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I'm in the midst of 'restoring' the license (licence?) plate light assembly for my 70 Z. For those familiar with these units, you'll know that many are heat-damaged so that both the outer shell (black plastic) and the inner base plate (white plastic) sag and no longer seal well, esp. along the top seam and despite the rubber gasket. The illumination is, of course, provided by two #89 bulbs. These apparently generate enough heat during long periods of lights-on driving to cause the plastic pieces to soften and deform. The housing assembly is 98% sealed (there are four small, open drain holes on the bottom surface of the outer shell) to keep out water, with the reverse effect that it seals in the heat. I have a couple of questions for anyone who's tried to remedy the situation: Clipped inside the black outer shell are two zinc-plated, stamped-metal insert plates. They fit over the clear-plastic 'lens' surfaces on the left and right side of the shell, such that they block the center 70% of the lens, leaving only the sides of each lens (and a little centre slit) open to light passage. Some say that these metal inserts are to keep heat away from the clear-plastic lens, but I find this hard to believe. Metal is a pretty good heat conductor and these things sit right on top of the clear-plastic lens surface, so how they act as heat protection is beyond me. My guess is that they're actually installed as 'shades' because -- for some markets - Nissan decide that the fully-open clear-plastic lenses allowed too much illumination onto the license plate. I'm wondering if they're possibly responsible for the excessive heat build-up inside the housing. Anybody know the real reason for these metal inserts being installed? Were they also found in Euro-market or Japan-market Z's? Given the heat build-up issue, the license plate light assy seems like a perfect place for substituting LED's for the OE incandescent bulbs. Has anyone tried this? Is it a plug-and-play solution, or do the bulb sockets and connections need to be modified? Where were the LED's sourced from? There's been debate in the past over the correct colour for the 'black' outer shell. Some say that this piece was painted by the factory so that it has the same 'anthracite' grey colour as the taillight finisher panels. I believe that a photo of a MIB unit was produced to support this idea. Paint overspray on the white base piece was pointed to as proof of the spray-painted final finish treatment. I've checked some pictures of a bone-stock '70 that was recently listed for sale and it, too, shows the license plate light's housing to be the same colour as the taillight finisher panels. There's just one problem. I have three of these light assemblies (one from a '70, two from '72's) and in all cases the outer shell is unpainted and matte black in colour/texture. There's not a trace of paint on the outer shells. They haven't been sanded, because the matte surface texture is molded in. There is paint on the white base plates, but it's flat black, not grey, and it doesn't seem to have been applied with any purpose in mind -- partial surface coverage, and not very good at that (which makes me wonder why the supplier that produced these pieces for Nissan had somebody randomly waving a spray gun at them loaded with flat black paint). So: Were the outer shells painted. Or not? Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on these questions!
