HS30-H

Fat (male) end to the back, skinny (female) end forward:

Very likely to be from an original European market variant pairing, yes? Have you got the correct double-flanged sliding-joint propeller shaft to join the two together?

As standard equipment on the S30-series Z range, FS5C71-A was usually paired with 3.9:1 ratio R180 in all markets except USA & Canada (including Japan). It was also paired with 4.44:1 ratio R192 LSD on Japanese market PS30 Fairlady Z432 and PS30-SB Fairlady Z432-R.

Cant angle is 12 degrees, as stated in various Nissan technical publications (none of which I seem to have to hand at this moment...).

Casting batch identification. They would be casting several batches a day, and each batch would be given its own identifying code letter for quality control/traceback purposes.

Factory-fitted air conditioning was available from the beginning of production in the Japanese market. The core support panel was shared between Domestic and Export markets, hence the mounting holes for the S20-specific air cleaner box and radiator overflow bottle being present on Export cars.

Where did you get "wrapped in leather" from? The genuine steering wheels - whether early 1970s originals or NISMO Anniversary re-pops - were all manufactured by Izumi for Nissan and were made from a skinned Urethane material with moulded-in faux stitching detail. They were never leather. Recent (Chinese-made) copies are another matter. Honestly, do those screws and rivets look like they are 50+ years old to you? https://mspeed-japan.com/product_information.php?page_num=21&category_id=5 As with all vintage items, provenance is key.

The mirror is a (relatively) recent re-pop of the factory Race Option interior mirror. I have one in my KPGC10. Here's an original in use:

I'd say that the complexity of the joints (shape, and number, of the panels being joined) meant that they were likely to be - as we have seen in the 'nude' shots - 'cosmetically challenged'. Add a little assembly worker variation into the mix for good measure. They required filling/smoothing, and the top of the rear quarter joint was a large area. I can't think of any other areas of the early S30-series Zs where cosmetic filling was required before paint, as I pointed out up-thread. Can anyone think of any? This is specifically a Nissan Shatai thing. If it was their habit to use lead, and they had workers who were skilled at applying it well, and fast, then why not? It certainly 'dries' and is workable much faster than a plastic-based filler and there's no use-it-or-lose-it time constraint as there is with a hardener-added mix. Much better for a busy production line. And as we know, the lead is very resistant to cracking. Seems ideal.

I wholeheartedly concur. It was another stinker. Unfortunately my stack of poor, bad or total garbage books on the subject of 'our' cars is so tall that it I had to apply for planning permission from my local council.

You can't see the text that accompanied the photo? Here it is again:

You obviously don't see the drilled-out spotwelds either.

Posts nos. 88 & 89 in this thread answer those questions, I'd say.

Since the screen pillars ('A') and rear quarter/roof joint ('C') are both finished with lead-loading, any hypothesis of them being "designed to flex" (I would say more likely 'expected to flex'...) would have to apply to both, no? I'm struggling to think of any other cosmetically-observable area on the bodyshells of these cars which is similarly 'filled' before paint. Nissan Shatai didn't bother to pretty up the joint between the rear quarter panels and the lower rear apron (spotwelds nicely visible and always a pleasure to see...) and I can't think of any other points on the body where - all opening panels closed - filling/joint disguising before paint was necessary. If I'm right, those lead-loaded joints are the only cosmetically-enhanced/filled-before-paint joints on the whole car. The 'designed to flex' thing seems like an answer looking for a question.

...and here's a right-hand rear quarter roof/quarter joint with rear quarter panel removed (spotwelds drilled out), blasted and etch-primed: It's a complicated joint - the meeting point of roof outer panel, roof rear crossmember/hatch hinge mount/roof longitudinal rail/rear quarter. Perhaps not surprising that it required lead-loading.

Here's a right-hand front pillar joint without the lead loading (blasted and etch primed). Spotwelds visible:

To digress sightly from the thread's main subject (sorry OP), here's an example of what the cars were going through on rallies: English team Withers Of Winsford entered an ex-Works Fairlady Z-emblemed Datsun 240Z rally car - wearing the personalised UK license plate 'CAL 1' of company owner Mr Cal Withers - in the 1973 TAP Rally of Portugal, driven by hotshoe Englishman Chris Sclater and navigated by Dutch specialist Bob De Jong. The service crew were forced to repair the screen pillar joints - which were parting company - mid-event, assisted by the staff of Portuguese Datsun distributors Entreposto. They took the screen out and either brazed or gas-welded the pillars back together... At that point the car had already taken part in the 1972 Acropolis Rally in Greece and the 1972 RAC Rally in the UK. Perhaps not surprising that the bodyshell was starting to get a little bit 'baggy'...

In my experience, the joints were usually spotwelded. However, I have seen a couple of bodies that had brazed joints (perhaps even spotwelded AND brazed).

The lead-loading is cosmetic. It covers what would otherwise be unsightly joints and is intended to be (slightly) resistant to flexing, but it is not the fixing method of the panels.

This car is a lot better than I initially imagined. Very encouraging!

The dots around ASAHI give you the YEAR of manufacture, and the dots around TEMPERLITE and LAMISAFE give the month.

I've seen the occasional example of user/owner-added single or twin bolts through the baseplate and inner wheelarch. A kind of belt-and-braces approach that certainly would help when the baseplate 'floats' slightly above the inner wheelarch. They could also have been added at the request of scrutineers/safety inspectors. Pretty soon they were mandating welded-in cage mounts for certain race classes and this prompted some car owners to weld in sections of the factory safety bar, like this rough and ready period example:

So sad and sorry to read this. Don't know what to say as reading it back to myself it just sounds trite. Just keep going Mike.

In fact the mount and the captive nuts in the crossmember to which it is affixed date back to the original design of the car, as they were used on the S20-powered Fairlady Z432 and Fairlady Z432-R models and on the factory aircon-equipped Fairlady Z-L model.

Measuring a legitimate, registered, presumably tax-paying business against your own garden shed-based activities is not necessarily a valid comparison. Kyusha House is not a charity. If you don't like the price, don't buy. If you can make your own, do it (I did). When you go into business making them, be sure to give us all a heads-up.