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When taking parts off of 50 year old Datsun’s, you may encounter some rusty bolts that need a little attention. Sometimes you just have to give up and break it off, then deal with the drill and tap that results. Perfectly normal. Some of the bolts on my “most likely to break off” list include the M8 pair at the bottom of the fender with the nifty little pointy tips that face upward, threading into an internally welded nut inside the rocker panel. Natural place for water to collect and make those threads just about solid. Well today I had a treat. The 75 280 that I’m parting out had two missing and already out, leaving just two that I had to remove. And surprise surprise, I got one of them out without breaking the bolt!

This popped into the inbox, a nice commentary on JIS vs. Phillips head screws. It got me to thinking about JIS screwdrivers and bits and I ran across another article that makes it clear that all the so-called JIS drivers on the market today are not truly JIS but most are the later DIN/ISO standard that is a compromise between JIS and conventional Phillips head screws. The bottom line: if the tool does not explicitly state it is JIS B 4633 specification, it is probably a DIN 5260/ISO 8764-1 spec. Close but no cigar! https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/that-phillips-head-screw-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=21_February_6_Newsletter_Weekend https://rtstools.com/jis-vs-phillips-screwdrivers-and-where-to-buy-a-jis-screwdriver/

RIP Stevie

Beau Brummels - Just a Little

Special...

Henry Ford started using the Roberson headed screw in his model T and wanted exclusive rights to it but Roberson refused to have his name removed from the design so Ford went back to the Philips. The Roberson headed screw is superior in many ways but you will only find it in common use in Canada. Egos.

To complete the story. I did “Save” the little pointy headed monster. AND you get to see what the internal welded on nuts look like. Plenty of meat should you find yourself needing to move up a size....

Is that right? Well it's about time, even a rusted head is pretty easy to remove.

For Mrs. Racer.

There might be even more work needed. Here's a thread from another site. Derek is a very very capable mechanic. The impression I get is that the guy at zcardepot has a batch of parts made up and needs to get rid of them before fixing the problems. He seems unresponsive, in general. His business is getting big so he probably doesn't need to be. https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/131360-rear-disk-kit-from-zcar-depot-anyone-using-it/

OK, break time is over, back to my chores.

Worked 6 days in a row, so today is Saturday/Sunday. Chilling, puttering around fixing this, working on that, getting ready for the coming week, got Radio Paradise on the iPod, plugged into the Harman/Kardon HK3700 in my shop. The tunes I share here come from what is streamed from there. I discovered Radio Paradise a few years ago. Commercial free, listener supported. The main stream is eclectic, and there are a few other streams, I usually choose the rock mix. The content they play has introduced me to music I never knew, as well as playing familiar favorites. Check them out at radioparadise.com

You keep it cold in your garage I see. My Dad did that so he'd get done sooner.

That sounds like the Z. A lot of influnce from all over the World.

I've done a certain amount of parts refurb over the years, both on my ride as well as the parts I handle for my hobby business and I have yet to find a shortcut to good prep. Ultimately it comes down to the wire wheel on the bench grinder or on the high speed drill motor or a small wheel on a Dremel. For parts I really want to "pop", a bit of wet sanding after the wire wheel works out very well. Its critical to get all of the old plating, rust, oxidation scale, paint, ...etc. off the part before any new plating is laid down. If this is not done, the new plating will quickly drop off. This prep work also applies to all of your fasteners - bolts, nuts, washers, screws.

Resist...that’s what I had to do. My wife hates my Z too. Says “what a piece of crap”. She only appreciates something with headed seats, SiriusXM radio, adaptive cruise control and CarPlay. I don’t need that crap. Wait until she finds out it doesn’t even have cup holders. I had to tell my wife, why do you want to stop me from enjoying my hobbies...that’s not what your do to someone you care about. You can also say, you can’t get much money for it the way it is but with some work it has some value and working on cars is better than drinking booze and gambling. It’s a harmless hobby. Resist! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Take a close look at the shot of the engine bay. Looks like the car may have been blue.

I think this is another great example of the difference of parts used in the factory assembly and replacement parts sent to the dealers. We know the air filter boxes used on the assembly line were a bright red-orange while those going to parts departments were light blue.

Not saying that the lines weren't gold colored, but I sourced this part in the early 90's from the dealer and it has whatever green coating that the later cars have. I find that of interest. Not sure why they switched to this treatment. Part is for Z's up to 9/71: 46241-E4601

Thank you for the fuller reply. I found your links helpful. Well, at least I now know I'm back in for a fun time with my favourite space on the Datsun...

I've been using a Wera #2 philips that has the laser etched tip to grip rusty Datsun screws for years, but these Vessel drivers look even more aggressive. Like I need an excuse to buy another tool..... Looking on Amazon for Vessel also turned up this bad boy, for when the going gets extra tough. Vessel Megadora 980 Impacta P2x100#2 Cross Point Impact Screwdriver and when things get really carried away...

My pan had that black paint inside with some surface rust mixed in. Got this pan from wal280z (thanks bud). See top pan on pic. I wire wheeled it clean and left it bare on thee inside and then painted the outside with POR-15 followed but a high temp clear. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After living with Datsuns and Hondas and Yamahas and Suzukis over the past 50 years, this is a topic that is brand new to me. Who knew?

Jeff, look forward to meeting you when you arrive in to the Valley of the Sun!

That's not surface rust when you can see inside of the of the engine bay frame rail, definitely structural. But nice car over all, good weekend driver.

'L-bracket'. I like that. So much more elegant than, 'cheap-and-dirty fix-up with a piece of hardware store angle iron'.

The seller seems to be down playing the rust in this area. Here is a quote from the seller: "@Glenn240, I really appreciate your information!! I learned something new. I crawled under the car and measure the front sway bar and it measured it at 1.95cm or say ~3/4″ sway bar. I am not sure why the L-bracket was mounted. The areas fore/after have aged and have a little surface rust, but nothing structural. It appears to me that it has been there for a long long time as the area has all equally aged. I took photos and can submit if you wish." Here are a couple of snippets from the sellers pics. The car does look nice from the top.

Ohhhh! yeah I think both these maxima were on Craigslist for a while, but they ended up in a yard on Monday, one a 78 l24 and the other the 82 ld28. I wanted to grab the crank to potentially use for a motor build. But it’s going to take a while for just 1 dude to pull a motor in a wet junkyard (it’s been raining for a week). If I had another set of hands to help it would be fast. It looks like people use the blocks to make l35 motors which require custom billet internals aka mucho pesos... but for a street/light track use, the crank would be a nice to have. Apparently there are some forum postings from the web saying that Nissan was selling these cranks new 5-8 years ago? If it was in my driveway I would not have a problem with pulling it out, but I don’t have any space for more cars.... the rear view mirror I got has a really nice glass, I wonder if I can swap over the glass into the black housing on my Z, or if I should just paint the grey housing, the plastic on the mirror housing really starts to flake out, 40 years of UV light I guess.

Might be that he's just picking up a crankshaft from a car in a wrecking yard. We've all probably seen what people will do to get their parts there. Pretty common to see a Z engine leaning against the firewall, on the valve cover. I'm sure the details will come out.

Great now I need to figure out where my damper pulley is from. I just measured it and based on what I read I must have a 280z pulley because it’s about 5.5” and it looks like the later 280zx were 7” in diameter Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wanted to give a compliment to the caliber and quality of people that are regular contributors to this forum. Seems like many other car forum just don’t have the magic this one has. I have a 20 yr old Dodge Viper that was given to me by my father before he passed away a few years ago. It sat for at least 5 years in his barn so once I got it here it needed some TLC but ran great. This week I took it out to get inspected and then went and ran it pretty hard. As I pulled in the driveway I got a Check Engine light. My OBD2 reader flagged a #2 misfire. Well, I went and posted on one of the Viper forums expecting a similar group of folks as we have here on CZCC and wow what a disappointment. Some of the folks on there are pricks, providing snarky comments that just turned me off. Won’t ever post on there again. This is why some other forum die. They don’t welcome new members and provide marginal help with excess useless comments. So, this forum is great because we have great people here and like many of you I appreciate that and glad to be part of it. Happy New Years by the way! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Although I mentioned politics that is not really what I'm talking about, I hope you would agree that the citizens of the US are much more important than any Government. Just hoping you guys can get a break and a chance to focus not on politics but on things that are important, your own families health and well being. I should not have used the word congratulations, that does imply a preference for one party over the other and I apologize for that. Best wishes for all is what I'm trying to say.

Some plating companies will do everything for you, clean, buff and plate but it's a much safer bet to prep everything before you send it to them for plating. The plating layer is very thin and hides nothing so for the best results clean and buff your pieces before you send them. A bench mounted wire wheel makes fast work of everything except for the heaviest rust.

I am still rounding up hardware to prep and have re-plated. That quest led me to the starter. I forgot to take pictures of the state it was in, but basically, the plating on the starter and solenoid looked like it was mostly gone, surface rust, light corrosion, etc. It was functional, as it started the car before I removed it. I can find remanufactured starters for around $50 delivered. However, it is a bit of a guessing game as to whether the starter will come with the same parts plated as the factory did. And remanufactured starters are not all remanufactured the same way - some are lower quality, some are higher. After doing some searching, I determined that bushings are available for the front and rear of the commutator. I took some measurements of my starter components and compared them with the factory specs in the workshop manual. Still trying to determine which way to go (rebuild mine, or go with a remanufactured unit), my decision came down to the fact that I could not figure out how to get the solenoid case off (to re- plate it). I was about to go with remanufactured when I dimly recalled having purchased an OEM solenoid many years before (like more than 30) for my 510 that I never used. So, after finding this in one of my 510 parts boxes: I decided to rebuild my starter. Pics of tear down: After tear down, I put most of the parts in an ultrasonic cleaner: The brush holder came out nice: I glass bead blasted some of the parts (front cover, hardware, rear aluminum housing, steel housing) Some slight corrosion on the steel casing where the rubber grommet goes. Front cover before glass bead blasting: Starter drive (gear and clutch) looks pretty good overall and functions properly. Armature seems ok (measures within spec and shaft ends are within spec) Further glass beading of the front cover gave a more uniform finish. In the last picture, in addition to the glass beading, I took a piece of very fine steel wool to put a bit more shine on the surface. Next, I will have to order the bushings, and do the work to replace the old ones and size them to fit properly.