Captain Obvious

What about all the flat tappet direct actuation OHC Asian stuff like Toyota and Honda? I've been pushing that stuff around as daily drivers since forever and I've never had a problem with the new oils. Never heard about anybody wiping a cam there, and they don't use any roller valve trains. It's all sliding motion. Why don't they wipe cams? Why do they seem immune? Less valve spring pressure because it's 1:1 instead of something higher with a rocker?

Good. It's gone. Now I don't have to buy it.

studegard, I've alluded to a paint option that I believe is a great match to the original color (better than the other previously discussed easily available solutions), but I have to this point been clearly a little elusive, and for that I apologize. The reason for that elusiveness is I started messing around with this last fall and I ran out of warm painting weather before I had finalized my testing. I have spray samples that look great, but I didn't want to loose my findings on the Z community until I was closer to 100% confident in the results. My plan is to paint one of my taillight panels and then re-install it in the car along with the original panel which still retains the original factory finish. If after that test, it looks as good as I had hoped in several different lighting conditions, I'll pull the pin on the rest of the info I have. Unfortunately that won't be until sometime in the spring after it gets warmer. If you want to give it a try yourself, send me a PM and I'd be happy to fill you in on what I've tried. Maybe you can give it a shot too and provide a review using a second set of eyes.

Sure. The OP asked "Does anyone have a source for the correct color paint?" And to that question, several people have offered up suggestions of sources they think are the correct color. Some of them cheap and easy to find, and some of them expensive and much more difficult to obtain. But cost and availability aside, I believe all the responses to date have stuck to the topic. Every single one of them. Even the response where someone suggested that the question should not have even been asked in the first place and admonished the OP for even asking for help:

Here's a relatively thread where we were discussing that little capillary tube and it's involvement in replacing the water control valve. Lots of good info in there, but this other member already had an empty A/C system, so he didn't have to worry about breaking into it. However, I don't know if he disconnected the lines going to the evaporator or just moved the box out of the way to get behind it: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/58410-heater-valve-copper-thermostat-wire-do-i-have-to-remove-the-dash/

Oh yeah. So now I'm sorry as well. I forgot about that part. I don't know if you can manage to get enough room under the evaporator housing to get that capillary tube out. You jussssst might be able to loosen up the evaporator box and lift it up enough to get the capillary out without evacuating the system. But you're absolutely going to have to pull the dash to even have half a chance. Sorry for the potentially misleading info! That capillary temp control is a nice feature, but I wouldn't evacuate a working system to replace it. I'd just clip it off and switch over to a non-thermostatically assisted valve.

Nuh uhh.

Paint samples: My favorite. Wheel... Of... Paint!!

I did a lot of searching and that's where the previous suggestions for options came from. And I have no doubt that someone who has painting equipment and knows what they are doing should be able to mix up a great match to the original. Body shops do that every day. But that's not me, and not what I'm talking about. I went looking for a cheap, easy to obtain over the counter solution that would not require the expense of a body shop. Something better than the previous aftermarket solutions that might not be able to be distinguished from the original by all but maybe the most discerning experts. I'm gonna go back to stringing these guys along! Haha!!

What? You guys want more detail than that? OK, here's my evaluation of the original paint: It is a flat surface finish. It is a single layer of paint and is not clear coated on top. Meaning the flat finish comes from the one and only layer, not from a flat clear spray on top of a color coat. Looking under magnification, the original paint is a metallic flaked finish. There are sparkly bits present in the original coating. Even though it is a "metallic" paint, the flakes are very small and the density of the flakes is not very high. In other words, even though it's "metallic", it's just slightly. The reflective bits in the original finish do not "light up" the whole surface when light is reflected at any angle off the material. In other words, you can't angle the light to any position where the light reflects off a whole layer of metallic bits instead of the top paint surface. That last point may require a little explanation... I'm not paint guy, but from my investigations, it seems there are two ways to get a painted surface to reflect a lot of light. The first is reflection off a glossy top surface. The second is off a reflective layer (of shiny metallic bits for example) under the surface. Using the extreme case of a mirror as an example: You can get a light reflection off the smooth top surface of glass. You can also get a second reflection off the silvered layer beneath. You could spray the mirror with flat clear coat on top and break up the top surface, but you would still get a reflection from the silvered layer beneath. Might be blurry, but that thing would light up in the sun if you get the angle just right. So back to metallic paints... My analysis is that if the reflective bits are too populous, too large, the wrong color, the wrong shape, or all just happen to lay out in the same position, they will make the paint light up at a certain angle even if the surface is a dull flat. In other words, they will look great straight on, but at an angle you will light up the reflective flakes. An accurate substitution for the original paint would not only be the correct color and would be slightly metallic, but would NOT light up at any light angle. IMHO, all of the previously tried paints either were the wrong base color, or had problems with the reflective bits lighting up at a certain reflection angle.

Yeah, that's what I did as well. Chalked it up as a learning experience. And now that you mention it... I don't remember if I damaged mine taking the old caps out, or putting the new ones in. Vague fuzzy memory now seems to think I did the exact same thing you did and bent the ears putting the new ones in. Cheap aftermarket parts with some fraction of a thousandth off is all it takes.

If you don't drive your car in wet or salted roads, you'll probably be OK. Let's hope so!!

zKars, I honestly can't tell if you had sarcasm font on here or not. Are you saying that there really truly may not have been metal shavings? Or are you saying "You weren't here when I drilled the durn thing. I know what I saw, and you can kiss my old hairy arse if you don't believe me!"

If you're buying a commercially available tool, I absolutely agree. But that wasn't my point. My point is that the people who are making and selling these tools are kidding themselves (and their customers). I've worked on pins like you and wheeezie and no puller device was going to get that sucker out of there. No way, no how. Heat, oil, and more pressure was the only way. The unbreakable beefiest puller would have just pulled the nub off. And if the pin is NOT stuck so bad that heat, oil, and more pressure is the only way, then you don't need a puller at all. A couple washers, a couple nuts, and some taps on a nut on the other end will get it out. That's my theory and I'm stickin to it!

I've done it. I bent the yoke pressing the U-joint caps out. Had to get a replacement yoke. This was many moons ago and the part was still available new from Datsun. Memory is quite fuzzy, but I believe somewhere in a box around here somewhere... somewhere... There is a brace I made to prevent that from happening again. Strengthening spacer that fits between the ears. Once every couple years it turns up. One of those things you hold in your hand and ask yourself "What did I make this for again?"

There has been discussion about spindle pin pulling devices in the past and my belief is that if the pin can be pulled with a device like that, then it really wasn't that stuck in the first place. I don't think it is possible to design a spindle pin pulling device that will work on all of them. At some point if you just make the tool even beefier, you'll simply pull the threaded end off the pin.

And SKILL. Don't forget about that part. That's the missing ingredient that would be standing in MY way.

I was working on this at the end of last season. I tried all the previously mentioned over the counter options and wasn't satisfied, so I took matters into my own hands. I found something better. Something that nobody else has tried before. Something that doesn't light-up when the light hits it at the right (wrong?) angle like all the previous suggestions.

I suspect the amount of force to pull those parts apart cold is pretty high, but I agree... I'd fasten to the pinion housing as well. Send me a rack and I'll pull it apart for ya. Haha!!

I doubt it. If you only bubbled out a drop or two, you should still have 95% of the original material still in there. I'd run it. I wouldn't do it again on the next rack though.

Thanks for the autopsy! I've been dying to know. After seeing the grooves in the gearbox and the tube, and after hearing how loose the two pieces fit together now that they have been disassembled once... I stand by my original analysis!! I think those two parts were aligned on a jig and then "glued" together with that plastic material to lock them in place. They were designed to be a little sloppy so the correct position could be achieved, and then locked into place with the plastic. I don't think there were any metal pins. I think it was all plastic injected under pressure into that groove until it came out the other side.

Good. A POR-15 burr is a lot easier to take off than rust throughout the hole. Glad it was that easy. And I'm not surprised that the pin slid a little less easy after you had lubed it. That lube is pretty viscous and has significant shear required to move it. Makes sense. As long as it's clean and moves finger smooth, you should be good to go there. And don't torque the crap out of the tapered retaining bolt. All it needs to do is keep the pin from rotating while you torque the nuts on the ends of the spindle pins. Many people over-torque that tapered lock for no reason. It just doesn't need it. And I wouldn't worry too much about getting all the grease off the threads before the thread lock. Especially if they are deformed thread nuts. I've been known to both lightly grease and thread lock nuts sometimes. But I've got a screw loose, so maybe you shouldn't follow that example. As for the stub axle nuts... When I did my rear bearings, I switched over to the new deformed thread version and did not use the original peened over style. I did not re-torque mine, and have not had any ill effects. In theory, I don't think re-torqueing would do anything. It's not like the tapered bearings on the front where you actually control bearing pre-load with the nut. In the back, you're tightening against the "distance piece" and there's no motion or bedding in between anything there. I'm not sure what re-torqueing would accomplish. No deformable material like a gasket, no bedding in of the bearing balls, and nothing that should be changing length. Just very tightly held against the distance piece. Bummer. Where did it bend? My PO messed up mine pretty bad too. So bad that I ended up replacing all four corners on my 77.

I'm in the east coast time zone, so my morning is a couple hours before your morning. So take your time... I won't be back until some time tonight probably. Drink the coffee before you step in front of the bandsaw. Don't need no mishaps!

No, and no. I would absolutely NOT use red Loctite on any of that suspension hardware. The "correct" hardware is all supposed to be the vibration resistant style and should not need any sort of thread locking compound at all. However... If you are: 1) uncomfortable relying on just the original distorted thread design, or 2) reusing stock hardware that has been reused a mystery number of times in the past, or 3) using aftermarket hardware that does not have a locking feature built into it then I would suggest you use either the blue medium or maybe even the purple low strength thread lock. You most certainly do NOT want red as it will require a torch to take things apart again in the future. And as for the spindle pin, it should NOT require a press to get the pin into the hole at the bottom of the strut housing. It should slip in nice and easy. Spin in the bore with two fingers, and fall out with gravity if you tilt the assy to the side. If you need a press to get the pin into place, then you have a burr kicked up inside somewhere, or you've still got rusty crap built up in the are and have more cleaning to do. My money is on rusty crap as my past experience indicates that a wire brush is not aggressive enough to remove the hard thin layer of surface rust that builds up in that hole. Chemical means or a more aggressive mechanical means would be in order. Long (sacrificial) round file for example. The hard cast iron will probably ruin the file, but consider it a donation to the cause.

Hahaha!!! So what's the result? WE WANT PICS!!!