PhilbertZ

This thread is awesome - I found it years ago and finally got around to doing my 1980 ZX dash. I used the same SEM products mentioned in the original page of this thread and they've worked great. I ended up doing the textture coat twice though, and NOT knocking it down - knocking it down showed too many blemishes and, hey, it's different now Tracking down some replacement center gauge bezels right now, as mine's tabs cracked when I removed them - after that, it's in with the dash - I'm really liking it and will post photos once in the car (plus the "before" photos). This took me a long time but with patience anyone can do it!

This is a pretty good resource too: http://www.xenons130.com/valvepolish.html I'm growing in mechanical ability (haven't done brakes or installed a clutch, but pretty much everything else "below" that, and I was able to do a valve adjustment on my 280ZX and my 87 4runner with success...though I had to do it twice on the truck and 3 times on the ZX to get it right. If you have a service manual and follow the directions (and have a lot of patience) you can do it. You'll need the right (27mm I think) werench to turn the crank to get to TDC in the first cylinder, and you'll need metric (14mm and 17mm I think wrenches to do the actual adjustment. You'll also need the gasket as already mentioned here. Good luck - the best way to learn is to DIY