Namerow

Very nice result. Your perseverance really paid off. Whether we like it or not, stuff done on the underside of a restoration matters only to the faithful. Come up short on the paint or the interior, though, and everybody notices it.

One of the members of Canada's Ontario Z-Car Owners Association (Ziggy?) produced this photo guide several years ago. It's for a MY-72. I have confirmed these measurements with the ones that I took from my own 72. The early cars (MY 69-70-71) are, I think, the same -- except for maybe the choke cables hole and the brake m/c hole.

The chrome strip is heat-bonded to the main vinyl sheet. I don't think there's any way it can be peeled off. You might be able to slice it off with a razor knife, I suppose, but that would only be feasible if you do the cutting with the vinyl still in place on the door card. You'd be cutting through the heat-bonded area of the vinyl, so extra-thick and extra-tough. There's a foam-ish backing sheet you'll be slicing through, too. A ragged cut line is going to show afterwards. I would rate chances for overall success at 10% or less. As for re-skinning the door panel, it can be done, but it's not easy to do it right. The width of the hem that stretches around to the back side of the door card is only about 1/2" (narrows down to only 1/4" in places), so there's not much bonding area for glue. A poor glue joint means that the vinyl is going to start to sag over time, making it look low-grade (and possibly even coming loose around the edges). The factory didn't use glue at all. They used shallow upholstery staples, spaced out at intervals of about 1" in the easy areas and clustered much closer together in areas where the vinyl has tucks and folds. The staples provide a mechanical join, meaning that the vinyl can be stretched taught during installation and won't give over time. For my car, I took vinyl that was in better shape off another car and installed it on my better-condition door cards. I used regular staples but had to trim the legs down from the standard 1/4" to the necessary 1/8" first (tedious job). Because they wouldn't fit a stapler or staple gun, they had to be individually hammered in. I discovered that they wouldn't go in without first drilling pilot holes (2 per staples, that is). It was a l-o-o-n-g job, but I'm very happy with the end result. I'm pretty sure that one of the mainstream Z parts vendors offers replacement vinyl door skins in butterscotch, complete with the bonded-in chrome strip. Try Mike at Banzai Motorsports. You could also go with leather, rather than vinyl. Not sure whether you'll find a good color match for the OE butterscotch interior, though. 'Tan' is probably as close as you'll get.

The 'reverse-park' feature is real, but it resides in the motor electricals and has nothing to do with the wiper mechanicals*. Rule #1 of trying out your newly-installed motor: Do not install the wipers arms until you are 100% convinced that you've got things installed correctly -- both electrically and mechanically. Use old-fashioned laundry-line clips as proxies for the wiper arms. There are elements of the Z's wiper linkage (springs, oddball tanged washers, etc) that defy understanding. I'm reluctant to say that they make no difference, but I can tell you that I installed a custom-made, reverse-wound version of the key hairpin spring in the mechanism and it made zero difference to the reverse-park feature.

When I checked this link, I encountered a name that I hadn't heard for 50 years: 'Wiseco'. When I bought my first motorcycle as a teenager (a Yamaha two-stroke ), one of the performance mods I made was swapping in Wiseco pistons. Glad to see they're still around and (apparently) thriving. They have a huge catalog.

Maybe this pliers-style is the best option available to shade-tree mechanics like us. It comes with a set of bands. You choose the one that matches the diameter of your rings. I believe that it eliminates the step that's problematic in the wrapped-sleeve types. It looks like it also allows you to compress right down to the OD of the piston, without having to worry about free play in the tightening mechanism...

So I wonder what the NHRA pro teams use? Those folks build engines in the pits in between runs, so you would have to figure that they don't monkey around with low-buck tools from the local AutoZone (Canuck members read, 'Canadian Tire') store. Any quarter-mile fans here?

Tens -- maybe hundreds -- of millions of engines are manufactured annually - cars, trucks, motorcycles, chainsaws, leaf blowers, what have you. A complete six-cylinder engine probably gets assembled in net 15 minutes. I wonder what's used at the factories to compress the rings?

Might be a lot of work and a middling outcome. Perhaps you should consider Option C, which is: Get rid of A and B and look for a better one. They're not that rare. US$150 should get you a decent one. Somebody here just posted info for a Z-only wrecking yard (sorry: auto reclamation center) in Washington state. They've probably got a half-dozen sitting on a shelf. Refurbished, you can try Z-Car Source of Arizona... https://zcarsource.com/engine-crossmember-240z-70-73-used (call for a price) Alternatively, there's Motorsport Auto, who will sell you one that's their idea of 'refurbished' (cleaned, sandblasted, and painted, I assume) for $400. Or our CZCC friend, Jim @zKars in Calgary, who seems to have at least one of everything available for sale.

Looking forward to some pix of your results (we all profit from the success of others).

I also used the same U-joint successfully. IIRC, I might have needed to grind down the shoulders of the spider casting a bit to get the clearance required to make them fit. The bigger issue for me was removing the original spiders. I ended up having to cut through one of the spider's legs using my Dremel and a cutting disc. If you find that you need to do this, you'll be extra-careful not to damage the yoke while you're cutting through the spider.

only photo i could find. these are OE rails. if you stare really hard you'll get a sense of what the reinforcement looked like when new.

Looks like the OE cable is metric @ 4m length (which converts to 13 ft 1.5 in)

I will add 2 cents more here, based on my experiences with repainting my interior trim... The SEM prep products work very well. Read and follow the manufacturer's instructions before you start. Comparatively speaking, successful results are easy to achieve for the hard-plastic panels but not-so-easy to achieve with the soft-vinyl trim. The challenge for achieving good results with the soft-vinyl trim lies in the 'quilting' pattern that's molded into the material. It creates traps for the silicones contained in 'conditioning' products like ArmorAll (very popular in the 1970's and 1980's). Those silicones act as a repellent for the water-based vinyl paint and result in a paint-coverage defect called 'fish-eye' (you won't like it, trust me). It is really difficult to get 100% of the silicones off of the Z's quilted vinyl trim. For reference, the cleanliness test for these panels is to apply water from a hose and watch to see whether the water 'sheets' as it drains off the panel. If there's any evidence of 'beading', then the panel's not clean. Unfortunately, this test lies is less than bullet-proof when used on the quilted vinyl pieces because, while the water may be sheeting off the big surfaces between the quilting lines, it is not sheeting off the surfaces along the quilting lines. It was my experience that I needed to triple the number of cleaning repetitions recommended by SEM before I got a decent result with the paint application on the quilted vinyl. I was very happy with my end result, but it took a lot of scrubbing. You do not want to use the paint application step as your check for whether your panels are clean enough. If you get a paint defect and need to re-apply, the defective paint coating is a b**ch to remove once it sets up. Unfortunately, adding additional layers of paint to try to cover the defective area doesn't really work very well. The moral is this: With the quilted soft-vinyl trim pieces, you need to purposely over-clean. You cannot risk under-cleaning.

'Restored' means whatever you want it to mean. It all depends on what's important to you. The factors that typically come into play: 'original' vs. 'improved' vs. 'custom' (one person's idea of 'improved' is another person's idea of 'ruined') color match (make the new seats match the faded trim? Or replace the faded trim to match the new seats?) cost (see Item 2) appearance (see 'original' vs ''improved' vs 'custom' manufacturer's warranty ergo comfort (the OE seat design is 'just ok' in this regard. Some people replace them with Miata seats for this reason.) other comfort issues (leather is nicer than vinyl if you live in a hot-sun region) quality of fit (some replacement covers fit better than others -- although a good upholstery shop can probably overcome this) smell (most prefer leather over vinyl... while others consider the Z' interior's scent-of-vinyl to be part of its charm) durability (I haven't heard any bad reports about the leather covers, but they are stitched and that can sometimes lead to problems. As most of us know, the outboard upper seat bolster in these cars take a beating. The lower seat cushion is a high-load area, too.) It will probably help you most to get advice from our members on what not to buy (and why). From that point, it's pretty much up to you and whatever you think will make you happy.

I really respect the effort that goes into parts restorations like this. Lots of effort. Lots of ingenuity. It's a completely different ethos than the 'buy new' community. Great result and you educated me about a new wonder-chemical: Dominion's 'SureTex Flexible Texture Material'. p.s. I'll bet our American members don't get the 'Dominion' part

Ever wonder where Nissan took its inspiration from when it decided to go with the quilted-vinyl look for the Z's interior panels? A good bet would be the 1965 Bizzarini 5300 GT -- one of the premiere supercars of its day. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bizzarini's trimmer had already been using this material for speedboats. It's not a look that appeals to everyone.

And, of course, those are Canadian dollars, so our American friends can get this done for 40% less!

What is the black-ish coating seen on the back half of the underside? Is it paint? Or is it undercoating?

When an upholstery fitter uses steam, it's done as an aid while physically working the piece to achieve the desired positioning. And that's what takes the wrinkles out. To put it another way, you may have to strategically stretch the vinyl while it's soft so as to try to get a more uniform stretch across the full surface. This might be risky work, because your visors now each have a long, taped seam. Based on your 'before' photos, it looks like you were already 90% of the way to a perfect job. Maybe not worth stressing over the last 10%, esp. when: a) nobody but you will notice the difference, and; b) you risk making a mistake and ruining the nice result you've got right now.

Ironic, too, that Haynes is a British publisher. Brings to mind an old saying: "If Britannia rules the waves, then why can't the British build a car that can drive through a puddle without stalling?" Mind you, it appears that the Brits were looking at practical implementations of electricity as early as the 1600`s -- long before the likes of Ben Franklin, Count Volta, Galvani, Volta and Ampere appeared on the scene. In fact, they apparently invented the words, 'electric' and 'electricity'.

Shifting topics for a moment, here's a useful op-ed piece in today's Toronto Globe & Mail about the two-way value of masks. The writer is, "a retired public health specialist and epidemiologist... [with] more than 30 years of experience, including 23 with the Public Health Agency of Canada, where he actively participated in previous outbreaks of SARS, H5N1, H1N1 and H7N9." "Masks protect the wearer, too - and lower our risk for contracting COVID-19" I, for one, have been surprised the dialog that's emerged over the past few weeks to the effect that masks have value only for protecting others. I ask myself, 'When I'm wearing a mask while I'm sandblasting or spray-painting, am I really doing that because I'm trying to protect someone else?'

Thanks. I think I get it now. Results look good. I like your resourcefulness. I wonder if a little heat would help the vinyl to relax and let the wrinkles/waves settle out a bit? If you decide to try this, the upholsterer's secret is to use steam rather than hot air. A heat gun will probably destroy the visor and even a hair dryer can cause harm to thin vinyl if you're not careful. Hand-held steamers only cost $25 or so.

Very nice work. A few questions for you on 'technique': Why did you decide it was necessary to glue the new foam in place? It looks like it would have stayed in place w/o the need for glue. Did you really manage to bring the two seams together perfectly, first time, or did it take a few tries to get it right? If so, how did that work out? That Gorilla tape sounds pretty unforgiving. The picture where you're just bringing the top and bottom edges together makes me wonder how you managed to push the tape back into visor cavity without getting it wrinkled and/or making a mess (which you clearly didn't). How was this accomplished? What is this 'scalpel' thing that you used? Hobby knife, or actual medical scalpel? Overall, I'm concerned that the tape joint is going to give up over time, esp. right at the seam and esp. when exposed to summer heat. I guess only time will tell.

@Gav240z