EScanlon

Casey; Was that JUST for the Stainless Trim, or did it include the front and rear windshield panes installed for that amount? E

Nope, that next to last post of yours is gold. Let's get some more input. Someone mentioned problems logging in, I had no problems, anyone have problems? Thanks Capt. E

Mike; I wouldn't. Some of those switches have fine plastic pieces that need to "snap" into place for proper operation. If you pack it with grease it won't snap and then you're back where you started. Open up a typical Push On/Off switch and you'll see the small reed that travels in a groove that then locks the button in the on or off position. Also, dielectric grease is a NON-conductive grease (silicon based) used to weather-proof the connection, i.e. humidity, water, etc.. However, because it is non-conductive you don't want to use it where the electrical contact gets cycled, i.e. on/off/on. It works fine at the connectors to components because you're getting a good MECHANICAL contact first that you are then weatherproofing. FWIW E

I'm not the one making changes, but your input through this thread is very much being read and considered. The problem is that with posts like the first one... "Man the new classifieds suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! " as Arne pointed out, without details is just another wizz and moan bitch. It doesn't help and nothing can be done with it. Even with the positive comments addressing what you DID like lets Mike know what to continue and re-use. Did it take too long to load; what features did you like; what would you remove; what would you relocate; is the size of the font adequate; larger or smaller; are but just the beginning of a bunch of questions that could be asked. Granted, not every one needs to be answered or adressed. But if it bugs you and you don't speak up... then, bluntly, you've got nobody but yourself to blame. E

Double check that plastic milk bottle to make sure it won't dissolve with gasoline. E

The original finish wasn't shiny polish, it was more of a high luster SATIN finish. You can go ahead and polish them, but as mentioned they will show any scrapes from your shoes, butt, or mis-aligned door. Once you have them cleaned up and polished or buffed to whatever finish you decide you DO want to coat them with something, aluminum tends to "gray" out exposed to the air. You could use a clear paint, but the problem with that is that the paint dries hard and can eventually chip, crack and allow the corrosion to begin in the cracks. POR sells a product called GLISTEN PC which is essentially a type of CLEAR POR (not the Clear POR they also sell), but specifically made for application on polished metal as opposed to the regular POR which requires an etched or "toothy" surface. I used this on my Roadster which has not only the sill plate, but also the lower edge of the inner door panel and the door weatherstrip welting overlays in ribbed aluminum. They were polished and treated with Glisten PC about 5 years ago and still shine like the day they were mounted on the car. It's not cheap, but the end result is far better than any clear paint would have given. It does take patience though, you'll apply it and have to wait about 4-5 days depending on temperature and humidity. FWIW E

Mike, that's as good an explanation as anything else. However, just prying up the rubber to try to inject the black caulk adhesive might not fix the problem at all. There are a few spots in the windshield frame where water could easily find it's way into the cowl and the A pillar, as well as in the upper corners. Simply injecting caulk/adhesive might only help channel the water to those openings. Are you sure you have a windshield gasket leak problem? or are you addressing it in the preventive maintenance manner? If you DO have a problem, I'd recommend removing the windshield and examining the gasket and the opening before you try to stop gap the leak. If you're doing preventive maintenance, and the windshield was installed properly, I don't know that I'd do more than simply lift the outer edge and only squeezing enough sealant to help the gasket. Too much monkeying with the gasket could twist it and result in the problem you're trying to avoid. FWIW E

That's a nice Urban Legend about the Battery Acid Fumes causing all that rust. Since it appears on BOTH sides, and in roughly the same amount, it's probably due to the weep holes having been sealed by an over zealous caulker at the assembly line. I've seen several cars with this problem and every one demonstrated the same glob of caulk stuffed into the weep hole at the very front of that channel. The area you are looking at on both sides, is the upper side of the Fresh Air Vent and Front Body Frame Member. The Seam that stands straight up along it's length is where the outer edge and the upper edge were spot welded along it's length. Onto that seam is where the Inner Fender Rubber Seal gets mounted to avoid having the tire splash road water and grime into the engine bay. At the very front of the join, where the outer sheet metal now begins to join the actual Inner Fender sheet metal there is a small gap, about 3/16" or 1/4" that allows any water that may have seeped, leaked or splashed onto the "V" channel that extends all the way to the under Cowl area to drain, sadly, INTO the engine bay. This often got caulked at the factory when they installed the outer fender, thereby PLUGGING that "V" channel so it could accumulate water, debris and eventually rust. Then again, I've seen cars where you pull off a small nest of pine needles, lint and other debris that washed down from the cowl and eventually clogged the weep hole. This is very similar to what happens to the rust at the front edge of the rocker panel and the rear and bottom most edge of the outer fender. The solution will depend on your time, experience and money. Simplest, is to simply cut out the old metal, treat the Fresh Air Vent Tube for rust protection and then weld in new metal. While the inner seam is important for placing and mounting the outer fender to, the outer (the one with the curve) seam only supports the Inner Fender Seal. In other words, make sure you replicate the inner seam (and part of the inner fender) but don't worry too much about the outer seam. As far as the rust on the "A" pillar, it's a long stretch for it to be part of the problem coming from the cowl area (and therefore related to the above mentioned rust), but it is plausible. Granted the car would have had to be stored at a 30° angle for the water to seep towards that back area. A more likely scenario has some gunk getting caught in the "Whale Tail" seal and being held in place. To me, of the two problems you have, the second is probably the more worrisome. As others have mentioned, you're probably going to find a bunch of rust under the tar mat on the floor and probably the rockers as well. FWIW E

Jaye; When you mention the light switch being at fault, did you repair or replace it? If replace, you might want to save the old and see if you can repair it, as the replacements can be spendy. By the way, it isn't necessary to quote the whole previous message to reply to it. Not a big deal, but it just gets cluttered. FWIW E

By the way, Unkle (that's his user name) is a professional locksmith who can really give you info. You can PM him or wait and see if he responds to this thread. E

AFAIK, if the key FITS the door locks as well as the Ignition Lock, then you CAN key the Doors or Ignition to function with the same key. Find a locksmith that's been around for a good while to ensure that he has the old Datsun wafers he'll need in case the ones in your locks aren't the proper combination. (As an aside, if you know the locks are original to the car, check the inside of the glove compartment door and see if there is a key code there. With that he can simply cut you a new key for the doors.) Buying all new hardware is always a sure bet to ensure trouble free operation, however, it can be extremely spendy. As far as the doors not being able to lock, it may be a simple matter of the Door CATCH being too far in towards the center of the car and therefore not allowing the Door LATCH itself and the locking mechanism to fully travel and actuate the door lock mechanism. That's why your door lock stem won't go down, the lock mechanism is in the "safety" catch mode, i.e. first click and not completely shut. To verify this, actuate the door latch with the door open by rotating the cam past TWO clicks. Once there, try to actuate your door lock stem, it should go down. Try to open the door from the outside and it shouldn't do so. Right off the top of my head I can't recall if the interior door latch handle will allow you to override the lock, but check it anyhow. See what this does before you begin disassembling everything. E

Whereas my painting experience is mostly custom or semi-custom. Sometimes with OEM formulations and other times via process. Important thing is that between all of us we post helpful comments to all. But getting back to the OP's car, the job is extremely pleasing and appealing. The depth and luster of that blue makes you wish you could see it personally. Good Job El-Zeta! E

Larry; Your post comes off as if to say that only your definition applies, when that isn't the case. In fact, your definition is only ONE of the MANY facets of Three Stage Paint, which you may be defining by limiting to a specific Tri-Coat process and color. The "tint" coat as you're referring to, isn't ONLY a "candy" style transparent or transluscent layer, it often is the ONLY source of pearl or metallic in a given manufacturer's color code of paint. Both the base coat and the middle coat can and do have metallic, pearl, mica or other properties that when overlaid one over the other give the specific color code it's unique finish. The clear or last coat, is there to enhance the brilliance, clarity and durability of the overall paint job. This is the layer that receives the final polish or "cut and polish". Toyota Whites, Lexus Whites, both use a specific but plain white BASE shade followed by a varying number of PEARL only coats. Alter the number of Pearl coats, or their predominant hue and you have a completely different white than what it takes to match the manufacturer's specifications or to blend the re-paint onto a damaged car. Chrysler Reds use Pearl and Metallic Red in two different formulations to produce the various Reds they're offering in their automotive lineup. Rather than cite every possible permutation of formulas, these are the two most referenced with a casual search on the web. I looked for specific process sheets given out by the manufacturer's but they are hard to locate. Get into the custom colors that House of Kolor and other Custom Color Paint Distributors produce and suddenly your definition seems to apply to only the most severely restricted band of the custom color paint world. For those needing external verification, call your local automotive paint shop, or a local and known to your auto body shop and verify. 2¢ E

The tri-stage middle level can also be metallic glitter. Two stage is the typical Color-Clear which is the most common paint job today, but in older times ( and still available) is the SINGLE stage. The difference is that most single stage many times will not have the same luster of a 2 or 3 stage job. FWIW E

The Heater Fan IS powered through an in-line fuse away from the main fuse box. Look for a Blue wilre that turns to Red as it comes out of the in-line fuse holder (note, it could also be Red on both sides, this is a mis-leading item on just about every wiring schematic I've looked at.) Testing the switch will take me a bit as I'll have to see if I have one handy. FWIW E

Geez Wade, after that stomping you might want to check between your toes for debris! However, although I've been known to share the same tone on other items, I find I must agree with what he wrote. I'll just keep my shoes and socks on when I stomp you! (j/lk) Too often a relatively simple, minor fix item gets transmogrified into this frankenstenian BJ of a Sino-Mayan Fire Drill written in Cyrillic alphabet... and all it was was a simple fuse, wire disconnect, relay replace etc. I've seen beautiful and functional vehicles become projects on the "just replace this and..." school of vehicle repair. In fact, I've bought two, for a total of under $1000. One I repaired with a spare part from my parts car, and the other ended up needing an engine... from the parts car. Both had started as real simple items that were blown way out of proportion by well-intentioned prior owners who decided to start swapping parts in the hopes of fixing a problem. Then with electrickery, one man approaches it with the same amount of technological wizardry that they show on shows like CSI, and ER, with the latest most minute bits of data being required for a preliminary diagnosis let alone a course of treatment, and another guy simply says to stick in a light bulb between two points and if it lights, you're good to go. At times Occam's Razor needs to be applied, other times it's SFM. What was intermittent, suddenly starts working after you beat your head on the dash once or twice. Did you do anything proactive, no, and I'll bet you felt bad about the dent in the dash as well as your headache, but that stupid little problem that was there and not there is now.... NOT there. And you find you'll take it. First thing to do is that you must ask yourself:What was the LAST thing you changed/fixed/replaced? And this is regardless of WHAT it was. I've seen guys go for repairs on the Heater Valve suddenly not have the Heater Blower, or the glove box light, or their Rear Window Defog, simply for having moved the wire bundles that relate to those systems. Second thing is to go to that change/fix/repair and see if you inadvertently failed to re-connect or mis-connected something. If No to both above, then you start looking at components specific to that system. That's where this forum is very valuable in that we'll give you some of the "stick a bulb between these two wires" type of advice; (as well as the MRI/CT scan in some cases); but if you are uncomfortable doing this kind of stuff, then decidedly ... send it to the experts. Even the experts get befuddled with electrickery sometimes. I had a car that killed (as in need to replace) 4 DieHard batteries in the span of 6 months, and their electrical expert (the trainer for the region) checked and re-checked my car each time and told me I'd gotten bad batteries and just replaced the first 3. He assured me ON PAPER that the problem was not with my car as I had told him to replace any parts he felt needed to be replaced in order to stop the problem. On the fourth time I had to be re-started, he told me to take it to a specialist, and based on that specialist's opinion, Sears would either replace or refund my money for the battery, etc. I made an appointment with the man, drove to his HOUSE during my lunch time, the guy came out munching on a sandwich, asked me a couple of questions and during this time he removed ONE screw from a wire from the battery to the body, pulled out a bit of sandpaper, scuffed the hole, replaced the screw, turns to me and says "That will be 20 bucks, and I'll call Sears and they'll swap your battery this afternoon." As he said is what happened. That car drove for 3 more years with that battery before it got totaled in an accident. What was it? The main ground to the body. Because of corrosion there, ALL of the car's electrical system was grounding through incidental contacts, which when the car was parked showed good... but NOT when the car was operating. The battery was being cycled on a horrendous charge/no-charge cycle that was burning up each battery. Ground corrected, problem gone. A simple solution that had defied the best troubleshooting machines and mind at my local Sears. May he was not a JPL Electrical Specialist, but he was more of one than I was at that time. In a nutshell, start simple with very minor "replacements" and "repairs" and you won't blow it way out of manageability. Start throwing parts at it and before long.... How much did you want for that project in your garage that's been sitting for 5 years? 2¢ E

They're normally covered with the vinyl overlay, so you'll be OK. If possible, shoot some rust-proofing into the holes, that reaches all the way to the inner skin of the rocker panels. E

Have you made a decision as to how much you are planning on spending? Or asked another way, have you decided how much to spend and how much you're planning on doing yourself? The answer to those questions will help guide you more than anything else. Then depending on the how much $ and how much labor ratio is then you can get a better idea of where to spend it. East coast pricing has a heavy "rust" tax on it. If the car has been "cured" of rust, it will depend in how much curing has been effected. Better prognosis will mean a higher $ car, and that's a rule of thumb. Yes, you can find exceptions, but you'd be better off working with someone who is "connected" than in trying to find it on your own. As a ~general~ rule, anything EAST of the Mississippi will have the possibility of having been driven on salty winter roads in it's history, how well it fared will affect it's price today dramatically. We've seen really low priced... parts cars, cause that's all they can be, the metal is too far gone. The few real gems found on the East Coast usually exchange hands privately, but you can expect to pay a premium for this service, not always high, but there nonetheless. Other East Coast people come West and purchase a good car for the same price of a poor car back East and then ship it back. Additionally, the GEMS out here on the West Coast are serious contenders for Top Prize out East. Out West, the chances of salt iuse are drastically reduced, but other items come into play. Arizona and other "desert" cars will have great sheet metal but will likely have deteriorated plastic, foam, rubber and vinyl. You can expect to need to replace most of those items. In the Pac NW you'll find that there is ~some~ rusting, but the plastic, foam, rubber and vinyl parts will have survived better. California has some salt in the northern region, and mostly not in the southern, but cars coming from the south may have dubious backgrounds. Not all vehicles are bad, but there are also vehicles that were abused or have questionable titles. However there are some excellent vehicles to be found. One trick that has been discussed here is where a salvaged vehicle will be "restored" purportedly to top notch standards and will be shipped cross-country only to fail vehicle inspections once it arrives. Another is where the vehicle gets various modifications to "improve" the vehicle and ending up with a mish-mosh hybrid that is difficult even for experienced mechanics to work on. Those are some of the ones to watch out for. But there are excellent stories out there too. You're doing the right thing by asking for guidance. Hopefullly, this helped a bit. E

Since you mention that you want to recover the wheel after the foam repair, I might suggest a couple of ways of doing the repair. I'm not familiar with the sponginess of the wheel you are referencing, so based on that, I can't point you to a specific product, but can point to a couple of products that would allow you to do the repair. In R/C circles we have various grades of foam rubber that gets used from cowl gasketing on airplanes, hatch covers on boats and also start up box trestles for the aircraft tool boxes. You will find various thicknesses and hardness ratings. Another place is the Bicycle shop, I used to buy handlebar tape that was foam (albeit very thin), but I recall that you could also get a THICK foam that wasn't already in the tube form (which just slipped over the metal handlebars) which required over-wrapping it with some of the thin foam or the vinyl skin. Lastly, check the PIPE insulation department of your local hardware store, and I'm not refering to Lowe's or Home Depot. While the two larger box stores MAY carry the item, they won't have it out for you to look at and compare. They'll have it in a bag for you to buy 25 feet or so of it. Smaller shops like True Value and/or Ace sometimes have this available by the roll and you buy by the foot. Worth checking. In any case once you've procured the replacement foam, you can either choose to recover the WHOLE wheel in the same thickness / hardness material, or just splice a piece in. If you splice, don't forget to glue the edges of the patch to the original piece to avoid a separation of the pieces when you squeeze them (this is a problem that sometimes happens when you do seat foam re-builds and you're bolstering one part with a different style/texture of foam). FWIW E

I may be wrong, and if so I'm sure I'll be corrected, but you may be referring to the throttle down diaphragm. That diaphragm is there to slow down the "return to zero" position of the throttle. If memory serves it is to avoid having the engine or carbs (not sure) backfire because of the sudden cut-off of throttle. FWIW E

Post a thread, but list them iin the Classifieds.

I can feel your frustration and it is understandable. Unfortunately, and I may be "arse-uming", it sounds as though you've been repairing the car by reacting to what goes wrong. While my assumption sounds "dumb" it is a known problem when doing repairs/restoration/refreshing vehicles. In the list above, I note several items that are definitely in the "comfort" range as opposed to mechanical reliability or safety. The new seat, stereo, upholstery etc. are all items that you chose to repair/replace/upgrade, as opposed to must repair in order to continue operating it. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's a good idea to do so especially if your interest is taking a hit, which is exactly where you are at this point. But the other items you mention are all over the car, and that's why I'm mentioning that the repairs seem haphazard as opposed to a definite plan of action. Yes, the car can and will be reliable, but you need to avoid doing ONLY repairs and concentrate on adding some preventive maintenance in the mix of repairs you do. Some of them are plainly obvious, when you change the brake pads, go ahead and get the drums/rotors turned, bleeding the system also will help improve it's reliability. If you note the hoses are questionable, don't reuse them, replace them. The end intent is to increase the reliability not JUST what needed repairing, but also ancillary or connected items. I've heard of guys replacing or rebuilding the clutch master...and ignoring the slave or the connecting line. Fixing the Heater hoses while the whole box is out of the car but NOT checking the control valve or making sure that all the levers, doors, etc. operate properly. While the infamous "while I am there" disease is something that can lead to having a perpetual project in the garage, the inverse of ONLY addressing what needs/must be done can cause you to have to reopen or disassemble part of the car AGAIN just to repair something you COULD have repaired easily the first time. Will it be reliable? That depends on your approach to effecting repairs AND doing preventive maintenance. (and your pocket too, but that goes to your determination.) Can it be reliable? That depends on just how badly mistreated a vehicle you bought and how deep your pocket and your stubbornness is. Hope this helps. E

That "stash" looks an awful lot like Victor Laury's old stash of parts. If it is so, then the parts may be gone because he's moved to Florida. Any idea on where those parts are? E

Be forewarned, they are extremely addicting! Even over the Z. You heard it first here. E

Don't be so gentle with the underside, you may find that there is an undercoating that will laugh at the walnut shells. You may need to use a combination of scrapers, dry ice, and even paint stripper to get it off. But then, DON'T just spray prime and paint, and even more importantly, NOT FLAT BLACK paint. Plain old primer and paint, while very good for the upper exterior of the car, won't survive long on the underside of the car after being subjected to the barrage of small rocks or debris being kicked up from the tires. Instead, opt for a harder paint. Whether something like POR, or LizardSkin, or PickUp Bed liner, make sure that the base properly rust protects the underside metal. FWIW E