Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[inline6]

It was with some dread that I installed the hood onto the car.  Flashback to when I was scrambling to get the car finished for transport to the body shop in February of last year, and when I installed the hood, I saw that I had some panel alignment issues.  I won't rehash all of it here, but I provided details in the document I wrote up for the body shop.  This should have been a checklist for them.  But clearly, they did not do several of the things I pointed out for them.  Quoting from my write up: 

"The hood:
The front lip, at the very left corner edge of the hood, is bent outward a touch.  I didn’t notice it until I started fitting the hood for the last time.  I tapped the front lip at this corner with a body hammer to move it back a touch to align with the left headlight housing and the resulting movement caused some small chips of the primer to flake off.  The left front corner of the hood will need some attention - possibly some more tapping with a hammer and possibly some primer application.

The hood has some scratches in the surface that will need attention."

Well, while the scratches in the surface of the hood were addressed, the corner of the hood got ignored.  The front left corner still sticks out a bit, and at the top corner, I can see where the primer chipped.

  

 

So, this is just another reminder that "next time", I will not be leaving anything to anyone else - I will do it all, and I will do it right.

  

  

 

With this type of thing, my frustration level is high. I still need to massage the fit of the hood a bit, but I decided to move to other things for now. 

I unpacked the new kick panel covers.  I bought these from Motorsport Auto.  They are "ok".  They are not quite as thick as the originals... even when measuring thickness at the top edge of the old ones where no water has gotten to fiber board and caused it to swell.  There are slight differences which you can see here:

    

Second pic shows thickness of the top edge - old one is on the bottom.  Next, I pulled out my collection of windshield washer reservoirs and pump motors.

    

I sourced new windshield fluid hose from a company called Newco (see the tag for sizing info).  I used a clean rag and lacquer thinner and some #0000 steel wool dipped in lacquer thinner to clean the outside of the reservoir.  My pump motors were seized.  I dis-assembled the first one, but there was no saving it - there was too much corrosion.  The second one was in much better condition.  Dis-assembly and reassembly was enough to get it running nicely.  It may not last long in service, but we'll see. 

    

 

 

The last thing I did today was glue the front edge of the header vinyl.  This contact adhesive is magical:

Though I bought a bunch of the folder clips you see in one of the pictures here, I was amazed at how quickly this adhesive worked to secure the vinyl to the weld flange.  I brushed it onto the backside of the vinyl and on the top side of the weld flange.  I let it dry for about 4 minutes.  And when I pulled the vinyl toward the windshield opening, I tugged on it pretty good.  Just touching the vinyl to the forward edge of the weld flange... was enough to hold the vinyl at the tension I had put on it.  It was wild. 

I then folded the vinyl over around that front edge and pushed it onto the adhesive on the top surface of the weld flange.  It stuck and didn't move.  I didn't need to use the file folder clips.  It just stuck.  I used my Exact-o knife to cut the excess vinyl off at the point where the weld flange ends:

    

 

I put some clips on in the corner, "just in case", but I am sure they were not needed.  This adhesive is wonderful and a joy to work with.

Edited February 28 by inline6

[inline6]

Yesterday, I completed the very difficult task of installing the vinyl A-pillar/side trims.  I took my time.  I found it helpful to examine the old ones very carefully while trying to get the new ones installed properly.  I discovered that the quarter windows have to be out to install these properly.  So, I had to take those back out temporarily.  Like many things, it is a whole lot easier when you have done one.  The second one was much easier and took much less time to install.  The only part that didn't turn out perfect is where the side welting butts up against the header.  I left a bit more vinyl material there than I should have.   If I could do them again, I could get them perfect.  But, it isn't worth spending all the time and effort to rip out these, cut new ones and do another install.  I found the clips to be more useful with these because I wanted the vinyl to stick to the inside of the weld flange too.  It sticks perfectly to the outside of the weld flange without the assistance of the clips.  But on the inside, the vinyl is at an angle pulling away from the flange.  The clips help it seat there.

    

I had today off from work, so in addition to the usual weekend hours, I was able to spend another 6.5 hours on the car. 🙂

The rear hatch glass has been sitting in a corner waiting... for the scratch remover kit I ordered to show up, and for me to devote time to removing the scratches.  

The kit has arrived: 

I found out about it on Youtube.  I was intrigued when I saw a video that showed removal of a deep scratch.  I had used Eastwood's kit, and found that it was barely adequate to remove some light wiper marks from my BWM M3 windshield.  That is not a fault of the product, but I did not realize until I saw this video that there was a product that could remove deep scratches.  But, I did not choose to work on that today.

Like the rear hatch glass, I cleaned my windshield and installed the NOS rubber weather strip on it.  I bought the windshield a few years ago when I was finding it hard to source a windshield without the blue "stripe" of tint across the top.  It was made in China, but appears to be a decent quality one.  

    

I am going to wait for a warm day and put the windshield out in the sun.  I want the weather strip to heat up and relax in the sun before I attempt the install.  I will do the same for the hatch glass.

I had not yet shared pictures of the new firewall insulation installed.  When I applied the vinyl to the foam for the new headliner, and while the contact adhesive was in the spray gun, I installed them.  

    

I think they turned out to be very nice.

I was held up on finishing the installation of the windshield wiper motor and mechanism because I was searching for a suitable replacement for the plastic "push clips" that hold the wiper bag end together.  I found these at McMaster-Carr and they turned out to work nicely.  After snapping them together, I just use small clippers to clip the extra portion of the post off.

Additionally, I came across a forum thread in which @Captain Obvious described the proper function of the wiper arms.  I had no idea that the round spring that always breaks was responsible for changing the off/resting position.  I saw where some had bent the end of the existing, broken spring, so that it has a new "tang" to fit into the slot.  I modified my spring today (third pic).  It works perfectly - I can rotate it with ease in one direction and when I rotate in the reverse direction, I can feel the spring acting like a "one-way clutch".  It grabs the eccentric piece you see and rotates it, which because of the offset, changes the length of the wiper arm assembly just a touch.  This is what alters the "parked" position of the wipers to something just a bit lower than that of in operation mode.  Cool!

    

I believe this is the correct way to assemble the linkage to the motor, but I will leave the wiper off when I turn on the wipers to test them.  Thanks for the tip @emccallum!

    

Next, I moved over to gluing some more parts.  Wiping the tool door cushions with lacquer thinner cleaned them up nicely.  Then, I used a small brush and the same contact adhesive to install them.  In this case, I didn't put adhesive inside the groove of the rubber cushions, as that would have been difficult and would have made a mess.  Because I only put adhesive on the metal, I used the file clips to hold the cushions in place until the glue could set.

    


While I had the adhesive out, I also glued the rubber blocks to the gas tank and installed the new gas tank sender unit: 

    
 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20 by inline6

[Patcon]

That was a very productive day!

[grannyknot]

That looks like a good quality glass polishing kit, thanks for mentioning it.  One thing they should have mentioned is the importance cleanup between grits, you can imagine what would happen if one grain of the coarse grit found its way onto the polishing pad, as John Cleese use to say "Start again".

[inline6]

With some help from a friend, I put the windshield in the car today.  I have done this on a 240Z only once before, back when I was restoring my track 240Z in 1993.  I also have put a couple of Datsun 510 windshields in.  For the "rope" in the channel, I use 12 gauge insulated multi-stranded wire.  Perhaps rope would be better, but I like the solid feel of the wire rather than what I imagine might be a "stretchy" feel of rope. 

Additionally, I use dish soap (slightly watered down) and an acid brush, applying it onto the frame of the car and the windshield rubber gasket where it contacts the body.  I try to eliminate friction so the rubber lip that has to be pulled inside the car is free to move.  

This time, I used black urethane adhesive and put it on the windshield frame where shown in the diagram in the factory workshop manual.  What an mess it made during the installation procedure!  I got it all over the place, and it easily took 2 hours to clean it off the car and off of me.

    

 

 

I decided to put the stainless trim in after installing the windshield.  Wish me good luck on not tearing the rubber as I install it.  I have yet to examine it and correct any scratches, so that will have to come first.

[inline6]

With the windshield in, a significant barrier to installing the dashboard had been passed.  However, there are still a few things that need to be done before it can go in the car.  One of them is installation of the tunnel jute and trim.  And that will need to be followed by installation of the heater core and housing and the fan its housing.  

I started on the tunnel jute today.  As I mentioned before, I bought a roll of jute from England that looks similar to the original.  It is dark brown on one side and tan on the other.  I placed an old piece of jute on top of the new, and used black spray paint to mark where I needed to cut.  I got mixed up for a minute on which side needed to face up, and marked the wrong side for the handbrake cutout at first.  But, I realized what I had done before I began cutting and flipped the old piece over.  After marking the correct side for that, I used my upholster shears to cut the jute.  I nice pair of upholstery shears is a necessity for cutting this - they cut through without difficulty.  So, I got the rear one made today, and just set it in the car for this one pic (third pic here).

    

 

After that, I decided to tackle the job of removing the scratches from my rear hatch glass.  As you can see, there are a few - the white beam is the reflection of a florescent light in the shop.  

    

 

I opened up the kit I received recently, and put the attachment on my rotary buffer.  The kit I bought has three different sanding grades and a liquid polish solution.  I started with the heaviest grit, putting it on the backing pad.   Kind of scary to use this grit as it is super aggressive.  One thing to note, I think that out of the box, the heaviest grit "pads" had some oversized grains on it.  During the first 20-30 seconds of use, it put some swirl scratches in the glass that took a bit of work (with the same grit) to get out.  The kit came with two of the heaviest grit pads.  I think it would be wise to run fresh ones very lightly at first to knock any unusual bits in the surface of the pad down a bit before you go to town with it.  That, or run it on a piece of glass that doesn't matter to you first.

Anyway, with the first grit, glass removal is relatively quick.  I could catch my finger nails on some of my scratches, however, there was not much time investment in cutting the surface of the glass down to past the scratch depth with this grit.   When I was done with the first grit, I took a picture.  As you can see, a portion of the glass towards the top, center and right side, did not need heavy scratch removal, so I left that area alone:

Next was grit number two.  I went over the entire area that I had hit with grit one.  It was easy to see the difference in surface finish of grit two compared to grit one.  Like the first grit, the second grit cut pretty quickly, but more time was involved in getting all of the areas I had worked with grit one to "grit two" level.  When done with grit two, I took another picture:

 

I repeated the procedure with grit three.  I want to say that I getting the surface of the ground area to "grit three" level took a quite a bit longer.  Again, I could see the difference pretty well.  So, I kept at it until everywhere that had been ground looked uniform, and I couldn't see any heavier scratches from the prior grit.  I took another picture:

 

At this point, I had about 2-3 hours invested.  And I switched over to the liquid polish stage.  This stage did not go great.  Based on my efforts today, getting rid of "grit three" hazing is going to take a very large time investment.  I think there are a couple of areas where I did not sufficiently remove grit two, mainly on the right edge in the pics above.  So, I may have to hop back to grit three for that area.  However, I am confident that for most of the area I have worked, I did a good job of using each grit to remove the prior grit's marks.  And unfortunately, this last stage of polishing is going to be a bitch - like maybe 4 or more hours of intensive polishing.  I wish there was another grit between grit three and polish.   

Of course, I could be doing something incorrectly also.  So, I will look at the company's website for some tips and watch some of their Youtube videos to see what I can find out.  

Latest pics - second one is that right edge ( I took the picture from the opposite side of the glass) where I think I will need to rework with grit three.

  

 

 

 

Edited February 26 by inline6

[Patcon]

Do you have or can you get the grit numbers for these pads? Then maybe you could source some intermediate grits with the right material...

[inline6]

Good thought.  I do not have grit numbers or know the materials.  I could experiment with some fine grits...  

I am going to try to use the finest grit again, specifically on the right side area of what I worked.  I want to see if spending more time and effort with that grit makes the step of transitioning to the liquid polish work more quickly.  If I don't get noticeable improvement from that effort, I may experiment with some very fine grit sandpapers on both a rotary and a DA.  I think the DA will be worthless.  Glass is much harder than paint. 

Edited February 27 by inline6

[Patcon]

The action of the sander isn't the limiting factor. The abrasive material is. I suspect your glass polishing pads are diamond grit or something similar. You might be able to find suitable pads at a granite fabrication supply house.

[inline6]

Granite fab supply - a good idea.  I will attempt some more effort with "grit 3" and polish and see how that goes first.  And if I don't figure out something I was doing wrong, I have sourcing a "grit 4" as an option.

I started to install the gas tank tonight, but had to stop because I forgot about the vent hose that has to do a 180 degree turn.  It won't do it without kinking as is documented well at this site.  I had to stop because with the tank installed, you can't access the hose that has that 180 degree bend.  I will pick up the spring, which I will insert into the hose, and which will allow the 180 degree turn in the hose without kinking from Home Depot tomorrow.

I recall vividly what a pain the arse installing a gas tank in a 240Z is, especially with an original fuel inlet hose, which is hard as a rock unless you heat it up with a heat gun.  This time, I have a heat gun, have put protective padding on the body of the car, and will have an assistant.  

A few pics from tonight's partial effort:
    ...

I bought enough braided hose for two cars, as my other 240z had these replaced (with OEM hoses) in 1994... so they may need replacement again at this point.  

I was disappointed in the replacement gas tank strap insulator I purchased - I think it was from Zcardepot.com.  It is quite a bit wider than the original insulators.  Also, it is not like the originals in that it is solid rubber instead of rubber coated cloth.  That latter issue is not as concerning to me.  I just decided that I wasn't going to spend the time to cut the new one to the correct width.  Instead, I cleaned the originals with lacquer thinner, and re-glued them to the straps which I previously stripped, primed and repainted.

    

 

Once again, I used the same contact adhesive.  This stuff... 🥰     So nice to work with!

Also, I wanted to ask: regarding the pictures I put here... I have been putting a lot of groups of three horizontally.  That is, they are three, side by side on my browser.  Are they rendering three side by side for you?  Or do you see two side by side, and then one below those two every time?  

Let me know!

[240dkw]

I see three stacked vertically on my IPad, and as well very nice work.

[SteveE]

They show up on my laptop three pictures side by side......and I have wondered how you make that happen?