MikeW

The tar mats are glued on. There is likely paint on top of them.

Hopefully he'll verify that it was replaced while he had the car. If he swears he never changed it then someone is forgetting something and I'm hoping it's not you. Clearly it's a later console and the fact that it has the ash tray with the sliding cover behind the shifter confirms that. The early fuse panel cover with the integrated ash tray/lighter doesn't even look like it fits properly in your picture. The two switches in that cover are not original. Do you know what they control? Is the ash tray part still functional?

Welcome. Can you post some pictures (of both cars) so we can make a better judgment? If the windows were down for 12 years I can't imagine that the floorboards are in good shape unless the car was in Death Valley or another part of California that doesn't get any rain. Until you pull off the tar mats it's hard to know what shape they're really in.

Plugging 21501-U0100 into Google has exactly one hit: http://www.oldcarparts.mygarage.com/datsun_nissan_parts.htm ... which indicates that it's for a 610.

Even though Jasper is based in Indiana I believe they do all import engines somewhere on the west coast like Oregon. I sent my original engine to them for a rebuild. I think it took a couple of months but I wasn't in a hurry. I don't know what their international policy is as shipping is simply part of the price.

Considering that the author of that 10 year old information has already contributed multiple times to this thread I see no reason to doubt it. Perhaps he has an updated version somewhere. The mere fact that it's HLS30-00048 is a good enough reason to claim that it's an '69 car. The fact that it was delayed somewhere just makes it interesting. One could argue that the last day of November 1969 to the first day of February 1970 is really just a 2 month delay. Since we don't know the actual days of the month that's pure speculation.

I can't answer your carpet question but the weatherstrip "kit" is most certainly the aftermarket "Precision" brand kit. I used this kit myself and have no problem with it except for the door seals. There have been a lot of threads on this in the past so you should be able to find them easily with a search. As far as I know your only other option is to go with OEM Nissan rubber which will be more expensive and won't come as a set; you'll have to buy the pieces individually.

https://www.classiczcars.com/store/ It appears as though the security certificate expired recently so your browser will likely complain about it but the link and site is valid. -Mike

In my experience a frozen caliper works the other way: little to no braking on that side. I suppose it depends on the position of the caliper when it sticks. Does the car pull to one side when braking? You might have a slight rub but if you're still able to turn it by hand I don't think it's all that bad.

This is the VZ formerly owned by ZRush. Note that the seller claims in the ad that this one is the best of the 7 VZs he has owned. I have no reason to doubt that.

Does it always leak from the same spot? I'm wondering if there's a defect in the valve cover or head itself that's causing a normal gasket to not work properly. It does seem like a compressible gasket would seal better than stock which is more like cardboard.

Exactly. The key is to start with the proper grade and move to finer grades in the smallest possible increment. Each iteration needs to completely remove all of the scratches from the previous. Absolutely, if you can start with 1000 then you're in great shape as your cover must not have any problems to begin with. You may have some scratches that you are willing to live with because you're not willing to go coarse enough to remove them completely. In that case you might end up with a very nice high polish in between all of the defects.

This all depends on what results you want. If your valve cover already has scratches and nicks from dropped tools, etc., you need to be way more aggressive if you want those imperfections gone. You really have to try the sandpaper method yourself to see how well it works. You'd end up spending far too much time to get results that are not as good if you don't start out at the proper level of abrasion.

Are you sure 1000 grit is the right place to start? I seem to recall starting with 100 or 150. The key here is to use the proper paper to remove all of the defects at that level. You switch to a finer level only when it's time to remove the scratches left by the previous level. If you go to fine too soon it will take a lot more time in the long run.

Amazing. I've always liked the Countach as well and Cannonball Run was a great movie for car buffs. Interesting trivia: it was Jackie Chan's movie debut in the US. Here's another home-built car project that blows me away:

I used a Dremel tool with their polishing kit. It's a lot of work, obviously, and doesn't come out as well using sandpaper on the large flat surfaces. Have your already started this project and if so, how is it going?

In this case it sounds like their kid and their kid's friend is dead so I'm sure the parents are beating themselves up. That's just speculation on my part since I have no idea what the real story is here. Here's the latest news story I could find: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6076553.html

If by console you mean the heater control panel I've got one that is broken but complete. Even though my '72 is different than your '73 it should still be the same for purposes of mocking something up.

I started to make the same comment but then was able to re-parse the sentence in such a way that "replaced by the dealer at purchase time in 1971" could really mean "replaced by the original dealer three years later".

Fresh air intake horns. This air goes to the vents in the floorboard area. These vents are controlled by the pull knobs under the dash. With cracks there might not be as much flow but there's never much flow anyhow since the fan does not push this air. I doubt they can be fixed but they can be replaced. My car was missing these horns when I bought it and I never knew I was missing them.

I wonder if there's a SEM vinyl/plastic dye close enough to that color?

On the right side of every post in every thread is a post number that is actually a link to that specific post. I tried to post a link to the whole thread as well as the specific post with the pictures (#68) but it didn't work properly for me and I ended up editing my post to remove the link to the entire thread.

It's been well publicized that MSA has two kits: The standard kit: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/SBC1B10A/30-7313 The premium kit: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/SBC1B10B/30-7317 ... and that the premium kit is from Zedd Findings. Which did you get?

I assume it's the same car that has been discussed all along. Specifically, this post, from a month ago, clearly shows that the floor pans have been stripped down and look to me, in the picture anyhow, to be in good shape: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=268363&postcount=68

While I haven't used them personally I can tell you from years of reading messages here that everyone who has ever used them thinks the Zedd Findings floor pans are top notch; you can't do better. http://www.datsunzparts.com/NewParts/summary.htm It does surprise me that Les couldn't provide them for you directly ...