daddz

One day I hope to do the same as you have done and ship a RHD Z out of Japan. Must be very exciting! Perhaps they would like a LHD Z to return to Japan? :-)

Jim, It's true in regards to your comment about buying Nissan parts. If there is a continuous demand for parts they will keep them in production. Last month I ordered 6 boxes of 10 count dash light bulbs (very tiny instrument bulbs) and I ended up with 62 or 63 bulbs but the parts counter guy was telling me to look at the boxes as they were snatched from very corner of the country. A friend of mine had ordered two boxes the day before I placed my order. My boxes were from Ca., Tx., N.Y., and Portsmouth, Va. The same holds true for the 280Z fusible link covers; I usually ask how many they have in stock and I clear them out. Other times I have found that if you want to keep a part in production order more than 10. This is tough to do in regards to fenders but if enough of us keep a steady flow of orders the whole community is better off in the end.

Chris, Speaking of original paperwork, Mike McGinnis has a faithful copy of the original build sheet for a 240Z which is very interesting to look at. Although it is more a build card than a sheet since it occupies less than 5" by 7" worth of space. It is unfortunate that most of the time when the car's were PDI'd that material was thrown away! When I took delivery of the 350Z they asked if I wanted to keep that as well as some of the shipping manifest papers and you know my answer to that question. Some of the other owners that were ahead of me that night simply had the porter remove the sticker and toss it in the trash can!

Richard, I forgot to ask a favor for when you actually get the new Zed home. If you could remove the driver's side (in your RHD case) plastic cover in the luggage area and look at the back side of it paying special attention to a stamped number. This number should be the production date of your Zed in the Showa period. For example, in my case that plastic panel (LHD) is on the passenger side and for left hookers the panel covers the temporary spare and its attendant hardware. Recently, I pulled the panel from my car for general purpose and on the back side of the panel was stamped : 56.4.28--this number converted equates to April 28,1981 (the Showa period in Japan begins in 1925 thus, if you add 56 to 25 you get 81) which concides with the door jamb tag of 04/81. The RHD cars probably will not have the door jamb tag and so in its place this date on the back of that panel might help to date code your Zed.

This may or may not help with your question but here goes: The no power steering "option" was in fact available worldwide until 1981. After 1981 the 280ZX's were not available without power steering. Most of the time you can spot a non power steering equipped car (in stock trim) by noting the presence hubcaps over steel wheels. The 280ZX hubcap features a hexagonal shape in the center of the cap. Another way to tell is if the car is lacking a rear window wiper assembly. Another way to spot (assuming stock condition) is by noting the type of seat installed by the factory. If it's a high back bucket similar to the S30 then the 280ZX you're looking at has the power steering delete. Lastly, if the 280ZX you're looking at has t-tops then it would have power steering. In the case of my '81 280ZX (see pic) it also has a different style of side moulding that is beveled like the overseas market models. My ZX has the all black interior, high back bucket seats, rear window delete, analog style AM/FM radio, manual windows, and is missing the 10 function check display along with power steering delete.

I think the fellow is looking to give the paperwork to the owner as was stated in the original email.

I don't know how I missed that auction. Those are in the same town as my parents' house. I am sure they wouldn't mind at least one more old Z car being stored there?

Chris, Your telling on yourself now! At least you were driving an RWA (round wheel arch) Midget which is much prettier than the square wheel arched Midgets. Apparently, the body structure was deemed more crash resitant with the square wheel arch and it made its ugly return to finish out the series. I think they really became horrible when the rubber bumpers were affixed to the body shell much the same way that the 280Z ended up. Funny thing is I now kind of appreciate their ugliness. A friend of mine and I have acompetition going to see who kind find the ugliest Datsun (L-series powered) and we hit a new high (low) point last week when a 610 wagon was for sale on ebay but I digress.

My 08/70 has the newer type of mirror without the red dot however, zpizzaman has not one but three '69 production date 240Z's and all three of his are equipped with the 'red dot' mirror.

I hate to compose this message but 240ztt and I have decided to let this project go and there is a laundry list of stuff that has been done to this car over the past year and a half. If anyone is serious please contact 240ztt or myself and I will be sure to pass on the message. 240ztt has a new toy in addition to the 240ztt and my neverending schedule which is comprised mostly of full time college this poor 810 would end up sitting and that is not fair to the car. In any case both front fenders have been pulled and one of them was replaced with a new factory Nissan piece sourced from oem-surplus and both were coated with POR-15. The pedal set has already been installed and the car is still very much drivable. A new Nissan center console was also sourced from the same place and it includes a new shift boot. The suspension has been improved upon with a set of Bilstein struts and Quickor springs in the rear and shortened factory springs and Koni's up front. Also being thrown in are a new Nissan battery and an ATK L28E (N42 bottom end and N42 cylinder head) engine with approximately 40k miles on it which was pulled from one of my former 280ZX 2+2's. I should have a more thorough write up of the car by tomorrow in case anyone is interested.

I can't decide which is worse this 'car' or the other one that was on ebay that seemed to be an early 280Z with a 240Z rear end grafted onto it. The shame is that car eventually sold on ebay for about $3,000 USD! Horrible.

I have been interested in this topic of date coding the Z car ever since 'kats' began a thread a while ago covering this topic with regard to the early S30's. Since I am plagued by multigenerational Z car disease/ownership I have attempted to date code some of the later model Z cars. Nissan has made the job a bit more simple since 1984 with the advent of Nissan Service Comm which is a database that is accessible by any Nissan parts counter or service counter employee. After inputting a VIN# a printout can be had which will give you the exact date of manufacture (i.e. 01/23/86 in the case of my '86 300ZX), the retail selling date, the pre-delivery inspection date(PDI), the selling dealer's name and address, and any warranty work that has been carried out. With regard to the S130 (280ZX) since they were sold from '79 to '83 those cars fall within an area where not much can be learned unless you have original documentation from when the car was new. In any case the other day I decided to pull the rear panel which covers the spare tire and related items (in a S130 this is in the rear luggage area on the same side as the fuel filler cap) in order to perform a slight restoration of the panel. In my case some previous owner decided to staple the plastic trim to the top of the panel instead of glueing it back in place. When I turned the panel over on the table to begin work I noticed two sets of numbers on the back of the panel. The first set of numbers was in red and doesn't appear to be a part number. The other number appeared like this: 56.4.28---having been enlightened by 'HS30-H' and others this date is in the Showa format. The Showa period beginning in 1925. In order to convert you simply add the '56' in this case to the base year of 25 and you get 81. It can be noted that this phase of the assembly of the S130 tookplace on or about April 28,1981 which corresponds to the '04/81' stamped on the driver's side doorjamb tag. It is my assumption that the car was rolling down the aseembly line on April 28,1981 and shortly thereafter began its trip from Homakku Wharf to the United States. Apparently it did not take long to reach the U.S.A. as the car was purchased on 8 June 1981 from San Diego Datsun. Another was found when I bought an owner's manual off of ebay a few years ago for my old '82 280ZX. Enclosed within that manual was an old punchcard with mostly kanji characters and some old dot matrix type print along the top edge of the card denoting the VIN#, engine #, and the internal product code that Nissan explains in the beginning of most of the factory shop manuals. I would guess this to be the equivalent to our 'buildsheet' and hope to get this piece translated soon. As a sidebar I have seen an early 'buildsheet' at Banzai Motorworks that is on display courtesy of a customer that brought a 240Z in for some service ahile ago and it looks similar to the one I found in the '82 owner's manual. When questioned about this card a mechanic friend of mine who used to work at a Datsun dealer from '75 to '92 stated that there was usually a small box in the car which had the hubcaps and other info. such as this card and after the PDI was performed the box was usually discarded. Unfortunately the build sheet was usually thrown away.

The only problem with nissanparts.cc is that once you make contact and actually begin the process of paying for and ordering the part they usually come back with it being NLA (no longer available); I mainly use that website to verify a correct part number. This may sound funny but I have had good luck with the local NAPA lately when trying to obtain a fuel pump relay that was NLA from Nissan. The cool thing was the part from NAPA was a Niles of Japan OEM supplier to Nissan. The only difference was in the finish of the relay case --flat black instead of being cadmium coated. As for the heater control valve I recently had to replace one in my father's '77 280Z and the local Nissan dealer was able to source one. The only strangeness occurs when you happen to own a factory non-A/C car such as the one pictured in my avatar. Apparently those are very rare and I was told when I bought mine a few years ago that I got the last one on the shelves in the U.S. and it had to be sourced from Ca. The factory A/C equipped ones are still available but there not exactly cheap either. I was in a hoarding mood a few years back and bought five of them at the same time.

True about the quarter panel indents however back when the 280Z's were relatively new it may not have been totalled out. For example when my father owned his '78 280Z from '78 to '82 (92,000 miles in four years) it was involved in three fairly serious accidents before the fourth one resulted in a total loss. One of the early three was a pickup truck that ran a red light and t-boned the Z right at the driver's side b-pillar. The car was only two years old and my father wanted that car repaired and his insurance obliged. The body shop went and purchased a rear clip from a similar vintage 280Z and proceeded to graft it on in place of the old rear clip which had been removed. The body shop took three and a half months and did fantastic work. It was looking just as good as when it was new when they were finished. I suspect that a similar fate may have fallen upon that ebay car early in its life and it may have been a 240Z rear clip that was available at the time given the insuarnce industry's propensity for cutting costs. In any case we should check the seller's feedback in a couple of weeks when the unsuspecting new owner has finally had a chance to view for himself the many layers of poor workmanship that was evident in the few photos that were uploaded at the time of sale.

I am trying to fix that as time allows. Anyone want to help move a couple of S30's from D.C. suburbs to Port Saint Lucie, Fl.? So far I have the Z33 and one S130 in Fl. Next move is to bring the '77 S30. After that I just need to be in Fl. when these meets are scheduled.

Richard, Nice looking S130! If you are looking for ideas a good site to visit is : http://www.s130.net It is mostly RHD cars although a few LHD models were allowed in (my gray '81--although the pic is with the all black mesh wheels as opposed to the 16" Epsilons). Your S130 looks to have been silver originally; do you plan to return it to the original color? The 'Datsun' spare tire cover is something I have never seen before; is that a factory piece? Hope your wait is rewarded when it finally shows up.

This car screams 'fraud'. It has all of the Z car sins present: sunroof, ugly aftermarket wheels, 'ground effects', awful looking rear spoiler and rust. The seller has deliberately taken great care to not photograph the passenger side of the engine bay, as well as the door tag and engine bay data plate. If you look at the dashboard I would place this car as a 1975 280Z. Notice the 'amp' meter; in 1976 the 280Z had a 'volt' meter. The seats are from a 1984-1986 Toyota Supra MKII (notice the little bulb for adding air to the lumbar area), and leather seats didn't appear in the MKII's until '84. The front bumper and the little piece of sheetmetal behind it most likely were picked from a '77 or '78 280Z as the early '75/'76 280Z's did not have that piece. Whatever the price this car should be allowed to retire to the scrapyard. If the topside looks this bad can you imagine what the underside must look like especially coming from New York?

Steven, I have owned a couple of 280Z's with the same type of louver installation as yours and while I don't doubt the original owner I would have to believe that the dealer may have bought them from some other aftermarket supplier (most likely to increase the profit margin). At the moment I am looking at a factory accessory brochure (from either 1977 or 1978) which depicts the louvers as "Rear Window Shades" and then (this is funny) goes on to mention that they are "The ultimate in exotica." The copyright mentions no date but is imprinted with the 'Datsun' logo and Nissan Motor Corp. in U.S.A. I need to scan this piece of literature as there are some funny items such as a Clarion CB radio, roof racks for F10,710 and 810 wagons. It also shows two versions of the AMCO shift knobs and AMCO rubber floormats with the 'Z' logo on them. The cover is also period correct with a late '70's couple leaning against a copper colored 280Z parked in the middle of a grassy field. This style of louver continues on in the S130 series as evidenced by the 1981 280ZX brochure that I have opened to page 4 and 5. It shows a picture of a gray 1981 280ZX 2 seater Deluxe (just like my '81 280ZX as described before) with the same 'drill your hatch' style louver and the caption reads: "280ZX 2-seater Deluxe with optional rear-window shade louvers". It's comical but the '82 280ZX that I just picked up in Huntington Beach also has these damned louvers on it. They rae quite heavy on the 280ZX enough so that the hatch struts are completely useless and need to be replaced.

Sorry, I think you might be referring to 240ztt; at his website: http://www.240ztt.com/nissan.html you will find a link to his 1971 GC-10 Skyline 4 door with an L28 and 'triples'. In fact we spoke of this thread last evening and he mentioned that he will never sell a car as rare as that again. He regrets selling it now. The car is still in existence and lives in Texas. The person who owns it has a site on cardomain.com and posts regularly over at zcar.com. Although I like the GC10 Skylines very much I would have to go for a 240ZG such as the one that 'HS30-H', a.k.a. Alan Thomas, owns. When I complete the first degree (Dec.'06) and figure out what I want to do and where I will begin to look for one. If the values suddenly spike like the XK-E's did in the late eighties then a rhd ZG replica will make a nice consolation prize. Getting back on topic: Vicky, Your suggestion is spot on; that is exactly how I would attempt to solve the problem. The only down side to the BPE and Zap cars are the rear window shades installed at the port or dealer once 'in country'. The Nissan window shades as you may know are installed by drilling holes in the hatch (just what an S30 needs?!), otherwise they are unique and interesting cars IMO. That seems to have been the formula to generate excitement in the late '70's and Nissan/datsun was not alone. Who remembers the Mustang Cobra II, Mazda RX-3SP, Plymouth Arrow GT, and some other forgetful models.

A number of years ago there was an article in Z car magazine concerning a Zap Z that is located in So. Cal. If you could find a set of NOS decals they would not be in very good condition by now. The owner mentioned that it was easier to have the painter replicate the original decals and while it may not be factory it certainly looked better than the old decals. If we were talking about a muscle car there would most likely be someone making reproductions. Oh well.

The last one I saw for sale was about a year ago in Ca. and it was in pretty rough condition. It was advertised on the collector car trader website (www.cctol.com) and I think the price was under $2500? BTW, If you have pics please post them as it would be interesting to see a ZAP car.

I was writing to inquire as to whether any Z owners from this site will be attending the Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month?