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Blog Mikes Z car

A blog by Mikes Z car in Member Blogs - Approved

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Entries in this blog

Cowl leaf screen

This mod is reversible leaving no trace. Using silicone rubber sealant I glued a piece of aluminum window screen I spray painted black onto the bottom of the cowl where the holes are to keep leaves and other debris out. The screen helps prevent corrosion from debris trapping moisture in the area where the windshield wiper motor is. Mike Looking at bottom of cowl, screen being glued on:

Stripped radio fascia captive nut- make your own replacement

This is the original fascia nut and odd looking squarish washer that came out with it: One of the captive nuts on the fascia on my car was stripped out so to fix that I made my own captive nut by cutting a rectangle shape out of a repair metal from Thrifty hardware and drilling and tapping it for the 4MM original machine screw. I used a bench grinder to make the new nut have the same size as the original and to have the beveled edges the original has. The existing machine screw size is

Heater blower motor squeal stop

It is possible to lubricate both blower motor bearings without taking the motor out of the car to stop squeals or other noises related to motor bearings. I realized this after I had taken the motor out to lubricate the bearings. Many have opted to replace the existing blower motor and fan with a Honda civic heater fan. I like to fix things so I oiled the old motor because it was turning slowly and was squealing. Oiling both bearings with the fan in place in the car can be done by taki

Glove box liner- make your own

This describes how I made a two part glove box liner for a 240Z using 3/16" thick foam board. The two parts make it easy to install: Replacement glove box liners are available from classiczcars.com vendors however I like making things so I thought I would fabricate a new liner. I considered making this out of metal but my metal working skills are not that good so I thought I would use an easier to work with cardboard like material. After I made the liner I cut it in half 3 1/2" from

Rear frame rail interiors anti rust spray

Hi all, I sprayed all interior channels of the rear frame rails and interior of wheel wells of a 240Z with two cans of Transtar amber anti corrosion material using existing holes where possible. The front frame rails are more likely to rust but I had already sprayed the interior of the front rails on my car. A thread describing how I did the front frame rails is here: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/body-paint-s30/40048-two-frame-rails-tc-rod-there-floor-between-them.html The Transtar

Firewall insulation pattern for 1/1972 240Z

Here are pictures of the firewall insulation of a 1/1972 240Z on a "fabric board" with lines 1 inch apart going both ways to allow duplication if for some reason someone wanted to. Note that the top edge of all three pieces of the insulation are lined up with a blue line on the fabric board. Pictures were taken in full sun and have shadows. To clarify where the black insulation poster board ends and the shadow begins white dashed lines have been drawn. This could be printed out and the blue

Throttle jerk fix

Hi all, This mod eliminates MOST of the throttle jerk but not ALL of it. I owned the car for 4 years before I noticed it still has a small amount of throttle jerk. The previous owner of my 240Z reduced throttle jerk from idle to take off by bending the upper arm of the "turnstyle" as seen in the attached pictures to a stair step shape effectively shortening it. This mod is no cost, possibly reversible and requires no welding, drilling or adding parts. The connecting rod with a nylon bal

Hood emergency release (plus handle mount stripped threads fix)

Hi all, This has been done before by others, the following is my experience. I added a second hood release cable so now I have two of them in case the original cable breaks. Getting the hood open after the cable breaks is not particularly easy in my view of how others have done this. The easiest way to do this IMO is to do what someone else did, loop a steel wire through where the original hood release cable attaches to the latch under the hood, run it through the firewall grommet for the

240Z frame drawing sketchup

Updated 30 Mar 2014: Screenshots: Rotating view (click to zoom in): Front frame rails: Rear frame rails looking towards front of car: Sketchup drawing for download: 240Z frame rails whole car 20 Mar 2014.skp.zip Sketchup drawing viewer can be downloaded here: Download | SketchUp Revision history: 2013 Dec- Updated drawing includes holes I noticed in the frame behind the seats. (Holes are now in correct location if you happened to have viewed this drawing the first couple of week

Engine bay light lens- make your own replacement

Hi all, I made a new engine bay light lens out of an empty nutrition drink tube that looks like a large translucent white test tube with a tube DIA of 33.8 MM, though it does not have to be exactly that to work. The nutrition drink is called Energize and has the words "Hardcore Energize bullet" on it with the word "Energize" much larger than the other words (Thank you to SteveJ for identifying the brand of drink for me since I had thrown away the wrapper). It is sold by Wall Mart here and I

Clock replacement for 240Z (Quartz)

Hi all, I got a quartz clock from Michael's (arts and craft store in USA) and replaced the mechanical clock mechanism in my 1970 240Z (my clock face says JECO). There is a thread where someone else used this same clock for their Z, the following is my experience. The easiest way to do this IMO is to use the hands from the new clock and to wrap wires onto the new clock battery connections to remote the battery location to perhaps the fuse box. I didn't install that way as I wanted the clock

Clock face scanned in for 240Z series 1

BE SURE TO SAVE THE FOLLOWING ZIP FILE PICTURE FOR PRINTING NOT THE ONE VISIBLE ON THE SCREEN (keeps DPI correct to print to original size): clock face 240Z series 1 scan cleaned.jpg.zip For viewing but not for printing: The attached .ZIP file clock face is a scan of a 240Z series 1 clock. The original clock face was removed from the clock and placed on a scanner so there should be no perspective distortion. It could be printed out for a creative project if someone were so inclined and p

Access door for fuel vapor hose

Hi all, I put in an access door for the large fuel vapor hose that connects on top of the back of the gas tank making it easier to change out the hose. After dropping the tank to change that leaking hose I realized I wanted easier access to that hose though I recognize it might be a while before it needs replacing again. I figure anything that makes upkeep easier prolongs the life of the car. I put an aluminum rod approx 1/4" DIA about 10 inches long into the part of the hose that connec

Gas Tank sealing with POR 15 standard tank seal

Many thanks to Jeff G 78 and postings by others for help with this. I noticed the instructions on the standard tank seal can called for thoroughly stirring the tank seal which I thought I had done but when I poured the seal in the tank there were a few lumps. If you look closely at the flat surface on the right (tank baffle) in the completed picture below you can see a couple of small lumps likely from lack of stirring. I used a pint and a half which is a half pint more than what POR says you

Hatch anti corrosion interior passageways

Hi all, I went to spray the interior metal passageways of my 240Z hatch with a Transtar Amber anti corrosion spray can and noticed there is a reinforcement plate on both sides and top of the hatch. To spray the two passageways created by this plate on the sides was easy as I just had to guide with my hand the 3 foot long spray wand above and then below the reinforcement plate as you can feel the end of the plate with your hand. See drawings. After I did this on both sides I drilled a cou

Map light stuck fix

Hi all, The map light in my 240Z got stuck so that when the switch was pushed in to make it turn on or off it would push in and wouldn't pop back out. This was largely due to the top and bottom of the assembly pushing in on the clear plastic switch cover causing the clear plastic to drag. To cure this I glued in a sawed off ordinary lead pencil to bow out the top and bottom of the assembly reducing the friction on the clear plastic switch. The pencil length that worked well for me was appr

Glove Box latch fix and prevent door warp solution part 2 of 2

This will describe the lock latch modification only and will not address the door warping issue further. I noticed the glove box door on my 240Z would not always stay latched. The first thing I tried was to slide the lock mechanism fore and aft after loosening the two screws that hold it on as they are in long slots. I had previously modified the latch on the door to stay in position better using a cotter pin (see part 1 of 2 blog post on this) but the half with the locking mechanism need

Horn Button DATSUN label printed

I had a horn button but no badge on it with the word "DATSUN" so I selected a font similar to a real badge and resized it to print at the right diameter to tape to the horn button. See below the asterisks for another print option using a scan of a real badge that I obtained after I originally wrote this. Continuing here, the font selection came out okay, see attached picture of result and the file I printed the word "DATSUN" with. Printing the label on photo paper if your printer supports t

Glove Box latch fix and prevent door warp solution part 1 of 2

Glove box latch fix and door warp prevention (see part 2 of 2 of this blog post for bending the latch tang on the upper half of the door latch on the body of the car to make the latch click solidly every time) I wanted to make the glove box latch work right and to stop the door warp by weakening the overly strong light switch spring. Note that ZULAYTR posted in a thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/interior-s30/19881-glove-box-door-light-switch.html as to how to straighten out you

Five floor board holes repaired

This weekend I had the 5 floorboard sheetmetal pieces welded in to repair rust holes. Also the driver's side floor pan frame rail was straightened as it had been used by a floor jack. Unremoved rust makes the mig welder spit sparks. First I drew on the floor with a marks a lot around the holes using straight lines to make the cutting and fitting of the new pieces easier. After I cut along the straight lines using an angle grinder I made cardboard templates from the floor holes. I bought a p

Fusebox 3D drawing (sketchup) for early 70 240Z-detailed

Hi all, I soldered both ends of all rivets and all wire crimps to fix fuse box overheating. Rivet and crimp location shown here: Other screenshots from drawing: Drawing: 240Z_fusebox_early_1970_final.skp.zip I pulled the fuse holders from the fuze box before soldering to prevent melting. Sanding or cleaning the fuse holders with copper cleaner and bending the fuse holder together to tighten the grip on the fuse also can help with overheating. You will need sketchup or sketchu

Gas Tank sending unit modification

This mod has been in my car for 5 years, works great. Before/After modification (click for animation): I noticed low gas gauge readings. When I looked at the sending unit in my 240Z gas tank I saw that it has a worn curved track across the coil of resistance wire where the copper float arm connector slides across the coil. The sending unit I have must be original gauging from the large amount of wear on the wire. Since the rest of the unit looked good I figured I could significantly incre

Turn switch relay mod

Hi all, I added relays to the turn switch to take the current load off the switch by copying the idea on the website below. The mod is reversible and by doing so will leave only hidden soldered wires inside the clamshell as the only evidence it was done unless holes were drilled to mount the relays. With this setup the heavy current still flows through the fusebox but only a small current flows through the turn switch itself. I followed this website posting but I used a different brand of
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