geezer

After reading about the Rustoleum product in MEZZZ's post I went to Walmart for only the second time ever. I wanted a durable, flexible, bedliner type coating to use inside my cowl/wiper motor cavity, where I had to repair the rusted out "chimney" and surrounding area. Anyhow, they didn't have any Rustoleum products but did have the same tall cans of the same type of products, undercoating, stone shield and bedliner. These are sold under the name of "Rust Check". I bought 2 cans (467 g each) of the bedliner coating and have done a sample piece to test it out for flexibility, durability and adhesion properties. Claims to give an 8-10 mil thickness with 2 even coats. Additional thickness can be achieved with more coats. It is a Canadian product with a website listed (www.rustcheck.com) and sells for $9.99 plus $1.30 HST a can. Seems reasonable if it pans out. I didn't see the bedliner on their site though, must be new. Anyone used this yet? I thought maybe it might be useful for the purpose of protecting the inner fenders also.

Many of the holes also served double duty as locator points while traveling on platform jigs during construction or assembly aids of some kind, but I don't know about those ones though. One things for sure...those are about the cleanest pockets & plugs I've ever seen on a Z of this age. I'm sure, whatever retractor set-up you decide on, you will want to be able to revert back to your stock configuration easily without any visable modifications showing.

Your Z is sure to get its fair share of admirers! Have fun! OK, we gotta see a pic of the "worlds largest catsup bottle" too. What company sponsors that? It must be Hunts or Alymers because Heinz I think uses the word Ketchup.

link http://matadortrips.com/photo-essay-the-worlds-most-spectacular-roads-vol-2 That stretch of road in Italy has Z written all over it!

I took a look at a NOS PB cable, and as far as I can see the method Steve describes is the only way to do it. It looks like it will be much more difficult than putting keys on a keyring but doable.

I just checked the studs on a few I have here. The threads are 14 X 1.50mm. Edit: added pics to show how to measure for those who want to know

Congrats! Now you have a nice driver as well as a project car to hone your skills on.

Very nice installation! That bumper looks great on your 280Z. Good luck with the rear bumper!

Hey, I'd drive that Z to work, might even go inside after several laps around the parking lot. Welcome aboard!

I just realized it was 4 years ago today that I bought my "rust free" Z from an ad on Ebay. Guess what? I'm still chasing down the rust issues one at a time. I have to admit that while I enjoy the work, (it is only after all just a hobby for me) I would have been literally years ahead starting off with a project car more carefully selected. Let me just give you a list of the sheet metal components alone that I have replaced on my "rust free" Z: -a pair of floor pans -a pair of outer rocker panels -a pair of outer wheel housings -a pair of floor supports -a pair of TC boxes -a pair of front frame rails -a front rad support -a rear hatch sill panel -a rear valance panel -a pair of rear quarter sections In addition to these parts there was rust damage in several other areas, such as the cowl panel where the "chimney" was rusted through, the inner rocker panels needed reconstructing, the area beneath the battery tray was deteriorated badly, the battery tray itself needs replacing and the new floor pans didn't reach high enough to repair the rusted areas. I'm leaving out lots of other minor rust issues that all needed to be dealt with. Now just imagine what all these parts cost and the amount of time required to replace them (time that could have been spent driving a better condition Z). Nobody really likes to rain on your parade but it is our duty to warn you what you could be getting into. These guys are telling you like it is, and have seen the same many times. The most important thing is to have fun with it, whatever you decide and share your experiences with everyone here. Nothing I like better than looking over pics of utterly disgusting rust damage and figuring how to deal with it.

Gary, from what I can see there were several changes made in the FSM during the 1972 model year. There were enough changes that it was neccesary to publish a second manual to replace the earlier one that was issued for 1972. There were changes made in the carburetor section, the exhaust emission control system, as well as the engine electrical section. The technical bulletins were issued to the service & parts departments as changes were made and then entered in the new replacement manual which is meant to replace the earlier manual. Unfortunately, I don't have either of these manuals but I do have the TSB's that noted the changes. What is the publication date of your FSM? The replacement FSM was issued after July 3, 1972, and the last TSB relating to float adjustments for the 1972 models year was issued Feb 9, 1973. That is the one I would refer to, unless someone has more recent, relevent information.

I think that would be your best bet, or replace with a zerk fitting. The reservoirs are NLA. The recommended maintenance schedule calls for lubricating every 30,000 miles. The rack in my '70 must have been replaced at some point. There is no reservoir or even a place for it. It has a chrome finish label with the number 0990902 on it.

Thanks Mike, I've seen those on Ebay but opted for a set of steel NOS Nissan. They are on the way and I should be able to toss them on the pile in a few days.:classic: If It wasn't so easy to hit the enter key I'm sure I could have made a set myself. Every day I repeat my mantra..."I'm gonna need those". Maybe the aluminum ones would have been better, I don't know. I started removing the ones from my old rear bumper and seen just how weak the old steel brackets were when they started twisting out of shape, while trying to remove rusted fasteners.

Yep, Thy Bao is the same guy I dealt with. Flawless transaction. Thats cool, you could get them in a one piece rear, no holes. Good price too. I wanted the rubber strips and the conventional 3 piece rear. $1085. to the door in less than 3 weeks. I have no problem recommending this option.

They are holding up just fine as long as I don't take them out of the box. Today, I ordered new brackets to mount the rear bumper. There is an ever increasing pile of boxed parts on top of them now also. It is incredible, the amount of space needed to properly organize and store the parts for a complete restoration. I am constantly refurbishing, replacing, repainting, re-organizing, etc. There seems to be no end to what I need, forgot, put off, changed. This has turned out to be a long term project that is slowly coming along. I try to set goals every week, as to what I want to accomplish. Not exactly a fast pace with the rest of my daily obligations but moving forward. I have a local persistant hard core Z guy that comes by at least once a week to kick me in the a$$ for motvation, tease me with his Z cars and help out. Thanks for asking.

Dan - I don't want to deviate off course too far but thought it noteworthy to mention that in service manual P/N 99999-20015 there are at least 3 pictures showing a forward orientation as well as an illustration. I included a pic of an SU assembly I have stored also. It is the other way, but that means nothing after all these years. I guess the jury is still out but I would go with the original Nissan documentation, so you have proof yours is correct.

That PDF tutorial was submitted by MikeW and deals with the light portion of the combination switch. I don't recall any information on the wiper control switch but then again I haven't looked. If you find yours is unrepairable or just too expensive to do so, give me a shout via PM. I have several used but good combination switches on hand including one for a '74.

Very nice Kats! Thanks once again for sharing your very impressive collection with us. Also, thanks for everyone elses contributions. All very interesting. Good eye Dan! That is typical of the type of mistake that would have been made on a car used for demonstration/training purposes. It could have been dis-assembled and re-assembled many times by people who were on a learning curve themselves.

It more than likely is the combination switch. The only other possibility would be an errant power feed caused from burned/damaged insulation in your wiring harness. The combination switch is rebuildable, either by yourself or by someone who specializes in this. Use the search button to your advantage on this site. You will find what you need to solve your problem.

Glad the problem is solved. When I read Oz's post I took it to mean, it would cause the engine to run hotter with damaged vanes in the water pump but because the coolant wouldn't be circulating, the coolant could possibly be trapped, not moving and much cooler at the temp sensor, thus giving the lower temperature reading at the gauge, when in reality, the engine is running hot. I thought to myself... hmmn, that could be a possibility.

What a stroke of bad luck! I can only echo what has been said. I wish I never removed my headliner. I am afraid it is going to show through where the foam was separated from the vinyl. Heres hoping it can be fixed without removing it. Good luck!

Hey Jay, if you want to see the differences between the early & later ball joints and the fix for lining the holes up first hand, shoot me a PM. I'm in Windsor also and just happen to have these parts laid out on the bench for another project some of us are working on.

I hope to meet you also one day Rick. We would get along just fine without worrying about our inappropriate terminology or placement of it. I couldn't help but have a good chuckle when I read the above quote. I was imagining the look on Alan's face whilst he reads it. I love/appreciate all you guys just the way you are, don't change a thing. Has there been enough interest in HLS30-00400 for anyone to request more pictures? Anyone considering this car had better take a full inventory of the correct early parts and get much better views or preferably see it in person. It will take a special, commited person with deep pockets to take this project on and do it justice.

Ha Ha! Yep, that's your car leading the way Randy. It would be quite an eye opening experience for most of us to see the actual progression of events as a car travels through an automobile production facility. They change position in the lineup several times during the build for a number of reasons. There are a few critical points along the way where it is crucial to have the cars strictly in a predetermined order, so as to mesh with other lines merging together, such as the chassis line, where the cars in the posted pic, shown on the highline are lowered onto the drivelines and before that occurs, the engines have to be scheduled to coincide with the remainder of the chassis components. In '69/'70 this was accomplished using a "broadcast system", which was a mainframe linked printer system that was fed all pertinent information to all locations in the assembly plant. This enabled everyone to stay on the same page (pun intended) and produce perfectly orchestrated assemblies that came together to form the specified vehicle, no matter the model or market variation. There was more than one "sending" from the broadcast system also, where changes and updates were made/added, but only at allowable points, so work already completed was not effected. I would have loved to have taken the Nissan Shatai Hiratsuka plant tour back in the day to see our beloved cars being built. It's still fun, piecing together clues and seeing new (to me) data and pics put here on this site from our fellow members. I think we all do draw our own conclusions and occasionally change opinions from the evidence presented. To me it's all speculative and just a hobby to have fun with.

Hi Rick, consider this theory. I doubt that you would have found any consecutive chassis numbers being run down the production line. It just isn't that cut & dried. They were more than likely shuffled and reshuffled many times for a variety of reasons, even before construction had begun. It is even possible that the chassis numbers (VINs) were assigned as the orders from the various markets came in. There certainly would be no need and it would not even be logistically possible to maintain a consecutive build format. All the cars would have been painted in the same booth and run down the same paint line. During that time period, paint was pumped and filtered from 55 gallon drums and run through paint lines to the spray booth. Pressure feed guns were common place and unnecessary color changes were kept to a minimum in order to save on solvents needed to flush the lines and guns. Prior to reaching the paint booth the cars were banked on accumulator lines and more than likely according to color. So, you see it is possible to paint cars in batches of the same color but not consecutively. I'm not saying this is how Nissan did it but it was the industry method of operation during this era.