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Good looking bird!

It did strike me as odd that Humble had you snug in the spline and then put a continuous bead of adhesive over it only to pull the spline out later. I can attest that this pulls out most of the adhesive as well. But, who am I to argue with a guy who did it this way and wrote the book on restoring a Z car? Attached photo of Page 130 shows exactly what he said to do. This was for the windshield but he later on says to do the hatch glass the same way. Then, at the bottom of the first column of Page 131 he says to do exactly as you say; i.e., put the sealant under the raised lip of the window. In fact, as I read it, he's saying to do this on all three channels: glass, exterior and interior. This makes eminent sense and really makes me wonder how that first bit of nonsense made it through editing. Oh well, live and learn. Frankly, it's stuff like what I've just been through that makes it all the more important that users of this site comb through all the old threads and extract useful info that can be condensed and put into technical articles for any and all to utilize. I'm trying to do that during my build. Final photo is of my pet Senegal parrot, Koki, eating the marrow out of a chicken bone; a favorite activity. He just loves attention.

ZTherapy uses silicone nozzle hoses.

Thanks for the link! The one I pictured appears to be the same as the one on the far right of the three pictured by 26th-z. It only has one "hose barb" connection. Thanks Again!

I really like this stuff for all adhesive needs: 1 Gal. DAP Weldwood HHR Contact Cement You may have to clean some weatherstrip of its "mold release" before trying to glue it in. A little lacquer thinner on a rag and a few wipes on the surface to be glued is all that is needed. For door weather strips, I use an acid brush, start in the sharp corner at the top, back of the door. You can do it in sections about 18 inches long. Just apply adhesive to both surfaces, wait about 3 minutes, and then press and stick. It is going nowhere after that.

Spot The Bot!! ☺️

In all seriousness, I alllllllmost flagged him earlier today before he even ever posted. I think there was about an hour between him joining the forum and his first post. I should have followed my gut and done it. Would have looked like a master bot—spotter. Bonus points for those who see what I did there. Hahaha!

Excellent job reinvigorating a seven year old post!!! You're exactly right, things always come around again!!! Do you have bondo in your roof? How is Jan? Say hello to Dwight!!!

The flat top fuel rail should be perfectly fine to use with round tops. It has a restrictor orifice in the return line just like the rail used with the round tops. Other than the relocation of the outlet nipples that lead to the carbs, they are interchangeable. The engine uses a small amount of fuel at idle. In fact, if the carbs are tuned properly, the engine should idle for about 30 seconds or so just consuming what is in the bowls. No fuel pump supplying fuel necessary. So you should be fine running off the bowls until the pump turns on. It'll run for a surprisingly long time. First thing I'd do is look for vacuum leaks. A hose you forgot to connect, or a nipple you forgot to block off? If no joy there and you're double dog sure you have no vacuum leaks, I'd drain the bowls (disconnect the tube on the bottom and let the fuel run into a cup) and then refill the carbs with known good fuel. You can easily do that by disconnecting the inlet fuel line and sticking a small funnel into the hose. Pour fresh fuel in from a little cup until the carbs won't take any more. At that point, your bowl levels should be good and you should have 30 seconds of fresh fuel. Maybe disconnect the fuel pump so it doesn't push any more questionable fuel back into the carbs.

Two-fer! LOL!!! @siteunseen

Time to play "Spot The Bot!" @siteunseen It's a two-fer. >> https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/58853-if-its-good-enough-for-a-sema-car-then/#comment-680341 I'm totally winning this round! Hahahaha!!!

I'm taking a year off from life. 99% of the bad ones are from pushing to fast to get back to work. Not me, I enjoy being at home.

I ordered and received one of these seals from Scott's as well. I can confirm that it's much better than the Precision version. With the Precision version there was a big gap all the way along the bottom of the hatch, which welcomed copious quantities of exhaust into the cabin. The hatch sat visibly higher than the edges of the quarter panels. The hatch was higher on the driver's side, and stuck out slightly at the back on that side. I removed all the weatherstripping (both inner and outer) and checked the fit. I was surprised to find that the hatch still sat slightly high and stuck out slightly at the back on the driver's side. I removed the support strut and that allowed everything to align. The strut is a replacement. I'll have to check the source. With the new hatch seal in place, but not glued, the hatch sits pretty nicely. It's very slightly high, but I suspect it will settle, and I haven't tried adjusting the hinges or latch yet. Once I connect the strut, though, it's noticeably higher again. It's lower than it was with the Precision seal and there's no gap along the bottom edge, so I don't think exhaust will be a problem, but it's higher than I'd like it. Has anyone noticed a strut causing the hatch to misalign? Any ideas about how to correct it? I'm a little surprised that the strut can move the hatch backwards. I would have thought the hinges would prevent that.

Okay, it’s been a minute so this post will be all over the place… I’m going to start with baby steps that feel like giant steps. I was able to install the left side headlight bucket. It seems small, but I hadn’t been able to get to all of the weatherstripping that goes under the fender so I put it off. This was the first time I’d seen it together (on one side) since it came back from the painter. I found there was a sizable gap between the bucket and the fiberglass air dam and I didn’t know how far the dam was going to flex. It ended up working out when I got the blinkers on, but it’s not a crisp clean fit. More on that later. ••• I didn’t do a great job documenting this, but I did a complete refurb of my marker lights and turn signals, inside and out. Left side is before, right side is stage 2 of the 3 step polish. The left front TS and three of the marker lights were pretty beat up. The white plastic was nearly brown inside and the mirror of the fronts and metal housings of the marker lights were all rusted. I stripped these pieces and painted the metal parts with highly reflective silver spray paint. The plastic housing I sprayed white inside and left the outside raw, painting the mirror the same as the marker lights housings. The lenses were sanded with 400 grit wet/dry paper, then up through 5,000 grit, and finally polished with Novus plastic polish. Surprisingly, I was able to reuse all of the OEM rubber parts. They just needed scrubbing with a green scotch bright pad. I decided to replace all of the hardware with stainless bolts instead of sheet metal screws because the right rear screws are uncomfortably close to the fuel vapor hoses. I wasn’t able to get JIS screws quickly enough so I just went with generic M5 cap head bolts, with fender washers and lock nuts on the inside. The ones in back got rubber caps on the bolts, too, just to be safe. All of the wiring and connectors for these were replaced. The OEM sockets and rubber boots were refurbished. I ran out of bullet connectors so I used Yamaha sealed connectors for the front marker lights. I’m a bit bummed that the rubber covers from Vintage Connectors for the turn signals are so short. I’m wondering if I need to do something like wrap them in tape to keep the water out. The bulbs are color matched LEDs from Super Bright LEDs, which I think look nicer than using white ones under the colored lenses. The color is much richer while still being… uh, super bright. The gaps around the air dam closed up a bit after I got all of the hardware on, but the curves of each piece (headlight bucket, air dam, and blinker housing) don’t match, which is irritating. I’m hoping it will disappear once the bumper is on. ••• I FINALLY finished my throttle cable setup. I looked at a bunch of off the shelf options and a few specifically for Z cars, but the prices and not quite being what I wanted pushed me into making my own. The two challenging pieces were the bulkhead and the bracket. I made the bulkhead out of a stainless steel drain plug that a friend drilled out and tapped for me on his lathe. We broke a tap and probably dulled a second to the point of not being usable any more. If I did it again I would use aluminum. It’s held on with an M18 nut and has the cable adjuster for a triumph motorcycle brake lever screwed into it for the cable sleeve. That’s probably also unnecessary as I could have made the bulkhead so it acted as the cable sleeve seat on its own. The bracket was another Send Cut Send job. I had to wait until everything else was figured out to design and order it, but I made four versions with the hole for the throttle cable adjuster at various heights. I opted for the second tallest, but I’ll change it if this ends up feeling wrong. I’m definitely going to have to ad a bend along the long edge to reduce flexing. I went with a progressive cam from @duffymahoney and had to make sure there is no interference when all said and done. The shortest bracket looked the best but was uncomfortably close to the cam at full throttle. All of the cable bits and pieces I got from Venhill Engineering for a song. The reason there are two adjusters in the photo is so the bracket can also hold the choke cable, which I am repurposing to operate the starter valves on the Mikunis. I doubt I’ll ever use them but I don’t like having inoperable parts in the car. The cable is affixed to the ball socket by a m5 lamp bolt that was decapitated, crimped to the cable, rethreaded, and soldered. So yeah, the throttle half of this project is done for now. I just need to change the screw holding the cable to the cam to be a set crew, cut the excess cable, and cap it off so it won’t fray. The bracket will definitely need to be stiffer, but that’s for later. ••• Unfortunately I keep forgetting to take pictures, but I can show you how I ran the AC drain so it minimizes the size of the lump when I install the transmission hump upholstery. The Vintage Air evaporator came with a black hose, but I swapped it out for some hose with a thicker side wall, which should keep it from compressing under the upholstery and inhibiting the flow of condensation. A nozzle connects to the hose with a 1/2” barbed splice fitting. The black piece is from sun roof drains on GM and other vehicles and its X-shaped aperture should create a Venturi effect when mounted perpendicular to air flow to pull water out and prevent anything from traveling back up the hose. Pretty generic and available on Amazon for a few bucks. I cut the insulation to make a channel for the hose to rest in. A 5/8” hole and some RTV to make sure it doesn’t pop out and I’m good to go. I also finished the passenger side door window and the rest of the interior firewall work the same day. Now to check the refrigerant plumbing for air leaks. 👍🏻 ••• After I was finally able to get all of the firewall work done, I put the dash in and plugged it all together. Nothing major to report since I’ve discussed the details in previous posts. This time I took more care to tuck the wiring away nicely. The few loose ends are wire for a set of foot well lights that are switched at the doors, a feed for a USB plug I intend to put in the center console, and the power/ground and control wires for the evaporator. The biggest challenge was getting it back in with the air ducts installed. This corrugated tubing from Vintage Air is nice but it’s not flattened/ovular like the OEM stuff so it requires some persuading. I still think it’s better, though. It’s tough to see in the center but it’s really well fit to the evaporator without any clamps, which keeps it clean and free of things to chafe of the hose or wiring looms. I’m hoping a harness cover will clean up the mess around the relays, but I’m going to zip tie some of this up tight before any cowls or covers go on. ••• And here it’s starting to feel like a car! Or, at least I am staring to get some storage space back. 🤣 I’m really pleased with how the Vintage Dashes dashboard looks. The glove box door needs adjusting, but after hitting the finisher with some Landau Black SEM Color Coat it all came together. It seems the internet was correct about that being the right color. I’d heard these aftermarket windshield gaskets leave a bit to be desired compared to OEM, and it’s true, but I think you can finesse it into shape. The gaps in the corners were really bad until I put the steel trim in. That stretched them out a bit, but it’s not perfect. I’ll let it settle for a while and then might just pump the gaps full of weather strip adhesive until it’s filled in. Speaking of steel trim, that’s a fun chore. 🙄 ••• My spare tire cover was FILTHY. Luckily it cleaned up well and didn’t pucker or warp. The orange flecks in the fiber board are a nice touch. ••• Lights! No before pictures but here’s everything put together. I used the same process on the lenses as the blinkers. The housings were scrubbed and then wiped lightly with acetone to get the last of the adhesive off. Thankfully I didn’t need to recondition the mirrors. The center lug on the replacement chrome trim is too short to function as the only fastener holding everything together. I used a M5 threaded socket left over from installing the blinkers along with a rubber washer. It worked fabulously, but I think it would be really easy to screw up if over tightened. No wiring yet. I just wanted to close up the cabin for the next step. ••• Looking clean figuratively and literally. I picked up the basic carpet set from Newark Auto in black 80/20 loop. It’s really nicely made, but I don’t think it’s meant to go with an insulation kit like the one I have. There are a few places where it would have fit better if there was no insulation, and there are a few places where it is just straight up wrong. Overall give it a 89 or 91 out of 100. Worth it but could be improved. I’ll be using the vinyl kit from MSA on the sides. I’m going to cross my fingers and hope my original interior pieces clean up nicely. I just put them straight into storage without unpacking them when I bought the car, so who knows what shape their in. If they suck I’ll be new replacements. But yeah, the car is starting to feel like a car.