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car is officially registered and insured so i spent the weekend trying to button up a few things to make it a bit more "street friendly". did managed to put about 10 miles on it. I have a few things i need to address before racing it but it drove on the street decent. After the initial drive. did a nut and bolt check. then did like 4, did another check, and then another 6ish and everything is looking good. Got the driver mirror on. I wasn't 100% confident id like the round mirror so i designed and 3d printed an adapter to use the factory holes in the door rather than drill new holes i'd regret later. Its growing on me. I may buy a better quality mirror but the round is looking decent. Will still hook up electronic boost control but for now i just put 10psi springs in the wastegate and gave it a vacuum source. When I moved the strut towers back and inboard, i forgot to modify the hood to accept the new position of the strut tops so I designed and machined strut top spacers to push the adjuster down and hopefully clear the hood. I could make them a little thicker as i still have some ride height adjustment on the coilover but i think this will be enough. I'll go slow when closing the hood for the first time. I hooked up the hood release cable. decided to be a little fancier and routed it thru the wiper cowl instead of having the cable extend all the way across the engine bay. need to make a new handle for the cable pull as mine is MIA. Got the hood hinges cleaned up and painted black. fedex lost my order for replacement couplers to move my air filter to clear the hood tension bars so i didnt get the hood on this weekend.

Haven't done a whole lot to the Datsun, but it's partially due to lightened sense of urgency. I've officially moved back to the use so I feel less rushed to get things done. Mexico was great for four years and time will tell if I regret leaving. I loved living there and will probably be making constant comparisons but mostly moved back for a better job and being closer to family. I bought a boring daily for commute duties. Still debating if I should have just committed to something much much cheaper with a bit more character, but I've enjoyed it so far and it already got me about 3k miles on my summer road trip. Didn't do the summer road trip in the Datsun due to a coolant leak. Was already doing some summer practices and parades with my new students so I didn't have a chance to track it down and didn't want to risk such a long drive in the well above average July heat. Finally had more time and still couldn't track down the coolant leak. It was only happening when hot, so figured I'd retorque the head bolts and see if it helped. Head gasket seemed like an unlikely failure right now, but I installed the block completely untouched so I figured it might help. Most of the nuts on the arp studs moved about 45-90 degrees to get them to spec! I power washed some of the greasy parts of the engine bay afterwards in case I still had the coolant leak to make it easier to track down. Seems bone dry after about a half hour drive. Don't know if they weren't retorqued after initial heat cycles and have just slowly gotten worse or maybe the head gasket is actually failing but I think it'll at least hold me over until I finally rebuild properly with more adequate compression and a better cam for earlier boost.

well, you could look it all up on their website plstics4performance. The hatch glass actually isn't flat, it has a crown to it. It isn't just plexiglass. it is Polycarbonate, with a special hardened coating, and the vents and everything are a custom deal. I wanted it professionally done. I waited for you to volunteer to do it for me, but you never did, so.... Yes it is made in England. Cheers.

Started working on the cradle this weekend. Laine’s design was a good starting point, had to change some of the angles to work around the apex subframe bracing, but it looks like the 1-1/2” square tubing will work. I’ve got it tacked together now to test fit. I need to do some more measurements and figure out the where to put the vertical part and the correct angle. Hopefully get it wrapped up next weekend and then test fit the motor the following weekend.

08-14-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE/. Plastics 4 Performance has sent the final draft for my polycarbonate rear hatch "glass" for my approval. It is ready for production! The vents are to give the car an even more open air feel, which is what I want with this build. should look pretty cool. 8/32 bolts will be around the edge with a thin rubber layer between it and the lip on the hatch. Ferrari uses the vents for engine heat.....I used them because I like the look and as I said the open air feel.......no glass at all looks too unfinished to my eye. PICS: