EScanlon

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

Arne: Sorry, but I think he's found one of the drain holes in the floor pan!!!! E

Rick, I heard about one of those times: It seems that Rick had had a belly full of beer and was ambling wandering home. As he careemed from side to side of the sidewalk, he came upon a little boy who, seated at the curb, was crying his eyes out. Rick, a kind soul even when he had ALL his sheets to the wind, slowed down and in a very slurred speech asked; "Whassamadderlilboy?" Wherupon the little boy looked up, sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt, and said "Get away from me you old fart, you can't help me!" Rick, not to be put off so easily (precursor of the days of having to deal with Bill), insisted and asked "No, really, I can help! I promise!" The little boy, sniffled and said "All right, I'm crying because I've never met God!" Rick, without hesitation says "That's ok, I'M Jesus H. Christ!" The little boy, having no doubts that this drunken sod was playing with his heart strings says, "Oh yeah? Why don't you prove it to me?" Rick says, "Follow me!", and taking the little boy by the hand walks back in the direction he had come from. Arriving at the pub he had left some moments before, he walked in with the boy in tow. The bartender looks up, sees Rick walking in and shouts; "JESUS H. CHRIST! ARE YOU BACK HERE AGAIN!!!???" And that explains why Bill is always picking on Rick.

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

Actually, I'd been kicked out of the bar.... Seems it was the 3rd or 4th bar I'd been to that night, and I'd had my fill in the first one or two. When I entered, I had a piece of chalk in my pocket, and I proceeded to draw a line down the bar and the floor and the wall opposite the bar. Happy with the results, I went back to the bar and ordered...yet another drink. Rick, having seen my artistic efforts walks up to me, thumps me on the shoulder and says "Hey, what the hell's the meaning of this line?" And I slurred "Well, it seems to me that everyone on THAT side of the line, is a complete jerk-off...and everyone on THAT OTHER side of the line is a degenerate arse hole." and I continued with my drink. Rick, not liking my remarks grabs me by the shirt and screams into my face, "Hey, I'm no jerk off!" Whereupon I told him, "Ok, then step to the other side!" Then I got kicked out! Hey, it's all in fun....Mate! (By the way good one Rick.)

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

Truth hurts the most.....when it applies to you. Thanks for proving my points. (Are you sure you're not Cardogman in disguise? Your comment about panties has me wondering.) You're right. Nuff said. 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

Jared: What you fail to understand is that SOME things aren't funny at all, regardless of how they're dealt with. Making fun of those subjects is just .... bluntly .... irresponsible and uncultured. Defending it under the thin veil of acceptability of "Humour" is not only naive, but bluntly......stupid. Just 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

Billy, :finger: we even let YOU stay!!! AHEM. ....Is this .. .... well, not kettle calling pot names, maybe "Do as I Say and not as I do." what you're trying to say???? HAHAHAHAHA Your whole reply, along with Billy Clinton's "I did NOT have sexual relations..." and Dicky Nixon's "I am not a crook." should be flushed...... Enough said... E

Arne, he's using the E12-80 (from post #4). Here's a link to the straw poll that Arne did in trying to drum up interest on the ZX Alternator plug. Note that the purpose of that plug was to eliminate the stock Voltage Regulator from the circuit. Since the INTERNAL regulator of the ZX Alternator made the original V/R not only redundant, but actually problematic, it was a great idea. Unfortunately, apparently obtaining the connectors proved impossible. Contact Arne for further info / help on that. Enrique

Arne: Hoping to save you some energy, time and frustration. MANY, and I mean MANY of the wires have multiple connections along the length of the harnesses. It may be a very frustrating experience trying to Fluke each and every wire at each and every connector. Believe me, you will find after a few wires that you will begin to suspect that EVERY wire is cross-connected. They aren't, but they have so many cross-connecting circuits as to make a bowl of spagheti seem simple. And this is WITHOUT the instruments / switches in place. If you were to connect the instruments / switches, then you'd MULTIPLY the complexity and not simplify your task. Rather than test for resistance and continuity, presuming that both of the harnesses appear intact and unmolested, I would concentrate on inspecting each connector, and it's individual wire connectors for damage, corrosion, loose gripping connectors, and frayed connections. Replace the plastic shells of any doubtful ones with donated shells from your original harness. Effect repairs on frayed connections, and tighten any loose ones. Lastly give them a good brushing with either a toothbrush soaked in a mild metal cleaner (or contact cleaner), or vinegar. Don't forget to neutralize the cleaner you use to ensure that it doesn't cause corrosion and hence problems later. Then make sure the connectors are clean and dry. I'm not a big fan of dabbing gobs of dielectric grease in wiring harness connectors, in fact I would recommend against it. Simply put, you're not immersing the car in water, and it just adds another goopy mess to deal with as you work within the car's tight behind the dash area. Lastly, it tends to REALLY complicate troubleshooting circuits later. Take a look at the instrument bulb sockets. Make sure those have a nice bright contact at the center post and on the ground clamp. If any of them have broken edges or clamps, then repair / replace as needed. But the bottom line is don't waste your time in effecting tests of items that you simply cannot change without a lot of effort and hazzle that would render the whole project useless. Checking for resistance in the wire (and it IS there) won't do anything more than to introduce doubt in your mind as to the integrity of the wiring. Continuity checks are great....if you know exactly where EACH connection is supposed to connect to AND it's sub-connections, and can effect conductivity to all of them. Otherwise, you'll be moving, bending, jostling and pulling on a 30 year old harness filled with old wires...definitely NOT your best form of maintenance. Get my drift? Enrique

Peter: The Hazard and Turn Signal lights ran on independent Flasher Relays. In fact, the only difference I've noted is that many times the Hazard one was a "Heavy Duty". This is one of those items that Datsun did not opt to "individualize" to the car. Just about ANY Flasher Relay (as long as it's 12v) will work. You may find that one that is labeled as being "LOUD" may be of help. Enrique

Various articles in the archives. Here's one that I contributed to that does a good job of summarizing everything. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17608 There's a bunch more, use the Advanced Search Function and plug words in until you find information. Hope it helps Enrique

You're forgetting that you're using a CANADIAN clock, and you have to use the exchange program....... J/K That's also why you guys in Canada can still get parts through the Dealers that in the U.S. we get told have been discontinued. If you guys ran on the same time standard, you'd also be out of luck..... E

Nut-Nahhh! Careful Jared, you've earned the "Wagging Finger of Shame" award. Everyone knows that in Oz, "Mate" is another way of saying friend. Besides everyone knows of Bill's love for "breats". 'Nuff said. E

Remove the clamshell surrounding your steering column and the Ignition/Steering Lock. If you CAN remove the lock assembly from the steering column, it makes it a dash easier to remove the Ignition Switch from the back of the Steering Lock. Once you can see it, just remove the connector going to it, and unscrew it from the lock. By the way, the ignition key does NOT go all the way through the lock, there IS a tab sticking out of the back of the ignition lock that engages the ignition switch. Enrique