Captain Obvious

Beautiful work. I wish my car was that clean! What kind of bushings are you using? Stock rubber style, or poly?

I thought the doctor said that cleared up?

I looked at the page and saw the notes about being reproductions. Are you guys saying that's not what it said when he first relisted them? It's pretty clear to me that he's aware of the discussion here and is watching the site. He cut the gloss after we talked about it earlier (and it's still wrong), and he changed the verbiage to include notes about them being repros after you guys went off again. At this point, if he's clearly advertising that they are repros and not OEM or NOS, then I can't complain about the current auction. I can only complain as proxy for the people whom he has already ripped off before we called him on it. I wonder if he's contacted past customers and offered them a refund. I know if I dropped a grand on these after finding out they were misrepresented as being recently discovered New Old Stock, only to find out that they were not NOS at all... I would be Pissedd with a capitol "P". I know I'd be all over eBay's fraud department if I had bought a set.

One last thought on this project. Should you decide to stick with the 7mm bolt idea... I would hate to find an 11mm headed bolt where a 10mm head should exist. You would only need to grind off about .020 per flat to get the head size down to 10mm where it belongs. Surely there's enough meat on the head to do that. You'll grind through the plating, but you'll have the correct size head. If you started with un-plated stainless, you wouldn't even know the difference from the outside.

Excellent. Just another example of a fifteen minute job turning into a two week long expensive ordeal. We've all been there, done that!

If that's the extent of the body work done on a 40 year old car, I think you're still way ahead of the game. But back up a little bit... When you say "airline stripper", are you talking about the methylene chloride based paint stripper? If so, then I think you are using the wrong product there. Any of the methylene chloride based strippers are extremely aggressive, and I wouldn't want them anywhere NEAR my paint unless I was actually using it to remove the paint. I wouldn't let that stuff touch paint that I was intending to keep. If you're trying to get adhesive residue off, I'd use WD-40.

M6 x 1.0 is the one used ubiquitously all over the Z (and all the rest of the Japanese stuff). I checked my metric set and I've got M7 x 1.0, so it appears that a M7 with the necessary pitch IS a standard and is easily available option. Assuming, of course, that my set has "standard" sizes. (As a point of reference, I've also got both M6 and M7 in a 0.75 for the finer pitch.) So if you decide on M7 x 1.0, the trick would be to retap it to the larger size, but carefully start the tap so you're cutting the new threads in the same location as the old threads. Taking advantage of whatever remains of the original peaks and valleys. As for needing to drill out the old hole first or not... If the pilot drill for a M7 x 1.0 tap is a 6mm (.236) drill and you've already ripped the M6 threads out of the original hole, it should be just about .236. Whatever you do, just don't break off a tap in the hole. A brand new sharp tap with suitable cutting oil should be pretty forgiving though, and it's not like you're tapping a very deep hole into thick material. You'll only have a couple threads cutting at once. Getting the tap started square (normal) to the hole is important. If you're unsure of your ability to do it freehand, drill a just fitting hole in a piece of wood to guide the tap and keep it perpendicular to the hole.

If the female threads are pulled through, then I don't think 1/4 inch threads size is going to solve the problem. M6 and 1/4 inch threads are so close to each other that there isn't enough meat to recut the threads. And if you do decide to try... absolutely do not drill first. Just run the 1/4 inch tap into the existing hole. There's no reason to enlarge the existing hole. You'll cut across the existing threads fine. But I don't think any 1/4 size will suffice. And if the thread pitch for the M7 is different than the M6, that's not the answer either. But if you can find a M7 bolt with the same pitch as the original M6, you could retap to M7. And I would have to look at the drill sizes before deciding if it required a redrill first. If you're looking for a small diameter head, you might want to consider socket head cap screws? Won't look anything close to stock, but it should have a smaller head than anything else you'll easily find. 5/16 - 18 SHCS maybe if you can't find a suitable metric option?

I also saw them on the New York craigslist yesterday or the day before as well. However, I just looked a second ago, and couldn't find them anymore. I'm thinking someone flagged them and the ads were pulled. The worst now is that we told him they are fakes. And he even acknowledged on ebay that they are fakes after we cornered him: "I took a vacation trip to Asia countries. I found a few set. I kept 1 set for my car. Tell you the true. I did not know they are reproduction or restored, they look brand new to me." So now he clearly knows! But despite that fact, he is still peddling them in other places as NOS. It's deceitful.

I believe you can see a blurry reflection of the perp in some of the ebay auction photos. It might be my imagination, but I might also see the front end of a white Z reflected in there as well. Haha!! Amateur detective mode off! Yet another application for the Esper photo analysis machine that Blue was supposed to build.

I was going to cut the stubs off completely, so if there's someone who could use them as lowering devices as they exist, then that would be a better thing to do with them. The best thing would be for you to be able to sell or give them to someone who could use them as is!

I wonder how the people who already purchased sets of these would feel to be learn that the parts were misrepresented as NOS from the OEM, but are in fact newly pressed repros. If I were judging at a concourse show, I would slam these things hard in my judge eval. I also wonder if the people selling these have properly claimed them (and the value they represent) on their customs import forms. I also question the country of origin as Japan. I wonder how that can be confirmed. I mean, I'm all for parts being made available. And if repros are necessary because originals are unavailable, then I got nothing wrong with that either. But clearly advertise and sell them as repros. Passing them off as OEM or NOS, or rebuilt originals is deceitful.

So earlier there was a question about the crenelated rubber washers for the moustache bar. Anyone have any input into this? Anybody have an idea where the solid ones came from? Some different application?

Hmm...I disagree. I believe the results would be completely predictable. With suitable plugs on the ports, I don't think there would be any question about what would happen! Completely predictable!

I didn't know that either. What's with the lead? Is it in the old formulation of the grease?

You should report that to ebay. I believe if there was no reserve, he is obligated to some degree. You should sic the ebay dogs on him. First for counterfeit parts, then for improper business practices.

Other options on CL for the same parts: Orange Co CA - For sale by "Brad": https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/pts/d/datsun-240z-hubcaps-excellent/6484684385.html https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/wto/d/datsun-240z-hubcaps-excellent/6501221907.html Or the previously mentioned ad from Spokane, WA - Also by "Brad": https://spokane.craigslist.org/pts/d/datsun-240z-hubcaps-excellent/6484688936.html Maybe someone should give Kevin a call. There is a phone number in the CL ad... There is apparently a plethora of these really hard to find expensive parts to be had. In fact, so many, that they shouldn't be either expensive, OR hard to find.

If you decide to completely bail on everything you have done so far and toss the parts, I might be interested in the cut down front spindles for an experiment.

As opposed to the rest of us completely normal and well socialized examples of humanity!

Haha!! I know!! And it's cruel! Cruel to post pics of building the tool, but no pics showing how well it works. Seriously though, it looks like a neat project, and I hope the results turn out great.

Seriously? You posted all kinds of pics of the start of this project and you didn't show any parts that you actually blasted??? Seriously? WOOT! I'd be all over that NOHO like a... Well like a guy who likes a good beer! Hoppy and strong, just like me! And I'm bitter too!!

The coolant that goes through the heater core never goes through the radiator. It comes out of the hot head (at the back), passes through the heater core, and goes back to the water pump inlet without ever passing through the radiator. So the theory is that when you bypass the heater core you allow "too much" heated coolant to go directly back to the water pump inlet without ever passing through the radiator to cool it off. It has been said that this can result in over-heating, hot-spots, or both.

Floors look great. Not sure you blew the core itself, or just one of the lines leading to it. But at this point, you can be glad you don't have the A/C. It makes the heater core and tubing work much easier!

Ummm.... That's six words. You sure you wanted me involved?

Here's a pic of the back of some of the valve at the spoke location, but the pic is a little far away and hard to tell. They are also the fat finger variety: