My Swiss 1972 S30 240Z rebuild project

[JDMjunkies.ch]

HI There, im new to your forum and like to show you my Fairlady project.

 

it will consist a total rebuild of an old Z i found recently and it should end in 1-2 years into a Period correct street racer style from the Seventies Z With some JDM input and of course some nice engine bits :)

 

Well this thread until yet is all copy & Paste from another forum, but i'll continue the writeup in this forum. so let's go:

 

Say Hello :)

 

Im 27 now and im from switzerland and have a love for JDM cars. i allready own two other japanese cars (later models) but with this particular one i kind of fulfilled a dream i had for quite a few years now.

 

i was looking for a Japanese car that has a little scene and has a lot of parts avialeble, because it's my first restoration project.. i searched quite long and after i saw a few Z's a the steckborn classic hillclimb i decided it should be a ZED.

 

after long searching and looking over several years i made a garagefind and found another garage-find who was for sale on the internet.. the red one (my garage-find) was completely stock but hadn't been used for about 10 years. it had replaced fenders (a few years ago) and was repainted in greed. both engines didnt work... also it was a bit expensive as the first owner still owned it and kind of lost is heart to this car but wasn't able to restore it...

 

The second one was a good price, it was allready painted in white (sadly in a really not-fitting flashy pearl-white) lik i wanted it to.

the car was rebuilt a few years ago but the prevous owner never completed it and due to standing around for a long time it had severall small damages and surface-rust. but the complete big rust spots have allready been repaired and the complete car has been repained. all the rubber parts and bushings have been replaced a few years ago, as well as the suspension struts. all footwork has been sanded and powdercoated. the exhaust mainfold has been metal-plated so it won't rust agian. and the engine has been rebuilt.. also it hasn't got a sunroof as most cars in switzerland (done afterwards..) and the dash isn't cracked. also complete exhaust system has been replaced a few years ago. good things :)

 

but well the bad things:

front and rear has a dent (well i get new bumpers with the car :D), carbs are missing. interieur is horrible selfmade-thing. (Kind of shoe-shop carpet, with blue plush headliner and camouflage decoration... horrible :P

 

well and of course a lot of parts are missing. but i think it's still a very good base for a restoration.

 

car comes with a 260Z intercooler (very good shape), with a OEM shiftknob (at the monemt an alfa-romeo item is mounted...), a new front lower bracket, a new rear bumper, a rear wing and rear window cover, a set of almost new period-correct könig reclinging racing seats with rails and a set of new mesh-wheels with new tires - great :D

 

i managed also to get all the documents an papers from the previous owner. great :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

here it is.. in a few weeks i will pick it up and bring it home into my garage :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the plan is to rebuild it within a few years with period-correct parts. i'd like to make it a bit sportier than it is so maybe the engine and exterior will get a little sport-treatment, but we'll see..

 

first i'll have to get the car towed homewards, next i will try to strip it down at home then i think a chassis / Paint-guy will need to check what needs to be done and after that is done i think i will need to assabmle the car to my dream car... we'll see how it turns out and how much time i'll need :)

 

I'll keep you updated..

 

otherwise my blog should be daily updated:

http://s30zproject.wordpress.com/

[JDMjunkies.ch]

here we go, i added a few more pictures, so you can see all th e small damages...

 

Damaged front lower bumper thing

 

Pulley seem to be a bit rusted :P

 

 

Paint chipped on the headlight surrounding

 

Mesh wheels (new) that will come with the car...

 

the könig reclining seats

 

rear damage (new bumper will come with the car)

 

tank lock

 

front suspension

 

trunk inside (see the blue plush... sucks!!)

 

ignition wires and more parts missing. paint on the valve cover

sucks too....

 

new exhaust in the back :)

 

front damage close-up

 

more from the horrible interieur-job....

 

the almost new s60Z radiator that i will get with the car too :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

A few days ago i ordered a little magazine from Japan like i usually do for my project cars. it's called G-works magazine.

 

It's a magazine by the Sun-A group (Same company that also makes the option magazines) And usually features a lot of cool japanese cars, parts, projects and information. I ordered this particular magazine because this issue was dedicated to the famous Office tomitaku S30Z.

And also these magazines usually feature a lot of Ad's from japanese tuners, restoration companies and shops where to get good and cool parts from. and so it was :D

 

I also ordered a How-to book here in europe but it hasn't arrived yet. On the weekend the project will continue :)

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So - here we go. the project finally begins :)

today i was out to get the car towed home. and that was exactly what we did. after about 2hours of driving we arrived at the place the car was stored.

 

look how innocent she looks unter the central-swiss morning sun :D :

 

we loaded the car onto a trailer and went directly to the owners place where he stored a lot of other nice (european and american) classics and builds-in-progress..

 

there we picked up the seats and some box-new mesh wheels he had mounted on his other crazy widebody-S30. I found out those are MSW wheels and are designed and manufactured by OZ wheels. and was suprised how light those wheels where. anyway. i'll get something more JDM for her once other things have been done.. :)

 

Finally we arrived at home after another 2hours of driving and unloaded the car in front of my garage. on the picture below you arleady can se the "new" MSW

Wheels mounted on the rear. looks pretty good i think and makes the car straight cooler istead of those rusty steelies :D

 

Seats, wing, wheels, spare-rearbumper and radiator also unloaded and placed in front of the garage..

 

because i haven't managed to clean up my garage and get the space for this Z and the parts i decided to keep it outside for a few days. but im pretty sure there will fall a few raindrops so i decided to close the missing windows and holes with a bit tape and trashbags :)

 

A Friend of mine showed up and he works at the local car-registration center, so he knows a lot about rust and oldtimers and checked the car. he told me there must be a lot of filler underneath the wheel housings and things, but otherwise it's in really good shape and has no bigger rust spots. exactly what i expected to hear. great car :D hope to get some things done this weekend, but im not sure :D

 

 

Next big tasks will be to change the two front wheels to the newer onces, so i can throw those badass steelies. then i will begin to clean out the car on the inside with a load of nitro and sticker-ex :) then i think the car is much mor accessible and we'll see whats up next :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i decided to get some things done so the project can start safely :)

 

Bought myself a bit more lighting for the garage and a mechanic-suit (Yes, these are my feet :D)

 

then i thought the lady could need a little bath, so i took a bit soapy water and a sponge and cleaned the surface from years of dust...

 

wonder where these red spots on the hood come from. they weren't removable with a sponge sadly, but no problem. the car will be repainted anyway..

 

Looked way better after a little bath :)

 

Next pont on the 2do-List was actually change the frontwheels to the ASW ones. This is how the suspension looked underneath. quite good i think, but there's a bit of rust lurking in the wheel housing..

 

and that's how she looked with the new wheels on - i like..

 

Next task was cleaning out the car from all the crap inside and see which parts came with the car...

Pulled out the horrible blue plush roof covering first.. :)

 

Second was the ugly custom carpets in the trunk:

 

These parts came with the car:

Used, but complete black rear bumper:

 

A Pair of cool oldschool könig reclinig seats:

 

with matching seatrails as well :)

 

crazy aftermarket wing (Won't mount that on my Z - so if anyone's interrested - let me know :D )

 

got some doorhandles also :)

 

and of course a 260Z radiator with piping :)

 

Now last part for today was cleaning out the garage so i can work inside in the upcoming cold winterdays and of course prevent the lady from snow and rain :)

 

I'll try to find some time tomorrow to get the hatch open (wasn't able to open the hatch today) so a bit more cleaning and vacuuming on the inside can begin...

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Whoop, another update :) yesterday i decided to get a little things done on the interior. Or maybe i'd rather say getting the crap out of the car :)

 

First problem straight at the start - i wasn't able to open the trunk. tried all the keys, but that damn lock didn't open. i decided to go the other way and removed the lock carrier on the back :)

 

here we go - open sesame :) As you can see someone already have begun to take off the plush-crap on the right side and the floor carpet on the driver side. all i've done yet was removing the wood cover on the sparewheel.

 

asd you can see there are a lot of small glass bits who once may have been the drivers side window :/

 

then i took a closer look on the roof and discovered that there must have been a sunroof before, even if the previous owner told me this is the version without sunroof.. needs a bit rework there, but at least it looks good from the outside. we'll see how it looks underneath the paintjob...

 

Same with the dashboard. as i wasn't able to take a clooser look on the dash, the previous owner wos proud of the fact that the dashboard wasn't cracked.. may have happened on the way home or something but the dashboard needs definitly a replacement.. not a big problem but im lucky about every usable bit in the car :)

 

after that i began to remove interior parts.. started with the center console who was in a good shape. i also removed the sunroof (who were covered in that plush too, but underneath still in usable quality) as well as the inner mirror.

 

looked like this then:

 

after that i decided to get away with all this shitty plush and pulled it all out. as you can see it was kind of taped in with that yellow tape-mat. will need alot of time to remove all these yellow stuff..

 

also removed a big amount (filled a complete big garbage-bag) with carpet-parts from the front part and those black tar-mats (think those are for sound and heat isolation). those brown spots in the front are luckily no rust spots. those are just the glue from the black tar mats.. i will need a little more time to get things done on the interior..

 

also downloaded all the service and user manuals from: http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html

so i can see how different parts are mounted and what's missing :)

 

Also did some smaller stuff like vacuum-cleaned the car and removed those brown tape-spots on the outside and a reflector-thingy that was placed on the front bumper..

 

Next steps will be to remove more interior, the dooor-steps, bumpers, and than clean it out all.. hope i get some time to work on it soon again...

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Another update coming in here :)

 

decided to get some work done. the plan was to get the dash out and some other things done, but after i tried to get those tar-mats out i felt like i should continue doing this. i ended up creating a big mess in three hours of work :D most of those mats came out pretty good. im not sure if th is a OEM thing or if they've done this during the restoration, but the complete cabin and trunk is filled out with this shitty mats on the floor. they even have been painted. anyway, got out big pieces, but still a lot to do.. the good thing: There is bare metal under t hose mats, no paint. and the metal looks really good. almost no rust. great :)

think i will try to get the dash out on the weekend. oh well and i almost forgot. prepared the seatrails.. ehrm means i cut away the old BMW mounts because the old owner wantned them back and we werent' able to get the screws off. lucky the screw remains on thepart that he will get back and my seatrails are ready now for som Z mounts that came with the car - great..

 

Here some pictures of today's progress:

 

Tools in heavy use.. :)

 

Big bits coming off the center console..

 

Mess in the front after a lot is removed..

 

Mess in the hatch after i started work there.. :)

[Braden]

looks good man, where exactly are you located at??? you showed one picture of the frotn swaybar, it looks like someone has done metal replacement under the front rails, could be good or bad depending on the extent of the repair and the skill of the welder. also whats the deal with the rear quarters around the wheels? those dont look stock, looks like someone has cut and redone those as well. closer pics of the rear quarters please.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

HI Braden.

 

thanks for your feedback.

 

1) Im not really sure which picture you mean, but i think i know what you're talking about. i think i will need to do some rust spots anyway, so well, i might rework a few previous restauration-attempts as well.. :(

 

2) Not sure what you mean with rear quarters. you mean the rear "fenders"? yeah i saw they have done some rust there too. i'll need to buy some new quaters and re do them. the filled the complete inside of the fender folds with bondo..

 

pretty sure this car needs a lot of love. but yeah. i have time and connections. and well - the other car i looked at was much worse condition so i bought this one..

 

 

btw: sorry for my bad english and your question: im coming from near zürich, in switzerland :)

 

 

another update coming tomorrow or sunday..

 

regards

[dennis]

Welcome and very nice start you have going on. I remember when those MSW wheels when they first hit the market because I wanted some for my old VW Jetta.

 

That carpet was ugly, looks like something in a casino.

[Braden]

HI Braden.

 

thanks for your feedback.

 

1) Im not really sure which picture you mean, but i think i know what you're talking about. i think i will need to do some rust spots anyway, so well, i might rework a few previous restauration-attempts as well.. :(

 

2) Not sure what you mean with rear quarters. you mean the rear "fenders"? yeah i saw they have done some rust there too. i'll need to buy some new quaters and re do them. the filled the complete inside of the fender folds with bondo..

 

pretty sure this car needs a lot of love. but yeah. i have time and connections. and well - the other car i looked at was much worse condition so i bought this one..

 

 

btw: sorry for my bad english and your question: im coming from near zürich, in switzerland :)

 

 

another update coming tomorrow or sunday..

 

regards

your english is 100%!! no need for practice there, atleast you speak english,

your car looks great, and judging by the interior your car has had normal to minimal rust issues, the last z car i had had no floor pans, no rockers and not much of a firewall!!! the several round holes on the inside of the rocker panel on the interior below the door, yours look great!!!! mine were gone!!! you have a good solid base for a nice project!!! as for the dash i wouldnt waste my time with getting another one unless its just super easy to find a crack free dash!!! your dahs looks 95% and that little crack wouldnt bother me, if you get a nice one it will eventually crack too, so look at it as if yours is already broken in!!! what are your plans for the engine??

by the way great job on the pictures!!!! if you keep it up with the amount of pictures your gonna have one hell of a popular thread!! nice work man

[gokiburix]

I just joined in this thread.

Looks like a real solid start! If you didn't say you were in Switzerland, I'd say that Z looks like a southern California car.

 

Nice find!

 

 

 

 

-goki

[FoxyRoadster]

that z is straight out of the 80's

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Wow guys, thanks for your replies once again.. good to see other guys like what i do and love some old crappy metal like i doo :)

 

let me introduce myself first: im 27, live in switzerland and have no idea about cars, but i love japanese cars (new and old) and had a shop that was specialized in importing rare japanese motorsports and tuning parts. well i might have a bit an idea about cars.. I Also own another one-off exlusive car in switzerland. ha honda civic type-R EK9 (the one and ony in switzerland) i bought in japan and imported it myself. took me three years to get it street legal and registrated in car hating switzerland.. good thing is. rules are by way not so harf for oldtimers in switzerland :)

The other cool thing is i have great connections to japan and can source a lot of new and used parts.. and that leads me to the engine plans. not sure about the carbs, but i think i'll go for a nice combination of japanese brands. not a tooo big power out put and schould remain drivable on the street but i deicded if i (or the guys at my favorite garage :D) rework the engine anyway, why not replace a few parts.. the plan is tom combine parts from kameari, JUN, Tomei, OS giken, Kakimoto, trust etc.. but im not sure yet and i believe the engine will be the last part of the build i'll touch. so we'll see.. might take another year or two until work on the engine begins.. also i believe this is the most expensive part and plans (or dreams) my change during this time :)

 

but let's move to today's work:

 

Hmm - i know - the plan was to get out the dashboard today. but after it was so much fun to bang those isolation-mats out i continued with that today. after two hours i got the complete trunk mats out and was pretty happy with the result :)

 

After that i decided to work on the dashboard removal. had a old service manual, but im not sure if i have the right year, because it seems my car is slightly different and i havent' an idea wich year my car has, because im still waiting for the documents...

I started to remove a few things: Old Alfa-romeo shiftknob that was fitted and really wasn't nice...

 

The Fusebox:

 

an old crappy equalizer that was mounted under the glove box:

 

and the dashboard top cover..

 

after that i removed a few wire-harnesses and things and unbolted the steering column mount. but than i wasn't somhow able to find the other screws where the dashboard was mounted..

 

i got out all the green things and screws but wasn't sure if the orange ones where right and didn't find the red ones at all, because there where so many wires and brackets...

 

So after a few hours i got really tired and because today was one of those maybe last nice fall days i decided to get my other beauty out for a ride before snow starts to fall. It always makes my heart jump when i hear this spoon intake combined with a toda exhaust mainfold and a tanabe catback system rev up to 9k rpm up those hills.... aaah :) and of course i had my camera with me:

 

now i'll have to study those service manuals a bit more so hopefully i'm able to remove the dashboard, or at least a bit more next time :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Decided to work a bit more on the dashboard today and somehow i managed to find and get out all the screws. the dashboard is still in but i can move it now. need to disconnect a few connectors and things but im lucky with today's results. didn't make a lot pictures. but thought this one was cool :)

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

on we go :)

 

I decided to do some research on the year model today, because i want to buy some parts and im not sure which year my car is. i still wait for the documents. i found this homepage:

http://datsun-240z-b...yers-guide.html

 

but it just made me more confused, because my car seems to have a few early and a few later model parts.. maybe the last guy who worked on the car mixed up parts a bit?

maybe differences also depend on the country as this is an european model and the buyers guide is from australia i think..

here a few indicaters:

 

1) Valve cover - shows "Nissan OHC"

 

2) heater threads in the rear-hatch-glass - are vertical

 

3) headlight-surrounding - seems to be a Fibre-glass construction according to the crack:

 

4) also i have those storage-bins behind the seats (See older pics)

 

anyway. im still not sure. hope the documents arrive soon...

 

continued on the work a bit:

 

First i removed the glove-box to get better acces behind the dashboard for disconnecting all wires and hoses:

 

then i tried to pull the dashboard out.. nah - it's not out yet, but almost. i need to remove a few lines from the heater control. but then i think that damn dashboard will come out :)

 

that's it for today.. only one point:

 

i was wondering a bit on those different styles on front winkers. I'd like to go for the bigger under-bumper winker lights. Because i need to replace the complete front under valences anyway. does anyone have any information on the different winkers? Is the difference coupled with a year-model or why are there different models?

here is my version:

[JDMjunkies.ch]

whoop, that damn dashboard came out today :D How lucky i am now :D

 

 

then i started deconstructing the A/C system, but after i removed the blower i wasn't able to remove the big thing in the middle because i hadn't access to the screws in the rear. i decided to refer to the manual first before i continue..

 

So i continued with the Audio system. Because i made an apprenteship as audio / Video technician once i can say the guy who built this system didn't really have a lot of an idea of car hifi systems :D

 

And that's how i ended up today. there's still an Amplifier mounted under the firewall but wasn't able to get it out now. will do that later..:

 

Still studying the age of my car, but sadly the only information i found in the glove box was this:

 

well i think i have to search more intense :D

[gokiburix]

 

 

i was wondering a bit on those different styles on front winkers. I'd like to go for the bigger under-bumper winker lights. Because i need to replace the complete front under valences anyway. does anyone have any information on the different winkers? Is the difference coupled with a year-model or why are there different models?

here is my version:

 

 

We didn't get those style of "winkers" or turn signals...we got the integrated ones in the grill and the 240z style under the headlights.

 

That seems to be a euro version?

[JDMjunkies.ch]

yeah, i figured out the original turn signals where to "low" after a new law came to europe in the seventies in which turn signals had to have a minimum height. that's why so many integra drivers have problems with the winker-heights after lowering their cars over here :P anyway. i need to replace those lower panels anyway because the whole driver side is broken, so i will replace those panels with USDM ones and buy some turn signal assemblies. i've seen a few with the non-europe front end here in switzerland so shouldn't be a too big problem. The good thing is that law isn't that hard for oldtimeres over here so i do not have to expect big problems just because of the turn signals :)

 

Im currently sourcing a lot of parts and things. so we'll see what im able to source in the world of z-shops and internet auctions :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Wow, thing's progressing here, every day i learn so much about the Z - it's amazing :)

 

1) I started to remove the heater core today, but i got some kind of bad Pain in my neck so after probably 15 minutes i had to stop the work. anyway, the heater core is loose but i need to unbolt the two hoses before i can get out the whole heating / venting system out of my car. then the most of the interieur is luckily out :) sadly i forgot to make pictures today...

 

2) i was abit afraid of the fact that i probably couldn't be able to do most of my work at home, because i have no car lift and no special tools in my garage. but after reading david Lovett's amazing S30Z build thread (im reading the other ones often too :D) for the second time i was pretty sure i will somehow be able to strip the whole car including engine and subframes in my garage. maybe not as easy as in a professional garage, but i think it will work with the help of some friends :)

 

3) Thanks to the input of Member HS30-H in my JNC Build thread i was able to find out my car is acutally a rare swiss market car, not an imported US-Model. cool :)

How i know this? On the glove box liner there are three japanese katakana characters (ス イ ス) which means Su-I-Su and stands for Suisse, see here:

 

that's his input:

As a 'Suisse' market car, you will find that it has many similarities with the north American market 'HLS30'-prefixed models, but also many differences. I would expect a nice close ratio 5-speed transmission ( FS5C71-A judging from your photos ) and a 3.9:1 Diff ratio. It will also have stiffer springing, damping and ARBs than the north American market versions, and a faster steering rack ratio too. It's a rare model of '240Z', and worth appreciating it for that.

 

 

Actually my engraved Serial number is: HLS30-56801 and yeah, i have a 5-speed manual gearbox. And of course another difference to the US-Model is the different front end with higher and smaller turn signals :) Now i know so much more about my car. thanks HS-30H you know really a lot :)

 

Hopefully my neck will be better again on saturday so i can contine with the heating system and start deconstructing the body :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just two things today:

 

1) Got the heater core out, hopefully I'll be able to get my tar mats out tomorrow with the dry-ice method. A buddy of mine will come over and give me some help :)

there still was some rusty old water in the heater core..

 

that's how it looked when all was out - it's getting clean inside :) in the meanwhile i also removed the relays and the ugly plush in the drivers side foot area..

 

Sadly one of the heater hoses is broken:

 

2) Luckily i managed to find a date stamp on one of the relays in the drivers side foot-area. it tells me the part was quality checked on 27th November in 1971. As HS30-H mentioned, it might be a november 71 build, but i researched a bit on the web and it might even be a january 1972 build.. but anyway, it was for sure registered in switzerland in the first half year of 1972:

more coming soon :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

So, today it was time to remove all tar-mats and sound-deadening mats by using the dry ice method.

Danny, a friend of mine came over to give me a hand and have a couple of beers :)

 

1) Cleaned out the car well:

 

2) Then i bought 6kg's dry-ice pellets (16mm) and a rubber hammer. I got the dry ice at the local pangas shop for about 33$ including Packing

 

3) filled in the stuff into the car and waited about 20-30 minutes until i heard the mats began to crack..

 

4) Hacked around with the rubber hammer on the tar mats and after that the came out really good in big pieces with a hammer and a spatula.

here's my friend danny working on the mats.

 

5) and here you can(t) see me working on the drivers side.

 

Made a big mess, but i will clean it up on monday and then you'l get some picures of the result. I think the method works pretty well, but after all it still took us about 2-3 hours.

anyway, it's done now :)

[datrod]

looks good man, where exactly are you located at??? you showed one picture of the frotn swaybar, it looks like someone has done metal replacement under the front rails, could be good or bad depending on the extent of the repair and the skill of the welder. also whats the deal with the rear quarters around the wheels? those dont look stock, looks like someone has cut and redone those as well. closer pics of the rear quarters please.

 

There is something going on with the rear wheel wells. Some work has been done there.

 

Looks like your going to have some fun with this one. Thanks for all the pic's I'm going to be watching this build. :D

[JDMjunkies.ch]

so, i allready got a lot of t hings done i wanted to do tomorrow, but i think that's nothing bad :)

 

The biggest part of today was cleaning out the mess from yesterday's dry-ice action and work on some details.

After an hour of cleaning, vacuuming and filling a complete garbage-bag with crap again the car looked like this:

 

I Like <3

 

After the big cleaning was complete, i decided to do some other things i had in mind for a few days now, so i...

... removed the plastic covers behind the steering wheel

... removed the footrest rubber-cover

... removed all those Rubber-things in the floor-pans (Does anyone know what they're used for?)

... removed the wiring harness in the front, Antenna wire plus Audio wires complete

... removed the numberplate-lighting in the rear bumper

and at the end she looked like this inside:

 

So, interieur is almost done now. Next steps will be to remove the pedals and steering column, and then I'll begin to replace the Exterieur with the USDM / JDM Front end. When everything fits i'll start to take the exterior apart.