ConchZ

I have the white interior, too. You can buy new vinyl trim and seat covers from many places. I bought mine from http://classicdatsun.com/ I bought white leather seat(they have vinyl too) covers from them, with new foam cushions. The covers were too tight for me to get over the cushions myself, though. I took the seats to a local shop, in order to get them right. Cost me a couple hundred more to have them put on correctly. They told me when I bought them that I probably couldn't do it myself, but I had to try it to believe it. I also bought new vinyl, including the headliner. I am very happy with the vinyl pieces, which I did install myself. It takes several tries to get the shock tower vinyl to look right, but you can do it. I did not buy new door panels, as mine were good. My door panels and plastic parts just needed to be painted with SEM's Super White Interior Paint, which you can buy from Eastwood. You can fix small cracks in the plastic with epoxy/fiberglass layers on the backside. If you get the crack fit back together perfectly, the SEM paint on the front side will cover it. For the chrome strips on your doors and boomerangs, use Almost Chrome spray from Eastwood. Don't get in a hurry to use it if you spray the Super White first, as the SEM paint needs to be cured over 72hrs before you want to mask it off to spray the Almost Chrome on the strips. Even then, use the gentle blue tape from Home Depot. FYI - the Almost Chrome takes even longer to cure hard enough to put masking tape on it. When painting the doors and plastic panels, surface prep is very important. There's going to be years of Armor All on them that will repel your new paint. Liberal use of SEM's Plastic Prep and Sand Free products are important. Just follow the directions. Sorry I don't have any pictures of a finished interior, as mine isn't finished. It would be, but some problems with the exterior paint have popped up, and the car has gone back to the paint shop before I could put it all back together. Most of it is done, and I can say that its going to look great. I also can say from how rough I've treated the SEM painted panels that the paint holds up good once its cured about a week, provided you did proper surface prep. Its even easy to clean your dirty fingerprints off your painted door panels. I do have some before/after shots of some interior parts. The above being said, I have to comment that I found all of the above by searching this site. I also found how to remove my dash and repair cracks in it. This site is a great resource, as I've found nearly everything I needed to know by searching it.

I have a 73, and live in Florida, so I know about heat. Here's what's worked for me. 1) Getting your AC working right can be interesting. Two years ago, my PO installed the Honda fan, and put a new compressor in where the air pump used to be. He used a Sanden 709 (model 7409) compressor, which he told me is mounted in the exact mounts that used to hold the air pump. He charged up the system himself with R134a. He never got the AC to cool very well, though. When I got it, the air flow was intermittent, despite the fan running at a constant speed. It was also only mildly cool. I took out the HVAC control panel in the middle of the dash so that I could see inside the ducts. Search this site for how to do that. There was a 3x5 inch x 1/4" thick piece of foam floating around in there. This explained the intermittent air flow. Shortly after this, the compressor started rattling, and the air got less and less cool, while the rattle got louder and louder. I ordered a new Sanden 709 for $200 and had a mechanic put it in right. He says from what's coming out of the lines, it appears that the PO didn't properly flush them of the old R12. Mixing the old R12 with new R134a is not good, as it leads to corrosion and clogging of the system. While my system is currently cold, it may not stay that way if it develops leaks. Also, don't forget a new receiver/dryer if you change your coolant. Finally, you might want to clean your evaporator coil with some coil cleaning spray. After 36 years, its probably pretty clogged. 2) The hot shifter can be helped by replacing your rubber inner shifter boots. There's two of them. It won't completely solve the hot shifter, but it helped me a lot. While you are at it, you can replace your shifter bushings, which will improve the smoothness of your shifts, and only cost about $5. While you are at it, buy a motorcycle cable lubing tool and a can of cable lube at a motorcycle shop. Use this to lube your choke cables. If you've taken out your AC controls, you can also lube up those cables. It'll make you happy, prevent future problems, and it'll only cost about $15. 3) The hot floor can be helped by pulling up the vinyl and insulation on the hump and putting down Raamatt or Dynamat on it, as well as under and behind the seats. I don't recommend putting it over the entire floor, as you might want to inspect the metal for rust once in a while. I used 3 layers of Raamatt, followed by 2 layers of Ensolite. My hump's factory insulation did not survive removal, so I put the vinyl back in without it. The heat under the drivers seat was solved, but the tunnel was still hot, so I wrapped the exhaust under the floor with this exhaust wrap. I'm not too worried about it rusting out my exhaust, as it doesn't seem to hold water, and the exhaust heat will surely dry out whatever moisture does get into it. This wrap solved my heat issue. If my exhaust does rust out, then I get to upgrade my stock sized pipe to a bigger one, and I'll use stainless. I wish I hadn't glued in the hump vinyl without any more insulation, though. I may pull it up and put in some more this winter when its not so hot outside. 4) I have a rear window louver from the PO. It does help, but I think the car looks better without it, so I may switch to a tint someday. These louvers do rattle a little, too. The thing I do like about them is it keeps people from easily seeing what's in your hatch area. 5) Take off your interior panels. The doors and the plastic panels on the inside of the hatch. Search this site for info on how to remove them without destroying them. Take this opportunity to clean them up, patch any cracks, and if they are faded, you can repaint them with SEM paint. It's also a good time to replace your antenna if necessary. Before putting them back on, put that Raamat on the inside of your outer door skins and on the inside of the outer skin around the hatch area as best you can. Every little bit will help with heat and sound. (inspect those doors for rust before installing Raamat, and treat any you find with POR15.) Next, glue 2 layers of Ensolite on the outside of your restored plastic hatch panels. This really helped me with the heat. Without this insulation, you are basically sitting in a solar oven, as that out skin gets very hot in the sun, and radiates it right at you inside the car. 6) When parking in the sun, use a sunshade on your front window. Obvious, I know, but thought I'd throw it in with the rest of it... Hope this helps. Enjoy your newly quiet and cool car.... Matt

Ok, before going after the fuel overflow and valve cover vent plumbing, I decided to tinker more with the carbs, as I really think they are set too rich. The exhaust stinks and it puts out a bit of whiteish/grayish smoke, and I only got 13 MPG on my last tank. I've never noticed the mixture nuts doing anything, and to prove it, I turned them all the way up with the car running, and it does not affect the idle at all. I ran them out 3 turns, with no change in the idle. Taking a tip from this page, I decided to look at the needles, to see if they were seating into the nozzles. I also wanted to see if the nozzles were awash in fuel. I cranked the nozzles all the way up and took off the dashpots. There was a bit of fuel on top of the nozzles, like there were moist, but not wet. I've never seen them on another car, so I hope this is correct. I did check the float level, and it seems to be according to specs, so I think my fuel level in the bowls is ok. By specs, I mean that the float valve shuts off when the top of the float is level with the float bowl lid. I cleaned up the dashpots and reseated the needles, using the method in the link above. The steps were: 1) Loosen the set-screw that holds the needle so that the needle can move a bit 2 )Turn the adjusting nuts all the way in (located underneath the carb throat, where the fuel line enters from the float bowl) 3)Pull the needles out about 1/8" or so, you should see the shoulder of the needle sticking out past the dashpot body 4)CAREFULLY reinstall the dashpot, and push down ever-so-gently to seat the needle fully in the nozzle (that's the hole the needle sits in) 5) Pull the dashpot back out, snug down the needle set screws, and put them back together. I think the needle shoulder is sticking out farther than before, which is probably good. Previously it was even, or a little below the dashpot. After reinstallation, I can crank the mixture screws all the way in without the car dying, but the idle does get slightly slower. The best idle seems to be around 1.5 turns out. The exhaust doesn't stink much with this setting, and it's clean looking. (It drives good, also, but then it always seemed to run good.) Raising the dashpots a little will result in a slight decrease in idle. Here's my questions: 1) Since raising the dashpot slightly will decrease idle a bit, am I running too lean? 2) Should I be concerned that I can turn the mixture screws all the way in with only a small decrease in idle? I was expecting the car to die when I did this. Idle is set at ~720, and the valves were recently adjusted. Initial timing is at 17, and the vacuum advance doesn't seem to work, as there's no difference in timing with vacuum connected or not connected to it. I read somewhere that if you don't have vacuum advance that you should set your initial timing this high. I get no pinging, at least. The PO had set it higher, but that made it harder to start. Mechanical advance does work, from watching the timing increase to about 30 when revving it up. Thanks, Matt

2800ci comes directly from the caption under the picture of the engine in the story. Must be a typo by the writer.

I don't know the color name, but another member (Zedyone) has a really nice silver Z. I haven't seen it in person, but it's one of the best looking Zs in pictures that I've seen. Look through his posts, as he puts up a lot of pics.

I've got a Plain-Jane Alpine that fits perfectly in place of my factory radio, which is now in the Alpine's box. As for the antenna switch, a little switch from radio shack is wired up. I keep it under the fuse box door. I rarely lower the antenna, but that might change now, so I'm thinking about getting an automatic antenna and hooking it up to the Alpine's antenna lead. I recently read about how popular older car antennas are for use as crack pipes. Leaving it up makes it a target. The crack heads live shoulder to shoulder with the rich and middle class on this little 2x4 mile island, so you are never parked very far from a crack-head. Its usually not a problem, as they are voted off the island if they mis-behave, but why make it easy for them.

I'd mainly want the muffler, too. However, if it's mandrel bent stainless, I'd buy the whole system. I'd want to hook it up to the stock downpipes, as I don't use a header, but that could be done locally, like you say. If they made just the muffler for the right price, I'd consider buying 20 myself and reselling them. Given the prices for an Ansa twin tip, and the fact that Monza is gone, what would people pay for a Stebro twin tip?

Yes, but I would want the vertical twin tip slashed cut look. Is that what they did?

Mine did this when I first got it. Hard to say which cured it, but my valves were way off and my timing as too advanced. I also had a leaky vac hose to the dizzy. Fixed all that at once, and it was cured.

Well, the 1100 included shipping both ways, and the welding of about 30 holes. Considering there aren't any local shops here in the Keys, and the work was handled by a reputable guy, I'm happy.

Hi Greg, I have a 73, too. The front bumper is different than the earlier cars. In fact, its a one year only design. This makes it hard to find certain things for it. For example, I've never been able to find new left/right bumper fillers. I've refreshed mine as best I can, but I'd prefer new ones. The rubber strips are also different, and I haven't found a complete set. I ended up having the holes filled for the vertical bumperretes and rubber strips, going with a smooth look and just getting a re-chrome. If I ever have to do it again, I would switch to a 70-72 bumper, which can be done if you find the mounting brackets for it. At least I'd have a better chance of finding parts for the bumper if I needed them. You can't find a new 70-72, but you can get a good used one and get it rechromed. As for reproductions, here's a thread on getting them in stainless steel. Matt

I bought from him when I first started collecting parts for my refresh. Good service, and the parts were correct. However, I later found them available from MSA for less money, and less shipping. Still, I'm glad there's sellers out there to choose from...

ugh!! what's the world coming to? After learning that you can still get rubber strips, I say just get your bumpers rechromed at a quality place, vs getting these things. Quality is the key word. My body shop refused to recommend anyone, as they think all chrome shops in FL are bad. Never having had it done before, I took their word, and called Les.

Had I known about this before I got my bumpers re-chromed, it would have posed an interesting dilemma for me. I ended up ditching the over-riders, bumperettes and rubber strips and just having the holes welded shut, then getting them re-chromed. The look is very nice, but the lack of rubber strips makes me worry that a little ding will mess up my bumper. The rubber strips are hard to find and are expensive, so if these come with the rubber strips, I might have tried them, especially given the corrosion resistance. I guess I gotta give Les at Classicdatsun a plug for handling my re-chrome. I asked him to suggest a shop, as I can't find any good ones locally. He recommended the shop near him, and suggested I ship my bumpers to him. He says that the shop still uses the old copper-cyanide method, which produces the best quality chrome. He got them done up and shipped them back to me. The total cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of $1100, including shipping. Les told me that he'd be happy to arrange a similar deal for others. I've only had the bumpers on the car for a couple of months, but I'm very happy with them so far. Matt

I also live in FL, and can say it depends on how far inland you live. If you are no closer than maybe 5 miles to the ocean, its probably ok. You just want to be away from the salt air. The salt air eats anything metal, and destroys some plastics. I live a half block inland, and have to frequently rinse everything with fresh water, even stuff that never leaves my garage. If it is steel, I have to keep it painted, and make sure its rinsed off a lot. Even if its properly coated, if you don't rinse it, it will corrode. Even unrinsed stainlesss steel will discolor with corrosion. If you rinse it, and its coated/painted, it'll be ok. Having a Z here will be a challenge....

In case you want to upgrade to leather, I bought my leather seat covers from Classic Datsun. They don't match the vinyl grain, as they are leather, but they are cut and fitted to look like the originals. The manufacturer was also Distinctive Industries. They were nicely padded, and very well made. They were very, very, very hard to put on over the new seat foams I also bought from CD. I gave up and took them to a shop. The guy had a difficult time with them, and in the end he trimmed the cushions a bit here and there to make the seams in the covers sit on the right spot on the cushions. Turned out great, though. Les at CD is very upfront about the need to have them installed by a professional, I just didn't believe him until I tried it myself. I'm originally from Missouri, I gotta see it to believe it, I guess. Anyway, the seats look great. I think I paid the shop a couple hundred to install them. Will post pictures soon, as I should have the interior finished up this weekend.

Pontissan?

I read in another thread that freezing by rubbing it with dry ice makes it brittle enough to just knock it off with a hammer.

Good Luck. Sounds like you have the skills, and know what you are getting into. I'm with you on the rarity aspect in the east. I got mine from western Kansas, and had it shipped to FL. I've had it one year, and I've only seen three other ones in FL. One of those was at a Z club meet, one was an orange one running around Daytona Beach, and the third one was sitting in the body shop next to mine, getting rust repaired. My impression of the rust issue so far is that there are many areas that can be regularly inspected, then treated as necessary. These include the insides of the doors and rockers, the floors, the frame rails ahead of the fire wall, inside the bumpers, under the battery, under the rear hatch ledge, and under the cowl. Now that I have the car refreshed, I just plan to keep those areas clean of dirt, wash the salt off them once a month, keep paint on them, and treat any rust. I'm hoping a once a year inspection and treatment program is enough. Once a year might not be enough, given how fast stuff rusts down here. I have a powder coated patio set that began rusting through the power coat in one year. I'm surprised that I don't rust.

It doesn't hv to be perfect, so you might be able to just bang out the worst of it from above. If u want it perfect, figure 700 to 900 per side for new floor and rails welded in. Look up bad dog parts for floor and rails replicas. Personally, if its not rusted, I'd just bang it out. If u didn't notice it, nobody else will.

a quiet muffler would be nice somedays....

I have a suspicion that its related to the float, too. The rear float stuck open once, causing gas to squirt out the overflow tube and onto the exhaust manifold. No fire, luckily. I could smell it immediately and shut it down. A whack on top of the float bowl temporarily freed the float, but it just did it again. Turned out there was something stuck in the valve. I cleaned it up and re-installed it, and moved the vent lines so they won't pee on the manifold. While this solved the obvious fuel problem, I still have the slight fuel smell when going from WOT to idle. I've set the float correctly, or so I think. I could try dropping it down, I suppose. Now that I'm thinking about it, this could all be because my float bowl overflow lines are not connected to the air cleaners. The PO installed the little duel K&N round air cleaners, which don't have a connection port for the float vent lines. Maybe I should drill a hole in the back of one of them and plumb the vent lines to it? While I'm at it, I should probably plumb the valve cover breather to one of the air cleaners. I've heard that you can get some stink from that line, too.

Thanks for the tips. I have your headlight harness, but not your parking light one. I have a 10/73 car, which has the intermittent wipers, so I'm under the impression that your PLH won't work on my car. If it did work, I'd have bought it, based upon how much I like the HLH. In any case, the alarm's instructions say the white wire's polarity is determined by how I hook up the red/white wire. If I hook it to a positive power source, then the white wire will be +12V, 10A max. If I hook the red/white wire to a ground, then the white wire is negative. It doesn't say, but I assume it would be 10A max? Would this be enough to flash the parking lights without hurting the alarm? If so, should I hook it to the negative side, or the positive side of the circuit? I was thinking the negative side, just because that's how the emergency flasher switch seems to work, plus its real easy to reach. The alarm does have an orange wire and a grey wire that are both 200mA negative. They are used to trigger relays, like for the starter disable, which I already wired up. Matt

Does anyone have a suggestion on where to hook the alarm system into the parking lights so that it will flash them when its triggered? The alarm I have can be spliced into the ground wire for the lights, providing a switched(on/off blinking) ground for the ground side of the parking light circuit. From looking at the wiring diagram and the dash, I think the switch for the emergency light flashers is a switch on the ground side of the parking lights. It seems to be connected to a flasher device under the dash, which then goes to the parking lights, making them flash. I think I could splice into the wiring between the switch and the flasher device. Does anyone have any better ideas? I've saved this step for last, because I wasn't sure. It seems to me that since the emergency flasher circuit can flash the parking lights even when the car is off, that I need to tap into this circuit to get the lights to flash if the alarm is triggered. Thanks, Matt

The mixture nuts are at 2.5 turns. What I'm trying to duplicate is the rapid cut off of air flow that the carb experiences when going from wide open throttle to nearly closed throttle. I suppose I'm actually overdoing it (vs just using the throttle itself), but its one way of being able to see and feel what's happening fuel wise. The reason I'm pretty sure the fuel smell comes from the engine is that I smell much less of it now that I've installed and/or repaired the various firewall grommets and the air intake elbows. I also went through all the hoses, connections and grommets on the fuel lines and vent lines while I had the car apart for refresh. No problems were found, as those lines had been replaced a few years back. As for mixture, I think its right. I'm using the following instructions from http://www2.zhome.com:81/ZCMnL/tech/su.html plus notes I took from your video. 4. Raise the lifting pin (or use a screwdriver if you don't have the pins) so that the piston rises no more than 1/16". Listen to the engine's exhaust note and compare it to the following conditions: If the exhaust note rises and stays high till you drop the piston, this carburetor is adjusted too rich. Turn the mixture nut one flat (one-sixth of a turn) up, moving the jet toward the bridge, then repeat Step 4. If the exhaust note falls and the car sounds as though it is going to stall, this carburetor is adjusted too lean. Turn the mixture nut one flat (one-sixth of a turn) down, moving the jet away from the bridge, then repeat Step 4. If the exhaust note rises briefly and then settles back down to something like the original RPM level, this carburetor is set correctly. When you have achieved this setting for both carburetors, continue with Step 5. I'm wondering if I'm just too picky in my attempt to de-stinkify the car.