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Got the the hood and inspection covers on. Happy

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.

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:

Finally had the time to head south and pick up the replacement transmission and enjoy a cup of coffee while we were at it. And what better way to pick up a transmission for the broken one in your Z then with said Z! 😂 All jokes aside she still drives fine except for a worn out syngro on second gear and a missing fifth gear. The replacement gearbox is a >80’s FS5W71B 5-speed from a 280ZX that’s been in storage for a long time. I’ll be ordering some new seals and transmission oil before switching out the gearboxes for some peace of mind.

Hi All, I have been restomodding my very first Z (early 260), and probably did things way out of order. Got the car (rusty, needed work, half disassembled but told the engine would run, gas tank in the hatch, no airbox, etc) and it went straight into body and motor work/build. I wish I had gotten it running first, to appreciate how it ran and handled, but the rust gave me pause, so I went the full resto route first. All that said, this is not my first engine build, but my first L series and first car with carbs. Now that it's done, I need to work out what's keeping it from running better. The motor is a frankensteined together L28 (F54 block, N47 head), roughly 9.2:1 CR based on (Priddy - Cometic) head gasket and (flat top) piston combo. Steve Bonk stage 1 cam, stock hitachi/SU carbs (rebuilt with SM needles and rebuild kit from ZTherapy), cleaned up balance tube with N36 intake manifolds. Early 280zx close ratio 5sp trans,3.9 R200 rear end, stock (l28 appropriate) clutch/flywheel combo. The shop that did the body/resto work dropped the motor in, and got it running, but it I'm pretty sure it should be running a lot differently (read: better). It's idling around 5-600 rpms, lumpy, and feels pretty underpowered considering it's a light car with a modded L28. Did the break in drive in which I didn't take it over 5k RPMs, ran it decently hard with solid acceleration and engine braking across gears to seal the rings, did the oil first oil change, and all that jazz. This is where you come in - I'm hoping that someone here who knows the L series is up for a half day of walking me through confirming that the (mechanical) timing is set right (the easy part, I've done this with my other cars but appreciate a second set of eyes), then wants to help me make sure I don't do anything stupid trying to set the idle and balance the carbs. Looking to learn from one of you gurus so I'm not messing up a fresh motor in a fresh car. Anyone in the Bay Area want to come to Novato and help me out in exchange for beer, lunch, and the opportunity to mock me while you help me learn this motor? Thanks in advance! Robert

Thank you for the kind words. Im proud of this one and cant wait to get it dialed in a bit and get to enjoy it a bit on the street and track.

$170 is a lot less than I would have guessed for shipping something that size across the ocean. I've paid half that or more for shoebox-sized boxes from Japan.

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments, it was a ton of work, now it's on to the doors, hatch and hood next. I moved the car home into my garage, as I closed down my shop for good. Hope to keep making progress

I got curious so i did this layout to approximate scale. It's not 100% accurate, but it gives you an idea of how our car sits in the world. Autos& Vehicles

Works great for me today! No issues and everything was quick to load.

https://i.imgur.com/SKO8gwQ.jpeg soldering connector did nothing, tail fuse still gets hot. i swapped pins on white connector, dome fuse is now park tail. you can really tell what is the hot fuse, color has changed

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.

A few pictures from the last time the engine was out

The front plate mid plate set-up was way easier than regular motor mounts. I originally used stock mounts, but switched to the motor plates when I decided to make it purely a track car. The front plate is 1/4" aluminum and sandwiches between the water pump and timing cover. The rear plate is .090" steel and sandwiches between the block and bell housing. The front plate on mine attached to tabs welded to tubes at the front strut towers. The mid plate is attached to two tabs welded to the frame. I use a regular rubber transmission mount. You can buy front and mid plates for the SBF that have the water pump and bell housing bolt patterns already machined. The plates come with a lot of extra material that allow you to trim to fit about anything.

work has been to busy, small update. Headlight bucket has been welded in and planished. Everything is starting to look alot better and starting to feel like an actual car again, not just pieces.

I drove the car about 3/4 of a mile around the block.... tune needs a lot of work (obviously), tires had a slight rub and it rattled a bit but was so exciting and such a relief after a year of hard work. Got the rest of the windows in as well. Wife offered to polish all the trim so I gave her some supplies and let her scrub away. also added a couple interior shots.

For anyone who's swapped or planning to a BMW S50B32, I have two special, exclusive engine covers to sell. A = usd$250 shipped B = usd$350 shipped

Before getting the top side and interior sealed up in 2 coats of white epoxy, I first hit the underside. I chose to do it in black Epoxy to more follow the original paint where you could see the black though white overspray. I first put down a full coat of the black again using my 360 degree extension paint gun to get in all the difficult location like between the spare tire well and rear valance, then a normal 1.4mm tip gun. After allowing the top to cure for two days I sanded out the bottom side and scuffed it well with Scotchbrite. I then applied 2k epoxy seam sealer in all the original OEM locations I then taped up the topside and put down a final coat of black I then let that cure for two days before applying the Gravitex. It is made by U-Pol the same company who makes Raptorliner, Gravitex is better in my opinion for the other side as it is intended as a sound insulting stone and chip guard. Its what you see on the rocker panels of German cars. Goes on the same with an undercoating style gun. Its a 1k product so I will need a sealer coat on top of it before finally paining the underside white in body color. I really happy how it came out. The weeks of metal work straitening and shrinking the original floor pans really looks good all finished.

Alright, finally got some time to make some more progress. The engine is mostly disassembled, and I have mics and a bore gauge coming to measure clearances. I am planning on a stock engine, with the oil fixes, and a bigger turbo. I am not concerned with making a ton of power; anything will be better than the stock L24, and I just want it to not blow up immediately. I am new to engine work, and have a couple of questions: 1. Does anyone have any recommendations for what size oil restrictors to use? Enjuku sells oil gallery restrictors in 0.9, 1.1, 1.3, and 1.5 mm. 2. I have googled RB25 specs for rod and piston bearing clearances, but does anyone have a trusted source that they recommend? Thanks for all the help! I have read through the site and watched a couple of rebuild videos, but I'm still not 100%, and I don't want to make a stupid mistake.

You want to do mine next?

Its been an exhausting month of hard work getting the chassis in Epoxy to move it back home before the end of the month. Here is the process. 1.) strip all factory sound deadening/undercoating with a scraper, heat gun, wire brush. 2.) clean any residue with paint stripper and after-wash solvent. 3.) strip original paint from body with Citri-Strip paint stripper - again clean with after-wash 4.) remove interior tar paper with dry ice and liquid nitrogen. 5.) wash and clean entire body with Mastercoat metal prep - phosphoric acid rust neutralizer https://nomorerust.com/collections/metal-prep-rust-remover-products 6.) sandblast all seams and overlop joints. 7.) brush Mastercoat rust sealer primer into all seams and nooks https://nomorerust.com/products/mastercoat-ultimate-permanent-rust-sealer-silver-primer-original-sprayable-slim-quart 8.) lightly blast the floor pans with white aluminum oxide until white metal 9) brush 3 coats of Mastercoat rust sealer primer on to floors 10) blast the internal frame chambers clean and blow out any sand 11) spray the internal cavities ( rocker panels, rear fenders, rear internal quarter, and front internal cowl area with Matercoat using a 18 inch long extended tip spray gun https://paascheairbrush.com/collections/extension-spray-guns?shop_consented_scopes=email%3Averified+openid+pay%3Asession_token+profile+shop%3Aaccount_uuid&shop_sign_in=true using a 360 degree spray tip to coat all surfaces 12) sand the entire body removing any Mastercoat not reaming in pits or detents 13) sand the entire external body shell and underside with 180 grit and clean with wax and grease remover 14) lightly blast entire body inside and out until perfectly clean and lightly textured to promote adheision - holding the blast nozzle 12 to 15 inches away at 60psi with white aluminum oxide 15) hours blowing out the remaining grit 16) again using 360 degree long extension spray gun, paint all internal cavities and under sides with DPLV Epoxy Primer 17) Spray entire body inside, outside, underside with 2 coats of Epoxy Ridiculous amount of hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-kogRrJYJU

It's a "little" thing, but progress.

I finally had some time this weekend to work on the Z again and finish off some of the little things that where nagging me. I finished my DIY door card project and got them installed in the car. I must say that they turned out pretty good. The only finishing piece would be to add the wood trim back in but I would have to make one myself. A few weeks ago I managed to pic up a set of Euro taillights from an original Dutch 260z that where in excellent condition. So with the remaining time I had that day I quickly switched them out. Yesterday there was a small all Nissan/Datsun meet I attended which gave me the opportunity to compare my Z with others and do up some inspiration for future modifications. Afterwards I finally had the time to take some proper pictures of the car (with the car not half apart) and cruise along the dikes. WhatsApp Video 2026-07-13 at 09.15.40.mp4

im not happy voltage drops on this thing. best would be new fuse box re-route wiper and lights. i might try easy re-pin cause common, dome and lights uses same source. if that fuse box connector is some how the issue. on dome light i have not much draw, swap dome and light pins on end of connector

so, i failed MOT. there was no brake lights. fixed that it was loose connector on brake light switch but i found that parking light fuse was burning hot, measured current draw it was 5.6amps, seems to be common problem to melt fuse box. i did my math thought aging pressed pins heat cycles might have added resistance between those two connection so i soldered every connection. as i said earlier every load has dropped voltage slightly, no load its 13.8volts, press brake and it drops 13.3V. lights on wipers on fan at full blast i remember seen under 12volts on lighter socket. lets see how it goes after this work, if that park light fuse still gets hot first aid is led bulbs

I weighed the Z with the sr20det in it and it came in at 2395. The car has changed significantly since then. I plan to corner weigh the car later this summer. I have a spreadsheet where i track parts i've installed and removed with best guess weights. I believe the car is probably around 2521lbs, give or take. I'm not sure how much my rollbar weighs (i guessed 100lbs). I would like add a full leather interior with lots of sound deadening at some point. I have been eyeing the star road aluminum body panels. My dream is to make this car the Singer of 240z for me.

you ever weighed this? I always thought a Z with a k series would have a great balance.

Oh, I think I figured it out. I do need a 3 wire bulb on the inner upper bulb to make the top two lights as brake lights. Per my first picture the 3rd wire on inner upper would be G which is shared with outer upper and outer lower, this is how early 240z's are. I need to snip top two G wires and run that to the brake output wire which I changed to GY on the picture which is Green / Yellow the color of brake switch output wire. Should look like this to make it work: