I know this is a pretty mundane question but can anyone tell me when this type of fuse was last manufactured? Are they still being manufactured? These are the types of fuses in my fuse box. Sorry about the crappy picture but these fuses have a small strip of paper on the inside and it says Niles, Japan and lists the fuse amperage

When I bought the car in my avatar, I had to get a bonded title. A part of that process involved a title search here in Arizona and the last time it was registered was in 1973. As some of you know, I bought the car on Ebay from an estate sale, the car was sitting on the ground, with no wheels in a small town north of Phoenix.

With the exception of the radio, from what I can tell the car is pretty complete and what I believe to be original. I’ve been trying to get an idea of how much my car was driven and these fuses might be a clue.

An update on the car: I got it primered and blocked out but missed my time window to get the paint on because of work. I’m trying to plan on a free week where I can get it primered and painted before the weather gets too hot.

Any feedback on these fuses is appreciated, thanks folks.

Bruce

but these fuses have a small strip of paper on the inside and it says Niles, Japan and lists the fuse amperage

Hi Bruce,

Based on what you said above, I'd bet those are original fuses. Maybe Carl Beck or Chris Wenzel can chime in on that though. Carl bought his Z new and may remember what factory new fuses look like.

I personally have never seen anything but the ones we're all accustomed to seeing.

Chris A.

Some semi-random thoughts.

My late '71 had 59,500 miles on it when I bought it last fall. I am the third owner. None of the existing fuses have the paper in them. So if the paper type are original, all of mine have been replaced in the ensuing years, which seems more proactive than my car's prior owners typically were. Not that they ignored things that were necessary, they didn't - if it needed something it got it. But if something wasn't broke, it stayed. For example, they never replaced the original dated plug wires or cloth-covered hoses in all those years. (I'm not complaining, that attitude really helped maintain the originality of the car.) So replacing every fuse (including the hidden ones for the blower, defroster and radio) at some point seems out of character for them. But it could certainly have been done.

But on a related note, many of my fuses also have different constructiion than those that are available today. Mine look like modern fuses, but the metal end caps are visibly soldered on. The flat ends are soft solder, not smooth steel like the modern ones. Not sure when that method was used. But I've had one fuse failure because of the soldered ends - the blower fuse was very intermittant. I found that the soft solder ends had dimples worn in them from the spring loaded terminals in the fuse holder. A new fuse fixed the issue. But that fact that the ends were visibly worn leads me to think that soldered fuse had been in there for a LONG time.

An additional thought - the paper having the country of origin maked seems a bit odd to me for 1970. I don't think that marking was common then.

Niles made many of the electrical components on the Z'z----flashers, bulbs, sockets, relays, etc. and probably made fuses as well---

I have one fuse from the fusebox of my 7/70 with the inscription on the strip of paper inside the fuse that reads:

20A PEACE

JAPAN

In front of the word PEACE is a lightning bolt

(The word Japan is under the word Peace----I couldn't get this spacing to come out right on this post)

I would speculate that there was a PEACE Electronics Company in Japan that made them. They are constructed just as Arne described with the soft solder filled end caps .

I though quietly to myself "What a great name for a company!" :classic:

Jim D.

Zup"

ps If I can get a decent picture of it I'll post it up. FWIW

This is a fuse block I bought I think in the late '80's for a '72. With this, I don't think what you have is original.

new fuse box