EScanlon

NIgel: You could chase minor repairs all day long and never get anything done and just end up very angry at the car. Like Steve said, if the car is straight, no cracks or obvious points of impending failure, and you're not going for a 100 point concours restoration, let it slide. There are replacement pieces of metal you can get (Charlie Osborne at Zedd Findings in Canada) but you must consider whether you are literally looking to make work, or finding work that needs to be done. 2¢

See there are a couple things wrong with the car. First off, did anyone notice the grab handle on the DRIVER'S door? That's such an obvious WRONG mod that I'm speechless. Also, the extra high center armrest! Geez, couldn't the guy at least spring for one with a storage compartment inside? What's the world coming to.......................

True blue QUARTZ sand is basically Silica Sand. (AFAIK). If you use it to sand blast with, although it is harder and it will cut through paint etc, there is a distinct possibility that you will fragment the crystal, as it is a crystal. The problem is that if it fractures it into tiny particles that can become airborne, they may be inhaled. Although a few exposures may not cause the same problem, don't forget that there is a strong warning regarding SILICOSIS, i.e. the inhalation of silicate particles. Whenever you do sanding with a fracturable substance, make sure you wear some sort of dust mask. You only have one pair of lungs. 2¢

Let me ask bluntly: How much money do you have, and are you willing to invest it with a very low return? This car has some serious cancer. It CAN be repaired, but the question isn't whether it can or can't, it is how much money do you want to invest. If you have your own MIG welder, Acetylene Torch, Body Working tools, shop where you can do the work, and most importantly tons of time AND money, you can fix it. If you have more money than time, then you can have a few things done by others. But the bottom line is simply this, HOW MUCH MONEY ARE YOU THINKING OF SPENDING!? At a WAG, I would say that you have at least a couple thousand in just the areas you've shown. Your floorpan shows that there is some serious rust there, which says that it's progressed beneath the tar mats. Also the inner part of the rocker panel is bound to be rusted. The dogleg behind the rocker panel is gone, which means you have 3 different pieces of sheet metal to replace there, which tells me that your rear wheel fender lips are bound to also be shot and needing work. The roof rot, as has been mentioned may be isolated, but in fact may be the whole top edge of the roof. All those add up and I would not be surprised to find out that your sheet metal repair ALONE will be in the vicinity of 3-4 thousand. And that's before you start replacing carpets, vinyl, seats, dash, emblems etc etc. All of these ARE repairable, but from what I see, you're going to be into it for at least 3-4 before you get to the next phase, and then you're looking at another 2-3k. Now mind you, I'm presuming YOU are going to do the work. If you have others do it, multiply by about 3 whatever estimate you have now. You might definitely be better off buying a rolling shell in good condition and take the parts from this car that are good and transplant them. FWIW Enrique Scanlon

I had a 1970 Chevrolet Nova that had them. It was a knob on the steering column you would pull out / push in. If I recall correctly, a friend's 68 Impala also had them. Are you sure about the year? or the name?

In rereading this post, I think there may be some confusion as to which rubber parts / fuzzy parts are being referred to. The rubber which Mike originally referred to is simple 1/16" thick rubber which insulates the window pane from the metal brackets which hold the rollers and other attachments to the panes themselves. There are two "fuzzy" rubbers. One is attached to the outside chrome finisher which wipes the outside of the window pane as it rolls up and down. The other is attached to the inside door panel vinyl finisher. This is more fuzzy than rubber and it also wipes the glass as it goes up and down. There is a last "fuzzy" piece, that's the channel rubber that fits inside the window frame that receives the window pane. I was able to obtain all of these as NEW from Andy Russell, although I had to buy the complete inner door panel and the outside chrome piece complete. Apparently the "replacement" fuzzy rubber is not available by itself any longer from Nissan. There may be other sources out there, but Andy didn't know of them. The window channel was easily obtained and very reasonably priced. The flat rubber I didn't need, but I would use plain old inner tube rubber. 2¢

By the way, the reason it got called the "rocker" panel may be a bit of urban legend. I've heard two stories. The first says, that this is where the rocks you kick up from your front tires hit. The other says that this is where some vehicles (like the old VW Bug) had these flat "steps" and they were good for standing on them and jumping up and down, thereby rocking the car up and down, hence "rocker". I had heard the first long ago, and the second was given to me later. Personally I believe the first. 2¢

Nick: The Gold paint I used, in no way is to be confused as being the same color as what's on the car. The Gold Rust-Oleum is a very shiny metallic paint which is the best approximation to "plating" I could find. The paint on the car, which is a repaint of the original color, is not metallic, and closer to "mustard" than gold. But Gold is what Datsun called it, so I chose a "gold" theme. But this brings up a good point, I WANTED that gold look on the wheels to complement and accent the body color. Look at the pictures in the gallery and I think you will agree, even friends who felt I should paint black or gray liked the finished look. So, applying it to your car. Matching the color for your wheels to the body is one approach. You could probably go to a paint shop that specializes in automotive paints and they could mix up a quart for you. Some shops can even mix you up aerosol cans, although if you know how to paint and have the equipment it would be much cheaper to buy the quart of paint. BUT, why not look at what you can get off-the-shelf? You may find a paint that will actually highlight your wheels / tires / paint job and may or may not even be the same color as your car. This is where a color wheel helps a lot. A color wheel is something designers use to demonstrate matching / complimenting colors. Go to a home paint shop they usually have one, or check a local crafts store. I've seen white, gray, silver, gold, black, metallic black, yellow, red and various shades, metallics of each used on wheels that made the whole car look bitchin! Granted, I've also seen paint jobs that made you want to splash mud on them right away. The trick is to do what pleases YOU. 2¢

The Rocker Panel is that area of the outside sheet metal right below the door between the front fender (wing/guard) and the rear "dogleg" in front of the rear wheel well. The "dogleg" is called that because of it's shape. It is just the forward part of the rear fender sheet metal. The Sill is that area of the rocker panel which is the transition from outside sheet metal to the inner sheet metal. This is where the aluminum sill guard goes. The sill is also where the seam on the metal for the door gasket is. Hope this helps. Enrique Scanlon

I wouldn't remove the complete roof from either car to just do a sunroof hole fill. Not only are you liable to bend the donor roof, you're also making a volcano out of a molehill. When we did this kind of repair at the body shop I worked at, what we would do is take very careful measurements along diagonal lines drawn from key points on the "receiving" car. This in essence gets you the exact X-Y coordinates of your "grid". Now you know the exact location of the hole. This is so you can match curvatures. You then transfer the diagonal lines to the "donor" car, and mark off the area on the donor roof that corresponds to the hole in the receiving car. Don't use a drill to make holes yet, you're just marking at this point. Once you've traced out the "plug" you very carefully measure out from the plug another half inch or so. The amount depends on the amount of throat that your edging tool has. An edging tool is what is used when patching sheet metal, it puts a "step" on the metal. That step is used as a stop for the new metal to align to AND to leave a small gap where you lay your bead of weld. The width of the step is determined by the depth of the throat of the tool, and the edge of the metal is used as a guide for the tool. Now, you have marked out a plug that is both wider and longer than the hole in the car to be filled. Your best bet to cut without distorting this is to use a jig saw with a sharp metal blade and take your time, you don't want to warp the edge of the metal NOR heat it up due to friction. Be careful that you end up with a nice straight edge as that will be used by the edging tool to form the step edge. Once you've cut out the metal from the donor car, you edge it with the edging tool. Next you put the plug up into the hole and align all the edges so that you have a nice even step / space all the way around. If you still have your original diagonal line markings, use them to align also. Once aligned, you can either do a series of quick spot welds to hold it in place or you drill holes for pop rivets, or weld clamps. Once done, you can proceed with welding the patch in. You won't be doing one continuous weld all the way around, you'll be welding in short sections, alternating between sides, and front and rear. The key here is not to over heat the metal such that it warps. The use of a Heat Dam or Sink is a good idea, but that still means short welds and alternate sides. If you do a good enough job, you shouldn't have to do an additional weld underneath. You can just caulk it with some hard caulk or epoxy. Doing the roof in this manner, ensures that you match curvatures on the donor car to the receiving car. This is why the body shop will recommend getting a donor car to donate the metal as fabricating this from sheet metal can really be a bear. This is the most critical part of this job. The roof strength is mostly through the drip rails and front and rear edges. If you feel that this is out of your league, contact a good body shop, tell them you have a donor roof and let them do the work. 2¢

If you got the refurbished or reworked clocks from the guy on E-Bay with Zclocks or something like that as his e-mail, he's pretty reliable and trustworthy. More than likely you may have hooked into the wrong power connectors or you're not getting power to the clock. Right by that area of the wiring harness, where the clock plugs in, there is another power connector that goes to the glove box light. Since they're both interconnected no problem. The power to the glove box light and the clock is also the same power that goes to the dome lamp and courtesy lamp circuit, so if you have a dome lamp, you should have power. The clock has a small electric motor that just tightens a coil spring. The coil spring is what actually drives the clock mechanism. As the coil unwinds, the motor kicks in and tightens it up again. To check that you have the right connectors for the clock, look for the light bulb socket that goes to the clock, the black and blue wires come one each from the two trunks of the wire harness right next to the lead for the light bulb socket wire. If they're not right next to that wire, then you're looking at the Red/Blue wire for the glove box light. The blue wire has a Female bullet connector and the black has a Male bullet connector, the clock should have the proper gender on the respective wires. Plug the clock in, worst case scenario, give it a little thump up side the head, you should hear the motor whirr and the clock start ticking. If this still doesn't do it, give me an e-mail, I'm just down the road from you and I could scoot on up there and give you a hand. Enrique Scanlon

Take a look at the openings without plugs. From them you'll be able to determine what and how the connectors are clipped in. Then using your new knowledge, remove or actuate the release mechanism for the connector you want to disconnect. It might be as simple as using a pair of small straight edge screwdrivers to pull back a couple of "wings" or tabs. 2¢

As far as I know, all the "mags" and "rims" that were put on the Z's in the 70's were Dealer Options. Although there are many wheels that are identified as being OEM, not until the ZX's did the Z's have wheels other than the stamped steel wheels. I have a set of wheels that are very similar to the ones you pictured, but mine have a flat center where your spokes go all the way to the hub. Even with the addition of the Z hub from a later Z, they're still Aftermarket Wheels. Alan may know different, and I'd trust his knowledge over my vague recollection. As far as polishing your wheels, you need to examine a few things first. Are the wheels currently clear coated or varnished in any way? If they are, in order to get the metal nice and shiny you'll want to remove that coating. I would recommend a chemical stripper as opposed to sanding, wire brushing or using wire wool on them. If no clear coating, or after you've removed it, is the wheel Aluminum, Magnesium or Chromed Steel? Are the wheels corroded or just oxidized? There is a difference. Corroded Aluminum will have whitish chalky areas that will be crumbly. Aluminum will oxidize with a dull gray cast to it, but that can be polished off, whereas corrosion must be sanded, or polished off. Magnesium doesn't really corrode, but it will get a dark pitted look to it. Be careful of using steel wool or steel wire brush on either of these two as they will acquire a discoloration to it from the steel. Chromed Steel is the worst, as if corroded it must be stripped and replated. If just oxidized you can usually polish them out, but it depends on just how thick the plating is and whether it will take the heavy polish you might have to do to them. Look at the typical rear bumper and bumper guard on a 240Z and see what the exhaust can do to corrode the chrome. I recommend that, depending on the severity of the dullness, you either buy a wheel polishing kit like what is offered at Eastwood, or Motorsports, OR you get some buffing tips to attach to your D/A or Drill and some rouge compounds. There are several different rouges (Red, White, Green, Gray) and each one gives a different grit and finish. For the initial main polishing you can start with Green and finish with White. If they just need a good hit, go with the White. I started my wheels with the rouges (Green and White) but after taking hours on two of them, I discovered another product. It's called Artesan Metal Polish and it's sold by the POR people. I used that on the remaining two wheels, and although there was a ton of elbow grease expended, I feel that the Artesan did as well as I had done with the rouges. Maybe I'm not that good with the polishing rouges, but I went over the first two wheels with the Artesan, and the difference was, in my eyes, noticeable. I painted my wheels with a gold Rust-Oleum paint because my car is 920 Gold, and I wanted to maintain the "gold" theme. Anyhow, here's a picture of the wheels before and after. There is a small spot in the lower right hand of the right wheel where you can see what 3 minutes of using the Artesan on the untreated wheel compared to the full job on the left. Enrique Scanlon

With your being up north, in the snow belt, you'll want to make sure that your floor is nice and dry before you apply any paint. Otherwise, as soon as it gets nice and cold the paint will literally chip right off. I served in the Air Force for 7 years, all at Wurtsmith AFB in Michigan (Lower Peninsula). If you look on the map, find Alpena and go about 60 miles south there's a town called Oscoda. If that doesn't show up, look for Tawas, and go 15 miles north. Anyhow, the reason for telling you this is that one of the things we had to do was keep the Hangar floors painted. In order to do the job right, we had to pressure wash the floor, then we used a concrete etching solution before we applied an Epoxy Floor Paint. But the floor had to be completely bone dry for each step. That took sometimes D A Y S. However, when done right, it lasts for years. Unfortunately to give you specific brands, types, etc, the paint we got just came in with a Milspec number, Stock Number and Color. Even though I was the supply guy, we normally didn't investigate what manufacturer was the one that was currently under contract to provide that paint. Hope this helps you in your search. By the way, you may consider applying sand as a non-slip agent, because the finished paint will be very slippery when wet. If you do that, apply your sand when the paint is still tacky but almost dry, sweep it onto the area you want, THEN apply another coat of paint and let dry. The additional coat of paint is so that the sand won't come off and you will still have the non-slip texture. And it will be a definite NON-SLIP, i.e. you'll get a nice scrape if you slip on it. FWIW

They're available as Q-Pads and they're made by Evercoat. I used these to replace the tar pads that came on the car. Several notes: As far as removing the old, if you already have some rust underneath, the old pads will probably just lift off very easily and quickly just using a putty knife. They will probably be old and brittle so just push and lift and they should snap off cleanly. If they are still pliable, that's when I would use the dry ice method. As far as using the heat gun or hair drier, I think you would probably generate more work by allowing them to re-adhere. Remember they are TAR and they will melt and flow and re-stick everywhere. I did the old putty knife method and removed the old ones everywhere, including the hatch area. After removing them, I used the Marine Clean and Metal Ready products before I coated with POR black. After the POR dried, I applied the Q-pads over all of the metal areas leaving no surface exposed, even inside the rear fenders. The final result is that the car is exceptionately quieter. As far as the bubble cell aluminum insulator, I did get some through Beandip, but I admit that I have not used it at all. I was able to pull up the horsehair from my transmission tunnel and just reused that. I also covered the transmission tunnel with POR and the Q-pads for sound insulation and the thermal insulation is by the jutte. FWIW Enrique Scanlon

Ditto what 2MZ said. The Heater core doesn't have any electrical connections whatsoever. The only connection that goes to the core, is to the water control valve and that is a mechanical connection via the cable from the heater control panel. The switch on the HCP is either disconnected from the harness that connects it to the blower, OR the ground at the heater blower motor is off, OR the fuse that powers the switch / blower (which is an inline fuse and NOT in the fuse box) is blown. Lastly, if the switch itself is bad, it's really surprising that all 3 speeds would die at once unless it is the ground that died and then it was the ground cable and not the switch. 2¢

Bonnie: This is going to be more along the lines of a WAG than a true definitive look here fix. (WAG = Wild A** Guess) When you say that you "pulled out the ignition wiring, and have been starting it that way till I can afford a new ignition", I assume that you mean you disconnected the ignition SWITCH from behind the ignition LOCK. And to start the car you are using a screwdriver to actuate the switch. If that is the case, and you did not disconnect ANY other connectors in the steering column shroud, then as a WAG I would check your Accessory Relay located on the passenger kick panel. However, if you disconnected various connectors leading to the various items that hook up underneath the shroud, then you more than likely did cross connect something that is draining your battery. As to what it could be, yikes! Sorry I can't offer more of a clue. Now if you disconnected the wiring leading to the ignition lock from the connector leading to the switch, and you are basically "hot wiring", then you need to know that those 5 wires aren't just pick the two that start the car. Those other 3 wires control the "accessories", the coil - tach - resistor combination and power to the heater fan. Again on another WAG it is highly possible that if you have an aftermarket radio instead of the stock one, that whoever hooked it up used the A/C power lead coming from the heater fan. That lead gets power directly through the ignition switch. Did you leave your radio on with the volume down and the switch in the accessory position? Sorry couldn't be more specific.

You say that all the lights work when the alarm blinks them on when arming or disarming. You might want to check for continuity THROUGH the connection box for the alarm. Depending on whether they spliced into the wiring harness with piggy back connectors or actually stripped and cut in, they may have inadvertently disconnected the switch side of the circuit from the left turn signal. 2¢

The turn signals and hazard lights use different flashers, although they use the same filaments in the bulbs. Is the front RH turn signal working? How about the light in the dash? If those are working, have you checked the bulb on the RH rear light, as it may be as simple as a burned out bulb. If on the other hand the complete right hand side turn signal isn't working, neither front, dash or rear, then I would check the turn signal switch. 2¢

The "spook" series of spoilers didn't replace the valance, they just bolted onto it. The Motorsports catalog lists these as being for the 70-74 vehicles, but that's due to their being bolted on to the lower front valance and turn signal corners. Since the turn signals moved to the grille area after 74.5 (with the introduction of the "fat" bumpers) the valance area changed. I'm not real familiar with the area down below on your 77, but I can't imagine why it would be so radically different from the early Z's that the spook spoiler wouldn't work. Give them a look, they're items numer 50-1521 and 1522. One has ducts the other does not. Both are fibreglass.

Just wanted to have the first post of the year! At least as of Pacific Time U.S.. Happy New Year to all! Enrique Scanlon

First off, contact Hagerty Insurance. They'll insure your finished Z for an agreed upon value. You may have to have it appraised, but the cost for insuring my Z for a YEAR at a value of $10k (before I got into it) would have only cost me $112.00 year. I'll bet that that is a heck of a lot less than what you're paying now. Next, on the Z you're working on, reduce the insurance down to storage. You're not driving it, so no need to keep full coverage on it. Storage insurance will work since you're restoring it and it will be a while before you get it back on the road. Those two alone might drop your expenses enough to where you can hang on till spring. As far as selling it just because...well if you must you must, but I think that you just need to trim some expenses and you'll be okay with it. 2¢

The "U.S." tail lights for the 240 were Red Turn Signals and Red Brake lights with Clear Reverse. Here's a pic of the back end of my car: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2597&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500 The "European", or NON-US version, had an amber lens below the brake lights and to the outside of the reverse light. Unfortunately I do not have a picture to show. 2¢

This is a picture of my car: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2599&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500 I believe these are the ones you are referring to. When I set out to purchase these, I tried Courtesy Nissan, Too Intense Restoration, The Datsun Dude, MotorSport and none of them had them in stock, nor were they expecting any. Apparently they'd had them on back-order for a while and had not yet heard. I finally obtained my set through Zedd Findings, Charlie Osborne who in turn got them from Japan through MSA in California. When I contacted him regarding getting replacement lenses (due to a small crack in one, my fault) he told me that the ones I'd received along with a couple other sets were the last ones he was able to get and that they were NLA. Maybe Kats can investigate and let us know if they are or are not available in Japan. 2¢

Santa packs his bag with the First Choice Toys and Best Packaged Toys FIRST, then he puts in everything that was deemed "seconds" and fragile stuff. Then when he's delivering he takes out seconds and fragile stuff FIRST, then when he gets to our part of the globe all he has left are FIRST's and BEST's! I missed Vietnam by only a few months, I did register for the draft for it although I was classified 1F if I recall (eligible but waived due to administrative orders [just after the draft for Viet Nam was cancelled]). I did serve in the Air Force some years later for 7 years, so I am still a "vet". Along with you, I salute all those members who served in Vietnam, in whatever capacity. And since you must have been there in some capacity, you deserve a SALUTE as well. Thanks for serving. Enrique Scanlon