1st gen seats

[hls30.com]

You must have a very early 1970 to have those seats guards. What is your VIN #? I think you will find that these seat guards are unobtainable, since they were on so few cars and were damaged fairly easily and discarded. We need someone to make good reproductions of a set, but the market would be so small that it would be difficult for someone to take that project on. I think Will (hls30.com) has talked about trying to make some, but he needs a set to make a mold from. I know I would be in for several sets if that ever happens.

-Mike

Yup! I am hoping to beg, borrow, temporarily appropriate at least one for use as a model. I have pictures and some measurements from Kats, but in making a truly faithful reproduction, nothing beat having an example to pattern from and to. If anyone has an example or set I can borrow, I'll send you a set of reproductions with the return of your originals, and put that project ahead of all others to make the turnaround fast.

Will

[zed2]

William,

I have a driver's side I would be willing to loan out. Do you have any experience manufacturing plastic trim? How long would you need my part?

Thanks,

Keith

[JonnyRock]

and I'd be willing to lend you my passenger side. how serious are you about this?

-jon

[bpilati]

Yes! I am aware of the plastic seat cusion guards. Kats has the only car I have seen with them installed. I am a little seat impaired at the moment. I need whole seats as well as seat parts, but seats are way down on my list of appropriations as I focus on the body shell and suspension. I need to get a rolling chassis before I can think about sitting in it!

Here is where I am headed, though. Original seats had metal vent grommets (4) in the seat back lumbar area. You can almost see one of them in the picture. They get very hot in the florida sun - believe me. My ex-wife has one of those cute lumbar tatoos from them.

What plastic seat cushion guards, you mean the clear ones between vinyl and hardware? I have those on my seats.

[Arne]

What plastic seat cushion guards, you mean the clear ones between vinyl and hardware? I have those on my seats.

No, look at the pictures in post 33, Bryan. Only the very earliest cars came with these, neither your car nor any of mine are old enough to have come with what these guys are talking about.

[d240zx2]

I've both passenger and driver side units. The driver's side is cracked, but the passenger side is whole.

Regards,

[JonnyRock]

Well hopefully we'll get together to get these replicated and you can get a new one for the drivers seat Frank.

BTW, I'm amazed that you bought back the same car 30 years later. Did you sell it to someone you knew?

[bpilati]

Oh I see. I have guard envy.

[d240zx2]

JonnyRock...yes, I did. He was about my age, too, which makes it nice. He really treasured the car for 30 years. Only saw one wet road during that time. Garaged constantly.

I had the opportunity to give him a couple of parade laps at a track day event two weeks ago. He commented that this was only the second time he'd ever ridden in the right seat, and the first time, I was driving, too. If you want to read more, see the category just above "Misc." and look for a subject called "First Z and Last". The whole scene is laid out there.

Update: See "Z stories" category

Regards,

[hls30.com]

Some how I managed to miss the questions. Thanks To MikeB for pointing that out to me this morning.

I have several years of molding experience as a hobbiest. I have done a healthy number of lost wax castings, green sand castings, ceramic, and even a few styrofoam castings. I have made over 40 molds of small plastic parts, and simply not found a suitable material to cast them with-if they can't survive the South Ga. sun, without chalking or deforming I haven't considered the material to be the right one. Having said that, I have found what I believe to be the "right" material, and am waiting on a delivery of it early next week.

The materials I use to make molds leave no trace, residue, and unless there is damage in shipment. When you get your part back, you will not be able to tell anything (except maybe a good cleaning) was done to it-unless it was a damaged example. and you want it repaired in the process.

I am planning a marathon mold making effort starting Monday(12/16/07) and hope to get most if not all of my plastic parts cleaned, repaired-if necessary-and take a mold from them. In addition I am hoping to make several molds for the metal parts I have been holding. I am going to spend the majority of the week on this.

I am also in negotiation for having an overseas company cast several of the metal parts from the molds I am making. Many of you know the story on the first round of having the headlight covers made, the molds were the problem. If I make and prove them by casting a single example locally(EXPENSIVE), then I can ship them overseas and have them cast in the same material for unbelievably less, and have part of them made in Ohio, they could be available soon!

Will

Will

PS,

I will be showing off the results at the end of the week, in a thread, and hopefully in a video.

[katcarl1]

i am looking for 1st gen seats color blue thank you carl h havertown,pa

[hls30.com]

I forgot to address the question on the length of time I would need the parts-no more than one week-This is not nearly as intensive as copying manuals, and then verifying them and correcting issues.

My process is as follows.

1) Evaluate the original item to be reproduced

2) Clean the original

3) Repair Original if the owner wants it repaired-then start again with #1

3A) If the owner didn't want the original repaired, make a mold of the part as is...

3B) Cast a copy of the damaged original and repair the copy and start again with #1

4) Bed up the part and make a one, two, three or four part mold-depending entirely on the relief in the part. Most parts require a two part mold, larger parts(a console, large trim panel) are much easier to de-mold in multi part molds.

The mold material I use sets up in 24 hours, so there is one full day in making and demolding a single part mold, add another day for each additional part required to complete the mold.

5) When the mold is complete and the original de-molded, I verify the success of the mold by casting two or three parts in a quick cure material to make 100% certian there are no issues with the mold-this takes a couple/three hours.

6) If there are issues with the mold, I start again, if not, box up the original part and return it to its owner-along with a pair of reproductions!

It all boils down to it takes from two days to a week to make and verify a mold, but several can be made at the same time by bedding several parts requiring the same type of molds together...

WIll