Buying 1975 280z and have some questions!

[cbuczesk]

Somebody added a/c to that car at sometime. That's not how the factory routed the a/c lines. I don't find that inner fender rust to be that big of a deal. But I've been working on Zs for 30 years so that probably helps. Look at the rest of that inner fender. It looks really solid to me. That makes me think that the car might be pretty good. Check the battery tray area, frame rails, floors, rear wheel arches, dog legs and rockers. The thing that puts me off is the black engine bay. Fixing that means remover all the crap from the engine bay and there's a lot of it on a 280Z.

Chuck

 

[wheee!]

Nuh uh:

 

Interesting! My 76 says A/C on the slider but never had it from the factory! So does my friends 76...

[wheee!]

Mine...

[Patcon]

On 3/23/2017 at 10:23 AM, wheee! said:

Mine...

You also have a "Recirc heat" setting that CO doesn't have

[Zed Head]

Here are the two panels shown in the 76 FSM.  They put one in Body Electrical and the other in Air Conditioner.

Edit - oddly, the AC unit has an extra fan speed.

 

Edited March 25, 2017 by Zed Head

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, there's all kinds of changes between the A/C and non A/C manual system.

One of the differences is that the only way I can change mine from fresh to recirc is to move it to OFF. In other words, the only time my system closes off the fresh intake is when it's in the OFF position. The fan still works even in OFF and the ducting is in the VENT position, but the only thing I can do is recirculate the same stale unheated air out the dash vents.

I wish I had independent control over that duct, and it's on my list of pending future changes.

[wheee!]

Well then mine makes no sense with the slider on the bottom being connected... all one opening.

 

[Captain Obvious]

I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. What's up with that?  My 260 (which had A/C) didn't look like that. It had two separate slots for the temp and fan controls.

I see that the chrome is missing from the middle of the top slot... Maybe someone removed the section between the two slots and mounted it upside down? I know I'm reaching here and I don't know why someone would do such a thing, but that's all I got.

 

 

[wheee!]

Yikes!!! You might be right. It definitely looks like that and I checked it today... the PO has cut open the slots because it was mounted upside down! The label was affixed after obviously. Now I need to check with@zkars to see if he has a faceplate that has not been cut that will fit my 76! I wonder if anyone makes the labels still....?

[Captain Obvious]

Whaaaaaat?... I can't imagine a reason someone did that. I wonder if there was some weird HVAC customization planned that necessitated opening that slot. I cannot believe he simply didn't realize it was upside down!!

As for replacing the label, don't forget that it's backlit. It's actually a piece of polyester on which they silk-screened the colors and text on the back side. Light shines through it. I doubt you could (ever) purchase just that label independently from other parts of the assy.

I've had that part of the assy apart a couple times for my dash light LED conversion, but I can't put my fingers on any pics of that part of the process. I suspect I was in a hurry at that point and stopped taking pictures.

 

[wheee!]

Scary. I will search for a replacement panel I guess.

[Captain Obvious]

I'm currently messing around with putting A/C into my 280 and I've got some HVAC parts on the bench. Here's some pics that might help you with your quest.

This is a 260 faceplate from an A/C car:

And this is a 77 280 faceplate from my non-A/C car:

But what might help you with your quest is that the faceplate comes apart, and the only part unique to your car is the colored silk screened lens piece in the center. Here's the back of one of them with the light pipe removed. You're looking at the back of the silkscreened lens and the inside of the light pipe reflector assy:

And here's the front side of the lens removed from the rest of the housing:

The only unique part is the silk screened lens. Everything else is the same between a 260 (with AC) and a 77 280 without. I imagine if those two extremes are the same, then everything else from 74 to the end of 78 does too, regardless of the option set. They even all have the same part numbers molded into them. That should make finding a replacement a lot easier than struggling to find the exact replacement.