JDMjunkies.ch

You may have realized by now that the project is a bit on hold by now. The reason is i took over a management role in my job, and besides i'm also studying management. Good thing is after some first chaos i've settled in my new position and things are getting calmer and then i have my exams soon, so after that i have finally much more free time (after 2 years of school = home-study in the evenings and school on the weekends). The plan is to jump right back at where the project stopped aroun april 2022 and go full throttle. i really want to complete this build and i have so many nice parts in stock to go on the car. But from time to time you have to treat yourself with some small gimmicks to keep your brain active on the project. The first thing i got was a contactor set, which was for sale NOS locally and cheap. How could i say no? It's kind of funny to see the mitsubishi logo on the genuine Nissan part :-) Also got this nice german book about the Z. It seems to be a quite well researched book compared to most others (in german). They even got the Goertz story right, i ncluding a print of the letter that nissan sent to him about the design: And then got myself a RAL colour chart. Why you might ask? well I'll show you that in a coming update. and NO, the car won't be painted in any of those colors :-)

As far as i know there were several different versions of this toolkit depending on the market and year. I got one very similar toolkit as what i have now with one of my 1972 cars, but unfortunately gave it away with the first chassis without knowing the second one didn't have a toolkit...

A while ago i decided to get myself a complete, original toolkit for the Z, just for completeness sake. In part 1 of the story, i got my first items, but i realized that some of the tools where not from the Z as they where not metric. It's nothing high on my bucket list, but when i see something for sale locally and the price is ok, i try to get it. So this is why i got a few things in front of my door today, all the way from a german 240Z owner. Still have to figure out if all the pieces are really from the 240Z, or maybe one or another item is from another car, but at least it seems to be a step closer to completeness. most of the tools are not in a great optical shape, but that can be handled i guess.. for now i just put them in storage. i have other priorities with the car atm 🙂 So what did i get? Well the scissors jack, wheel nut wrench, two of the wrenches and the red handles. It all needs a bit of cleaning, but i somehow like the original patina and all the original stickers are still there: Oh and since the seller had this for sale too and it was missing on my car, i asked for the Spare-tire mounting kit too. One piece more in the puzzle 🙂

Just for completeness sake: I recently stumbled on this replica made by ColinProject (wheel.co.jp) in japan. if anybody is interested. I don't sell these and i'm not linked to the company. i just wanted to show those whick are interested. It seems close to the original, but especially the fastners seem slightly different. Still might be of interest for some of you.

Well thanks to an input from a datsun group i found an Oil pan i've been searching for for a while. Last time i lost the Auction, but this time i was better prepared, and today it finally showed up at my doorstep: The Promodet L6 Large capacity oil Pan: The manufacturer, Promodet Japan, is still active today, but is a well-known porsche tuner these days. I've seen those oil pans a few times in Japan, but they seem pretty rare. I wonder if anybody has mor information on their S30 / 240Z parts lineup they used to have? Old catalogue pages, advertising, etc anyone? would love to see the cars they used to belong to, and what else they offered. It is made from cast Aluminum and has an additional baffle plate, something that looks like small cooling fins and an additional plug for an Oil temperature sensor. I think the Blue fitting is not the original one, so i will try to find a plug that suits the whole thing better. Also the original drain plug seems pretty worn out. Luckily i have a new Nissan magnetic drain plug, which will go there: Here's a look at the baffle pan on the inside: It has some wear and tear here and there, but still seems to be in quite good shape: And for those wondering: here's a size comparison of the original 240Z oil Pan to the Promodet pan: Thanks to the person who pointed me to the pan!

So a few days ago i was able to pick up the remaining parts from the Big "Barn find lot" The owner had kept three boxes of various fasteners for the 240Z for himself, since he had to assemble his car first. This is what is left over. All nicely cleaned and with a fresh coat of zinc and yellow passivated: The parts are nicely split up into "random fasteners": Metric bolts and self-cutting screws Nuts and shims: So that "sub-project" is now completed as well. Not sure however if those parts really all belong to the 240Z. Some of them don't seem familier.. but that doesn't matter i'm sure they find their place 🙂

Today i visited a Datsun friend and picked up some parts like these rear window rubbers: A used Door mirror (mine came without those) A set of NOS Window insulators: A NOS transmission boot rubber: And a bunch of catalogues. The orange one is a 1972 belgian catgalogue and the other one is a french one. But the on on the top right is the really rare one i car about. It's the very early March 1971 Swiss sales brochure. I have never seen this one (with US-spec car) before. The later one with the red euro spec car is much more common. Inside you find the usual press photos and information. nothing special. On the rear the Monte Carlo rallye 1971 is used to promote the sportiness of the Z. Mind the monte carlo rallye was held only about 6 weeks before this brochure was released. What is also interesting is the paper. It has a texture like the 240Z Vinyl dashboard and has a very exklusive feel. Nice score!

Yeah i know that. they don't seem to be the original ones. still wondering how i got them then? i didn't buy those. Nevertheless. finding a correct set is on the to-do list, but has a low priority 🙂

so that all seems another prove to the トルコ = "torque converter" theory. thanks for the update!

I've got an interesting input from a very knowledged man, who told me these characters where not very inconsistent and maybe just used by a group of assembly-line workers internally, or even a single person to make a note to himself during assembly, or for the next guy in the assembling process. It also appears that the words are often "assembly line slang" and sometimes even abbreviations of actual words. the Above "トルコ" is spelled To-Ru-Ko (or Do-ru-Ko). Google translates it to "turkey" (which makes no sense, but is funny after all). But the input from said man was that it was actually slang abbreviation for "torque converter". The car above beeing a left hand drive car for the US market it was probably originally an Automatic transmission car, so it all may make sense. But you have to be careful. Compared to other written characters, these don't seem to follow any rules or any official procedure, so this all has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The characters could basically mean anything the assembly line worker wanted to note there..

The first character (左) appears to be "Hidari" which means "Left". the second katakana character is "ト" which spells "to", the third one might be "ル" which spells "ru". so it all can be something like "Left Torru 22" or so, but maybe i'm completely wrong here... But what i can say until now is that the additional "A" and "キ" (Ki) Characters seem to appear on both European and American glove boxes.

As an additional information, i found this picture of an US-spec glovebox liner. which hahs the same "Ki" Katakana character written on it, but now country destinatino written on it. So that additional c haracter has obviously nothing to do with the countrly the car was assigned for delivery. I guess it has something to do with the assembly procedure or equipment variant of the car...

Thanks a lot. Meanwhile i figured out the one after the "swiss" tag in the second picture is a Katakana pronoundced "Ah" or something like that? Not sure what the purpose of this all was, though...

Lately i've started collecting the tools for a complete Toolkit for the Z: Which includes this packing slip, from a genuine swiss Z: You can see there are still quite some things missing. but at least i got some of the nissan branded tools already, like the wrenches: The wheel stopper set: Spare lug nuts (not sure if they're part of the toolkit. I've seen it listed in a later version of the above toolkit slip. But they're nice to have anyway! And the original tookit bag. Whit is missing currently are the scissor jack, the lug nut wrench, and at least a pliers and one screwdriver from the toolkit bag. I know you can still buy them new, but if possible id'like to source things locally with the right patina, whenever i come along it. At least i've started to collect things now 🙂

@Av8ferg Thanks for your input. I already knew that ス イ ス means "swiss", written in katakana. Which means the Car was made for the swiss market. What i'm wondeirng about are the other two characters, once left to the ス イ ス and once right to the ス イ ス. First of all what the characters mean, and then the reason for what they wrote it t here...

Hi there. Both me and my friend have a genuine swiss-market 240Z. As @HS30-H pointed out in the past, the three japanese katakana characters ス イ ス on the glove-box liner stand for "su-i-su" and mean these two cars where destined for the swiss market (suisse) What i'm wondering now are the Characaters next to the "swiss" tag: I have some kind of "F" or "P" in a circle left of the swiss mark My friend has a something like an "A" right of the swiss mark. Since it was written there for a certain purpose during assembly or after, i guess it has either to do something with the equipment variant (colours maybe?) or the destination too. But google translate attempts didn't bringe to any usable solution. Does anybody in here know more or have other ideas? Thanks in Advance!

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is for sale - Do not ask me, thanks! What qualifies something as a "barn find" has been discussed previously. But nevertheless, i found these parts covered in dust in an old shed. They were not exactly "forgotten about", but stored there in many years. The story behind them unfortunately includes a bit of human tragedy. After many years, i was the lucky one to buy the whole lot. Well sort of. Since i'm not exactly a hoarder and did not want to have many more parts of those i already own, i made an agreement with a Friend who basically bought the whole lot and i was the one to handle it. In return i got some rare, free and much-needed parts from the lot. So let's start: A while ago i learned from a nice gentleman and z-owner who had some small parts for sale. After some first talks, it turned out we had the same interests, and then he told me about what he had in storage - and it was much more than i had expected. Since his z-restauration is completed now, he doesn't need the parts anymore and was willing to sell them. Talk about good timing! After some first parts viewing, assessment, calculations and negotiation with all of the stakeholders, i was able to make a deal. This is the little shed in some swiss countryside.... Most of the parts where stored in the upper level and only accessible via an unstdeady ladder. But hey - who cares if there are NOS genuine datsun parts? I was initially only interested in the sheetmetal parts, mostly the datsun original parts. But they were only for sale as a lot. Well and then we agreed on buying the whole parts Lot including all the used and aftermarket parts too, so he could clear out the whole stock at once. Last weekend, i was finally able to pick up the parts. First we had to get everything down from the roof-level and outside. And then put it all into two transporter-cars and an additional trailer: So the last days i spent in my garage sorting through all the parts. I made three piles. Left is used original Parts, Center are aftermarket parts and right are NOS genuine Datsun / Nissan parts. On the wall to the right you can see some additional big items... Which includes some funky window louvres, a used hatch glass and a new aftermarket Windshield: Additionally a set of Doors, hood and hatch from a donor-car: The "holy grail" is definitive the NOS parts lot which includes air-channels, complete front inner fenders, a set of front valances, frame-rails, hubcaps, weather strip, trim pieces and many small bits. These are some of the parts that will end up on my build, if required. I've been looking for those for many years now, so i'm quite happy i finally found them! The used parts lot included everything from an uncracked dashboard to original steelies, radiator frame, Headlight covers, an A-type 5-speed transmission, Euro-spec front spoiler, Euro turn signals and much, much more... The aftermarket-lot included a lot of older, but unused parts from all kind of sources. A complete Hood, 3 front fenders, inner and outer rocker panels, rear lower corners, door repair panels, rear arch repair panels, a set of vintage Koni dampers, Aisin-seiki clutch cover, brake shoes and much more... It has been an exhausting but also very fun and satisfying journey to get all those parts. They're now safely in storage and will end up on some pretty nice restauration projects, which deserve such nice parts! So again, none of the parts are for sale. All of them have either been sold already or are for my own build. Sorry..

Lately i've been purchasing a lot of stuff for the project and related documents and automobilia. Just when i got additionally offered a complete lot of documents from a big collector. Due to covid related delays, the different orders from several weeks and months ended up arriving at my place all within a few days... If you look at the picture below, quite a lot of stuff! Some things just came with the lots, and i will not keep them, even if nice stuff though. Nevertheless, here's what was in my mail yesterday. In the next part of the story, i will show you a huge pile (two cars and a trailer full) of nice parts i picked up yesterday from an old barn... So what was is all that? First a bunch of swiss Datsun memorabilia: including a vintage swiss datsun plastic bag, sales window cards, spare-parts bag, patches, a beer coaster, folders, matchstick boxes, etc... One of the coolest parts here is definitely the 1971 Geneva International Motor show press release folder, including the 240Z and information about the Z beeing shown at their booth. But what is even cooler. The press release states you can order Lithographic master plates from Datsun (Suisse) SA, for your own catalogue production, and it came with one of those lithography master plates. With exactly the same picture as shown in the press release and which is also used in some of the official swiss Z-documentation: Then i found another press release. This time from 1972, about the introduction of the 240Z in switzerland: From germany, i got a set of service manuals and a parts catalogue, which somehow seem to be photocopies of original ones. Not sure exactly who made those, since they're quite good quality and have an "official" feel to them. Maybe Datsun / Nissan germany replicated them themselves? I collected also a bunch of magazines, which include stories of interesting cars that are not your standard Z-car tests: An original swiss 240Z magazine ad (also seen in other countries with the same picture, but different text) Various random Datsun and Z-related magazine tests: A bunch of vintage Z and ZX related parts catalogues (Some of the companies do not exist anymore, or have different names now...) A set of japanese S30 and L-series related Mooks (Magazine books) Including this nice Nostalgic speed motor calendar (Sorry for the blurry photo) A bunch of key holders. Not sure if any of these where officially released by nissan or if all of them are 3rd party stuff. various stickers Sew-on patches and a little C110 Skyline Kenmeri Diecast car: Various User manuals, dealer list and empty document folders from the austrian datsun Import company (which does not exist anymore): Various apparel and a Datsun banner: Japanese nissan chronicles and history books: Which seem very informative, but still have to go through them: The japanese fold-out sales brochure for the Fairlady Z: Some new (re-issued) Tomei vintage stickers: A japanese Fairlady Z Parts catalogue: Random parts and bits for my project: And the cooles part: The "Breadbox" triple mikuni Airboxes, which where used on some of the works rallye cars, and where also optional "competition" equipment. The ones i got are japanese MS Kubo replicas with slightly different locking mechanism. Original ones are rare to find and expensive. And since i'm not even sure if i can install them here street-legally, i decided not to go too crazy about finding original ones. But then i still liked them so much, i had to have them. Here's a picture of the competition parts catalogue, listing the original ones: Stay tuned for the next part of the story, which includes a Barn and loads of stuff. but now i need to sort through all the parts first and take nice pictures 🙂

Yesterday the post officer brought a nice little package to my door: It contains a brand new (NOS) L6 Camshaft for the E88 Head. It is used widely in many L-series cars from what i understoud, but i still have to research all the details. It was for sale not far away and the price was ok, so i thought myself i better secure it... I love the beautiful wrapping with the Nissan wrapping paper, etc... It came with a (separetely sold) Set of Cam oiler blockoff plates and bolts for older externally oiled cams. I still have to check if i need those... It also came with a "Cam bracket machining procedure when replacing with new cam shaft" Manual: Here you see the typical "A" marking: I have a lot of parts on the way, but due to Covid, everytihng is pretty delayed...

I might be wrong, but i strongly believe the Square chrome mirrors are actually the standard door mirrors that where installed at the location of the japanese fender mirror. If by accident or not i do not know, but given the fact (what i've been told) that the cars where shipped without mirrors installed (to prevent damage to them), the importeurs might have installed them in strange locations on early cars without knowing where they should have been installed... In switzerland you often only see one door mirror installed and an elderly z-owner i talked to lately told me he once visited all the local datsun dealerships and collected a full bucket of passenger side mirrors that where never installed on customer cars. By law you do not need door mirrors / fender mirrors here as long as you have the inner mirror installed and as long as you have an uninterrupted view through the hatch glass

Thanks for the pictures.. It seems like it was one pre-production demo car that was shown around to the press and at the shows which had a few things that didn't make it into production... Regarding the "brussels car" i've seen another picture of it and wanted to show it here as soon as the other topic is closed. I think it has the door mirrors installed at where the japanese fender mirrors are. As far as i know the cars where shipped without themirrors installed (to prevent damage?) and the mirrors where then installed once they arrived at their destination country distributor. I could think that it was one of the first cars and the guys in belgium just installed the mirrors where the previously shown japanese cars had them on a mistake, since they're the mirrors that where most probalby thought to be door mirrors. but i might be wrong here. just guessing, since a knowledged elderly guy just recently told me the mirrors where not installed during shipment...

@240260280: Maybe my post was a bit misleading. The blanked frond lower corner valances and the Top blinkers are not the question here - these were normal on european 240Z's and both my cars came with a similar setup. I think the reason was that european cars had to have a minimum mounting height of blinkers and those that where standard equipment for the non-european markets where too low - so they came up with this solution. The big questions regarding my pictures are: - The car shows an european spec car, but with fender mirrors. and it appears to be some kind of an official show car - which is strange. european cars never had the fender mirrors - The car has some weird fender-top mount blinkers or indicators which never made it on any production cars as far as i know So the overall question is what this special (prototype?) car was about and when / where it was shown in the picture?

Can anybody tell me something about this car or where it was shown?? I found it in an Car related archive. All information was that ithe picture shows a Datsun 240Z from 1971. It looks like it was displayed at a booth at some car show, but honestly i have no clue where or when exactly. To me it looks like a prototype car or something similar. I don't think this weird combination of parts ever made it into production - It appears to be an early Euro spec car (LHD, no rear side markers, but additional blinkers in the front grille) - No "Euro" front spoiler - Fender mirrors - Additional Lights (Blinkers?) on top of the Fenders (i think i've only seen a picture of those once, before) - The "Datsun" sign in the back is a hint that it was shown at an export market show and not in Japan. Picture © www.zwischengas.com (All Automobil-Revue Catalogues can be checked out online on zwischengas.com)

Thanks to Covid-related home-office and the fact i save an hour of driving from and to my office everyday, it seems like i have too much free time to search for Datsun related stuff... Therefore i've collected a lot of cool documents lately. The first delivery consists of a lot of Colour sample charts, many marked as "For europe" unfortunately not Z-related, but the came for free with the rest and they're cool nontheless... Then i've got the L6 service Manual in German, which might come in handy for me, since it's my native language... That "Technical Training" Paper folder contains an empty Sample of a warranty report (from one dealership workshop to the Datsun switzerland headquarter) and a manual how to fill it correctly, as well as a few examples (most probably from a training at the swiss Distribution center): Also got this 1972 swiss service warranty booklet. I really like the style of it. Every service you rip out the page and cross all the jobs done, but on the small leftovers theres a stamp and a signature of the workshop who did it. One of the big green folders was empty, but three of them consist various technical bulletins for various cars in german / french, issued by Datsun Suisse SA / FMG. Written with a typewriter and nicely duplicated. Two are from the early seventies and include information for the 240Z. One is from the 80ies.. The fifth folder is a Warranty Flatrate time folder, which lists various warranty flatrate times and Warranty codes for the different cars including the 240Z and C10. It is required to fill the above mentioned warranty report. I usually don't collect stuff from other countries, but these American "Datsun News" Magazines from 1971 to 1974 were for sale for a nice lot-price, so i had to secure them. The december 1971 christmas special issue has a nice comic of with the 240Z: And a letter from "Mr. K" One issue shows a few pages of a japanese factory tour made with american dealers in 1973: Another one nicely shows how Datsun USA was organized back then. including the 10 (!) Car carrier ships that nissan used to operate back then: Then i got another few documents. which included a few catalogs (they came with the pricelists i've posted earlier on my blog already) But what is nice here is the 2002 Nissan Motorsports competition parts catalog (USA): The German book About the history of Nissan. (check the picture at the bottem left, how they used to load cars on the boat with ropes, before they had their own vessels...!) And probably the rarest document (also not Z-related): An 1969 Datsun Switzerland press release folder, issued for the Geneva International Motor Show 1969, including price lists, car descriptions and instructions how to get a Press car for testing... I have a few projects in the pipeline and I'm awaiting results soon, also awaiting a delivery with Parts and more Documents fom Japan, but thanks to Covid, everything is a bit delayed now. Looking forward to big news over the next weeks / months...

Today i got the delivery from the guys at Sandstrahlen-plus.ch which i can really recommend if you're in switzerland... They had my complete chassis blasted (except the roof and a few areas i will replace anyway) and primered. The job is very nice if you ask me and it looks so much better with all the car in one colour, rather than twelve different layers of primer, bondo, paint, rust protection, etc.. in various states... Remember, this is how it looked a few weeks ago... Luckily the process didnt' reveal any new problems, only the bad repairs of yesteryear and the rusty spots i already new and have replacement panels for... $ I also made this little "unboxing" gif whlie unwrapping the car and thought it was fun to share...