Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[inline6]

One month earlier - 3/71, which would be fine with me.  My passenger side has some scratches as well.  Can you clean both sides and send me some more pics?  

[Patcon]

14 minutes ago, inline6 said:

One month earlier - 3/71, which would be fine with me.  My passenger side has some scratches as well.  Can you clean both sides and send me some more pics?  

Yes, it probably wont happen this weekend though

[inline6]

Today, I got the right side window regulator in and was successful in getting easy, and smooth operation of the widow.  I also messed with the door hinges a bit to improve upon the door alignment.  I still can't believe they removed the doors - I had the alignment nearly perfect! 

    

 

And, I assembled the other of the new headlight harnesses (it is a PITA to pull the wires through the new sleeves if you don't remove the electrical connectors from the wires, which I did not).  I also replaced the plastic/nylon headlight screw receivers.  When I had the buckets plated, I did not know that replacements existed.  So, I had them plated with the receivers in place.  They didn't "do well" with the plating process. 

To replace them, I heated up a single edged razor blade (in a holder) with a propane torch, and cut through them on the back side.  Then I just used a hammer and punch and tapped the remainder out.  Pressing the new receivers/inserts in place is easy with a 10 mm deep socket and a vise.  

The new ones come with smaller diameter screws.  My original screws were re-plated and are in excellent condition.  So I chose to use those instead.  However, I had to open up the hole in the new nylon inserts to 13/64" and run a 6M X 1 mm tap through them in order to do so.  Whether you use the original screws or the ones that come with the inserts, note that they do not have threads as received.  

    

Next, I ran the original, as they are in good condition, headlight gaskets through my glass bead cabinet to remove overspray for the prior repaint job on the car.  

    

I got ahead of myself and installed one of the headlight buckets with just a regular sealed beam headlight (not even halogen), before I remembered I bought some Hella H4 housings and bulbs a couple of years ago.  

    

    

 

I think these have some age on them, but that doesn't matter.  So, I shouldn't bother with the H4 bulb - I should get some LED ones, yes?

It is surprising how little I got done today given that I put about 8 hours in.  Oh well.  Things are going well... if slowly.

 

Edited January 7 by inline6

[Patcon]

Did you figure out which end of the headlight harness gets the tape marker?

Do you have the caps that go over the headlight screw inserts?

[inline6]

1 minute ago, Patcon said:

Did you figure out which end of the headlight harness gets the tape marker?

Do you have the caps that go over the headlight screw inserts?

The yellow tape end goes just outside the headlight bucket.  I do have the caps that go over the headlight screw inserts.  I have not put them on yet because I may need to hit the backside of the adjustment screws with a little bit of WD40 if they are tight, when I go to do final headlight beam adjustment.
 

[Patcon]

I have most of those caps but haven't seen a source for replacements. Would like to find a source if possible, just in case...

[inline6]

I couldn't quit find the right thing.  This is on the right track.  Not sure if these/vinyl thread protectors could be heated and stretched in length a bit?  

 

[Patcon]

1 hour ago, inline6 said:

I couldn't quit find the right thing.  This is on the right track.  Not sure if these/vinyl thread protectors could be heated and stretched in length a bit?  

 

 

Yeah, those are close. I've never measured the stock ones. Half the battle is knowing what search terms to use...

[inline6]

It was fun working on the car today.  I started with putting quarter panel emblems on.  Once again, I sprayed some Krylon flat black paint into a cup and used a brush to black out the vent hole.  The original emblems are in pretty good shape.  With a little polish and some repainting, they would have looked very nice, but I purchased new ones (these are also metal) a long time ago and it was less work to take them out of the box and install them.  I did have to open up the emblem mounting holes a bit due to primer and paint build up.  And I put a bit of silicon on each of the emblem posts before installing to seal up anywhere that I may have broken through to metal while cleaning up the holes.

    

 

After that, I cleaned off one of my work areas to start a new project - the firewall pads.  In a previous effort, I tried to revive my originals by using some mild thinner to clean the asphalt/bitumen surface... and using a heat gun to straighten out some wrinkles.  But, neither effort worked well.  And my right side pad has a fair amount of cracking/damage.  So, I spent many hours looking online for a suitable product that looks like the original bitumen sheet.  I found "bitumen" to be available only outside the US, and even so, I couldn't determine if what was available would look original.  I did find a product from Second Skin that looked the part - this is the same company from which I bought the floor sound deadening pads.  

Today, I started with the small, center pad.  I covered it with strips of good quality masking tape.  When peeled away from the original part, this makes a nice template.  Then I used a sharp Exact-o knife to cut where there were holes from the factory.

    

 

For kicks, I also made partial cuts where the factory had partially cut, but not removed the bitumen.  This didn't add that much time and was fun to do.  

    

 

After the new butyl rubber sheet was cut to look like the original pad, I grabbed the other product I got from Second Skin.  It is some felt type padding with a type of foil on both sides.  I thought about trying to use the factory felt, maybe after cleaning, but decided that even I have limits to my insanity.  This product is about the same thickness and is a similar material, though a different color, obviously.

    

 

When I purchased this, I was thinking I would have to double it up to achieve the factory thickness.  However, I will not, and so, I have plenty of extra!  Next up will be replicating the driver side pad...

    

 

After spraying some contact adhesive to the back of the rubber and face of the insulation, the new piece will be done!

Edited January 8 by inline6

[inline6]

I was able to make more progress tonight on the firewall pads, this time moving to the left side pad.  

Covered in tape, then the cut outs, and the old on top of the tape pattern:

    

The tape pattern on the butyl rubber sheet, the butyl rubber sheet after cutting out under the old pad, and the old pad placed above the new rubber cut out:

    

 

The new rubber cut out on top of the new insulation, the outline in black marker on the insulation, the partially cut insulation under the new rubber cut out:

    

 

The work to do this is somewhat tedious, but the results are pretty good.  I decided to quit for the night rather than finish cutting the insulation for this pad.

[inline6]

Today, I was able to finish cutting the materials for the left firewall pad, and complete fabrication of the parts to the right firewall pad as well.  

 

For the right pad, I started by heating it up with a heat gun to assist with flattening the bitumen - it had several wrinkles.  I used my hydraulic press plates to flatten and cool the bitumen.  They are heavy and also helped to cool the bitumen while holding it flat.

    

After getting it reasonably flat, I applied tape and trimmed it so it could be used as a template.

    

As before, I peeled it off of the old and stuck it to the new material.  Then, I trimmed the new material to match the tape template.

    

When the new pad was made out of butyl rubber, I laid it on top of the new insulation and marked the cutouts.

    

I used a black Sharpie to mark the foil.  I think it took about 3 and half hours to make this part. 

    

 

Then, I grabbed the old header and A-pillar vinyl.  Unfortunately, it would be too difficult to reuse because of all the glue on it, and some tears on the left piece.  I found some vinyl online that looks kind of similar.  Before cutting the new piece, I used the heat gun again to get the old pieces as straight as reasonably possible.

    

Then, I drew on the backside of the vinyl, providing a generous amount of extra on all sides.  I cut the piece for the header out first, then one of the A-pillar pieces.  Then I flipped over the new A-pillar piece and used it as a template for the other A-pillar piece.  

    

Lastly, I retrieved the old headliner vinyl (with foam stripped off of it) and the new foam piece I bought.  I am going to attempt to glue the original headliner vinyl to a new piece of foam.  I don't have high hopes that it will work well, but I will give it a try.  I bought enough of the foam to make a second headliner.  If I have to, I will attempt to find a new piece of vinyl that will be suitable for a headliner, and glue it to this foam.

  

 

 

Edited January 15 by inline6

[inline6]

Today I put a couple more parts on the car.  Because the shop is a bit cool for most of the day, I don't want to mess with gluing anything.  So, I am holding off on interior related stuff for a moment.  

I put the clutch master cylinder on.  I find it interesting that the clutch MC is Nabco when the brake MC is Tokico.  Is this not original? 
 

 

Then I worked on cleaning up the gas tank fuel inlet hose.  I found it interesting that the rubber gasket that went between the bottom of the car and the lower mounting flange was stapled in in place originally.

    

Cleaning the grim and old rubber gasket off took quite a while.  Then I had to heat it with a heat gun in order to get the lower mounting support plate onto the hose.  The hose is hard and inflexible until you get some heat in it.  Then, you have a limited amount of time to work with it until it freezes up rock hard again.  I made a new rubber gasket (out of some thin neoprene sheet I have) and put that between the hose mounting flange and the body.  

    

 

The hose is 53 years old hose and as I said before, completely inflexible until you heat it.  And it has shrunk a tad.  So, lining up the holes and putting in the screws is extremely difficult.  I had to heat and re-heat the hose carefully until I was able to get the screws into their holes.  

Up top, it is part 2 of hell trying get the upper hose flange through the hole in the body.  Eventually, I got it - I had to reheat it about 12 times... and my hands were wearing out trying to squeeze the hose and pull the flange through.  I went hoarse from screaming at it.  🤪

    

 

Then, I had to heat it again, in order to put the gas cap flange on.  I found a suitable diameter object to shove into the hose to help spread it in all directions while I heated it.  This counteracts the shrinkage which causes misalignment of the holes in the flange to the body.  After heating it up carefully (as it is on the body) I pulled the object out and quickly put the rubber flap, flange, and screws in.  Note: the original rubber flap that protects the body of the car from the dangling gas cap is cut asymmetrically.  The main hole is offset to one side a bit.   

    

 

It is nice to have that bear of a project complete.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15 by inline6