charliekwin

I've done a few installs, and humbly consider them to be pretty good. My likely plan would be to do a fiberglass enclosure in the spare tire well to house a 10 inch sub, amp and DSP on the rear floor and wideband drivers in the dash.

I have one, but it looks like this: Smells, too. It isn't the worst one out there, but considering the cost and difficulty of making a new one, I'm happy to do it. I have some ideas for sticking audio gear under the deck eventually, but that's way off.

Took an unplanned detour this last week, which started with trying to make a rear deck. I started on that, then realized I needed to re-install the taillight panel first. But before that could go in, the old weatherstripping had to come off, then the hatch came off...it all ended up being a bigger project than I expected. If you give a mouse a cookie... The old weatherstripping came off easily enough -- albeit in about a thousand pieces -- but there was a ton of stubborn, old adhesive left behind. It took a combination of heat, chemicals and brute force with screwdrivers and putty knives to get it off, but it's clean now. A lot of the paint and old sealer went with it, so I masked it off and my plan is to shoot some black rust converting paint and call it good for now. As long as it doesn't get any worse in the next few years when I can finally do (or pay for) proper body work and paint, I'm fine with it.

I gave it a try because my leftover resin went bad a while back and I couldn't bring myself to buy more for such small projects. Resin won't chemically bond to plastics, though the mechanical bond is usually strong enough for non-structural repairs. I haven't tested, but I'm pretty sure the ABS cement has a stronger bond. It's about the same viscosity as fiberglass resin; maybe a little bit thinner. It would ooze through if the crack was large enough and you used enough. My approach was to tack the pieces or cracks together with the cement first, then reinforce with the glass and cement. I had good luck using a toothpick to fill in cracks and gouges, too. Also, unlike resin which is chemically catalyzed, this stuff is solvent based and will start to thicken almost immediately. You also can't glop it on too thick or the outside will set and it'll take forever for the rest of the solvent to evaporate.

That ABS cement is the exact stuff I used to repair some of my interior panels. It's basically ABS dissolved in (I think) MEK. It will wet out fiberglass mat the same way resin does and dries hard and strong. A couple photos of panels I did recently: first patching up the speaker holes on the window panel: And the vent tank cover. I don't have an after on this one, but the repaired panel fell of my workbench and landed right on the corner of the broken side and was perfectly fine, and survived a fair amount of flexing to get it back in the car.

The odd/gross stuff I've found in mine doesn't even compare. You win!

Seats look great! I'm was planning to get a pretty similar set from Interior Innovations myself, so I'm glad to hear you have good things to say about the seat covers.

This stuff here: http://www.yourautotrim.com/blacperhead.html might make for a nice look. 1 yard should be just enough to do the job. Based on pictures I've seen of other headliners, 1/8" foam will probably need some additional padding. Everything I've read says the headliner is glued to the roof sheetmeal, but if the corner I peeled back is any indication, apparently a PO has glued a sheet of plywood to the roof. So that should be interesting.

Google tells me the guy's located in Glendale. I hate to say it, but nothing about that sounds like a surprise. What a pain :-/

I'm fine dealing with the vinyl (an easy thing to say as I sit here in my comfy office chair). My main reason for thinking about fabric was appearance, so I'll consider that a vote against it.

I was thinking standard foam-backed headliner fabric. Considered alcantara briefly, but decided that would be too modern and not look right. I think I know which leather one you're talking about (the perforated one?) and it sure looked nice, but I shudder to think how much it cost!

My headliner is sagging and a bit grimy. I already have a bunch of interior panels out of the car, so now is a good time to deal with it. I'm thinking of replacing it with cloth instead of vinyl -- some additional texture might look nice in there -- but haven't found any examples. Anyone done it? How do you like it?

It's in! First a few Raammat tiles on the tank cover and a little foam to prevent any rattling. Smartly protected the edges with masking tape after learning that lesson the hard way on the other side. If there's any way to get that piece of plastic back in place without cursing and snapping it in two, I couldn't figure it out. Since something was gonna have to bend, I picked the hatch strut support. I've also been using plastic christmas tree clips instead of the old expanding rivets to hold all these things in place. They're cheap, and I like the look of these better than the original ones. They're not perfect, but I tried a number of alternatives and they're the best ones I've found so far. Looks decent! I do want a vacuum table! I still have a few pieces left to do, including the shock tower caps. That might be a good one to do a proof-of-concept test on. We'll see...

Thanks for the reality check...I know they won't be seen much, but damn if those wrinkles don't bug me every time I walk past that thing sitting on top of the bar These pieces do make for good practice, but I'm really thinking hard about trying to farm out the dashboard to one of the vinyl guys here in the LA area. I'm pretty sure I'd end up with one of those creases right in the middle of the dash, taunting me forever.

Finished the one I was dreading the most: the vent tank cover. The PO started breaking it in the past, and I finished the job when I removed it last year, so did more of the ABS cement and fiberglass to repair it, and patched up a few other holes and cracks at the same time. Since it's getting wrapped and I'm not too concerned about what the panel looks like, I also wanted to test a restoration option: acetone. It brought back the shine and color to the shock tower trim, and did the same on the backs of some plastic panels. I did a fast, light wipe of the panel with a paper towel that was soaked with acetone. The results were surprisingly good. I don't know if it'll hold up over time, but for anyone looking for a super fast, easy fix, it's something that might be worth considering. Wrapping was a tough job. 4+ hours for the whole thing. I ended up cutting 3 seams into it but tried to keep them in areas that aren't easy to see; someone who's better at this could probably do it without cutting. There's also some wrinkles that I wasn't able to get out but those too should be in hard-to-see places. The face of the panel looks pretty good, though! Hopefully I can get it back in the car easier than it came out.

Terrible news. I haven't been part of the community for long, but like others here have said, I quickly learned that if John said it, that was good enough. I've learned a great deal from his posts here and elsewhere and am grateful for all the contributions he's made. Wherever he may be, thanks John. Drive on [emoji22]

I pulled up this thread just the other day because I was curious if you ever got it up and running again. So sorry to hear this, and I hope your prognosis is good. If you can afford to hang on to the car, I think you should. If you need the funds, then it's probably worth it to get it running again; "not running" knocks a ton off the price you can get. Best wishes either way!

Gah! And where were you with this advice a year ago!?! That's genius.

I can imagine the conversation with my wife: "The Z isn't running again." "Oh, what happened to is this time?" "Some dust got in it." And then back to the garage to get a beverage from the fridge.

Tested both the fuel pump and control relays and both checked out fine. The control relay looked like someone opened it once upon a time and I could hear something rattling around in there, so I cracked it open and this gasket-type material came out. My theory is that by pure dumb luck, a piece of that got stuck between one of the relay contacts and wasn't allowing it to close. Anyone else think that sounds like A Thing That Could Happen? Because I'm planning on taking the car out tomorrow and would prefer not to get stranded.

Thanks for helping point me in the right direction, Zed. Electronics and circuit diagrams are something I have a hard time groking, and this is right around the level where I start getting shaky, so I sure do appreciate it when people indulge my questions. Anyway, I think I was misunderstanding how the fuel pump control relay works. I had thought the fuel pump relay would close when starting the engine, which once running, closed the control relay via the alternator and oil pressure switches. With that line of thinking, I wasn't concerned about the control relay since I couldn't get it to start in the first place. Sounds like I've got it wrong. I just found this link (for future visitors who may come across this thread) http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/fuelpump/moreinfo.htm and after reading through it a couple times, it's starting to make some more sense. Guess I have a control relay to look at. I'll bet it's expensive!

As mysteriously as the problem starts, it resolves. I checked both of the green wires on the fuel pump relay harness and they both had continuity with the fuel pump (am I wrong in thinking that's odd?). Reconnected the relay again and everything works. So I have no idea.

Took the Z to work and back on Tuesday with no problems; Wednesday it won't start. Pulled the starter solenoid wire and hear nothing from the fuel pump. Working my way through troubleshooting so far: there's no voltage across the fuel pump terminals with the key in the start position. Fuel pump relay clicks with the key in start. All the voltage and continuity checks in the EFI Bible are fine. Negative side has continuity with ground, but the fuel pump runs if I give it 12V straight off the battery, so I guess there's an open circuit somewhere on the hot side. Tomorrow I'm planning on working my way through all the wiring, but are there any fuses or anything obvious I'm missing?

Heck, I wouldn't even mind a smog check if it didn't include the visual inspection. If the car passes the sniffer that should be good enough.

A bill to move the smog exemption up to 1980 has made it out of committee! A number of similar bills have been introduced over the years, but to my knowledge, all of them died in committee, so this is big news. There may be hope on the horizon for us 280 owners! http://www.dailyturismo.com/2016/04/coffee-brake-ca-sb-1239-moves-smog.html