davewormald

I wasn't taking sides on the cadmium versus zinc issue. I have no knowledge or expertise to bring to bear on that topic. 26th-Z said "but how does this all matter", which is what HS-30H was referring to with the Brute quote. I think one of the hallmarks of this group is believing that details matter. My comment was meant to commend that behaviour. And Zed, you're definitely one of the people who cares about detail in my view. I don't always enjoy the exchanges themselves, but I think we all benefit from the willingness to engage, and the level of knowledge that results. Sorry that I wasn't clear.

I'm not about to wade into this discussion except to say that I think there's a lot to be said for the quoted comments. First, I like, and get in this context, the Shakespeare reference. Ouch! I'm betting it was a weak moment for 26th and he'll be back onside soon. But more importantly, if there's a community on the internet more dedicated to knowing everything there is to know about Datsun Z Cars, I haven't found it. This is it. Sometimes it takes a long, rancorous discussion to get to the answer, but down the road it's only the answer that will matter. Good for you guys for caring enough about this stuff to challenge each other to get to the right answers. Not everyone will care about whether it was cadmium chromate or zinc chromate, but a few will, and we stand a better chance of determining the answer today than we ever will in the future. Cheers to you guys for your dedication to the cause!

That makes sense, but the problem is really just cosmetic (once I've confirmed that the exhaust problem has been corrected), so I don't think I want to go as far as adding a second strut to correct it. I don't think all cars with the single strut have raised driver side hatches, though, so I'm thinking that there are other ways to address this. If the hinges are worn, that might be a place to start, or maybe the two hinges just need to be adjusted relative to each other to lower the driver's side? At this point I haven't glued the seals back in or attempted to adjust the hinges or latch, so I think I'll move ahead with those steps and see how close I can get things to flush. The upper portion of the new inner seal is almost vertical when installed. When the hatch is closed the vertical portion slides outward against the underside of the hatch to create the seal, so I expect it to compress a little over time as well. As an aside, I was happy to see that, with a couple of careful initial closings where I manipulated the seal at the hinges, the seal is sliding over them properly. Both my original seal and the replacement were mangled by the hinges. I've been procrastinating on the next steps because I know I'm not going to enjoy removing the adhesive from the car before gluing the new seal in, but I'll report back when I've made progress.

I ordered and received one of these seals from Scott's as well. I can confirm that it's much better than the Precision version. With the Precision version there was a big gap all the way along the bottom of the hatch, which welcomed copious quantities of exhaust into the cabin. The hatch sat visibly higher than the edges of the quarter panels. The hatch was higher on the driver's side, and stuck out slightly at the back on that side. I removed all the weatherstripping (both inner and outer) and checked the fit. I was surprised to find that the hatch still sat slightly high and stuck out slightly at the back on the driver's side. I removed the support strut and that allowed everything to align. The strut is a replacement. I'll have to check the source. With the new hatch seal in place, but not glued, the hatch sits pretty nicely. It's very slightly high, but I suspect it will settle, and I haven't tried adjusting the hinges or latch yet. Once I connect the strut, though, it's noticeably higher again. It's lower than it was with the Precision seal and there's no gap along the bottom edge, so I don't think exhaust will be a problem, but it's higher than I'd like it. Has anyone noticed a strut causing the hatch to misalign? Any ideas about how to correct it? I'm a little surprised that the strut can move the hatch backwards. I would have thought the hinges would prevent that.

I've received several waves this year from motorcycle riders when I've been driving my Z. I'm not a motorcycle rider, so I haven't tried to respond "in kind" (and it might look a bit odd coming from the driver's door of a car), but I've given a friendly regular wave back. I definitely saw it as an honor (to the car), and was happy to see it in each case. I'm sure we all get lots of waves from other classic car drivers, which I'm also happy to receive! Yesterday, being Canada Day, was a big day for that!

The 2000GT is certainly a nice looking car. I've always liked that version of the Celica as well. On the other hand, I've never liked the fender-mounted mirrors. They somehow spoil the lines of the car for me. I know a lot of people love them. Pretty cool visit!

We appreciate it! This whole album was good. You might also remember Hard to Laugh and She's So Young. Both had pretty solid airplay back in the day in Canada.

... and appropriate.

I'm sad just reading this. What a beautiful car! I'm certainly no expert, but it looks like a car that would do well on BAT to me.

I hope you strapped them down to the headlight scoop for the drive, although I think you'll need to wait a while before opening them.

Yep, that guy's got some writing and acting talent. A really good communicator. Very enlightening and entertaining! I think he probably could/should have included an explanation as to how/why the two sides of an unaligned U-joint can turn at different and varying speeds. Maybe it would have been too much, but I think it could involve a little trigonometry, and who wouldn't like that?!

It's more indecision than anything. I'm not usually prone to indecision, but I'd really like to stick with a fiberglass scoop, and couldn't convince myself to go metal. I also think you're better off selling the four pieces together, than having two fenders and one scoop, so it probably works out OK. I do appreciate you checking on them for me. Good luck! As a friend of mine likes to say, "My wife loves that sh*t!". @CanTechZ I'll send you a PM and hopefully we can move this forward!

I've never done this sort of repair, but I'm confident that I could do it if I had to. These days there's so much good material out there on the internet (interspersed with the other stuff) that you can learn to do almost anything if you're at all handy, and are willing to put in the time. I'm not worried about the mounting studs. One of my original ones was broken and a fix looked pretty straightforward. Of course, I might have the luxury of sourcing one that doesn't require any work, and I might take the lazy path if it's available! I moved to a condo a couple of years ago, so I no longer have my three car garage or my enormous basement to work in. ☹️

No problem. I really appreciate you guys doing what you do to help out. This, among other things, is what makes this particular forum so great!

@CanTechZ It's certainly better than mine, and it looks like it could be cleaned up, although I'm no body repair guy! @Yarb were you able to check the one you have to determine whether it's fiberglass or metal? What sort of shape is it in?

I'm sure I could manage to do the necessary repair work on the scoop, although I'd prefer not to! @CanTechZ , if you could send a couple of pictures that would be great. @Yarb, let me know whether yours is fiberglass and what sort of shape it's in. Thanks to both of you for responding! I'd really rather have a used part than a newly manufactured one!

Indeed I do. I gave up on finding one used, and ordered one from MSA, who originally said they had one in stock, but a week later found that they didn't and are now forecasting 6-8 weeks to get one. If you have one, I'm interested!

A rather large pickup truck completed an unauthorized modification to my driver's side headlight scoop last summer, so I'm looking for a replacement. I see that MSA sells them, but I figured I'd check with people here in case anyone is trying to clear some garage space. The car is an April 1971 240Z, and currently has fiberglass scoops, so that's my preferred replacement material as well. I'm not worried about colour, because it'll be painted anyway. The car is the one @grannyknot documented here. I'm in Canada, but have a US mailing address I can use if anyone has a scoop, but doesn't want to ship to Canada.

I went through the same thing last winter. There's a thread in this forum about it somewhere. It went on for months with various different reasons why nothing had shipped. I eventually heard from someone named Mark, who got things sorted out as well as possible. He shipped the items they had on hand and cancelled the remaining items. The email thread with various people from Datsun Garage stretches from July 2023 to January 2024. I was calling and leaving voice messages at the same time I was emailing. I never had anyone answer the phone. I would keep after them to ship anything they have from your order and process a refund for the rest.

I've been meaning to say something similar. I purchased well over 100 different parts for my car while I was working on it and while @grannyknot was working on it. The parts came from a lot of different suppliers. Z Car Depot was the best supplier I dealt with by a pretty wide margin. I look on their site first now.

I used blue loctite (because I had some around) when I got mine back together. I eventually accomplished that by cutting the stainless steel braid back a little from the end of the inner sheath, then wrapping thread tightly around the braid so I could get it back into the ferrule. That worked very well after many frustrating tries without the thread. I'll eventually attach the cable to the adjuster, but am avoiding blipping the throttle from the engine bay until I do. Replacing the linkage with the cable has made the car a joy to drive again. Having said that, I've found one particularly sticky joint in the linkage I removed. I don't think I'll be going back, though.

Sounds like the right solution. I'll be doing that with mine when I get a chance. Other than that avoidable (but disconcerting) issue, my installation of your kit is working really well. My old linkage was sticky enough to make driving in town somewhere between embarrassing and impossible (it was really fun the time or two I drove it without a muffler). It's now a joy to drive it. I went out for an hour or so this morning and was in heaven. I came home and told my wife it was time for her to come for her first ride in the car. That's partly a result of the improved throttle, but mostly because of a slightly ugly, but very successful seal job I did on the hatch, which has all but eliminated exhaust fumes in the cabin. I'll post a couple of pictures of that in the build thread. Thanks Ken!

I wouldn't if I thought cheaper definitely meant lower quality, but I haven't always found that to be the case. That's why I asked for people's experiences. I don't mind paying for a quality product and/or a quality design, but I don't want to pay extra for a brand name (I don't know anything about Lokar, but their pricing certainly implies quality). From Ken's response, it seems like there are functional advantages to both products he's worked with, and a quality advantage to the name brand version. I do understand your question, but I don't think it's actually rhetorical.

Ken (or anyone else), do you have any thoughts on the Lokar versus cheap Amazon versions of the cable? In the grand scheme of things, the Lokar isn't a big expense, but in some cases there really is no difference to justify the 4 to 5x price premium of the name brand item. I don't mind paying for quality, but I don't like throwing money away, either!

Just advise him to order a weatherstrip kit as soon as possible.