Parcel band assembly (96850-E4100) Straps on the rear deck.

Has anyone refurshed these? Parts of mine are rusted the nylon webbing is somewhat faded.

Bryan,

I suppose I should advise the purists to look away from their screens now. This is what I did...source some 1 1/2" black backpack strap material from an outdoor place (Maybe REI in the U.S. or MEC in Canada). I also purchased a small tin of Tremclad Aluminum paint (spray or brush). Take pictures of the originals and then cut the adjustment and attachment hardware off. Refinish the hardware (6 pieces plus 8 screws). Take your pack strap material and mounting hardware into a shoe repair shop along with the original strapping and have them sew the mounting hardware on using the stitching pattern from the originals. Bring 'em home and slide on your length adjusting hardware and reattach. Unfortunately my car is a couple of thousand miles away from me or I would send pictures too. Hope this helps. Don't tell the judges at the concours!!

It would seam (sewing joke, sorry) that one must have a sewing machine involved to do this properly. P240's ideas are sound and produce an excellent result. I've seen it.

There is another approach. It involves a two prong approach. The first, to re-finish the hardware, involves first sand blasting the metal, to remove all corrosion (harmless to the webbing if done gently), then painting them. You have to pry the black material away the metal bits and mask and spray in there where you can't see, likely in stages.

Stage two is to mask off the metal bits and SEM Black Vinyl dye the webbing black again. That stuff is rated for rug, leather, vinyl plastic, whatever. If you have to, wash and rince (and dry) the webbing first especially if you sand blasted.

Now crazy people (reads any serious Z restorer), in an effort to use original materials, would laboriously remove the stitching by hand from the webbing, remove and re-plate the hardware, re-dye the webbing, then have it all sewn back together again by hand through the same needle holes used in the original stitching. The only trick here is finding the correct native cotton plants from Japan used to produce the cotton stitching thread, and the black indigo dyes, to do this right...

Now where is that tongue-in-cheek icon when you need it....

Edited June 10, 201311 yr by zKars

I was fortunate that my hardware was is good shape but the straps were faded. A bottle of RIT fabric dye in a bucket of water took care of the color issue.

zKars,

Tongue-in-cheek??!!? I am off to find correct native cotton plants from Japan...

I have seen webbing for sale in auto parts stores but it is too wide to fit through the hardware hold points.

Persimmon240,

How did you get the 1 1/2" strap to work with the less than 3/4" slot in the mounting hardware for the straps?

Mike

Mike,

Well I must have a really rare "edition" of parcel straps as the (believed to be stock) ones I worked on from my car had darn close to 1 1/2" straps and the slots in the mounting hardware were almost 1" wide. I believe the correct expression for fitting 1 1/2" of material into a 1" opening is called, to use a sewing term, "gathering".

Just an addendum... the pack strap material I used is very thin - just like the stock parcel strap material. Not sure, but the automotive type store might be selling tie down, tow strap or even seat belt material. It's waaay too thick for this application.

You might try a sewing, crafts or on-line store instead. Can't help with the Japanese cotton thread either.

Edited June 10, 201311 yr by Persimmon240

Persimmon240

Thanks for the info. I hadn't thought of the straps being too thick I will have to watch that when I am looking for a suitable replacement. I made a rash assumption all cars used the same width parcel strap since both cars I have had used (one in the past, one now) the less than 3/4 inch width kind.

Mike

Mike,

Cripes, it looks like we are going to have to start a "how wide are the slots in your parcel strap mounting hardware" thread. Perhaps yet another subtle but significant change in the 240Z lineage. I have a late Series I model, what about you?

Anyone else care to chime in on this question? Perhaps a poll is appropriate asking "How wide are your straps?" broken down by date of manufacture. Maybe there are some sexy strapless numbers out there?

Now where is that tongue-in-cheek icon when you need it...?

1.5" strap in a 1.5" opening on my 1973 240z. :cheeky:

Captain,

Interesting, so the later cars had the same size straps (as the late Series I) but ~1/2" larger slots in the mounting hardware.

I'm beginning to feel a Noble (or is that NoBull?) Piece Prize coming on here!!

Hi Bryan,

This is a pretty straight forward project if you have a little time.

After removing the belts from your Z, start by removing the rust and corrosion. Then polish the metal parts (Eastwood had a great kit). Once you have then looking new again, seal the metal from oxidation with SHARKHIDE. Finally, scrub the belt webbing using a mild detergent and rinse well. If the belts are faded, do as Jim has already suggested and dye them accordingly.

Thanks for all the input. I even thought of having the metal components bead-blasted and powder coated. Put new nylon on, cause the old stuff is 40+ years old. I know it's probably still got lots of strength left, and hardly ever used. I'll mull over all the ideas, thanks.