MikeW

Perhaps a used filler tube in reasonably good condition would be better than trying to fabricate something: http://www.zparts.com/ads/restoration/restore_index.html

http://www.datsunzparts.com/start.htm

It's actually felt-covered rubber. Perhaps your felt wore off. I got mine from MSA recently at the same time I got a weatherstrip kit.

Reminds me of a joke I saw recently: While waiting for my first appointment in the reception room of a new dentist, I noticed his certificate, which bore his full name. Suddenly, I remembered that a tall, handsome boy with the same name had been in my high school class some 30 years ago. Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been my classmate. After he had examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended the local high school. "Yes," he replied. "When did you graduate?" I asked. He answered, "In 1971. Why?" "You were in my class!" I exclaimed. He looked at me closely and then asked, "What did you teach?"

I agree and $600 is more than I'd want to pay myself. Since Will apparently bought that particular pair I'd say that fair market value is whatever he paid. If the main reason he bought them was to be able to reproduce them and sell a bunch then that means they're probably worth more to him that someone else to just wants to use them. That might explain why they didn't sell at $600 for a long time.

Well, that's a surprise. I take it that the previous owner bought all of those replacement before letting the car rust in a field. It wouldn't make sense to start collecting parts without making any attempt to preserve the rest. We'll all be interested in seeing more pictures as you start digging in more ...

I'm guessing that's really "has ONE pair" and is "asking" for 600 bucks.

Absolutely. I have first hand experience with this making the gloveboxes. I started out making them completely by hand and as more people asked for them I improved the process by making templates and jigs. While I still haven't really broken even I am able to make them better and faster only because people were willing to buy them from me. Otherwise I would have stopped with the prototype that I installed in my car. I hope that Will can make the headlight covers work out as it's to the benefit of all of us. Others have talked of making braided hoses, etc. The more we can collectively support this kind of work the better. Nissan will certainly never start providing these parts again and the market is only getting smaller as these cars rust away.

My little magnet sticks to the headlight rings with about the same amount of force as it sticks to the bumper, the body of the car, and a piece of steel sheet metal. Strangely enough, it also sticks very well to the trim around the windshield which I thought was stainless. It does not stick to my headlight buckets (mine are plastic) and it does not stick to my side mirrors which are chrome plated but must be nickel or brass.

Stephen: I think you're confused by the other thread discussing headlight covers, not the ring that retains the actual headlight. From what I can tell it's not actually stainless steel as it's magnetic. See attached picture of a magnet sticking to mine. I know this the hard way as I have a stainless steel refrigerator and the ubiquitous magnets don't stick to it.

I understand the plexiglass mold part. What about the stainless steel trim rings? That seems like the more difficult part of the process.

I sent a simple question regarding the shipping price instead of specifically asking about Chloe. We'll see if that makes a difference.

Wow, it looks like you've got a lot of interest here. I'd certainly buy a set for that. How do you anticipate being able to do it for that price? It seems like it would take an awful lot of work just to get up to speed on the manufacturing process.

The <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx">Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP</a> package has a nice context menu image resizer. When you're browsing image files on your disk using windows explorer you can simply right-click on an image and choose "Resize Pictures". You're then given a choice of which size you'd like and whether or not to overwrite the original. It's a lot quicker and easier than having to load the image into a graphics editing program.

One simple-minded approach is to look for wear on the clutch, brake, and gas pedals. While these can easily be replaced it's more likely that a car that's really gone 112,000 (or 212,000) miles will show plenty of wear. It would be really unusual for a car to have only 12,000 and I would expect it to be in amazingly good shape.

See the link I posted earlier in this thread for information on reproduction black pearl decals.

Sorry, I missed this thread so ignore the PM I sent you a few minutes ago asking how it went. I'm glad everything there is Ok.

Now I know what you mean. It's not easy. After trying various techniques I finally came up with something that worked. I removed the interior dogleg vinyl trim panel and used a 6" adjustable clamp and a 13mm socket to force the bumper in. The socket provides a snug fit to hold the rubber door bumper and evenly distributes the pressure from the clamp.

I may end up with the same problem. Where did you get yours? I just ordered mine from VB - they're only $0.95 each - so they may not even be the same size and quality as the originals (which I never even had). I'll let you know how it goes. I did have a similar problem trying to install the gas door bumpers. I tried and tried to push them through the holes to no avail. In a moment of pure stupidity I then realized that the back side of those holes is actually on the inside of the car and that you just pull the bumpers through. Unfortunately that won't be an option for the door bumpers.

Since it only runs for a few seconds then I'd say it is what you suspected. Your compression ratio is obviously higher than normal so I would expect that you'd notice some pre-detonation while driving as well. I wonder if one of those octane boosters would help?

Will it continue running indefinitely? I'd carefully pull off the coil wire while it's running. I'm guessing that will stop the engine. If not then your hypothesis may be correct. Since you don't have fuel injection fuel will continue to flow and if it's continuing to run then that might indicate the equivalent of pre-ignition. If that's the case then a higher octane might make the difference.

It seems to me like this would be an electrical problem. When you turn off the ignition the spark plugs are supposed to quit sparking, right? Isn't that what really stops the engine - not cutting off the fuel flow. I'm no expert on the ignition system, especially for a fuel-injected 280Z, but that's where I'd start looking.

Yep. I've got door bumpers, wiper boots, and a new gas tank flap on order. I'm also getting new fuzzy window trim as well as the chrome outer molding with the rubber squeegee just because the originals are kind of shot. It's kind of nice to just have minor things that are relatively easy to do. I guess I also need a couple of those deck lid jamb plugs that someone else was asking about recently.

Well, I just tried to upload some more pictures to my gallery but it looks like a disk space problem: Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted at (null):0 :(tried to allocate 4800 bytes) in /home/virtual/site2/fst/var/www/html/photopost/image-inc.php on line 81 Oh well, let's see what happens with attachments.

I sent a scrap of the seat covers to <a href="http://www.dashboardrestorations.com.au/">Dashboard Restorations</a> for them to match the color. The seat covers, carpets, and headliner came from <a href="http://www.datsunrestore.com">Too Intense Restoration</a>. The door panels and window trim came out of a can of SEM vinyl dye. I did do all of the installation work myself and I'm still working on the rear plastic panels so the subject of this thread is actually an outright lie. :stupid: