Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[inline6]

I didn't keep track of the hours closely, but I am going to say it took something around 10 hours of work to remove the scratches and restore the shine to the left door window.  Thanks again to @Patcon for helping me source a left door glass with a date on it that is "in the ball park" for my 6/71 car.  There were several deep scratches as well as some pitting which I was mostly successful at removing.  I don't know if anyone else has the stomach for putting this much effort into removing scratches on glass, however, I think I should be honest in case future readers want to give it a try.  

The most aggressive disc in the kit is "a beast".  It will quickly remove glass... and put nasty swirl marks in your glass in the process.  Use it only if you have really deep scratches.  The green discs (middle grit) are quite aggressive.  Use these for light scratches and minor imperfections.  The blue discs are quite fine.  You will burn through them at a pace of 5 to 1 vs. the green discs.  It is hard to see when you have sufficiently polished out the scratches from the green discs.  Attack the glass at a 90 degree angle from when you use the green disc.  It will be easier to see when you have removed those scratches if you do this.  

This https://glasspolishshop.com/polishing-repair-compounds/cerium-oxide is effective at polishing the glass back to a good amount of clarity and shine.  If found that the Eastwood polishing buff was better than the polishing pad that was included in the pro polishing kit I bought: https://glasspolishshop.com/glass-restoration/scratched-glass-repair-kits/pro-glass-scratch-removal-kit-xnet-system.  I think the Eastwood felt buff was harder than the one received in the kit.  And using it, I believe the cerium oxide was utilized more effectively on the glass.  With a softer pad, I think the cerium oxide was not pushed as hard against the glass, and therefore, did not polish as effectively.

After so many hours of neck wrenching work, the scratches have been removed from the glass (except those very close to the Temperlte etching).  When sighting down the glass at a sharp angle, you will be able to see slight waves or undulations.  The finished product looks a bit like bodywork that was not done perfectly.  Glass does get removed after all, and because it is so hard relative to primer or filler on a car body, it is exceedingly difficult to remove scratches and keep the glass perfectly flat.  

Anyway, there it is - the info you would like to have about attempting to remove scratches from glass.  It takes a lot of effort, many hours, and though the final result may remove deep scratches, the final result will leave you with some slight waviness in the glass, and not the same level of smoothness as the factory finish.  

In other news, the window support is different from the 1971 vs. 1975 cars.  Here are a few pictures which show that the regulator channels are in different locations.  This makes using a 75 window in a 71 car not work.

    

    

 

After I finished work on the left door glass, I installed it in its frame/support and installed it in the left door.  Order of operations is: Install stainless steel frame (with glass channel weather strip already installed. Then window glass.  Then front glass glide.  Then regulator.  Then rear lower guide for regulator wheel.  After I confirmed rolling the window down and up was as it should be, I installed the 3M product for holding the vapor barrier in place.  This product is very tacky.  So, it sticks to the door, and the plastic vapor barrier to it, extremely well.

    

 

Next, I will put the door panel clip receivers in place.  I will need to cut the vapor barrier in a couple of places (around the window roller and the door release) and I will need to glue in place a couple of rubber seals before I can put the door panel on.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22 by inline6

[inline6]

I have been thinking of driving the car to ZCon in Tampa.  I've made a list of things that need to done before the car is done and it is large.  At this point, I am thinking I will not be able to finish in time.  

Here is a partial list, mostly of items requiring outside assistance:

• Machine shop to remove a small amount of material from the left side flange of the differential - need to put the stock pinion shim back in and then check back lash with original side shims in their respective places.  Then check backlash again after moving the one left shim to the right side.  Compare the difference and estimate amount to have removed from left side flange, given side shim sizes available.
• Send driveshaft off for balancing, but... I have to put the differential in car and check drive shaft fit first.  I may need to remove some of the shielding on either the rear of the transmission or the driveshaft. 
• Tell Snake Oyl to proceed with the restoration of the seat belts I sent them in June even if reproduction date tags cannot be sourced (they have delayed for weeks because they haven't been able to confirm that they can get the tags from "their vendor".
• Buy carpet in bulk (still have to decide which).  Cut to fit the car and have local company put correct finished edging.  Or, purchase Auto Custom Carpets, Inc. kit from RockAuto.  I may purchase this kit for day to day use... and have a custom set of carpets for show.  
• Get gas door lock and ash tray grill chrome plated by local company
• Horns - these have to be re-plated before I can put them back together
  
  I also have the following fairly large lift items:
• Assemble the seats - fit new support straps, foam and upholstery covers.
• Repair/restore center console
• Test gas tank for leaks - source and install a new tank from S30 World if it leaks
• Find source of the electrical short circuit in the windshield wiper circuit

Then, there are the things I am forgetting...  hahaha

 

[Patcon]

That's a good plan.

It is a pretty extensive list.

I would be interested in your local platers contact info for the gas door locks, hatch lock buttons etc.

[SteveJ]

8 hours ago, inline6 said:

• Find source of the electrical short circuit in the windshield wiper circuit

I think I know someone in the local area who has knowledge of tracing electrical circuits.

[inline6]

2 hours ago, SteveJ said:

I think I know someone in the local area who has knowledge of tracing electrical circuits.

I certainly could use the help. 🙂  

 

[inline6]

20 hours ago, Patcon said:

That's a good plan.

It is a pretty extensive list.

I would be interested in your local platers contact info for the gas door locks, hatch lock buttons etc.

I called them today.  It seems they had a place in Atlanta, but they said that during Co-vid they shut it down.  They only have operations in CA now.  I will send them pics and get a quote.  This is the website: https://decometalfinishing.com/chrome-plating-in-atlanta-ga.html

 

[Patcon]

Interested in what they say

[inline6]

From my list: 

• Machine shop to remove a small amount of material from the left side flange of the differential - need to put the stock pinion shim back in and then check back lash with original side shims in their respective places.  Then check backlash again after moving the one left shim to the right side.  Compare the difference and estimate amount to have removed from left side flange, given side shim sizes available.
• Send driveshaft off for balancing, but... I have to put the differential in car and check drive shaft fit first.  I may need to remove some of the shielding on either the rear of the transmission or the driveshaft. 
• Tell Snake Oyl to proceed with the restoration of the seat belts I sent them in June even if reproduction date tags cannot be sourced (they have delayed for weeks because they haven't been able to confirm that they can get the tags from "their vendor".  They will be able to get the labels.  Cashier's check and additional parts are going out via UPS to them tomorrow.
• Buy carpet in bulk (still have to decide which).  Cut to fit the car and have local company put correct finished edging.  Or, purchase Auto Custom Carpets, Inc. kit from RockAuto.  I may purchase this kit for day to day use... and have a custom set of carpets for show.  I Purchased an Essex pile version of the carpet set available from ACC (Auto Custom Carpets) https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=6070062&cc=1209158&pt=1264&jsn=10419&optionchoice=1-A1168-0-1
• Get gas door lock and ash tray grill chrome plated by local company - email with pictures of parts needing to be re-chromed sent to get quote
• Horns - these have to be re-plated before I can put them back together
  
  I also have the following fairly large lift items:
• Assemble the seats - fit new support straps, foam and upholstery covers.
• Repair/restore center console
• Test gas tank for leaks - source and install a new tank from S30 World if it leaks
• Find source of the electrical short circuit in the windshield wiper circuit Found it with @SteveJ help.  
  
  So, some progress, but it still looks like I am going to run out of time to me.  
  
  My windshield wipers were not parking as they should.  They were parking higher than their range of sweep.  That is not right.  They are supposed to have a range of sweep that is higher than the park position.  After reading related posts, I realized that I had not paid attention to the reassembly of some of the parts on the wiper linkage.
  
  In order for the linkage to park lower, the offset cam piece in the wiper linkage has to be in the position to make the linkage arm longer. 
  
  Some pics:

As found with the issue:
cam/offset in the short position:

 

cam/offset in the long position (note that you can see the edge of the of the back plate, and the linkage bar that attaches to the motor is extended to the left a bit more:

 

After removing the clip and the top washer:

 

After flipping the cam/washer piece with tang over - now with the tang at the top position, the link bar is in it's shorter length position.

 

So the pic just above is CORRECT.  This is the position of the washer with the tang when the motor is operating.  When the motor reverses, the offset and tang will rotate 180 degrees.  This will move the link bar to the "long" position which will extend the effective length of this arm just a touch.  And it will result in a park position on the windshield where the wipers will be lower on the windshield than the normal sweep range.  

Also, I found that the best park position was set when the link bar (the piece that bolts to the back of the wiper motor shaft is in alignment as in these pictures.  In other words, the ideal park position is achieved when the link bar is in perfect alignment with the long linkage bar it is attached to.  Like this ------  -------.  Not angled either up or down from the long bar, but simply a linear extension.  

I had to install the motor with the bag hanging off to the side so I could mess with the round cap on top of the motor that adjusts final resting location of the motor shaft.  Then remove the motor again, put the bag on and reinstall the motor.
 

 

 

Edited July 31 by inline6

[Patcon]

Man I hope mines right. I don't want to have to pull it back out!

[inline6]

I continue to attempt to make progress.  I was able to get in touch with the place that I had in mind to re-chrome the gas door knob and the ash tray parts.  For the gas door knob (two parts) and two sets of ash tray parts (grill, plate and cigarette lighter trim ring - 3 parts X 2), they quoted between $200 and $300.  

I have been working on restoring the center console this week. The plastic trim plate had a crack in it.  I was able to swap the one from my track car.  I cleaned it up and used a "chrome" paint pen to return it to how it looked originally.  

  

 

The two rear-most mounting holes in the console were oversize, allowing the screws to slip through those openings.  Thus the screws were not securing the console to the car.  The console is fiberglass.  So, I ground away as small amount of material on the underside.  Then I mixed up some resin and hardener and put some fiberglass mat pieces in place to rebuild the part around the holes that had broken away.  As the resin was hardening, I drilled new holes.  Drilling is easier when the hardener is not fully hard and I feel I can control the location of the hole better.  After the hole had been drilled in the fiberglass mat, I mixed up a small amount of fiberglass/polyester filler and applied that to the topside surface.  While it was still unhardened, I installed the screws.  They have a tapered head.  I let them sit until the hardener kicked off, but removed them before the fiberglass filler fully cured (third pic here).

    

 

In these pics, you can see the ring of filler around the holes after sanding the small amount of fiberglass filler applied on the top side.  I used a counter sink bit in a drill to open these up a bit further, however, the factory recesses around the bolts were a bit larger than what I ended up with.  

    

 

The console had many cracks in the surface.  To address those, I sanded with 80 grit first, then switched to 240 grit.  Instead of using polyester filler, I used glazing spot putty.  Sanding this is much easier.  The benefit is that when sanding, it is easier to keep from sanding the original part.  With polyester filler being much harder, as you try to sand it flat, you end up sanding the core part a lot more, ending up with more surface unevenness. 

    

 

After sanding and prepping the surface, I sprayed SEM texture coating 39853 on the surface of the console.  Varying spray distance, you can end up with different textures.  After this dries, I plan to use 800 grit sanding pads to "flatten" the texture I have here:

    

 

Hopefully that will look reasonably close to the original factory finish.  The final step will be to paint the console with a semi-flat black paint.  

 

Edited August 7 by inline6

[Patcon]

I have the same alligatoring. I hadn't decided if I was going to try to fix it.

This seems like a good solution

[inline6]

I continued working on the center console this week.  I used an 800 grit sponge sanding pad and went over the texture.  Here are several pictures before painting.

     

     

 

The texture doesn't look like the factory one so much, but it is a decent approximation.  From the last picture in this group of three through the rest of the pictures, the console has semi-gloss black paint applied.

     

    

 

Another little project I completed was these interior trim panels.  The silver/chrome had come off of them.  I don't know what happened to my pictures of the "before", but the "chrome" stripe was blue.  I found this Metalized Polyester Mylar Film Tape with Acrylic Adhesive and decided to give it a try:

 

 

It took about 7 tries to get it on the panel to my satisfaction.  I was getting some air bubbles on some of the attempts.  And it was a bit crooked on some as well.  Thankfully, you get 72 yards of it on one roll, so I had plenty to spare.  🙂

Anyway, I am very pleased with the final outcome. I hope it stands up to heat, etc. well as time progresses. 

    

Edited August 11 by inline6