Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[Patcon]

Garrett,

Did you ever get your glass polishing figured out?

[inline6]

I set it aside to work on another day.  Have to be in the mood to spend hours making little progress... which I don't feel like taking on often.

[Patcon]

I understand. I was working on putting the metal brackets back onto the door glass yesterday. The passenger glass has some scratching and I used some Cerium Oxide on it, but it's not going to be enough. I will have to get more medieval to get the glass polished properly. Was just curious if you had gotten it figured out.

[grannyknot]

1 hour ago, Patcon said:

I understand. I was working on putting the metal brackets back onto the door glass yesterday. The passenger glass has some scratching and I used some Cerium Oxide on it, but it's not going to be enough. I will have to get more medieval to get the glass polished properly. Was just curious if you had gotten it figured out.

Those white felt rolocs would be perfect with some cerium oxide on them.

[Patcon]

50 minutes ago, grannyknot said:

Those white felt rolocs would be perfect with some cerium oxide on them.

That's what I did. There is a 1" wide path where the window roller use to be on the door. I assume it broke off and then the remnants scratched the glass up. The CerOx is just not aggressive enough to get that scratching out. It will take something more aggressive.

[inline6]

I think the bits of debris (sand) get onto the rubber roller and cause the scratches.  It seems that all the door windows have scratches there.  I dunno.  Just guessing.

[Captain Obvious]

I was just recently messing around with a window (fumbling moderately successfully?) and I found that rubber roller had seized on it's axle and had worn a flat into the rubber. That can't help matters as far a scratching the glass goes.

[dutchzcarguy]

On 4/10/2024 at 11:26 PM, inline6 said:

I think the bits of debris (sand) get onto the rubber roller and cause the scratches. 

Hihi.. my car does not have that roller for over 25 years at least!  btw.. is that the culprit why my window comes (at the top) about a quarter inch to the inside when i'm driving about or over 50mph and want to close the window.. I need to stop/ slow down, and get the window back in the good position! Then close it.. hahaha..

[inline6]

Recent progress included spraying the inside of the rocker panels and the upper front area of the quarter panels with Eastwood internal frame coating, routing and fishing the rear wiring harness through, an installing both door weather strips.  These NOS weather strips were purchased by the previous owner of the car, so they have been sitting in these bags for a very long time.  They are in great condition though, and it is nice to have original parts like this.

    

 

One thing I have learned is that adjusting position of strikers and latches until confirming the door shuts properly and aligns properly with the body is best done without the weather strip installed.  I did this before installing the weather strips.  And I added the "dove tails" afterwards as well.  I took out the rivets in these and had the plates, springs, and rivets re-plated separately.  I also swapped in a plastic piece from a passenger side to replace the worn one that was on the driver side.   I wasn't sure I would be able to reuse the rivets, but it seemed to go well.

 

    

    

 

What didn't go well was trying to install these high strength steel clips for the tail light finishers on the body.  This is how far I got one of them after about 45 minutes.

 

I knew it wouldn't be easy to put these back on because it wasn't easy to take them off.  The lips on the sides of the tabs which are welded onto the body make it very difficult to slide the clips in place.  They can't be slid on from the underside.  Looking closely, I was able to see some of the side lips are shorter than others.  So, for the clip above, I switched installation to be from the right side instead.  My recommendation is to either not remove these, or if you do, modify the lips on the tabs.  They don't need to be tall to keep the clip from sliding off the tab.  With short side lips, installation of these clips (from the side) is not that difficult. 

 

 

Edited May 6 by inline6

[CanTechZ]

I got a set of those clips from @Resurrected Classics

https://resurrectedclassics.com/en-ca/collections/1970-1973-240z/products/datsun-240z-1970-1973-taillight-panel-clips

But unfortunately he is currently sold out. Here's a pic showing them compared to my rusty crunchy ones. I have not tried them yet, but they appear to be very accurate.

 

[inline6]

On 4/14/2024 at 12:59 PM, CanTechZ said:

I got a set of those clips from @Resurrected Classics

https://resurrectedclassics.com/en-ca/collections/1970-1973-240z/products/datsun-240z-1970-1973-taillight-panel-clips

But unfortunately he is currently sold out. Here's a pic showing them compared to my rusty crunchy ones. I have not tried them yet, but they appear to be very accurate.

Nice!  I think aftermarket support for these cars is at its zenith.  My clips were nearly rust free, so I glass bead blasted them and had them re-plated in black.  Once I got the first one on, the next three went a lot easier, but key was sliding them on from the edge that was not as tall.  A bit of damage to the edge occurred on a couple of them.  

    

 

If I were to do it again, I'd grind down the height of the lip on the part that is spot welded to the body - just the bottom 1/8 of an inch and just to make it half the existing amount of edge height.  Doing that would be sufficient to make slipping the clip on from the slide easy.

I spent a lot of time with adhesive remover and a wire brush getting these vinyl trim pieces cleaned up. 

  

  

A few pics of the install of the right side vinyl covering on the rocker:

  

The right side is only partially installed.  I put contact adhesive along most of the top of the rocker panel (for about an inch wide inside the weld flange).  Then I stretched the vinyl lengthwise as needed to get the 5 screw holes to align with the holes in the vinyl.  I installed the new threshold as well.  I have to add some more contact cement on the front and back portions.

The NOS thresholds had 3 holes instead of five. 

  

I added two more to match what the car came with.  I do not know which hardware was used to hold these thresholds in place.  I found only 6 of these screws in my miscellaneous hardware.  Are these correct?  The taper head makes me think not.

  

 

 

[CanTechZ]

Here's a picture of the screws that held down those strips on my '70. They are round head type 4mm thread OD x 12 mm long. There appear to maybe have had blackened heads, some evidence on a few of mine.