EScanlon

Just for grins, check your driveshaft's bolt down to the differential. While you're there, check your half-shafts. That amount of vibration isn't unheard of when any one of these three get loose and are off-center to the rotation they're supposed to have. 2¢ Enrique

I feel bad...I got them on e-Bay so long ago, I don't even remember the guy's name. I do recall that he had bought a new carpet set in LOOPED style as he was going to be competing in more Concours events. The set I bought from him, was his old set, a CUT PILE set, as well as a set of carpet covers with 240Z on them. The back has a plasticized finish to seal the bottom of the carpet. The seams are stitched and knotted from the back. All of the edges are also seamed. I've been told that Too Intense Restoration, and Motorsport both offer cut or loop, and that their quality is good. I'll look to see if there are any tell tale markings. Enrique

Poor Horsehair, everyone vilifies it yet it's basic nature is misunderstood. The "horsehair" drinks water when it is FORCED to do so. Only when you SOAK or pressure wash the horsehair does it absorb water. If you allow water to remain standing in your car long enough for the horsehair to become saturated, or even just moistened, it's because YOU didn't do preventive or regular maintenance. If you spill a drink...does it evaporate or do you clean it up? If the windshield leaks, do you just glob a bunch of silicone on the window seal and let the water that made it in evaporate on it's own? If so, then that is when the horsehair fails. Horsehair insulation gets it's name in that the original Horse Hair matting was in fact made from Actual Horse Hair. The hair was then coated with a glue or latex and allowed to fall into piles to let the binding agent cure. The result was a springy, lightweight material that could be overlaid with a weight, and upon removal of the weight, it would return to it's original shape. It was also found that thicker mats of the stuff could be used for seat cushions, and other areas where a padding was required. One additional feature of this, was it's heat insulating properties. Due to the binding agent, and the spaces between the hairs, water doesn't readily absorb into the hair. It takes a long time for the water to creep past the surface tension of the hair. This property does fade over time, so the hair you have now will soak it up if you don't clean it up. It's use on the transmission tunnel is not only for it's heat insulation, but also for the "bump" factor. It pads the metal of the transmission tunnel, and in so doing, it fills out the vinyl overlay. If you don't replace the horsehair, be prepared to having to alter the vinyl. The difference in dimensions can be as much as 3/4" in RADIUS of the curve of the tunnel. The "bump" factor is readily noticeable on long trips where you will be resting your leg, knee ... on the tunnel. FWIW Enrique

Haggerty is a specialty insurance company. They will insure you for the agreed upon value that YOU place on your car whereas Farmers and other insurance companies usually do NOT address your "classic" as anything else other than an "old" car. Ask them SPECIFICALLY what value your Z has as far as they are concerned, you'll note that the average car insurance company will try to classify it as a 30+ year old car and not a Classic Collectable. Haggerty will also look at your existing car policy to determine their coverage with you. Beandip just recently insured with them, ask him about the limitations / requirements. As far as appraisers, I haven't had mine appraised so I'm in the dark on this. However, call an insurance company or an Auto Dealer who deals in classics. There are a couple in the Portland area that should be able to give you source names. For the others who read this thread, check your insurance policies carefully. Don't presume that because "everybody knows" that your insurance company will be so enlightened. In fact, you'd be surprised at how selective their knowledge is, and how biased in their favor it turns out to be. Remember, if an insurance company NEVER has to pay out on any claim, then, as far as they're concerned and as long as they can still receive your premium, business is good. Don't kid yourself about their motives. 2¢ Enrique

Although the at-fault driver's insurance has limits, and there are some basic LEGAL minimums that must be met, it's entirely possible that they've capped the TOTAL amount of coverage. Usually those limits are set so that even a stay in the hospital (of a certain duration) would be covered. Washington and Oregon have $100k for the liability portion of medical if I recall correctly. I'm sure other states and yours also have specific minimums. Your insurance would kick in after they've met their TOTAL cap, and your expenses were above that. She's probably just trying to bluff you to sign off cheap. Don't let her do that to you. You have a policy with another company for an APPRAISED VALUE. Whether they think so or not, the value of the VEHICLE is $18k, as that is what you've insured for. What they think is not germaine to the discussion of what YOU have negotiated. Don't argue with her, don't allow her to cajole you into signing off, inform her that you will contact her through your agent OR you will see her in court if you don't get satisfaction. Don't do anything more. Don't be a nice guy and allow her to sweet talk you into being cheated, and believe me, that is their ONLY intent in dealing with you. Their intent is to get you to accept as LITTLE as possible, and will use every trick in the book to do so. Step out of their game. Inform them that your medical bills will ALL be met and paid for IN FULL, and that INCLUDES ANY REHABILITATION afterward, AND that your vehicle will be RESTORED TO IT'S AGREED UPON AND APPRAISED VALUE. Tell her that this is NOT NEGOTIABLE. If she starts giving you a song and dance story, just tell her that it's obvious you will have to go to court to get settled. Believe me, they'll come around. This isn't the first accident reported on the sites I've visited. When you search for the other incidents, you'll see that I've advised the same thing each time. When they've taken my advice, and other's supporting comments, the individuals involved have received amounts well above what they were initially offered. And what's more...to their satisfaction. The other guy's insurance company just wants to get your claim OFF the books, CHEAPLY, QUICKLY, and WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF PAPERWORK. You can see that it is NOT in their interest to go to court. This applies even more so, if the traffic citation clearly blames their insured. As others have said, YOU get to decide what IS agreeable to YOU, not them. Contact your insurance company, and inform them and if necessary, let them fight it out. 2¢ Enrique

"wondering if the 5pc set is better than the complete set that is formed?" How many pieces in the formed set? By formed are they referring to heat / vacuum formed to fit the contours of the interior, or that the pieces have had their edges seamed and stitched to conform to the surface? I've seen the "form fitting" set put into another vehicle, and although it did ~generally~ conform to the surface, it did have a few areas that weren't quite right. This however was the style where they stiffened the carpet back with some form of adhesive stiffener. The set I bought for my car is a 6 piece set that has been "formed" to fit the contours via seam stitching. When you look at the back of the carpet set, you note that it has several stitched seams. Those seams allow the carpet set to follow the contours of the pan. I am very pleased with the way this fits in my car as well as the quality of it. This set has a total of 6 pieces: the main floor piece with the stitching where the firewall leg panel is,. then the piece under the seat also has a seam, and lastly the piece behind the seat that has to conform twice, once from the pan to the angle and then flat again. You mention 5 pieces, and I'm wondering if that means the back piece would go up and over the transmission tunnel or what. I've also seen flat piece carpet sets, and even if they have the edges stitched, they may not lay down properly due to the bends and dips in the car. FWIW Enrique

Rick: I'll try to answer your questions as I've enumerated them. 1 Decide just how much money and time you are willing to spend, either TOTALLY, or PERIODICALLY. Way too many projects are WAY too ambitions right off the bat, without consideration of just what it will take. Does the phrase "I don't want to spend a lot of money, I just want the rust cut out and new metal put in and finished so you can't see it's there and I don't want them to use any Bondo." sound somewhat familiar? If it is truly going to be a long term, parked until it's done project; are you going to keep at it at least weekly or periodically so it doesn't languish in the garage for the next five years at which point you sell it C H E A P just to get it out of the garage? If you are still going to go at it, then begin by getting a clean bill of health on the mechanical aspects of the car. Engine, Brakes, Suspension, Transmission, Rear-End, Steering, are the major topics and I'll let the Mechanical guys address that. The Mechanical guys will be able to guide you there. But once you get a clean bill mechanically, or get to a point where the mechanical items can be incorporated into the rest (Body/Paint/Interior) of the car, then begin by WASHING the car. On the inside: take out the carpet, the seats, dig down deep and make it as clean as you can. Pull out those drain plug rubbers and WASH. That means using plenty of water to dissolve 30 years worth of crap. Then dry the car. Use an air compressor, and BLOW the water out. Will you encounter problem areas? ..Probably, but that IS what you are looking to find BEFORE they become a major problem. Let the air blow off chunks of the tar paper...you're going to want to remove that anyhow. Doesn't matter how "good" it looks, for so many vehicles it wasn't applied properly so that trying to find the ones that DID get it properly is a losing proposition. If you're serious about the new car smell, then take out the plastic finishers along the back, wash them on both sides, and also VACUUM (not wash, at least not yet) inside the fenders. Get in there with a good stiff brush and remove the dust, grime and other surprises you'll find. Use wipe down liquids as you see fit / need. By the time you get this done, the car will already be feeling better and so will you. (Ever had a good shower after a day working hard?) Exterior: Same thing here, W A S H it. Use a good grease cutting car soap. You could even use dish detergent, Palmolive, Dawn, Mr. Clean they'll really get rid of all the wax and greasy films on your car. Don't use any detergent that promises shine, odor or .... you want plain old detergent soap. That will get the outside of your car to the base paint. Now inspect your paint, is it burnt? Is it faded, cracked, dull, looks like very fine sandpaper, has obvious circular or linear scratches, etc etc. You get the drift. This will help you determine if a re-paint is necessary or just a partial or if a polish will do what you need. Then depending on what you need, polish, or sand, or ..... 2 By the method above, you won't have spent much money getting there. What happens from that point forward is up to you. What you fix is dependent on whether you feel it should get fixed/restored/replaced and also whether it's a safety common sense type of item. If the windshield needs replacing (there is very little fixing there), then that is a safety item that must be done. The console needs re-painting? That's one you can wait on. The seats are foam with string slip covers? A cheap set of generic seat cover or the vinyl kit or have them upholstered, all those are yours to choose. 3 Decide if it's YOUR comfort that's more important, or looking good. As far as driving the car? Unless you make it undriveable....yeah right, you're not going to drive it. 4 HMMPPHPHK, HPOOMMMP;LL . {Firm hand over mouth preventing loud voice from being understood} :devious: 5 Jump on it, and bring it to the ground. 6 This one I gotta see........ :laugh: . 2¢ Enrique

Rick's not into plaid. Otherwise .... spot on! (Hope I cribbed that slang right!) E

If rotating the hinges doesn't do it, adjust the headlight sugarscoops. Remember, all of the pieces on the front end from the cowl forward have SOME adjustment to them. E

Here's a post that might help. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4607&highlight=hood+adjustment You might also check the Technical Articles section. Enrique

Lonetree: Try blasts of compressed air through a needle nozzle. That method worked the best for me. After that, since you're already applying another roll of film above that, you could just scuff the edge of the remaining chrome. The intent is to reduce the "bump" of the edge so that it isn't as apparent under the new tape you're putting on. Have recently done some work with the first full set of panels with the Mono-Kote system, now just waiting to see what time and wear do to them. Will be working the second and third tests soon. I can't say much, and pictures will follow soon, but the initial results are VERY promisiing. FWIW Enrique

That's cause you're addicted! Enrique

The radio searching says that it isn't getting a signal strong enough to lock onto. That has nothing to do with the operation of the antenna's motor. If you were to pull up on the antenna mast (DON'T) the radio should find a signal and lock onto it. This is as long as the coax cable for the antenna isn't broken, or disconnected at either end. The antenna's motor NOT operating, is either because you did not connect it to the antenna switch at the radio's faceplate, at the antenna, or you didn't change the in-line fuse behind the radio. Look for a BLUE wire with an in-line fuse back amongst the wires behind the HCP. Check and / or replace the fuse. If the fuse is ok, then check to make sure that the antenna is properly plugged into the wiring. This of course presumes that this an OEM Antenna and an OEM Radio. As such, remember that the two wires going to the antenna are BOTH for the POSITIVE portion of the electricity. The Negative is provided by the ground at the back as Gunner posted. The switch is just a diverter valve. The motor operates in the direction of current. Reverse the current, the motor operates backward. If the antenna is NOT an OEM style, i.e One of various Automatic Operations, be aware that it will NOT readily plug into the Z's Harness nor will it operate with the OEM radio without some re-wiring. Automatic Antenna's nowdays are the full up/ full down variety paired with the radio's on/off status. This requires the antenna to receive continuous power, while sensing the radio's operation via a relay. Radio goes on -- antenna goes up; radio off, down even though the power has been cut off. The OEM antenna differed in that you determined how far up / down the antenna went based on how long you held the switch in the appropriate direction. If you want the full automatic mode, you must provide continuous power to the antenna, which is somewhat difficult at the back of the car, on the far end of the wiring harness. It's not an easy chore to bring a wire through the labyrinth of turns and holes it must go through to get back there. Yet, it's the only way to hide the wiring. Either that or you run it along the driver's side and bury it under the floor vinyl or worse yet, the transmission tunnel and over (or through) the tool boxes. To connect the OEM radio to an automatic antenna using the ORIGINAL wiring for the automatic antenna do the following: To use the OEM Antenna Switch with the Automatic Antenna to simulate the OEM Antenna operation (i.e. User determined Height) the trick is in how you provide power to it. At the HCP, you'll see 3 wires coming through a connector, a solid Blue wire and two others. The solid Blue is Positive Power coming directly through the fuse box, via the Air Conditioning circuit (This blue wire ALSO provides power to the radio). The other two wires are to send the current to one circuit or the other providing up/down at the motor. You won't be making any changes here, just take note which wire connects to the UP / DOWN terminals of the OEM Switch. At the antenna, find the connector coming from the cash and select the wire that lowers the antenna. To this wire, connect the Positive power wire for the antenna. At the other connector, connect the BLUE lead (usual color for the on/off detect wire) AND a wire that connects to the Positive power wire. The operation of the Auto Antenna is such that with continuous power, it's default position is in the DOWN position. When it senses current through its Blue wire, then it's relay reverses it's internal polarity and raises the antenna. When power is no longer sensed through the Blue wire, it defaults to it's normal polarity and the antenna is lowered. (Travel in either direction is usually limited by a gear / cam switch that disconnects power at the full up/ down position.) The method of wiring that I mentioned, allows you to provide SELECTIVE power to the antenna AND it's current sensor. When you do that, the antenna raises. When you move the switch in the opposite direction, power is fed ONLY to the positive lead and NOT to the Blue, this defaults the antenna to lower itself. Since you are controlling the current at the antenna switch, you have full control of how high / down the antenna works. Using the OEM wiring with an Automatic Antenna AND a newer style radio: (Note: the antenna switch will not be required) Connect the Blue (+) wire to one of the two wires going to the antenna, and connect the Blue wire coming from the radio to the other. At the antenna connect the (+) lead to the antenna to the first wire above, and the Blue sensing wire to the other lead. This should help you avoid having to run a bunch of wires back there. Hope this helps. Enrique

Rick: Maybe I'm just being obtuse, but I fail to see why it's out of character. I think you performed EXACTLY as you should have, leave him eating your dust. (Note to self / others: Always be careful!) Personally, I would have made it obvious that I was laughing at him and his car as he drove by...... Enrique

The wiring for the A/C like several other items is part of both Series I and II. Check the schematic and you'll see that the BLUE wire for the radio and antenna is also there for the A/C. E

You said it! Actually, a careful study of the wiring harness leaves you wondering.....what the heck? What do you think of Fog Lamps on the same circuit as the dash lights? E

Not at ALL!! Do you realize what a help those pictures would be in a complete restoration that involved disassembly? Wow, THERE's a CD I wouldn't mind paying for. E

so hard I'm almost :dead: :dead: "I've seen London, I've seen France, I've seen' Enrique's ' underpants!" is more like it. HA HA HA HA Thanks Alan, I needed that today. Enrique

The Z's will NOT operate at all without the TACH in the circuitry (nor without the Ameter, IIRC.). That's how the coil receives input from the ignition switch as to which circuit to use, Resistor or Direct. (Remember, the engine runs on 6v when the current is going through the resistor.) Check your fuse box and ensure all connections on it are firmly connected, and that the fuses are good. (Remove-Test-Replace) and NOT (They look OK to me-None are burnt out). Check your wiring at the combi switch for the connections coming from the ignition switch. The Accessory Relay on the passenger kick panel, needs to be connected and grounded. Give that a shot. Enrique

Tomo: The fender support at the bottom of the quarter panel has apparently rusted away on yours. This is not an unusual problem for vehicles in the rust belt. Water / moisture gets trapped behind the plastic panels and runs down to the support. There it pools and accelerates the rust through. Look at the sheet metal that's the "outside" of the car from the inside, there should be a line where the support was welded to. That's how you can confirm that there WAS a support panel. E

Et-tú Bruté? or Touché! E

Chris: The second picture on post 69, where you're showing the inside of the left rear fender, and hence the cup on the vent. That you can see the cup at all says that the support metal above the strut isn't there. SRL 00002 HAS the support metal, which makes it hard to see the vent cup. E

Chris: I note the "cup" around the vent, but where is the support metal that goes in front of it? If you look at the pics of 00002 you can see the metal with the embossed "x". Enrique

Your reasoning is flawed. You presume that because we live in North America that our knowledge is limited EXCLUSIVELY to this market's model availability. As you know many of us have been on this site a while, and have paid attention to Alan T's and Carl Beck's and Kats points on many of these specific points that we are making. Are you saying that we cannot learn, or that we purposely ignore those items. Why would they make the molds for stamping out the metal on the rear deck and then revert to the molds without the tool box openings. Have you any idea how much the molds cost to make? The same reasoning applies to the dash. The availability of a 5 speed manual transmission was already known as many Roadsters were delivered with it. The automatic transmission being available just not released was also a known item. The fact that it is an old car is EXACTLY why the discussion regarding what does and doesn't BELONG on the car based on it's ORIGINAL production is so germaine. If indeed it was a factory test mule, it wouldn't have such a low VIN that the features not available till years later would have been on it. As far as the engineers doing modifications on it, why would they bother to hide all their patch-in welds, and further do the bodywork to blend it in such that the welds aren't apparent? Even though it isn't cheap, it still would have been easier and cheaper to scrap this one and have a new one made with the new sheet metal being proposed. Would they have kept the same VIN? If so, to what end? I'm thinking that because it is a JDM car, that the owner of the vehicle, and it could have been the engineers, kept adding the "new and improved" items to it. That would explain the addition of items that weren't seen till later model years. It is the appearance of those items with such a low VIN that is so incongrous. If you'll recall the thread that sparked your initial posting that is this thread, the discussion centered around subtle differences between what was an "earlier" part and a "later" part. Now you pop on and tell us that our "statments are based on knowledge of USA exports models" and therefore not only in error but biased on the basis of not knowing or remembering that it is a JDM car. But I'll finish with this: Your post #22 says: "Though i'm sure Kats could advise Mr Harigae on the correct parts for such an early car." but if I recall correctly in post #59 Kats posts: "My quick impression of this car is,"very complecated" or how do you say, "doutfu?l".Because so many parts seen in this car are known as "1971 model"...snip...So,generaly speaking,this car could be a 1971 car.But I do not know. What a complecated thing is,the VIN punched on the fire wall." So Kats, who resides in Japan, is asking this predominantly North American group, about items that in his eyes are suspicious given the serial number of the car. I believe Kats is one of the more knowledgeable members of this group, why not ask him why he didn't request responses exclusively from outside North America? Do a little calisthenics, reach up and over your head with each arm, grab the opposite ear, give a solid yank and get your head out and breathe some fresh air. Enrique

Hey, what would you guys think of getting a Mustang II and putting an inline 6 engine like the L24 into it? J/K I'm with you Stephen, I also think the 280Z without it's bumpers is like a 747 without it's distinctive bulged fuselage, and doing the change is like putting Dolly Parton's chest onto Ellen Degeneres........ So if this is something you want to do, then "git'er done" and quit asking everyone's opinion on it. Otherwise it becomes another "Does this dress make me look fat?" question. 2.5¢ (Half a Nickel) Enrique