motorman7

My guess is that the Datsun garage dash is supplied by Vintage Dashes. Perhaps they got a bulk order discount at the time. I know that Jay, owner of jdmcarparts.com, distributes his parts to Motorsports and other Z suppliers. I think Vintage Dashes does the same thing. Not a lot of people out there making Dashes. Datsun Garage dash may be a blem. Also, FWIW, I love the Vintage Dashes. I have assembled and installed 4 of them and they look great. I have done 2 Just Dashes and they are good, but do not maintain the shape of the original dash. I was not happy with how they shaved the foam over the 3 center gauges. The foam was thicker in that location than the original. I posted pics of the difference on one of my blogs here. Both companies use the same black plastic overwrap and have the same grain, which is different from the original but not a big deal. Only nerds like me pay attention to material textures. Also, I can relate to your windshield loss. I accidentally dropped a head onto an original Z windshield when working in tight quarters at my old house. I was crushed.

@grannyknot I use the weatherstrip glue in the corners only, in the outside channel of the pinch weld, on all 4 corners. The bead of sealant extends about 6 to 8 inches from each corner. The corners seem to typically have the worst fit, so I think the sealant in those locations helps. Also, regarding installation, the condition of the gasket is probably a big factor. The soft ones make for a pretty easy install. The hard ones can be a bear.

Also, not a fan of trimmer filament. It is a small diameter and has a tendency to cling to the rubber lip and potentially tear the gasket lip (ask me how I know). I prefer to use a quarter inch diameter nylon cord/rope for the process. It's a bit more gentle on the rubber and comes out of the groove easier during the install process.

I have always installed the stainless steel trim AFTER getting the windshield installed on the car. When I tried to put the trim in before installing the windshield onto the car, the trim came out during the installation process. The key to installing the trim after is using lots of Windex. I will typically install one trim edge in the rubber gasket groove, I then lube the other rubber groove generously with Windex and use a small screwdriver to lift the other rubber groove over the stainless steel trim edge. With a nice soft gasket, the second groove will lift over and secure the trim almost like a zipper. Hard gaskets are a bit more difficult, but not bad. For what it's worth, I have installed at least 10 sets of windshields and hatch glass and their respective trim so I am pretty comfortable with it. Also, I blogged the process somewhere on the site here.

Thanks everyone. I will probably take a short break here and then work on another. I really enjoy the entire restoration process. It's nice to have a hobby that you truly enjoy. Have a Happy New Year everyone 😊

So I finally got the BRE replica Z finished up and sent off to the owner. Below are some of the final pictures of the car and photos of the car in the trailer. The Z and its' traveling companion, a SEMA McLaren, are headed on their way down to Texas.

Thanks! Wishing you and your family a great Christmas and New Year.

I am getting close to the finish on this. One of the items I had to do was install the door hinge detent springs. Not sure why, but the hinges that were installed on the car did not have springs and detents once I received the car. So, I removed the springs and detent from a later model car (different pin size) and drilled out the early model hinge to accomodate the larger pins. Also painted parts white to match car color. The only way to install the assembly was to remove the door as the the spring and detent assembly can most easily be installed when the hinge is in the closed position. Door was removed very carefully with the help of my wife and bucket appropriatley sized for the door to rest on. I installed the spring and detent on the bench after I drilled the holes for the larger pin. Once the hinges were complete I re-assembled everything and re-aligned the doors. Once the car was color sanded and polished, I started applying the decals. The larger ones were attached using a light soapy spray on the car before aligning and squeegying (learned this from youtube videos). The smaller ones are easy enough to do without the spray. location of the decals was done mostly by eyeballing on line pictures of the original car. The number on the right front of the hood was the most difficult to install due to the curvature of the hood. The rest were pretty straight forward. The BRE on the fuel door worked out better than expected. We did run into one issue as BRE accidently sent us the numbers for the 510 race car and not the 240Z. The 510 numbers are about 20% larger than the 240Z numbers and obviously were oversized (see pics). I contacted BRE and was advised to "cut the numbers with scissors" to make them fit. Not the best customer service (my wife was a little more opinionated about their response so I will leave that out). Anyway, I had the owner contact BRE to work out the numbers issue, and the correct ones were sent a week later. I am very happy with how everything turned out. My first time installing vinyl decals. I took the car to a local car show just to show it off. Needless to say, the car went over very well with the spectators. Boise likes flashy race cars....not so much original stock cars. I installed two sets of seat belts. Racing Sparco belts that can be unclipped, and an aftermarket roller tensioned belt system that is a bit closer to stock. The heater works great which is a good sign as it is part of the VintageAir system. I still need to charge the AC system and also get the front end aligned. I will use outside services for those. All the electrical is in good shape. The car has a number of aftermarket electrical items including the Headlight relay upgrade, parking light upgrade, and front blinker/running light upgrade. All fairly easy to install, 2 independently fused for their respective relays. The only item that took a little work was the front blinker/running light upgrade. The housing of the running lights need to be electrically 'floating' and not grounded to the car body. To make the housings electrically floating, I just oversized the holes in the running light housing so the 2 attach screws did not contact the body and ground it to the fender. I will continue to finish up some of the little details here. Pics are below.

Thanks, I will talk with the print guy about this. Here is what the files look like. I went custom on the choke panel for now as it was easier. May modify that one later if i dont like this one.

I figured out the issue with the brakes. The post that sticks out of the Brake Booster was pushing into the master cylinder about half an inch on installation. Once I shortened the post so that it was not pushing into the master cylinder on installation, everything worked fine. Both reservoirs bled well as did all four disc brake bleed valves. I used my trusty Harbor Freight vacuum bleeder on all of the bleed valves. Brakes are nice and firm and work well. With the brakes complete, I took the car for a spirited drive around the neighborhood running it through alll 5 gears. It runs very strong as it has the 280Z motor, a milled cam, high compression and a 3.94:1(?) rear end among other things. The motor was built by the same shop that does Adam Corolla's motors. I finished the heater panel installation (mostly- no radio or light bezel). I fabbed a small bracket that clips to the center vent and has an oval opening for the vent duct. See pictures below. The vent duct connects to the center opening on the evaporator and was connected on installation. The final electrical connections were finished and the panel put in place. I switched the ignition to ACC and checked out the operation of the fan and vents. The fan appears to put out more air than the stock unit, especially in the defrost mode. The only thing that takes getting used to is when switching from defrost, to vent, to room/center air there is a couple second delay as the actuators or the system open and close the valves. Unlike the stock manual cable system that operates immediately. Overall, I am very happy with the system and found it fairly simple to retro-fit into the Z. I finished up the panel install and cleaned up the wiring a bit. Also added the parking brake light upgrade kit, that was a prettty easy install. Also installed the window mounted mirrors which I think look pretty sporty. The install of the mirrors is prettty easy with the correct rivets. I am now color sanding and buffing out the paint which really makes the car look awesome. I am hoping to install the decals by the middle to end of next week in time for a car club grand opening car show here in Boise on December 16th. I know the manager and he said that he would set me up with a nice spot for the car. https://www.toyboxcarclub.com/ Pics of progress are below. Also, I will be 3D modeling the mirror mount and the choke center plate as the mirror mount is broken and the choke plate is missing. My neighbor has several types of 3D printers and said that he would print these for me. Assuming they turn out well, I may make several copies just in case they are needed.

Haven't posted in while but got a lot done. I installed the dash and hooked up the ducts from the VintageAir system. This was pretty easy. Vintage air sends two diameters of tubing with their kit. The smaller diameter hose is for the defrost ducts. Amazingly, the small diameter hose fits perfectly on to the stock defroster vents. A small S shaped section does the trick for the defrost attachment. The Outside vents are also pretty straight forward. I installed the larger ducting in the dash and left the hose long in the middle. After installing the dash, I trimmed the hose and connected it to the Evaporator unit two outside ports. The center port on the vintage air system is for the 'floor', however, I will fab something so that it can come out of the center panel. The lower switch in the front control panel gives you 4 options: Off, Vents, Floor and Vents+Floor. All electronically controlled. Very nice. So, AC mechanical system is now completely installed including a belt for the AC compressor. I will connect the final electrical when i install the panel. We will charge the system at a shop on a later date. Installed a fused switch for the fuel pump. This is right in front on the dash for easy access and operates nicely. Got the rear interior panels mostly installed. Panels were from a different car, so most of the holes lined up (versus purchased panels where half the holes do not line up). Installed a new removable steering wheel. This is actually pretty sweet and makes getting in and out of the car a bit easier with the flat bottom. Installed an offset stick for the 5 speed transmission. The straight stick will not work when connecting to the 5 speed. Both sticks shown in Neutral position. Final install pics are with offset shifter ,shown below. We started the engine up and she sounds great and very smooth. The clutch system bled nicely and operates well. Fluid was put in the transmission as well. Once I get the brakes ironed out she will be ready for a cruise around the block. My initial bleed did not go too well. I could not bleed the forward bowl on the Willwood master cylinder from the forward bleed port, so will have to investigate that. Center console has a hole forward of the choke lever. I will be installing a USB port in this position. Latest pics are below

One more item. I wanted to see if I could use the stock rotary fan speed switch instead of the VintageAir rotary switch, so I rung each switch out with a meter and found that the Vintage air has a tab that gets power whenever the fan is switched to Low, Medium or High. The stock Z switch does not have this function. The Vintage air tab that powers up when turned on routes to cooling control switch and area selector switch. Also, the resitance through each switch is different. The VintageAir resistance to each Low, Medium and High is about 20 Ohms while the Z fan speed switch is around 100 Ohms. So, I had to go with the VintageAir switch.

More progress this weekend. I got the final parts for the AC from VintageAir on Thursday and completed the mechanical installation of the AC system. All hoses were fitted with thier respective o-rings, lubed, and then given the final torque. Installation of the complete system was much simpler than I had expected. I like the final routing to the Evaporator box. It's a little different than the other AC thread installation, but looks very clean. I adapted the AC switches and slides to the stock Z Temp control panel. I first tried making a single bracket to support two of the switches and ended up making a single bracket for each switch. It was a bit easier this way as the mounting features on the panel are not in the same plane (there is about a .10" offset). The heater slide is secured with the cooling switch bracket as it does not have any mounting features. The Cooling switch and control switch are both secured to their respective brackets with #6 screw and nuts. Pics are below. I test mounted everything to a spare panel before finally transfereing over to the final panel. I will finish up the panel with the knobs, decals and silver touch up pen a little later. While the dash was out, we got the clock re-furbed with a quartz mechanism at Zclocks.com. I have used these on several of my restorations and have one in my White Z. These keep incredibly accurate time. Much better than the stock units, also more reliable. Pics are below Next steps will be to finish the AC electrical connections (looks fairly straight forward as most connections are poke-a-yoke) and then put the dash back in.

Lots of progress this week. I installed the Evaporator unit using the brackets I fabbed with the mock-up. I fabbed and installed the heater hoses, installed the heater hose control module (electronic, yeah!) and almost all of the AC hoses. AC hoses were pretty easy to make using the hose pliers, very straight forward. I am very happy with the AC compressor mount on the Smog Pump bracket. I drilled out the bracket slightly to accomodate the larger bolt. It mounts firmly in place using the larger bolt. I will add an alternator tensioner to the top of the unit to complete the support and provide adjustment. I was short a few parts (AC hose clamps), probably because of the bulkhead addition so I ordered the few parts that were needed. Also, I did not like the right angle set-up for the AC lines at the bulkhead so ordered one more straight fitting. Will complete the installation when those parts arrive. Here are pics.

It's the same one that is installed in the other thread. It's the VintageAir Gen II mini. The thing that I am really liking about it is the compact size and the electronic vent operation. No more rickety sliding levers and cables to install and adjust. I have not addressed the control panel yet, but will do my best to have it look like the original when I get to that point.