cgsheen1

Yup, that "horse hair" jute batting was used extensively in upholstery back in the day. It's replaced these days with another form of breathable batting which I would use in the areas that had the jute in the first place. There needs to be something between the springs and the seat bottom foam or the foam will suffer. And I think the comment above about the jute in the seat back is entirely accurate. I'd use a thin-ish piece of batting there also. You can buy upholstery batting any number of places - Walmart, fabric store. Just be sure to get Upholstery Batting (quilt & etc. batting is different stuff). This is more than you would ever need, but it shows what I'm referring to: Amazon.com: AK TRADING CO - 48" x 5 Yards. Bonded Dacron CertiPUR-US® Certified. (Seat Replacement, Upholstery Sheet, Foam Padding) : Arts, Crafts & Sewing

It's a drag working in the heat (at least here in Phoenix it's "a dry heat"...) but first thing I would have done was pop the top off a float bowl and see if there's any fuel in there. Well, maybe I'd pull the fuel line off the rail and run a 3 or 4 foot piece of hose off it into a fuel can to verify that the pump was pushing fuel first, then check the float bowl. Gotta check when you're having the problem though. Carbs (I thank goodness every day that I have none) don't run off the pump, or the rail, or the fuel lines. They run off the float bowls. If there's no fuel in there it's somebody else's fault... Figure that out. If there IS fuel in there and the engine doesn't run then it has to do with delivery from the bowl to the carb - bowl outlet, weird little hose, jet, needle... Personally I'd lower the jet (L-series seem to hate idling lean) - you accomplish the same thing pulling the choke - because I'd bet that your "altitude/temperature correction" is off. My second bet, if the jet/needle setting is correct, that there's either a restriction aggravated by temperature or your fuel pump / fuel system is affected negatively by increased temperature. I also wouldn't be surprised if your float valves stuck intermittently (cooler fuel (more dense) will push them back open but hot fuel (less dense) and/or vapor will not). Or, maybe your carbs aren't set up and sync'd properly at all... (And I definitely WON'T say that I have a 240Z in the shop right now in the 100+ (113 the other day) degree heat (L28, SU round tops, electric fuel pump, MSA header with a stock heat shield (for an N33 intake), no shroud, alum radiator, stock fuel rail (that is not bolted to the head however), and also - no coolant to intake manifolds...) that doesn't have any "vapor lock" issues. I didn't make it that way - but someone did. Nope, I'm not going to say that...)

Yes.

Same here, I broke down and installed LED gauge bulbs last October. I bought the ones on Amazon with the frosted plastic domes. Much brighter gauges and they dim with the stock rheostat. If you're still looking to buy incandescent, you might try an aircraft supply place like AircraftSpruce.com. Many general aviation aircraft are old, and certified aircraft uses mainly old tech so there are a lot of old aircraft gauges still being used - they all need bulbs. I think that place has a fairly large selection of GE incandescent bulbs.

The seal on there currently belongs on the back side window frame, not the front

Are you saying that you've adjusted the nut out far enough that it's now causing the fork to put constant pressure on the pressure plate? Just wait for the longer collar.

Damn gravity...

We have used Meguiar's Hyper Dressing for 12+ years on Z car rubber, vinyl, and plastic. You don't ordinarily use it full strength, you thin it as desired with distilled water. We normally use a 50/50 mix but you can get any consistency you like. Cuz Arizona, we can get pretty crispy plastic, vinyl and rubber trim and weatherstrip. I've put plastics covered with Hyper Dressing in a zip-loc bag that are "dried out" to the cracking stage and brought them back to reasonably flexible within a few weeks (clam shell, switch plastics, gauge bezels, and etc.). We use it almost exclusively when we detail - great on tires too. A guy in the club here swears by 303 but I've never used it. I have Mothers Back To Black but it sits on the shop shelf.

I'm embarrassed to say yes, I do remember Joe Isuzu...

Sounds like you have a 240Z but in any case, the dash frame to body connection points are well away from the jockey box (now you see how old I am - almost no one calls them a jockey box anymore). Most of the rest under there bolts to the body independently. Once you disconnect things like the speedo cable, wiring to the door buttons, flasher, stop lamp switch, switches on the steering column, remove the center panel, disconnect wiring to the console, loosen up the fuse box, disconnect the blower motor wiring and the ductwork to the side vents and defrost, remove the steering wheel, drop the steering column, you'll almost be able to pull that dash right out!

I'm in Phoenix and have always used the stock clutch fan on my L28ET. It's always worked well even with A/C and an intercooler, and they're readily available.

There should be a companion 3-pin connector (with the same 3 wire colors - Blue(L), Blue/Red(L/R), and Blue/White(L/W)) under the dash. IIRC they're in one of the two harness bundles that runs from the right front (passenger) corner area to the center and aft along the right side of the transmission tunnel (just under all that HVAC and blower stuff) to the radio and console area. Most of the wiring is for the gadgets in the console - lights, switches and such. HAVING SAID THAT... The wiring to the radios IS THE MOST HACKED electrical wiring in an early Z car! Who knows what the P.O.s have done with that wiring... How the original antenna works (or worked): The stock antenna was manually operated (not auto-extending when the radio was turned on, auto-retracting when the radio was turned off like later antennae). The stock antenna motor is grounded to the frame. It gets power through the switch attached to the radio and accessible through the radio faceplate. The switch isn't part of the radio itself. The switch is momentary (returns to an "off" or "closed" state when released) and controls the direction the antenna motor spins. Pressed to one side, the antenna mast goes up until your release the switch, pressed to the other side the antenna mast comes down until you release the switch. If you keep holding the switch when the mast reaches full extension or full retraction not-good things can happen - there is no shut off in either case except for your finger.

If you just look at the dates, you'll see that the early 280Z (1975 - May 1976) has a different part number than the late 280Z (after May 1976 - 1978). How much the "Protector-Front Fend" changed I don't know. But if you check the part numbers, they are the same for the "2 seater" and "2+2" models and for the same date span.

And just get a large enough bulb size to more than fill the widest gap... Seam at the bottom.

Well, you can cover it up however you want but from the factory it was just a single sheet of fairly thin plastic glued on at the edges by that black goop with round cutouts for the bolt locations... It doesn't really "seal up the door" but it does give the door card - which falls apart when wet - some protection for those of you that live in places where it actually rains and snows.

Why not... It's just electricity. If you understand both circuits you can make it work.

Oh, okay, there's the reason for the floor / frame rail difference on the passenger side - to create a channel to better protect the hard lines. (The car I have in the shop is completely stripped - just wheels...) The Bad Dog rails fit perfectly over them though - with reliefs in all the right places for the contour of the floor(s).

Nope. Just went through this myself. The late (77-78) 280Z passenger side is nowhere near flat, the seat mounts aren't either, neither is the frame rail. The pan that S30Driver shows above looks more correct to me. In my case the 280 I'm working on was only rusted forward of the seat mounts. The replacement I was supplied is the same as the one the OP posted. I cut the front portion off and still had to do a lot of shaping to make it fit the hole. It's a much heavier gauge metal than stock so not a lot of fun. The owner also bought bad dog rails which fit nicely over the stock rails - I just had to do a little fab for the frame rail under the replacement section. If I had that green piece of metal shown above, it would have been much easier... If you need to replace the entire passenger floor, and you use what you have, you'll be fabbing seat mounts and frame rails. The passenger side frame rail isn't flat nor is it symmetrical - one side is longer (well, deeper) than the other. Seat mounts are shaped to fit the non-flat floor as well.

Other Nissan engines also used this or a similar AAR. Some with a coolant plate attached to the bottom, some without. Besides the ones listed in the threads posted by C.O. above, the early RB engines also used them. I think there's some very good information in those two threads if you read carefully. Most of us here in Arizona have just eliminated them when they fail - cuz our climate... It's a fairly simple device that, when unpowered, allows a certain amount of air to bypass the throttle plate. It consists of a shuttle that is moved by a bi-metal strip wrapped with resistive wire. At startup the valve gets battery power which heats the wire and thus the bi-metal strip. It is powered as long as the ignition switch is in the ON position. The bi-metal curls with heat and causes the shuttle to slowly close off the bypass air port. It takes a few minutes. Both the intake manifold and the models with coolant plates can keep the heat in the bi-metal - and thus the bypass closed - when the engine is running and for a period of time after shutoff (so a restart while the engine is warm doesn't necessarily have a fully opened bypass). Once it fully cools, the bypass is fully open again when it's in good operating condition.

Oh, in that case... I think I would buy the 240Z parts you were looking at - and use a 240Z Koyo radiator. That's what I'm using in my turbo-swapped early 260 (which has a 240Z style core support - they changed that design with the late 260Z->280Z). Great radiator even with A/C running in Phoenix and I daily drive Goldie. That's if you can't find a 280Z front end to remove from another shell. From the pics, you could use a bit more than just the core support.

The 280Z has a larger radiator (it's actually deeper) and the radiator core support "dives down" in the bottom center "U" like (it's 1 1/2" - 2" lower than the 240Z core support). If your 280 has A/C the 240Z core support will be missing the punch out(s) for the condenser tubing. It will also not have the correct brackets for the stock air cleaner. Those corrections could all be made of course, but the bottom of the core support would be the largest issue.

Correct. Some might think this a "lazy" way to do this but I'm one that always tries to make modifications that can be undone if / when someone wants to return things to stock. Re-using the spray bar and covering the oil supply ports with gasket to block them off is a simple and effective way to convert to internal oiled cam. It also leaves the spray bar in a place where it won't get lost. My mistake was forgetting to explain that to young Curtz at the shop...

The bolt threads into a nut that's welded to the frame. It's nearly impossible to keep the threads of the bolt and nut completely isolated (insulated from each other). So, just tightening the attachment bolt through the circle connector will give a very good connection to the frame - no need to scrape any paint off.