streets here, and most cars are new, seeing a workshop regularly, anyway!

Had to jack the car in the front and back up and down to jiggle the engine and transmission out in one piece!

And she’s free!

If you’re wondering why the gear knob is still on the transmission: It was glued in place because the threads where damaged. Didn’t know at the time and was wondering why it wont unscrew.

Engine and transmission separated and clutch, pressure plate and flywheel removed.

Back in the garage on the engine stand!

Empty in here!:)

 

There will be two more blog posts tomorrow morning, then I'm off to Munich and Berlin until Monday evening!

See you guys in the morning!;)

[wheee!]

Zer gut! (spent 7 weeks in Wolfhagen outside Kassell in Essen with the Canadian Military in 2008, never did get the chance to tour Stuttgart though...)

Keep posting! loving the progress...

[racer47201]

Sehr gut!  Ich hat Deutsch im Hochschule und an der Universitaet studeren. Ich hat im Deutschland beim Frankfurt am Main gewohnnen um 72 bis 74.  Keep up the good work!

 

[Patcon]

The shifter can be removed from the transmission easily if you remove the E clip at the pivot and push the pivot pin out. The shifter just pulls out of the transmission tail then.

The brake rotors with the surface rust would be fine but you are correct the only way to run thicker rotors is to swap in different calipers.

Somebody a while back was making Km/Hr faces for gauges. Try searching for the thread.

Also there is a good dash repair thread on here too, somewhere...

 

[Captain Obvious]

I've got a speedo from a 78 that has both MPH and KPH on it. Would that be of any interest?