wheee!

Change the quarter glass gaskets. It’s fun they said. No problem they said... well, of course the fun began with a popped spot weld on one corner reinforcing bracket causing the bottom corner to pull apart. The thicker and fresher new gaskets for good, but they definitely require a little more exertion to get the frame on. I ended up making friend with my big clamp kit and got the corners together. I drilled and tapped a new hole through the popped welded corner and added a screw. The end result is great and the windows will be solid and water tight now. Whew!

Small things today. Got the door chrome molding in. Window still doesn’t like to move freely... Headliner in. Quarter glass mocked up for positioning.

This is the same set I looked at a year ago. They are not tight for the 75/76 model. They are the 76/78 style.

And because ‘squirrel!’....! I also tackled the quarter window rebuilds. Surprised at the amount of factory defects in the glass. Bubbles and pits. Surprising. Mounting them as is, a bit of nostalgia. Glass is okay. A few scratches etc but hey, they’re 40 years old!

Having fun with arts and crafts today...

That is not tar based sound deadener. It is butyl and it will take a semi truck to pull it off... been on the car for a couple years and some pretty hot days already. It’s there for good...

On to the interior trim...

Sometimes good ideas create so much work! I am installing a Gentex Homelink mirror in the car and will probably run a radar detector too, sooo..... How hard could this be? Well, the channel for the mirror mount is double walled and tight tolerances to run five wires... separate fused hot leads, one for Homelink always on, two for accessory power and two ground leads. I used Cat 5 wiring in twisted pairs, one pair for each circuit and a common ground. Redundant wires to increase signal integrity and strength.

Excited to receive the new supra 3.0 larger injectors today! Then disappointed to realize I forgot I will need new plugs for them and have to redo the fuel injection harness... ?

Oh look! Progress.....well, there is progress but you can’t see much of it outside the car...!

Details matter... added the gas flap and the rubber bumpers!

So after 6 hours of wiring and pin checking, I have a functioning set of flashers! Hazards and indicators work now! Amazing what a 75 harness connected to a 74 sub harness and a 76 flasher button Can do once you figure out all the wiring changes... @zKars Here’s another one of those things that are similar yet not alike! Oh, and I found the fog light connections. They are on the 74 sub harness. Unfortunately, they do not pin out to the 75 harness and go nowhere.

I’ve done that a couple of time’s... [emoji21]

I have a habit of buying items well in advance of needing them. The seat heaters were bought off eBay about a year ago. No warranty or return was still possible. A risk you take, but overall I have saved money buying things this way. After 6 years of ownership and 5 years of restoration, I budgeted $500 Cdn a month for purchases, not including things like suspension and brakes etc that obviously went over budget. A good example of this is the seat covers I put in the car came from [mention]zKars [/mention] years ago and I just put them on this week! I have a shift knob I bought in 2014.... never been out of the package.

Nope. Basically another $100 for a new harness and a spare set of seat heaters.

Here’s a good comparison of the old paint code 240 and the new DeBeers water based E2335 BRG. I think I nailed it. Close to the original colour but a lot more metallic.

I agree, but as a starting point for mass sales, it needs to be tamer.

This is the only acceptable starting point for a new Z. Lose the wing and canards and raise the stance. Done.

Well, full disclosure, I moved the pins to the proper connections at first thinking it was a simple misalignment. Unfortunately without any schematics, it wasn’t until hours of internet picture searching later that I found that the ground pin was swapped with the hot so alignment wasn’t the only issue. In fact the two that were connected are the only two correct positions...[emoji37]

I finished spraying the chrome onto the bezels. I know it’s not perfect, but until there are reasonable reproductions in chrome, they will do!

The problem wasn’t just missing the contacts, the power and ground wires were in the wrong places and the IC fried in the controller. The wires that did connect were wrong as well. I have ordered a new kit to replace the entire harness. I will definitely check the connections before powering it up.

Blech

Of course I can’t have all successes. The wiring harness for the seat heaters was wired completely wrong from the factory. Chinese quality control. The microcomputer circuit blew instantly and now I need a new harness. It was all plugged together from the beginning and I simply turned it on to find nothing worked. Then I found this...

First bezel out of the bath with a light sanding with 600 grit. Looks good! Second one almost done.

Seat heaters are a great way to relieve a sore back on a long drive. I am partial to them in my other cars and they were an easy mod to do at the same time as the seat covers. The Vintage Air system lets me push warm air out the centre or side vents too!