Ben's Z

Circa 1979 Cibies on LOW BEAM Will try follow up with LED's on Thursday night or sometime during the weekend. Stay tuned!

I am going to try to go out on a desolate road for some pictures with my Cibies tonight. Finding an unlit road in suburban Houston though may prove to be difficult.

I have not installed them yet but a google search yielded some reviews on Jeep forums and Harley forums, with pretty good reviews.

Look what I got in the mail! I am going to take some before and after pictures. Mind you I have Cibie headlamps from 1979 with an original purchase price of $54! a lot of money in 1979. Frankly the Cibies are pretty good but wanted to try these out. These headlamps are made by a company called "Truck-Lite". http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/GenericView?pageName=/new/PressReleases_en_US/12vLEDHeadlamp.html&storeId=10001&langId=-1 They are a Tier 1 OEM supplier of lighting and harnessing to the trucking industry. These headlamps are currently in use by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Humvees. I have actually seen these lamps in my travels in Louisiana on a national guard Hummer. These things are serious! I am guessing each lamps weighs about 2 lbs or more. They have a huge heat sink on the back, and are fully ecapsulated in epoxy for protection against water and moisture. They only draw 2.5 Amps on low beam and 4.5 on high beam. http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=64057&langId=-1&catentryId=64058 I am going to try to get these installed with before and afters today.

Ordered Eibachs from the z store this afternoon. I should have done it last week while they were on sale and save some Federal Reserve Notes, but oh well. Ordered the black Energy Suspension polyurethane bushing kit from Summit too. Am going to pick up 4 KYB's this week and some time in June tear it all down! I plan on media blasting all the suspension parts and painting them satin black while it is all a part. Looking for Maxima rear caliper brackets now as I want to upgrade the brakes on all 4 corners at the same time. My hope is to complete this all in 8 to 10 weeks. Wish me luck! Should feel like new when I am done I hope. If any Houstonians wish to come over and help tear it down, you are more than welcome. I will provide food and refreshments.

Steve, When I had the glovebox and everything else to get at the fan motor I couldn't see anything glaring that was wrong. The only thing that seems wrong to me is all the flexible duct work is very loose over it's respective hard ducts/vent inlets etc.

The guy at the wrecking yard pulled it but the tag said 91 Civic I believe. It blows harder for sure from the center vents. I sealed up the center air divider with some foam tape today but I'll be damned if there is any air coming out with any force from the outside vents. A mouse fart moves more air than those outside vents. Is this just going to be the way it is?

Nothing other than the air box hole needing to be enlarged to fit the Honda mouse wheel.

Frank, I like your style airdam. But it looks like your turn signal lamps dictate which one I would need. Are you saying that even though I would have bumpers like yours, I should still go with a 280z airdam even though at the time I will have 240z bumpers?

I want to buy an air damn for my 280z and having it painted and installed when I get the car repainted at the end of this year. I currently have the original bumpers but plan in getting some 240z bumpers when the opportunity presents itself. Should I still buy an airdam for a 280z or if I run 240z bumpers do I buy one for a 240Z? Thanks.

It took about 2 hours but I got the Honda Blower Motor installed today. Had to take out the glove box and some other items but wasn't too bad. Had to grind away some metal on the blower motor housing but not too much. I bought the motor at a salvage yard for about $15, this included the fan. The rubber seal on the motor was still good so I just reused that to seal to the airbox. It was a little but of a stretch but if you clock the Honda motor right the Datsun harness plugs right in. I am going to get some foam tape that you would use on your door or something to seal up the center air divider to the evaporator plastic housing to make sure I don't have chilled air going behind my dash. Testing it without the center vents or divider it seemed to be blowing with much more force. I am still not real sure the outside vents are ever going to be real affective. I will let you know what the results are after I use that tape to seal everything up.

Well I took off the one bullet connector and much to my surprise there was corrosion all over the male end of the connector. I took a scotchbrite pad, scuffed it and used electrical contact cleaner on the sensor and harness and now my gauge reads very accurately.

I have 2, 2 connector plugs. Funny part is this beck arnley part wouldn't plug in to any of them.

My temp gauge has been erratic, so I bought a coolant temp sensor. Beck Arnley Part# 158-0134. Rock Auto confirms this is correct sensor... http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php There are three somethings threaded into the thermostat housing. The Beck Arnley part is 18mm, I took one out that was 23mm, the female plug end on the new sensor wasn't right. The other sensor that is in there I didn't bother to remove because the plug on that was not going to work with the new sensor either. Am I looking in the wrong spot? Is the cataloging wrong? What three things are tapped in to the thermostat housing?

Driving around in the beautiful weather today I noticed how freakin hot my dash gets (and it is only 80 degrees out). It is in mint condition with no cracks at all. What is the best way to keep it this way? Should I get a dash carpet? Cap? Some sort of protectant and pray that it still does not crack? How about the reflective windshield shades? Thanks!

I too am looking at springs to run with KYB struts. Does anyone else run these with KYB's?

Do you mind me asking what that powder coat job ran you?

I want to tighten up the road manners of the 280. I think I am going to start with putting in all new urethane black energy suspension bushings. While I am doing this I plan on media blasting all the control arms and anything else I can get off the car and repainting them. What advice could you all give me? Should I start with the front or rear? Any particular bolts/bushings, etc. that will be a real pain in the arse to remove? Any special tools? I have the best Ingersoll Rand air impact money can buy 780 ft/lbs. reverse. How much time should I allow to do this? Thanks guys!

Andrew, I put Freeze 12 in the car on Friday last week, it is pretty cool coming out of the vents but I want your opinion. Can I swing by this weekend? I am Louisiana/Mississippi right now, should be interesting to see if any freon leaked out while I was gone this week and the car being parked. I want to see you AC set up because I just don't see mine working all that long so I might as well start collecting parts now. I like the orifice tube idea. I bought a new drier but the fitting were not "clocked" correctly like the OE one that is on there. Did you replace or bend your copper lines to get it to fit the new drier you bought? Or was it clocked right?

If you have a spray gun with a fat enough tip to spray a high build polyester primer I would recommened a coat or two of that followed by a black guide coat then knock it down. If you don't have to sand enough to get in to the epoxy primer you should be pretty straight. Seal it and then shoot your base coat.

You may want to consider wet sanding the areas that are not as shiny and buffing it out. Depending on how much orange peel is in the clearcoat you might have some room to knock down the imperfections and haze and buff it out. If you want any suggestions or help let me know.

I pulled the middle vents I couldn't feel or see anything loose on the temperature gauge. I popped the hood and see what looks to be two sensors coming from the thermostat housing. I assume this is where the gauge sending unit is? I followed both wire leads until the dissappear into the abyss of wires that exist and could not find any broken connections. Any other suggestions?

My temp gauge was working fine until I worked on the car today. I put freon in the car and also had the finisher, finisher brackets and center air ducts out to check the condition of the evaporator and expansion valve. Could something have been knocked loose on the temp gauge during reassembly? It shares that pod with the oil pressure gauge and it still works fine. Coincidence or do you think something else just happened to break today?

Bruce, do you have these with a stock coil or lowered spring?

Easy to take off although I had to disconnect the plug wires, make sure those go back in the right order. Yes I bought a new gasket, cheap insurance. The old one was cork, the new one from FelPro appeared to be some synthetic material.