Derek

Well if you want to play numbers I received a total of 3 door shells from RC. Of the three 2 had catastrophic problems with 2 critical mounting points. The first passengers door with the hinge hole in the wrong place and the drivers door with the latch holes in the wrong place. The drivers door also has the ledge being too wide so that the door panel won't go on. I do a ton of reverse engineering of castings in order to design new tooling. Customers come to me with a part to recreate and my first question is "what were the original tolerances on the item". If you don't know that then it really is a crap shoot. So let's talk about the door shells. Nissan designed the stampings, hole locations and assembly dimensions to fit within a certain criteria. Those three items need to work with the manufacturing tolerances of the window movement mechanism, the latching mechanism the body assembly tolerances etc, etc. If you don't have that data then you need to reverse engineer a large sampling of items over several production years to develop your own targets. Or you need to redesign the part to work in a more tolerant way. Max said he slotted mounting holes. The problem is if the mounting surfaces of the tracks are in the wrong plane all bets are off. If you look at how Nissan designed the window mechanism they are relying heavily on the mount surfaces to be in the right place. Think about the overall size of the door and how just one of the mounting surfaces being slightly off could affect things. Hats off to whomever funded the stamping dies for taking the chance on this but whomever is responsible for engineering the actual assembly needs a spanking. If I was consulting on this project I would have strongly recommended using overseas for what they do best, in this case cheap stampings, and then onshore the components for assembly where you have much more control. And again I would have designed the door shell stamping to be more forgiving. So if I'm so smart why didn't I have the good sense to fully assemble the doors before I ever thought about painting them:) Sigh.

You should 🙂 I just added a post. There is no bondo on the fender in the area of contention. Yes there is bond at the top. Max and you made the assumption that because I repaired a different section of the fender that meant I had worked the entire section of the fender. One spot of repair is not a basis to make the judgement that the problem is the fender and not the door.

Just in that area. That was an old rust spot that I had beat down and filled over. There is no filler in the area of contention. Also if we consider the fender as the control then both doors would have fit the same. They don't. As I said previously there is no filler on the old door. But that's all irrelevant because that isn't my problem with the door. The rollers are installed. You didn't receive a response because I was done trying to make the doors work. I felt I put way more time into these than I should have. As a business I need to make cost-bennifit choices daily and it was time to step away and cut my losses. True and I apologize. But the reality is in my mind offering trinkets to make up for the literal days I have making the doors work is no better. You still haven't addressed here or in your last email, which I stated was my breaking point was that the top flange on the drivers door is 1.5mm wider than the factory door and your passengers door. I literally cannot get the door panel to slip over the edge. And I'm still of the same mind. If you buy these doors make sure you assemble them all the way as soon as you get them as there are obvious documented QC problems. I've said all I need to. I wanted to get it off my chest which I did but I also felt a responsibility as a long time member of the Datsun Community to pass along the pictures and a description of what I was up against. The fact that max has sold 33 sets doesn't mean 33 sets are installed on cars. How many sets are sitting un opened on a shelf while the owner spends multiple years collecting parts only to open the box and find out the hinge didn't bolt on. It's a cautionary tale more than anything else. All the best, Derek

I totally agree. Although in my mind it's pretty hard to defend refusing a refund based on the pictures I have posted. Let's be clear I was fine with all of the defects up until I couldn't get the drivers door panel on. I have his door weatherstrips and they fit great. Edit: all of the pictures I posted are from the email chain we have exchanged since the beginning. Also I'm posting this as a cautionary tale as opposed to shaming him into giving me a refund. I believe that ship has sailed.

When the first door didn't look correct I told Max that previously I had done a lot of bodywork to the car but didn't think that was the issue. Here is a snip from his last email to me: How is that applicable to any of the problems with the holes being in the wrong place or the fact that the door panel won't go on. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to the type of vendor they are. Also they exchanged one door not multiple "products". I said I was content with the body filler situation. I never said I was content with the new problems.

Honestly I'm not complaining about the exterior fit. It's the fact that there are so many inaccuracies in the critical mounting points. Like how can the hole for the hinge be off that far from one door to the next unless they are hand drilling them and then welding the nuts on based on the hole position. That means there is no fixturing at all. Really the breaking point for me was when it was clear to me there was no way the drivers door panel was going on without totally disassembling the door and sawing the top ledge down to get rid of the extra 1.5MM of material. I'm really not too picky but I want door panels on the car 🙂

Story time:) And it’s a long one. I’m painting my 73 240 to address some rust issues especially in the doors. While searching for door skins I stumbled across the door assemblies from Resurrected Classics. For the price point and my available time window it seemed like the best way to move forward. I ordered the doors and received them promptly. They were. well packaged and looked really good. I figured I’d do a quick test fit by hanging them on the car. I used a single bolt top and bottom initially. The drivers door looked great with a slight problem where the door bottom meets the fender. Nothing a little filler wouldn’t fix. I then proceeded to fit the passengers door and was greeted with this: I literally could fit a finger in the gap. I pulled the new door and reinstalled the old one to tell me what I already knew and this is how it fit: I called Max at Resurrected to make sure I wasn’t the first person to receive the doors and he assured me he had sold multiple sets with no complaints. With this in mind I decided to make up some hinge to cowl shims to see if by some miracle it was simply a matter of adjustment. I figured I’d go ahead and mount the door properly with all of the bolts in the hinges and was greeted with this: The hole is off by literally .100”. This was troublesome firstly in the fact I couldn’t bolt it on and secondly apparently there isn’t a welding fixture to locate the nuts properly. It also showed there was little to no QC on critical mounting points. As a manufacturer as soon as I saw this my first thought was “what else is wrong with these doors”. But as a dreamer and optimist I decided to continue moving forward. I contacted Max and luckily he had someone driving south near me and he brought a new door and we swapped. I actually hung it quickly and although the fit wasn’t great it was still less work than fixing my old doors so I decided to keep moving forward. Here is the new door: So I went ahead and started the body filler work. Keep in mind this is a driver and I never would have accepted this if it wasn’t. Here is a shot after building up the area with Duraglass and then filler. It’s still rough because I finished it off the car but it will give you an idea as to how much work I had to do to fix that gap. Here is an edge shot of just how bad it was: I sent Max the pictures for his records and told him: “Not pretty and if it was a restoration it wouldn’t fly but for my daily driver that takes a beating it’s fine. The door I took off had no filler in that area and the fender has no filler in that area. The only conclusion I can come up with is there are variances in the assembly of your doors since the original one you sent me fit even worse in that area.” Fast forward a week or so and I have the passengers door assembled and mounted on the car. I have the sash sitting properly in the door frame so that when it’s closed there is no light. I’m using new weatherstrips from Max and the door closes great. The window cranks up and down with ease. Yippie now on to the drivers door. I start the assembly process and immediately run into this: The door latch screws don’t line up. Now let me tell you just how bad this is. Because the latch uses countersunk screws there is no “slotting it” to make it work. Also you have to ask yourself is it only the top screw or all the screws. I hung the door with just the 2 bottoms in and there wasn’t enough adjustment in the striker to get it to work. This is now an extremely difficult repair since you now have to relocate 3 screws with no adjustment. After a day of fiddling around I ended up using flat washers and silicone bronze tig rod and came up with a repair that I’m not at all proud of but worked amazingly well: Look at how far off the bottom holes were. The door opened and closed perfectly. I pulled the door and finished assembling it. I had a harder time than usual getting the door glass in and anyone who has done it knows it is super sketchy the whole time. I had to actually wedge the opening to get a gap large enough to get the glass rail through which I have never had to do before. I finish assembling the door. One of the door frame screw holes needs slotting but no biggie. I mount the door and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I grab the drivers door panel to install it and it flat out won’t sit over the door ledge. like no way. Time to get out the caliper. I measure the stock door and then in the same area measure the new door. It’s 1.5mm wider. I measure the passengers door and it’s pretty much right on the money. So the drivers door and the passengers doors are diffrent. More QC problems. I figure I’d better test the passengers door panel. I got it to pop over the ledge but it was tough. As I rolled the glass up I noticed it was putting way more pressure on it than it should. and when it got about a third of the way up it was leading well outside of the frame. I pulled the door panel to get a better look at what was happening and I noticed that one of the screws on the glass frame and part of the bracket was jammed into the crash bar when the window was all the way down. That was the point where I had enough. I’ll remind you what I said earlier: “what else is wrong with these doors” I have no idea how to solve the problem on the passengers door that doesn’t involve hours or days and I have no idea on how to get the drivers door panel to fit that doesn’t involve hours or days. It’s obvious by the pictures I posted that there is little or no quality control going on. If there was then both of the passengers doors would have fit exactly the same way. I emailed Max explaining the new issues with documentation and asked him to take the doors back and refund my money. I think this is a valid request at this point considering just how many problems I have had to overcome. Let me repeat. I can’t get the drivers door panel over the door ledge because it’s 1.5MM too wide. There is no adjusting that. Max doesn’t see it that way but he did offer me a discount on any future purchases:) Isn’t that special. I’m not telling anyone to not buy the doors but if you do I strongly recommend you assemble the doors all the way including the door panels as soon as you get them. And if you purchased a set and they are sitting in a box you my just be in for a surprise when you go to assemble. I don’t doubt there are working doors out there but I think I have more than proven that there are problems with the doors. The pictures don’t lie. I’m pretty sure I’m going to cut my losses and reskin my old doors and scrap the junk ones from Max. I hate to take a $1400.00 loss but at this point I don’t think they are salvageable without extensive unknown reworking. Nissan designed the window mechanism to rely on a proper door shell stamping to work. I’m not sure these are proper door shell stampings. Sucks but I'll get over it. Thanks for listening it helps, Derek

Like my head if you don't change the pistons you won't have much of a compression ratio with flat tops.

Not mine. This is based on their KA24 head which is the direction I was looking at originally. The bucket style valve train and integral cam bearings was going to be a hill too high for me to climb. That's when TonyD suggested looking at the Honda K20. And the rest as they say is history 🙂 I understand why Nismo did this but I don't understand why the aren't going to produce it based on the pictures of the castings I saw. It looks to me that they actually made hard tooling for the exterior and not 3D sand like I use. That's a pretty big expense for a handful of heads. Then again that may be a drop in the bucket for them.

Which makes me wonder if there should be a realignment of the priorities. I don't do track days with my car because I have zero free time these days but certainly there are plenty of ways to scratch that itch during the year. For me personally my interests are seeing other peoples builds, bench racing, maybe a poker run or fun rally with other Z cars. I don't expect much to change but I was stoked then noped for Birmingham because of the date selected and now Tampa is going to see limited participation as well. Driving a S30 in 90+ heat isn't exactly a joy. I daily drive mine and I have AC but it's a lot more fun with the AC off and the windows down. I mean these are sports cars right? 🙂

I was there last December and it's always a great turnout. His collection is inspiring and then depressing 🙂 Even in December we were all looking for shade. I just don't understand scheduling outdoor festivities during the hottest time of the year but I also have zero idea of what goes into putting on something like ZCon. Like Dave said the 350 and 370 crowd will like it. They have better air conditioning😂

Well there's always the Xmas party at Z Mecca:)

September in Tampa how delightful. I hope they include Gold Bond powder in the welcome bags. Hey let's have a car convention for cars that have shitty or no air-conditioning in 90 degree heat and 100% humidity. I know a lot of the scheduling is based around track availability but I wonder if they would draw more of a crowd if they leaned away from track events and focused on comfort. I have AC and it works pretty well but there is no such thing as an enjoyable "fun run" in September in Tampa. Now in October maybe.

I'm about an hour north of Orlando. We dodged a major bullet for sure as we were in the projected path up until it decided to turn in at Ft Meyers. Hopefully everyone south of us made it through ok. Derek

So I have the Gen 2 Mini in my 73. It works well enough but if the car has been sitting in the Florida sun on a 95 degree day it takes quite a while for it to cool it down. I’m going to upgrade it to something larger. I called Vintage Air to get some tech specs on the various models. The person helping me was able to search for sales by car model and said they sold a Gen IV Magnum last year to a person with a 73 who lives in Austin TX and they never returned it. Now we all know that doesn’t mean that it fit or if they ever even opened the box but I figured I’d throw it out there to see if anyone knows about it. As a side note has anyone fit anything larger than the mini in their S30? Thanks Derek