EScanlon

If your cable broke at the handle, use vise-grips or pliers to pull on the remainder. Then get a new cable/handle assembly. If the cable broke at the other end, you literally pulled the cable out of the assembly. You will have to reach the latch mechanism at the top and rear of the engine compartment. Some people have claimed success in reaching up from underneath the car and then actuating it with a screwdriver. Myself, I haven't tried this, and I think you would have to be triple jointed, but they claim it can be done. The way I did it when my cable snapped was to remove the bolts holding the hood to the hinges. Then gently lifting the hood as far as it could and bracing it there with a 2x4, I was able to reach the bolts holding the hood pin to the hood. Remove the hood pin and not the latch mechanism as the mechanism grips the pin from beneath the bracket it sits on. I guess you could probably get in there and pull / pull on the mechanism and release the pin, but I didn't have any luck. By the way, a member of the Roadster mailing list attached a second cable to his Roadster's mechanism just in case..... Enrique

The Z has always had interior light switches on the doors. I can't recall ever seeing a Z without the switches. The switches could also operate an extra set of wiring leads that were meant for a set of lights on the door / kick panel. I have heard of but never seen the door panel step light. The picture in the microfiche isn't distinctive enough to discern. The earlier cars had the switches without the grounding strap wire. The problem with these was that due to the nature of dissimilar metals when in contact with each other, AND the addition of electrical current through the contact point, the switches would corrode very quickly. Adding a grounding strap to the body of the switch helped diminish this tendency. The driver's side switch has two wires plus the grounding strap, since one actuates the light and the other actuates the key-in reminder buzzer. Personally, unless you are going for the Smithsonian School of Restoration, no one will notice if you used the strapped one or not. Enrique

Victor: You state that the ammeter "goes crazy" as well as other items dimming, when you turn on the turn signals. You don't state whether the increase in draw is when the light turn signal indicator is ON or OFF. Although to some it may sound frivolous it might be the indication you are looking to find. Turn Signal Flashers work on a resistance inside. When you apply current to the flasher, it heats up a resistance wrapped around a contact. When that resistance gets hot enough, it causes the contact, which is made of heat sensitive metal, to "click" or pop to a different position, due to the heat. At that point it closes the contact for the turn signal elements and allows current to flow to the turn signal light bulbs, and they light up. When the metal on the contact cools down enough, it then contracts and returns to the original position, where the resistance is once again heated up. If your ammeter is showing a strong draw when the flasher is in "heating up mode", then it's the flasher that is starting to go bad, as the resistance is starting to burn out. If on the other hand it's when the turn signal lights are on, then you have a problem in the wiring either TO or AWAY from the flasher. I would first check the turn signal switch as they are notorious for getting dirt and dust inside the switch unit. HTH Enrique

Briefly and succinctly: (and I apologize if it seems rude.) What do you consider good? There's color, I can't see the primer, and who wants it to shine so you have to wash it, it's good. Or: Dang, that paint's so shiny and smooth and it reflects so good that if it were black, chicks in mini-skirts wouldn't go within 5 feet of the car. If the first, then Yeah, you can get results from a paint can. If the second, nope. Very small areas, IF you have a perfect color match, then you might be able to get away with it. Larger areas? Very doubtful, the first few inches of paint would already be drying or dry before you finished the piece, not good. Additionally, most spray cans are formulated with solvents specifically designed to atomize and propel as well as dry quickly. Most paint mixed for painting with spray guns, you want a small period when it is still liquid. This minimizes Orange Peel, helps eliminate Dry-Line and allows you to build up each coat with successive passes of your spray gun. Too much and you'll get a sag or a run. Too little and it will have a sandpaper type feel, little shine and excessive orange peel. Other painters will immediately ask you if you painted it with a "rattle can". Lastly, the solvents in use in the rattle cans are not necessarily compatible with either your base coat(s) of paint or future coat(s). 2¢ Enrique

Just be aware that HVLP stands for High Volume Low Pressure. Doesn't sound bad, until you consider that most good HVLP systems include their own air source. A standard home compressor won't be able to keep up with the gun. Now, I don't have or use an HVLP, so I am not sure if the above is urban legend or fact. I still use the older style DeVilbiss and Binks guns. They're high pressure, but my compressor can keep up with them. 2¢ Enrique

I got my hand throttle / choke cable assembly through the Datsun Dude. I found out later that MSA has the whole assembly, choke AND throttle for the EARLY 240. I don't know if it comes with the knobs for them. The throttle cable is special not only in the end lead but also in the slip washer that fits onto the top of the accelerator pedal, as that is how it works, it pulls on the top of the pedal linkage. Since the automatic accelerator pedal has a flat tab welded midway up the upper part of the metal rod (for the kickdown switch), and every one of the auto pedals I found had that tab, I also discovered that NONE of them had the clip at the top for the throttle clip. I ended up fashioning a metal tab for the kick down switch on a manual accelerator pedal. As far as I know, the throttle cable was discontinued in the U.S. market sometime in either late 70 or early 71. The automatic cars didn't start arriving in the U.S. until mid to late 71, hence, there wouldn't be ANY automatics with the hand throttle. I added it to my car because I didn't want to replace my console and I did not want a hole in my console where the hand throttle lever goes. So, I do have a non-stock customization. Hope this helps. Enrique

The Air Nozzle Siphon Gun I bought at Harbor Freight came with a 6' hose, clear pvc, probably 3/8". The POR flows well through it, it's the lacquer thinner afterwards that literally dissolved it. The nice thing about that nozzle was that it was exbremely compact and light. If you can get your index finger into the hole you can get this nozzle. Now it won't bend, so you need to splatter in order to catch the opposite side to whatever wall you are splashing. Then again, you could just spray and splash as best as you can and hope for the best. 2¢ Enrique

The tool box lids for the tool boxes IN the rear deck are metal. They also have a 90° twist locking lift handle. The tool box lids for the ones in FRONT of the rear deck (and behind the seats) are plastic. The lids have a full width hinge that screws to the floor, and the knob at the other side screws (if I remember right) onto the captive nut on the brackets on the vertical wall. Having both tool boxes would definitely be unusual. You have TWO indents for switches on the dash? Then you must not have the 4-way Hazard Flasher Lights on your car. That's odd, as the wiring is built in to the wiring harness. What about the Hand Throttle? The console you have is the only one that I recall that had the provision for it. As Spock would say: "Fascinating." Enrique

I've tried dozens of products over the years to use on old black bumper rubber. The ONLY product that I found that would stop that chalking, was Clear Guard by Turtle Wax. Unfortunately, they no longer manufacture it. Sadly, this was also the best vinyl dash protectant. The problem with it, was that it did NOT require you to put a coat on EVERY week. My dash on my Acura has been 4-5 months since I applied it and it still looks good. No doubt they took it off the market due to it's long durability. The only other method I've found, is to get a heavy duty scrub brush and scrub the heck out of them, then apply the best vinyl and rubber protectant you can find. You'll have to try various before you discover the one that won't make them shine and will also slow down the decomposition of the rubber. The cause of this is that rubber tends to decompose after time, and even more so when exposed to the sun. Add to that that the rubber isn't being flexed, and that accelerates it even more. HTH Enrique

Mark, Unfortunately, today's "bodyshop" should be renamed as a Fender Replacement shop. Sadly, the type of bodywork that a restoration requires, is the very time consuming and hard to get paid for metal working. Where it can take you up to several hours or days to properly fix a front fender, you can usually replace it in less than an hour. Because of the replacement we expect to pay more, but we aren't willing to pay the same amount for the repair, even though the labor and materials add up to about the same. So, you can either learn how to do it yourself, or dig up the $ to offer a bit more to have the job done faster. 2¢

Having restored a few vehicles, in my opinion, EXCEPT for the critical body requirements that you MUST do in order to have a sound chassis and body to work with, you should ALWAYS do the mechanical first. Sorry Carl, not trying to dump on you, but I've already seen one of my restorations go to the dump because the owner decided to "soup up" the engine AFTER the body was custom painted, and he literally tore up the paint on the fenders. Then he crashed it when he was testing the new blown up engine. I've been advising this to my customers and friends for years. If your shell / chassis is sound, then by all means ensure that the car will operate, operate safely, and that any disassembly required to ensure it's mechanically sound is DONE before you start on a $2,500 to 8,000 plus paint job. While there are items that are ~mechanical~ that you won't address until AFTER the paint job, while you are reassembling it. There are so many things that must / should be checked out BEFORE you start any bodywork. I won't get into the individuals, you can guess what they are (Brakes, Suspension, Steering) but they are all safety of driving items. The paint job is nothing but the final touches on a well maintained car. Just my 2¢ Enrique

At the risk of sounding completely obtuse or maybe I'm not getting it, but this is your PARTS car shell that you are going to be getting rid of, right? Meaning that you're not going to undertake this as a restoration. As much as I hate to see a good Z going to the highway in the sky, I think that the amount of welding, prepping etc that this shell requires would make it ludicrously expensive when you compare buying a shell out of California or Arizona. Just my 2¢

If your bodyman isn't experienced enough to straighten out the metal with plain old hammer and dolly and possibly a torch to heat shrink and temper the steel, then I would have serious doubts as to the rest of the job. That's just my opinion, but then again, there are so many "bodymen" out there that don't know the difference between a dolly and a pick due to the unaffordability of REAL bodywork. Nowdays, it's cut, weld in new panel, bondo, primer and paint. Unfortunately, it really leaves it to your imagination when you cannot find replacement panels. Yes, cutting out, and replacing is a viable option. If your current valance is cracked, torn, heavily crinkled and coated over with bondo, then definitely, save yourself a LOT of aggravation and just buy a new one. If you feel that by reworking the old you'll save money, then go for it, but remember to value the TIME it takes to do so. By the way, that rear end has GOT to have some serious Bondo or Fibreglass on that valance OR it is a completely new piece of sheetmetal from one side to the other. 2¢ Enrique

You have a 71 with a manufacture date prior to ~7/71 or thereabouts. Your car has the brackets to accept the plastic tool cover latches. From that, you probably do NOT have the toolboxes in the rear deck. (Just slightly aft of the vertical panel that these brackets are on.) Additionally, you may / may not have the vents in the hatch instead of on the C-pillars. You have a "Transition" car. Welcome to the club. You'll find that you need to time stamp every feature of your car. In your console, is the ashtray / lighter combo in FRONT of the Shifter? Yes? Series One. If the ashtray has been moved aft, to behind the shifter, Series II. Dash have an indent shaped like a sideways Datsun logo? That's a Series II. That indent was for the "On-Off" label that they put on the bayonet switches in case we couldn't figure it out. (And believe me, there were a LOT of people who didn't get it.) If the dash does NOT have the indent, then, if the cigar lighter hole above the Hazard Switch has NOT been cut-out, then you have an EARLY Series One. The Later Series One has the cutout sometimes installed with a SECOND lighter in that position. Don't ask me why and maybe the 3-4 cars I saw like that were ONE dealer's mis-begotten children, but there were TWO lighters in those cars. Look at your coat hangers. Round Chrome Knobs? Series One. Plastic Hook thingies? Series Two. You can still find those plastic tool box covers. FWIW Enrique

Although this has the flavor of an Urban Legend it is a true story. Granted the specific woman and the specific man are probably unidentifiable, but the truth of the story is correct. If you have doubts, it's because you've never had a car hydroplane on you. If you have had a car hydroplane on you, then you know that the sudden lurch of the tires breaking loose and then starting to spin faster (for the rears) or being able to feel the front wheels suddenly go directionless. Most cruise controls work either by determining the rate of vacuum draw from the engine and clamping the accelerator rod at that point, or they have a sensor that determines a given rotational speed and maintains it. From what I know, the first type is the one specifically addressed by this warning. The second type, again from what I've read and heard is not affected by it. For those of you who may wonder why this happens: When you're traveling at a given speed, there is a set amount of resistance to the car's maintaining that speed. That resistance is what the motor has to meet in order to maintain that speed. Water under the tires allows them to spin freely, and now without the resistance of the road to them, the motor in trying to maintain the same amount of vacuum to the intake gives the engine more gas. FWIW

If the RIGHT hand side ones's are available, I would be interested in one as my lens cracked when I was installing mine. Let me know. Enrique

When you do get them, and are ready to install, take a close look at the receiver from the side. You'll note that the flange on the entry side of the tub is at an angle to the body of the receiver. The SHORT side or the lower side of the angle goes towards the windshield and mates to the angle of the sheet metal. 2¢ Enrique

Your plan to replace the inner workings of a ZX tach into the body of the original tach would work IF you make sure that the wiring going to the tach from the coil is corrected. The early 240 tach used a loop of wire going through the resistor and the coil. When you replaced the dizzy with the ZX one, did you remove the resistor? What did you do to the wiring? That's important. That your tach is maxing out and then zeroing tells me that you're hooked up to the resistor side of the wiring, but that there may be a problem inside the tach. I have a 240 with the original tach and the ZX dizzy and I've gotten it to work, so it IS possible. Post back so we can help you troubleshoot it. Enrique

Check the Fresh Air Vent connection to the Heater Intake Flapper Valve. That's the box BEHIND the blower motor which is bolted to the firewall. The connection to the "chimney" is actually Pllumber's Putty. This stuff takes eons to get hard, but can and will get hard and then fall off. Also check the complete bottom of the cowl pan as well as the drain hoses. 2¢

Fast reply: Off the top of my head, the typical flasher unit is simply a resistance spring in line with the circuit. When it heats up, as it is designed to do, it expands such that it springs away from the contact, and then cools down while the circuit is broken. Once it cools off, it re-closes and heats up again. So, I don't think you need to worry about polarity. Just plug it in, check it and if the rate of blink is not to your satisfaction, try reversing the leads. 2¢

In the area where the electric antena sits, take a look at the "floor" there, there is the drainage hole for the antenna, and another plain drain hole. Check to make sure those are in place. You don't mention if your car has a rear spoiler or not, but depending on which one you have (if you do) it will distinctly change the aerodynamics of the car and cause some of the problems you are mentioning. (That's why Datsun was puting some of those spoilers on the car as well.) How about the drainage holes in the spare tire well? Your sheet metal around the back of the rear tires, is it undamaged and the seal on the seams intact? Are you sure the exhaust fumes are coming from the outlet of the muffler and not due to a leak in the system tubing leading to the muffler? Just my 2¢ Enrique

Heck if you can get webbing at an upholstery shop that looks good or close, you CAN remove the buckle on both ends of the belt and have it replaced. 2¢

In the picture showing the location of the left hand cables, you'll see another pair of cables. Those are for the choke levers on the carburators. Take special note of the LOCATION of those cables as being OVER and INSIDE the heater cable. This may seem obvious, but there is very little tolerance for bent or curved choke cables and if you're not careful you'll snap your choke lever handle. 2¢ Enrique

Mike: It isn't the distance, what is it about 70 miles from Vancouver, it's the time of the day and week. You've seen traffic through Portland after 3pm, it gets packed and if you leave for Salem at 3pm you'll be 1 to 1.5 hours just getting THROUGH town before you can hit highway speeds again for another hour. Then there's the return leg later at night with work the next day. So, a total of at least 3.5 hours of driving (figuring 45 mins accross Portland and an hour there times two). That's what Gary and I have discussed as being a bit much. 2¢

I have my 2¢ for you, hopefully before you do try to remove from the vynil. Why are you so intent on removing the adhesive from the VINYL? In my experience over various cars, if you are planning on re-using any of the pieces that came with the car, you have to consider what the cleanup or repair might do to it. With vinyl you need to check to make sure that it isn't weather or sun baked to the point where removing it will cause it to disintegrate. If it isn't, and generally MOST vinyl that I've worked with unless it's really been baked you can generally work with it. An exception to this, however, is the CLOTH BACKING of the vinyl. And actually to the adhesive that bonds it to tne vinyl. In my experience, older vinyls didn't have the cloth firmly embedded in the actual vinyl plastic, only slightly imbeded and mostly glued with adhesive. This adhesive is the problem. It DOES break down with age and moisture. If you pull on it, you stand a GOOD chance of having it pull out from the vinyl back. That you definitely DON'T want. But if you get an adhesive remover on it, there is an even BETTER chance of removing the backing simply cause you unglued it., now your vinyl is susceptible to stretch, crack and lift off the backing. If you are removing the adhesive from the vinyl because it has chunks of paint or rust or dirt or lumps from a prior adhesive, then work on those areas. I wouldn't concentrate on getting every bit of adhesive off as I think you would find the work fruitless and pointless. You will be re-shooting that with new and fresh adhesive so the WORST that can happen is that you will activate the old adhesive. Thefinitely remove as much as you can off the metal. THAT is what you want smooth in laying down the vinyl. Another point, if the pieces are that sticky, get a roll of Vis-Queen, which is basically poly plastic sheet about 6 mils (.06 inch U.S) lay out a section large enough for the piece, lay it down and then roll the vinyl with plastic backing up in to a roll if the shape permits. Lastly, when you clean your vinyl, here's a suggestion for you: First lay it out, and HOSE it off. You won't hurt it and water has the magical ability to remove a ton of crud you wouldn't believe. Then using a semi-soft brush and some dishwashing or degreasing cleanser go over the face of it. NOW you can treat the vinyl for preservation. You might even find that some of the clumps of adhesive that you were worried about come off. 2¢