EScanlon

Dave; Are you saying it WOULD be fair to charge $125, even though your costs/labor MIGHT HAVE gone down with "mass" production? Or that you should reduce your price because as you improve your productivity, it isn't as costly? Both premises are fair. That's just plain old capitalism at work. It's also a direct result of the "Supply - Demand" curve, and it's derivative functions of production and consumption. You've established that at $125 you CAN sell SOME units. If you raised the price you'd probably sell LESS, and if you lowered the price you'd probably sell MORE. (Supply and Demand) But then you have to consider productivity....could you produce MORE - - FASTER; or would you then have a backlog of back-orders? Would your customer's wait? That there aren't any others producing a similar/like/identical item is a bonus to you. Don't confuse that with security. If your price remains high, and someone else determines that they can produce something that would be competitive for less, then...... That's when the real competition begins. For now, any improvements in production, reductions in costs that accrue from that or from larger quantity purchases are .....profits. If you choose to lower your price to, in essence, make it more difficult for someone else to produce something for the same money, then that begins to secure your sales and production. But don't forget that you are selling to a closed market. That is, it's not growing (no new 240 Z's are being produced), and once you've sold a harness to a customer their need is satisfied. (Let's not get into planned obsolescense). So, if I were to toss in 2¢ of advice, use the extra time and money you profit and investigate how to provide a harness for the 260 and 280's. That's called R&D. E

I presume the little plugs that Ziebart used to use (Yellow with their name) are gone. If that's the case, and if there are no Ziebart dealers in your area that could help (don't recall if they're out of business or not), then definitely take a stroll to the hardware store and see what you can find. The worst thing you could do is to remove the plug caps and not replace them with anything. I agree with you that to go to the trouble and expense of trying to repair the holes would be more trouble than it would be worth. Ziebart is not necessarily a bad product but removing it would be a real chore. E

To give yourself a better idea of the extent of the rust, look through the inner rocker panel to the outer skin via the holes in the inner rocker panel. \ You'll probably need an inspection mirror to do this right, but that and a flashlight will tell you what you are looking at. On the inner rocker panel, you'll find the vinyl overlay that's glued to the metal. Carefully lift the panel off the adhesive and you'll see some reinforcing stamped holes in the sheet metal. These allow you to look all the way through to the outer sheet metal of the rocker panel. Enrique

I'm going to subscribe to this thread, as I'd like to see the outcome if someone tries it. I don't have any one of the cars ready for paint so it would be a while before I could test / report on it. I would, however, be interested in hearing other's experience with it. This reminds me of the way I used to watch Taxicabs get painted in Mexico City, by their owner/ operators. The key to this type of work / results are your own diligence in exacting work, and lots of it. Another form of craftsmanship. s it plausible/possible ? Absolutely. Feasible? Depends on how much time and most importantly, energy you have. If you work on the car, one section at a time and keep track of where / what you've done you can definitely achieve great results. But it all depends on how much skill and determination you have. Wet sanding a car isn't just stroking the paint with a particle impregnated piece of paper, it's careful and methodical scupting of the bodylines. Plane carve a curved fender and you "scalp" the paint, avoiding a bend and you fill it in. All of these tend to "dull" the bodylines of the car. If you are good enough to do a good job of wetsanding, then you CAN achieve beautiful results with this method. Speaking as someone who's wet-sanded a lot of cars, it isn't just a couple-hour job. If you haven't done it in a while....it can get VERY tiring. But you next need to look at your palette of colors. The type of paint that would work really well with this technique is a monochromatic enamel. You would need to ensure that the paint used is homogeneous, i.e. all the same, as opposed to comprised of individual components as in the Metallics. The subtle shading effects possible with a metallic will have a positively different sheen and "texture" (the "lay" of the metallic particles) being rolled on than sprayed. That's just simply the nature of the beast, it's the suspension of metallic particles in a translucent environment. It might prove to have a decidedly different and surprising effect. The colors available are also going to make it an interesting result. But, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that technique. E

"YES!, We have No, Z-Mania; We have no Z-Mania, TODAY!" If you know what I mean. Gary knows! Green Toad to you my friend. E

Well that confirms something I thought I "knew" and had become ambivalent on. Excellent piece Will. E

http://www.craigslist.org/eby/car/133285648.html T E N C H A R A C T E R S

If you've read the posts about the 105 amp Alternator, then you SURELY couldn't have missed the even MORE posts about melting fuseboxes, wiring and combination switches. The problem as Arne stated is that the original wiring has problems inherent in it's design when age and regular wiring resistance creep into the system. Resistance steps up not only at the connections but also in the wiring itself, and ultimately this causes the wiring and connections to heat up which ultimately cause failure.....i.e. melted wiring, fuseboxes, switches. If you compare the electrical system to a plumbing system (and don't laugh, the analogy gets used in College when discussing circuitry), then you can understand that when the system has a bunch of clogs and leaks you don't add a bigger pump! Sure, for the first few times things would ~seem~ to flow better.....until it explodes! Maybe the reason you don't see much about the 105 amp alternator is that most people understand that concept. More juice making CAPABILITY isn't going to help if you don't have the capacity to transport it around the car without melting the whole car. Dave's system allows the original wiring to handle an even LOWER current than it was designed for, to actuate a secondary system that then feeds the power hungry headlamps. Think of it as Bypass Surgery around a clot / clogged artery. E

Rick; Unfortunately, a LOT of the time it isn't the "boys in blue" but the maroons in the court that are the problem. The cops will aprehend and send to jail and then the bleeding heart liberals will scream about the rights of the criminal and the perp will find himself in and out of jail faster than the cop can finish the paperwork. Then the real fun begins, because if the perp tried to run away and in getting caught he fell and skinned his knee, then once again the liberal maroons will now sue the cop, the city, the county, the state, and anyone else even remotely near the scene for having "infringed" upon the perps "rights". (Don't you know it is well within a perps rights to run away, but NOT for the cops to chase him?) And if the perp FOUGHT while being caught? Then it's worse, because the REALLY bleeding heart liberals jump in and demand that the police department be summarily investigated and dismissed, because "everyone" knows that a perp would NOT fight back unless he was being "abused". Then they get REALLY suit happy. That's when the family of the perp jumps in and we find out that this saintly, never-do-wrong, outstanding pillar of his community was caught in a stolen car because he was RETURNING it .... after having had it for 3 months, due to important family needs. Oh, and the 3 pounds of Meth and 5 pounds of Heroin? He FOUND those, and was distributing free of charge to those poor individuals who can't afford them anymore. The stolen merchandise? He just lost his receipts. It's the bleeding heart maroons that have turned the Bill of Rights into the Bill of Wrongs, it's the CRIMINALS that have their rights protected and NOT the victims. It seems that ANY attempts at correcting even ONE form of this, turns into TWENTY methods of .....again....protecting the criminal. I sometimes think the Romans had it right, with their Colisseum games. But as written before, "The first thing we do, let's get rid of the lawyers!" They have a VESTED interest in prolonging, complicating, and exacerbating the proceedings time and time again....they get paid by the HOUR whether you win or not. And, haven't you heard? They're now making it a CRIME to SPEAK of anything legal.....without being a lawyer! Geez, even the Military can be held in check, but not the bleeding heart lawyers. E

Good point Chris! Why is there a "loose" wire behind the "capacitor" looking item on the oscillator? E

I had a large bottle of the paint, from when I was painting a bunch of the clear lexan bodies with fluorescent paints. I was painting those with an airbrush, but I chose to paint the tail-lights with a 1/2" brush to ensure I didn't get any paint on the metal reflectors back there. Enrique

The earliest Hazard switches had two triangles, one pointed up and the other down (similar to an elevators arrows), surrounded with small lines and the word "FLASH", embossed in white on the toggle paddle. Later Switches had the double triangle symbol, one small triangle inside the other without any wording (the international symbol now in use). The very earliest dashes didn't have any stickers, as I recall. Later, a sticker mimicking the earliest Hazard Switch, was added as Arne pointed out. When the Series II came out, the sticker now had an embossed indentation on the dash. All of these stickers unfortunately, were very simple black ink on plain paper, as a result, one swipe of a cleaning cloth and the ink was gone or smudged. Later the paper was "plasticized" but the ink was still just as weak. I'm not sure what Dave (Dogma) refers to as Series III and IV as those are somewhat new terms to me, or maybe they're in use elsewhere. There was a change to the Hazard Switch when they went from the Toggle switch to the Push/ Pull switch, I don't recall if the wording on the sticker changed. FWIW E

Not to repeat, nor to offend, but the Steelers didn't WIN, the referees adjusted the game such that the final score allowed to be tallied on the scoreboard showed their team as having more points. The game was a well fought game. Unfortunately, even a thoroughbred horse can become whip shy and that's what the referees did to the SeaHawks. Did they also make mistakes? Yes, and that was their biggest downfall. The Steelers decidedly didn't WIN the contest as much as the SeaHawks were denied the win by officiating that was blatantly questionable. The Steeler's QB touchdown, where the ball "barely broke" the goal line is questionable before, during, and after the review. The fact that it was immediately called a touchdown, when it was apparent during play that it might NOT have been one, is proof positive that the officials had prejudged the game. The same with all the other calls, when all you are looking for is "justification", the simplest act takes on monumental importance when used as such. Hence, Offensive Pass Interference for a push that didn't even affect the defenders body movement, an attempted tackle becomes a Below the Waist Block. Maybe there should be an investigation into the Referee's financial records, it IS apparent that the Seahawks got robbed. 2¢ E

Powdercoating is excellent stuff, except it requires heat. I note your signature line so maybe I have it wrong and you have a cold powdercoating process. Otherwise the heat would melt the green lenses that are fused to the cases such that removing them would not be an option in order to use a heated process. You CAN remove the, but it is a very tricky process, not something I'd want to do just to paint the inside. But if you DO have a cold powdercoating process, I'd be interested in knowing more. E

Jack: As it was posted it is Radio Control. I'll explain why such an "esoteric" paint type, but it IS a somewhat convoluted explanation so bear with me or jump to the end for the product details. I do a lot of painting, from model cars to REAL cars. Model cars require a vastly different paint from Real cars, and Radio Control car bodies are even MORE different. Simply put, Model and Full Size cars typically get a "hard" paint, i.e. one that does little to no flexing. In fact to make it even marginally flexible you usually add a "Plasticizer" to the paint so you can paint over Vinyl / Rubber bumpers. Unfortunately, in my experience, the paints for Model cars are either a very high gloss product with little "color" per coat of paint OR a low gloss with high color (sometimes even flat sheen). I wanted to paint the inside of the instruments with a VERY high sheen and in ONE or two coats at most. Where both a full size and a model car get painted in such a manner that the FINAL coat is the "show" coat, Radio Control Car bodies are painted in the completely REVERSE manner. The FIRST coat of paint IS the money coat ... so to speak. That's because the body is made out of clear plastic, and the paint is applied from the inside. That being said, many times you use "fluorescent" paints as well as Candy colors. These require a super bright White in order to liven or "make" the final color really shine. Additionally, R/C cars that are Nitro gas powered also require a paint that will seal the color coat from the heat and oils and dirt being sprayed on the body from below. Topping all that off, the paint needs to be flexible. Enter PACTRA - Racing Finish for R/C cars in Sprint White (I goofed calling it Polar). It's number is RC51, you can get it in spray, or in liquid form which is what I bought it in so that I could brush it on. The SKU IS 7 22646 40200 9 for the 2/3 FL. OZ bottle and that will go a LONG way. This is one of the BRIGHTEST white paints you will work with. Don't forget to buy their thinner to clean up your brush, or you won't be able to (regular lacquer thinner doesn't cut it and acetone curdles it). Lastly, it WILL take about 12-18 hours to dry but....the results are simply awesome. The paint flows out very nicely and will leave a HIGH gloss, SMOOTH surface that will literally reflect every bit of light in the can. I used this same paint on the plastic areas of my tail-lights (not the metal) and the difference in the light is very noticeable. That's it. Hope it helps. Enrique

Personally, I'd try to find a set of the little green lens bulb covers. I don't know if you can find matching green / blue / red / etc bulbs that will shine with the same intensity without going to LED's and their corresponding issues. FWIW E

Arne: While the instruments are out, open them up, and re-paint the metal shells. I used a paint for R/C cars called Polar White. It made a HUGE difference in the visibility and this is without Dave's Headlight or Parking Light Relays. E

Chris is right. By the time you spend all that time and effort in trying to reinforce and repair the old pieces, you would have been time and money ahead buying new ones. There are several sources for new plastic, but be aware that you should buy ALL the pieces from the same source, and preferably all at the same time. There are a couple of different manufacturers and the differences in the embossed texture and the thickness of the plastic can make it fun to try to match all the pieces when you buy them separately. This is especially true if trying to match old OEM plastic to new Aftermarket pieces. 2¢ E

I bet it was Steven Jobs who bought out the refs....or maybe it was Bill Gate's idea of a Joke! No doubt about it, the refs blew it. It was definitely a good game though, sadly the BLATANT errors by the "dumb"-pires (I know, wrong sport) threw it into the Hall of Shame. E

But here I have to concur with Beandip. A Pininfarina emblem in a Z is simply out of place....regardless of how beautiful it may be. What would you say to a Mercedes Radiator Cap Star instead of a Hood Emblem? Or a Rolls Royce Flying Liberty? or a Mack Truck Bulldog? Do you see where it quickly begets the question....."Why?" 2¢ Enrique

Tomohawk: Re: NWCubsman's reply (and I hope I'm not stepping on him again) I vaguely recall a joke from years ago, where someone sent out invitations for a very exclusive and RICH party with "Black Dress Required" at the bottom. A newly rich couple, not wishing to stand out or offend, and NOT knowing what Black Dress Required meant, attended but BOTH of them wearing....Black Dresses (i.e. the man in drag). When they arrived at the party, to their chagrin they realized their mistake and were trying to make a quick exit. Their host realizing their embarrasing predicament, and being a good host, quickly ran to his wife's closet and also donned a black dress and returned to the party. Upon his entrance to the main room, there were gasps as he walked through the crowd and greeted the newly rich couple. The guest thanked the host and asked him why he had done such a thing in front of all of his friends...all rich and influential people. The host replied, "I'm the richest man here, and frankly.....f*** them if they can't take a joke." Does that help explain? Or put another way, there's a French expression that says: "L'audace, toujours l'audace." That translates to "With Audacity, always with audacity." With regards to the judging strictness in your neck of the woods, it might not be that they're intentionally looking for ways to exclude you, but rather that there are enough Daily Drivers in such EXCELLENT condition that .... sadly .... yours and others, being in almost excellent condition don't make the cut. I think my car is a beautiful example, yet I can see some other examples that are even better than mine. Have I felt miffed at not winning a trophy or even an "also ran" type of mention....you bet. Especially when I felt that the class winners in those classes where I entered did not....BY MY VIEWPOINT...measure up to my car. But there's always another show, and another day to try. Want to really, REALLY get miffed? Here in Vancouver there's a show they have where they block off Main Street for a few blocks and bring in the "Classics". The criteria is that the car be older than 25 years. It is sponsored by two or three local car clubs, predominantly American cars. That is, not a foreign import amongst them. I attended, and registered in the Daily Driver Import class. There were maybe half a dozen import cars there, and one VENDOR'S car. The vendor's car? A Lamborghini Countach (sp?). Now the Lambo was only driven to car shows....on a trailer, and an enclosed one at that. Guess what place it took in the ONLY Import class....the one I'd registered for. To add insult to injury, the second and third places? They went to a car .... in PRIMER with cracks in the windshield, and to a Porsche. The Primer car was owned by one of the members and officer of one of the clubs that sponsored the show, the Porsche? The wife of the Treasurer of one of the other clubs. Needless to say, I've not returned to that show even to peruse what they bring in. FWIW Enrique

I was just remembering something, Beandip has put a lot of time and effort into his car. It really looks sharp. However, he had ONE hose that needed to remain disconnected and plugged. He found that a golf tee fit the bill perfectly....except that the color R E A L L Y clashed with the rest of the engine bay and car. So NWCubsman gave him a BRIGHT YELLOW Tee which more closely matches his car's color. Now, people look at the golf tee and grin, whereas before they shrugged! FWIW E

I agree with you there, you shouldn't have any problems with the cruises, or the Sunday show, but at the Z car shows, stick to the categories that you know you could compete in .... competitively. My 71 car is done well, it looks nice, I've spent a LOT of time and effort into it and there are many items that make it "period-correct". It's even won an award, and had favorable mentions at other shows. Yet, I wouldn't DARE compete in the Concours class. Why? To a knowledgeable Z car judge, he'd stop judging after just a few items. There are items I've added or swapped that have made the car, like I said, Period Correct, i.e. it looks like it would have looked in the 70's, with all the "cool" mods for the period (and today) and it is DRIVEN as it stands today. The headlights aren't stock (Halo), the HCP is lit from behind (from a 73), there are courtesy lights in the foot well areas (never implemented by Datsun, but had the wiring), the seats recline (72+), Electronic Dizzy (78), Non-Braided hoses in the engine compartment (non-OEM), Doors don't sound tinny when closing (sound-deadened), Dash has an indent to the left of the Hazard Switch (72), and on and on. What I'm getting at is that the car does NOT belong in a Concours show class. I don't take offense at that, my car is NOT original. Trying to pass it off as such would be ludicrous and insulting. The Concours IS a tough class to compete in, and that's why the judging is so strict. Watering the judging down due to considerations for any special consideration...... and ADA would be amongst them, would essentially eliminate that class from shows. Otherwise what would be the difference between my car and a Concours classic? Or put another way, would you want the Miss America pageant to allow drag-queens to compete? But, in the Daily Driver catergories, or the Best Interior, Best Paint, Best Theme, etc, it shouldn't be penalized....other than as I mentioned earlier. If the mod is hokey, then it shouldn't be ignored due to the physical needs of the driver, to do so would be, in my opinion, insulting to the driver. You would basically be asserting that they can't compete on the same level as the rest of the drivers and sloppy work should be condoned. Or should the standard be lowered for that individual ONLY and maintained high for everyone else? In either case you would be contradicting what most people with those needs would have you say. But if you put a small sign on the right hand Turn Stalk that stated : "DMV required ADA modification", I think you'd get the point across. I don't know if that wording would suffice, so maybe use the wording from the lawbooks that would be used to give you a citation for NOT having that modification. Then it would read: "Right Hand Turn Signal modification IAW DMV Reg. 69 F". But, in ALL modifications, I believe the standard should be held high. The quality should be admireable and have people / judges NODDING, and not shaking their heads. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of vehicles like those U.K. "chavs", or our famous "Ricers" or whatever those animé inspired vehicles from Japan are called. FWIW Enrique P.S. nwcubsman's reply was also supportive, although his comment may have been lost by his using an older expression "F*** 'em if they can't take a joke!"

I think that if the mods are done with good concepts, and most importantly, good effort to produce a QUALITY modification, that THAT would be more important than the mod itself. If you're going to add a Hand Throttle to the stick shift,then don't just make it a piece of wire coming out of the center heater vent. A hand actuated brake is hopefully not a piece of chewed up 2x4 or an old cane. If those are the mods, then ANY judge would look at them askance, regardless of their justifiability for the driver's needs. If on the other hand, you add a nice lever to the console and it is both a throttle and brake, and you incorporate it into the design of the car / console so that it "almost" looks OEM, you'd get praise for originality and creativity. Isn't that why we watch shows such as "Monster Garage", "Overhauling", and others? They push the design envelope, and in doing so, they come up with ideas that others emulate / copy / modify. Whether the modification is for a physical need, or for the uniqueness or added functionality of the mod, it should still be judged on the same basis. If it looks like crap....then it is crap. If it looks like it came out of the design studios of the dream car designers then it should be dealt with as such. My 2¢ Enrique

Jani: Welcome to the club. Always good to see a Z owner / lover from around the world. Although the ZX is still a smaller percentage of the membership, it is by no means one that we don't welcome. Unfortunately, it's taken this long for ZX's to become ..... Neo-Classics.... to coin a term. But DO feel welcome here and hopefully as the ZX membership grows we'll have even more participation. I also like the ZX's, I don't have one (yet) only because I don't have the room for another. If I get another car, it means either I or the wife will be parking on the street. Any guesses how that would go? Again, Welcome to the club. Enrique