Captain Obvious

Good luck with the project, and here's to hoping it works out great. One thing... Just because they say "no release agent" required, it's not always true. A little bit, even if it's just as insurance won't hurt!

The pistons are supposed to be hard to push up. I agree with the assessment that there is something wrong with the "easy" one. Sounds like the check valve jiggly bits on the stalk are not sealing correctly.

Neat project. I'm no expert on molding parts, but it really looks like a tricky project to me. I got some questions and ideas: Where are you going to put the parting line in the mold to separate it to remove the finished part? Are you planning to pour the mold in two stages and have the part line along the front and back faces of the finished part? If so, I would recommend against that. I think the part line would be much more hidden if it were along the top and bottom thinner edges of the part. A lot less post mold cleanup. But the problem is setting things up so that's where the parting line goes is more difficult. I've seen where people pour the whole thing in one shot and them use a sharp knife to cut the mold open to create the parting line and get the original pattern part out. But if that's what you're planning, I think you're going to have a hard time blindly "aiming" for the narrow edge of the pattern. Or are you just planning to pour up to the top edge of the pattern part and leave the whole top edge open? Some other thoughts... Make sure you use some sort of mold release on the stuff you don't want the silicone to stick to (like the wood and original pattern). I worry that the cross section of the part is going to end up wavy in the finished part. Especially if you don't come up with a way to mechanically support the mold as you use it. The mold is somewhat soft and squishy and it's going to be like pouring juice into a fish. How are you planning to hold the two halves of the mold together as you pour? And as for what material you make the mold out of, I'd go as soft as you think would be usable. It'll make it easier to get the finished parts out of the mold without tearing the mold. Honestly, I've never had great success on my first mold. I usually end up learning a lot on the first one and then making others based on my mistakes learned on the first one. In other words... I'd use something cheap and easy to work with and flexible for the first mold, because if you're like me, it won't be your final version. Then maybe use something stiffer the next time. I mean, I wish you luck and hope so, but that doesn't happen for me. I'm not that good!

Maybe it's just me, but I would be interested in seeing how a pair of good condition, well set-up, clean, straight up stock, not modified pair of SU's would work for you. I wouldn't be surprised to hear they worked great. Maybe a fraction of a turn down further down to account for the small change in displacement. Maybe not even that.

I used the softer (removable) RTV. My wooden knobs and plastic shift maps would not have appreciated hot solder. I'm no vibrations trained ME, but my very small amount of experience in the field has led me to the approach of damping and changing the resonant frequency of the vibrations instead of trying to prevent them with rigid means. Thinking about it like an oscillator... if the driving source is a different frequency than the resonant frequency of the load, you don't get much energy transferred to that load. It just kinda ignores it. That's my theory on the knobs. You can't prevent the vibration. You just have to tune the knob to a frequency very different than the source. Picture me crouched in my laboratory tuning my knobs. Wait... Ok. Don't picture that.

I'm hot. (I'd be hotter if you would turn the wheel so the logo is right side up. )

So you can make a four foot long complicated dashboard, but you can't make a ten inch long simple glove box door? What am I missing?

Haha! Wait... You're saying that all that transmission noise you've been banging your head against was the knob? Really?

Awesome. Glad it was that easy! I battled noisy knobs with the ones I've made. They act like little mechanical amplifiers. I use removable silicone on the inside spaces to damp the vibrations and glue the shift map in place. Admiral Obvious (I love that!)

I know you said it's not the knob, but just to make sure... Take the knob off while it's making the noise and see what happens?

Of course every car is different, but I've found the majority of electrical problems come from two sources: 1) Dirty or loose contacts 2) Previous owners The wires inside the harness should be pretty much trouble free unless they have been overheated in the past and melted through their insulation. If all the terminating contacts in the connectors and devices they connect to are clean and tight, and there are no signs of previous owner mods (hacking, cutting, changing the harness), then my inclination would be to try the original harnesses and see if they work. To do a quick and dirty test for gross problems, you can connect all the harnesses together out of the car and connect to a current limited power source and see what happens. Maybe install a couple key components like the dash and ignition switch. And with all the history of problems with the headlights and turn signals, I would take a good look at the control stalks too.

What about all the flat tappet direct actuation OHC Asian stuff like Toyota and Honda? I've been pushing that stuff around as daily drivers since forever and I've never had a problem with the new oils. Never heard about anybody wiping a cam there, and they don't use any roller valve trains. It's all sliding motion. Why don't they wipe cams? Why do they seem immune? Less valve spring pressure because it's 1:1 instead of something higher with a rocker?

Good. It's gone. Now I don't have to buy it.

studegard, I've alluded to a paint option that I believe is a great match to the original color (better than the other previously discussed easily available solutions), but I have to this point been clearly a little elusive, and for that I apologize. The reason for that elusiveness is I started messing around with this last fall and I ran out of warm painting weather before I had finalized my testing. I have spray samples that look great, but I didn't want to loose my findings on the Z community until I was closer to 100% confident in the results. My plan is to paint one of my taillight panels and then re-install it in the car along with the original panel which still retains the original factory finish. If after that test, it looks as good as I had hoped in several different lighting conditions, I'll pull the pin on the rest of the info I have. Unfortunately that won't be until sometime in the spring after it gets warmer. If you want to give it a try yourself, send me a PM and I'd be happy to fill you in on what I've tried. Maybe you can give it a shot too and provide a review using a second set of eyes.

Sure. The OP asked "Does anyone have a source for the correct color paint?" And to that question, several people have offered up suggestions of sources they think are the correct color. Some of them cheap and easy to find, and some of them expensive and much more difficult to obtain. But cost and availability aside, I believe all the responses to date have stuck to the topic. Every single one of them. Even the response where someone suggested that the question should not have even been asked in the first place and admonished the OP for even asking for help:

Here's a relatively thread where we were discussing that little capillary tube and it's involvement in replacing the water control valve. Lots of good info in there, but this other member already had an empty A/C system, so he didn't have to worry about breaking into it. However, I don't know if he disconnected the lines going to the evaporator or just moved the box out of the way to get behind it: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/58410-heater-valve-copper-thermostat-wire-do-i-have-to-remove-the-dash/

Oh yeah. So now I'm sorry as well. I forgot about that part. I don't know if you can manage to get enough room under the evaporator housing to get that capillary tube out. You jussssst might be able to loosen up the evaporator box and lift it up enough to get the capillary out without evacuating the system. But you're absolutely going to have to pull the dash to even have half a chance. Sorry for the potentially misleading info! That capillary temp control is a nice feature, but I wouldn't evacuate a working system to replace it. I'd just clip it off and switch over to a non-thermostatically assisted valve.

Nuh uhh.

Paint samples: My favorite. Wheel... Of... Paint!!

I did a lot of searching and that's where the previous suggestions for options came from. And I have no doubt that someone who has painting equipment and knows what they are doing should be able to mix up a great match to the original. Body shops do that every day. But that's not me, and not what I'm talking about. I went looking for a cheap, easy to obtain over the counter solution that would not require the expense of a body shop. Something better than the previous aftermarket solutions that might not be able to be distinguished from the original by all but maybe the most discerning experts. I'm gonna go back to stringing these guys along! Haha!!

What? You guys want more detail than that? OK, here's my evaluation of the original paint: It is a flat surface finish. It is a single layer of paint and is not clear coated on top. Meaning the flat finish comes from the one and only layer, not from a flat clear spray on top of a color coat. Looking under magnification, the original paint is a metallic flaked finish. There are sparkly bits present in the original coating. Even though it is a "metallic" paint, the flakes are very small and the density of the flakes is not very high. In other words, even though it's "metallic", it's just slightly. The reflective bits in the original finish do not "light up" the whole surface when light is reflected at any angle off the material. In other words, you can't angle the light to any position where the light reflects off a whole layer of metallic bits instead of the top paint surface. That last point may require a little explanation... I'm not paint guy, but from my investigations, it seems there are two ways to get a painted surface to reflect a lot of light. The first is reflection off a glossy top surface. The second is off a reflective layer (of shiny metallic bits for example) under the surface. Using the extreme case of a mirror as an example: You can get a light reflection off the smooth top surface of glass. You can also get a second reflection off the silvered layer beneath. You could spray the mirror with flat clear coat on top and break up the top surface, but you would still get a reflection from the silvered layer beneath. Might be blurry, but that thing would light up in the sun if you get the angle just right. So back to metallic paints... My analysis is that if the reflective bits are too populous, too large, the wrong color, the wrong shape, or all just happen to lay out in the same position, they will make the paint light up at a certain angle even if the surface is a dull flat. In other words, they will look great straight on, but at an angle you will light up the reflective flakes. An accurate substitution for the original paint would not only be the correct color and would be slightly metallic, but would NOT light up at any light angle. IMHO, all of the previously tried paints either were the wrong base color, or had problems with the reflective bits lighting up at a certain reflection angle.

Yeah, that's what I did as well. Chalked it up as a learning experience. And now that you mention it... I don't remember if I damaged mine taking the old caps out, or putting the new ones in. Vague fuzzy memory now seems to think I did the exact same thing you did and bent the ears putting the new ones in. Cheap aftermarket parts with some fraction of a thousandth off is all it takes.

If you don't drive your car in wet or salted roads, you'll probably be OK. Let's hope so!!

zKars, I honestly can't tell if you had sarcasm font on here or not. Are you saying that there really truly may not have been metal shavings? Or are you saying "You weren't here when I drilled the durn thing. I know what I saw, and you can kiss my old hairy arse if you don't believe me!"

If you're buying a commercially available tool, I absolutely agree. But that wasn't my point. My point is that the people who are making and selling these tools are kidding themselves (and their customers). I've worked on pins like you and wheeezie and no puller device was going to get that sucker out of there. No way, no how. Heat, oil, and more pressure was the only way. The unbreakable beefiest puller would have just pulled the nub off. And if the pin is NOT stuck so bad that heat, oil, and more pressure is the only way, then you don't need a puller at all. A couple washers, a couple nuts, and some taps on a nut on the other end will get it out. That's my theory and I'm stickin to it!