Patcon

280z? If it is, then this appears to be the relevant image. https://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/body-260z-280z/2-seater/instrument-dash-side It would appear that stamping goes all the way from the A pillar to the bottom of the rocker panel

I doubt filing is necessary. Pins and wafers are normally plug & play

That is what Al says is in the engine. Unless you've verified all of this then it may or may not be there. Ultimately, I suspect there is an internal issue causing your fouling on #4. I'm not really sure what it could be but I think if it were induction or ignition related we would have solved it already.

I've never tried that but that is likely why the design has the adjust-ability it does and the lock nut. Good thought It will probably make it a little tougher to latch and the release cable needs to operate well with the extra tension on the hood

From the first pictures I can't even really tell what I'm looking at. It needs to be zoomed out some.

I think the mechanic is just guessing, but that is what most of us are doing. Educated guess work. It might fix it... But it's not going to fix your fouling on #4...

I don't know that you can if they have 9 wafers and you only have 4. You can't invert them because they're not symmetrical. I rekey kwickset and Schlage locks sometimes and there are only like 6 different pins. I would be surprised if there were 9 different wafers available for a 50 yo Datsun lock...

It looks great Kats! I'd be surprised if you could make it much better than that

Tried to locate parts in the shop today. I found the correct dash. Some of the rubber parts and some misc stuff. I also put some small rubber parts on. I predrilled these with a 0.140" bit first I might need to clarify, I installed the little rubber gas door bumpers I also installed the throttle boot, choke cable boot and heater hose grommets I also ran these under hot water to separate them. \ I have to figure out the best way to get the yellow goop off the lenses. What have other people used to reassemble the lens to the case? Once I get them clean, I will buff them and buy new trim pieces for the middle of the lens These are original JDM lights and they appear to have a black strip down the center. I am assuming this is paint and not integral to the lens?? It appears to be on the inside of the lens. Anyone know?

Differential link

Is the shifter boot still missing in the car. You can get a definite gas smell directly from the engine. Especially if all the vent tubing isn't connected

A bad Toupee'!!

Kats Heat is probably not going to work on FRP. It's likely to only break it down. Weight is unlikely to work either. I would set the bump stops at the correct height and figure out a way to make the latch tighter using the bump stops to hold the hood at the correct level.

SUs can do an aweful lot. An AFR might help alot to know what your fueling looks like. More fuel isn't going to help without more air to burn it.

Good eye!! The first gasket Rockauto shipped me was bent in shipping. So it was trash. We experimented with it to try to figure out how to add holes. It could be I don't need all of those holes but they were open on the L16 gasket with matching ports in the head and block, so I made the new one match. I guess if I were willing to experiment and had lots of spare time, I could try it both ways and see what the temps did, but obviously I don't have that kind of spare time. I think at this point we have been working on this engine a year!!

I do not believe they used a marker. I believe they had a can of paint with a small brush and just gooped it on.

So I ordered some badges a little while back because, you know it's yellow now. Why not? I bought them out of the UK I think the hood badge looks ok? The hatch emblems are different. They use double sided tape. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The vendor said there were a number of reasons they felt this was better and I could call. I didn't want to do that at a $1 or 2 a minute. If somebody potentially in the UK is interested I can provide the number. I'm pretty pleased with the qtr emblems. They seem correct? The fender emblems were a disappointment. They look nice but they are way too small! Also doubled sided tape...

So 3 months later we're at it again. So we worked on getting the timing set on and prepping the head gasket. The dark gasket i the old gasket off the L16. I believe the new gasket i off a KA motor?? It needs a number of holes added So I tried a round hole punch but the metal in the gasket just stretched Then we tried drilling the holes I finally settled on dremel tools We put the guides on and found out the chain in our timing set was too short. In actuality I have the wrong timing set, which is too bad because I can't return it now. 😞 So I ordered the correct one. We are also concerned about piston valve interference, so I ordered some clay to do some measuring

I got a BaT notice the other day. 14k mile 73 didn't meet reserve at $135k!?

I would see if you can reach out to SEM directly. Many of these suppliers have a way to ask technical questions. Or talk to a local auto paint supply house near you

Probably not many and in all reality it problem only causes problems on cars that are pushed pretty hard or have lots of horsepower

It wasn't manufacturing practice to put unnecessary items on cars...

Or you might be able to find an inspector through the local Copart in the area. They have inspectors that do pretty thorough write ups

I hate when I do that. I almost did that the other day on a gas line at a customers house. It would have been too short to reflare!

If your tire spaces are currently even, I don't see how it couldn't help but change is you remove 1/2" from the height of the rear strut