'71 zcar

Was at a garage helping out sorting/tagging all the Z parts for a widow for selling them and came across a smashed dash. Didn't think anything of it at first, then pulled it down from above and saw the gauges didn't smashed, so added it to my parts pile. Got home and saw what vin# it was and was pretty surprised of the low vin. Pulled the gauges and harness then added them to my collection.

Seat frames are powder coated and off to the trimmers. Haven't had time to get farther along on the interior though.

Yes, it will be a nismo styled head rest. I like how light and easy fitting the stock seats are, they just need a little more style.

Getting back to the Z now. Getting seats ready for the trimmer.

The Singer is what everything is being styled around, I've been reproducing parts for Porsches for a long time and thought it was time the Datsun got some love. I haven't been working on it for awhile, had to sell off a bunch of stuff to make more room and it's been too hot in the garage to do clay work. I'm doing the metal work on the seats next to get them to the trimmer. The weather is starting to cool off here so I will be getting back to the clay work. I'm going to try and make the molds more production like to get multiple parts out of them. But some parts like the wheel housing in back I'll probably just wax back and lay up the part on the car since they get wrapped and A side doesn't matter. But we'll see how things progress.

OK, so from the assembly line they were all orange/red, if you had an issue, lost/damaged one, you got a blue one from the parts dept at the dealership in the US. I imagine that is what happened here, as the motor was matching #'s when I bought it. But that motor was blown up soon after I got it , then I found another block and head to use.

So blue is still a correct color, just not as correct.

My car had this on it when I bought it in 1985. I have never seen another Z with one on it. I have heard that this was a warranty replacement one, but if it was, why wouldn't it had been orange? I know they switched at some time to this blue for all their air cleaners, but wouldn't they have stopped producing this by then?

Early cars were plastic anyway, I think it must have taken a couple years to figure it out in steel.

It's actually only about an 1.5" away from the bottom edge. I'm going to push it back about .5" more, the top will be about 1" away from the wall, need to have some angle on it. With the seat all the way back it's about 43" to the seat back, I think there is some room to spare. I'm 6'2" and can still straighten my legs out.

Getting a little farther along, getting sizes mocked up. Heal plate and foot board will ALU dimpled died and a shorter plate behind the heal plate for the carpet mat to sit on and be flush. Tunnel and rocker will be blended into the foot plate to seal up the area.

If the molds come out OK I will consider selling pieces. It will be a commitment, because it will have to be the whole front, console, and foot boards. Floor boards can be all carpet, but will have to be custom made also. Fuse box is getting relocated to the firewall behind foot board. I'm going to wrap everything in leather, but you could paint them body color also.

Got all the kill mat in so far. 36sq' is almost enough for the front, I'll get another 36' and that should finish out the car. Now it's time to start fitting the sides back in and modeling up the ends, then attack the tunnel. the wood is for a guide to drag the section in with. I will put a piece on the floor to guide it down there also. I think I might do aluminum floor boards about and an 1" up and dimple die the front half and carpet the rear half.

Here are the pedals and floorboard style I will be doing. Also I will be modifying the seats to look like this.

Making sure the seat clears and getting the top profile of the tunnel finalized. Recesses for the seat belts will be the hardest part to make look good.

Cup holder will be a little tricky, as the only place to go down into the tunnel is where the choke assembly is. Otherwise it would be sticking up kinda high to hold a cup from falling over. Have to look into getting a choke lever assembly from a later car, I have the big 2 lever one for the throttle and choke. The E-Brake assembly is right behind that recess under the tunnel. I was thinking a phone holder slot would be good.

I've built concept cars for the auto industry my whole life, just this one won't have unlimited money and resources to build. I'll probably get the dash replacement from Hung Vu to start. If I do a dash mod, I want to build it in pieces. I would like to do piece for the top, the sides, and knee bolsters. Then make the area around the gauges and center stack separate. That way you can wrap the dash in leather with no stitch lines everywhere, just where you want them to accent the details. I would do the gauge and center area in painted frp. I have a spare dash I will slowly mod on the side to see how it goes. As I go along if anyone would like some parts for their own car that would be fine. Just remember, every car is different on the inside and my car is by no means perfect, so fitting properly is all up to the customer.

I'm going to do fiberglass panels where all the vinyl was. I don't like all the draped vinyl everywhere, I prefer a more fitted look. I'm starting with the rockers then the tunnel. Here's shots of the quick rocker mold I made and the panels. These will be fitted into place then I will model up each end to finish off properly. The front will turn in and have a aluminum foot board across, i.e. Singer Porsche. The whole front cockpit area will be fitted glass wrapped in leather. The center console will also be changed. It will stop at the shifter surround and a panel will be made to close out the bottom of the dash down to the tunnel piece. The fuse will be relocated behind the floorboard on the firewall. Here are the first pieces fit.

I don't recall '71 having ventless pillars, thought that was the '70 detail lost in the '71 and later models. If it's actually a '70 and not a '71, I would restore the '70, convert to 5 speed as above mentioned by Dennis and Mark, for drivability reasons. Check the VIN#. Resto Mod up the '73 to your hearts content.