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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/18/2015 in all areas

  1. JAlex: If you decide on the option of replacing, 're-skinning' the dash (Just Dashes) or 'restoring' the dash (filler, followed by truck bedliner spray), the dash has to come out of the car. Your Z will be disabled and undriveable for weeks. Maybe months. Do you really want that? Also: My sense from your other posts is that you're not really a do-it-yourself kind of guy, so be warned than any of these three routes is going to cost you a LOT of ca$h for shop labour. Also, if the shop you choose hasn't got previous experience with a Z dash remove/replace, there's a good chance that they'll screw something else up in the process. If -- for whatever reason -- you choose to re-skin your dash, I expect that you'll need to add several hundred dollars to the Just Dashes price to pay for crating and two-way shipping. Same applies to buying a NOS dash (if you're willing to wait for a good one to show up on eBay), although in that case it will just be the cost for crating and one-way shipping. To summarize: Lots of work, lots of time, lots of co$t$, lots of delay, lots of new risks. Then there's the 'dash cap' option. You can choose between a full-coverage cap and a half-coverage cap. Half caps are easy to put on, but not pleasing to all eyes. Full caps look much better, but are more difficult to install successfully. The work and techniques involved are well-described in other places on this site (use the search tool). Done wrong, the cap will probably not fit well around the gauges and the glovebox opening. Also, the cap may split around the corners if you try to force it into place. There's also the risk of warping the cap if you're over-zealous with the use of the heat gun. Nevertheless, despite all of these installation 'challenges', hundreds of Z's have full dash caps that have been (more or less) successfully installed. Note: There are techniques for getting the speedometer or tach out afterwards (again, well documented elsewhere on this site - again, use the search tool), although there's not a 100% guarantee that those techniques will work for you. Ask yourself, though: How often am I going to need to service the speedometer or the tach? Looking at the puncture mark on your dash -- along with the 3" crack that was already there and apparently wasn't bothering you much before the puncture mark occurred -- I think that the epoxy-and-paint suggestion may not be all that bad a solution. If there is more than just this one crack in your dash (and I'll bet there are), I'm even more inclined to suggest that a spot repair makes sense. If you want to try something a little 'better', Eastwood Tools (www.eastwood.com) offers a leather-and-vinyl repair kit that permits taking a small mold of the texture of undamaged surface and then applying it to the repair compound so that the repaired area blends in with the rest of the surface. That sounds easier said than done, though. You'd probably want to practice with it on some other textured-vinyl surface first, before you commit to trying it on your Z's dash. Remember: If the results of a spot repair don't please you, all of the other options still remain available.
  2. Its's been a while and I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but my fuel pump gave up and kept me buzy. This is probably one of the last weekends before it goes into hibernation and I took this photo when I came home. and here is a before and after. Im planning to have the brackets made from stainless steel. Most parts are now aluminium so I could make adjustments. If anyone is interested in a set, let me know.
  3. I have heard over here a lot of machine shops won't touch a warped overhead cam head until its been in the oven on a straight plate. Its just too risky. Its needs to be straightened, depending on how its warped, and the lightly skimmed. You have about 0.15mm which doesn't sound that bad for a six cylinder head. It's a bow over a long distance compared to a four cylinder or a V6. Machining it flat will cause cam flex, depending on how much warp it had, which could eventually brake the cam. The only thing you can do to fix that is a cam bore alignment. Common for an old car is just put it back on "as is" and a little more torque on the inner bolts like chickenman said. I have seen a technician at work hobbying on his old Opel inline six head. He used a piece of 200mm channel steel and drilled 6 holes using an old head gasket as template. Mounted the head on it using spacers under the outer four bolts. That way he could get his straight edge under the head to check it. Then tightened the center two until he went just passed flat actually creating a reverse bow inthe other direction. Left it under a bar heater for a day, loosening the two center bolts and checking it every couple of hours with the straight edge and then let it slowly cool down. He managed to get it within spec so the shop would skim it for him and it was pretty bad when he started. You could try something like that on the block.
  4. I just got a part shipment from them a few weeks ago. They are still supporting the S30. They even went to lengths to call around for some Nissan Comp parts and found some OEM parts they had as NLA but were available from other dealers in the country. I have found when calling them they are more than helpful.
  5. If you're putting the head and block into storage, here's an interesting experiment. Bolt the head to a block with no head gasket. Bolt down the center part of the head only. Try 40 ft/lbs torque. Come back in 6 months or so and check the head and see if it's straightened out. I'm betting it will.
  6. That is why some people shouldn't be allowed to weld!!! or go to Home Depot either...
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