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After 6 months at the body shop I finally got the shell home! Progress as of this weekend. Starting to come back together! I can never seem to get a good picture in my garage- probably a combo of the bright LED lights and my crappy 6 year old phone! Can you spot the hidden headlight relays? I'm also running a ZX alternator so the voltage regulator does nothing more than hide the necessary diode. More to come!!!

I broke out of quarantine today to go over to work on a gentleman's Z. He is in his 70s and is planning on selling it because he can no longer get in and out easily. The car isn't in bad shape, but it has suffered from benign neglect. The car is a nice specimen to work on, and it helps me maintain my proficiency while I mentally prepare to work on my 240Z. I replaced the fuel pump that was leaking. Thanks to the thread from @David Downs, I realized I need to prime the pump. Lacking a handy fuel can, I got some Sea Foam and primed the pump that way. Once it was primed, it worked a lot better. After adjusting the idle and carburetors, I found a leak on the front carb, coming from the hose between the float bowl and carburetor. I didn't have my replacement hose with me, so I will have to go back another day to fix that. The car also needs an oil change. I noticed fuel going from the pump into the engine when I pulled the bad pump. The level on the dipstick was high. I told the owner I would change the oil at his place so he doesn't have to drive the car like that. I hope to help the owner get a good selling price on the car.

... it helped me turn back to being four years old again!!

Thanks to @motorman7 for the zinc plating tips and the name of a great place to get it done in AZ. Here's a lot of shiny hardware! Bins of the rusted undercarriage parts headed for the powder coater. Things were looking pretty sharp post powder coating. The PO installed Toyota four piston calipers on the front so I kept them. I got all my aluminum vapor blasted which turned out great as you can see on my distributor.

Shifting topics for a moment, here's a useful op-ed piece in today's Toronto Globe & Mail about the two-way value of masks. The writer is, "a retired public health specialist and epidemiologist... [with] more than 30 years of experience, including 23 with the Public Health Agency of Canada, where he actively participated in previous outbreaks of SARS, H5N1, H1N1 and H7N9." "Masks protect the wearer, too - and lower our risk for contracting COVID-19" I, for one, have been surprised the dialog that's emerged over the past few weeks to the effect that masks have value only for protecting others. I ask myself, 'When I'm wearing a mask while I'm sandblasting or spray-painting, am I really doing that because I'm trying to protect someone else?'

Still waiting on the engine mounts from Japan but the engine is getting really close to being complete. Just waiting on the Ross water pulley to arrive along with the LS alternator kit then I just need an alternator and starter and that's about it. I have a tinted acrylic Watanabe oil cap on the way too. The next photos are of a Nissan D21 hardbody speedometer sensor which fits the NOS R34 5 speed transmission since the Skyline uses an electronic speedo and the Z31 uses a cable. I will just need to figure out the correct gear once the car is driveable. Lastly, my R30 parked next to a JDM Supra at my friends house and then a night shot I took of the 30 as well.

Thanks to all the generous and knowledgeable people on this site I've been able to make great progress on my 72 240 restoration. I figured I would share a few pics to show the progress to date. Car post tear down in September last year. Had a decent Ferrari red paint job but rust was starting to show and I wanted to get it back to a pumpkin. It had the usual rust. I did the floors and frame rails myself last winter but I wasn't going to attempt any real bodywork!

If you are one of the people who understand pictures better than words, this should finally bring clarity to an often mis-understood subject of electrical current flow. Another way to look at this, is that VOLTS Is your undeniable drive to buy car parts, OHM’s is your wife doing her best to slow the purchases, and YOU are the AMPS, trying your best to buy stuff anyway!

View Advert Nautical Paraphernalia So I’ve been going through a lot of my schiite lately, and it seems I have collected WAY more of the infamous flat top boating accessories than I thought I would need. Of course I could say that about a few other things.... There is 5 pair and I think a couple that are in pieces. So. I know there are a couple of you that are into such paraphenalia, so should you want my 75 pound box of these (or part there-of, depends on how big your boat is, I suppose), I would be more than happy to send them for the cost of postage. Advertiser zKars Date 04/26/2020 Price $5.00 Category Parts for Sale  

Looking good! You’re well on your way... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have retained rubber for most of the bushings with some exceptions. Yes, you want the 280z specific Eibachs, only change the rear isolators, the fronts are the same as the 240's. Yes, you need to pay attention to the correct front / rear installation, many before you have got them on backwards and had to reverse them. I have that setup with what many would consider and have commented, "the perfect stance". ( unless you want to go for the dragstrip funny car stance....)

I have hopes of one day being as active of a poster as @wheee! and his amazing build. In the meantime, progressing slowly here in Chicago. Weather has finally got nice enough that I can start painting the rear suspension components. I had to switch from power coating to POR15 + top coat as the garage I normally work out of is closed due to COVID. The finish is turning out really well though, was pleasantly surprised. First coat pictured below, forgot to get a photo of the second coat before storing. Excited to be seeing progress though. Aiming for end of May to have everything back together. Also, realized that my rear shocks are blown while I was disassembling, so I am investigating replacements the system with a slight (1-2") lower. Debating between KYB/Koni and a set of Eibach Progressive Springs. Any other options that are worth considering? Going to look through the forum later today, but you guys always have good ideas. ?

Looks like that worked just fine. Looks like a similar "before" color as mine. Here's my stands with wheels. My daughter was in charge of lowering it down.

Ironic, too, that Haynes is a British publisher. Brings to mind an old saying: "If Britannia rules the waves, then why can't the British build a car that can drive through a puddle without stalling?" Mind you, it appears that the Brits were looking at practical implementations of electricity as early as the 1600`s -- long before the likes of Ben Franklin, Count Volta, Galvani, Volta and Ampere appeared on the scene. In fact, they apparently invented the words, 'electric' and 'electricity'.

In matters of things electrical, I ain't the brightest light. No one has ever called me "Sparky." So in the furtherance of my learning I have a copy of Haynes Automotive Electrical Manual, wherein on page 8 the topic headline is "What is electricity?" The answer given is "No one actually knows." So now I know I'm not alone in the dark.

Wow... That's tough to resist. I'm resisting so far, but it's tough.

I replaced a broken Helicoil on my #6 cylinder today, or should I say the last two and 1/2 days... . It started when I was checking my plugs when I noticed #6 came out with the helicoil attached. No big deal I thought, I'll just put some lock tight on it and put it back in, until I noticed was only half of the helicoil. Checked the head and sure enough the other half was still there. Aaarrgh! End result was that I successfully removed the stuck half without having to remove the head.? I did learn a couple of new things that hope I won't have to remember.

Bumper pieces ready to head out to the chrome platers.

Back to welding up the rotisserie...today was brackets, brackets, brackets.... The rear bumper mounts have definitely seen better days, but things seemed pretty rigid once the jam nuts were tightened up .... Meanwhile up front .... I added an additional plate so I can attach the front to both the bumper mounts and hood hinge mounting points... Still need to drill the mounting holes but it should line up something like this ( with the hood off the car of course ).... getting closer - woohoo!

grannyknot: Thanks for the link. That's a very helpful bit of info. wheee!: What's the rated and actual output of yours? Sorry if that info is posted on your excellent restoration thread. I've only made it through 30 pages so far.

I did the sound proofing thing last summer - and wow!! It’s so much more enjoyable for a mere 10-15kgs more. I covered 40-60% of panels - you don’t need to cover the entire panel. I did the wheel well, rear deck, the doors made a HUGE difference, the trans tunnel, floors and some of the bulkhead. I wish I had the headliner loose like yours to do the same but didn’t want to rip it off. Do that one and you get a huge reduction in wind noise and resonance. Rear strut towers are particularly noisy parts of the car. So I did this ... I wish I had done a better video of the actual insulation but this was just to show some friends the difference ... [/url] Also, for the under carpet thing and between door cards and the doors I used closed cell foam like these ... 12mm under carpet, 1.5mm doors ... https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282327879665 The MLV reduces panel vibration, the closed cell reduces reflections within the car. Upside: much less wind and road noise, far nicer cruising, you get to hear the exhaust better as it’s less like night club loud and more high end hifi loud. Downside: with all the white noise and resonance gone, you can now hear all the transmission / mechanical whines ;)