26th-Z

Mr. Badmood is struggling today. I said; "I call these..." Thank you for posting a wheel that you call by the same name. Very interesting. Actually, the wheel in question as well as the S130 wheel doesn't have a name other than "road wheel". So there! I'm still correct!

North American import models had rear quarter red indicators. All models have front indicators.

I didn't realize this was some sort of mystery wheel. I call these "Iron Cross" wheels. 40300-N3225 and N3227

No need to ask about the silver jump suit. I just sent her an e-mail and asked her out. I was just thinking the landscape had a California feel to it. The optional wheel lists as E4200 compared to my version E4600. Huh!

Learn something new every day! A friend of mine said he found some "Z" hub centers that fit on the D cap. Check this out. The catalog indicates that the D center excludes Europe. Do you have Ds or Zs over there, Alan? 40300-E4400 Assy-Road Wheel- 5Jx14 40300-E4600 Assy-Road Wheel- 5-1/2Jx14 (steel) Optional Oh BTW, where is the background for that KS wheel advertisement?

Huh?! I'll have to get my slots out and have a look. Thanks, Alan for jumping in on the KS wheels. I didn't want this wheel thing to stay confined to the American shores (much less Southern California) without at least some mention of what was actually available. I have that R&T issue. I'll have to go have a look.

Ronnie, I think those are the first pictures I have seen of 913th and I am delighted to see she is 907 green with that godaweful butterscotch interior! Welcome to the club! You gotta either love pumpkins or....! Humble's book is a great biblical text and I'll mention probably the most important thing he says; "make a restoration plan". Make some decisions about what you want to do. Figure your time and finances and tailor your expected results to your estimation of what needs to be done. Every last one of those decisions can be changed, but for now, you made committed decisions. Make yourself a plan. Decide what you want the car to be when you are finished and what you are going to do with it when you are finished. That is my one highest recommendation. Another good text is a series of articles that were in the old ZCar magazine by Bill Reagan about the restoration of #2545 - a 1995 Gold Medallion winner. Those articles were published in a spiral-bound notebook. I don't know if it is still in print. I see them on eBay every now and then. I would start asking around in your local Z club. What I believe about low serial numbered cars is that they need to be stock to achieve the highest dollar value. Every now and then, I see a choice car sell for $30,000 and higher. They are usually low mile originals, but I see some Vintage Zs and an occasional restoration reach those levels. Let's face it. An original is going to be worth more, but the way I figure it, my cars will be worth what I have in them when they are finished. My time excluded. I think there is no question that if you adhere to stock in a low number car, you won't loose money. I believe that a stock restoration low numbered car will be worth shockingly large numbers in five years. Stock, however, is only a description for the direction of the restoration. Really, my cars for instance, are restored. The perceived value is in the quality of restoration. I plan to make some tasteful period modifications to my restoration of 26th because I plan to drive her. 27th is intended as a show car and will get most of the real correct stuff. I have some nifty authentic parts that weren't on American imports and some nice wheels for 26th. But other than that, she is stock correct to November 1969 with the exception of restoration materials like paint, primer, sealer, etc. with the vast majority of her parts restored rather than replaced. 27th will be real stock with emissions and 'D' hubcaps and the braided hoses. 27th will also require the most replacement parts of the two. My progress is directly related to my monthly allowance from my income. Time is not a priority - so far, it has been three years but so what. While I wait to save up money, I do Z research, read Z books, and go to Z car shows. I originally budgeted $7,500 per year for four or five years, but I have not reached that nor have I pushed for that. I bought 27th out of that budget. 26th will be driven aggressively at club functions. 27th will be shown and rarely driven. I imagine the cars will be sold some day - hopefully as a pair. That, is essentially my plan. It is based on a belief, a budget, and an expected outcome. The plan changed drastically midstream when I bought 27th, but the basics remained the same. And I guess the only other important thing to mention is that it is your car and you can do anything you like. Have fun. Chris

The wheels on 26th in that picture are Japanese spun aluminum 14x6. They were the wheels originally installed by the dealer and they are commonly referred to as "Slots". The black and silver wheel I posted is the orignal steel wheel from 26th. The 'D' hubcaps I posted are actually the later version of the "D" hubcap. Notice on the back, the many closely spaced tabs for gripping the wheel. Earlier versions of this hub cap had less tabs and they were more widely spaced. They had a tendency to fall off. And one comment about the slang being used: "Mag" is short for magnesium, a common material used for casting wheels - very light weight - and not the best of terms to use for commonly discssing wheels. Now, the Japanese cars did not get "D" hubcaps because they were not Datsuns. They got this hubcap. The Japanese option wheel originally available was manufacured for Nissan by Kobe Seiko. Here is a racing version in magnesium. You will commonly see this optional wheel style (in aluminum) on the PS30 / Z432.

Standard wheel and standard D hubcap for American imports up to around 7/71

Thanks Alan, I looked and looked for those pages. Was really perplexed that I could not find them!?

Is this what you are looking for?

Correctest for me is semi-gloss black with engine blue overspray. I have seen Vintage Zs with engine blue. http://zhome.com/Concourz/

Your topic has been mulled around before, sakijo. HS30-H chimes in on that discussion. From what I have read and a couple of conversations with a couple of different people, I am led to believe that the records have been destroyed. I know the cars had what we would call a build sheet - I have seen one - but for the most part, any specific recording of the manufacturing date is unheard of. So we banter back and forth about different ideas. Is it at the time the build sheet was made, or is it when the car rolls out the assembly room door?

Read about it last night. http://allafrica.com/stories/200604120824.html My respects, Chris

Here is the rear dog-leg portion of the rocker I cut out of 26th after she was dipped and all the rust removed. This is a metal patch repair that was done in 1990 and the filler was lead. Point being, that if you don't do it right, it makes no difference between bondo and lead. Lead repair is a dying breed. Lead is poisonous. There really isn't any need to use lead these days. Best of luck finding a body shop, I will tell you that I interviewed six or seven shops before I found the guy I am working with. I hear horror stories night and day about body shops and feel so lucky to have the shop I have. Frankly, if you want a really nice job, go to a restoration shop. Body shops make their money on fast collision work. Restoration shops are more geared for the type of work you may be looking for. Yes, they are far more expensive, but the cost of the hassle and bad feelings is far greater. See if you can't find a shop that will let you do the grunt work. You'll save a few bucks, learn something in the process, and get far better results from your own motivation to take your free time and do it right. Probably the worst thing you can do is drop your car off and hope someone knows what kind of results you expect. Chris

Kats, The original coat hook design made it to 26th and 27th. I know 16th and 19th have the same. It might be fun to see how many cars got these. Pininfarina was probably the top automotive design studio of the day. I know Mr. Matsuo has deep respect for their work. I have this 8-track which requires a separate amplifier. I have never found anyone who knows about it. The unit is brand new and I will take some pictures of it. The box is only slightly tattered, eh? Thanks for the scans! It gave me memories of our visit in Long Beach and I had to pull out the pictures! Chris

The Florida Z Association is preparing for their first event of 2006 – The Rights of Spring Autocross / Solo – April 22nd in Gainesville, Florida. Fifty cars are scheduled to take the track, a .65 mile driver training course with high speed straights and tight corners, for a full day of Z-car fun and excitement. The event is open to prepared and street machines; competing in four different classes for trophies, bragging rights, and points toward the annual “FZA Challenge”. Come race with us! Tune your machine and driving skills with the best Z-cars and Z-drivers Florida has to offer. Registration is still open and you can read all about it as well as register on-line at the FZA website http://www.flza.com/fza/index.jsp or download the files and mail your registration from the website of the registrar, Her Majesty the 26th http://home.earthlink.net/~cwenzel/index.html Come join the fun! Don’t want to race, but can’t miss the fun? Join us for the day of Z-car talk and discuss our plans for the upcoming 2006 ZCCA international convention in Dallas and the 2007 ZCCA convention. Hope to see you there! Questions? Write to Rights of Spring cwenzel@earthlink.net. Chris

I really enjoy the study of the early cars and the very first days of introduction. Kats and I have become good friends over our common interest. It's a double edged sword in some ways. Many unique parts I find on my cars were later replaced / upgraded for obviuos reasons; they didn't work very well! For instance, the internal cab venting was cutting edge at the time, but the rear hatch vents had a tendancy to fill up with snow and ice causing them to break and leak exhaust fumes back into the car. As a result, the rear vent location was changed to the quarter panels underneath the emblem in later models. Kats did a thread on the very early quarter "chrome Z" emblems noting that the casting for the chrome Z emblem is different from the white Z emblem. Both are hollow casting designs, however the emblems that were made for the prototypes were cast solid. I took one out to Long Beach for the ZCCA convention and asked Mr. Matsuo about them. He told me they came from the very first batch of emblems intended for the prototype models. I find them on examples of the first 100 cars or so. Things like this make for fun conversation - completely anal - but fun. I'm a trained designer and I understand the thought process during design so it is with great delight to sit and talk with another designer about what he was thinking and the solutions he found. Designers have a tendancy to talk with pen and paper. The thought process described in drawing form is called delineation. Here are some conversations about the "scoop" headlight bucket, the seat vents, and the problem of hiding the hinge for the hatch deck. The strut design that holds up the hatch came from the French Mirage fighter jet canopy. When you ask me if I am doing a concours restoration, I don't really know how to answer. I intend to do my best to be "authentic", but there are some things associated with restoration that will be simply too difficult to reproduce in original form. I'm not doing a museum specimen, but I am keeping close to the spirit of the original. I will also use parts that did not originally appear on the car. 26th, for instance, will sport the original headlight covers that we never saw in America. I intend to show the cars but I also intend to drive them occasionally.

Ok, I guess I should jump into this conversation. Kats is here - Greetings Kats! - and I can tell you many, many things peculiar to the early cars. As Kats knows, I have had several conversations with Yoshihiko Matsuo, the man I consider the original designer of the Z, who worked with the first cars as they were produced from the original prototype models. I have photographs of the original prototypes. As many of you also know, number 16 and number 19 live close to me. Let me begin by saying that in my opinion the first cars were more extensions of the prototypes than pure production examples. I suspect that quite a few hundred of the early cars were "hand" built before the Z car was fully sorted and mass production techniques we are most familiar with were used. From my conversations with Matsuo san, many parts that were developed for the prototypes were used in production before Nissan fully developed their patterns and molds for the mass production models we commonly see. Some day, I hope to write an essay on how the unit body was assembled in the beginning. Nice picture of the hood bumper, Kats! It looks like you have a new one. Very nice! That is simply a rubber cup and was later replaced with the bumper that allows for adjustment. Seat guards? Well, what can I say? They broke very easily and if anyone finds any, I would like two pair, please. They just screw to the bottom of the seat frame and if your seat frame has holes in it, it probably had seat guards originally. Here is what I would say about the screw and grommet on the interior panels. If your quarter window vents have this tab welded on to the frame, you probably had screws and grommets. The screw would be chromed and the grommet would be either chromed of clear plastic. I would say the clear plastic grommet is correctest. A screw and clear plastic grommet was used to secure the interior window trim on the vertical post of the quarter window. The early cars did not have this and as a result, the trim is not secure in this place. Same for the door trim. Without the screws and grommets, the door trim warps and pulls away from the door. Here are a couple of pictures:

You want to pull her over and what?

Pete, I own and drive a BMW. The first thing that comes to mind is that the cars are in different classes. A 2002tii is a sedan and the Z is a GT sports. Kind of like asking to compare a huge SUV to a Mack truck. Another observation I would like to make is that the series one 240Z was not equalled in performance until the debut of the 280ZX turbo, however you mentioned cams and performance upgrades. Once you get into that conversation, the playing field is wide open. But the obvious answer to your question comes from one of the original ad campaigns which said; "Drive a Datsun, Then Decide".

Scans from the parts catalog - S30, PS30, HS30, and HS30-H. And so that Ricklandia might understand a little better, the "Datsun 240Z" imported into North America is just one model of a whole family of Z cars manufactured by Nissan Motor Ltd. To understand the Z is to embrace the whole family.

My Dearest Gentle Jan, That discussion belongs some place else indeed! Certainly not on this web site! You see, Albrecht Goertz had NOTHING to do with the design of the Z. You will only get howls of laughter from everyone here if you bring up his name. I know he would like to think he had something to do with the design, but we don't believe him. We believe the design team led by Yoshihiko Matsuo is responsible for the design and we have overwhelming evidence to substantiate our thoughts. Conversely, we have nothing more that a few pictures of Mr. Goertz standing around and that really means nothing. For that matter, if you would like me to sit in your car and blip the throttle, I would be happy to smile for a picture. You see? You are very welcome to join our love for Z cars and talk about the timeless design, but discussions about Albrecht will not be received well. I hope you will consider our view. Personally, I don't think your air dam design is all that bad. Move the parking lights to below the bumper and make the brake duct smaller. Align the vertical edge between the brake duct and center duct with the line of the fender edge above and I think you will have a very good looking modification. All the best, Chris