EScanlon

Beandip was able to find some from JC Whitney. I'll get him to post the number. E

I'm going to go out on a limb and ask HOW you checked the fuses? Visually? If so, go back, pull them out and do an electrical continuity check. If, on the other hand you did do a continuity check, did you do it IN the fuse holder? Take the fuses OUT and check them. You'd be surprised how many times this is the problem EXACTLY. 2¢ Enrique

I think you'd be surprised at how much the sugar scoops can STILL move. I'm willing to bet that if you loosen the sugar scoop bolts on the inside of the fender as well as the two that clamp the headlight / fender support and for grins the first one / two of the fender, then pushed UP on the bottom edge of the sugarscoop, you'd get that edge that aligns with the hood's front edge to be ABOVE the hood's. That's what you're looking for isn't it? Ask Beandip about this, we just did this on his car, and that's EXACTLY what we did. FWIW Enrique

Ya broke it! E

A guy whose car I painted looked into having the dash re-covered in leather. One of the concerns was to be able to remove the interior, re-cover with thin leather and not have t0 worry about the fit of the dash to the car or instruments. I discussed this with the proprietor of a leather goods shop in Guadalajara Mexico who does this. Since I'd been buying leather products from him for years we got to talking shop and I asked him how he dealt with the transition, essentially wrapping the outside and inside of a glass with a single piece of leather. In a nutshell they s t r e t c h the leather very slowly and tediously, but they eventually have it stretched enough that they can then bond it to the inside of the "tunnel" and the outside part of the "cylinder". Sure it ends up paper thin, but it IS leather. (They also stitch, but that's not what my buddy wanted.) They use a series of wooden "plugs" to stretch the leather with. They're basically shaped like the end of a bullet. The leather is soaked in a solution (he didn't say what it was, I presume that it was proprietary) and push the leather out slowly until it reaches the shape. The leather has the consistency of pickled pork rinds when he's working it. Now before you skip this (if you haven't already), the relevance to this thread is a unique solution to the end process. I asked him how they dealt with different diameter sizes of "tunnels". The answer is something that I haven't yet had time to try, because the car that's getting the full face cap still isn't back from the mechanic. The trick to doing this is to use a cylinder with a smooth CURVE transition out just like the tip of a bullet so that the leather is essentially slowly pushed into the cylinder while allowing the leather to stretch to it's maximum. The leather and mold are clamped in place and kept in solution. His solution to the different diameters? Carbonated Drink bottles inserted into the opening then filled with hot water. The bottle cap had been modified by the addition of a bicycle tire cap. As the bottle got hotter, the plastic would soften and with the addition of the air pressure from a bicycle pump would then expand to fill the inside of the cylinder. This allowed them to continue stretching the leather until it would definitely fit the inside of the cylinder. My thoughts are that that same process could be used to push out the EDGE of the cap on the inside of the cylinder which leads to the face of the speedo and tach. Sorry for the convoluted path to tell this, but the uniqueness and value of this guy's process isn't in getting the leather to fit, it's that it does the job WITHOUT a seam. That's what we want in the car. FWIW Enrique

Was it something I said that is causing you to totally ignore my post? Go ahead, do it the WRONG way .... elongate the holes. When you get done doing that then you'll really have problems E

I think what Gary (Beandip) and I were both saying is this: Don't dive into the "repair" so deep and so suddenly that you later find out it was a very minor fix. This is something that unfortunately has happened time and time again. Bill's comments are correct....in a very general way. But since you've only posted 3 times, and all of them here in this topic, it's IMPOSSIBLE for us to know and remember that you work in a marina, and therefore tailor our advise to your background. Lastly if in fact you "work at a local marina so just remmber im not totally dumb about troubleshooting engines", how is it you don't know how to check timing? Or that a trickle charger may not provide enough CURRENT to power your fuel pump? I think you'll find that this site has some of the best mechanics around, and more than likely one of them will get you going again. However, mind-reading isn't one of our specialties, so don't get mad when we don't know your background. 2¢ Enrique

Bill: I thought I remembered your saying it was parked for repairs. Ok, my bad.... Enrique

Hoods are such a critical part of the whole front end, that they're what ties the look of the front of the car ALL together. Each hood is essentially two pieces of metal that are crimped and welded together. That the curve of one differs by 3/8" of an inch over another over the length that you describe is not anything to worry about. Each hood is essentially uniquely adjusted to the car it was installed on originally. That it doesn't "fit" another vehicle is not a problem. It's not unusual for these differences to crop up. Check to see if in fact it's ONLY at the very front that the hood and fender do not match. Be extremely critical in determining this. Look at the panels from the sides, compare not only edges but also the general SHAPE of the two as you sight down the separation. What you are looking for is that the side view look of the fender to hood transition is smooth and not wavy. Imagine that if you were to put a piece of masking tape hiding the seam, you would think the tape was on solid metal and not hiding a dented piece of metal. Another way is to imagine or actually roll a marble down the seam and watch to see if it wobbles. (This is one of the hardest tests to pass.) If the marble rolls gently without any wobble, that's a PERFECT alignment. Get the picture? By adjusting the hinges at the fender support, or the hood on the hinges, you might be able to eliminate the difference in height at the front, only to now have it be a difference in the middle of the fender, or now at the back. Or worse yet, a wobble which will literally de-rail that marble. Adjust the hood on the hinges and the hinges on the inner support until you've achieved the best possible alignment overall or your "fun-meter" tops out. Keep an eye on making sure that the hood and fenders are level with each other. If at this point it still is ONLY the front end that doesn't align then the only thing that you need to do is adjust the Sugar-Scoops to the hood, not the other way around. Loosen the screws holding the sugar-scoops to the inner fender support and also the first 1-2 that hold the fender. Loosen them enough that you can shift the scoops, but there's still enough friction to hold them in place. Now, GENTLY raise / lower the front edge of the sugar-scoops to align with the hood. Keep looking at the "groove" that the marble would roll on to make sure it stays even and constant from front to back. We just finished doing this on Beandip's car. Hope this helps. Enrique

Yikes, that would be a great swap for me .... but I'm in Vancouver Washington. You wouldn't by chance ..... deliver? Enrique

This advice needs to be tempered with the fact that that IS what Bill did. His car is now a garage-queen. So as Beandip says, before you go removing the engine, changing out the cam, balancing the spark-plugs or some other esoteric 'only happens once in your lifetime' type of repair; remember the car WAS running recently. If nothing was experienced when it STOPPED running (loud bang, sudden stall, engine died suddenly, etc.) then it should NOT require a major re-build .... UNLESS ... your engine blew up (literally). So look at the simple stuff: clogged fuel line, battery lost charge (or not enough), but check the BASICS first. FWIW Enrique

I doubt if they were consulting with anyone in the U.S.. More than likely, it was a vendor in Japan that saw a "need" and produced something for that need. As far as writing instructions, they did...in Japanese. As Alan will attest, the Japanese language in written form consists of symbols that convey an IDEA and not specific words (and I may be completely off base on this, I've got a tooth that's getting a root canal next week so I'm completely punchy). The main point I'm trying to make is that it would be very difficult to effect a LITERAL translation to English from the written Japanese. Add to that that the "typical" response to translating into another language by ANYONE seems to be one of "Pull out the English - XXX dictionary and translate each word.". After all, how hard can it be? I've seen translations into Spanish from English which were absolutely horrible, to the point of being ludicrous and worse of all, difficult if not impossible to understand. This was from English to Spanish. Conversely, I've seen Spanish to English and have had the same experience. I've no doubt that if I could read the original Japanese I'd "see" what they meant to say, and probably even pick out which words should have been changed to make it more intelligible to the English speaking buyer, BUT you have to remember that most companies balk at paying someone $200 a page to translate something that they think they can do "just as good as". As far as VB is concerned, they're just re-selling something that there's a demand for. But I doubt that there is enough demand for them to justify having the instructions translated professionally. Besides, if we believe the typical stereotype about men, the only time we need any "stinkin" instructions is when we've bollixed it all up and need to fix it before the wife gets home. E

Fast answer: Plexiglass available in 12"x12" sizes at Home Depot. You can get it in real thin to thick styles. Get a thickness strong enough that it does NOT wobble and you know that your instruments / switches aren't going to be vibrating and making it hard to read. You can cut it by scoring it numerous times and then flexing the plastic along STRAIGHT lines (curved lines are better done with a scroll saw). Biggest advantages are that it is relatively easy to cut and can be heat formed. That it is transparent allows you to see what's back there. Biggest disadvantages: It's transparent and is very susceptible to deforming under high heat. Plywood although a bit harder to work with (and I'm sure some will argue that, and I can see their point) is relatively cheap, can be painted and is quite strong. One disadvantage is that it's heavier than plexiglass. Metal overcomes a bunch of objections above, but the biggest problem is securing it firmly to the dash so that it won't come flying off in violent maneuvers. Enrique

IMO, even though it's more expensive, Dave's (Zs_ondabrain) harnesses' are decidedly the way to go. Sorry, but to stick a deflated New Years Blow Pipe in fluorescent yellow in my engine compartment ..... Dave's arrive properly spaced, wrapped, sealed and ready to install. The hardest part of the installation is getting down on the ground to connect to the existing wiring going to the headlights with OEM style connectors. After installation your lights are NOTICEABLY brighter even in the daytime. If you're going to be changing the headlight bulb / housing itself that's the time to address changing out the wiring from the bulb to the connection to the new harness. But you don't need to change the connection wires even if you DO change your bulb / housing for a higher power one. That's because you shouldn't be overloading with the new harness, and you don't HAVE to pull the headlight acorn out. From the looks of it, it looks as though you ran it all the way to the bulbs. That's a lot of work. I'll see if I can take some pictures of my installation of Dave's product. Enrique

We're pleased to aim! Well, it's kind of hard to get people to pay for what I've already given away for free. Heck, in that light, I might have someone looking for me because I gave it away....hmm!!! The big advantage to having them here is that it draws people to the website. Hopefully they'll buy a CD, T-Shirt, Cap, subscribe to Sport Z magazine or any activity, but you get the drift. That's why I do them here. I used to post at other sites, but not any more. Can't claim to be another Wick Humble, nor Mark Twain, but hopefully it helps another Z owner to keep his vehicle looking sharp. Replies such as yours are sometimes all I get, and that makes it worth it. So THANKS!!! (I don't think there's a "hug" emoticon, and we wouldn't want Bill (Fun in my Z) getting ideas, otherwise consider it here.) Enrique

He was on not too long ago (8-1-05) If Dad had his say, the cavalier, if Dad drove the Z....the Z although it would be Dad's. Hmmmm, maybe we should check what new members joined about those dates.....? Enrique

This comes up often enough that it should be posted as a tech article. This is taken from a different posting where Heater Control Panel Illumination was the topic. In case that is what you were looking for: (Original Thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?p=141090#post141090) The Clock not working in the Z's is such an endemic characteristic that it almost seems a basic requirement of the car. If your clock works....it's not a Z. Fortunately, with a little careful effort it can be avoided. Here's how: ......snipped from original thread.... As far as your clock, you can fix it, and if you're careful it will last a long while. I fixed a pair of these a couple of years ago and they're still working great. I even went the extra step to calibrate it and now it only gains 1-2 minutes a day. Not a chronometer but definitely much better than not working. Open the clock housing by removing the two screws holding the face bezel in place. Next gently lift off the clock hands, and carefully remove the face. Below it you should find a black washer and a spring tripod washer. Make sure you don't lose these. Once these are off you can address the main problem with the clock. Added on edit: The sequence of these parts from outside in: Bezel, Minute Hand, Hour Hand, Clock Face, Black Washer, Tripod Washer.) From the back of the case, ( * see add )remove the 3 nuts that hold the clock mechanism inside the case. Once this is done, carefully force the wire and the rubber boot that powers it, INTO the case, and then do the same thing for the connector. If your connector boot (not the one at the case, but the one where the clock connects to the harness) is pliable enough, gently straighten it out and fold in the heat crimped plastic wings so that it will fit through the hole in the case. Added on edit: The bracket that holds the clock to the dash and fits the outside of the case needs to be removed first. There is also a "newer" clock version where the 3 nuts holding the clock mechanism aren't on the back of the case and the bracket that attaches to the case and dash doesn't have the extended "handle". Be careful opening these as EVERYTHING inside pops out the minute you remove the bezel. At this point you should be able to remove the clock mechanism from the metal case. Take a minute to clean out any dust or gunk inside the case, and if you want it to be brighter when illuminated, paint the inside with a WHITE paint, the green lens on the bulb housing will still illuminate the inside as green, but it will be MUCH brighter when you have the lights on. Be careful not to smear the bulb housing. Set this aside to dry. Now, looking at the clock mechanism. You'll note a little motor on the back side of the mechanism. ( * see add ) Get a bottle of sewing machine oil and a long enough needle and apply a small drop (by small, I mean minuscule) to the motor housing and the associated pivot points. You can power it up right away, although personally I let this soak for a bit. Usually the length of time to let the paint dry in the case is sufficient, or overnight. Added on edit: The newer clocks mentioned before have the motor OPEN and with the shaft of the motor being the PENDULUM of the clock. The earlier clocks had a standard clock pendulum but used the motor to WIND the clock spring. The oiling procedures for both are nominally the same. Next, to ensure that it's working, you can either re-assemble and plug in, or you can provide power to the clock via a 12v power supply. It doesn't require a large current as the motor just winds the spring enough to keep the clock going. If everything is working correctly, you should hear and see the motor wind and you'll notice the pendulum gear begin to oscillate back and forth. I then re-assemble the clock and to ensure it doesn't conk out, I leave it plugged into the power supply for a while. If you want at this point you could calibrate the clock, except for one thing. Most power supplies supply 12.0v DC, while in the car you will be working with 12.8v to 13.5v depending on the condition of your battery and connections. To get it "perfect" you would need to match the voltage in your car. This takes a l o n g time, so leaving it in the car would be a problem, unless you don't mind having it dangling off on the side for days-weeks. So, if you don't mind it running a bit fast (as mine does), just hook it up to your power supply continuously for a few days. The procedure is simple. Once the clock is functioning properly, set the time to match a KNOWN good clock. Whether it's your wrist watch, a house clock, digital or analog it doesn't matter. You're just going to be using it to compare what the car clock is doing in relation to that one. After 24 hours or thereabouts as it doesn't matter whether you check every 2 hours or 200 hours, compare the time on both pieces. If the car clock shows 12:30 and your reference is 12:00, the car clock is fast, the opposite would be a slow mechanism. On the back of the clock housing, you'll notice a hole, usually with a milky white plug inserted into it, with markings around it ( + | | | - ). Added on edit: The newer clock has ( S <----> F ) with the arrow ABOVE the hole while some older models had ( F <----> S ) with the arrow BELOW the hole. The directions are the same, but it's easy to think they're reversed. Remove the plug, and inserting a small straight screwdriver into this hole, you'll find a screw in there. Give it a gentle twist in the direction you need to adjust the clock. If fast, tweak the screw by a DEGREE or two (360° in a complete revolution) in the - direction. If slow, in the +. Be careful not to over-adjust, a small adjustment of a degree can be as much / little as 10 minutes per 12 hours or less, so by doing small adjustments you won't swing erratically all over the place. Reset the car clock to coincide with the reference clock. Recheck the two clocks again in another day or so, and repeat the adjustment until they coincide with each other, or you are satisfied with the amount of disparity. Hope this helps. Enrique This post has been promoted to an article

Flattery is the sincerest form of a compliment. Ask him, if he DOES mind your painting yours with the same code, at least ask him if it's a single code mix (i.e. Code A4N248 for Ditzler yields Metallic Root Beer Bronze) or if he started from a single code and then had it modified. He need not give you the codes, but at least you will have an idea of how to proceed. Go to the local auto paint store and ask to peruse their color charts. They've helped dozens of folks like this. There are dozens of ways to pick your way through the codes. You could stick to a marque i.e. Benz or Ferrari, then find the best color that way sticking to only those used by your marque. You could stick to a specific time period, and then only those used on ..... Follow the thought? I mention this, although it's extremely obvious, because you'd be surprised how often I've been asked to paint a car a given color and I've strongly advised against it. You need to consider that some colors simply will make your eyes water on some vehicles. Look at the type of vehicle the color got used on, it will help you avoid some "It looked GREAT when I picked out the color chip, but -yikes-.....!" episodes (Off Topic: I once painted a 78 Firebird Metallic Candy Apple with, at the customer's choice when he ordered and picked up the paint, extra large size metallic flake, and EXTRA at that. When we got done, we literally had Dorothy's CAR instead of her SHOES.) The other point is that some paints are formulated for specific paint procedures. By stopping by the paint store you'll know more when you talk to your painter. This way you won't be surprised to find that he needs a specific color and type of primer, or that he does not have the proper equipment for it (HVLP vs LVHP or respirator / full face mask). FWIW Enrique

Typically the problem with the clock is that the motor gets bound tight. I've fixed half a dozen or so simply by taking the clock mechanism out of the case, gently blowing and brushing the dirt and dust off, and then using a very light oil and only a gnat's drop of oil on the motor shaft. If you wanted to you could remove the motor from the mechanism and allow it to run free to ensure that it gets rid of the cobwebs within. Your car's battery is a NOMINAL 12v, which means that it may actually be producing 13.5 or so. I calibrated several clocks at 12v using a 12v power supply to keep time within a minute over a period of 3-4 days or so. When I put them into the car I found them to run just a tad fast. They'd gain approx 2 minutes per day. When I checked the voltage that the clock was getting it was 13.5v (and of course any variation when the engine is running). I've decided to live with that rather than remove, recalibrate and replace, but the key thing is that the clock's been running for over a year and a half. Hope this helps. Enrique

And another: Some of the questions you will be posting actually have their own terminology. If YOU take the time to at least get familiar with the terms, then it won't take as long to explain something to you, which in turn will prompt more responses to your questions. Here's an example of hammer terms that as you look them up, you'll answer a bunch of your questions on how to address the dents on the roof. Ball Peen Hammer; Shrinking Hammer; Flat Hammer; Pick; Wedge; Dead-Blow. Then look up Dolly, Anvil Dolly, Spoon Dolly. Not that your roof will need all of these, but you should know what they are, so that when you get referred to specific books, posts, etc., you'll be able to understand the type of body repair you are undertaking. Do a search on my name as author in the Tech Articles section, and you should find an explanation on shrinking metal. That might be what you end up doing. Enrique Don't get discouraged. Body working isn't working on engines, and suspension etc, it involves working on the part of the car that everyone looks at.

Take a look in my gallery at this picture: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2602&cat=500&page=1 That's a fix I came up with to extend the cowl drain hose all the way OUT of the fender. This way the debris from inside the cowl (pine needles, small leaves, etc.) won't get caught between the fender the the front part of the rocker panel beam. This is an extremely common rust-through for the Z. Since you don't have rust there now, do that repair and ensure that you don't. Enrique

Bryan hit it on the head, buy the Microfiche CD. Once you are able to get in there and figure out the sequence of things it will be a piece of cake to determine if this or that part was the same for what years and production dates. As far as the intermittent wipers, they started with the 73's, but you need to check a couple of rule-of-thumb tell-tale marks. If it has the illuminated Heater Control Panel then there's a good chance that it does have the int. wipers. If the wiring system had all of the relays, solenoids and blinkers all on one main "panel" on the passenger kick panel, then that's also a good sign. Of course if the wiper knob on the Combination Switch has 3 dots instead of just 2, then it at least has the Stalk. FWIW Enrique

And NONE in the dash. Now if you DO hear voices from in there..... Enrique

Forgot to add, that "extra bar" in the middle of the front bumper, many folks refer to it as the "Over-Rider" but that is not the "proper" name for it. You can remove that, but you'll have holes left in the rubber on the true "over-rider". E

Those rust spots are very typical. Look in my gallery for a highly recommended fix. The fix is basically to extend the cowl drain hose all the way to below the lower edge of the fender. This channels the water OUT from behind the fender and also eliminates leaves and other debris from collecting back there. The leaves are what (typically) cause the rust back there. The ~original~ radio, depends on whether it's an EARLY 71 or LATE 71. A true blue EARLY 71 might only have had the AM radio without the FM feature at all. Then, it MIGHT have the Auto-Scan feature. Press on the tuning knob to see if it depresses to determine if it should have the auto scan. A late 71 would have an AM/FM radio, but still with only one speaker. The addition of a 2nd speaker wasn't too difficult and some owners did so only to increase the volume. If the FM converter isn't too obvious or unsightly, I'd leave it. There's very few AM stations to peruse. Rear Bumper Center Section looking bad? Get it re-chromed if it's straight. If it's bent, take it to the rechromers and see if he can straighten it. Otherwise? Sorry, there isn't an otherwise choice. Those bumpers are NLA, and very highly sought items, i.e. EEEEK-spensive. The "European" bumpers don't have the RUBBER strip holes on them, nor the "Over-riders" or Bumper Guards. If you're eliminating the "vertical" bumpers, those are the Bumper "Over-Riders" (to use Datsun's term), and you can do so and just fill the hole with a chrome carriage bolt. If on the other hand you're referring to the rubber mounting holes, the only way is to fill with carriage bolts OR weld and have them rechromed. HTH Enrique