rtaylor

That's what I though too Arne. However, there was a piece of black electrical tape that the PO put on the inside of the lip of the wheel to help the tangs not to slip on the hubcap. When I pealed that tape off, which was put on in 1972, the black paint looked like it had a gloss finish. Could be just some of the sticky stuff from the tape making it appear as if it were gloss.

This weekend I had some time on my hands, so I refinished all 5 of my D hubcaps. I used Mother's chrome polish on the Chrome. I used SEM Landau Black on the D inserts. I taped the actual chrome D and then used an exacto knife to trim the tape. I used Duplicolor wheel paint. First time I tried the green 3m tape. I like it, much better than the blue painters tape. Although you can't see, there are some minor surface scratches on the outer chrome, but I think they came out great. I only attached a picture of one of the hubcaps. I have three big tab and two small tab hubcaps. Nice to have one spare. This weekend I tackle refinishing the steel wheels. What's the consensus on the paint color of the outer rim face, gloss black? That's what it looks like to me.

How about Vibrasonic for you audiophiles...with a light bar mounted below it.

Gary. I have a good spare that I took from my car. Send me a PM and I'll mail it to you.

And a late 71/72 radio.

I think you are on to something Sailor Bob

As I posted in another thread, I had a new custom hatch strut built using the old hatch bracket and the body L bracket by LS Technolgies in Canada. The strut cost me $88, plus shipping. (306) 683-5000 Steve Fenner is the fellow's name. So here's some pictures. The first picture shows 3 struts. The top strut is the Rock Auto GM Replacement strut. Second is the LS Tech Strut. Third is an original strut. The movable shaft is just about the same width and length as the original. The GM Strut shaft is thinner. The LS Strut has a bolt coming out the back end of the strut. What they did was remove the L bracket, center drill it and attach it to the new strut via a nylon nut. Attached is a close up of the L bracket. Both the Rockauto and LS Tech struts lift the hatch, the GM strut has a taste more lift though. The Rock Auto strut does not use either of the strut brackets. It threads into one hole in the hatch and the other end slips through the body bracket and attaches with a nut a seen in the photo. Hope this helps somebody.

Sorry for the delay in a picture. Just got my camera back from repair. Here is a picture of the repaired faceplate. The broken piece ran down the antenna slot, it was snapped off there. Almost identical to the break in your's Randy, but yours is on the left side where mine was on the right side. Also, both bottom corners were broken off and the embossed paint was worn off. As you can see, the repair is almost invisbile. The corners look like new. Saved me $400+ to buy a new radio.

Hi all. I removed the dealer installed am-fm radio from my car. It was a Bowman radio that had a special metal plate the mirrored the size of the original am radio faceplate. It also had a hole for the electric antenna cut in it. I have attached a picture for those interested.

Hy Steve, Your car looks great. The color goes perfectly with the fall leaves.

Well Mountain Dude, if he does find one to his liking and something happens to the car mechanically, I am just up the hill about 5 minutes away from CalPoly in Pomona and could lend a hand.

A 78 280z does not qualify for smog exemption in California. The car will need to pass a smog check. Hopefully the car he desires has the smog control equipment on it. Otherwise, you will have to obtain a smog pump and other parts to install on the motor for it to pass smog. It doesn't have to be a California car, but must pass smog.

I don't know about the new strut on ebay. But as I mentioned earlier, I bought one from Rock Auto that worked for around $25. But I just wasn't satisfied with an aftermarket strut that did not have the original brackets. So I looked around on the net and found a place named LS Technologies out of Saskatoon. I spoke with a guy named Steve Fenner who owns the place. They rebuild, regas old struts. He told me to send him my old original 240 strut (keep in mind that the Z cars that have two struts have different pressure in those struts than the 240Z struts) and he would build a new strut using the old brackets. This appealed to me as I want to keep my car as original as possible. It took one day for him to do the work and then return the rebuilt unit to me. The replacement strut has a little thicker body and a little thicker ram. Both the original hatch bracket and original body bracket were reattached to the new strut. It is a dual action gas charged strut, which Steve explained is different technology then struts had 35 years ago. It works perfect. I wanted to wait until I had pictures to post to this thread, but I figured I can do that later. I bought a decharged strut on ebay last week so I could lay them out for you all to see side by side, but it has not arrived yet As soon as it does, I will take the flicks and post to this thread. Then the strut is going up to Steve so he has one already in stock in case anyone needs to have done what I had done. The down side you ask? Postage. Saskatoon is in SK Canada, so it was about $50US there and back. Good for all of our Canadian members, bad for us yanks.

And no splits in the leather seats!!!

I second Stephens rx. I took my Z there at Stephens advice. Elvin rebuilt my motor, put in a new clutch and installed my struts. First class work, but not inexpensive. However he is reasonable. As always, when you need someone that works exclusively on a marque, that person's knowledge costs more, But I have found that you get what you pay for. Z car speciality is not too far from you in Covina.

Rick that is the truth. Happened out in the boondocks. They corned the suspect, he went wild and started to drive his vehicle into the police cars. Suicide by police. And they caight another one trying to start a fire up by a town called Hesperia. Someoned called in, a police helicopter tracked a dude on a motorcycle and then arrested him for attempted arson. Some sick ones out there.

David. The fires are far, far away from Pomona. No need to worry. I work in Newport Beach and could see the flames licking at the anaheim hills down here on my drive in this morning. The toll roads are closed due to the fires as well.

I flew in to Ontario from Oakland last night around 10:30 pm. The sight of all the fires raging from that view in the dark was horrifying...We need some water

I follow Arne's lead with this one. I like the stock look, however I did give way to yellow Taylor (kind of partial to the brand name) wires.

Prestone sells a flush kit. You can connect it to either the heater inlet or outlet hose. If you do not want to cut your existant hose, buy a short piece of rubber from an auto parts store and T it in. The kit consists of two hose clamps and a plastic capped T with a hose bib connector on it. Splice it in, hook up the hose, open the drain **** and let er rip. You can also use the radiator flush solution that comes in the kit. To use that, you empty it into the raditor, let the engine warm up, and then drain by taking the cap of the T and hooking up the hose. This may help.

Home now. The spray product I used was Eagle One Chrome and Wire Cleaner in a blue spray bottle.

You would be surprized at what polishing compound and one of the Mothers Power balls will do. Look at my wheel. I had a lot of crud inside the spokes. I used some wire wheel cleaner, being careful to only spray inside the spokes. (I can't remember which brand but will look when I get home tonight)I left that on for less than a minute then hosed it off. The reason to be careful when spraying the wire wheel cleaner in the spokes and not on the flats is that it will take the shine off the alloy likety split. Even being careful I lost some of the polish and it required extra work on those areas. My spokes came clean and looked as good (well, almost as good) as the first day they were installed 36 years ago. Then I used the power ball and polish. After the power ball, I used a little elbow polish, about five minutes per wheel. Your wheel looks like it could benefit from this process. And take the wheels off of the car to do this.

Nice find. Clean car. Someone gave it some love. I like the wheels and the blue plates. Keep 'em. It is almost impossible to get them reassigned to the car in CA once removed. It took me almost two years of a fight with DMV to get mine reassigned.

Sorry Carl. When you say, they left the tops on when shipped, were they laid up in place? Then, sometime therafter you say that they left them off but shipped them. Does this mean that it was left up to the dealers to install the top part, or not, as they saw fit? Just curious. I haven't seen any spooks with a top duct for a Z. But then again, I have only been around here for two years. Thanks.

That confuses me Carl. Mine car has a 2-72 build date and the spook was installed by the dealer at that time. It does not have the upper piece of the trough.