It’s Wednesday, four days after the 2023 Route 66 JDM Classic, and there’s finally a little bit of time to recap the event…

For most folks, preparation for a big event lasts all year. Restoration, modifications, and ensuring classic cars are roadworthy and show-worthy is year-round affair in most cases. For us, it’s no different, but multiplied by 10! As soon as the previous year’s event is wrapped up, we’re already receiving registrations for the following year, and making plans for improvement – all while finishing our own never-ending string of restoration projects.

This year, our good friends over at JCCS were limited by the event schedule of the City of Long Beach, and had to change their show date to October 7. Since the Route 66 JDM Classic is always on the first Saturday in October, we decided early on that we wouldn’t be changing the date. Of course, with another event a mere 450 miles away, we had our concerns… would it be a bust? Only one way to find out…

Fortunately, our concerns were put to rest as registrations rolled in, and we appreciate everyone’s patience and loyalty. Friday evening, as usual, everyone gathered at Cruisers on Route 66 to collect their registration packet, commemorative t-shirt and license plate, and goodie bags. I’ve said it countless times, but it bears repeating – The people are the reason we do this, and it’s always awesome seeing old friends again and getting introduced to new attendees. The cars are simply an “all-access pass” into a family of amazing, like-minded people. Truly, my favorite part of this event!

Saturday morning comes early, especially after a busy day of prep. Show cars start rolling in around 5:30 am to select a prime parking spot for the day, and we had plenty of help with setup, parking and traffic management. Within an hour, most of the cars are in place, our headquarters is assembled and functioning, and spectators are starting to roll in. By 8:00 am, the cars are all wiped down and shiny, everyone has their chairs, coolers and shade structures set up, and it’s showtime!

For 2023, we slightly exceeded last year’s attendance, which is a great sign. We had the crazy idea to bring all but two of our own classics to the show, so that necessitated two trips from the Valley to Williams with the hauler, and four drivers. All told, we displayed 10 of our own cars along with the registered participants, and somehow it went smoothly.

As always, several cars were on hand that can’t be seen anywhere else in the US, with attendees streaming in from Oregon, Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, California and Idaho. Caravans from Vegas and SoCal were organized months in advance, with some drivers making it a mini-vacation. Chris Tiffany, Executive Director for Raising Special Kids (our chosen charity) was on hand all day to chat with attendees and answer questions, and I’m pretty sure he and his family had a great time!

Fortunately, the weather was absolutely perfect all day, with plenty of sunshine and a light breeze. Dairy Queen was hopping, serving up lunch and desserts, and the local stores and restaurants along Route 66 seem to appreciate our entourage. A big focus of this show is giving people time to mill about, meet new friends, and chat about cars. For this reason, we don’t force cars to be grouped together in classes – which makes the load-in process simpler, and contributes to the relaxed vibe we all enjoy. After all, we appreciate the process of restoring, maintaining and driving Japanese classics, and we’ll keep doing this as long as there’s like-minded people willing to attend!

A huge special thanks to the people who pitch in to make this thing go smoothly:

Brian Moehr and the crew at HMD Designs, who do all of the t-shirt printing, banners, stickers, and graphics.
Tom Neely and ANplumbing, who graciously designs and provides the awesome Best in Show trophies.
Skillard (gift certificates for the raffle)
Modified Racewear (tumblers, hats and coolers for the raffle)
Zpowersteering
Kelly & Kay Tanis from Duke City Datsuns
Vintage Motorsports (magazines and decals)
Josh Martin and Harmon Restoration
Alex at Alex Shirra Media for the awesome detail photography
Aaron Hernandez for the drone footage and candid photos
Brad DeSantis at Auto Off-Topic for the photos of the class winners with their cars
Raising Special Kids – For giving us a cause we can wholeheartedly support!
The NICOclub crew: Torry Skurski, Erika Anderson, James Sisson, Jenn Peek, Randi Bevier, and especially James Horne (for countless days at Datsun Ranch helping get cars repaired and prepped).

As you may know, the Route 66 JDM Classic is a peer-judged event. The only people who can vote are the people who actually registered, so the awards are much more meaningful – they reflect the admiration and appreciation of your peers. Each year, the classes are set up ahead of time, based upon the number of registrations received. As a result, each year’s awards categories are a little different, and keeps things fun!

Here’s a list of the class winners for 2023, in no particular order, and a full gallery of pics (and some videos) will follow.

Best Datsun Z (70-83) First place: JJ Levine (1972 240Z)

Best Datsun Z (70-83) Second place: Mike Wodopian (1974 260Z)

Best Mazda: Tim Eull (1993 RX7)

Best Datsun 510: Mario Ramos (1972 510)

Best Datsun Roadster: Isaac Chavez (1968 Roadster)

Diamond in the Rough: Paul Desrochers (1978 280Z)

Best Honda: Carsten Reuppel (1991 Beat)

Best Subaru: Ron Kirchner (1998 Legacy Wagon GT-B Limited Touring)

Best Paint: Jose Garcia (1978 620)

Best Truck First Place: Karl Nelson (1978 620)

Best Truck Second Place: Brad Hunt (1997 Tacoma)

Best Nissan 300zx (Z32): Arnel Solas (1993 300ZX)

Best Toyota First Place: Nathan Tito (1989 Crown)

Best Toyota Second Place: Robert Scheidt (1986 Supra)

Best Datsun 1200: Kay Tanis (1972 1200)

Best “Other” Datsun: Ryan Romaine (1974 Bluebird SSS)

Best Nissan / Infiniti (modern classics) First Place: Ryan Yantzer (1990 Q45)

Best Nissan / Infiniti (modern classics) Second Place: (1987 Pulsar)

Best Isuzu: Darren Lawrence (1977 LUV)

Best Interior: Adriana Lopez (1973 510)

Best in Show: Mike Wodopian (1974 260Z)

Best in Show Runners-up (a four-way tie!): Ryan Romaine (1974 Bluebird SSS), David Allen (1976 280Z), Tim Eull (1993 RX-7), Bill Ockerland (1966 411 SSS).

President’s Award (voted on by the staff): Robert Scheidt (1986 Supra)

The Johnnie Gable Memorial Award: This award goes to someone who exemplifies the car show community lifestyle. From coordinating events, to connecting people, to being a strong ambassador of the Japanese classic community, this year’s winner was Randy Lewis.

As promised, here’s the entire gallery of the REST of the attendees.

We hope you enjoy the pics, and we hope you’ll join us next year in beautiful Williams, AZ on October 5th for the 2024 Route 66 JDM Classic!

Special thanks to Alex at Alex Shirra Media , Aaron Hernandez, and Brad DeSantis at Auto Off-Topic for the following photos!

1 2 ... 8 ►

In the last episode (Datsun 210 Rescue and Rehab – Part 1), we had gutted the interior and ditched the goofy chrome aftermarket wheels, as well as upgraded the shocks and slicing the front coils. Interestingly, the ride height only changed 1/8″ after lopping off about 3/4 of a coil. I’ll revisit that later. Might need to get a little more aggressive with it, even though “the internet” says 3/4 of a coil is the max.

With a couple weeks left until the Route 66 JDM Classic show, I really, really wanted to get this car wrapped up so we could debut it there. Yeah, it’s “just a 210” but having a deadline motivates me to get cracking. I went to the upholstery shop and picked out some fabric and vinyl for the seats, as well as a carpet color… here’s the fabric, carpet and color palette for this car:

With the seats being refurbished and the carpet kit on the way, it was time to decide what to do about the interior plastics. The 210 was a budget car when new, and as such, everything was, shall we say, CHEAP. Cardboard headliner and door panels, thin plastics, and even the sun visors were poor quality thin laminated vinyl over cardboard.

A new dome light and rear view mirror were sourced from ebay, but I was slowly realizing I had a bigger problem: The original windshield rubber (and rear window rubber) had shrunk and cracked, leaving 1/2″ gaps in several places. The rubber serves another purpose besides holding the glass in place: It secures the A pillar and C pillar plastic. Those pieces were literally crumbling to dust as I attempted to remove them. So, I pulled the front and rear glass, cleaned off all the old rubber and finished gutting the interior. None of the plastic was salvageable, and even the molded cardboard headliner was crumbly and fragile. This could be a problem.

New windshield rubber is available through ebay from Taiwan, BUT the windshield was the original Nissan glass, and it had a small crack in the corner, so my regular glass guy wouldn’t install it. Thus began a 2-week frustrating quest to find a windshield. After countless phone calls, measurements, and emails, I was getting nowhere. Coupe and wagon windshields were readily available, but NOTHING for a 2-door or 4-door sedan (they’re different measurements, strangely). Pilkington Glass, the manufacturer of 90% of the windshields on the road, shut down their vintage department during Covid, and had no plans to gear up for new production anytime soon. I even enlisted the team at Hagerty Driver’s Club who assisted with a nationwide search, to no avail. Dammit. Without a windshield, this car’s going nowhere.

Just for fun, I decided to call on an old friend, Chuck Sheen from Sakura Garage. Chuck actually taught me how to do a rope-seal windshield install in the past, and I’ve done a few myself – but with the crack staring at me like a loaded weapon, I thought there’s no way this is gonna work. Chuck disagreed, and asked me to load up the 210 and bring it over ASAP.

Miracle of miracles: Chuck and his son Greg had the front and rear glass installed in minutes, with no drama and no breakage! With no further excuses, I suppose I’ve gotta haul ass on this project now and get it done!

In between searching for windshield glass, adjusting the valves, removing some emissions components, and preparing the interior for installation, I started searching for missing bits: Three of the corner markers were broken, the rear quarter emblems were missing, and the biggest deal of all: I still have no interior plastics! Fortunately, someone in Guatemala reached out to me on Facebook, and sent me a pic of an entire set of B310 interior plastics – in the color I needed! My Spanish isn’t great, but we managed to communicate over the next few days and soon, the entire pile of plastic was on its way to the US (gracias, Leonel!) A nice lady on Etsy agreed to cast some new quarter emblems out of ABS, and they turned out fantastic, and a good friend in NM had some spare corner markers for sale.

While waiting for my loot to arrive, I cleaned and sanitized the interior and added some sound deadening in the roof, doors and quarters, and decided to give the trunk a good scrubbing and detailing.

FedEx and UPS came through – Carpet, seat belts and interior plastics arrived, and the upholstery shop called to let me know the seats are done! Look at all the beautiful, flexible, non-Arizona plastic!

Before I could install the carpet, I had to decide what to do about the gaping shifter hole. For some reason, this car didn’t come with a console of any type, so I decided to keep it that way. I’d always wanted to experiment with some ABS sheet, so I found a Datsun 720 outer shift boot, a S13 inner boot, and made a plastic bezel to tie it all together. Turned out pretty nice, and looks stock, so I started fitting and steaming the carpet.

With the carpet in, I turned to the headliner… I had to completely remove the petrified vinyl and 1/4″ foam that the factory used, so that I’d have a good surface to adhere fabric to. For fun, I decided to match the headliner to the seat fabric. It’s a little whimsical and classes up the interior a bit.

Seats and seat belts went in next – Now we’re on a roll!



The only interior parts that didn’t get addressed were the clamshell on the steering column, the door panels, and the dash itself. The prior owner had installed a combo switch from a Nissan Hardbody, so the clamshell wouldn’t fit – so, back to my helper in Indonesia, who has one on the way to us. Door panels are hard to source, so I cleaned these up. At some point, I’ll let the upholstery shop try to replicate them, but for now, it’s functional. Same with the sun-cracked dash – I’ll keep an eye out for a nice one, but that’s a massive task for another day.

Almost done, right? Not quite. The stock steel wheels are awful, and really emphasized the “cheapness” of this car. I didn’t want to go nuts (remember, this is a budget refresh on a tight timeline). My great friend Patrick Smith from High Impact Motorsports in Las Vegas had a set of S130 Iron Cross Z wheels that needed refurbishing, so I made a quick day trip to go get those.

If you’ve never rehabbed a set of 70’s Datsun alloys, it’s a big endeavor. The clear finish they used back then was properly durable, and getting it off to polish the aluminum beneath was a BIG job. Three applications of aircraft stripper hadn’t achieved the goal… YUCK.

That’s OK – I have two media blasters, so here they are after coarse (coal slag) and fine (glass bead) blasting:

Polishing wheels is a task best left to a professional. Fortunately, I’m not terribly smart sometimes, and this was one of those times. Four days of wet sanding and polishing made a colossal mess in my shop, but they turned out pretty well. A final wash with Dawn and hot water, and I was ready to paint them. Here’s the finished result:

A fresh set of 185/65/14 tires finished these off nicely, and it’s now time to experiment with the paint. I wanted to retain the sunburned patina and character of the factory paint, and after a little trial and error, I found a product that would do the job. A bottle of Nu-Finish and my DA polisher actually perked up the finish without destroying the patina, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out – How COOL is this?

With only a couple days before the Route 66 JDM Classic, I had just enough time for a quick shakedown drive to the gas station… Mia the Dawg approves of the interior:

And, here she is on Route 66 for her very first car show – Mission Accomplished!


I hope you guys enjoyed this little writeup. We’ll be coming at you soon with another one, as time allows. Thanks for reading, and thanks to all of you who offered guidance, helped source parts, or just kept me motivated along the way. See you soon!

Preparation for the Route 66 JDM Classic begins each year almost before we’re finished packing up from the previous year. Helpers and friends are usually in town for a few days before and after to assist with setup, and to review and reflect on the event afterwards… what went well, what could have been done better, and what we need to change.

This year was no exception, and we had a TON of friends and family on-site to make things run smoothly. We’ll cover that a little more later, but I want to make sure I mention WHY we host this event. Raising Special Kids is an Arizona charitable organization that provides support, information and individual assistance to families of kids with special needs. Their work is invaluable to anyone trying to navigate the system and their advocacy is critical to parents and caregivers. 100% of the registration, t-shirt sales and other revenue from the show goes straight to RSK to support the work they do, and we’re proud to partner with them.

After a couple years of Covid-affected car events, it was nice to see everyone enthusiastic to get back to normal, and registrations were rolling in before we even had the site updated completely. Final tally was 109 registrations, a 10% increase over our next-highest year… and this year, the quality and diversity of entrants was spectacular! I mean, outside of Japan, where ELSE are you going to get up close and personal with TWO Kenmeri Skylines, an AutoZam, a RHD ’63 Bluebird, an original Scarab Z, a Cappuccino, a Corolla FX-GT, a perfect first-year Q45, a Patrol ute, and an SS Bluebird all in ONE location?

For our part, I always like to debut a new build at the event, if only to keep myself motivated. Sometimes it happens, sometimes we fail – but this year, Becky’s 1979 210 (B310) made its debut after some serious setbacks and last-minute scares! For those who don’t know, it’s a carbon-copy of her first car, so it’s got some sentimental meaning (and it’s a rust-free AZ car since new). Feedback was great, and we’re stoked to have her in the Datsun Ranch fleet.

Rollout was scheduled for 9am Friday morning, to allow us plenty of time to get up the hill with the car hauler… Four cars on the trailer, and four more rolling with drivers (the 510 was a last-minute scratch due to fuel delivery issues). Since our cars are display-only (not judged), we like to bring as many as possible to encourage others to get their projects to the show! Fortunately, all made the trip with no issues, and our team had plenty of time to relax, have lunch, wipe down the cars, and get paperwork together for the Meet and Greet at Cruisers on Route 66.

Becky (@nico_bex_) spends a ton of time before the event preparing the registration packets, goodie bags, t-shirt, awards, and raffle prizes. This makes things run smoothly when everyone rolls into town – because face it, who wants to deal with registration hassles after being on the road all day? No chance of that this year. Lots of familiar faces and new people we hadn’t yet met, all gathered at Cruisers to pick up their registration packets, enjoy dinner and drinks, and catch up on the past year’s projects. BIG thanks to the staff and owners at Cruisers for giving us a place to hang out!

Saturday morning is always chaos and mayhem, and we certainly underestimated the enthusiasm – there were cars lined up before we even started setting up headquarters! By 8 am, the command center at Dairy Queen was assembled and staffed, most of the cars were parked, and it became clear that this is the kind of car event we love to attend… Friendly, laid-back, welcoming and pressure-free! Speaking of Dairy Queen, we need to give a huge shout-out to Debbie Pettit and her staff for sharing their parking / seating area (and keeping everyone fed and hydrated throughout the day)!

The staffers this year flew in from Australia, Michigan, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and various other places, and we couldn’t have done it without them.

Speaking of the Australians, the Sola family made this event the centerpoint of their two-week US vacation. Andy helped load the car hauler and was my co-pilot for the trip up the hill. Cathy and Aaron Hernandez graciously photographed the event, and the Sola girls did a great job selling raffle tickets, t-shirts and stickers.

I made it a point this year to wander the show a bit more than usual… not necessarily to see the cars, but to catch up with the owners and their families. I’ve said it more than a few times: The cars are simply a ticket into a group of amazing, diverse, and friendly people. We’re just temporary custodians of these classic cars, but the relationships developed through these events last an entire lifetime. Even doing my best, I still missed some folks – if you’re one of them, I apologize… I hope we get a few quiet minutes to catch up and chat next time!

With no strict timeline or rigid schedule, there’s plenty of time to mill about, check out cars, meet up with old friends and make new ones… or wander off and check out some of the shops, restaurants and galleries along Route 66. Another fun side effect of our location: Lots of global tourists visiting the Grand Canyon didn’t know anything about the show, but they approached us to tell us about their classic sitting at home, or to reminisce and ask questions about a car they may have owned sometime in the past.

The crew from HMD / HM Designs, LLC were present as well. Aside from printing what I believe to be our best event shirts ever, and some really cool event stickers, they also brought their press so that people could order a custom shirt and have it printed on-site. If you need commercial wraps, signs, custom printing, promotional items for your business or event, or even window tinting, they’re the guys to do it!

We were also fortunate to have Keith Bergey on hand – Keith was the Chief Engineer for the Scarab Z cars, and he was gracious enough to show up with one of these rare beasts to show it off and answer questions about the handful of Z-based, factory-built hot rods.

I’m pretty fond of telling people that this show isn’t necessarily about awards, and for those who have groused in the past about the judging or the outcome, I have the same response: If you’re simply here to chase a trophy, this might not be the event for you. The entire show is peer-judged, which means everyone who enters a car gets a ballot, because we think fellow Japanese classic owners are the most qualified to decide what’s worthy of an award. This year, nationally-recognized Datsun 411 expert Tom Neely and his crew from ANplumbing.com didn’t just roll in with some rare and amazing cars, but they also hand-crafted some incredibly beautiful and detailed trophy hardware for the top three entrants… and Tom’s lovely wife Liezl brought MY personal favorite car of the show, her pristine original champagne-color 1970 Corona!

Raffle prizes are a good segue into the awards portion of the show, and there were some great prizes this year. Some people take the raffle very, very seriously, and we had more than a few lucky multiple winners!

While the votes are being tabulated, we announce an award that is very near and dear to us, the Johnnie Gable Memorial Award, who you can read about here: https://www.zonc.org/johnnie-gable-memoriam/ The award is conveyed annually to a person who is an ambassador of the classic Japanese car hobby, and who exemplifies the qualities of the community we’re all so proud of. This year, the Johnnie Gable Memorial Award went to Aaron Hernandez (@toywagon), a student of the Japanese classics, a long-time collector, influencer, and champion of events like this one.

Once the votes were counted, there were a few classes that were VERY close, within a few votes! Let’s take a look at this year’s winners:

Best in Show – Leroy Kyger, 1964 Datsun L320

Best in Show First Runner Up – Mike Wodopian, 1974 260Z

Best in Show Second Runner Up – Nathan Tito, 1978 Corolla

Best Datsun Z First Place – JJ Levine, 1972 240Z

Best Datsun Z Second Place – Kira Reisch, 1972 240Z

Best Datsun Non-Z First Place – Rob Crosswhite, 1971 510

Best Datsun Non-Z Second Place – David Witt, 1972 510

Best Datsun Non-Z Third Place – Aaron Hofferber, 1971 510

Best Toyota First Place – Dallas Wheeler, 1985 Corolla

Best Toyota Second Place – Brad DeSantis, 1979 Cressida

Best Toyota Third Place – Liezl Neely, 1970 Corona

Best Mazda – Michael Oliveri, 1992 AutoZam A-1

Best Honda/Acura – Kyle Steigerwald, 1996 Integra Type R

Best Mitsubishi – Guillermo Polo, 1995 3000GT

Best Suzuki – Carl Smith, 1984 Suzuki RM250

Best Subaru – Justeen Steigerwald, 1995 WRX STi

Best Nissan 300Z/ZX – Jayleen McKean, 1989 Nissan 300zx (no photo available)

Diamond in the Rough – Keith Bergey, 1975 280Z Scarab

Best Nissan/Infiniti Non-Z – Nikko Solorza, 1975 Nissan Skyline

Best Truck First Place – Leroy Kyger, 1964 Datsun L320

Best Truck Second Place – Jose Garcia, 1979 Datsun 620

RSK Choice Award – Steve Gonzalez, 1977 280Z

Iron Butt Award (longest distance traveled) – Aaron Hofferber (drove his 510 from Bend Oregon!)

If you’ve made it this far, we hope you’ll come out next year and join us in the fantastic weather, beautiful high desert, and enjoy the amazing environment of Arizona’s Route 66… but just in case you’re not convinced, here’s a gallery of the [most of] the rest of the cars from the show! Enjoy, and we’ll see you next year at the Route 66 JDM Classic!

Long before Becky (nissangirl74) and Greg (AZhitman) got married and founded Datsun Ranch, Becky owned a butterscotch-colored 1979 Datsun 210 (along with several other B310-platform cars). This one happened to show up on Facebook Marketplace one night, and I figured it’d be a cool piece of nostalgia for her to enjoy.


Seller was a super-cool fellow, and the car ran strong. In fact, we stood around in 100* heat, chatting about cars and life, and the little 210 sat there patiently idling the whole time…. no overheating, no leaks – a great candidate for a rolling resto.

Getting it home, the assessment began. The car started its life in Show Low AZ, and appears to have been an AZ car ever since. No perforating corrosion, clean and solid floor pans and rockers, just a little surface corrosion wherever the paint wore thin. Incorrect chrome wheels and some studded ice/snow tires were the first thing to go, to be temporarily replaced with some 13″ steelies.

Second order of business was to refurbish the plastic front grille and do something with the awful park-bench bumpers. Built at their height of cost-cutting measures, the bumpers on these are a thinly-plated channel of steel, capped off with big black plastic end-pieces and supported by gas-charged impact-absorbing cylinders.

Removing the bumpers allows access to the hydraulic cylinders, which are “sealed” by way of a philips-head screw securing a rubber o-ring. Gently releasing the screw allows the pressurized gas to leak out, and compression of the cylinder shortens the length, tucking the bumpers closer to the body. Ideally, a set of JDM steel bumpers would be preferred, but they’re hard to source, and this project is on a tight budget. Bumpers tucked, and some preliminary paint salvation beginning…


Not much left of the original paint, but thankfully, no one saw fit to repaint it… original paint (even if it’s almost gone) is WAY preferable to a shoddy respray, so we’ll gradually cut and buff this down to some semblance of gloss – including the upper surfaces, which are showing the original primer and sealant through the ultra-thin paint. She should have a great patina when done! Straightening out the front valance, fender corners, and rehabbing the grille turned out nice:

Next order of business, digging into the heat-baked interior. A previous owner had replaced the front bucket seats with some heavy leather thrones from a domestic vehicle, so those went straight to the bin. As you can see, the original vinyl and plastic had turned to something the consistency of a saltine cracker, and the original carpet was hanging onto a good 10 lbs of accumulated debris. Check out those poor seat belt latches – turning to dust!


Removing the carpet and seats revealed a pristine floor, and even the factory sound deadening was intact. We’ll vacuum out the funk, disinfect the metal and add a few pieces of sound deadening where the factory missed.


Interestingly, this car didn’t have a console or anything surrounding the shifter and e-brake, but check out the condition of the e-brake plastic surround… brittle and crumbly, with an entire chunk missing from the top. We’ll deal with this soon, I have a few ideas for this piece.

With the interior stripped down, I sourced a pair of original 210 front buckets and hauled them off to the upholstery shop, and ordered a carpet kit from Stock Interiors. In the meantime, I pulled the front and rear shocks and replaced them with some fresh KYB units from RockAuto. While the front struts were out, I shortened the front springs by 3/4 coil in an attempt to minimize the “Carolina Squat.”

UPDATE: Here’s Part 2 of Datsun 210 Rescue and Rehab!

Throughout my nearly two decades at the helm of NICOclub.com, DatsunForum.com and Z Power Steering, I’ve had loads of opportunities to interact with awesome people from Datsun’s heyday.

Some have been huge influencers who helped put Datsun on the map (Pete Brock, John Morton, Bob Sharp, Bob Bondurant, Steve Millen, and countless others).

Some have been the “behind the scenes” people (employees, early dealers, mechanics, designers, and engineers) whose names are lost to history, but whose contributions made Datsun a force to be reckoned with and ushered in the success of Nissan as a household name.

Still others are the folks who simply owned a Datsun car and have a great story, and for whom the car evokes fond memories of days past.

This article is about one of those owners.

Scott Bondelli (local Z owner) reached out to me several months ago about getting a ZPS kit for his 1977 280Z. We ordered up the kit, arranged for the install here at Datsun Ranch, and planned for a dropoff date.

A couple weeks later, Scott and his lovely wife rolled in to drop off the Z, and it’s a stunner.

Of course, the conversation turned to all things Z car, and Scott shared this awesome story about the history of the car… I’ll let Scott tell the story from here:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My father, Phil Bondelli, was a WW2 veteran, and later became one of the pioneers of early television, serving as director for WBBM in Chicago. He went on to become an accomplished film director throughout the 1970’s and 80’s, directing such single camera action shows like Charlie’s Angels, CHiPs, The 6 Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, T.J. Hooker, The Rookies, and several others.

My older brother had purchased a 1970 240Z in 1974 and my Dad knew how much he liked it. An opportunity came up a few years later to purchase a 1977 280Z from Patrick Duffy (some of you will remember Mr. Duffy as the actor who played “Bobby Ewing” alongside Larry Hagman in the long-running TV show “Dallas”). Of course, he bought it.

I was born in 1983, so I never knew life without the Z in the family. My Dad used to take me and my brother for rides on his lap around our neighborhood in Chatsworth California, and would have us help him wash the car in the driveway.

Shortly after moving to Mesa Arizona, the head gasket blew and the car sat in our garage for many years. Still, while it sat inoperable, I would go out to the garage nearly every day and sit in the car, act like I was driving it, shifting through the gears and trying to learn how to operate the clutch.

In the early 2000s my Dad sold the car to a childhood friend of mine for $175. This friend rebuilt the engine and got the car running. He used it to drive to college every day for a few years until it eventually met a similar fate, sitting in a garage for several years undriveable.

Eventually my friend sold it to a coworker of mine who restores cars. Over the next few years he rebuilt the engine, again and restored nearly every piece of the car as it was from the factory, and did a glass-out repaint in the original color.

When the time came for them to sell the car I wasn’t able to financially make it work and had to pass on it. I thought at that point I’d lost my chance and would never see the car again. In June of 2021 I reached out to my coworker who had since left the company and asked if she could provide me the information of the gentleman they sold the car to.

After getting his contact info, I sent him an email – he promptly replied stating that he still had the car, it was running great, and he might be interested in selling it to me later in the year. I still didn’t get my hopes up too high but sure enough in late December 2021 he reached out to me and said he was ready to sell. I took it for a drive and eventually struck a deal to bring the car home.

Dad’s old Z still has the same feel and smells that it had when I would sit in the garage shifting through the gears pretending to be a racecar driver, except now I own the car and I am driving it for real.

I am so grateful to have been able to be reunited with this car to drive around town and take to shows with my wife… Although she never got the chance to meet him before he passed away, we’re thankful to have this memory of him.
-Scott

One of my favorite tools here at Datsun Ranch… This solution saves a ton of time on tuning an old Datsun!

Setting float levels in your Datsun SU carburetors is critical to optimal engine performance. Power and fuel economy are sacrificed if float levels are set too high, too low, or differ in each bowl. Until now, there hasn’t been a tool allowing you to visually inspect both float levels at the same time, with the engine running. Float-Sync shows you precisely where your floats are set to ensure your engine is running with peak power and efficiency. 

The level of fuel in the float bowl dictates the level of fuel in the jet nozzle. This is a big deal for SU carburetors because the fuel level in the jet nozzle directly impacts engine performance. When the engine is running, a vacuum is created in the SU carburetor venturi that pulls fuel out of the jet nozzle, mixing it with air and drawing it into the engine. If float levels are adjusted too high, fuel puddles at the top of the jet, allowing too much to be drawn into the engine, creating a rich condition. If the float is adjusted too low, it will be harder to pull fuel out of the jet, creating a lean condition.

A rich condition can cause plug fouling, poor fuel economy, gas fumes, diluted crankcase oil (contributing to blow by and reduced engine protection), and in extreme cases potential for an engine fire. A lean condition can cause the engine to stumble, backfire, ping and run hotter than it should, creating the potential to burn the valves.

Only Float-Sync allows you to see precisely where your floats are, and shows you the fuel level throughout the entire RPM range in each float bowl… all without opening the float bowl.

Setting floats by removing the float bowl lid and measuring the distance between the lid and top of the float is imprecise at best, because there are so many other variables.

To make float adjustments, remove the four screws on each float bowl and lift the cover off with float attached. The metal tabs on the floats can be bent slightly up or down to change the fuel level in each bowl. With the float hanging below the cover, bending the float tab down will raise the fuel level in the bowl. Bending the tab up on the float will lower the fuel level. To observe how your adjustments have changed fuel level in the bowls, replace and secure covers, then restart the car to inspect fuel levels. Be patient, it may take a few attempts to sync float levels precisely.

 Float-Sync Directions: 

• Remove and set aside the air cleaner housing and filter.
• Remove 12mm threaded plugs on the front of each float bowl, taking care to collect the gasoline which will drain.
• Screw Float-Sync tools into each opening so sight glasses point up and neoprene washers compress slightly so they seal against fuel leaks.
• Start car and allow engine to warm up. View fuel level through each sight glass. You want the fuel level in each sight glass to be the same. The optimal level is 9/16” (14mm), measured from the top of the Float-Sync block to the fuel level in each site glass.
• If adjustments are necessary, disconnect the fuel hoses supplying each carburetor, remove the four screws on each float bowl lid and lift cover off, with floats attached. Metal tabs on floats can be bent slightly up or down to change the fuel level in each bowl. When the float is hanging below the cover, bending the tab down raises the fuel level. Bending the tab up lowers the fuel level.
• To observe how your adjustments have impacted the fuel level, replace and secure float bowl covers, reattach fuel hoses and restart car. Be patient, it may take a few attempts to sync float levels precisely.
• With both floats adjusted properly, remove Float-Sync units, replacing them with the 12mm threaded plugs you removed. Again, take care to collect gasoline which will drain from float bowls. Replace air cleaner and filter.

You can buy Float-Sync here! Float-Sync Tuning Tool for Datsun SU Carburetors

Special thanks to Harold Burroughs (writer) and Hung Vu from Vintage Dashes!

How to Install your new Vintage Dash:

-Take out dash (fasteners which need to be removed are circled in red – please inspect pictures closely).


-Remove 3 center gauges (a strap and 1 screw hold them in, so you can pull these 3 from the rear).

-Remove Speedometer and Tachometer (one screw holds the strap in the back, so you can pull these two forward out of the dash).

-Disconnect and remove the dimmer switch.

-Remove the glove box ( 4 screws under and 6 screws on the face).

-Remove HVAC hoses and two side vents on outer dash (two screws top and bottom).

-Take out 22 screws that hold the dash to shell, keeping in mind that some are hidden on sides and behind the wire harness.

-Remove the cigarette lighter by unscrewing the big nut on back and also removing the power wires (this sandwiches the lighter assembly between the shell and dash)

-Get your new dash and compare to old dash where the screws bind it to the shell. Remove excess material around screw holes (you can drill two holes for dimmer and trip reset at this time).

-Dry fit dash to shell and ensure nothing is binding up.

-Once all holes line up reasonably screw dash to shell.

-Reverse order install of all gauges and components (it is necessary to cut out the cigarette lighter area – Use a sharp knife or razor).



-Punch two holes for the emblem and install.

The whole process took me 2 hours and for my first time I was very careful and didn’t know what to expect. The whole process was very straight forward and Hung Vu is a huge resource.

If you’d like to place an order for a replacement dash (an absolute bargain at $800) for your classic Z, please contact Hung via his Facebook page: Hung Vu

Thanks, and I hope this helps you install your new Vintage Dash!