dutchzcarguy

Yes! Agree, i have had a car here in the Netherlands that had that.. and it was not salvagable/beyond repair.. BUT.. it made a great parts car! It was a euro version and lots of parts were very good.. I never seen a californian car that bad.. may be because it was not there all it's life.,. (for sure..)

I screwed a small piece of oak under the template to put in the vise. This was done for other work, the copper protects your thread on a bolt or so.. normally i use 2 copper protectors if needed (now that was not the case.. it was just stil there.) Q3 : As you might know we euro's don't use "gauge" we do sheetmetall in mm. It was 1 mm i do have some .8 or .7 and 1,2 mm sheet metall used also.. (other spots..) Well, THANK YOU for the compliment! I had to make 4 pieces for my both front fenders and people sometimes question if i made them myself but i did.. (It was like the steering wheel in my pic of the topic here all over again haha i made that also myself and was a lot of work.. mahogany-made wheel!

I got the orig teflon ones direct from nissan, fitted perfect!

You can also form the part with a oak-wooden template like i did here.. The special hammer and dolly pay for itself in no time. (needed no dolly with this job.) sorry, one day i get the pics in the right order! 😉 Front fender repair.. 280zx.

When you hear the price of that part... you better take a drill and drill the welds and replace the inner and outer parts, one after the other.. you will need a metall shaping hammer and a leather bag with sand.. and some practice.. but after that you can say you made it yourself! Just try and have some patience ( some need a lot..) and tell us what you did! People who say: i can't do that! are never gonna learn it... 🙂

Mine is RUSTY-brown, is that oké to? (Btw.. my alternator is now also 50 years old and only had a paintjob about 22 years ago..) Hé Jim, why is it called a grapefruit-alternator?

Leaning on the fender is a no go.. i was thinking of making a C-shape steel construction that go's over the fender (standing on the ground behind the front wheel.) with some lining (inside the C shape) to not scratch the fenders.. when working on a z or zx i do not use a fender cloth, when it's covered you tend to lean on it.. and throw lots of tools on them, i use a toolcart for that.

Looks like it was on the bottom of a lake...pfff... for years.. Hey Shawn.... When your car works again you have to send Zed a big whipped cream cake! 🙊

Mazda (Rotary cars) seats? Don't know if you told us already but i see the rotor in the seat top haha 🙂 Looks/fits good!

But you were asking for our MOST valuable "made-it-myself" tool! not all of them! 🙂

Clarkson: Farming?? How hard can it be? Hammond: DON'T say that !! 🤣 hahaha, at 12-15 years old i got my own vegetable garden, Also drove a tractor with more than one 4 wheeled cart and plowed strait lines and used a subsoiler and also a disk harrow, cultivator and cutter bar.. so i know how difficult it is to be a farmer..

Those are called mudguards by Nissan i think.. i once bought those new in the 90's for a 240z.. must have them somewhere on the attic.. Hihi.. found the bill from them! 63830-E4100 RH and 63831-E4100 LH. costing 26,38 and 28,62 in old dutch florins (also Guilders or as we say Gulden.) (Btw.. not selling these.. might need them for my 240z resto.. sorry.. 😕)

For a spring that are in a gearbox base plate i use a side cutting pliers, just cut halfway into it, your not gonna hurt it just stretch it. The best made tool was a apparatus to grip the crank on a 300zx(tt) z32 for taking of the balancer (necassary when changing the timingbelt) without taking everything of and the starter also to block the crank! I block the crank with my own made tool that clicks into the holes in the balancer/pulley. (It's a horizontal beam fits to the stabilizerbar and has two steel round "fingers" that go into the holes of the balancer. simple but effective.. saves a lot of time, because you don't need to take the starter off!)

Let me tell you a story.. hihi.. A friend of my had a 911SC.. It was in the late '90's.. we went with some other friends for a round of carting, and i said to him you drive my 300zx (Non turbo 1990 at the time, a USA type as non turbo does not excist overhere..) After many times asking he gave in and drove my nissan.. he went on the highway (max 120km/hour here) and he took the car strait to 120.. i said.. no problem but the bill is for you.. he looked at me and said: what do you mean, i'm driving 120! Yeah i said MILES per hour.. YOU ARE DRIVING ALMOST 200KM/HOUR HAHAHA That's also the difference, a nissan does it with no effort, were most cars make a lot of (Unnecessery) noise.. ( I do like a exhaust growl but not for hours!) No problem, I have also, in a way... see next... Agree with you a 1000% !! The only thing that is and was ever broken on my cars were the headlight wash pumps (on all 300zx's) and i think it's a big nonsense thing so never ever took a look at it, and will never do... nonsens!!!!!!! Hihihi... last week at the petrolstation, 2 other people were filling up theire tank, one go's you don't see them very often, (my 240z at that time) and the other one go's: WOW COOOOOOL car !!!! hihi.. there is almost no driving it without someone sticking up a thumb.. or 2..! Also i think with porsches it's more like years ago with a 300zxtt.. they are just jealous.. It surprised me some years ago that i now also get thumbs UP with my 300zxtt! people start to recognize these cars.. huh.. is the 300zxtt also bin in a movie (like the 240z ) ?? Reminds me, a guy started filming me in my 240z at one time, i was just doing shopping..haha. I have looked once for a porsche 928 (engine on the right spot!) but never bought one because of the name it has here and the complicated/bloody expensive parts..

And may i ad... They not only look and drive well, when i hear some people of "other" brands of cars complain about unreliability... oef... I drive a 240z now for over 20 years and the only thing that broke was.. the battery! hahaha.. and a rear muffler, it exploded when i was driving and my gaspedal was stuck under the mat! I put the ignition to "garage" and free'd the pedal, then, as i'm still driving i took it to "on" Hahaha Klaboem!! (I knew that would happen but not that hard!! ) The rear muffler (was very old and rusty) Had a BIG hole in it! Later on i installed a 260z rear exhaust and it's still under the car.. Something else, if i could get a Porsche for my Z.. i don't think i would want that.. engine is on the wrong place hahaha!! Also i want to be a Datsun guy not a Porsche guy... if you know what i mean..

3 pages about a horn not working.. Does the Horn make Horny sounds yet? 😉 Get a good battery, it uses a lot of juice!

Sounds like the keylock switches are not wired correct, on "START" the fuelpump is activated? (as on "ON" ?) and is the ignition on "START" as it IS on "ON"? (Obviously you got ignition on ON.. as it runs..)

It's a very nice site but.. it's not complete, (what is..?) Euro cars are different.. so i have a orig nissan datsun 280zx 2+2 1979 and has a orig N42/N42 engine combo.. It does according to the site not exist.. but it does.. No offence but the site is for US cars only. (I'ts like the only year for a datsun 260z is 1974.. NO!! the datsun 260z was build for europe till 1978! We never had the 280z it does not exist in europe, the ones that are here are (grey) imports from the usa. We got the 280zx in 1979 as the follow up.)

So it's a 280zx block with flat top pistons, N42 (My 280zx has a N42/N42 block/head.) I would like to know if there are orig. 280zx engineblocks with flat top pistons in it? Could be possible there are some on different markets... (Next winter i take my 280zx engine apart for new seals and hoses, it does not leak but it's 42 yrs old.. then i know if the euro / dutch version has flattops.

Mine was broken (the rubber) and as a cheap repair i once welded a u type of metal under it with a fat piece of rubber in between... HAHAHA after 10 years it's still on there !!! 😂

not.. They make it for probably 15 bucks or less.. so to expensive. i use my eyes.. to look for the center haha..

Nice battery tray! Btw.. i remember that i took it also out of my 240z and later on i screwed it into place.. not original i know but it's handy.. especially when i restore the car for the third time in about 2-3 years i guess... (hope..) (will be my second restore of this car)

The bolts are very strong type and fit very snug.. a bit of (blue) lock-tite can't hurt it.

Yes, so it's important that you use good parts.. I've done this long ago, used original Nissan/datsun parts that don't fail after a few month/years.. There are a lot partsstores few are having the right stuff.. why? because people want it cheap.. not the best solution..

Take it to someone who can balance them.. i think the best solution.. (if there is no play in anything in that shaft.)