On Sunday I finally managed to put in a full day (from 11am - 6.30 pm) rather than just a few hours. I'd actually planned to remove the tranny but I ended up removing the diff and rear end instead. Removing the bolts/nuts from both ends of each half shaft was the hardest part due to rust. Also, none of my 14 mm ring spanners and sockets seemed to fit around the nuts at the flanges because there just wasn't enough space around (see left nut on pic). With the force that had to be applied, open-end spanners just wouldn't do. Fortunately one ring spanner was thin enough to fit. This really saved my day! Though not Snap-on quality, it was no prob using it as my poor man's impact :) 
Lots of hammering and rust eating penetrating oil did the job. 
So eventually the rear end and diff could be dropped. The rear end actually looks worse than it is. I hammered all around but all parts sounded very solid. I removed the diff only and installed the rear end again. It's easier to remove certain nuts/bolts while it's still on the car. But I've decided to remove the complete rear end coming Sunday. Will try to remove the dreaded brake drums first. When all that's off, I can go ahead blasting and powder coat the whole lot.
I received my new taller jack and stands a day too late cuz the buggers didn't deliver on Saturday. So on Sunday I'm gonna enjoy the max head room the 71cm stands will provide :)
What else...yes, I've placed a few orders with MSA and Z-Barn. That's the Twice pipes exhaust kit (for use with header) + sway bar kit (1" front / 7/8" rear) + carb synchro tester from MSA, all on sale. From the Z-barn I've ordered a set of 280Z stub axle assies and a 70-71 Z drive shaft.
While trying to remove the diff, the manual said to remove the rear sway bar first. However, I didn't see anything even remotely looking like that. My first reaction was to blame (one of) the POs. But while browsing classiczcars.com, I learnt that sway bars were optional. Only from the 260Z onwards they came standard with the car. So when I found the kit on sale at MSA's, I didn't hesitate and while at it, I ordered the other items that were on sale as well. As for the 70-71 drive shaft, that I'll be needing when I've installed the tranny I bought recently. That requires a shorter shaft. So I could either have my current shaft shortened or buy one from a first gen Z which happens to have the correct length. For $100 I didn't have to think twice. Having a shaft shortened in this country will most prolly cost me double that.
Have done a lot of research on Subaru diffs in the meantime. A lot of Subis have the R180 (with and without LSD) installed. It differs in some details from the Z's but the size is the same and it doesn't require a lot of modding. So rather than going the R200 route (that thing is huge compared to the R180 and really will be overkill for my stock powered Z) I've decided to put my money on the newer R180. I had hopes that the side gears would have the same 25 spline count as my half shafts, in which case I'd simply have do this mod. However, after having gone thru numerous posts on various forums, various Subi FSMs I found no confirmation but rather more confusion. Some mention 25, some 27. So i thought I'd be smart and figure out what the spline count was on the CV axles for certain particular model Subis. I contacted Cardone, remanufacturer of CVs. Guess what, they came up with a 22 spline count! Now I'm even more confused. I tried getting numbers and pix from JYs over here, but those buggers only care about making a quick buck selling stuff that's been lying for years on their shelves, not about informing people. It's been almost a week since my requests so I don't expect any answer back. Will try to locate some Subi R180 in/around Amsterdam so that i can go and look for myself rather than relying on the web.
If the spline count is indeed different from 25, I'll have to resort to plan B, which is having a Subi CV axle modded, something like this. I'll take a bit different approach though. Made some concept drawings without actual sizes yet and forwarded them to a few shops for some quotes. I hope to receive at least one response, though I'm not really counting on it.
