jdmjunkies.ch

Long-time readers might remember i already sanded down a 240Z Rear wing in the past, but after i bought my second car i figured out the wing which came with that chassis is in much better overall condition. So i sold the first wing and decided to prepare th e second one as well. And thats what i did yesterday. Started like this: The wing had terrible multiple paintjobs from the past Started with a drill-mounetd CSD-Disk and after a while the wing looked like this. You can see the first layer was a gray primer, then golden paint. then another layer of red primer and on top the horrible black paintjob. Sanded it down as much as possible. but as soon as the disk hit the plastik i figured out the plastik is too weak for the disk. Ath this point i continued with 400grit Sandpaper and manual sanding. Wing looked like this before i ran out of sand-paper. And i looked like this will continue next week until the surface is smooth and all old primer and paint is completely gone

After i've done the Kakimoto valve cover a while a go and started several things i'm happy to announce i finally completed another (well at least a small) part of the car. The JDM 240Z fender mirrors. This was quite a story. Because it's quite difficult to find the obsolete long-base mirrors, while the short base Datsun 510 mirrors still are available in new condition. Well i wanted to have it authentic so i went the extra mile for a detail most people probably even wouldn't notice Started with a set of crappy long base mirrors i found on ebay a while ago. But sadly a lot of parts where missing and the mounts in the bottom where all rusted away... So i bought a set of new 510 short base mirrors for spareparts. then stripped the paint of the old long-bases Disassembled and Test-fitted everything and had it painted at the paintshop in the original charcoal black. Special thanks goes out to my Fellow datsun enthusiast Stefan who once again showed incredible support with his magic metal skills and was able to move the base mounts from the new 510 mirrors to the old long base version. Perfect work once again. So finally i was able to assemble the mirrors back to what is now a completed genuine set of long-base JDM Fairlady 240Z Mirrors. Couldn't be happier. One less point on the 2do-list to care about More soon...

To make a long story short, it seems like the horrible stressful summer is over for me and i finally have some time to think about private stuff like my cars. And i've really been waiting to come back to the garage... So that's exactly what i did this week. I spent several evenings over there. Unfortunately not directly ON the car but more some preparation work. Because a fellow local Datsun Z Enthusiast asked me if he could buy my sparechassis and some parts. so i had to prepare it. Here's what the rear axle looked in the beginning: and a few days later this was leftover and ready for sale along with some small other bits. then i had to prepare the chassis, mainly just cleaning it a bit, because it already was a bare shell with no single bolt left on it. (the fenders are just hung there for easy storage). Yesterday Krisztian came and picked up the shell. I'm happy for more than one reason. First and mainly i know it's in good hands and that every usable parts (and there are not many on this shell!) will be reaused and transplanted into it's new owner. So none of the usable parts will be scrapped. Second i don't have to deal with the old chassis anymore and have a lot of storage space back in the garage now And last but not least i got some money for it which will be used to bring the second chassis, which is currently at the bodyshop back to life. This is how the garage looks now. Plenty of space to clean and sort all my spareparts which currently are a bit in a messy order So plans for the next weeks are cleaning the garage and going through all my parts stored in there and get them organized better. Second i have some news regarding the mirrors which i sent for repair a while ago (will make a separate post on that topic soon) and Then i bought some parts in Japan again which should arrive here soon. So stay tuned

Nah i want to keep it original when it comes to the doors. mine only have minor rust at the bottom so why not fix it? The result will be worth the effort i guess

Picked up the three missing parts from the rust-and paint stripping company today and put the parts together on the car just to remember how the car looks when it's completed and give me a bit of motivation Of course nothing is aligned or bolted on at the moment, i just hung the parts on the car for fun Here you clearle can see previous damage, rust, welds and old Bondo on the front lower valance. i think this is the only part worth replacing. just too much damage

Few days ago i brought my Z-Bodypanels to the Company "Meier Oberflächenbehandlung Rafz" which is specialized in rust and paint removal with an alcoholic / adhesive mix. They did a very nice job and the Doltan 2K primer let's you see damage, old welds and problematic areas while preventing from new rust. Perfect. Only mistake they made was they forgot to complete thre pieces of my delivery so this friday i will go there, pick up the rest of the panels and then make the complete layout shot again. The gold colour you see is actually the Doltan 2k Primer The roof was in mint condition with no damage, old welds and most important - it never had a sunroof installed: Doors have some minor surface damage but nothing problematic: The smaller bits all were in great shape: Had to put all the parts on the car just for fun Finally looks a bit like a car again:

thanks for your kind words. Comments like these keep me motivated

I've been working for my job like crazy lately and now i have a lot of overtime. So i decided to take one day off and spend some long overdue time in the garage I've saved some money lately for bringing parts for Chemical dipping (See details below). However i had to spend two hours yesterday preparing everything. removing small bolts and bits like the chrome trim on the taillight panels: And removed: Then i collected all t he parts from My garage and my second workshop at home and somehow felt i need to make one of these cool "exploded view" pictures. Always wanted to so this was a great opportunity So i collected the parts from my two chassis and some more i bought. therefore a lot of different colours What we have is in total 23 pieces: 2x Doors 1x Roof 1x Front center valance 2x Front coner valances 2x Metal Headlight surroundings 1x Hood 1x Trunk 2x Taillight covers 1x Taillight center cover 2x Fenders 2x Access-flaps 2x Toolbox flaps 1x Hood cowl 1x Dashboard cowl 2x Mudflap metal pieces And another pic: Finally loaded and today i brought them to the specal company: Compared to most of the companies they don't use Acid for dipping but a own mixture of Solvents. Different kinds of alcohol (Rum, Tequila and Whiskey maybe? ) and they're quite famous. The advantage is that this solvend is 100% neutralized when cleaned with water at the end. so no corrosive leftovers are there at the end. The friendly staff was quite nice and told me a bit of their process. they are like 4o people and a big part of their business they're dipping complete cars and a lot of big parts. My car will get a Complete paint- and rust removal, a rust passivating as well as a cleaning and then a be primered with Doltan 2k Washprimer to prepare from new rust while waiting to be worked on / painted. I managed to take a shot from outside where you see a dipped Chassis from a different customer. It's not cleaned or primered yet. Should be able to pick up my parts within a month. This brings me a big step towareds the completed project, while this is still many years away...

I Bought them at http://www.mspeed-japan.com/ . I was looking for this Corner lights for a while but they're hell of expensive. now These (i think replicas) are OEM Quality and a lot cheaper. that's why i had to get them directly even if i don't Need them right now

Yeah i know, progress is really slow tue to the fact i'm leading a training for engineers since three weeks and that means im working all day long. however it's done soon so i hope i find time to work on the lady again. And it's also very hot these days. exceptional hot so i prefer swimming istead of working However, got a package from japan today with some nice goodies: 1) M.Speed japan Water pump pulley: 2) Aftermarket waterpump from M-speed: 3) And a nice set of corner-lights including the pigtails and seals. great deal

As regular reader, you might know i plan to bring a few panels and stuff to professional paint stripping soon so i'm preparing a few things. Talked to my bodyshop guy yves, about this and he recommanded me to open the fold at the bottom of the door to get all the rust removed and see how it looks inside. As he's the professional and i'm not i do whatever he says. First i needed some special tools. An Unfolding plier for bodyshops and a spotweld-romver drill. So this is how i started. Rusty buttom of the door but otherwise nice (note pictures are mixed up from two different doors, so don't be confused, one is a lot better then the other door is..) First removed the rubber sealing above the seal / fold with a small spatula. Then it looked like this: Then decided to remove old rust, debris and paint with a scotch and brite CSD disk. This are brilliant for that kind of work: This was the result: Next i removed all the spotwelds with the drill (sorry, forgot to make pics) and then started to unfold the fold with the special pliers: Worked out really great and after only 30 minutes the door looked like this (after another cleaning with the CSD Disk). So the doors are ready for paintstripping now

Thanks mate yeah i give my best to keep it going but things are going a bit crazy in life at the moment However the datsun competition knuckles are available through a number of sellers so no big deal to get them No big news currently since works keeps me occupied like crazy at the moment and a lot of other stuff going on. like for example got my new daily ride home: And then got a package from japan with the seatrail for the bride histrix seat into the 240Z: Next update this saturday i hope

Not a big update, but an important one: Today i got a FedEx delivery from USA, bringing me a nice set of Tabco Repair panels: I decided to buy them directly at Tabco because they're the main manfucturer of these. All the companies like zcarsource and MSA only sell tabco parts so why not get them directly at the source? Service was fine after a few mails and superfast shipping i had them at the door today. They may not be OEM-quality but i guess it's the next best thing you can buy at the moment. because i tried to source OEM rear quarters first but they seem a) impossible to find and if you find them super expsensive. so i'm happy with this solution and i'm sure my bodyshop guy will make them look like OEM panels when installed More to come soon

While waiting at the garage for a guy to come and pick up one of my spare-engines and a transmission i decided to get some work done. Unfortunately the guy never showed up so i had plenty of time to get some stuff done. Mainly preparing more panels for paint stripping 1) The hood - before: Hinges removed done 2) Completed the second pair of doors (from the white chassis): 3) Decided to also split the fenders from the second car. as you can see they're quite rusty but some stuff like the lower cowl-panels / Corners and the headlight-surroundings seemed pretty nice, so i decided to take it apart anyway and then i can choose the best from all the single-parts and scrap the rest of them Before: and after: Meanwhile i have almost all the bodypanels ready for paint stripping: And while at the garage anyway i removed the trunk hinge mounts and rubber-pockets from the white chassis: And decided to do a little test-fitting of the new cusco strut tower brace i got yesterday

Well yeah, had some big plans this week for the Z, but unfortunately a Flu hit me and i'm lying with a cold and fever in the bed fourth day in a row. However i got so bored of laying around all the time today i HAD to do something so i decided to finally unpack that roof that is standing in my entry hall since a few weeks. Before: And after unbolting a couple dozens of screws: While at it anyway i decided to strip it as well so i have that done too: Found this old matchstick box underneath the roof skin. Always fun to find old stuff: and also removed the "pockets" for the hinges: As soon as i was complete my favourite guy rung the doorbell. The Postal delivery guy Thanks to golden week holiday in Japan my package was slightly delayed, but however i got some stuf from japan again: 1) A Cusco ST-Type front strut tower bar. Not sure if it will clear the kakimoto valve cover and if i will use it anyway, but i thought it's never wrong to have the parts ready in stock. Like the oldschool tubular design 2) A set of super rare NOS genuine Datsun Competition Short steering knuckles straight from the Datsun competition catalogue. In case if you're wondering here's the description from the datsun competition catalogue: And here is a comparision between the Standard knuckles (black) And the Competition knuckles (Silver): More parts are on the way and im starting to feel better again so i hope to spend the afternoon tomorrow at the garage

Sorry for the lack of updates lately on the 240Z project, it's not like i've been not doing any thing, just was enjoying my EK9 in the nice weather, and had a lot of other stoff going on. Here's a little teaser of an upcoming EK9 wallpaper from a recent shooting. still need to complete a few details in photoshop. My bodyshop man has a lot of daily-business-customers wanting to have their american cars ready for summerseason so he's busy working on small projects currently and my car is on the backburner. Also did a lot of research and ordered a lot of parts. currently i'm awaiting 2 shipments from Japan and a big one from USA and still need to order a lot of tools and small bits to complete a few things. however, let the pictures talk: 1) As mentioned before started with the assembly of the pedal box. This is just a little teaser shot as i'll go more into detail when it's completed. still need a lot of parts and tools to get it done: 2) got these mudflaps from MSA which were on backorder: 3) I'm trying to get my bodypanels ready for paint- and rust-stripping at a local specialized company soon so i'm currently stripping all my parts. Completed the second set of doors, as well as both trunks. Still need to do the service flaps, the hood cowl, the hood and two sets of fenders: 4) then made some research on rare JDM intake manifolds. Let me share my results with you. As there are many different L6 intake manifolds from japan (aside from the other brands like Cannon, etc..) - Sanyo Kiki: Japanese brand which still exists but changed their business. Here you see an early casting version: - SK Sports kit: Was a complete Kit sold with a later Sanyo Kiki design but also came with the carbs and everything. Quite a popular choice and i like it: - Tomei powered. Was available until maybe 2 years ago, not now any more sadly. Design looks quite close to a lot of other Manifolds, like the datsun competition etc. - FET / Far east trading / Kyoku-To Here we have an early Kyoku-To Design Intake manifold (Kyoku-To = Far east) - Later versions came branded as F.E.T and had the additional Balancer tube on top. My favourite design so far, will probably look brilliant together with the striped Kakimoto intake manifold: - Mikuni Famous Carb manufacturer (actually they built Solex carbs in licence) also had their own intake manifolds: - Harada Shokai. Looks pretty similar to many other designs but is still manufactured and probably the technically most advanced and best engineered design. I love it but it's probalby a bit too modern for my car and i somehow prefer a more oldschool design even if the power-gain is not the same.. Others: Well there are others like Datsun competition, Hayashi racing, Ohtsuka and so on but sadly wasn't able to find any pictures of these. if you have some, i would be very interrested!! get in contact if you have some pics That's it for now. Need to prepare a few things before recceiving my new daily car and getting rid of the old one including all the parts (already sold most of it) and so on, but i never stop thinking and researching on the Z so don't worry if updates are lacking doesn't mean i don't do anything

Spent a few hours in my Basement-workshop and at the grage yesterday. but let's begin with a parts delivery from MSA. Sadly they forgot a few small bits so i have to wait for the rest. Mainly pedal parts and aftermarket tierod-endlinks in OEM-design. Just because of the fact that my NAGISA tierod endlinks are not street legal i ordered These to install for for Registration testing purpose Of course i had to install the Rubbers imediately to my fresh powdercoated pedals - Looks so nice Then decided to enjoy the beautiful spring-evening in front of my Garage and disassemble the doors from Chassis Nr. 2. I plan to bring some bodypanels (Fenders, doors, hatch and Hood) for paint removal to a specialized Company next month so i want to have all the parts ready. Before: And approx. an hour or so later. Second door followed. I figured out that various bolts and parts where missing on each door, so someone did a horrible Job Assembling them in the past..

Seems like i do a little bit on my car every evening lately and that's so much fun 1) Went to the local hardware store and picked up a few 10.8 grade bolts for installing my JDM three-five Pillowball mounts: Of course i had to install them directly after coming home. One more part instaleld on the front subframe 2) Today i went to the Sandblasting / Powedercoating company to pick up my parts. The battery-mount and the Sparewheel-well only got a sandblast and primer so the bodyshop can weld them in and the painter paint them: The rest of them got powdercoated RAL9005, Satin black. I don't need all of the parts but i thought while i'm at it anyway why not throw in a few spare-parts? No big price difference anyway. Most important is the pedalbox and -parts. But more on that soon 3) And last but not least i went to the local rubber-shop and had them replicate that rubber-insulator between the steering colum and the firewall according to my shitty template i made from the old seal. howefer, the result fits niceliy and it was cheap so i'm happy

Last few evenings i've been working on the assembly of the steering column. Started with the delivery of the freshly sandblasted and painted housing parts: The steering colum mount still had the old glue inside so i tried a few methods to clean it but figured out the "solvent cleaner" (which is actually an industrial grade label-sticker remover) works brillant compared to the dremel-and-wire-wheel method this wass the result after wiping it a few times. see before picture above: Next was glueing the old and cleaned rubber insulators back in. they where still quite nice and soft and no new ones available so i decided to reuse them: Put the plastic piece from the steering lock and the two bearings into the fridge to get them minimized a bit and at the same time put the housing on my radiator to warm and expand it slightly for a few hours: After that it was quite easy to hammer the bearings and the plastic piece back into the housing carefully with a wooden hammer and the professional tool (aka the big wrench nut and expander) After cleaning all the small bits and regreasing them i had them back into the housing as well (thanks to the help of my girlfriend, because it's impossible to compress the spring and at the same time install the lock-ring - trust me. i tried for about an hour The result: So here we have the steering colum minus the mounting bracket: but i've installed that shortly thereafter thats it for today. Have a last small bit of work tomorrow and hopefully more coming soon In case if you've missed it, i bought a new car for replacing my daily Civic which i now drive since 12 years, but ineed something more practical so i have another project now because i'll modify it slightly. just so you're warned but uf course the fairlady has priority

thanks for the Kind words! I actually ordered them at my local Nissan Garage. Many of the (mostly the Special sized bolds and bits) parts are obsolete with no replacement, but most of the Standard bolts and stuff are replaced with newer partnumbers. Just check the partnumber here and it will give you the replacement number: http://www.online-parts.co.uk/Nissan But also my local Nissan Garage was able to tell me the replacement numbers (sometimes they had different numbers). also you might note that Nissan Japan and Europe sometimes have different item availibility so maybe also Nissan USA hase different availibilities on parts i guess... Thats how i did: I made a list of all the bolts, washers and nuts from one certain assembly (lets say the front subframe), checked every single part number in the link above for a replacement number and sent the list (including original and replacement number) to a number of Nissan garages. Few sent me Feedback, some None at all so i Chose the one who was most willling to help me and they were forwarding it to the Nissan parts HQ in Rotterdam (NL) to check availibility and Prices. after i got the info i just ordered all the available parts and got them a few days later. all the not available parts i will / did zinc-replate or replace with similiar specified bolts from the Hardware store. hope this helps. good luck with the bolt-hunting

I knew my Parts will be back from the paintshop and powdercoating company soon so i wanted to make sure as much as possible is ready for assembly when the parts are here. So ever since i read about it on the internet. something i wanted to do is clean and refurbish the steering colum bearings.. Before (everything nasty and filled with old, dirty grease): Here i have one of them pulled apart and cleaned all the balls (30 total) and shells and the securing ring. I have a total of 4 bearings because two from each Steering colum from each car, in case you're wondering. I reworked all four of them because that gave me the opportunity to choose the best two at the end (to the right on this picture), rather than replacing the Bearing balls with some generic bearing balls as some others have done before..: While i was at work in my basement i decided to finally hang my 1/50 limited Starroad picture with the Inoue-san (from starroad) handsign on the wall as a bit of motivation and inspiration: And then my friend Nadya at the Industrial paintshop sent me this photo of my steering colum parts drying and told me i can pick them up on friday again. Seems like i have some work for the weekend

Today i had a super-productive day in my opinion Had a day off from work so i thought i'd do as many things as possible. I have some big car related news (not this car) soon, so i want to complete a few things here. More to come. 1) However, the day started like this: Bought a cheap Jigsaw (see below) And went to the garage where Z Number one (the white one) is still standing around. The other one has a bad spare-wheel well so i wanted the bodyguy to weld this one into the other chassis: After 30 Minutes of cutting the well as nice as possible with the new jigsaw, The dremel Tool for hard-to-reach Areas and the Angle grinder it looked like this: Out it is: 2) After Dropping off a a few parts for the Anodizing company (parts for the EK9, will post about this soon) I Went to the powedercoating company To dropp of the battery-tray-mount which Yves (the bodyshop guy) gave me, and the Spare-wheel well To sandblast and get it primered so these parts are ready to get welded back in at the bodyshop: 3) Also had these set of parts dropped off at the powdercoating company for a sandblast and Powdercoat. (Original doglegs, Steering colum parts, Original steering knuckles, Pedalbox and Pedals, Seatbelt mounts and Differential-belt mounts): Btw: This is how the powdercoating company looks from the inside. they're specialized in huge parts (like crane-pieces and stuff) so it's a seriously big undustrial complex and a automated powdercoating cycle: 4) And while i was on my parts-delivery tour i Visited my good friend Nadya, who works at an industrial paintshop and delivered the parts from the second steering colum for painting. The reason is powdercoating needs to be burnt-in at high temperatures but because i still have the rubber-seal and the bearing inside i wanted to have it painted without any heat. Also i know Nadya very well and was happy to explain he rin detail what i need. While the Powdercoating company works on a totally unpersonal way and i'ts hard to get special wishes done right. Hope to complete a lot of things as soon as these parts return from the various shops

Currently i'm working in my little-basement-workshop almost daily trying to get all the small details right. So here's an update on all the small things i did lately: 1) Zcarnut over at the JNC Forums pointed out that my Steering rack spacer was mounted the wrong way. After checking a few pictures i could confirm. Why you wonder? Because the drawing in the exploded-view and Manual is wrong. Damnit However i've corrected that now: 2) Added those washers that are mentioned in the manual as well but did not fit properly and were not installed on both cars originally. But somehow i like the look of these and think it's better to not have the nut directly on the rack so i like this solution and had them reworked to fit my needs (Not torqued in the pictures so thats why it looks loose ) 3) Next i installed the Kameari Engine mounts. Before: Specs from the Manual: And done - love how everything comes together slowly 4) I'm currently preparing a load of parts for powdercoating so i decided while i'm at it i will also put the Diff mount baseplates into this even if i'm not sure yet if i will reuse them or replace them with something like the "technoversion Diff mount kit". Before: And after: 5) And last i felt like my last Steering colum disassembly somehow was a bit of a fail. Lucky me i have two sets of almost everything (the advantage of having to cars to choose parts from ) So i repeated the whole thing with the Second steering column and this time used proper professional tools (aka the Spanner-extension-bits and a wood hammer, as seen on the Top). Worked way better this time without any damage: 6) I wanted to remove the bearings from the Lower part of the colum as well but this item is not ment to be removed i think... There is nothing mentioned in any manual about how to get this thing out.. so i tried on my own.. But ended up with a damaged bearing and cover cap. (See right). So i decided before destroying the nice one (left) as well i might get this sandblasted carefully and repained i stead of powdercoated. because powdercoating needs a lot of heat to burn the colour in and this woud destroy the bearing-rubber-seal and by using paint this probably would be possible. Have to check this but so far this is my best solution...

Have wanted to visit my Fairlady and Yves at the Bodyshop for a while, but sadly i never really found time. That until last thursday. Just wanted to talk about the "Master plan" regarding the chassis and see the work he did so far. As usual great work from what i can say. But i'll let the pictures talk: So Far the front-right Corner almost is done... - Battery-tray area fixed (battery tray will be sandblasted, primered and welded back in soon) - New Rocker panels created from sheetmetal and replaced old ones. - Inner side sills repaired - Frame rail rebuilt and partially replaced with the NOS one i brought him. - Complete front inner wheel well repaired - Front air channel repaired and rebuilt from sheet metal - Firewall below Battery tray replaced (Work in progress) Next steps will be replacing the floorpanels with replacement panels i brought him, as well as completing the firewall on the passenger side. Then the work will move to the passenger-backend of the car.

So everyday i try to spend at least 30minutes in the basment in my little Home-workshop assembling parts. But honestly progress is allways slower then i was hoping for, because it needs just so much time figuring out all the bolts, nuts and how everything belongs together. But better do it only once, but slow istead of rushing and messing everything up 1) Yesterday i got som industrial grade Superglue from the office to glue that rubber-stopper that is mounted on the steering rack Assembly. Before: And after glueing it back (I reused the old rubber piece because it's not available anymore and after a bit of cleaning it looked nice). Should be bulletproof now 2) Had some sparetime after t hat so i decided to use it and prepare the Seatbelt-mounts for sandblasting and powedercoating. Before: And after. Mounts removed. Note sure about this seatbelts. it's a swedish brand so definitly not Genuine Nissan. Probably installed by nissan switzerland upon import due to different safety regulations here. But they looked like a nice solution so i think i keep them if i don't find any better thing 3) Today i started with the Front subframe. Started like this: Then after a few small fitting-works installed the Front Lower control arms (LCA's). Click here for a great writeup about how to install them! This was very useful! Here we go! Front LCA's temorarly installed. Haven't tightened the nuts yet because i want to be sure everything alignts befor tightening stuff... 4) Then installed that rubber-stopper-thingy on the Steering rack: And then couldn't help myself but had to install the steering rack to the front assembly temporarly just to get me the feeling about how it will look soon. Somehow satisfying seeing all these puzzle-parts come together: 5) And of course, Yves my bodyshop guy keeps me updated almost daily about progress. But i will visit him and my fairlady again tomorrow so expect some nice fotos Note these are work-in-progress Fotos of the front Firewall / Battery tray area (which is usually rusty from leaked battery-acid). So the final result will look better