Namerow

You might consider buying the ready-made battery-area repair panel that Z-Car Depot offers... https://zcardepot.com/collections/sheet-metal/products/battery-tray-area-sheet-metal-patch-240z-260z-280z On sale right now at US$100, it's attractively priced... although you'll probably be out of pocket by Cdn $300 by the time it arrives in Ft. Saskatchewan. If nothing else, though, the photos on their website might give you some thoughts on how to go about making your own. And, before I forget: I've read in the past that the contours of the inner fender sheet metal in the battery tray area can be nicely matched by carving a particular section out of a front fender (if you happen to have a spare lying around that you don't need). Maybe someone else can comment with more detail.

Suggest you lay a paper towel soaked with Ospho (or some other watery phosphor-type rust neutralizer) along the seam overnight, then dry things out with a heat gun. The wire brush treatment will only remove the rust from the surfaces you can see. The rust neutralizer will creep into the seam, where it can do its thing on the broader surfaces that you'll never reach with the wire brush (or primer, or paint).

I walk by one every day in my kitchen.

Paint stripper for undercoating. That's a worthwhile discovery. Certainly a lot safer than using a torch and probably more effective than a heat gun. Undercoating removal is a miserable-but-unavoidable job, so anything that eases the pain and improves the result is worth knowing about. I wonder whether the stripper approach will work with the applied-with-a-brush-from-a-can parts store-type undercoating that was inflicted on so many cars from this era by their owners. That stuff is just diluted asphalt. I'm impressed by how well you managed to contain all of the paint and undercoating gunk/debris. Almost makes the job look easy (although I'm pretty sure it wasn't).

The 280Z FSM is pretty explicit about the places where grease should be applied... and the dust boots are not one of those places. I guess it's tempting to think of the boots as grease reservoirs that will help to replenish the spline and roller regions over time, but centrifugal force will keep that 'reserve' grease trapped up in the outer boot folds, well away from places where it might do any good. Maybe just a light smear to lubricate the boot surfaces in case they rub against each other at extreme axle deflections?

I have also seen these referred to as 'puddle lights' and 'threshold lights'. Intended to help your passenger not get her expensive footwear wet when having to exit into uncharted territory. You get one on your side, too, but that's not important.

And this is a slightly-fuzzy picture posted by someone else a long time ago (sorry, no name available for photo credit) that shows the control cable end piece, c/w plastic snap-in fitting, and the top of throttle pedal arm...

minus 42F + wind. 7 AM. Top of Eagle chairlift, 8000' asl, Lake Louise ski area, Alberta. Mid-1970's. And I was just starting my workday. Not that brave anymore.

That's not the first time I've heard this. Same goes for replacing the floors, it would seem. The caveat seems to be that you only do one side at a time. What I find interesting is that I've also heard comments that the Z's front structure is surprisingly 'soft' (have a look at how Elliott000 tweaked the front end of his Z back into alignment). It would appear that the softness is only in torsion/twist. In beam strength, it seems that the Z is pretty stout. A lot of that is probably down to the front upper structure created by the 'horns' that extend from the shock towers back to the firewall and door pillars. BTW, I like your 'jig' concept. I had completely missed your earlier thread. Lots of good details there. More questions for you: You say, "If the car is out of alignment you can pull it back in for sure." How would this be accomplished? How did you get the car up onto the jig? What's the covering material used on your shop floor?

Does this mean that you've done the same kind of work on other Z's in the past? And tell us a bit more about that 'jig'. Is it a jig (i.e. being used for alignment) or just a support frame? Are you actually supporting the front of the car through the shock towers?

Short answer: Yes. It sounds like you haven't tried dismounting the light housing yet. When you do, things will be obvious. The wiring connectors are located on the outside of the body, behind the light housing. The wiring exits from the interior through a grommet-equipped hole (with grommet) just to the left of the body centreline. You'll need to remove both the metal centre finisher panel on the outside and the big plastic trim panel on the inside. You might also need to pull the weatherstripping free along the back sill. Be gentle and patient when you set about trying to remove the interior plastic trim panel. There are molded lips along the top and bottom edges that are typically brittle with age and really easy to break off if you don't finesse things. IIRC, you need to tug the top edge free first and tilt the top inward by an inch of so. Then you need to coax either the left or right end out the corner a bit so as to free things up. Then remove at a slight angle. The panel won't pull straight forward. It also doesn't like to bend very much. Picture below (a little fuzzy) shows the panel during installation rather than removal, but should give you the idea.

Very nice write-up with some great parts-sleuthing. Thanks for posting. I've always had limited trust in adhesives (especially when they get exposed to solvents and oil or grease). Nevertheless, modern-day adhesives are becoming very sophisticated and the results can be quite impressive when you find the right adhesive and apply/employ it according to the manufacturer's instructions. Your 'hang' test demonstrates very promising results. Hopefully, the exposure to the lithium grease won't be an issue, longer-term. Grannyknot did a posting here a few years ago in which he showed how he had pressed out the roller shafts from the regulator arms and then successfully re-installed them after installing hard-plastic cone-faced tarp grommets as a substitute for the pooched soft-plastic originals. Your soft roller alternative looks like an improvement.

Re the snapped-off manifold fastener: You're looking at a steel fastener stuck in an aluminum head. The dissimilar-metal corrosion along the threads can be really difficult to break free. If you lead off by trying to get it out with a screw extractor, do not use a cheap one and do not get too aggressive. It's a lot easier to drill out the fastener for a helicoil if it doesn't have a snapped-off screw extractor stuck inside it. Some people swear by the use of a reverse-twist drill bit. Might be worth a try... if you can find a place nearby that sells them. Using heat from a bottle torch is a problem. Too much flame spread, not enough focused heat. An oxy-acetylene torch with a fine-tip flame might work, if you've got one. One heating option that probably will work (and makes it unnecessary to do any drilling) is to use a MIG to progressively build up an extension onto the top of the fastener (looks like you need at least 1/4" build-up here). Once you get it above the surface of the head, you should be able to tack a nut onto the welded-up extension. With all of the heating shock from the MIG work, you'll should then be able to twist out the fastener with a wrench. Notice that I used the word, 'should'.

I may have some welding ahead of me... but I have a problem. My house has antiquated electrical service and it looks like I will cost C$1500 - C$2000 to have an upgraded panel installed in the house, along with suitable wiring taken out to the garage (which, as luck would have it, is about an 80' cable run from the panel location at the other end of the house). I can buy a brand-new-with-warranty 6500W/8125W generator that's being clearanced by a well-known local retailer right now for C$850 tax-in, delivered. I figure I can probably sell it for $250 after I'm done with it, so my eventual net cost for a year's worth of 24x7x365 access to the generator would be about C$600. I have available to me right now a brand-new, store-brand, gas-ready 120V MIG welder that's rated as follows: X 20% 80% 100% U0 = 34V I2 80A 46A 35A U2 18V 16.3V 15.8V U1 = 120V I1max = 20A I1eff = 9A What are the thoughts of the CZCC welders' community, on: in general, on MIG welding with a portable generator? in particular, on the welder/generator combo that I'm considering?

Looks like it's seen a lot of snow and salt in its day (viz: remnants of a ski rack on the roof, super-size back-up light, along with what looks like it might have been a mount for a roof-mounted spotlight). Previous owner appears to have been 'active' -- pilot, skier, rallye competitor. Those fabric-covered hoses in the engine compartment look frighteningly original! And the dash looks uncracked. I wonder how long it's been off the road? My guesstimate: Buy it for $3K. DIY restore, plus bodyshop prime/prep/paint, plus new wheels/tires: another $15K - $25K. End value for re-sale: $20K for a low-ball restoration, $30K for a 'good' restoration. As 26th Z says, it's not a low enough VIN to carry much of a premium value. I suspect you have to get down into the double-digits for that to happen.

I remember watching Brad's 'Frisbee' compete at Mont-Tremblant (then also known as St-Jovite) in the revived Can-Am series of the mid/late-1970's. Radical-looking car for its day.

Apparently someone who knows these cars well, as indicated by his photos drawing attention to the original plastic latching clips on the inspection cover body panels of 3543.

I've struggled to find anything really, visibly wrong with the car. Nothing yet. The dash intrigues me. It looks great, but It has a couple of mods that would have been hard to accomplish without removing the dash: 1) there's a non-stock, #2 toggle switch installed (should be just one, with an unused detent for a fog lights switch that wasn't installed on USA or Canadian Z's); 2) the 90 psi oil pressure gauge is said (by others) to have not entered production until after January 1971. And yet... the car has the early-version speedometer (starts at '20' and has 10mph increments). If the car really does have 249,000 miles on it (and the two handwritten service notes suggest that it does), then I am hard-pressed to explain the great condition of the seats, seat covers, and the door cards -- not to mention the dash and the steering wheel. The only part of the interior that says, '249,000 miles' is the torn-up vinyl trim on the rear shock towers. Odd. The service records would tell the tale, but -- intriguingly -- none of the invoices that the seller has chosen to show in photos includes a statement of mileage. We do learn that the car received new front and rear bumpers (bought from a Nissan dealer in Puyallap, WA) in October 1997 for the not-inconsiderable sum of $1,400 (call that $2,000 in 2018 dollars). Why? Were the originals rusted out? Or damaged? Or just not pretty enough to go with a new paint job? Puzzling. Maybe the seller will reveal the odometer reading from one of the most recent dealer service invoices. A 149,000-mile Z is not uncommon and not necessarily a beater. A 249,000-mile Z is uncommon and would invite a lot of questions about how this car has managed to stay in such great shape sand with so many original parts. Anybody have any idea what that coolant bypass hose tapped into the thermostat housing might be for? And has anyone ever seen a theft-deterrent switch mounted to the starter motor like this car has?

This one interests me because its VIN is within 10 digits of my own car. The seat covers look original (they have the Butterscotch colour's characteristic dissimilar fading between the smooth side panels and the pebbled seating surface panels) and -- given the overall condition of the seats -- one would be inclined to believe the claim of only 57,000 miles. So does the clean appearance of the lower front bender mount area. However, the seller stated in a previous listing that the car had 249,000 miles. Which to believe? The earlier ad says: "Strong engine, no smoke. Repainted 15+ yrs ago,some rust in front of rear wheels only. Original color Palma green/butterscotch interior in good shape, no tears. Dash is not cracked. I am third owner/since 1983. Cast aluminum wheels/good tires. Rear end recently swapped to a rebuilt unit having stronger gears intended for racing(but never raced) so rear end is noisy but very reliable. Car never raced either. Originally purchased in Portland Oregon. No salt exposure. Comes with spare used (90,000 mi) engine with dual Webber carbs and tranny and two spare used rearends. Many spare original parts included." The no-crack dash is a bonus and should add $2K premium to the selling price. Door cards look in very nice condition. Headliner and sunvisors also look to be in remarkably good shape. Passenger-side floorboard looks like it's been caved in by a jacking 'error', but this can be easily remedied (with a big anvil - right, Chris?). Although it's a small detail, the mudflaps send the wrong signal to potential buyers.The fact that this car appears to be straight and 95% original should be a big bonus. It also looks like it's been very well cared for. What we can't see properly from the pictures is its rust quotient. Pictures of the bare floorboards, hatch sill area, and rear wheel arches/lips would help. The seller's earlier ad notes rust in the dogleg areas. The mention of racing intentions by a previous owner is worrisome. However, absent of any hidden surprises, if this car was listed on Bring A Trailer I think we'd probably see a $25K result. Maybe even $30K on the right day. The re-spray (even though in the original 907 colour) might hold down interest from collector-types. For those interested in such things, the engine number for this car (6582) is about 200 units later than the factory-installed engine in my car (6408).

The Z advert from 'Parker University Datsun' in Hamilton caught my eye. I've been living in nearby Burlington for the past 10 years and had never heard of this dealership, despite its location near the McMaster University campus (which I visit frequently on business). A quick check using Google Map shows that the site is now occupied by a Hebrew Memorial Chapel. It looks like it was a terrible location for a dealership -- well off the nearest main thoroughfare and well outside of the Hamilton city core. Probably one of those small entrepreneurial retailer operations that tended to pick up franchises from the likes of Fiat, Volvo, and BL back in the day. There's no such thing as a 'University Nissan' or 'Parker Nissan' in the Hamilton area these days, so I would guess that they got axed by Nissan Canada corporate in the 1980's when 'Datsun' transitioned to 'Nissan' and went up-market (or tried to). Even the Harvey's fast-food franchise is gone. For non-Canadians, Harvey's make the world's best, greasiest onion rings (along with a nuclear hamburger and a tasty-but-highly-synthetic milkshake).

I wonder if the clip-on design was chosen to provide a bit of compliance for positioning the finisher panels. Or maybe it was just a strategy for reducing assembly time. If time permits, please post a 'front' and 'back' picture of one of the clips. I can't see the detail for how the Clip clips onto the body bracket.

The door hinges use 3 bolts to mount at both the door interface and the A-post interface. However, the bolt pattern on the door mount is different from the bolt pattern on the A-post mount. Patcon has correctly directed his comment to member JLPurcell, who had a bunch of special shim plates laser-cut by a local fab shop and had extras left over for sale. It's not clear to me whether he had shims made for both bolt patterns vs. just one of the two. Make sure you get the right type (or just make your own -- not rocket science).

Another 'teachable moment'. Hope you'll find the time at some point to remove the rivets from one of the old hinges so that we can see how much (or how little) hole slop it took to generate the huge misalignment problem you were experiencing with the hood.

They are, indeed. Perhaps someone can post some pictures and, in doing so, clear up a few little mysteries for me: The pictures that I have of the door jamb details for early-year Z's indicate that it's the lower door hinge that's different, compared to the later-year Z's. However, the online parts manual that I use ('Old Car Parts Manual') shows that the lower hinge never changed, while the upper hinge did (in mid-1972). Comments? I have read somewhere that the hinges fitted to early-year Z's had no detents and swung freely. Is this true, or was there actually a detent for the fully-opened position? Was there ever a period of production where the updated hinge design was fitted to the driver's side only?

Any pictures for all of us 'visual learners'?