Captain Obvious

Here's a link to the thread where we were discussing such matters. My photo links are dead because Photobucket SUCKS!!! but there are some other pics in there that still work: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/56185-how-do-i-hate-rebuilt-components-brake-booster/

I'll provide a different opinion.... If you are painting the car "just to sell it" and I were the buyer, then I would probably prefer that you not paint it at all. That way, not only could I choose the style and color of paint I prefer, but I could also verify the integrity of the underlying metal instead of having potential issues hidden under fresh paint only to have them become visible shortly after purchase. The last two cars I bought were painted by the PO with the express intention of selling the car and I would have paid more for both of them if they hadn't been painted in the first place. So it all depends on who you're after. Maybe offer the car at two prices? Painted, or as it stands?

I'd be happy to, but honestly, if you actually saw arcing on the PC board, it's probably a goner. Was it a real expensive unit?

Wow. That guy really like$ his parts!! $$$

Stanley Jordan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3gHtPLXQOI

No Joe, I did not. I took mine off and put them back on, but they seemed in good enough condition that I reused my originals. Other owners like @Mike W have though. I think there are some pics on the earlier pages of my rebuild thread from Mike.

Looking at your pic, it looks like the front carb linkage is way open? The part that is supposed to be in contact with the tip of the adjustment screw is a quarter inch away from the screw? Kinda hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like something else is holding the front carb linkage down? But (from a distance) it looks like the center rod is assembled in the right location. Can you take a closer up shot of where that center linkage makes contact to the front carb tab?

BTDT. Grew back. Thankfully. Actually, the last time I hit a tree was the first time I ever rode a four-runner. I'd been riding cycles for years, but had never been on a four wheeler before. I was going five miles an hour just to get the feel of the thing. Came time to make a turn and I was leaning just as hard as I could, but the damn thing just wouldn't turn! No matter how far I leaned!! Ran into a row of ornamental trees in slow motion. Only things that got hurt that day were my pride and reputation. And yes, I've figured it out now... I just have to turn off the cycle reflexes and turn on the four wheel reflexes.

I don't know what that hole is for either, but my theory is the same as site's. A tooling hole for a locating pin to aid in dash alignment and installation. I may have mentioned this already, but I think I'm going to sell mine. The lack of focus from other drivers is so scary. The constant worrying takes some of the joy out of it.

Not sure if there's any confusion here about color or not, but starting in 77 Datsun started painting the arms and blade holders black. Some details in this thread here: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/58084-proper-wiper-blade-and-arm-color/ So the "correct" color for anything prior to 77 would be silver, but should be black for 77-78. And I'm not sure about the blade holders (solid vs. the rod style), but everything I've ever seen was the rod style regardless of year. I've not seen solid holders that were believed to be original as shipped.

Thanks guys! Yep, there are many ways to address the battery hold-down. I made that mod to an already needing to be replaced stock hold-down because it was free and was the fastest way to fix the problem for now. The long term pic is to fashion something similar to stock, but completely out of stainless. Jeff, your homemade bracket looks good. I've seen styles like that which are narrow through the center in case it had to fit between raised fill caps. You didn't need to worry about that with the Optima.

I disagree. I think it started to look nice a long time ago.

Yeah, Photobucket SUCKS!! I reloaded the pics at the (current) end of the thread. Take a look at page 4. http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/48621-steering-rack-disassembly-and-refurb/?page=4&tab=comments#comment-531913

I put an Interstate Battery (Group 24) in my 77 280 a couple years ago and I never liked the way the battery hold-down fit. Interstate has a stepped lip along the top of the battery that is juuuuusssst a little too big to fit inside the hold down bracket, resulting in a small contact patch on the top surface of the battery that is too small to provide what I consider a good reliable contact. In fact, it usually slips off one side or the other and wedges itself in on an angle. It's probably not just me, and I bet all you Interstate users know what I'm talking about. Here's the stepped lip that runs around the entire top of the Interstate. The inside dimensions of the battery hold-down bracket are just too small to fit around this lip: So I took matters into my own hands... I figured that my battery hold-down was rusty anyway and probably wasn't long for this world, I decided to try to make the situation better. With that in mind, I opened up the center hole in the original bracket a little bit to allow it to fit snug down against the step on the Interstate battery. I ran masking tape along the top of the bracket to give me a quick-n-dirty guide for how much material to remove and started grinding. I used an angle grinder for the bulk removal and a file to even it out and get into the corners: In this pic, you can see how much metal needed to be removed from the long sides of the bracket. If you look carefully at the top edge, I have removed metal back to the tape line near the corner, but towards the left side there is still metal beyond the tape. That's about how far back it needs to me removed to fit over the lip: And when you've done that process to all four inside edges, the modified bracket now fits snug and square against the top of the lip of the Interstate: The rear mounting hole is almost out of travel, but with a washer under the bolt head it still catches just fine: On my long term to-do list is to make up a full custom stainless bracket specifically for the Interstate, but until then this one fits way better than how it did originally. No more squirming battery and no more worry about shorting the battery cables to the mounting bracket since the bracket is now a half inch below the cable connections:

Yeah, I'm sure the spring is NOT stainless, but I believe the rest of the assy is. @dmorales-bello, why is it you don't think your arms are stainless?

Cool. So you had the three screw round tops? Was it titled as a 72 being built that late in the year, and you think the carbs were original? Maybe a transition period at the end of the 71 run? Everybody talks about the mid-year changes in 74. Maybe they did that kind of stuff in other years too.

You can't always use a magnet to positively identify stainless. There's plenty of stainless that IS magnetic. If it's steel and it's non-magnetic, then it's stainless. But if it's steel and it IS magnetic, you still can't rule out stainless. It might be a magnetic grade. I believe (from the fact that they are steel and haven't rusted) that the wiper arms ARE stainless.

Yeah, that's what I figured. You need to remember (or be told about) the "good old days" back when cars didn't do that compensation for you. The 280's were in a "mid-period" where they actually tried to mitigate that situation for you through the use of the auxiliary air regulator and take some of the manual drudgery out of your hands. Before that (with the 240 and 260), you manually used the choke lever yourself to modulate the cold idle speed. Consider it one of the endearing features of driving such a cool car. Now, you just jump in your Civic or your Sentra, turn the key, and pull out of the driveway before the starter has even wound down to a complete stop. It's all computer controlled. Thank you Moore's Law!!

72 does that. That's the only year that pushes coolant from intake manifold into the carbs. Good luck and here's to hoping the fix was as easy as a couple new gaskets!

Yes and yes. Most noticeable at idle, and could possibly be affected by temperature.

I believe he penned that between vampire hunting expeditions, right?

@Mike You might want to look into this.

Yeah, I'd want metal to metal. I'm no coatings expert, but most powder coatings I've messed with are much thicker than a coat of traditional solvent based spray. I'm thinking that one thin coat of traditional paint isn't nearly as problematic as a thick powder coat. Also, I believe powder coating is actually a thermoplastic coating (polyester?) melted into place. Reheat it and it melts again.

When you say "powder on the end of the flanges"... If what you mean is that you have powder coating on the mating surfaces of the flanges where the driveshaft mates to the differential, or where the axles bolt at either end, then I agree with your tech. I think there should be a hard, predictable, metal to metal contact there, and I worry that powder coating on those surfaces can extrude and squish out from between the two faces. Especially once things get hot and the coating softens from the heat. If that happens, you will end up with loose connections and it will snowball from there and probably result in snapped bolts. Might just be me, but I'd razor scrape off any paint on the mating surfaces and just apply a very thin coat of oil instead.

The early Z's used a simple vinyl covering on the A-pillars, but in 77 they switched to a screw retained plastic trim A-pillar cover. Well Datsun must have messed up some dimension somewhere because the plastic trim covers often crack due to the stress of tightening the screws. On my right hand side, I had one of the screws pull through. Cracked the plastic mounting hole clean off. My first attempt to remedy the situation was to simply buy another used pair somewhere off some forum. Unfortunately, the donor pair I bought not only had the same problem, but it was even the same screw, same location. This meant that I couldn't even use one side from my original pair, and the other side from the donor pair. It became clear that this is a common problem and it's not just me. With that in mind, I took matters into my own hands. Here's what I started with. My right side. Completely cracked off mounting hole in the lower position: It's supposed to look like this. Here's the other side where the screw boss is still intact: Figuring I had nothing to lose, I put a piece of tape over the hole on the visible side: Crosshatched the plastic on the hidden side: Taped a short length of small diameter cardboard tube where the mounting boss should be and filled the moat with epoxy: Gave it a day to cure, peeled off the cardboard, and using a dremel and some hand filing, I contoured the new boss to fit the into place on the car and drilled the hole for the screw: Countersink the other side for the screw head: Used a small brush to paint the exposed epoxy: And after the paint dried, the repair is nearly invisible: So I also figured that since I'd already seen two broken bosses, I would take the opportunity to reinforce the remaining ones which had not broken off (yet). I crosshatched the area and blobbed on a generous amount of epoxy to support the posts. And while I was looking at everything, I also noticed a couple small cracks starting to form along the edges, so I made a couple metal splints and epoxied them into place as reinforcement. After all this work, these things should be good for another forty years. Here's one of the splints next to a reinforced mounting boss: Installed back in the car, and I know it's the little things, but I don't have to look over at the right side of the car and see that missing screw in the cracked off mounting boss! Happy Happy!