Having owned several 240's and a couple of 280's over the years, I'm watching this with interest. You've made a great start so far.
You were right not going with the instructions on painting the underside the same body color. All early 240,260 &280 Z's came from the factory with only a clear rust proof coating that actually didn't work, so the underside basically looked like natural metal with some slight body color over spray.

When you get around to the engine bay, the block was painted a light blue, almost the color of the old Ford blue. The head and valve cover were natural aluminium with no shine at all to them.

Great job so far. I'd love to have this kit.

ps: the original air filter can is correct but the orange should be toned way down. It was more of a red/orange.

Tony, at the end of the day it's your model and it's supposed to be fun. I didn't want you to think I was being a know-it-all. Oddly enough, one of my pet peeves is when people try to pick apart someones build by telling them they're doing something wrong, but I find myself doing that too.

In reality when it comes to the Z cars, there really is no 100% right or wrong. Many of the 3rd and 4th year cars especially the 260z had dealer installed spray undercoating which was black. This was in certain areas of the US where it was found that the early 240z tended to rust extremely fast.

Also of note is that somewhere in....I believe....1973....there was even a batch of Z's that arrived off the ship with blue NGK spark plug wires due to a defective run of originals.

Anyway, just build it the way that makes you happy and feel free to ask any questions. Having fun is the main goal.

ps: I'm digging the British racing green! You're friend has good taste.

Looks great so far Anthony. Love the look of the textured paint. What brand of paint is it?

Not wanting to be a kill joy or nay-sayer, but the reference car is not a 240ZG...

I started building mine about a week ago and I painted the chassis the same colour as the body. The 240ZG was not part of the early production as far as I know and by the time they were built the Japanese 240ZGs and Zs all had their chassis painted body colour to help with rust proofing.

Also, as Tamiya says in the instructions the ZG was only available in three colours, White Red and Maroon. I used Tamiya TS-11 on my car as it is as close as I could find to the original colour.

But ignore all the previous words Anthony as it is your model and you can paint it whatever colour you want to paint it!

Cheers and keep at it,
Warren

To make the debate even more confusing, my oldest sister was the original owner of a 1970 240Z. She picked it up at the local dealer the day of delivery and owned it up until 8 years ago. I can say with 100% certainty that the underside was NOT sprayed body color (burnt orange). Being a member of our local Datsun Z club for nearly 20 years I can also say that many of the members owned original Z cars and the only paint that was ever on the underside of their cars was slight over spray.

I can also point you to a few original Z owners who's cars definitely WERE sprayed totally with body color.

I know a man who owned a 1974 260Z that came from the factory with the original "round top" carbs instead of the one year only "flat top" carbs. That particular car also came factory equipped with NGK spark plug wires instead of the factory black ones.

One thing I can tell you is that after 40 years of driving, owning and being around Z cars from 1970 to 2014, there really is no set in stone guides for what is truly factory original.