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You might be disagreeing about two different situations/cases. In Mr. Uemura’s book he tells us why the Datsun 240Z’s were not undercoated at the factory as regular production began, and that the Dealers were advised to undercoat the 240Z's on Delivery. https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=Datsun+240Z By the 1972 model year (and perhaps some time before) Nissan was using more galvanized sheet metal in the floors, firewalls and hood bracing. So you have to be specific about which model years you are talking about when it comes to undercoatings/paint etc. Big Difference between 70/71 and 72/73. 72/73's were undercoated at the factory. To get primer/paint to stick to galvanized sheetmetal, the sheetmetal had to neutralized (cleaned/cleared of zinc hydroxide) in order to get the primers to adhere to the metal. Nonetheless over longer periods of time the primers/paint would start to peel off as the galvanized metal continued to oxidize under it. If you see a lot of 72/73 240Z’s that haven’t already been repainted etc - you will usually see the paint peeling off - on the firewall and front hood braces. When the original primer peels off the metal, it takes the paint with it. So you see bare usually grayed bare metal. When you see the factory applied undercoating peel or flake off exposing bare metal - it is because the primer/paint under the undercoating is peeling off the galvanized metal - not because the undercoating was applied directly to the metal.

I was trying Captain and you saved me, a lot of explaining.

Yes, sorry. It's a translation issue AND a cultural issue. Goes like this... When investigating a mystery, it's important to hunt for clues and look into all possibilities in order to truly solve the mystery. And here in the US there is an old saying along those lines that goes: "Leave no stone un-turned." The meaning of which is "turn over every stone looking for clues as to what's really going on." or in other words, "When looking for the true root cause answer to a question, do a thorough investigation and make sure you look into everything." Then also some time ago, some silly person manipulated that old saying juxtaposing letters and turned "leave no stone un-turned" into "leave no tern un-stoned" which is just a silly concept of a flock of seabirds stoned on drugs. Back to the topic at hand, I was implying (in a silly stoned bird way) that it was unclear how the OP of this thread claims that his back-up lights worked a bunch of times before failing, but the current theory (wrong bell housing) should have made that completely impossible. It's a mystery that has not been solved. I'm sure there is a similar saying in Dutch that would make no sense to me.

I put mine on the emblem then pushed until they "clicked". Bought from local dealership.

These things.

Nissan part No. D4160-00003 and superseded 00016. 'Leather-Top' (Black) Appears in the 1973 North American Parts Catalog, illustration 150, and I can't find it in the 1972 Fairlady Z Parts Catalog. It is listed with the '240Z' rocker stripe kits and the illustration shows installation tools and glue. It shows edge molding but the picture looks like a coil of string. It is not mentioned in my 1972 North American options catalog but I recall it from a Japanese option catalog? I saw one in a junk yard in Texas - out junking with Fred. Only one I have ever seen.

Evaporator Bracket no. 3: This one was a MF to get done, and I’m still not 100% happy with it. I would change a couple of things about it if I were to do it again, but I already have too much time invested and it’s doing the job well enough. Overall, I think this series of brackets is the right approach vs using the flat bits they provide, but the geometry is ever so slightly off on all three of them due to minor differences between the real evaporator and the mock-up. don’t get me wrong, the mock-up made it way easier, but I wish I had a CNC machine so I could take the next step and make these in aluminum and tweak the angles to fix the errors. The evaporator is a few degrees off from square on the yaw axis, which is why it was hitting the glovebox. It could also stand to move forward about 1cm and down the same amount. Not bad for hand made and rough measurements, though. You can see where the original bracket they provided with the mock-up evaporator was scratching the paint. The one of the actual evaporator is just as in the way, so I deleted that entirely. It is unnecessarily tall.

I have only ever seen pix of these vinyl tops. I agree, they are not for me...and I've heard from many (not just in the Z community) that cars with these tend to have rust under the vinyl.

My 72 had a wrinkled undercoat, that was applied without the gas tank installed and I am pretty sure it was bare metal under it. We sandblasted it all off. I would doubt any dealer would have gone through the trouble to remove stuff to apply an undercoat. I think the answer is that undercoating may have varied from year to year as the cars rusted way, or our definitons of undercoating vary 🙂

There should be paint beneath the undercoating, not bare metal. Cars didn’t leave the factory bare. If there’s no paint someone removed it.

It was an option in Japan, available here in the USA though the Datsun Parts Catalog / Dealer Parts Dept. Could have been installed at the Dealership, usually done by upholstery shops/convertible shops that specialized in Vinyl Tops for cars. Most of them were custom made and installed at the Top Shops.

Silicone Rubber Sheet,Heat Resistant, Heavy Duty,High Grade 60A,12 x 12 Inch, 1/16 Inch Thickness for DIY Gaskets, Pads, Seals, Crafts, Flooring,Cushioning of Anti-Vibration, Anti-Slip https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LN8MJZB?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Heating and prying worked pretty nicely. Just a bit more patience and go slow. And there was an abandant wasp nest 😆

I'm guessing this one: https://www.amazon.com/12X12-inch-25-Inch-Thick/dp/B07GL9MHW7

Most of the heavy rain went East of us. It rained hard last night and we had some wind but nothing too bad, thankfully

I told my exhaust shop that I wanted it as quiet as possible without sacrificing much performance. The system is a modified MSA 2.5" exhaust with a center resonator and a Walker Quiet Flow out back. It's perfect in the sense that it does exactly what I want it to do, keeps things quiet on long drives and nothing but intake roar when the mains come in.