But a project is never done 😉
I just realized I never posted pics of the car all back together and back on the road. So here come a massive pic dump.
I finished the complete project in just over 12 months and got the car back on the road and registered in October 2021, just before hibernation. Since then I managed to drive 1000miles with no real issues.
Even though the progress was slower during summer and holiday season, I’m super happy to report that I’ve driven the first 5km to test everything. The carbs need a bit of tweaking, the brakes need a proper bleeding and some other minor stuff. But I’m super happy of where it’s at. Exactly 1 year and 23 days after I started disassembling the car. 1 year and 23 days to do a complete nut&bolt resto myself (except body work). Every part, nut and bolt on this car was either cleaned, painted, coated, renewed, changed, modified,…
So here are a few pics of the last months in chronological order:
Another motivation milestone: the engine is in. Just the engine, no ancillaries, no gearbox, no…
Just needed to see it in there. Stay tuned for the June recap soon…
As I got the yellow ’70 to a point where I really enjoyed driving it around it was time to make a decision. Keep it as it is for at least 1 more summer or to bite the bullet and start my adventure of a nut&bolt resto/rebuild.
I decided it was now or never, parked the car in our shared car shelter and got the tools out. I started with the engine and the interior so I had a rolling shell until a later state. My goal was to get everything out of the car, EVERYTHING except the front and rear glass. As I’m to afraid to break the 1970 glass and as I’m to unsafe to get it back in after the paint once has dried, I talked to the ‘classic’ bodyshop guys. I arranged they would take it out an put it back in after their metal and paint wizardry was done.
In the front of the cabin you can see the only remains of the original ‘universal blue’ paint the car was delivered in.
Oh, I’m really not looking forward putting the window mechanism or the opening/locking mechanism back in the doors!
Last but not least I got the axles and suspension components out of the car
I ordered some scaffolding pipes and clamps and fabricated a rolling jig. This way it can easily be adjusted to later projects, disassembled for storage, extended,… And it is sturdy enough to be rolled on/off a car trailer.
The shell is now ready. Just waiting for ‘SLG Classic Cars’ to call me. As soon as they have a free spot, we will bring my car to their shop. The shell will then be media blasted, epoxy primered, rebuilt (where needed), prepped, painted, …
By now I’m like 95% decided on the final color, but this changed like 50 times during the last months.
As a color recap:
1970- approx 1991: Datsun universal blue 903
1991-2020: RAL1028 melon yellow
2020-forever: Datsun 907 or Datsun 920
It just has to be an original 1970 S30 color and I narrowed it down to racing green or safari gold.
These colors were available in 1970: 901 Silver gray (metallic) ; 903 Universal blue (metallic) ; 904 Kilimanjaro white ; 905 Monte Carlo red ; 907 Racing green ; 918 New sight Orange ; 919 Sunshine yellow ; 920 Safari gold
As I want to have these post in chronological order, here a little catch up for the months of July-September.
Biggest change and quite a questionable one was to retrofit original Hitachi SU carbs. Building this car by the expression: “keep it stupid simple” As the SU are so easy to live with, easy to tune,… I decided to ditch the DCOEs. IMHO the driveability was less good as my SU equipped 1973 240Z, performance wasn’t any better with the Webers (on a stock engine) and the mileage was way worse. On the positive side there was the looks and the noise, but that wasn’t enough to convince me.
So I found and bought a set of quite early Hitachis and installed them asap
Airbox and heatshield were mounted shortly after tuning.
I installed some front camber top hats which lowered the front by another 15mm and resulted in a more even drop front to rear.
Got in touch with these awesome guys, but more on that later
An somewhere mid September I drove the car for the last time before ending it’s 2020 driving season.
Before tearing the car completely apart sometime next year, I’m trying to repair, retrofit, modify, optimize a few things.
As the car wasn’t that nice to drive, so first thing was to remove the cut springs and replace them by some new ones of the same brand. Of course it now looks to high, imho, but it drives way better. Cut springs had no preload at all, and no real travel, as the slightest compression would let it sit on it’s bumpstopts.
I also removed the slightly worn steering wheel and fitted my Nardi ‘deep’ wich I had laying around. I’m not sure what steering wheel I’ll mount after the resto.
Ordered and mounted some Ramair filters for the DCOEs and repaired the water temp.
I sourced a non series 1 driveshaft, moustache bar and rear transverse link. This is all thats needed to change the rear drivetrain to the later geometry. While at it I also changed the diff support for a hangingt RT diffmount. No more straps or rubber bumbers for Tosbo.
In my quest to optimize the driving sensation a bit more, the car needed a rear swaybar. As it hadn’t any at all. I ordered a complete ST suspensions swaybar set from the US.
And I played with wheels, a lot 😉 Work, Rotas, Konig and JBW
Removed the bumperettes.
Oh, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Now I’m waiting for some camber tops for the front axle and the car definately needs an upgrade in the seat department!
Big news, I acquired a second Datsun 240Z. At the end I couldn’t resist any longer and had to buy this yellow beauty from my best mate!
So a few months ago my mate Yves decided to sell it, what a bad decision 😉 I hesitated to long, and it was pretty much sold, but I’ve been given a second chance and now it’s mine. Couldn’t be any happier.
1970 series 1 240Z, originally in universal blue, but refinished 30+ years ago in yellow.
Cool story bro: Back in 2004 (or was it 2005) this particular car was my first real encounter with a 240Z. I knew since circa 2003 that I would love to own one, but as they aren’t really common here in Europe this yellow and a purple one which was parked just next to it where the first S30 I really laid my eyes on. Even took 3 picture of it back then, so here is one of them.
And yes it’s 100% the same car my best buddy bought about 13-14 years later.
I’ll drive it ‘as is’ for at least this summer, which gives me time to establish a plan for it’s ‘nut&bolt’ resto.
As my blue 240Z now has Work Equip wheels I instantly mounted my 14″ wheels:
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