Careless

feelin' the love, you guyssssssssss <3 that's about 100-150 pieces of the latest round of plated parts. some are just broken bolts and whatnot that i tossed in the batch so that I can keep around for samples or decoration, since it didn't add to cost. there are about 1000 more pieces in clear zinc and yellow as well at my home that I've sorted through. wiring is after the windshield and various other glass pieces, then dashboard, etc. Thanks. its #1606. On the harder to find items, I've attempted to use the closest materials and even include manufacturing variances and errors that were present on the car when it was being disassembled and documented (by someone else) I have about 2000 photos of various stages of progress that I will be posting in the other thread since my last update, but Chris sneaked these photos in today while we were making some headway on the headliner surround pieces. not the most fun to do on your own, glad he was around!

awesommmmmmmmmmmmmme! strut tower bar looks pretty neat! i like it. i like ittttttttttt. how are those plug-n-chug cup holders? I know the one for the Z31 300ZX has the cup holders on the rear, not at the front. I wonder if it would be more like an elbow holder with the seating position of most Z chassis with it at the front.

gotta host it on youchoob

it's Tuesday. where are the videos of it running? j/k. lookin like good progress.

""i hereby reserve the right to contract christopher square knot for datsun 240z windshield installation in the near future." - wayne gretzky" - raff

simple fix. 3/16 steel plate with a provision for the battery lug, and a way to secure it into the battery box with M8 bolts on either side, clamps down on the battery and the neg post with more than 16mm of surface area for grounding.

speeeeeeeeeedin' right along. question: did you entertain using a battery hold down bar as a ground connection rather than a wire that exits the box? would be a neat idea, i think.

i shoulda coulda woulda, but didn't j/k. i'm sad now.

using oil and vinegar solution would not be a good idea for the doors. i use a similar home-made concoction on my leather day-to-day shoes that I wear sometimes, and it works, but it's more of a sealer/protectant that goes dull after a couple of weeks. I don't think I'd rub that into door panels. I'd find something that is really made for leather and probably has some sort of animal pelt oil like a emu oil or something. a lot of the good leather products i've used smell somewhat "sweaty" or animal-like, most likely because they have some sort of animal fat or animal based product in them. just a hunch on the ingredients, but the salad dressing ones, IMHO is not a good idea for this application. I think a tinted black leather shoe polish rubbed in well and then re-rubbed with a lint-free cloth to get the transferrable excess off would be the best bet here, Chris. Perhaps going to the upholsterer like I had suggested and getting a 12x12 piece of leather to cut 4x4 squares out of to do some testing might be a good idea.

jealous of how well the headliner turned out.

i really liked the old valve-cover intake plenum :-( bring it back! bring it back! bring it baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Thanks Jim What I noticed from the 71 was that there was very little contact cement near the bottom of the side sill vinyl, probably to facilitate wiring servicing of some sort without having to remove the pieces entirely and running the risk of tearing them accidentally. Or maybe that car was just sloppily put together. Though I did notice that the very front of the side sill vinyl tucks underneath the firewall pad just at the pointed end, so I will have to see about attempting to sneak it under there when I put it back into service. Going to be a bit of a challenge, as I did glue the firewall pad in place. I think I will do the wiring first, though. Might end up cleaner than attempting to curl the wire into the tabs once the vinyl is down. This stuff I'm using is quite tenacious and I'd rather not try to peel the rubber backing up again. some of it came off in its initial removal. Thinking of laying some wide masking tape on the wiring harness "tunnel" once its in position to avoid tacking it up with contact cement, and then masking off the back of the vinyl pieces in the same area so that it doesn't rub off onto the harness.

So the SEM colour coat goes on nice and worked great. I made a patch to repair a small tear near the seat belt fastener. Though I ran into something I didn't notice... the 71 has the wiring going through a cut-out shown here: yet the pieces from the 01/70 don't have any such hole... does it just go underneath the side sill vinyl? I imagine this stuff is a lot easier to install after the wiring is laid down so I'm going to work on that first this weekend since these pieces are pretty much ready to install. though @grannyknot mentioned to me that there are areas at the dogleg that are supposed to be painted black to prevent colour being visible along the seems of the interior pieces that don't quite fit great from factory... I did manage to see this right here at the front of the car which I did not notice before: and you can see some of it in the photo with the wiring just behind the dogleg cover. I guess I'll just take the stuff off the 71 to see how it was covered up... but was it done that way on the early cars too? I don't recall seeing it anywhere on the 69.

I think the closest Wurth product I have to the PF620 is Wurth W-Sol, which is naptha / white gas based. The only thing is W-sol is a lot more aromatic, or at least smells more like a stronger solvent than Final Wipe does. PF620 lists "VM&P NAPHTHA" in its MSDS... not sure why it smells different. Final Wipe... wouldn't call it pleasant smelling, but it's delightfully tolerable compared to the others, which is also a reason I like using it. haha. It's got its own type of smell. I haven't tried W-Sol on vinyl, but I know for a fact that it removes cosmoline type wax rust-proofing VERY well, which is why I never gave it a go on vinyl. I'm hesitant to do so.

Did you test this particular foam against water to see if it soaks it up like a sponge or repels it at all? I'd be curious to know... might have to head over to the hobby store to pick some up... You say the thicker stuff did not collapse enough- so 3mm-5mm would be the sweet spot?

so purdy

ProForm Products has two types of cleaners that I use. One is a very strong PF621 Wax and Grease Remover. If you use too much of it or leave it on painted surfaces, you will see paint on whatever you use to wipe it. The more gentle one that I use for preparing and cleaning just about everything is PF620, Final Wipe. It's what you're suppose to use prior to painting, in between primer and paint coats to remove tacked on dust, and can even be used on painted surfaces after they've been cured for a day or so without harming them much if at all. It works well on vinyl if you get a bit of contact cement or spray glue build up and doesn't seem to damage the vinyl used in this reproduction kit. Infact, if there are any areas where you needed to use heat on the vinyl that slightly glossed over, you can use the final wipe and it seems to normalize the contrast between shiny and dull areas, but it doesn't seem to dull the area that are already like that. I really like it. For the old glue, just wet a cloth with the PF621 and dab some on the glue, then use a dollar store tooth brush (for some reason the 2 pack of toothbrushes with the rubberized grip from the dollar store don't melt in the solvent like the full acetate ones do) and work in circles to move the glue around. The glue will just clump up and ball up on the tooth brush. Wipe it off the toothbrush to prevent further smearing the glue around the rest of the piece, and continue. It didn't seem to harm the rubber backing on the side-sill material, and actually made it a bit more rubbery. I'm sure if I left a big puddle on there, it would do some damage, but cleaning it with dish soap afterwards makes it nice.

Going to have to go with your suggestion on the SEM Trim Black over the old ones, Jim. I found the set that came off this car, and just around the heat-formed indentations there's a small tear, but both pieces are in great shape. we managed to remove the old glue off the back without damaging the rubber either. I think I can repair the tear from the back with a small piece of vinyl trimmed from the transmission tunnel discarded sections and with a couple of dabs of CA glue where the crack should hold it together. It's barely noticeable when pressed together. Though I've never used SEM paint on vinyl, so I'm going to apply it lightly and hope it takes well. I know it has a hint of plastic adhesion promoter within the paint itself- so hopefully I don't screw'er up. Thanks for the suggestions. EDIT: I misinterpreted what Zup said RE: SEM Colour Coat. It's the actual name of the vinyl compatible paint line from SEM, and not the SEM Trim Black that I'm used to using. I mentioned it was going on vinyl at the paint store and the guy there told me to use Colour Coat instead, and I remembered that's what actually said in his post. I purchased the Satin Black one, not the Landau Black, as the vinyl looks somewhat Satin like.

Thanks Jim I have NOS 260z side sills, but they have a notch cut out of them for the small pinch weld that didn't come on the earlier cars, so it would look weird. The ones I was thinking of taking from the 71 parts car also have the cut outs, and there are a couple of rips- so at this point I have no choice. The contact cement I have seems to work well with pushing and shoving pieces into corners and holding them there. A little bit of heat might be in order, but I think that's all I can do for now. I've had trouble getting a hold of Les too, especially this time of year- since he's preparing for race season, perhaps. I'll give Mike a call tomorrow.

missing some pieces for the vinyl interior. wasn't too happy with the strut tower and wheel well piece fitment, though i'm not sure where they came from. looking to get the side-sills and pillar and roof side and front pieces (with foam if it's available, or else I'll have to track it down). was thinking of classic datsun motorsport pieces unless there are better repros that are closer to 1970 ones?

without reference to the original placement of the stickers, how do you determine where they should be? i'm reluctant to put on the stickers I have on because I've never seen one with the stickers in person that wasn't redone.

Back at this topic again. I'll update the build thread of the car after I finish some more interior stuff, but I was wondering if anyone has opinions on who makes the best upper vinyl pieces around the headliner, as well as the side-sill vinyl. the NOS side sill ones I have are N4200 series parts and there are some holes and slots that are for later models, not early 70s ones. The upper pieces... thought I had them.. but I don't. headliner is about to go in, i gots one of those... Any recommendations? I was thinking Classic Datsun...

I reinstalled them today in the correct orientation. shoving the hoses in did not pose much of a problem. if the lip turned inward, I just tugged on the hose the opposite direction and it corrected itself. facing the engine bay is how they 'gon stay now. thanks to all contributors.