SpeedRoo

Sometimes the journey is more rewarding that the show, congrats on all your efforts to make it to the event! Let's see what it can do on the track.

@Captain Obvious I wouldn't worry about the OG making it as you know how to fix it whatever goes wrong. You're not some rank amateur setting out blindly on a journey naively hoping all will be well. You know your car inside and out and and have so much experience with Z cars I reckon you could rebuild a seized engine on a remote Tibetan pass. My beach bomb 240Z is called Louey and definitely a "him". I've never thought of cars as females.

@jfa.series1 I've had good luck getting all the parts through amayama, partsouq or nissan parts deal. You'll have to assemble the kit yourself, that's what I did.

@Captain Obvious Just had a look on my October 1970 240Z that hasn't been touched since built. It has the flat side up.

Pretty easy to do, simple scaling down of a surfboard caliper would do the trick. If I get time I'll design one up this week. here's a couple of basic designs.

@Patcon the exterior will print smooth, it's a graphics display issue and how SolidWorks saves the .stl file. When you slice it for printing the surface is rendered smoothly. Will post a picture of the first sample print when it's done, I'll do a trial piece in laser sintered nylon first. This is a sample off the Prusa 3D printer in SLA, much smoother than the graphic rendering. With laser sintering it uses powder to print the object so the layer lines and polygons are smoothed out. These are for my own use, I have no plans to sell them.

Been playing with metal laser sintered 3D printers lately and wanted to create a stainless 240Z gearknob. Went through a number of iterations and ended up with this design. It's the same size and shape as the original 1970 240Z 4 speed one. Will be running the first metal prints next week, will be interesting to see how it turns out. 3 Z logos are engraved on the main part of the body, the original gearchange pattern is enlarged in size to print more cleanly than the original smaller one.

Welcome @HLS30-365101 great to have someone that worked on the program with Pierre here, I'm sure we will have lots of questions for you. Building 240Z by night and planes by day, sounds like a great way to spend your day! What bits did you do on the Restoration program for Pierre?

@zspert can't you do one of your award winning restorations on your self and keep going for another 50 years! Don't forget the yellow paint marks on all your tightened joints and use NOS parts, I'd avoid the cad plating though! Roo

And therein lies the problem Galvanizing and Zinc plating are two totally different processes, the only thing they have in common is Zinc. If the Japanese specification is this vague then there will always be some confusion to what type of coating was used on the parts. Coming back to the Vintage Z restoration program of 1996-98 in the USA; Nissan Motor Corporation USA was very specific that Cad plating be used and listed it repeatedly in their "Quality Control Checklist". They also listed suspension parts be painted semi-gloss black not powder coated. There is no confusion here, it's all in black and white on the document.

Cad plating has much better corrosion resistance than zinc, hence it's use. The Vintage Z program was never about originality but restoring selected 240Z to as new condition with a warranty using parts and processes available in California in 1996-98.

RAE you're barking up the wrong tree yet again, I've made no mention in this thread about the original production cars, this is about the Vintage Z restoration program...plain and simple. To quote my previous post: "Another interesting titbit from the program is that all the nuts and bolts etc were cad plated." Are you always argumentative just for the sake of being so?

In Nissan's 240Z Restoration Program Quality Control Checklist they specifically call out "Cad plating", it was commonly used in California to recondition automobile parts and fasteners at the time. It's banned there now but available in other states. I use it for replating all my parts on Aston Martin restorations. They also mention "Zinc Chromate Tank Slushing" for the fuel tank, so they obviously knew the difference between Cad and Zinc processes. Additionally Nissan mention "Paint semi-gloss black" for suspension components. If you look closely at the photos of the Vintage Z that have been on BAT it is easy to discern between Cad and Zinc, Paint and powder coat.

If Nissan says it's Cad plated then I believe them. Put on your reading glasses RAE and check what they wrote in an official document. All detailed in the Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. 240Z Restoration Program Quality Control Checklist. Now I know RAE will come back and say Nissan never used Cad but Gold Zinced the parts on the 240Z, but that may have been the case in Japan. This was a USA program and they sourced services locally in California. Cad plating was not banned from automobiles and parts in California until 2003.

Another interesting titbit from the program is that all the nuts and bolts etc were cad plated.

Dean I don't think that is your car. The Master list has a revision date of Jan 1998, it shows your car as #18 and having been finished. The date in the video of the red car being driven out for test is late April 1998 and the red Vintage Z has silver mag wheels. I think it may be 40904.

Have a look at the Larry Chen's Vintage Z video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_TjHwA1xgE at the 27:24 mark you can see the Master list. There is a column that lists Matching# and M for yes, N/M for no. There are 14 N/M listed. There is also a column for engine#.

Where can a copy be obtained, please advise. @26th-Z is it available as a digital download?

Did @26th-Z ever complete the document/booklet Chris was doing on the Vintage Z program? He mentioned it back in 2005!

I always enjoy it when our resident armchair expert (RAE) from across the pond makes assumptions that turn out to be wrong. To assume he knows the people I speak to for my background information is the level of arrogance, Just as he has done here: "In contrast, one of your "people involved in the program" has knocked out a couple of hardback books - to great fanfare - but which are packed with enough misconceptions, mis-captions and plain old mistakes as to make them all but worthless for entertainment let alone reference material. You'd be well advised to take care in choosing your gurus." I've never spoken to or been in contact with that person, nor do I have his books. Yet again RAE has gone far off the beaten track. Even the people I have spoken to didn't have a lot of good things to say about the program manager you refer to. It's obvious from the photos from the Japanese magazines they are early cars, the cars in the pictures are instantly identifiable from the master list of the Vintage Z build. If you watch the videos @deanhuff posted links to you can see them at Pierre's shop. It's no great mystery but documented evidence. Just as they put the engines in conventionally at the beginning of the program, they got more efficient fitting rebuilt engines supplied by AER from below by lowering the car onto the assembly. Oh I forgot, RAE worships at the house of Japanese superiority and how could they be wrong having put some photos in a Japanese magazine. The VZ program was an American program, done in the USA and sold in the USA, not sure how the Japanese had much if anything to do with it.

Have uploaded the file to the archives.

Love the videos, lots of detail on how they built the cars up. Great find after all these years.

The document is 34 pages long, it doesn't mention who did the work. It also doesn't mention who did the body restoration, paint and assembly. There were at least 5 Datsun restoration companies involved in the program. There is a master sheet listing all the cars and the companies responsible for each one. Two of them confirmed to me the engines and gearbox were sent out to be rebuilt, that's from people involved in the program and not armchair experts who had nothing to do with it. Now that doesn't mean every single engine was sent out, the early ones may have been built up to check the process and parts required. If you watch the videos @deanhuff linked to you can see the different companies involved. @zspert was one of those who worked closely with Pierre and also supplied parts to the program. I tend to listen when he speaks!

I love the fact you get the kids involved in rebuilding the Datsuns. Keeping the hobby alive going forward is getting harder to do. Let's hope they keep up their enthusiasm.