Namerow

To illustrate zspert's points, here are a couple of photos of VIN 19769 (01/71), taken from the nicely-documented BaT listing when the car was up for sale in 2016. Both paint and lack of paint are in evidence, depending on the location on the underside.

Best I can do for you...

Here are pictures from a very original 1971 Z (VIN019769) that illustrate what the OE seals looked like. Maybe they'll help you sort out your quandary...

If, instead, you decide to pull out the glovebox liner first, these are the notes I wrote down after getting the liner out of my 70 Z's dash: Grasp the centre of the front lip of the liner’s roof panel, then pull the lip outwards until the top corners of the liner clear the inside corners of the dash opening. One corner may clear before the other does. Now continue pulling the liner Roof through the dash opening by about 1”, pivoting the liner on its front lower edge in the process. Working from behind the dash, push the lower corners of the liner inward so that the liner's floor panel buckles. Keep pushing until the lower corners of the liner clear the lower lip of the dash opening. Work from side to side. Push the lower corners of the liner out of the dash by about ½”. However, keep the front edge of the liner’s Floor resting on top of the lower ledge of the dash opening. With both of the liner’s lower corners now free, resume tilting the liner out from the top until the entire liner comes free. Throughout the process, the front edge of the liner Floor rests on top of the lower ledge of the dash opening. Good luck!

Charlie Osborne at ZeddFindings has been in business for many, many years. I don't think I've ever heard anyone accuse him of being 'unreliable'. That certainly wasn't my experience. Until the recent arrival of KlassicFab on the Datsun scene, he was the market's leading supplier for Z frame rail and floor replacements.

I'm not aware of any vendor that offers an inner fender panel replacement (whether complete, or just the bottom strip). If the rot on your car hasn't travelled too far up from the frame rail seam, the panel is pretty straight from front to rear and it shouldn't be too difficult to graft in new metal cut from flat sheet (20 gauge, IIRC). A CZCC member from Calgary, Alberta (name?) posted a detailed build about 2 years ago that illustrated this repair quite nicely.

I know of two vendors that offer the LHS and RHS rails separately... ZeddFindings (https://www.datsunzparts.com/services/frame-rails/) KlassicFab JDM (https://kfvintagejdm.com/shop/datsun/front-chassis-rail-left-side/) Neither offer rails that are specifically identified as '280Z'. Perhaps others will offer opinions as to whether or not the 240Z rail can be successfully adapted to a 280Z. IIRC, the main design difference is a reduction in width over the front-most 6" of the 280Z rail, required for clearance for the wider 280Z radiator.

Great progress. It's always nice to have a talented welder in the family! Can you comment on how you removed the old sheet metal? Did you drill out spot welds? Metal saw? Angle grinder? All of the above?

I can easily see how the 'B' width could be 1/4" over, but having an over-width 'A' measurement is curious. To have this happen, it seems that the rad bulkhead would need to have been stretched. Are there any signs of front-end collision damage? If so, the structure might have been over-pulled in this widthwise direction. Regardless, your gaps at the start of your headlight buckets seem ok, so maybe you shouldn't stress too much about the fact that your 'A' measurement is wider than the one that CanTechZ took from his car. Instead, just focus on how to reduce the gaps at the leading edge of the hood and buckets. Here's a thought for others to comment on: A 'reducing' bar could be rigged to pull the front ends of the two fender extensions together. Start with two lengths of 3/4" steel pipe, ~ 450mm long. Weld a 1/4"-thick mounting plate to one end of each pipe (with mounting holes drilled in the plates to match existing hole locations in the fender extensions). Now weld machine nuts to the inboard end of each pipe and then connect the pipe halves with a (stout) turnbuckle. Mount the assembly between the fender extensions and then use the turnbuckle to pull the fender extensions together. You could do this with the headlamp buckets in place and judge the results by eye.

Perth! Well then, that explains everything Your dash surface was pretty badly damaged. It looks like the shop did an excellent job. A bit of a head-scratcher, though, because this type of work typically requires a large vacuum chamber with heat treatment (steam, IIRC) in order to pull the new vinyl overlay down onto the restored form. Did you get a chance to look at the equipment they use?

Sorry. I missed the '280' in your user name. I'm not familiar with the 280 heater, so you'll have to rely on other members for help. Having looked at your pictures, I suggest you start by putting some good-quality penetrating oil (not WD40) on any fastener that looks like it's going to need to be loosened. If you do that now, it will same you a lot of grief when you actually set to work on repairing the system.

Just to clarify what SteveJ, S30Driver and ZedHead have said, you most likely have two issues: 1) your water control valve is seized; 2) with the result that your 'TEMP' control cable wire has bent at the point where it connects to the control lever. If you have an early car ('Series 1'), this is almost certainly what's happened. Some pix and comments follow: The control cable wire for the early Z's ('Series 1') was undersized (1.0mm dia) and therefore prone to bending if anything in the assembly got stuck or balky. In later versions ('Series 2', etc.) the cable diameter was increased to 1.2mm. The cable sheaths were upsized to match. The Series 2 design incorporated numerous other detail changes to the heater control system's mechanicals in an effort to make it more robust: revised lever frame, levers, and finish knobs; revised control cable wire ends (loop-over-peg). Lawn mower control cables can be a good replacement. Alternatively, try tempered-steel 'piano wire'. Otherwise, non-tempered wire from the hardware store will probably be ok, unless something gets stuck again and you try to operate the controls at sub-zero temps. Unfortunately, your water control valve and/or its actuator lever have probably seized. The probable reason is that the valve has a leaky seal. White stains on the outside of the heater plenum box are a clue. NAPA (but not Nissan) used to offer a replacement seal, but it's been NLA for years. So, if your water control valve is leaking you'll need to buy a complete new control valve. If you don't fix this problem, the old valve will leak coolant onto the floor whenever it's left in the 'COLD' position. Also, the actuator lever will probably start to stick again, too. I suspect that problems with the water control valve stem from PO's who run their cooling systems filled with straight tap water. A stuck water control valve responds nicely to an overnight soak in a de-liming product like 'C-L-R'. If the seal is ok, then you may be good to go. However, The older-design water control valves were said to also suffer from internal leakage, leading to a situation where the valve isn't able to fully block coolant flow even when it's set to the 'off' (cold) position. That certainly wouldn't help if you plan to drive a Series 1 car on hot summer days. Make sure you also free up the water control valve's actuator lever. Lubricate its pivot pin and grease the sliding surfaces. These are some pix that I took when rebuilding the Heater system for my Series 1 car: Below: Top side of Lever Assy Note: Control cable on the left side (TEMP) had been removed when this photo was taken) Below: Bottom side of Lever Assy (photo #1 of 2) Note: The bottom control lever (DEF/ROOM) and the associated left and right bellcrank plates had been removed before this photo was taken) Below: Bottom side of Lever Assy (photo #2 of 2) Note: In this photo, the DEF/ROOM control lever, bellcrank plates, and cables are in place. However, the control lever's centre actuating pin had snapped off so the bellcrank plates had nothing to engage with. Below: Water Control Valve, c/w actuator lever assy (actuator cable has been removed) Note: Control valve's actuator rod can be seen here. Actuator lever may need to be freed up and lubricated if it, too, has become frozen because of corrosion. Below: Water Control Valve's actuator lever assy Note stains. Presumably caused by leakage from the Water Control Valve. They look like calcium deposits. If they are, then my car's cooling system must have been filled with straight water at some point (probably during the time when it lived in New Mexico). Below: 'TEMP' actuator cable with bent wire (photo #1 of 2) Note: Here, the cable is fully extended and the bellcrank has been rotated about 45 degrees CW from its centred position. Below: 'TEMP' actuator cable with bent wire (photo #2 of 2) Note: Here, the cable is fully retracted, but the bellcrank has not been rotated CCW any further than its centred position.

Given that your location in Darwin is a bit off the beaten path, I'm curious to know who you used for the dash restoration work.

It's certainly quite a change from, say, five years ago. At that time, only high-skill restorers were able to deal comfortably with the body rot (in complex areas) that plagues so many fifty-year-old Z's. It's still not a trivial task, but at least the availability of these panels means that high-level metal fab skills aren't so important. I'm surprised that it took this long for someone to recognize the profit potential of the Z repair panel market (served so marginally beforehand by the likes of Tabco) -- huge production numbers, significant rust issues, economical price-to-buy, attractive design, strong owner base. They seem to have timed the market quite nicely. I suppose that the profitability for KF lies in locating their production in a low-labor-cost country like Colombia. Plus, they had a complete playbook already in place, c/o their original business of servicing another popular rust pig, the VW Kombi van.

Yes, this and other firewall pieces are now listed on their site.