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This forum has been very helpful to me. As a means of documenting some of what we have done and to help others avoid some of my mistakes I thought I would post the installation of a vintage gen II mini AC system. Background: My son and I are restoring a 1973 240z. We call it the bucket, as there was a significant amount of rust that had to be dealt with and our other choice – Money Pit was already taken. We are changing the color from 113 avocado green to mango orange, it has an L-28 engine and a 5 speed gear box. At this point: the car was taken to bare metal, metal replaced where required and any rust has been eliminated the rear clip is painted, front and rear suspension has been restored/upgraded and installed brake system has been restored/upgraded and installed half axles, differential, driveshaft, transmission, engine have been restored/upgraded and installed fuel system has been restored and is installed cooling system has been restored/upgraded and installed electrical harness has been restored/upgraded and the cockpit harness is installed When we purchased the car, it did have a non-working aftermarket AC system, probably installed at the dealership. We decided to replace the AC, defrost, and heater with an integrated system from Vintage Air. Vintage Air recommended a Gen II Mini The Gen II is a replacement for the original heater core, air box, and under-dash AC evap. As you can imagine the gen ii is quite a bit smaller than the original components, but it is a universal system and therefore it needs to be shoe horned into a space under the original dash. Because I removed so much original material, I thought that I would be able to fit the combination evaporator/heater and air box above the transmission tunnel and behind the instrument panel. This gets it away from the passenger footwell and centers the defrost and climate openings. I found someone that had done something similar so I was fairly confident that I would not have a fitment issue with the dash. Brackets are provided with the Gen II but I did not find them to be particularly useful. Mounting is fairly straightforward, but if you are like me sometimes it takes a few proto-types to get something that satisfies you. Mounting the Evaporator Once the evaporator is in place you can decide where hoses need to enter/exit the firewall. It is always nice to use the original holes, but you need to consider the radius of the bends for the hoses as they do not like to make sharp turns. I decided to install bulkheads for both the AC hoses and the heater hoses. I like this luxury because if the engine has to come out or if anything goes wrong with the evaporator/heater then disassembly stops at the firewall. Also if any of the hoses fail you don’t have to disconnect at the evaporator to replace an engine bay hose and vice versa. Working these stiff hoses and close connections under the dash is not the most comfortable task, The only downside that I can think of regarding bulkhead connections is that there are additional breaks in the hoses that now require some sort of mechanical connection and this is yet another opportunity for a leak. I did not have to cut any additional holes in the firewall but I would recommend that you buy individual bulkhead connectors as opposed to 2-way or 4-way bulkheads. This probably makes it easier to use the original holes. Bulkhead Connections water connections are behind the evap, compressor connections are near the main harness entry. Those are EZ-coils fitted on the hoses to help keep them from collapsing due to a sharp radius you can see the water connections on the passenger side of the engine just below the level of the valve cover. Compressor lines enter the bay just above the passenger frame rail. I would have preferred to do all of the hose routing with the engine out of the way, but I was concerned that I could not visualize every aspect. The AC compressor is a bit of a chore to mount so I will do that while the engine is on a stand. Here is what is being replaced – a Nissan bracket, and a sanden compressor. The original compressor is much lighter than most that were used in the day like York, but the original combination still weighs 24 lbs. Original Bracket and Compressor I tried to use the original bracket. Even though it is heavy and bulky it is clearly better because the compressor can be mounted so that it does not have to move to install a v-belt. There is an integral idler pulley that is adjustable. I spent valuable time cleaning the bracket and the pulley in preparation for painting, but alas I could not figure out a good way to modify it to accept the new compressor and properly align it with the engine pulley. The bracket that I purchased from Vintage is simple (no idler pulley) but it is made to convert a York bracket. Unfortunately, it does not line up with the bucket’s pulley. So my choices were to somehow modify the simple bracket or build a new bracket. I decided to attempt a mechanical solution as opposed to modifying the bracket by welding a piece on. The problem really has two pieces: the compressor must align with the engine pulley and because there is no Idler pulley it must rotate to install and adjust the v-belt. Here is what I came up with. It is 9lbs lighter. I will continue to look for a more elegant solution with an idler pulley, but I need to get the engine back in the car. NEW AC Bracket and Compressor With the engine and radiator in place it is an easy task to route the Compressor hoses to the bulkhead. Vintage offers a connect system called “easy clip”. I have not used this before but it allows me to construct all of the hoses myself without the usual expense of a crimping tool. This will make start-up of the AC system much simpler, because I will be able to go to a shop and only require evacuation, drying and filling to get the system working. This should take about an hour as opposed to waiting for someone to construct the crimp hoses and depend on someone else to route the hoses to my satisfaction. Hopefully, the easy clip system works well and does not leak. Condenser The condenser and drier were both part of the gen II kit. Bracketing the condenser was fairly easy. You need to take into account the holes in the radiator support as the hose that sources the drier must go through the support. It would have been nice to mount the drier ahead of the support where the air is coolest but it was more convenient for me to put it on the engine side. I converted to an aluminum radiator with an electric fan so I installed a trinary switch on the drier. So, the routing of the hoses is: Evap to Comp, Comp to condenser, condenser to drier and drier back to the evap. The route that I took was evap across the firewall to the comp mounted driver side low, from the compressor thru the radiator support across the condenser to a connection on the passenger side of the condenser from the condenser thru the radiator support to the drier, from the drier along the passenger frame rail to the firewall to the evap. That is a 2 row aluminum radiator painted black with a dual electric fan setup. I still think that it is strange to use a 2 row, but based on what I read I convinced myself that 2 rows were actually better than 3 or 4 for the same overall length and width. The condenser is visible here - in front of the radiator Climate Control Panel The last piece of the puzzle – mounting the controls. When this project began, I had no idea what I was going to do with regard to the climate control panel. Trust me this restoration has had enough challenges, but I wanted the controls to look they were part of the car. Originally, I envisioned the new panel hidden behind the original panel with mechanical linkages to control the system. I ordered a panel from vintage air, their least expensive. It allows for 4 slide type controls: AC compressor on/off combined with AC temperature control, Heater temperature control, Fan speed control, and Mode (defrost, feet, body, body+feet) control. Now that I have good handle on the mounting of the evaporator and know that the dash will fit without interfering with the evap I can consider using the original Datsun climate control panel which had the original mechanical controls for the vent, heater and defroster. The bucket had an aftermarket AC system, but it did not have anything integrated so the compressor control and the AC temperature control were all hung external to the dash. The Datsun climate control panel accommodates three slide controls: outside air, heater temperature, mode (defrost, feet, body, body+feet) control; and a rotary fan speed control. The controls for the original AC system were appended to the dash and did not compliment the look and feel of the car. The original climate control panel and the vintage air panel I decided that I was going to attempt to integrate the vintage air controls into the 240z panel. My control panel was not in very good shape so I decided to use it to trial fit everything. I opted for the luxury of replacing my panel with a new one. MSA does make one – it’s approximately $130. Its plastic, well built, but nothing special. They have a slightly more expensive version with chrome accents – I was not smart enough to order that version, so I spent more to have the fun of trying to do chrome accents myself. The first obvious difference between the original and the vintage controls is the fan control. I ordered a rotary fan switch from vintage air to replace the slider that I originally purchased. The hole in the 240z panel must be opened a bit to accommodate the vintage air control. If you go this route, remember to be careful as you are working with plastic, so cracking is a real possibility. Next, I removed each of the slide switches from the vintage air panel. In my opinion the best/easiest way to integrate them into the 240z panel was to create an intermediate metal panel to house the vintage air controls and then mount the intermediate panel onto the 240z plastic panel. The metal panel should help distribute the forces of the sliders and will allow me to more easily position the sliders where I need them. It’s not as easy as it sounds. The travel of the vintage air sliders is quite a bit smaller than the original 240z controls. I considered mounting the sliders a few inches back from the 240z panel which would make the slider travel more similar to the original but it complicated everything else so I rejected the idea. The length of the vintage air slider mechanisms is also different than the original 240z controls. The vintage air heater temperature control is a bit hooky in my opinion. It is mounted to the vintage air panel by being squeezed by their bracket. There is no provision to screw it to a panel. It’s quite small. I used thin aluminum sheet stock to build trial configurations. It’s easy to bend and easy to cut and you can expose a lot of issues very quickly by using a proto-typing process. The AC control is relatively large. I decided to fit it into the top slot of the plastic panel labeled “AIR”. In my opinion - this is where it fits best. You can mount it without a lot of difficulty with one exception – the length of the slide control is too short. If you choose to go this route don’t purchase the vintage air panel (it’s a waste of money), and when you order the controls make sure that they provide full length sliders. When they build a kit with their panel, they cut the sliders to fit their panel and it is too short for the Datsun panel. I very carefully bent the L shaped bracket flat. I then removed enough material from the bracket to allow the slider to protrude through the plastic panel enough so that I could attach a plastic knob to it. I wanted to use the original 240z knobs to help disguise the vintage air system. One of my knobs was cracked and so I searched for a replacement. I found some new ones at Banzai Motor Works that were reasonable. The heater temperature control will fit just below the AC control. I built a small aluminum bracket that pinches the heater control and attaches to the climate control panel. Lateral movement of the heater control is prevented by the aluminum bracket and vertical movement is prohibited because the heater control is held in place by the ac control above it. The mode control will fit in the climate control panel’s third (lowest) slot. Here is an image of the original control panel with all of the controls mounted to it. Also, you need to seal off the cowl vent because there is no provision for the vintage air system to utilize that vent. The only fresh air vent system that you will have will come from the vents on the driver and passenger side which are controlled by individual mechanical cables. These vents actually get their air thru the ducts to the opening in the radiator support. The bottom line is that the original 240Z panel will remain in-tact and the new system will seamlessly fit behind it. You will not be able to tell that the entire climate system has been upgraded. vintage air controls Integrated Panel CONCLUSION If you choose to upgrade your AC system and you opt to integrate the controls into the original climate control panel you can benefit from my mistakes. Do not order the panel/control kit. Instead order the individual switches with full length sliders. Make sure that you order the rotary fan control and not the slide fan control switch. In the spirit of full disclosure I have not fired-up the AC system yet. Having said that, based on previous experience I believe that Vintage Air has done a great job providing a terrific system with more than adequate documentation. I especially like the reduction in physical size and weight. I also like the electronic controls as opposed to mechanical – cable stretch and loose cable connections are a thing of the past. I appreciated being able to make my own compressor hoses (hope they are solid and do not leak). I do wish that they would come up with a universal compressor mount with an idler pulley. All in all, it is a great system. It takes a fair amount of time and effort to install, but I believe you will be happy with the result. I will try to answer any questions that you might have. Good Luck.

Yeah, the unbelievable part was that total no-call for pass interference against the Tide. Should have been first and goal Georgia at the spot of the foul. (Clearly stirring the pot....)

Tide has come in.

Earth to Cliff! Earth to Cliff! Come in, please! Or do we have to wait for Sunday morning?

That group of guys are talented fabricators, I hate that they cut up two restorable Z's just to make one custom car but money doesn't seem to be a problem for them. I think a better choice would have been to make all that power, electronics and the rest of it work with the original interior, the one they installed is pretty cheesy. And put a hood on that thing.

About 2 years ago I purchased my 280z for 300$. It was a rusted sad looking car that was stripped. I brought it home where I didn’t have a garage and just started stripping it. I got laid off that winter so I took it down to bare chassis. I took all of the suspension pieces and brought them to bare metal and painted them all. I put the car back come spring time then stripped the engine bay and interior following with a coat of paint. For a while I was gonna go with the 280zx turbo motor but then i changed. I ordered a 1JZ-GTE non VVTI and grabbed a trans from a Pontiac solstice. I taught myself how to weld when patching the sheet metal then took classes and actually got a job as a welder making decent money. I funded the z, grabbed a dash with gauges, interior pieces, wiring harness, front fenders and more. I welded up engine mounts and trans mounts, a driveshaft, and I even made brackets and mounted s13 calipers on the back! Now I wired the old to the new motor harness and I’ve had it running after welding in brackets and mounting my fuel cell. I can drive the car down the block but it runs rich as a pig and brakes up on any throttle. I’ve literally replaced about every single sensor on the motor and the ecu and igniter. Heck I hooked up an e manage ultimate to try and get it tuned out but nothing. I’m gonna try hooking up a fuel pressure regulator to see if that helps since I’m running a Bosch 044. I’ll keep posting for this build since I’ve since gotten a house with a big garage! I’m hoping to get it street ready by the time I’m 22! (April) thanks!!

One of my wife's coworkers recently bought a Tesla Model 3 and immediately had it wrapped in a flat finish film because she didn't like the shiny blue paint. Her car, her money. But, I don't get the appeal. As for the work on the Z in the sped up video, it would have been interesting to see a "man-hour meter" ticking away in the bottom right corner of the screen. Dennis

Ok we have another episode of "Ugly Welds" So I was looking at the drivers side of the hood and it wasn't right either. So I broke out the welder again, but I ground the primer back further so I wouldn't have to blow the flames out after each weld. A little welding Then some grinding with a 2" Roloc and then some flat file hand work. I actually made a second pass on this side to weld up some of the voids Looks ok now. I ran a coat of fiberglass to seal any pin holes and shape it up. On a different note, I need some feedback from you guys. I was blocking the rocker panels and there is a pretty straight groove near the bottom of the rocker. Is it supposed to be there? It is on both sides and pretty consistent. So I don't know if it's factory or if somehow the car got damaged exactly the same way on both sides. Which seems kind of odd, but maybe. In the second picture, it's the upper shadow line. It's maybe 1/2" to 3/4" from the bottom edge of the rocker where it turns under the car. They appear to run the full length of the rockers. Here is the tip of the day. I use Evercoat fillers. They cost a little more but they sand nice and work easily. Sometime thought the filler is difficult to get pulled out thin enough. Well, one day when I was browsing Evercoat's site trying to figure out the differences in each of the fillers they made. I came across this From what I have found online, it's straight styrene. It has a golden color and you use it to make the filler more flowable. I put some filler on the mixing board. Then you add some honey and mix it up. Then you add hardener, then mix and fill. It lengthens the working time of the filler and the filler has more of a glazing putty consistency. I really like it. I could almost just add a cup or so to the gallon can of filler to reduce it, instead of doing each individual batch.

Rolling...

And since the new owner is a member here, make sure they understand that the long standing typical behavior of bashing the previous owner simply will not be tolerated in this case. I got your back!

LOL. Well if talking about sports is frowned upon, then you may have just tipped the boat!!

FAKE NEWS! The 6 angry DEMS officiating are CONFLICTED! We must build a defensive WALL! Time for the REPLAY rule to be OVER! and OVERTURNED! hurting the united STATES of america!

I do not think the summer/winter flapper is a cold area option. Every car in North America has one of these after 1971. And I would guess most had it on the 71 model as well.

I second this also. The 044 is a high volume pump. Known for overpowering fuel lines. The ECU/PCM works on an assumed base fuel pressure. It can only adjust so much.

He lives in Alabama...”rolling” I get it. Sorry Dogs! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So since i have all my parts from the grille together now i thought it's time to puzzle them together. So here we got t he single pieces: First test assembly (works nice with a cushion below). Looks a bit out of shape: Realized that the double-fin on top still has a major dent at where one of the vertical pieces attach: Tried my best hammering skills to get it sort-of straight again: Second test-assembly. Starts to look nice. Need to sand the edges a bit on the vertacal pieces and then will replace all the rivets, before i put it all back together with new bolts and nuts ?

There was this unbelievable football game yesterday... I'm not supposed to talk about sports so leaving it at that.

There is a bit of advice I can give that might help you decide on the best way forward. If your current wiring is in such bad shape that most connections are corroded and wiring cracked, and terminal ends are beyond repair, switches are all malfunctioning, then it might be wise to start with a fresher wiring harness, switches, and new lighting/devices. If problems are only in certain areas, then address those areas. Why? In order to add a completely new and different wiring harness into your car, you will have to learn every wire, switch and connection of the existing system in order to adapt in the new wiring. This assumes you aren't replacing every switch, light fixture, flasher, gauge, etc. You have a ton of stock switches and gauges and such that you have to connect to, that may not be designed with the same switch logic that the new harness is built for. Why not just fix what you learn is wrong as you go? Especially if you're not comfortable with electrical functions and repair. Depends entirely on your time available and dedication to quality connections and splices along the way. I have no doubt you CAN do it, but will the effort and final result be better than a careful review and targeted repair to the existing wiring given your time and willingness to learn and do it right? Your decision of course.

Are you going to let the rest of us in on this joke? I need to go to the next ZCON so I don't have to read between the lines.

I have the feeling that in the next ten years or so that wrap is going to take over, maybe even for new cars as well once the limited colours problem has been solved. Look at how powder coating has taken over in the industrial paint applications, just a chemistry problem that needs solving. Now I'm not saying that is a good thing, I love a perfect paint job but it is on the verge of becoming old tech I think.

Okay, I'm back down until the next one.

There was a hint in my first reply if you look again...

80% of the metal work is done in the bay now. All access, AC, wire loom tab, wire harness, battery and mounting holes are welded up. The main harness will be all new with a multi pin bulkhead connector. Even the wiper motor will get a mini bulkhead so that the bay will be modular and easily stripped down. The body guy is going to cut access holes on the other side of the upper rail so that I can snake everything through and get to the hood release cable. It should look incredibly clean when he primes in a week or so. He said it will likely be ready for paint by mid to late January. The restored tail lights are finished too and came out even better than I could have expected. Sanded smooth, polished and Xpel clear wrap. Machinist is assembling the head to check for lifter shim clearance and once those are ordered, the head will be complete. All the small components for the short block are on order and the final items for long block assembly will be ordered next week. CP is working with the mold now to design and CNC the custom 12:1 compression pistons which will be WPC treated on the skirts and ceramic coated on the dome. The engine should be complete by the end of January.

Lining out the car cán make a big difference in steering effort.. If there's to much tow in or out it is much more difficult to steer! try that! (ive had that with my '71 240z. after lining out the car it became MUCH lighter to steer.)

I once had a website where I did a how-to on 260Z bumpers to 280Z bodies. unbolt the big bumpers. There is a screw in the center of the bumper strut. Unscrew this. Now, with a drill and small bit or a sharp pick, puncture the membrane inside the strut. Push the strut back into its housing. Mineral oil will squirt out. The 260Z bumper will now bolt right up. Position the strut so the bumper ends fit the body correctly and put a tack weld to hold the strut where it belongs.

Covercraft make a very good custom fit cover. Available in a variety of materials for outdoors or garage kept cars. I've used them for decades and was a distributor for several years. Dennis

Eureka! He could build a shaker hood. Something along the lines of the late 60's Hemi hoods. Hmm. Got to find his number. Edit. I sent him a message. We'll see if we can get him to put a hood on it.

I don't think he ever intended to put a hood on it. When I sold him the driver's door the only additional thing he needed was a fender, which I didn't have. This was about a week before the SEMA show. Maybe I should contact him and see if he wants a hood now.

That's a very good point. The overall fit and finish of the Eastwood tooling looks and feels great, BUT, I have not actually had a chance to make a flare with it yet! Perhaps I should before letting my precious FedHill tool escape my grasp. I know I know, who in the their right mind buys a new tool without immediately taking it out of the box and trying it? I've been busy, ok?

It depends upon what you're trying to do. If there were only someone who lived not that far away from you who understands S30 wiring...

My comments were in regard to my experience with Harrington bumpers I had purchased. Not all SS is the same. Sounds like others have had a better experience. 72 body and block, everything else 71, Tokico springs, Illumina, R180 CLSD, 83 close ratio, 3.90 gears, Ztherapy SUs, BRE 15X7 Libre wheels and BRE front spoiler.

Got some stuff today which i found lately for sale online. First a set of original Nissan Parts manual Microfiches from a German workshop liquidation. So it's the european Parts manual. Unfortunately one page (body) is missing, but since i have a digital copy already it's only for completeness sake. and the price was great too ? You would usually need a microfilm / microfiche reader, but i think a scanner with a high resolution should be able to handle those too. I will give it a try. It just was a too cool piece of history to not buy them ? Then i got a copy from an original German User manual for the 240Z: The colours are wrong since the seller seems to sell a lot of copied manuals with all the same colour sheme for some reason, but still it's better than nothing and it was a lot cheaper than an original, old, brittly, used service manual that is currently for sale for 130 Bucks on ebay. So i decided a copy has to do it. Also i know the original colour sheme anyway, so i can create my own copy with th e original colours whenever i want to: It's good to finally know all the details: And it got a wiring shematic too, which is great ? More parts are on the way, so expect more by next week or so ?

I love my tools and parts from FedHill....GLWS.

A side note. Europe 98RON =94us (Ron+MON/2) and 95RON =91us.

Jon lives his life a quarter mile at a time! ;)