What's the most needed Z part that's currently NLA?

[zKars]

12 hours ago, Richard McDonel said:

Door cards.

I did get a set of these many years ago - not sure where - then set them aside for the decade or so during which I was building the car.  When the time came to install, I had to cut openings for the door latches.  Missed by a quarter inch, and it looks awful.  MSA had them in their catalogue, but were out of stock for the longest time.  Now they are offering "remanufactured" panels.  In the photo they provide, the chrome strip is missing.  

Suggestions?

https://zcardepot.com/products/door-panel-card-set-black-240z-1970-73-new?_pos=2&_sid=fa947020c&_ss=r

[Namerow]

Can't help you on the door cards.  There's a thread by @grannyknotkicking around here from 4 or 5 years ago where he fabbed some cards using a home-made mold.  Others have made them from fibreglass.

As for the skins, Mike at Banzai Motorsports has offered these for many years, complete with the bonded-in-place chrome trim strip.  They're not cheap ($500/pr) but Mike has a solid reputation for offering restoration-grade soft trim pieces.  he says, "My soft trim is manufactured by the same domestic company that supplied Nissan's Z store program in the 90s". Picture below is a screen-capture from the Banzi website (www.zzxdatsun.com)...

[Tirnipgreen]

Mike's stuff comes from Distinctive Industries. I cannot speak for the door panels, but I saw a set of DI diamond vinyl that was foam backed and "puffy". Seatz Manufacturing reproduces diamond vinyl that truly does replicate the original. I find Mike at Banzai difficult to deal with. He cancelled an order of mine because I questioned him on the "puffy" nature of DI's product. Just Saying...

[Zup]

21 hours ago, Tirnipgreen said:

Battery Cables

Available from Steve Nixon at https://www.240zrubberparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7319377

Not cheap, but perfectly reproduced.

[Frankenstein]

10 minutes ago, Zup said:

Available from Steve Nixon at https://www.240zrubberparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7319377

Not cheap, but perfectly reproduced.

But he needs to make to get. Been out of stock for a while.

[Tirnipgreen]

If they are so perfect, why does he cover the negative terminal with the black rubber cover...? I believe only the positive side came with the black rubber cover. I asked for a picture of the terminal without the cover and never heard back. I will say that anything I have ever bought from Steve has been top notch.

[bartsscooterservice]

On 4/19/2020 at 4:41 PM, Namerow said:

I thought that our CZCC members might like to contribute their thoughts here.  Who knows?  We might inspire someone out there to start making some of these items.

My nomination would be:

Differential Mount Insulator for the early-design cars with angled rear halfshafts (Nissan PN 55415 E4102)

This part was used up until 71-06, so it was installed on about 30,000 Z's.  If 5% of those cars are still in running or restorable condition, that would mean there's a ready market for perhaps 1,000 of these early-style diff mounts.  To the best of my knowledge, there's no way that any of the later-style mounts can be modified to fit.  Typical owner solutions seem to be either:

• replace all of the diff carrier pieces with conveniently-available, newer-design parts (expensive, and not correct for a proper restoration)
   
• ignore it and pretend that running with a worn-out original mount isn't a problem

Given that the metal parts are usually quite salvageable, perhaps all that's required to restore the mount is for someone to reproduce the rubber core.  With a new core, it would be a fairly simple matter to burn out the worn-out original, clean up the metal, and then glue a new core (should be fine, given that the bonding area is big and the joint wouldn't experience any shear loads -- just compression/tension).

 

  Early-style mount on the top     Early-style mount on the left

(apologies for not being able to provide photo credits)

 

differential insulator early one - Open Discussions - The Classic Zcar Club (classiczcars.com)

I found a way to modify the later style mount to the early one, see the link above.

 

[240dkw]

16 hours ago, Richard McDonel said:

Door cards.

I did get a set of these many years ago - not sure where - then set them aside for the decade or so during which I was building the car.  When the time came to install, I had to cut openings for the door latches.  Missed by a quarter inch, and it looks awful.  MSA had them in their catalogue, but were out of stock for the longest time.  Now they are offering "remanufactured" panels.  In the photo they provide, the chrome strip is missing.  

Suggestions?

Have you tried the local Nissan dealer, it was a few years ago, but I bought several sets from them.

[texasz]

3 hours ago, Frankenstein said:

But he needs to make to get. Been out of stock for a while.

I recall reading somewhere recently that he hand makes the parts and even though the website may show out of stock if you contact him he will make what you need.

[Sjoost]

I had a really hard time finding a solution for the weather strip/ rubber strip which wipe the door windows. The strips that are mounted under the horizontal chrome strip on the doors.

[Zup]

 

Quote

If they are so perfect, why does he cover the negative terminal with the black rubber cover...? I believe only the positive side came with the black rubber cover.

You are correct, but I  think it is a safety/liability thing with Steve.

Many, many Z owners do not purchase a battery with the correct terminal configuration for their car. The simplest way around this issue is to isolate both terminals against arcing with the covers. If you don't want/need a cover, just remove the offender.

 

26 minutes ago, texasz said:

I recall reading somewhere recently that he hand makes the parts and even though the website may show out of stock if you contact him he will make what you need.

Yes---Steve will make whatever is shown as "out of stock" if you contact him through his website.

[Frankenstein]

1 hour ago, texasz said:

I recall reading somewhere recently that he hand makes the parts and even though the website may show out of stock if you contact him he will make what you need.

I did contact and reply was he was making some things in November. Probably really busy. I look on a weekly basis to see if back in stock.