MikeW

Even the most rudimentary service manuals (Haynes, Chiltons, etc.) have wiring diagrams. I think they're just reduced versions of what comes in the proper factory service manual from Nissan.

Ok, PM me with your e-mail and mailing address and I'll add you to the list. By the way, mass producing is the key. I've probably got 6 hours of work in the one prototype - from buying supplies to assembling and test fitting to shopping for mailing boxes and prices, etc. Hopefully the more I can make the better off everyone will be.

I thought about that as well but you really have to squeeze and contort the cardboard box just to install it. I don't think a solid glovebox could be installed without removing the dash, or, if you're lucky, removing the blower motor and defroster vent. It looks like you got a good deal on that one. The last one I saw on eBay, and it's been a while, went for $70.

Sorry about the full mailbox. I didn't realize there was a limit and simply let old messages pile up. I just cleaned it up. Someone mentioned PayPal; that's probably the best option. Each box will have about $5 in materials (cardboard, clips, staples) and will probably take me about an hour to make by hand. At my going rate hourly rate as a software developer that means that the price would be considerably more than the last NOS box I saw on eBay. Since that's obviously a joke I'm thinking about $20 (US) each. Obviously the mailing weight will be next to nothing but I'll need to get some cardboard boxes in which to mail the, well, cardboard box. My office is right next to a US post office so I'll try to figure out the mailing costs up front (and maybe even include them in the $20). Does that seem reasonable? Since there seems to be plenty of interest here I'll go ahead and purchase some more materials and get started. I'll let everyone know when I'm ready to mail them out. In the meantime feel free to PM me with your e-mail address (for PayPal) and your shipping address and I'll start the list.

Not really. I certainly don't plan on ripping fellow club members off but I wouldn't mind being compensated for my time and for the materials. Feel free to send me a PM if you want to discuss what you might think reasonable.

With a huge thanks to Andrew I've made a prototype replacement glovebox liner. His templates arrived this morning and I managed to find a very close match for the material at a local crafts store. Andrew also e-mailed me some high quality photos which enabled me to get the staples in the right place as well as find proper clips at the local hardware store. I plan on building a metal template to make the edges sharper as well as a jig to make assembly easier. Ok, who wants one?

I think I just bought it at Ace hardware. It would be nice to find tape that's already the proper width but it's more like a two inch wide roll.

The "hand throttle" was only available on very early cars and was actually removed for (apparently) safety reasons. They went so far as to insert stickers in later owner's manuals that covered up that feature. I'll have to let one of the local experts explain this fully but it has been discussed here before quite a few times.

Toyota brake calipers

Certainly not in the modern sense. People here have mentioned the hand throttle on early cars, but that mounted on the center console next to the choke handle, not on the steering column.

I've done this and was quite happy with the outcome. I used metal repair tape which I then polished. At first I polished it using a board to back it up but the wood grain pattern came out on the tape. I then used a clean piece of plexiglass to avoid that particular problem. After getting it highly polished I used a metal straight edge and a razor cut a 3/8" x 34" strip. The metal tape will easily hold the radius required unlike some metallic pinstrip material that I had tried earlier. I had to peel off a few remnants of the orginal material to get a nice smooth surface. The only tricky part was making sure that it was aligned properly. It would be quite difficult to do with the door panel on the car because the tape would want to sag. I took the panel off and placed it flat on the floor to avoid that problem. Keep in mind that it's quite difficult to photograph this properly but attached is a good attempt I shot a few minutes ago. Please note that my door panels have been dyed gray.

I got a used pair from 2ManyZ's a while back and used RIT dye on the stovetop to dye them back to black. They came out quite well.

"Your driver’s license must be in your possession when you drive, to be displayed to any police officer upon request." Source: http://www.dmvs.ga.gov/forms/pdf/dls/FullDriversManual.pdf

I'm kind of wondering the same thing. I can't imaging ever getting myself into a situation where I'd need the plugs and you're right, a shop vac would be a much faster way of getting the water out. However, since I used POR15 and Dynamat I just cut holes in the Dynamat and put the plugs back in. Actually, I could only find 7 out of 8 so if you don't need them I could use one.

Post some pictures ...

Which you can add youself to any wheel for a mere $5.95: http://www.zcarparts.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=WCC

I know a guy who was driving in a town with steep hills. There was a stop sign at the top of the hill at a cross street. Because the car had a manual transmission, and therefore getting started on the steep uphill was difficult, he didn't come to a complete stop but rather rolled backwards a bit before easing the clutch back out and going on through the stop sign. An officer pulled him over for not coming to a complete stop. The officer didn't exactly buy the explanation that he had, in fact, stopped not once but twice.

I'd ask for the VIN instead of the date stamped on the door plate as that's sometimes hard to read. I'm guessing it says 11-73 and not 11-75. If it really is 11-75 then it's a 280Z that someone put older bumpers on but I doubt that. With the wildly inaccurate information you've gottem so far I wan't trust the new information. I'd want to see a clear picture of the VIN through the windshield.

This particular car (2nd generation RX7 convertible) had an 8K redline and the tach pegs at 9K. These two dimwits claimed that the motor was already blown and wanted to see how long it would last sitting in the driveway in neutral with the pedal floored. They had a bet - one said 10 seconds, the other claimed 20. After warming it up slightly they had at it. The camera stays focused mainly on the gauges with wisps of smoke or steam blowing past. It easily makes it 10 seconds. Then 20 seconds go by. It keeps going and going. It starts heating up (partially because it loses pressure since the radiator cap it off). An engine warning light comes on. In the end, with the tach at 9000 rpms almost the whole time, the poor engine lasts a whopping 6 and a half minutes by my watch before it finally just drops back to 0. No big explosion as I was expecting. It then catches fire and we get to see dumb and dumber scrambling first into the house bathroom looking for a bucket and finally back outside for a garden hose. They've already ruined the engine and they are about to ruin the rest of the car (and possibly the other RX-7 parked next to it). Fortunately the fire is not as bad as they thought. It's more like an exhaust system that's glowing red. Oh well.

Since it's LHD it's definitely an early 1974 260Z 2+2. The late 1974 models have the really big 280Z bumpers.

Just to clarify a bit (or perhaps to confuse things) there are some other issues at play here. Temperature, altitude, and driving conditions affect things. A car may run just fine on 87 octane but might start knocking when driving uphill in hot weather. Driving at a high altitude actually lowers the octane requirement. Also, unless your tank is completely empty when you change grades you will have a mixture of octanes which might affect your evaluation. Sepeaking of octane mixtures: mid-grade gasoline is often a mixture of regular and premium. If the 3 octane levels are 87, 89, and 93 the mid-grade is actually 2/3 regular and 1/3 premium. Around here the mid-grade price is often right in the middle (say $1.90, $2.00, and $2.10). If that's the case you'd be better off mixing it yourself.

I'll be happy to do that once I get the templates from Andrew. Another thing that would help tremendously would be to get an idea of the proper thickness and density of the cardboard. I plan on shopping around (craft stores, art supply stores, etc.) to find the closest possible match. If anyone has an original glovebox that's beyond all hope it would be great if I could get a scrap of the cardboard. If that's too much to ask a close approximation would be useful (such as if you could find a scrap of an old pressboard box that matches).

Octane requirements have nothing to do with the number of cylinders in the engine. Octane is a measure the fuel's resistance to detonation. The higher the octane the harder it is to ignite the fuel. Pre-detonation (or knocking) is when the fuel ignites too soon. This is more likely to happen in engines with higher compression ratios and therefore those are the engines that require higher ocatane. If your car runs fine on 87 octane then you're wasting your money on the more expensive stuff. If your car pre-detonantes with the grade you're using you'll ruin the engine if you don't switch to a higher grade.

If I were him, I'd be worried about the statements rubber seems ok and sold as is ...no warranty

The answer to this question depends entirely on how much money you're willing to spend. However, it sounds like much more than a simple repair. You may be able to use some more Bondo putty to fill in the cracks but you'd still need new paint to make it look right. If you're going to go to the trouble of painting then you might as well fix the problem properly. There may be a lot of rust hiding under all that Bondo.