1973 Rebuild

[Matthew Abate]

Thanks!

Just seeing where the pipes go through the firewall totally changed my perspective on this. I’m thinking I will be making my own SS lines that mimic the routing of the copper one, but I may to that on the interior as well. I might also to it with the heater lines inside the cabin to allow for tighter cornering around the Vintage Air evaporator.

[Matthew Abate]

Making some progress:

Reconditioned my 280ZX AC Bracket

Reconditioned the Storage Box Latches

 

Installed Most of the Interior Insulation

 

Reconditioned the Fuel Flow / Fume Control Valve

Reconditioned the Steering Coupler

 

Reconditioned and Repaired the Quarter Windows

 

Made a Brake Booster Gasket & Installed the Clutch Master Cylinder

Edited September 24, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Patcon]

What material for the booster gasket?

What did you use on the Zx bracket? Paint?

Details on the quarter windows please

[Matthew Abate]

On 9/23/2022 at 10:50 PM, Patcon said:

What material for the booster gasket?

What did you use on the Zx bracket? Paint?

Details on the quarter windows please

I bought a 12x12 sheet of closed cell silicone from Amazon that is the same thickness as the 240z gasket. I ended up changing the hole size on that from the sample and making about eight paper templates before deciding on a final one. An X-acto knife goes through that silicone like butter.
 

The ZX bracket was sandblasted and I used the same blue paint I used on the block, which I purchased from Motorsport. The silver paint is Eastwood Alumablast. I used a Timken 6203-2RS deep groove bearing (17x40x12mm). I have painted all of my aluminum parts in the engine bay. I have learned that radiator fluid additives can completely ruin the finish on nice aluminum parts so the only things I leave raw in the engine bay are brass and stainless steel.

 

For the quarter windows, I used Goo Gone to get them cleaned after taking them apart. The rubber is all new from Precision (not very precise, if you ask me). I polished the steel with Barkeeper’s Friend and then stainless steel polish. It has a faint brushed finish rather than a mirror finish, but that’s intentional.

The broken joints in the frame were glued with JB weld and clamped, because I didn’t feel like breaking out the welder for a single spot weld. However, the rubber, being not precise (see above), might have ruined that joint. I can’t completely tell and am not taking it apart to find out. It doesn’t matter because the car holds it together.

Weather strip is held in with black 3M weather strip adhesive and the various gaps were filled with black RTV. It looks like it’s supposed to be like that.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Made some brackets for the Vintage Air AC Evaporator:

Good clearance all around except for the corner of the cardboard glove box insert. It makes contact but it’s not right. I may be able to pull it forward when I make the third bracket. Right now the mock-up can twist longitudinally, so I definitely need to use that third hard point.

Kinda wish I had used 16 gauge instead of 22 gauge steel for the hump bracket because it’s pretty flexible. However, I think I need another bend in it so it’s not flexed. That may stiffen it a smidgen, and maybe it won’t be an issue. I’ll decide after I have the third bracket on if it needs to be redone.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Captain Obvious]

Nice work.  

[Matthew Abate]

Thanks! I wasn’t able to find many people talking about how they made the brackets that hold this thing in among the various build threads I’ve read about installing one of these. Hopefully this will help someone either finish their project earlier or figure out a better solution than I have.

The flat steel bracket material they provide is a no-go. Unless you’re putting this into a car where the mount points on the car are close to the mount points on the evaporator, it’s going to swing around all over because they are very springy.

I'm trying to create ate least one triangle for each axis. Maybe my transmission hump bracket should have been rod instead of sheet to be stiffer, but I think the last of the three will wipe out any flex.

The other benefit of going with rod over sheet in the back and on top is I’ll have WAY more space to run wires, tubes, and pipes. I made some mock-ups of various brackets for the top and they all created a huge barrier I wouldn’t be able to snake the ducting around:

Edited September 27, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Patcon]

On 9/24/2022 at 6:41 AM, Matthew Abate said:

I bought a 12x12 sheet of closed cell silicone from Amazon that is the same thickness as the 240z gasket. I ended up changing the hole size on that from the sample and making about eight paper templates before deciding on a final one. An X-acto knife goes through that silicone like butter.

Do you have a link to what you bought?

What was the thickness?

[SteveJ]

1 hour ago, Patcon said:

Do you have a link to what you bought?

What was the thickness?

I'm guessing this one: https://www.amazon.com/12X12-inch-25-Inch-Thick/dp/B07GL9MHW7

[Matthew Abate]

9 hours ago, Patcon said:

Do you have a link to what you bought?

What was the thickness?

Silicone Rubber Sheet,Heat Resistant, Heavy Duty,High Grade 60A,12 x 12 Inch, 1/16 Inch Thickness for DIY Gaskets, Pads, Seals, Crafts, Flooring,Cushioning of Anti-Vibration, Anti-Slip https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LN8MJZB?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Edited October 2, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Evaporator Bracket no. 3:

This one was a MF to get done, and I’m still not 100% happy with it. I would change a couple of things about it if I were to do it again, but I already have too much time invested and it’s doing the job well enough.

Overall, I think this series of brackets is the right approach vs using the flat bits they provide, but the geometry is ever so slightly off on all three of them due to minor differences between the real evaporator and the mock-up. don’t get me wrong, the mock-up made it way easier, but I wish I had a CNC machine so I could take the next step and make these in aluminum and tweak the angles to fix the errors.

The evaporator is a few degrees off from square on the yaw axis, which is why it was hitting the glovebox. It could also stand to move forward about 1cm and down the same amount.

Not bad for hand made and rough measurements, though.

You can see where the original bracket they provided with the mock-up evaporator was scratching the paint. The one of the actual evaporator is just as in the way, so I deleted that entirely. It is unnecessarily tall.

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Question to the group concerning valve lash pads.

My lash pad wipe pattern is off center, away from the cam, approximately 3/32 inch.

Given that the installed lash pads are 0.118-inch (3.00mm) thick and lash pads are available in increments of .25mm, what thickness lash pad will center the wipe pattern?

If thinner lash pads move the wipe patter inboard toward the cam, I’m thinking 0.099-inch (2.5mm) should do it.

Edit: In the end the advice I got from everyone seems to be "Trial and Error" is the best way to figure it out, but confirmed that thinner moves the wipe pattern away from the valve and thicker toward the valve. We ended up filing down 7 of the pads to get the right thicknesses and it looks like I am going to have to get them from Precision Shims in Australia. Bummer that I will have to wait so long to get them, but at least they are the right thing. It was that or go with the Kameari ones at $15 a pop and wait 4 weeks for them to arrive.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Matthew Abate