Suspension and Brakes
A fast car with flashy paint is worthless without a solid suspension and great brakes. Taking care of everything now will eliminate having to fix things piecemeal in the future.
The top image is the front suspension and below is the rear. The design is a little primitive compared to modern cars, but in 1970 an independent rear suspension was a rarity. With some upgrades, it can still be competitive.
One such upgrade is polyurethane bushings, which make for a tighter, more responsive suspension. Factory bushings are made with rubber, which are a little "squishy", but they provide a slightly softer ride. Since I won't be racing or drifting, I opted for the squishy version.
The rear suspension was rebuilt early because there were no brakes (see below). The previous owner included a salvaged 280z suspension to provide some of the missing parts. Once everything was sorted out, new bushings were installed along with upgraded struts. New brake shoes and slave cylinders were added. The hubs were pulled apart and new bearings and seals were installed. The existing bearings were probably fine, but it was yet-another instance of the "while I'm here..." cost overruns.
The front bushings and ball joints were replaced, along with tie rod joints, bearings, seals, and so on. I added steel reinforcement plates for the sway bar mounts because several decades of flexing can really loosen things up. I'll need to have wheels aligned but that can wait until later.
The previous owner said the car had no brakes. Typically that means something is broken or worn out, but this time it was really "no brakes" because when I pulled off the drums I discovered there was nothing - no shoes, no springs, and the slave cylinders were corroded beyond repair. It all had to be replaced.
By contrast, the front brakes were in pretty good shape. The calipers weren't leaking and the rotors weren't warped. The pads looked OK but were an unknown quality so they got replaced.
Here's how the rear suspension turned out. Typically I would have painted everything black but red made me laugh. It'll match the body color.
It's all held together with grade-8 hardware, which is probably overkill compared to what Datsun used in '71 but the extra-strong bolts will give me some piece of mind.
The new brakes look great. The early 240z cylinders turned out to be pricey, so I used ones for a 280z. They bolted right in but the hard lines had to be carefully tweaked to get them to line up.