dmorales-bello

Curious event yesterday. I was asked by my paint/body man to show my 280Z to a "friend" of his. I accepted and they showed up at my house at 3pm. The "friend" was Slick Humphries of the Discovery Channel's "Highway to Sell" series and owner of Slick's Garage. He's been a s30 fan forever (turns out his first car was 260Z and owns a similar car at this time) and wants to feature a Z project on his show. My 280Z is already "done" but he would like to use it on the show nonetheless. He mentioned what all of us already know: classic lines, iconic Japanese car, reliability, relatively low cost to own and restore, etc. and emphasized that interest for our cars is peaking and he wants to run that wave. Let's see if anything comes out of this and I'll keep you guys posted.

My kind of folks...

There's another useful detail I forgot to mention or photograph. In the 280Z the front marker lights have a rubber shroud attached to the rubber seal. In contrast, the rears only have the rubber seal without the shroud. The reason for this difference is that the rear lights are inside the vehicle and protected from the elements whereas the fronts are only partially protected by the plastic fender liner and are thus at least somewhat exposed to the elements. I made sure to use a weather resistant 1157 socket (plastic unit with a rubber gasket) and I used black Plastidip to give the back of the casing a couple of coats but finally decided to use the rubber seal/boot from my stock lights to give the whole thing real waterproofing.

I decided to do the fronts only to mimic what I see in today's vehicles. I've yet to see a contemporary car with rear fender turn signals. I think those front fender turn signals are meant mainly to warn vehicles in your blind spot that might not see your rear turn signals due to their advanced position in relation to your vehicle as to your intentions to turn or change lanes.

I had the same problem initially but found these shorter bulbs at Pep Boys for $20 a pair. Nice and bright, too.

For some time I felt I wanted to update the safety aspect of the 280Z by making the front fender side marker lights function additionally as turn signals along with the front turn signals on the grille. Since I didn't want to experiment with my stock lights I purchased a set of marker lights from Thailand on Ebay. The quality of the metal case was surprisingly good, much like (or perhaps better than) the Datsun part. I pulled it apart and removed the 1156 socket, widened the resulting opening to accept a GM 1157 socket which snapped into place and sealed the joint with black silicone. I did have to lift the front end of the car in order to remove the fender liner and do the electrical work which included a new 3 wire connector and an extra wire from the front turn signals to each side marker ( green/red on the left side and green/white on the right). Now the Z turn signals incorporate the front side markers and bring that aspect to today's safety standards. Datsun_280Z_Fender_Turn_Signals.mp4.crdownload

I found a rubber grommet from the firewall of a 90s Chevy Camaro that was an almost perfect fit. Used black silicone sealer to get the rest of the way. Has been working great to this day.

You're getting closer to perfection every day!

Went at it late last night and got the damage repaired with the help of a buddy of mine (and a couple of beers). The welds had failed due to surface rust, nothing deep really. Cleaned it up and decided to fill in the gaps between the hatch skin and the underlying steel frame with body panel epoxy glue. Not only will this help hold the two parts together but it will eliminate any spaces between the two surfaces and prevent rust in the future. Welded the edges and also drilled and tapped holes close to the location of the original tig welds. Placed 2 screws, removed the screw heads, cleaned everything up and applied some touch up paint. Feels very solid and lined up with the car even better than before with a couple of 1mm aluminum shims we fabricated and placed between the repaired tab and the hinge. All in all, a good thing came from a lousy one. That rear end of the hatch sticking out a few millimeters beyond the car body had bothered me a lot but hadn't figured out a way to line it up any better. Finished the job at 2:00am but here are some pics. I'll shoot some more pics of the rear hatch alignment with the car body later today and post. Thanks for all the great tips once again!

Thanks for the tips. Just sprayed some WD40 Penetrant and will hold off until tomorrow to repair.

Patcon, would I have to take off the hinge from the car in order to weld onto the hatch? How is it attached on the car side, bolts or welds?

The driver side tailgate hinge snapped off on the hatch door side last night when I was opening the hatch !! On closer inspection it looks as if it had been glued from factory, not welded. I will be taking the hatch door off to repair and re-attach the hinge tonight but would appreciate any forum members' experience with this issue.

Brought out the speedo and tach to do the same work I did on the center instruments: clean-up, polish lenses, paint needles fluo orange to match. Will reinstall tomorrow.

Congratulations !!! Well deserved.

Congratulations !!! Well deserved.

Yes, Greg. There are LED replacements in virtually every bulb inside and out, including the headlights. These are the ones I used for the tail lights:

Thanks Greg. The current 2 part clears are much more resistant to the elements and UV radiation than the 40 year old plastic lenses so no matter how much you polish them the end result will be much better and durable if you clear coat them. Go for it pal.

When the lines of the car allow it, a non metallic color helps highlight those beautiful lines without distractions. I really like that Porsche non metallic Slate Grey for the shape of our classic Zs and chrome trim will look great on it. A black interior will fit right in as well. Having said that, I opted for a Lamborghini orange pearl from the 2015 Aventador (Arancio Argos Pearl) on my Z. That paint uses the same base pigment as the Datsun 110 orange and that helped me wrap my mind around the color change.

Thanks! That charge light is stock on the 77 and 78 Zs. Not sure about all 280s. Lights up to alert charging failure.

Finally got around to installing a set of JDM tail lights (thanks HR369) after freshening them up a bit. Also freshened up a calendar clock I obtained from Greg as well and put that in my instrument cluster with a few "details" done to match the instruments.

Thank you. That clears it up nicely.

Can't find any pics of this decal inside the glove box door in which all the information has been filled out. What does VH and FH stand for?

Hi Greg, Lol! Totally correct on both counts. Your JDM tail lights and calendar clock will be on by next weekend now that I finally have some free time. I'll post those pics immediately afterward. I think I'm just gonna spruce up my stock starter with a good scrubbing and some paint.

Great information, all! I can see a clear picture emerging now . Is a ZX starter really NLA from Nissan? All I can find are remans.

Thanks for all the opinions guys. As far as I can tell, '78 280Zs (not sure about previous 280s) and ZXs already have a gear reduction starter from factory. The real question is what makes the CD starter "heavy duty" and "lightweight" compared to stock. I wrote them to ask precisely these questions but have not gotten an answer yet. I will report back as soon as I get an answer.