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This week has been the most busy one car-wise in a while Well. I guess that's good?! Thist itme i've cleaned the ignition switches again thoroughly and assembled them back. Tried to keep the original patina but clean it. And made sure all the contacts are fine. Then installed one of them directly to the previously finnished steering column: Really fun to start putting completed parts together to even bigger completed parts Had the covering ring cleaned, since the old paint wasn't nice anymore: Resprayed it with some rattle-can car-paint in flat black and had it drying under the lamp for a day: And then put it back to the switch: And then got a package from Poland. Have to Thank Jakub Nurzaj a lot for his support and digging in some old stock to find me this US-Spec Corner valance with the factory cutout for the american turn signals. Cheers mate for the great service! Also thanks for the free datsun europe stickers! So now i have another shipment ready to get rust and paint removed at the alcohol dipping company. Body-parts are now officially complete. Hope i can push my bodyshop to hurry up a bit with the chassis... Progress is awfully slow at the moment...

My delfir Chips are made from ceramic and not plastic and so far they've lasted quite good. had the machine rattling for more than a week non-stop now! I guess "Delfir" is a brand Name by the swiss manufacturer, see here: http://www.polyservice.ch/Keramik_Deutsch_02.09.pdf they also sell small Batches, thats why i Chose These..

Those green ceramic pyramids (the abrasives) as seen in the Picture below. These Shakers / tumblers are basically meant to polish small and nice Stones, but if you change the abrasives you can also clean metalparts with them: I think i made a post about how it works in this threads a few years ago when i bought the machine and made some tests. I used said delfir Chips and worked out nice. Just be aware that these Chips won't be able to clean inside the bolts threads or inside small Corners or so. But In my case that's ok.

Found them on Ebay of all Things I Initially bought it to remove paint from bolts and stuff. That didn't work out well. Paint seems to hard to remove and needs blasting or paint-stripper. Then switched to the Delfir-chips which worked really well to remove dust, grease and rust from small parts. Also had to figure out that a 4:1 mix of Chips to water (with a few drops of dishwashing-soap) doesn't create too much of a foam or mess, but works well enough to remove the grease and so on. and last but not least i figured out that you need approx 12hours for all parts until they're mostly clean. If you prepare the very rusty parts with a wire-wheel brush the results get even better.

Was quite busy this week with the Z's small projects that have been going on. I've been cleaning and exchanging the partsi n my tumbler almost daily and today i finally had them completed: Now all is packed up and ready for zinc re-plating and yellow passivating. Which means i have to wait for the parts for approximately one week before i can continue. Pretty happy with the result by the way. The Tumbler was well invested money. just took me some years to figure out how to use it properly During preparation process i also fixed some parts which where slightly worn out. Like this one. Before: Straightening it out in the little vice: and After. Much better Oh and then got some new parts, like the replacement repair-lamp bulb cover. I know it's not 100% the OEM colour, but it looks pretty good. still might try to clean the original one. Oh and some new door switches by the original manufacturer: And greased and packed all my brake-stuff to prevent them from rusting. Oh and started disassembly and cleaning of the ignition switches: Next step: Ordering some parts (will do that in a minute) and then complete some other bits next week.

While i can't show you much, i've been busy lately completeing a lot of stuff i've started but never really finnished. 1) Thanks to the input of some readers i was finally able to remove the last cylinder from the brake caliper. The solution was easy. install the allready-removed cylinder again and fix it with a c-clamp. add some air-pressure again to the brake-fluid channels and it would pop out easily (It doesnt look like the cylinder is aligned properly but i fixed that) Since sunday my Rattler / Vibrator / Tumbler / Spirator / Whatever you call it, has been working in full force to remove all the rust / Paint / Dirt and grease from all the parts i will send for re-plating. It's maybe not the fastest solution but it comes out quite handy and you don't have to do anything except of waiting Guess it will take another week or so until all the parts are ready andsome of them even might need a bit of manual cleaning, but the first bunch of parts are allready looking shiny and have a super-smooth surface Then i got some new (used) turn signal switches from my mate Patrick (Thanks for that!) to complete that job too. That's it for now hope for more updates again soon

Carefully hammering the piston deeper into the calipers using a wooden hammer was easy, but it won't come out anymore. Anyhow. i will try again later with some of the inputs mentioned before

Thanks for the input guys. I never got the idea to re-install the other piston and use a c-clamp. Will try that first with air (after having soaked it in rust-removal oil for another night or so) and see if it works. I guess the grease-pump is the next thing if it doesn't work. but it will mess up all the air-channels then. I know it's cleaneable but still another step to take. so i'll try it with air first. Thanks a lot. really appreciate your knowledge

Spent some more time disassembling parts to get them ready for zinc-replating. Thought while at it, i could take the brake-parts for a replating as well. So i started with the disassembly of my Sumitomo MK63 Solid disk type Ex-works type calipers: First got the old pads and shims removed. still looking quite good to be honest: Then spent an hour or so at the garage and disassembled the rest of the calipers. With the help of my trusty little air-compressor and some redneck-skills i managed to get 7/8 cylinders out of the calipers without any damage to me, tools or the calipers. However the last sucker doesn't want to come out. Even brought it to a local garage and he used a torch to heat it up but wasn't able to remove it. we'll see how i can do that. Any inputs? Otherwise i'll try another two days having it soaked in WD40, and if that doesn't work i'll bring it to a machine shop or so... Otherwise i was quite successfull, the brakes are in great condition and by the way even learned a lot about brakes (first time working on some brakes so that was quite some fun). After that i took all the bits from the brakes plus some other i found in my garage and put them in the "re-plating box". Still need to clean all of this stuff for a few hours before i can send it there (they prefer old rust, grease, rubber-leftovers and paint to be removed. Hope i find some time again soon..

Had a bit of spare-time today and decided it's time to get some stuff done for the car once again. Wanted to have some parts replated (yellow zinc) so i grabbed everything that seemed to be worth replating. Here are all the small transmission parst that will go for replating (not all of them) And than i found some other stuff that had to be disassembled first like the side marker / Turn signal lights: Engine compartment repair light (Early version with the toggle type switch). before: After ( I cut the wires since i will replaced them with new cables. the old ones are quite brittly and Nissan had a person with bad soldeirng skills for their soldeirng work *lol*): Then the hood stay / lock mechanics: So here are all the parts ready for replating. Still need to remove old paint (will do that tomorrow) before sending them. In case if you wonder how i remember where all the parts belong - What you see on this blog is actually just a small fraction of the pictures i make. I like to make all kind of "exploded view" shots like the ones above to remember the order they came in (FSM is wrong sometimes, or a bit unclear). And i also mark my pictures as seen here. When the parts return i will put them in the boxes again which belong to each part of the car

Nothing big here. just spent two hours cleaning all the transmission parts after the glass bead blasting. Removed some leftovers from the masking tape and blew away all the leftovers from the blasting from all the small corners, etc. Since i forgot my cam at home you only get some crappy mobile-phone shots: When done i started going through the small parts and decided i could clean them too. so the trusty green scotch-n-brite came in handy again to clean all the small pieces: Then decided to make a little test-assembly with the new PU shifter bushings (red), since the old ones were quite worn-out (black): This is how it all goes together: And this is the result. quite happy. Will remove it all again, grease the rubber with some bushing-grease from the energy-bushings kit and have the washers and nuts zinc-plated alongside all the other nuts and bolts from the transmission before the final assembly:

In my last post, i wrote about the fact that the transmission looked wrong after the "glass bead blasting". Many readers pointed out it seems to have been just sandblasted. I contacted the blasting company again and asked what happened. He excused himself a hundred times and told me that his guy somhow missunderstoud somthing and that it was only blasted. but not sand blasted as you thought, but blasted with "broken glass". this is softer and won't attack the surface of the Aluminum. It's less corrosive than regular silicat-sand used for blasting. At least that was good news. He promised me to immediately fix that. Today i was able to pick it up again: They glass-bead blasted everything and the surface now looks and feels a lot smoother and got this slight "satin gloss" finish. just as it should be. The sense of Glass bead blasting is to improve the surface density of aluminium. Like that it's much stronger and will keep the appearance for a longer time when used unpainted in a car. While it doesn't have the super-glossy OEM-like finish it's what i was aiming for. I got told for the glossy finish it should be soda/vapour/fluid blasted. But for me it's perfect as it is. it's not going to be a concours build anyway and it seems much fresher again. Also they clearcoated the cast-iron bits as promised, to protect it from corrosion: This is how the gear selector looks after the protective tape was removed. Still needs a bit of cleaning though but looks perfect. just as i wanted it Super happy with the result. and while it took me a few extra hours to bring it back again and pick it up. the good thing is they felt so sorry that the extra-work was for free. They only charged me for the first part of the work. which is awesome and came out on a budget

thanks for thie input.. already heard about it. but so far only got recommanded glass bead blasting, as it would improve the surface density of aluminum.. But the vapour/hydro does clearly look more like OEM finish...

Last week i brought my transmission housing parts and some smaller bits to the local blasting company. The guy made a serious appearance and explained how Aluminum parts like these normally will be treated with class-triangles to break-up old paint and remove it. and then treated with glass-beads (pearls) to increase the surface density. He even told me he's gonna paint the cast-iron parts with a clearcoat to prevent it from rust... This is how it looked before: Clearly old silver paint peeling off is visible: Today i picked it up. and the first thing i noticed how "raw" and rough everything looked. It reminded me of sandblasted items. Sand-blasting is corrosive and will remove small spots in the surface of aluminum (like the transmission part) and give it a rough feel. While the aluminum is thick enough to handle it, it just doesn't look as smooth as a factory-fresh unpainted transmission should look in my opinion: But since i don't have a lot of experience, i returned home. What made me even more curious was the fact that sand came out of various spots of the transmission. Its clearly not glass-bead, nor is it any other glassy. I guess this is the "sand" they use for sand-blasting.. The guy even told me how hard it was to remove the paint from the previous owner. so i guess they switched to sand at some point. While i'm all fine with that, i guess they didn't glass-bead blast if after that. Somehow it gets a bit more shiny / glossy after glassbead-treatment and this sure looks like just sandblasted to me. Also the cast-iron small pieces didn't get the promised clearcoat... Not sure yet. Don't want to blamy anybody and it would clearly do the job. but i want to have it perfect. Either i bring it back or i bring it to another company to have it checked and re-done... have to think about it. Or maybe it's just me and the "gloss" will come back once it's slightly corroded? not sure...

In my last post about the 240Z you could easy see how the gear selector was worn out and had some concave marks where the balls meet the selector. Since it's a Cast iron item it's a bit tricky to weld. And if you've been following me for a while you know there's only one superhero for me when it comes to metal and welding: My buddy Stefan Schär - who own's an awesome little collection of beautiful Nissan's and Datsun's by the way - So i sent him that thing to fix it: Before (Clearly some "holes" visible): After some pre-treatment and cleaning the holes got welded up: and then ground back to originale flatness: Surface is way smoother than it was from factory. Now those shifts should be direct as New again. Maybe even better Next it's going off to Glass-bead blasting, then the transmission is ready for assembly again For Stefan, he opened up his own business "Cagedude" lately, specializing in rollcages, but doin' basically anything that involves some metal and welding (and cars maybe) Check out his facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/cagedude/ for some examples. His stuff is really work of art, and i have the highest praises for all the stuff he's done for me so far. And he's a super nice guy too, with a lovely little family. Check it out and support Stefan / Cagedude, you won't regret it

Today finally some progress on the Z from my side as well After removing the Breather vent: I had serious trouble to get out the speedo pinion carrier from the transmission. Thanks to my close friend Stefan and some brute force, it finally gave up and came out nicely: He also managed to move the "tube" that holds the gear selector in place, intwards the transmissino housing: So i was able to remove the gear selector. It's currently at my other buddy Stefan for some rework (more on that soon) After i finally have disassembled the transmission as far as i want to go myself, i had to make an "exploded" view shot, just for fun's sake Next step was masking the transmission housing parts with duct tape for glass-bead-blasting and to prevent glass beads ending up in the transmission.. The previous owner once decided to paint it all in silver, but i will get rid of the peeling-off paint again and have it back in all it's original aluminum glory. Now only waiting for that one part back from rework, then will have it all blasted. All the other parts are ready

Today is a short update with a single pic, but a big Impact on the overall appearance of the car: The RH Tabco rear quarter panel is welded in place. I guess there is still a lot of work to make the fitment perfect and all, but at least there isn't a big hole anymore

It has been a while, since i updated the 240Z project here. It's not dead at all, i'm just super busy with some once-in-a-lifetime projects that have to be adressed first. I was a bit bummed that my bodyshop guy was so busy as well and couldn't work on it either. However yesterday and today i got some updates totally unexpected and was more than happy 1) Tabco rear inner wheel well was finally welded in and painted in some protective paint: The wheel arches are coming along nicely... Todays update contained the rear lower piece of the RH side lower door sill area. Before: After: Let's see what's up next

Nothing big, but at the recent Japanclassic.ch show i met my buddy Stefan who had a little gift for me: A NOS Air filter complete with factory boxing. I love this kind of stuff and another piece in the puzzle

While i consider the 240Z quite a common classic (compared to other cars) around the world, it can get hard to find good quality spare-parts - especially for the parts that where installed in markets outside america only. As it is the case with the 5-speed transmission (only optional and rare in the USA). And then even more specially in the case of the early FS5C71A transmission, which i happen to have. This means a lot of reasearch and sometimes going to the other side of the world and as far as Australia to find some quality parts. In this case i have to thank the guys at www.SWMotorsport.com.au for providing me with the right parts for my Transmission. Today i finally got a delivery of: - Bearing kit - Front Seal - Rear Seal - 1x Front & 2x Center gaskets - Gear lever Pin & Clip - Roll Pin - Speedo drive Seal - Striker shaft seal And all for a decent price and fast shippin too! Thank you so much for the great service. Nice to still have those small shops able to provide the market with the stuff we need

One of t hose lucky days again where i get several deliveries at the same time One was an Ebay buy, A NOS Transmission breather vent: The second one was a New Speedo pinion Gear, which was available through Nissan Japan: Then, thanks to some tips of nice people in the community, i was able to purchase these Rear quarter panels. I promised to not tell the source. It's a Last stock and one of the people that gave me the tip wants to buy the rest of the stock and sell it. I have the feeling they are better than the tabco ones. with sharper edges. When i have time i will make a direct comparison between tabco and these. Big thanks to the people who supported me with buying these.

Nothing big here, just got another missing Piece of the transmission puzzle today: The speedo pinion gear sleeve assembly:

Here we go Got another parts delivery from the land of the rising sun. All needed transmission parts which were still available in Japan: Seals: Rear hub: Front seal gasket: Then a friend of mine asked me to help him import some Nagisa Auto motor sports Part for his 240Z: Front adjustable tierod end-links: And adjustable Doglegs. Really beautiful parts. seems like they changed their annodizing procedure, sinec the parts i have have a different colour. anyhow. Nice pieces. The Colour is more gunmetal in reality. the white-balance on my cam was a bit off...

Yeah, a few weeks ago i was browsing the internet for some usable parts for my transmission restauration when i found this ebay seller from Thailand. Usually i'm not a big fan of Cheap Asian stuff. Only real deal Japanese OEM or Aftermarket. However when i found these parts and they seemed to be either Japanese-made or high-quality but for a good price, i thought i'd give it a go. so here's what i got: Transmission / Clutch fork rubber boot. Made by Thailand company Turtlerubber / SPI-Goodrubber: Firewall grommet. Unknown brand, but i assume the same as above: Niles (Japan) Reverse light switch. Niles is the original Supplier of nissan so i guess it's an Original part: Unknown brand Speedo cable: Unknown brand Side marker (front) lamps: DENSO (japan) Horn's, 66dB: New-Era (Japan, Aftermarket supplier) Voltage regulator: Not sure how all the parts fit and if they will end up in the car, but they were cheap and looked nice so i thought i buy them in a package deal. Looking good so far More parts coming soon

Dear readers, sorry for the lack of updates during the last weeks. I was very busy with some other big things, one of them beeing marrying my wife Yesterday i got back to work in the garage. while it's still freezing cold outside i got some stuff done on the transmission. I found a local glass-bead blasting company and i'm preparing the transmission to be blasted soon. So i had to remove all bits and pieces: Shifter lever Bracket removed: Removed the shifter bushings from the brackets and had all laid-out: Removed the control arm springs and "plugs" Tried to remove this plug, but after trying hard and not beoing able to get it out, decided to leave it there for blasting Removed the oil filler plug And the speedo sensor (still in place here): Still need to figure out how to remove the speedo sensor complete, the plastic vents and then i'm ready to get it blasted