EScanlon

Dan Since you're in AZ most of the problem will be that the paint needs to expand and contract as the metal will. While I've had good luck with plain old model paints (Testor's, Model Master, Pactra), it's also because I'm up here in the PacNW which tends to be much gentler on temperature spikes and dips. However, with that being said, one type of paint that I've used is the Pactra line for R/C Plastic bodies. These bodies get painted from the underside, and since the plastic body is very flexible, the paint needs to be somewhat pliant and bendable. It will eventually crack (especially if the body gets flexed a lot) but should last longer than a dry-hard paint such as the other model paints. The only thing I am not familiar with is how well they'll fare in the high temp extremes you guys can get. Look for it in your local Hobby Shop and ask them for piant for clear Lexan Bodies (R/C Cars & Trucks), you'll find all sorts of colors. Be sure to pick up the brand specific thinner, as other thinners and solvents will just curdle the paint. But that aside, the biggest obstacle to getting paint to stick is to ensure that the surface you're painting is CLEAN. I don't just mean free from dirt, I also mean wax and grease free. So, put those emblems in the sink, use plenty of warm/hot water and scrub the heck out of them with a toothbrush and some grease cutting detergent/dishwashing liquid. I use Dawn and it cuts through some awful gunk easily. Afterwards, blow dry completely and then use some of the thinner for the paint to scrub the surface to be painted. Wipe / blow dry and allow to sit for a minute or two (to let the excess solvent evaporate). Then paint to your liking. Hope this helps. Enrique

The scuff plate is exactly right. It will help hold down the ends of the welting and the weatherstripping preventing it from popping loose and getting hooked on something. The other alternative is to use the 90° corner to hide the ends of both the welting and the weatherstripping, and in fact makes for a cleaner installation. E

Dave: Do you still have the interior metal piece with vinyl on it that helps hold down the gasket welting after the gasketing is installed? If so, then put the seam in the rocker panel area and use that piece to hold down the weatherstripping. If they've taken the time to cut the 90° corner for the upper part of the door, and that forces you to put the butt end of the weatherstrip up by the kick panel, then use the welting (the vinyl piece with the metal form inside that pinches the metal on the body and fastens the weatherstrip in place) to hold it in place and put the welting's butt ends on the rocker panel area. Hope that made sense. E

Yes, Grasshopper Billy, that's why you come to us for answers to your questions..... Don't forget that while you may have learned a lot....you most likely learned it .... from an old guy. And while you feel he's taught you a lot, he more than likely has NOT taught you everything HE knows.... E

There's a woman here in Vancouver that is in need of the Combination switch (no intermittent wiper), as her car's is starting to go bad. I'll see if I can get her to log on and give you a PM. E

Side Story: 20 years ago, in the Air Force, working as liaison between Supply and Purchasing (small parts and special orders), we received a request for a curtain rod. A simple curved (although to a specific shape) piece of metal to accept drape hooks with rollers. This was the rod that held up the flash curtain on a B-52, and due to the manner in which the B-52's were built in the late 50's, this specific shape of curtain rod applied to only ONE aircraft....the one I was ordering for. After exhausting the "normal" avenues of procurement, we finally contacted a curtain rod manufacturer that was willing to give a quote, all others had politely excused themselves from bidding on the job. The quote came in for One Curtain Rod.....at $5,000. That is Five THOUSAND dollars. I've had people jump in right away pointing out how this is another example of government and military waste, and when we originally received the quote, we requested justification from the manufacturer (per Fed. guidelines). The justification for the quote read simply... One hour to shut down, clean and set up for run. Run piece, and another hour to shut down clean and return to production....lost production incurred: 5,000 units valued at $1 each. The manufacturer was willing to give us the piece for free, as long as we reimbursed him for the lost production. This is the case with many of the parts we're hunting for. The market for them is such that the "DEMAND" may seem to be high, but the amount we're willing to pay for them hasn't yet reached the point at which a manufacturer is willing to invest in and hope to recoup that investment. And in a market where it is not only a closed market (it's not growing), but is actually diminishing day by day (cars being disposed of), the perceived "demand" by manufacturer's is actually much less. FWIW E

I presume you're referring to the Gel Knee Pads I strap on when I throw myself down to my knees and beg loudly and sobbingly from SWMBO. Other than that, it's more like "And just WHO gave you the 50¢?" to which I reply..."Every one of them....." E

Not being the mechanic that the other responders are, my suggestions may be moot, or not applicable. But with that out of the way.... Why not swap the fuel line to the Carbs, 1 goes to 2 and 2 to 1, then run your check again. If the problem now is in Carb 1, your problem is not the carburator but at a guess in the fuel rail between 1 and 2. If on the other hand, the problem is still with Carb 2, then your problem is in the inlet portion of that carburator. Next, try feeding the fuel directly to the carburators from the fuel pump. Use hoses approved for fuel use as well as the "Y" splitter. Check again and see what your results are. Unless you've managed to hook up the electronic choke on the carburators I wouldn't mess with anything electrical. All you'll do is compound the problem. Eliminate the fuel supply as the problem or not, THEN go on to other things. FWIW E

Tomohawk: The type of switch you use is dependent on the type of antenna you have. E

I'm going to try to address the various issues as briefly as I can...so bear with me, as verbose as I can be, that's not easy. I know most of you already know this, and repeating it may be obnoxious, but bear with me. The OEM Switch is a Momentary-SPDT, Single Pole (meaning ONE wire) Double Throw (meaning TWO possible connections). This means that it can either connect circuit A or circuit B to the incoming wire. In the Early Z's, that means it either sends 12+ DC it receives from the Blue wire through EITHER the Blue/White OR the Blue/Red. Momentary means that it doesn't "click" and stay connected, it's spring loaded and YOU must continue to keep it connected for as long as you want it to operate. The OEM Antenna has 2 wires comnig out of the motor housing. EITHER of those wires can receive 12+ DC. Depending on which wire is energized, the motor will spin in that direction. The third connection it has is GROUND to complete the circuit. The OEM Antenna is considered a Semi-Automatic antenna because while it does go up / down electrically, it requires you to close the switch and actuate it either up or down. Additionally, IIRC, it does not have limit stops that will disconnect the wiring once it is fully up /down. My replacement came from the dealer, and it will continue to whirr and click as long as I keep the button pressed. Today's Semi-Automatic Antenna, also has 4 wires coming out of the motor body, but DOES NOT REQUIRE A GROUND. That's because the M-DPDT switch you get with it does the power inverting that the antenna needs to operate up or down. A FULLY Automatic antenna not only goes up and down electrically, it SENSES when to go up / down AND it has limit stops at the extremes of it's travel. It connects directly to the radio's power on button. When you turn on the radio, the antenna senses it and then extends itself to the FULL Up mode. Turn off the radio and it reverses operation and retracts completely. There is NO middle ground in it's operation. Full Up/Down, that is the operation. Typically, these antennas have 3 wires. Ground, Constant 12+ DC and Radio Power 12+. For the record, a MANUAL Antenna is one that must be extended and retracted via HUMAN power. The Fully Automatic needs a Momentary-DPDT switch in order to operate AS IF it were an Early Z's OEM Antenna. By proper wiring you turn off ALL the power or only PART of the power in order to "fool" it into stopping partly extended/retracted. I've explained the switch wiring before in other posts. HTH E

Hey! You take that back!! We're just hibernating is all....give us half a chance to get worked up about something ... (sumpin") ...... >um.mmmm...mm... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ E

Answer: Yes.

Ask the place you buy it at. In my experience with CB's, you have to tune the antenna and/or tune the radio to the antenna...at a fixed length. An electric antenna would have variable height, don't know how you would tune the CB radio to work with it, but that's the whole point. My experience is 20+ years ago, so best ask the dealer or distribuitor. E

Mohammed: When you get back, would you post more pictures of that front end Valance? That's not something I've seen and it does look nice! Also, are those Headlight Washer Nozzles, right at the front of the Headlight Bezel? Enrique

The OEM switch is a Single Pole - Double Throw. One wire, two possible connection points. Additionally, it is a Momentay SPDT, which basically means that it spring centers itself to the Center Off position. The circuit changes I noted above were to be able to make a FULLY Automatic Antenna work with the OEM wiring. This has been referred to as "fooling" the antenna. However, there is a mistake in there and I apologize for not having found it sooner. Once I went back to re-examine the wiring of the antenna we "fooled", I realized that the OEM Switch will NOT do this job. You MUST use a DPDT. Ideally, a Momentary Center Off is best. The changes due to the correct Switch wiring are as follows: UP (Top 2 connections) = Blue/Red Blue/White - 2 wires going TO Antenna Center OFF (Mid 2) = Blue shunted to Blue - Same Power wire from Dash to BOTH center connections BOTTOM (Low 2) = Blue/Red wire shunt from Top Left. Nothing on Right At the Antenna, the Blue/Red is used for the Continuous 12v + connection (usually RED), and the Blue/White is used for the Power-ON sensor connection (usually BLUE). The Antenna is further connected to ground via either it's case or a separate wire. In operation, when the switch is in the UP position, 12V+ is fed to BOTH the antenna's RED and BLUE wire, connecting it as if the radio had been turned on...the internal relay will allow the antenna to raise as long as you hold the switch in positon. When you release, all power is disconnected and the antenna is frozen in position. When you slide the switch to the DOWN position, now only the RED wire receives power, and the BLUE does not, which mimics the power situation when a radio equipped to use a Full Auto Antenna is powered off, this causes the internal relay of the antenna to power the motor to bring the antenna down. Again, it retracts as long as you keep the switch in the down position, freezing when you release. Typically, the antenna spool will also have limit contacts that will disconnect the power in either the UP or DOWN circuitry at it's most extreme points of travel. This means that if you were unable to get a MOMENTARY Center Off DPDT switch, the antenna SHOULD disconnect at the extreme TOP and BOTTOM of travel. But having goofed once, I'll admit that I've not tested this part out. I've been lucky to find DPDT Center OFF switches. FWIW E

This differs from what I have in the 3 - 71, 72 and 73 Z's I have, that's why I'm asking. I don't have that plastic piece you mention. Is this a latter type than the early Z's? The Z's I have access to show that the base is what holds the sun-visor end rod, and it has the square hole for the mirror clip to snap into. No plastic piece. Since the mirror can't be affixed to the roof without the base, and the base has the sun-visor holds, I was wondering why he needed separate pieces. E

The reason I ask, is that the base of the mirror is the same base that accepts the ends on the sun-visors. The mirror itself snaps into the hole for it's clip. This is the safety break-away feature. I'll see if I can find a pic. E

One of the main problems with Seam Sealer is that if there is any moisture caught between the metal, then you'll have corked it in place....and you'll get rust. POR has a product call POR Patch, which is basically thickened POR and comes out of a tube. You could use this first and then paint POR over it, or you could do the POR paint first then the Patch (that's what I did). In either case, the POR is in contact with the metal and will absorb/react with the moisture in the seam. You can still use Seam Sealer afterwards or even undercoating. There's been some talk about Zero Rust, but I'm not familiar with it. Maybe someone could toss in their experience with it. After all, the Preservation part of the club encourages that we find the BEST method of rust-prevention. So, anyone out there want to chime in on Zero Rust? Enrique

Structural - but repairable. As Will said, I wouldn't be putting any more miles on it. My next destination with the car would be a body-shop with frame straightening capabilities or simply a good Frame Shop. And be ready to fight the wheel and don't drive very fast....better and safer yet, have it towed. Any attempts YOU make to repair it, might actually make it worse for the guys at the frame shop...believe me on this. While it may seem that just a simple tweak here and there and .... and you'll find out that it will get worse and worse. The current bent and stressed condition of the metal is all a result of the main impact...anything you add/remove now is a SECONDARY impact. That changes what can be done on frame work. Your impact now, may be a simple grip and pull.....on a frame machine. There they virtually tie your car down on all four corners, take measurements and pull/push the car back into proper shape....for the frame of the vehicle. It might not be cheap, but it will be CORRECT. But if you start adding to the problem, by hammering etc., you may change the pull characteristic such that it won't be a simple grip and pull, and must be done in a body shop, or done in stages....all meaning more $.....and that the car may never be correct again. It will be OK, but not correct, simply because of over-eager "fixing" by well-intentioned individuals who got in over their head. This is one of those cases. That's MY 2¢ E

What is your inside Rear View Mirror mounted to? E

Kats: All of us try to hide purchases from our wives....otherwise we'd be commiting suicide and Hara Kiri would at least be honorable. The problem is that they eventually DO find out and WHEN they do the expressions on their face are usually very funny. When you spelled A N G R Y with an "L", it became ANGLY which refers to something that has a lot of ANGLES. Enigma was probably referring to his ex-wife's look when he would get caught spending money and she looked at him at an odd angle....as if he wasn't altogether straight with her.....or maybe cause Enigma can be a little out of whack too? (J/K) E

Check for the following wiring at the coil or connected to the resistor right below: Two Black/White wires One Green/White wire. The Green/W wire is not connected properly as well as one of the B/W ones. Once you've found all three wires, I'm betting that both B/W wires are connected to the same terminal on the coil (and for FYI, it should be the positive terminal). If that is the case, start the car, and disconnect one of the B/W wires. The car should stop, if not re-connect and disconnect the other. The B/W wire that causes the car to shut down should be connected to either the G/W wire or to the resistor located by the coil (if you have points). If you don't have points and are using the electronic dizzy upgrade, then just connect to the G/W. This should correct that wiring and get the tach working...as long as the tach isn't faulty also. Enrique

Galaxy, if you can get a picture of the VIN Stamp on the firewall. That is important to put the question of a Series II body in December 70 to rest.

Although distorted, I think that what you may have heard is that Plexiglass Protecting Headlight Covers were very much recommended to protect those $400+ each headlight housings that used the first generation of H4 bulbs. My 89 Acura Legend has some of those $380 per headlight lights, and they're nothing fancy.....just the shape and the fact that they use the H4 bulbs. Push those up into the $400 + each category and suddenly a rock chip in the glass would require a new headlight housing, because the H4 bulbs couldn't take the moisture and or blowing air on them. My wife's 92 Subaru Wagon is the same way. Even the dealers sold the plexiglass formed protectors...as an accesory to protect the headlight. Pretty soon, it more than likely morphed into what you heard. As far as the OEM covers....NLA, which is why the interest in reproductions. Personally, I like the way it finishes the car, and adds to the aerodynamic look. Whether it adds the mileage, or... I hadn't considered that as I was interested in the over all look. However, I've noticed an interesting by-product benefit...I don't have to clean my headlights from the bugs and debris on the road...especially in the rainy PACNW. E

Christian: Get started on fixing the car, there's ton's of information we've posted here on CZC and a quick search through the archives will give you more than you can read in one or two nights. If the first search doesn't yield results, try using just one or two key words, and you'll quickly see the list expand. Stay tuned and we'll be posting our activities as they get started next spring. Right now, with winter just beginning there will be few opportunities to meet until spring. But, come spring, there's the Canby meet at the Canby Fairgrounds, also the PIR - Beaches Cruise In on Wednesday evenings (probably not something you'll drive up for, as it's just a Wed. evening cruise), Blue Lake car show in the later summer, and these are just off the top of my head. Then the cruises. Hopefully Mike will have his Jedi vehicle done by then.... Stay tuned; E