Hi everyone,

 

drowning in various NOS engine back breather, heater, and coolant hoses here that seem to have the colour from the cotton weave faded to a dull black or grey colour.  I have now seen them in both finishes, and was wondering what is more "correct" as per Datsun.

 

Is it January, 1970 "period correct" to dye these hoses so that they become black again, whilst repainting any markings or insignias back onto the hoses? I've done the hose dying countless times and it always comes out amazing.

 

so all I'm wondering is if it's "OE" to bring it back to black, or did they come "grey-ish" from factory. 

 

Thanks.

 

Raff

Over the years all of the original Nissan fabric braided hoses I have seen look to me more greyish in color than black. Lighting conditions make quite a difference in the shade of grey in my opinion. The outer cross hatched fabric strands look to me like a lighter grey than the under laying fabric, but this could just be the way they reflect light. If you do proceed with dying hoses I would be in interested in seeing the results.

This picture is of a new unused hose taken outside in direct sunlight.

I have that very hose with me here. I never took pics of the last time I did the same job, but it comes out BLACK. like a brand new woven hose, almost like the nylon woven ones. I wonder if I should try it with a diluted solution. Some hoses look way too grey all over, and they're brand new!

Unfortunately, due to the automatic exposure function in most cameras, having black turn gray or vice versa is a common exposure error. Also, the texture of the surface tends to make things look grayer as light is refracted over the surface.  

 

Even if you get the exposure correct, the displaying/printing software often adjusts exposure as well.

 

From memory, braided hoses look to be about the same color as the tail light finisher panels.

djwarner, i have actual NOS hoses here that are faded way passed the tail light finisher panel colour, and some that are closer to the colour you mentioned. I was just wondering if they were black at some point way back in time...

 I'm going by memory here, When I got my 1st Z, a long time ago, I bought a couple of braided hoses from Nissan & I remember thinking at the time, the color was more of a dark charcoal color or a very dark gray, almost black. Judging the color is difficult because the hose doesn't reflect much light. I have seen a few rat-rod paint jobs in very flat black that could compare to the color of the hoses. You could say the color is black, but it comes across as a very dark charcoal. I also remember how fast they started to fade.

 Hope this feeble bit of info helps.

I purchased a new OEM pcv hose from Nissan and it was a lighter color that what I thought it should be, so I just hit it with some flat black paint to darken it to match the other hoses.  On some hoses that were NLA, I removed the fraying threads and remainder of all braiding and also painted flat black, the braiding impressions are still in the hose. 

 

There is a thread with another fix, it is titled 'Old Hose'.  Can't get the URL to copy-paste. 

 

Bonzi Lon