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Just judging from that picture alone, the rust situation doesn't look bad. Have often seen much worse in the inner fenderwell area. As long as the integrity of the metal isn't compromised, you should be able to do the standard neutralize and paint procedure. I like this Eastwood product for getting into frame rails and hard to reach places: https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html?SRCCODE=PLA00010&gclid=CjwKCAjwkoz7BRBPEiwAeKw3q_J7HiD9mdYO_2hO3fMdcduU45KBE7VH2shUP4yQIzkvbZgxhZ6RQhoCV6AQAvD_BwE I haven't seen many off-the-shelf patch panels for that exact area, other than the Bad Dog sway bar reinforcement plates that you already know about. For replacement radiator core support panels, there's a vendor (based in the UK) on FB that reproduces several hard-to-find S30 shell panels. I think their FB name is "Kim Mays", and I've seen their ads on a couple of the Datsun pages.

I don't have any personal experience with that particular LED conversion kit; but I have tried replacing halogen bulbs with LED bulbs. They put out a ton of light; but the beam management is usually horrible because the reflector needs to be shaped specifically to optimize the design of the specific LED bulb. As a result, you get a huge unfocused beam of bright LED light....but no real benefit in night-time driveability. The results can often be even worse than your halogen lights; and the unfocused beam is often blinding oncoming drivers. If you're looking for quality LED headlights, take a look at Dappers or Trucklites. (P.s. I'd be surprised if those particular LED bulbs fit in the stock Z headlight buckets....those big aluminum cooling fins hanging off the back of the bulb will probably interfere with the metal mounting bucket. Obviously, you could cut up the bucket if you were determined to install these.) For bargain LED headlights, I have used those eBay models. Was surprisingly pleased with both the amount of light put out and the quality of the beam. Several vendors on eBay offer them, and I've seen a variety of styles, with and without the halo. in white and other colors. Most of them are made in China. I had the plain-jane version, without the halos. My next pair of LED headlights will probably be 7" Trucklites. They seem to be a nice blend of quality and affordability.

See page 23 in the BE chapter of the FSM; attached for your ease of reference. You can download entire service manuals for all years, free, at: http://www.xenonzcar.com/ BE Body electrical.pdf

IME, it's not unusual to have play in the differential (regardless whether an R180 or R200, with various center sections). If your's is a CLSD, would a friction modifier additive help this issue you're having now while driving? If you're set on replacing it altogether, consider all the alternatives besides just OS Giken (Quaife, Cusco, etc).

As the others suggested, open it up and confirm what you've got and it's condition. This thread from NASIOC may help: https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2597453 We've also had some threads here on this topic. Here's one that may help as well: Just curious if you really need to spend a bunch of time and money on a new LSD if you don't plan to race the car. Would an open diff suit your needs? The Giken's a nice unit, but far from cheap.

They can change vendors for the same part, and maybe the web description and/or instructions haven't caught up. When I installed PU bushings (ES, IIRC) on the rear LCAs, I had to completely remove the OEM bushings (including that metal sleeve.) Hope this helps.

Yeah, you probably already know that fuel starvation is an issue under heavy g-loading....even with as much as half a tank. The fuel cell should def fix it. A small surge tank in conjunction with the stock tank is another possible solution. (Or just keep the tank at least 3/4 full all the time! ) I've had issues with fuel spilling out of the gas cap with certain locking caps, but never with the stock non-locking cap....they seem to really lock down tight and prevent any spillage even with full tank and long fast left-hand sweepers. Are you having any pressure build-up in the tank; and if so, maybe consider how you have the tank "hosed" to allow venting? Sounds like you've got a nice "to-do" list building for this winter!

And regardless of ground clearance, if your car is lowered so much that the LCAs are angled "up" (from inboard to outboard), your suspension geometry will suffer. @tube80z mentioned this, but you may not have caught it.

Maybe post a comment that you're trying to get in touch with them on the company's Facebook page. Might catch their attention and generate some activity in your direction. I've seen Ohm commenting here and there on the FB Datsun pages fairly frequently, so he still seems to be monitoring FB regularly.

Yeah...like every modification, the answer depends on what you're planning to use your car for and what types of driving conditions it will be used in. 2" of total clearance sounds like a real LIMFAC to me, but that may suffice for how you plan to drive the car. (I've seen show cars with much less than that....not very useful for driveability, but has that "stance" look that their owners strive for.) If extreme lowering is your thing, air suspension would probably be worth looking into. I've seen a couple companies that offer air kits for the S30. John Coffey posted these suspension settings several years ago, and they provide a very useful guide as a starting point for anyone:

OK, thx. If your mind is set on rear disk conversion, I would include Silvermine Motors in your search. They offer several kits to choose from and their cheapest rear kit is less than MSA and seems to give you more for your money, except for the parking brake cable brackets. Also, it's very possible that you will need/want a proportioning valve, regardless of which rear disk option you go with...even if the vendor tells you "prop valve not required". When your rear brakes are locking up well before your fronts, that's an unhappy situation. Will depend on many variables, and you may not know for sure until you've completed the conversion. You can get a decent Wilwood valve for $45. Lastly, have you read through all the FAQs threads on rear disk conversions? If not, check it out. Also, you can Google search "HybridZ rear disk conversions" and get a bunch of write-ups from people that have already installed all of these kits at one point or another.

@BJSZED, I didn't see anything in your posts regarding the intended application for the car; and why you're wanting to do any brake upgrades in the first place. Did I miss that info somewhere? Hard to give a meaningful recommendation without that.

Good for you for getting interested at an early age, and eager to do some research. In addition to BaT, I would add https://www.classiczcars.com/ and FB (Marketplace, as well as the multiple S30 enthusiast pages on FB). Occasionally, even websites like Craigslist and Offerup can yield hidden gems. Don't limit your search....these old cars are getting harder and harder to find (and the prices are going up), so you'll want to cast your net as wide as possible. Hope this helps.

If you're still looking for inspiration on chassis-stiffening, there's a few good ideas here: https://imgur.com/a/R27sh.

Ah, sorry -- did not realize you were building a caged dedicated track car. My bad. That's definitely an important part of the discussion, as well as the type and design of the cage. If the weight of the glass windshield is the main concern here, couldn't that be resolved via one of the forward cross braces? If structural integrity is the main concern, then that would be addressed via the manner in which the cage is tied into the rest of the shell (and any additional chassis bracing you have planned), true? Sorry if I'm not understanding the full scope of your query.

Looks like a full tube chassis car (couldn't tell for sure what rear suspension setup he's running); so it's an apples-to-oranges comparison....unless you happen to be building a tube chassis car as well. Can you cut specific parts/pieces of the cowl area out without significantly affecting structural integrity of the shell? Possibly. As long as the rest of the forward portion of the shell is sound, and as long as you're not cutting into any load-bearing portions of the cowl/firewall and surrounding areas. Most 50-year old S30 shells are already flimsy enough that they benefit from additional bracing even without cutting any parts out, let alone 50-year old shells that have had pieces cut from them. Depending on how much cutting you want to do, it's very likely that some kind of additional reinforcement might be required. (It also depends on how you intend to use the car. A car intended for heavy track use obviously has very different build requirements than a weekend car for pleasure-driving.) What specific areas do you want additional accessibility to that cutting the cowl area would help with? That might help to understand how much cutting you're envisioning, and just how much of a structural impact it could have. Rewiring work is really quite easy and very accessible once the dash is removed, so maybe you can accomplish your goals without having to cut any sheetmetal.

Nooooo!!! Say it ain't so, Joe! I hope you come to your senses and forget all that foolishness, Mark. 😜

I'll add another endorsement for the RT-style mount. I don't believe Ron had produced any in a while, but Technoversions still produces the unit IINM. Check it at: https://www.technoversions.com/DiffMountHome.html WRT the rear end clunking, I had a very similar (and vexing) issue with my car. Turned out to be the bushings in the rear LCAs. I know you said that yours are stock and appear to be in good condition, but when I replaced mine with some new PU bushings, it solved the problem. WRT the front end shake at speed, try swapping your front and rear wheels to check if there's any difference. Like you say, it might just be a poor job of balancing the front wheels. Look for a tire shop that can do "road force measurement" (IME most tire shops do not perform this analysis). Many times your wheel can be "in balance", but can cause shimmy and shake due to other issues that the road force measurement can detect (e.g. flat spots, wheel out of round or out of true, etc.) Lastly, go easy on the folk here if they ask for clarification or additional information. 99.9% of the folks on HybridZ have a wealth of knowledge and really do want to help fellow Z owners. You'll find the forums here much more informative and helpful than the dozens of often-uninformed comments on social media, IMHO. Good luck with it, and please be sure to post your results once you've resolved the issue so others can benefit from your efforts!

Welcome! Hope you find it as informative and helpful as I do, and be sure to post some pics of the Z when you get a chance.

I'm thinking that *something* is happening ignition-wise here. Hard to tell for sure from the multiple posts covering multiple issues.

Very likely the distributor is not in the correct position, especially if you've already removed it at least once. Fortunately, it's easy to reinstall it to the correct position. Others above have described the correct procedure, but you may be better off googling some Youtube videos on "how to install your distributor into SBC". (You can turn the engine over during this procedure with a large ratchet on the main shaft bolt....it's the big v-belt pulley on the front bottom of your engine.) Don't spend any more of your money on new parts until you've done some additional diagnosis.

Yeah, if the gauge is working correctly, then the problem is most likely in the wiring harness, as NewZed suggested. Start with the dash harness and test your connections with a multimeter. Very easy for these old connectors to begin to fail, or have a dirty connection at the terminal plugs. Poor grounds are very often the cause of electrical issues in the S30. If you conduct all your troubleshooting and still haven't resolved the issue, you can always take the easy way out and rewire your gauge into a functional switched 12V circuit and be done with it. If you don't have the FSM for your vehicle yet, you can download all years for free at http://www.xenonzcar.com/.

Not aware of any vendors that are selling just a pair of lowering springs (vs set of four); but a couple other ideas that may work for you are: 1) If you're running the stock strut isolators in the front, replace them with simple bolt-in camber plates. Should lower the front end by approx 1". Silvermine offers them at about the best price I've seen on the web: https://www.silverminemotors.com/datsun/datsun-240z/suspension/240z-260z-280z-camber-plates-bolt-in-lowering-kit 2) If you're running gas-charged strut inserts (i.e. shocks) in the front, consider replacing them with non gas-charged units. It's surprising how much static "lift" gas-charged shocks can produce vs the non-charged shocks.

I've got something along the lines of what you're thinking. Pre-built speaker cabinet that tucks easily into the rear hatch area. (Can leave the stock speaker cones in, or upgrade to higher quality if desired.) Installed a $40 multimedia car stereo unit directly into the speaker box, and wired it into the speakers....you can get an amazing amount of capability very cheaply these days. Typically run it off my phone via Bluetooth or audio cable. A 2-lead power connector (pos and neg) plugs into the cabinet and powers the unit; this line is powered via a switched electrical relay. Easy to unplug; easy to take in and out of the car. Hope this helps.

I've run starters and alternators from these guys, and have been extremely happy with the quality, price and customer service: https://www.dbelectrical.com/