W8ing

Nothing to share. Still in waiting mode. Asked Rinkens.com twice for a confirmation that my car was actually picked up a few weeks ago and shipped on Monday 25 but still no reply. I will start worrying when it's 12 September and I still haven't heard anything from anybody :)
Just got a message from Steve, my contact at Rinkens, stating that my car is at their warehouse waiting to be shipped on 8 September. That's some peace of mind. ETA Rotterdam is 11 days later. Not too bad. I'll get my bill of lading and container number around 2 - 4 days after departure.

FSM

Today I finally received my 1973 S30 Nissan Factory Service Manual + parts microfiche on CD. Darn thing cost me $80 but it should prove invaluable when ordering parts or when trying to find out how parts fit together. A complete parts list is what my other manuals lack. As a service manual, it should be complementary.
What else have I got to say...not much really. Nothing worth mentioning has occured, but you noticed that yourself :) Heck, I'm not keeping this blog for anyone but myself.
I'm just waiting for my car to arrive. And in the meantime I'm just reading, planning, making lists of tools and parts I need when, try to find out what I can do myself and what's better contracted out. I found an experienced restorer who can media blast my chassis for around 1000eur. So DIY soda blasting (and media blasting in general) the chassis is not much of an option really since you'd spend at least half of the costs on blasting media. Then there's the hassle of renting blasting equipment and finding a location to do it without annoying other peeps with your dust. I am planning to blast all the loose and small parts myself though. Found a place where I can do so for 15eur/hr.
Oh yes, and today I bought a nice fold out brochure of the 240Z and a 1:43 scale model of the no. 11 rally car off of an ebay type of site. I was just too late for a very nice green 1:18 scale model of the 240Z :/ Ah well, lucky him. I will have the real thing in a few weeks (years) from now :)

Cool guy

Jeff from Paltech is cool. He's gonna make me the same deal whenever I'm ready to order :)
Through the Eastwood co. site I learned about a new (at least to me) way of blasting: soda blasting, which uses Bicarbonate of Soda as blasting medium. It seems to have many advantages over normal media ("sand") blasting. See it featured here at Jay Leno's Garage. Now, let me see if I can find this sodium bicarbonate here. It's supposedly not the same stuff as household baking soda.

Temptation

Jeff from Paltech made me a very nice offer: a complete round top three screw conversion setup including the intake manifold, carbs, linkage & heat shield without any emission equipment for $750.00, without me having to ship my carbs in return. AAhrg, unfortunately I still have a few other things to do so I'm forced to pass :'/

S30.eu

www.S30.eu is mine (for the next five years at least :) S30 is the general designation of all 240, 260 and 280Z models. HLS30 designates the left-hand drive model and HS30 the right-hand drive model.
I have no dedicated S30 site yet so I've re-directed it to this blog for the time being.

Paid in full

This morning I paid all remaining bills cuz Rinkens is gonna pick up the car today. I asked Jared if he could take a few pix of the pickup but I dunno if he can or will comply. Let the wait begin.

Wheel of fortune

Jared notified me that Rinkens will pick up the car on Tuesday. Good, cuz I was about to ask him what wassup.
Yesterday I received yet another set of books, 'How to rebuild' and 'How to modify your Nissan&Datsun OHC engine'. A bit of knowledge never hurt any one. Both books are complementary to each other and my Haynes manual on the 240Z. Now, if I only could find the time to sit down for a more in-depth look without interruptions from wife and kiddo :)
Just paid $70.00 for the steering wheel via PayPal. That's 13.50 for the wheel and the remainder to ship it via USPS Priority Mail International - darn :/ Checked USPS but there was no alternative to Europe. Anyway, kinda expected this. However, dude didn't accept PP; only checks, money orders. Shite, sending a Western Union MO online is gonna cost me more than the steering wheel! Sending it from the post office is a major PITA cuz it takes a lot of my time and it isn't any cheaper. So I asked the guy if he'd accept a bank transfer. Hopefully he does cuz that'd be most convenient and least expensive. But either way, this wheel is gonna cost me a fortune after all.
I found out that the steering wheel isn't made of plastic as most people assume. It was actually "wood that was impregnated with some sort of plastic/resin in a special process", according to members from the classiczcars.com forum. Restoring it doesn't seem to be a very difficult task but it is rather time consuming if you want to do it right. So I guess that'll be my first then :)
My brother Mike and I kinda decided that the 2nd one we're gonna build will be a works rally version :) The Aaltonen / Todt no. 5 is already driving around in the Netherlands but that's no prob cuz we're planning to use our own names and number anyway :) But this is just wishful thinking. Maybe I'll be completely "cured" of this restoration bug in 2yrs from now.

Not so famous quotes

Received a quote from Z-therapy on their ZT162 package + shipping: $980 + 73.55, which equals about 700eur excl. 20+% import duties. Hmm, not too bad. Almost half (!) of what BCCP.nl charges for their SU HIF44 carb option. Too expensive and non-Z stock equipment.
The Paltech option is a bit cheaper ($750 for the conversion), but then I'd have to ship my own carb set. But in the end this will turn out cheaper cuz I won't have to pay duties (as long as I register it with the shipper when sending it). I'll await Paltech's reply before I'll make my decision.
Oh, I also received a reply regarding the steering wheel. Dude's been busy, understaffed so it'll take some time. Good, ain't in a hurry anyway.

Tops

The BOS is off to the people needing it. No news from overseas so I guess that should be taken as good news.

Received yet another book, the Haynes manual on Japanese vehicle carbs. Quickly flipped it open, only to find out that it didn't deal with pre '80 vehicles :/ Fortunately I can return it.
I spent a lot of time looking for info on Hitachi SU-style carbs. I also took the time to study the pic of my carbs and found out that I have the dreaded "flat tops" (referring to the flat shape of the air valve suction (bell) chamber)! Flat tops were designed to accommodate the stringent anti-pollution laws introduced in the 1970s, not for performance or driveability. Typically, these later carbs were difficult to tune, caused hard starting, flooding, vapour locking, and poor low-end power. All of these problems can be resolved by installing earlier round tops.
According to the not so holy Haynes Datsun 240Z repair manual, "Later 240Z models (with or without emission control systems) are fitted with twin SU side draught carburettors made under licence by Hitachi (type HJG46W)." These HJG46W's are round tops but according to other sources, later 240Z models are definitely not equipped with those.
Fortunately, a few shops offer refurbished sets of round tops that can be bolted on without any probs. However, these shops work on exchange basis. Meaning that you hand in your old round tops in return for the refurbished set. But since you haven't got those in the first place, you need to hunting for an old set, or pay a core charge IF they offer that possibility. Paltech Micropolishing LLC however, does one better. They actually offer conversion from flat top to round top carbs, built like the non-US setups. You have the choice of keeping the emissions equipment or use an early intake without any emissions equipment if you don't need to pass emissions tests. I asked them a few questions and will most probably go with this option.
Oh yes, last night I won the bid on a faux wood wheel from a 1971 240Z. Can't believe I won it for $13.50 :) However, seller still hasn't reacted on my two messages so I figure the plonker ain't too happy nor willing to sell it. Hey, his fault by not specifying a reserve. We wants it!

Almost done

Today Jared (the seller) signed, scanned and sent the BOS to me in some exotic .ufo file. From a quick search on the net I learned that this was Ulead PhotoImpact's proprietary extension. Fortunately I could find a version on usenet, install it and see what he sent me.
For some reason they (at the copy co.) couldn't manage to make my signature appear on the scan as well. ??? So there's work for me to do when I get back home. I guess it'll be easier if I sign the copy I received and fax that to the shipping co. As soon as that's done, we're all set.
Yesterday I received zstore.com's Z-catalog on CD-ROM. Completely forgot about it. 170 Pages filled with nice to haves and must haves. It's easy to get carried away and end up with a long list of "must" haves :) If it's still working, I ain't gonna fix it (yet).

the BOS

The dude I bought the Z from is a bit slow - to say the least. So I decided to fill out and sign the bill of sale myself and E it to him rather than waiting for him to go to staples, scan it, save it to a disk and E it back to me. He was happy with the result and would fax his signed version to me right away. My PC is still occupying the phone line cuz I still haven't received anything yet.
Ah well, been busy checking out some suppliers online in the meantime. I find it a real shame that I'm not living in the US as far as (Z) car parts are concerned :/ I found all I'd need (and want/lust for :), but all shipping costs are definitely gonna break the bank. Maybe I should combine shopping with a vacation overseas next year. I knew and was warned from the start that restoring a car wasn't gonna be cheap.
I also ran a check on my Zs VIN (vehicle identification number) on the web and found out that I've got one of the last 240Zs. Not the most collectible of the S30s (240Zs) but in 20+ yrs from now it probably won't matter - as long as it's a stock S30 :)
Lucky me, I managed to get hold of the last Haynes manual on 'Japanese Vehicle carburettors' covering the Hitachi SU-style carbs! :) It's out of print but fortunately I found it at BCCP.nl. Yay! I will need it when I'm gonna rebuild my carbs cuz the other Haynes manual covering the Z is far from complete on the carb subject. I also noted that BCCP carries service kits for my carbs. Oh, and I'd looove to give their triple Weber conversion a go at a later stage :)
Can't wait for my new toy to arrive so that I can start working on it in my 34 m2 space that I'll be renting for 100eur per month :) Darn, can't even find a parking space in Amsterdam for that money. I can't stop thinking that this whole project was meant to be :)

Paperwork

Been busy finalising the paperwork. Spent a lot of time on the web trying to find out what it took for a foreigner to buy a car in the US. Fortunately, the people at Rinkens.com (the shipping co.) were very helpful. What's required is the following:

1. Bill of sale
2. Vehicle export authorization form
3. Rinkens power of attorney
4. Copy of the shippers (your) passport
5. Copy of title / to clear U.S. customs we will need the original title and bill of sale when picked up/delivered (if vehicle is newly purchased and title is in previous owner name)

I still dunno what a "title" exactly is but I have an idea :) It's something that the seller has to provide anyway.
Today I also paid the remainder of the price and am awaiting instructions for paying the shipping fee. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm all set. The car will be shipped on 25/8/2008 from NY and is expected at Rotterdam harbour on 15/9.

But here are some other pix:
this baby needs some thorough cleaning and polishing. Note the flat top carbs :/


and eventually will look something like this


not the original steering wheel


need to weld in a new sill here (on both sides I figure)


and new floor panels

Z cars have this mysterious ability to end up with water on the floor under the mats after a hard rain. According to Bryan Little from datsunzgarage.com (very useful site) this is due to water leaking from the body seam between the firewall and cowl. Late 1960s Ford Mustangs apparently had this problem too. Will see if I can fix that once I get that far.

Quoting from Bryan's article:
THE CAUSE: Under the windshield-wiper cowl there are two very tiny drain holes under the crossbraces on each side which I never noticed before. Not the down spouts under the fenders, these drains are in front of the windshield. Well, rain water flows under these from the center out to the large drain tubes on the side of the fenders. These small holes were blocked with old dirt, there was actually standing water pooled around the center wiper motor area(!)

This standing water had rusted the seam between the firewall and the front of the cowl. So when there was heavy rain the cowl would fill up and the seam would leak down the firewall into the car. The solution is to take out the wiper motor and use rustproofer on all the seams in the cowl area. NOTE: There is a non-removable metal box in the passenger side of the cowl which is the fan inlet. You can't remove it, but you have to seal this all the way around. In the photo below the fan inlet rust is just cosmetic. The seam below it is the actual culprit.

end quote

Normally, these corners are rusted all the way through, but fortunately not here (on either side)


Hopefully a few patches welded in will suffice here


Oh yes, and the sunroof (that you can see on the first two pix I posted earlier) has gotta go!