Z rebuilds/restorations on Youtube

arcdef

Club Member
I do enjoy watching people rebuild and restore cars on youtube especially if there is a Z involved and a few were the impetus that lead to me actually owning my Z in the first place!

I recently found these 2 fairly new builds un the UK/Ireland I thought it would be nice to share and discuss them as both are very ambitious!

Sparkies Shed - fully stripped 280z being converted to RHD and lots of metal fabrication

Yorkshire car restoration - a very sorry looking 260z with lots of rust to tackle. Interested to see how it turns out as they dont seem to be stripping the car fully before repairs are made.

Anyone else fancy sharing some interesting build series on youtube?

Thanks!

Ash
 
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Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
'51 Machines' on YouTube is a long-running series on the bodyshell restoration of a Japanese market S30-series Z with some 'interesting' (ahem...) choices by the people involved, but nevertheless some persistent and creative metal fabrication work going on.

It's all in Japanese, but they have added machine-translated subtitles recently which can be hilariously useless. Nice dynamic between the owner of the car - who is doing the camera work - and the restorer, who has a good line in gallows humour.

'51 Machines' S30Z resto
 

richiep

Club Member
'51 Machines' on YouTube is a long-running series on the bodyshell restoration of a Japanese market S30-series Z with some 'interesting' (ahem...) choices by the people involved, but nevertheless some persistent and creative metal fabrication work going on.

It's all in Japanese, but they have added machine-translated subtitles recently which can be hilariously useless. Nice dynamic between the owner of the car - who is doing the camera work - and the restorer, who has a good line in gallows humour.

'51 Machines' S30Z resto
I've been watching these avidly. They've been extremely creative with some of the fabrication and I've picked up some pointers along the way (their practice of using masking tape to trace and transfer templates to sheet metal is cool). Some of the stuff could've been made easier and have a better end result these days given the off-the-shelf panels now available. Still, admirable effort considering that shell has some nasty rust issues in awkward places.

Any idea what that black paint is they use on the back of repair sections Alan? Some sort of anti-corrosion/weld-thru primer?
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
I've been enjoying 51 machines too - it's a long time since they did an update on the S30, isn't it?
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Any idea what that black paint is they use on the back of repair sections Alan? Some sort of anti-corrosion/weld-thru primer?

It seems to be particular to the spotwelding process. Remarkable stuff. Quite thick and - possibly - rubberised? We must have an equivalent?

I'm jealous of his spotwelder and all its cool attachments. The noise it makes is very satisfying and reassuring.

Agree with you about the repair sections they chose to use. Those old TABCO ones are fairly poor, it has to be said. There are better ones on the market now, and even the locally-made Japanese repair panels are better than the old TABCO stuff, so I have no idea why they chose to use them. I think the both the owner and the restorer seem to be more into old Toyotas than anything else.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
There’s a YouTube channel called Home Built By Jeff. He’s very watchable. Very unassuming guy. He restores a 71 240Z over many episodes and has other restoration projects on the go.

 

Faster Behr

Club Member
Ha yeah it's a 260/280z for sure but this along with the home built by Jeff build is what convinced me to get a Z!

Both respectable builds!

It took me so long to work out how to put a YouTube link in that I totally missed your previous post!
 

arcdef

Club Member
Haha worth linking it here for everyone else though! Would be cool to have a nice long list of builds to watch.
 

richiep

Club Member
Ha yeah it's a 260/280z for sure...
Pedant moment/JDM slap-down incoming - its not a 260/280Z either - its a Nissan S30 (or S31 depending on year) Fairlady Z. Contemporary to, and sharing some of the features of a 260Z, but still its own thing. :p

Total cringe-fest watching them call it a 240 constantly.

It's also an utter cliché - get classic Z, dump in RB, TURBOS!!!, 1000 mad scene points awarded, ftw, omg, etc...

I'd prefer to see someone build a big bore and stroke L-gata with ITBs etc. or do an RB on ITBs or carbs. That would be way cooler.
 
Pedant moment/JDM slap-down incoming - its not a 260/280Z either - its a Nissan S30 (or S31 depending on year) Fairlady Z. Contemporary to, and sharing some of the features of a 260Z, but still its own thing. :p

Total cringe-fest watching them call it a 240 constantly.

It's also an utter cliché - get classic Z, dump in RB, TURBOS!!!, 1000 mad scene points awarded, ftw, omg, etc...

I'd prefer to see someone build a big bore and stroke L-gata with ITBs etc. or do an RB on ITBs or carbs. That would be way cooler.

I like engine builds that don't follow the same well well used path.

A NA rb30, on 50mm OER's. with all the bits needed to make it work N/A. that'd be an awesome hybrid build.
 

arcdef

Club Member
Have you guys seen this 280zx build in that case?


Also apologies, I know I dont know the full ins/outs of different Z models by market. Still a newbie to the s30 world :)
 

Mr Tenno

Digital Officer
Staff member
Site Administrator
It's also an utter cliché - get classic Z, dump in RB, TURBOS!!!, 1000 mad scene points awarded, ftw, omg, etc...

I'd prefer to see someone build a big bore and stroke L-gata with ITBs etc. or do an RB on ITBs or carbs. That would be way cooler.

They've managed to get the original engine into the country now so maybe one day!
 

Bazzateer

Club Member
I like Marty and Moog so am willing to let the 240 thing go. I also won Fank of the Week once on their other show The Unicorn Circuit, so they can do no wrong in my book.
 
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