1970 HLS30-06521 Re-Restoration

[Zup]

 

 It does my heart good to see your original " grapefruit" alternator.

My old eyes can't tell from the photo-----what color is the band around your alternator? Is it a deep burgandy-ish red?

 

[CanTechZ]

24 minutes ago, Zup said:

It does my heart good to see your original " grapefruit" alternator.

My old eyes can't tell from the photo-----what color is the band around your alternator? Is it a deep burgandy-ish red?

 

It is kind of burgandy-ish. I've always called it reddish brown.

[Zup]

Excellent! You've confirmed what I had hoped.

I recently had the "grapefruit" alternator for my 7/70 240z rebuilt by a fellow that restores roadsters. We sourced the diode packs and new bearings, etc.  and then we went back and forth about the color of the band. I had him do it in the "reddish brown" you describe.

 

[CanTechZ]

7 minutes ago, Zup said:

Excellent! You've confirmed what I had hoped.

I recently had the "grapefruit" alternator for my 7/70 240z rebuilt by a fellow that restores roadsters. We sourced the diode packs and new bearings, etc.  and then we went back and forth about the color of the band. I had him do it in the "reddish brown" you describe.

 

Nice, good to hear. I plan to have mine rebuilt as well. Although it still works great and as far as I know it hasn't been worked on. Not bad service for 50 years. 

[dutchzcarguy]

20 hours ago, Zup said:

My old eyes can't tell from the photo-----what color is the band around your alternator? Is it a deep burgandy-ish red?

Mine is RUSTY-brown, is that oké to?    (Btw.. my alternator is now also 50 years old and only had a paintjob about 22 years ago..)

Hé Jim, why is it called a grapefruit-alternator?  

[Zup]

16 minutes ago, dutchzcarguy said:

Hé Jim, why is it called a grapefruit-alternator?  

The openings outside the diode packs at the rear of the alternator look similar to a grapefruit cut in half exposing the sections of the fruit.

[CanTechZ]

This past Sunday I removed the front and rear suspension, officially my car is no longer a roller. All went without issue thanks to the detailed instructions in Wick Humbles book and the video posted by @240ZBUILTBYME on his build thread. 

https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/64416-240zbuiltbyme-1971-240z-hs-001063-project-sheena/?do=findComment&comment=607208&_rid=7818

Also it has very useful to have lots of spare jack stands and a small extra floor jack.

Here are a few pics of the setup and process for removing the front crossmember and suspension as a unit. The transmission adapter on my floor jack added extra stability in the absence of a helper.

 

Rear setup and process,

 

Resetting for the final drop without the transmission adapter,

 

Only a few more things to do, before it's off to my body guy's shop.

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by CanTechZ

[240ZBUILTBYME]

45 minutes ago, CanTechZ said:

This past Sunday I removed the front and rear suspension, officially my car is no longer a roller. All went without issue thanks to the detailed instructions in Wick Humbles book and the video posted by @240ZBUILTBYME on his build thread

I’m glad it helped someone! Great job 👏🏽 I was much less careful with my assembly as everything is getting completely overhauled. 

[CanTechZ]

Continued with creating templates for the tar mat insulators. I have finished and uploaded templates for the rear deck area to our downloads in the cad files section,

https://www.classiczcars.com/files/file/142-1970-240z-floor-tar-mat-templates/

Here is a picture of testing the templates to confirm fit. All that is left to do is the transmission tunnel area, hopefully I will get that done soon, before the shell goes to the body shop.

[CanTechZ]

This weekend I removed the headliner and surrounding padded vinyl trim and A-pillar trim. I had a little anxiety about doing this as they are are in very good shape. Luckily all came out with no issues and will be reusable, including the foam padding. I took lots of pictures of the joint details to help when I reinstall.

Here are some pictures of my process, the only tools I used were a 1.25" paint scraper with corners rounded off and an awl. I started at the lower end of the A-pillars and carefully peeled back the vinyl exposing the foam padding. In some areas I could do this with just my fingers and other areas I had to use the scrapper to break away the adhesive as I pulled. When I got to the vinyl over the door opening I used the awl to break the adhesive as space was limited. For most of the length the foam was glued at the edges to I had to go very slow using the scraper gently while keeping light tension on the foam.  There is also U shaped welting that holds the vinyl to the roof frame that had to be pulled away. After removing the A-pillar and over the door opening trim I used the same process for over the windshield opening.

 

For the headliner I found that there was no adhesive where it tucked into the roof frame but there was a very uniform coating of the adhesive on the rest. To get started I poked my little finger in to the hole for the LH visor mounting bracket pushing the unglued edge of the headliner and at the same time gently pushing inward with the fingers of my other hand until I had exposed the edge of the headliner foam. From there I could work the unglued edge out of the frame for the full perimeter. I freed the headliner using the scraper with a short jabbing motion, keeping light pressure on the roof and holding the headliner with light tension with my other hand. I had the scrapper at about a 30 to 45 degree angle to the roof while doing the scrapping. Using this technique very little of the foam was damaged.

All in all it when quite smoothly and there was very little foam reside left on the steel. It was definitely worth taking my time to be able to salvage everything.

 

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by CanTechZ

[Namerow]

Thanks for taking the time to photo-document.  These pix will be a great reference for others.  They also give us interesting insights into the design and assembly strategies that Nissan was using fifty years ago when the Z was launched.

[CanTechZ]

11 hours ago, Namerow said:

Thanks for taking the time to photo-document.  These pix will be a great reference for others.  They also give us interesting insights into the design and assembly strategies that Nissan was using fifty years ago when the Z was launched.

Thanks, I also find it interesting to reflect on the design and assembly techniques that were used by Nissan, as the technicians assembling our cars would surely have been under pressure to get things done quickly. This one of the reasons I have been going slowly with the disassembly process. Taking the time to smell the roses, so to speak.