My Swiss 1972 S30 240Z rebuild project

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Finally, yeah F I N A L L Y i'm cranking up the project agiain. After moving my home, saving some money for the bodyshop and preparing a lot of things i got back to work on my Z. Oh how i've missed it..
I spent two afternoons in the garage taking out the rear-end. It's quite a bit of pain if you don't have a rattle-gun or a car lift. However it's done now and i'm happy:
Before:


After:


and out it is:


Next was the handbrake assembly and the diff upper mounting-belt:




Out they are:


so now the only parts left on the second chassis are the fuel and brake lines as well as a few torn-off screws wich i need to drill out.

However, the good news don't stop here:
Next weekend my welding-guru Stev will drop by with his skills and tools and help me build a chassis-jig so i'll be able to roll the chassis on a transporter because i saved some money and the Panel-beater guy is already waiting for me giving him a call. GREAT NEWS! Also i've planned to start assembly and resetoring of the heaps of parts laying around in my garage soon so be prepared for more frequent updates again soon! 

 

[anth]

Always love seeing updates on your build, Nils!

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Here we go, another update:
removed the brake and fuel lines from the car:


Then i bought some wheels for the rolling chassis-jig we're planning to build on saturday.


Next was cleaning the garage. Before:


After:


And this is how the car looks today. ready for the bodyshop:

[JDMjunkies.ch]

If there is one guy i can't thank enough when it comes to my project this is my Datsun-buddy Stev which has been superhelpful. He came by my place today and spent 8 hours working for a free pizza and some money for the fuel. How often does this happen to anyone? THANK YOU SO MUCH, STEV!! You're an awesome guy with a great taste in cars :)
So that's what we (aka HE) did today:
1) He brought a bunch of pre-cut steel bars to create a rolling chassis jig, so i'll be able to move my car easy onto a trailer to get it moved to the bodyshop:


2) then he took out his welder and started welding up the stuff with his awesome skills :)


Building the Jig included also the usage of a Metal saw which he brought with him:


and even more welding:




3) this is wat we (he) ended up with, it's a perfect thing and exactly what i was looking for. Well done stev!!!


4) took us a while to get the chassis moved onto this jig, but it's great and i can roll the chassis around super-easy now and the brakes on the weels also makes it able to lock the position:






4) thanks to his super awesome skills i talked him into helping me drill some old sheared-of and broken screws out of the chassis and get the threads recut. Here he's preparing the sheared of screws:


and redrilling them:


5) I got him working in all kind of funky positions. There sure will be some pain in the muscles tomorrow :)




THANK YOU AGAIN STEV, SO MUCH! Thanks to his work he saved my probably three months of hassling around with various stuff!
The chassis is now ready for the bodyshop. Just need to organize a transporter and a date with the panel-beater. This is awesome and the biggest step in the project since i bought the car! I hope for more updates soon!!

 

[skyblue]

Great progress man!

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Got some great news!
A good fellow of mine, which owns several old Honda classics (one who used to belong mr Honda's son!!) and is the owner of world renowned Car painting company www.Autolackprofis.ch offered me to paint the car for a good price when they have a free spot.

You might not know this company but it's a car painting company which uses to do world class paintjobs for Concours d'elegance cars.
They regulary do paint cars which get shipped from all over the world for paint and then get exhibited at Pebble beach and so on.

I think this says enough. First class paintjob can be expexted. Really happy with this good news :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Just a small update for today:
1) Secured the chassis jig for safety reasons and easier moving. Front:


And rear:  Needed to create these "Spacers" from a metal-tube because the threads stop halfway on the bolt, but this solution solves the problem nicely :)


2) I finally Set up the "assembly bench" in the basement of my new home, which lets me work on smaller stuff while the chassis is at the bodyshop. As you can see next on the list is still trying to polish a few pieces (ashtray and stuff) as well as starting assembly of the Steering rack assembly :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Yesterday the project maybe made the biggest move forward since i have these two cars: I broucht one of the chassis to the bodyshop, so finally - yeah FINALLY! - the project is getting serious :) But let's start in the beginning:
Last week i started with some last preparation work:
1) Test-fitted the Overfender just because i realized i haven't done that yet :)


2) Removed some door hardware:




3) Also removed the doors which i've left on the car for the sake of missing space in my garage :)




4) I also prepared a bunch of documents for the bodyshop guy, like a few prints with measures of the body and a catalogue with available body- and repair panels in case if i need to order something :)


5) Then decided to take a few detailsed "Before" fotos for documentations sake:












6) And then finally the day came yesterday when i had arranged a date to get the car delivered to my bodyshop-guy. The day started like this:


7) After uncovering the white first (now spareparts) chassis i moved the black one out of it's comfort-zone to but it to a bit of sunlight first time after two years :)




8)Then put the white chassis back into th e garage first time in two years to have it save before snow falls and to have it ready to cut spareparts for the bodyshop if needed :)


9) Then i had to wait for the Car-hauler to come, but he was a bit late due to an emergency-call so i decided to clean the space in front of my garage from all the jung, leaves and dirt that have collected during the past years underneath my white car:


There she's waiting....


10) Then finally the Hauler showed up and despite having some concerns if everything will work fine i was really surprised the car was loaded after 5 minutes and tied down. This guy was a real pro and well experienced :)








11) After a 5 minute drive the car was unloaded at the bodyshop. It's now waiting in the "cleaning room" and after cleaning will be moved next door for bodywork. I've spent like 2 hours with the bodyguy and he seems exactly what  i was looking for. He's an experienced chassis builder (not only panel beater) which is perfect due to the fact i need extensive chassis repairs and finishing not only small repair patches :) Plan is to have the chassis done within a year. i hope this works as planned :)


12) He also gave me a few JDM-books for reading which i thought was worth a foto and really exciting :) The bodyshop is close to my home so i plan to have a look there every now and then and update you with pictures. and of course i'll get some other stuff done in the meantime. so watch out for updates :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

My Friend René (which is also the guy to paint my car once it's ready) recently sent me a picture of a Datsun colour code brochure, joking he's preparing to paint my car :)


I thought this might be  interresting for you guys so i asked him to send me more pictures:  Here we go:


In Case if you're wondering, i'll stick with the #904 white, chich is also Called Kilimanjaro white according to some sources.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Yves, my panelbeater / Bodyshop guy keeps updating me every few days with pics of his work. as you can see there is a LOT of work :)
however i thought i'd share the pics with you, might have some interresting views inside a Z you usually won't see on a complete car. Before:


After:


he started work on the passenger front end and is now working around the car. Before:


After:


some leftovers :)


These are the pics i got today: from the Air channel on the passenger side. Before:   


And removed. some rust inside...


some shitty previous repair attempts:


Alsoi'm currently looking for a new roof. found some but actually it's a bit hard to find one who ships to switzerland or is for a reasonable price. if anyone has a good idea where to get a nice roof cut or roof skin without sunroof, please let me know! (can be used as well)



Will visit the bodyshop soon and make some better pics with my camera. those pics above are all made by yves, the Bodyshop-guru with his cellphone :)

 

[JDMjunkies.ch]

While Yves is going crazy on the body i'm doing my homework as well. But let's see...
Most of the work i'm doing now is research. I need to replace all the worn, weak, corroded, sheared of and damaged bolts, nuts and screws on my car so i tried to figure out what bolts there are. was a bit hard to figure out until my friend and fellow Datsun Z Owner Nils sent me a few very useful links. here we go:






Check these Links if you want more information. there's even a bigger and better list with every single bolt pictured and measured!!
http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/98751-suspension-bolts-inventory
Nils also pointed out to be sure tu use at least 10.9 grade bolts for all the subframe stuff for safety reasons!

If you're looking for the bolts in the rest of your car (engine etc), you can get them here:
http://mmsacc-stainless.com/html/Datsun.htm
or  here:
https://zcardepot.com/
They have various kit including this "master kit" which includes all the bolts minus the subframe (i didn't find any kits for these, but with above information it isn't too hard to create your own kit). I think the master kit looks good:


While working on this i also started to rework some random stuff:
Cleaned uo the inside of the Steering rack which the powdercoater messed up slightly. Will take it to the office tomorrow where i have a powerful airgun to blow ot the debris inside:


Collected a few parts from the front subframe / And starting to figure out how it all comes together :)


Started to clean some random stuff, like the inner shifter boot. Before:


After (washed it in warm water with soap, and then added some Petrolium-lube (Vaseline) to keep the ruber material smooth.


Put chassis number one back on Jacks:


And sterted to dig through the piles of parts i have to collect a box full of pieces which will go out to sandblasting and yellow-zinc plating when i've got together enough pieces.


Still have some work to do now but i'll keep you updated as soon as the big news come :)

 

[freb_mc]

I love seeing updates to this build, the level of detail is impressive. Sadly I can't have a multi-year build, I don't have the attention span. 

 

How do you get the gold/yellow zinc plating done? Who can do this? I've never heard of it being redone, is it expensive? This is the kind of detail that puts a restore over the top

[JDMjunkies.ch]

I love seeing updates to this build, the level of detail is impressive. Sadly I can't have a multi-year build, I don't have the attention span. 

 

How do you get the gold/yellow zinc plating done? Who can do this? I've never heard of it being redone, is it expensive? This is the kind of detail that puts a restore over the top

Thanks mate :D I dont have that attention span either, that's why i break it up into small projects :P

Regarding the zinc plating: Any Galvanizing company that does zinc plating should be able to do that. i found a several in my Area so shouldn't be hard to find.Most of them offer zinc plating by galvanizing in blue or yellow colours as well as what we call "fire-zinc-plating" which is basically dipping the parts into melted zinc (not the same quality). A lot of these companies also offer service like sand-/Mediablasting and other coatings. like rechroming and stuff.

 

Have some exciting updates to come soon - stay tuned :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Progress is huge currently and i could'nt be happier :)
Lets start where the last pics from the bodyshop ended: Yves sent me an update on the front air ducts. Man i love his fabrication skills and im happy the old shitty repair attemts are completely removed and replaced by proper bodywork: I'll let the picuteres speak for themselfes:






I did some work as well: Started with removing the old shells from the Front Lower control arm bars (LCA's). There is a great manual here:
http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/frontcontrolarm/index.html
Before:


At work (it's quite a bit of a hack job):




Out it is:


As you can see there is still a lot of old lube inside (the yellow stuff):


So i took my favourite dremel tool and cleaned the mess. way better :)


Then worked after the energy suspension manual to install the bushings. First add lube to prevent the clean metal from corrosion and make installation easier:


And finally they're installed. Still needs a bit of cleaning at the end :)


Oh also went to the garage and vacum cleaned chassis number one :)   


And last but not least installed the Nissan E-FAST tool which is great for looking up original drawings and part numbers. You can get it here:
http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html       

[JDMjunkies.ch]

I've been doing a lot of reasearch on small bits and pieces and ordering a lot of bolts, nuts, washers, spacers and stuff. So no pictures to show you from my side untill the parts arrive here. It's kinda hard find all the right partnumbers in  Nissan E-Fast and than find Nissan Replacement partnumbers on a Homepage like this (great Page for finding replacement numbers! www.online-parts.co.uk/nissan/ ).
However I have big news soon. And at least my Bodyshop guy Yves from M.U.C is constantly updating me with pictures so i can show you some progress on the body:
He started to repair the passenger side inner wheel well. Before:


During repair:




Done


Same on the other side:








A work of art, as usual :)
Today he started work on the frame rail. Pretty rotten. good thing i Have NOS Nissan frame rails ready to get built in :)

 








more updates soon again  i hope. even from my side :D

[anth]

looking good, Nils! Your car is in good hands, it's great to see so much progress after being in the planning stages for so long

[JDMjunkies.ch]

looking good, Nils! Your car is in good hands, it's great to see so much progress after being in the planning stages for so long

Thanks mate, always appreciate your feedback :D Have some big news coming soon as well from my side :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Today i got an early christmas surprise :) I decided to change my plan regarding the bolts and take the easiest possible way. Finding all the approximately 300 Different nuts, bolts, washers and springs in the correct size, threads, coating, lenght, strength etc at a hardware supplier is a pain in the ass. Specially because some of them are custom made only for Nissan. So i thought the simplest way is just print all the part numbers out of the nissan E-Fast tool, and place a big order at the local nissan dealer...
Well it wasn't that easy. But this is what i got today:


In fact i had to find replacement partnumbers for the original obsolete parts and at the end this are all the original parts still available from nissan europe. Also checked with nissan japan. they only had one nut more :) So At the end i have at least 60% of all the steering rack and front subframe assembly / Suspension bits together. All the standard pieces will be bought from a big hardware store and the custom made bolts like the transaxle mounting bolts will be cleaned and recoated / zinc plated because they still look nice!


Yesterday i also visited My Bodyguy Yves from M.U.C who is working on my chassis. Not much changed since he last sent me an update but talked a lot to him and had a closer look at his work:


So much better than before:


This is the current state of the car. As you can see on the floor i dropped of the NOS Frame-rails i got a while ago so he can replace the rusty and patched up ones. So happy to have these items even if they cost me a kidney :P


Prepare for another big update coming this weekend :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Got a huge truck by my house yesterday which brought me a big Plywood box from USA directly from the Airfreight-carrier :D Heavy duty stuff :P


It contained a part both my chassis didn't have in needed quality and which i've been looking for for a while now.. But finally Thanks to an ebay auction from a great guy called Kevin i finally have a straight Roof without any sunroof-patch-repairs or a ton of bondo. Even the roof liner inside si there. Great news and big thanks to the seller :D
Will completely unpack it when needed for easier storage :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

My Job forced me to work in sunny Brazil for almost two weeks and when i came home i had a terrible cold. So updates were rare. However it's christmas time and i got some cool stuff:
Thanks to my mate stev i got a printed version of the S30 Service manual:


and thanks to my lovely girlfriend i got a nice air-compressor as a christmas gift. Wow, something i've wanted to buy for a while but always spent the money on other things :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Progress has been a bit slow lately with me being busy with christmas-stuff and working and yves, the bodyshop guy being stuck in other small customers works. However i'm working hard on finding a solution (aka a useful shop) for galvanizing my bolts and it seems i just found one. And somehow i found the time to order a few more bolts, nuts, springs, fasteners and other stuff for the project. This time the fasteners are for the engine- and transmissionmounts. Great stuff. Now will make a next big order for the rear subframe bolts. we be slightly bigger :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

Jepp, progress is currently a bit slow because i'm still working on a lot of research stuff and the weather is cold and snowy over here (and you know my garage is unheated).
However got some small stuff done again: Ordered a big bunch of OEM Nissan Nuts, Bolts, washers and springs for the rear subframe assembly. Still a few missing they will be delivered delayed.


Also finally got a little update from Yves over at MUC. He's currently preparing for exchanging the Genuine frame-rails i brouth him a few weeks ago (See below):IMG-

[skyblue]

Damn totally jealous of your nos frame rails.

[JDMjunkies.ch]

haha yeah, that was a lucky, but expensive find :)

[JDMjunkies.ch]

It seems like every post i write starts with a "finally". So this one is no different: Finally some Assembly work started. After many years of taking parts apart and cleaning them, finding replacement and doing research - i started the assembly of the Steering rack-and-pinion system. This is how it started (Note the new workdesk light i installed also :D)


I highly recommand using these Surface cleaning pads (pot cleaners) for removing old dried-out grease, slight s urface rust and dirt. Works brilliantly and is super cheap and easy to get :)


Also love my  new multi-purpose grease pump :)


It's so much fun cleaning all the little bits like the grease seal seen here:




Looks like i didn't do a lot but after two hours of cleaning surfaces, degreasing, re-greasing a lot of bits and puzzling it all together i ended up  like this :)  Still need to get a few parts zinc-plated before i can complete the assembly but at least i have something like an almost-finished steering rack :)


Then bought a simple spring-scale from an online auction so i can make sure to have all the parts within specifications as mentioned in the service manual. No the most high-tech thing but it was cheap and wil do the work for me ;)


Also got a little delivery with some Nissan OEM Fasteners that were on back-order. Now have most of the parts ready for a full subframe re-assembly with all new OEM bolts. still need to get a few replated but most of the parts are ready. this will be fun :)


Also got some updates from the bodyshop. He's currently working on the Framerails, battery-tray area and the passenger-side firewall. I'll let the pictures speak. please note that most of the work is not completed yet, so it might look a bit like a hackjob - but you have to wait until it's done :)














That's it for now. hope go get the parts ready for zinc-plating soon because this will give me all t he missing fasteners i need to move forward with the subframe assembly...   Now taking a day off and go to the Zoo :)