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Done plenty of all of this. SEM Plastic Prep (not vinyl prep) works wonderfully, It’s primary job is to clean and degrease to remove traces of everything un-desirable. Then use an adhesion promoter like SEM 39863 JUST before spraying the top coat. This softens the plastic and let the top coat stick. Franky anything that will thoroughly degrease the plastic and clean it without leaving any residue will work. I’ve recently been using generic body shop degreaser to clean, even Spray 9, anything powerful and degreaser-y. Then Adhesion promoter, THEN top coat. The Sand Free product sounds like a newer development for coloring plastics. I haven’t used it, but the description sounds interesting. PLASTICS only. Vinyl and leather dying is different. The Vinyl preps typically clean and degrease and do the adhesion promotion all at once. Filthy vinyl, use spray 9 and a scrub brush and water rinse, THEN vinyl prep just before top coat. Cannot stress enough the need to clean the plastic or vinyl extremely well. None of the top coats stick to 30 years of sweat, body oil and Armor-All worth a damn. Big surprise. I’ve even used Scotch brite pads to scrub to get whatever off da plastic first. Hope that helps

Contact Guy Pumpelly at Z Doctor Automotive Specialist in Garden City, Idaho. Guy was offering a service where he rebuilds S30 antennas. This included disassembling the mast and straightening it. Finally, the old and/or broken nylon guide line was replaced with a new one.

I'm not such a gulo gulo.. (Sorry but that is what my translator makes of: the dutch word: snoepkont! someone that likes sweets a LOT! )

My '72 (07/71) is a real bear to start with the chokes disconnected. I also live in So. Cal. Not worth the trouble to remove them, imho.

If this turns out to be true, that will be amazing. I can't thank you enough!

thank you i’m going to order a timing light today and give it a go on friday . Appreciate all the help

Well, first you need a timing light. You may want to get a higher end one if you think you'll own old cars. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EVU8J8 Next you want to locate and clean your timing marks on the engine block. After that, rotate your engine to TDC and find the mark on the engine pulley. You will probably want to mark it with a dab of white paint. White nail polish is great for this. Get a baseline timing. If it's not at 15 degrees, turn off the car and loosen the bolt on the distributor. It's on the bottom side of the mounting point. (See photo) Start the engine again. To increase timing (more degrees), rotate counter clockwise (A - advance). To decrease timing, rotate clockwise (R - retard). Keep measuring your timing, shooting for about 15 degrees. If you cannot rotate the distributor enough with that adjustment, you may need to loosen the other bolt. First, rotate the distributor so it's in the middle of the indicator. Then loosen the other bolt on the distributor. Rotate the distributor just like you did before with the engine running and checking timing. If you can't get it close to 15 degrees with both bolts loose, something isn't right. After you get the timing set, make sure you secure both bolts so your timing doesn't change.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I had the dealer put it on a lift and send me detailed pix of the underbody, wheel wells, door openings and rocker panels so I could check for rust. No issues there. In fact, everything looked almost brand new, which is what I expected from a car with only 18,000 on the odometer. Car had been used by an older woman in Springfield, MO its entire life so exposure to salt was likely minimal. Had the sales guy send me a video of his driving around and then doing quick starts in a big parking lot. Car performed as expected too. I got back at 11 p.m. EST last night from Jefferson City, MO with the "new" xD in tow. No real problems doing that other than moderate all across Indiana after dark, so headlight glare and semi spray made for an interesting time. Fortunately, there was no wind so I didn't have to worry about a wandering trailer. I haven't yet posted pix of the wrecked car so here are some of those just to show you how well it held up in a violent crash - which is one reason that I wanted to get the same model of car. That last photo shows one of the headlight cases stuck in a tree over the creek from when I was flipping end-over-end. If you look below it at about 6 o'clock you'll see a red rectangle there in the tree as well. I think that's a backing frame for the right taillight. Very happy to have walked away from that with just a broken rib from the shoulder belt.

At some point (it may have already passed...) it will become necessary to define what market sub-variant is being referred to. Production date will also be a factor with regard to detail changes. For example: I have a no-hole 'splash pan' hanging up on the wall of one of my garages. Obviously the splash pans were part of the original design for the L-Series engined cars across the board (because the fixing points are there on each car and we see them in the early factory literature) so the question then becomes whether they were being fitted consistently across all markets and models. USA/Canada may have been an outlier here considering the other examples of de-contenting in those markets. I can't imagine why dealers would go to the trouble of removing them from new cars? Here in the UK the splash pans had a reputation for not being re-fitted after servicing (especially after an oil change) but that was typically laziness rather than any kind of policy. I remember we had several conversations on here about the splash pans in the past. The finish question (as far as I remember) concluded that the photos in the service manuals may have used unpainted (Zinc plated?) pans to allow them to be seen more clearly, but there were anecdotes of silver (?) pans being sighted on production cars too. My experience is that all of the 'early' style (no holes) pans I have come across were painted black and I have certainly seen black painted pans supplied as replacement parts, complete with Nissan parts sticker. So - in reference to this "eZperts" thread - I don't think it will be possible to make a definitive conclusion as to whether a particular car would have had a splash pan or not, apart from pointing out that it was part of the original design...

While these ultra low mileage cars are indeed a rare find; they will require a lot of $ before they can be considered safe and reliable. Of course, if one like prancing horse just wants bragging rights - well that's another story, no?

And just to prove that I can keep overthinking something, I was thinking about vacuum forming today. I did a search and found this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FKRNWN2/ Now it just so happens that my wife uses similar pieces of equipment to make retainers at work. I just have to figure out how to make the mold, and I could try making nubbins.

$65,000

@ckurtz2 I applied the JB Weld and screen material just to the areas around the cracks or voids. I went so far as to also reinforce the rivet areas as well. Any excess epoxy or screen was removed with an xacto knife and light sanding with my dremel tool.

$14,500. Kind of seems like a gamble with the level of documentation. Wonder who built the engine? This is all there is about it. Power comes from an overbored and stroked fuel-injected 3.1-liter L28 inline-six

The Jay Leno thing was exactly what came to mind, a little older than me (not much) and did something stupid as well. Life is really just a crap shoot, sooner or later you get bit, just have to hope it's not too terrible). I was kinda glad the camera was rolling so maybe someone else may see and learn to avoid my goof up.

Hi Kats. You were my inspiration in my car’s restoration, so happy to be able to return the favor in some small way. Dan

Even someone as old as Jay Leno.

My entire head, face and upper body were subjected to a huge flood of ATF that came out of at least two plug holes on an engine that had been literally FILLED with ATF as I attempted to crank it over. It was as if the engine had been filled to overflowing with ATF with 2-3 gallons worth to preserve it I suppose. The engine did eventually start, and I discovered that of course the exhaust was also filled with ATF and the initial start up caused a huge soggy mess of mouse nest and ATF to be ejected out the exhaust and directly onto the side of my Ford F150 that was parked across the open garage door. That Z smokes for weeks afterwards as the ATF eventually burned off. I have a picture somewhere

I had to laugh, probably because I was expecting the result from the title of the thread. I think we have all had the opportunity to say, "Well that was stupid!" while we were working on our cars. You just have video evidence.

Thanks all, I’ll just leave them in place and tidy them up as best as possible[emoji1360] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I guessed close though before the flaws were brought out. Add the fees and delivery charge $175 sounds good. I like what Hs30-h said about being original. I slept good last night knowing what I have.

Maybe it's just me, but this whole thread confuses me. @chaseincats Have you measured the gap between the body and tires of your car? If so, are they the same front and rear?