EScanlon

Not sure on this, but if I recall the Hatch Rubber Plugs that hide the holes in the metal that were originally used for the vent drain holes, are a good size, maybe big enough to fit that hole. 2¢ Enrique

Mark As far as racing, I would say that I'm a potential race-aholic who knows NOT to see how tolerant he can be. I love racing, enjoy going to them, watching them and have often fantasized about being in the car, either driving or as a passenger (rally navigator). Unfortunately, I know that I would be seriously, no let me rephrase... $eriou$ly addicted to the sport. If I could afford it, and had a vehicle that I wouldn't mind getting a couple of dings knocks etc into, then I'd be ears-deep into it. But, I can't afford it, and I'm a body-man and painter hobbyist and I don't relish the thought of scraping one of my paint jobs on another car or wall. So, racing is out for me. I know that PIR (Portland International Raceway) has days available to clubs, and sometimes to certified individuals, but you have to pass a safety inspection and have the proper insurance and insurance waivers. That's about all I know. As far as the rust / newbie issue. I don't think that anyone is coming down hard on YOU. I do think that everyone would rather you investigated and made sure, rather than suppose that it's ok. Far, far too many new guys have posted "Rust-Free Z" and have followed it up within some short period of time with "Oops...found some rust!" and sometimes gone onto "Can you believe that the floors were still holding together?". As a member of this site and others, believe me, even if some users were read about twice, there are still a vast majority of members who've found rust, rather than NOT finding rust. So, since you are at that stage of your project that a little bit more time and expense NOW will literally save you HUNDREDS down the road, you can see why we came down "hard". Almost without exception, the tar mat may indeed be good where you've gotten it to bust off, but sometimes it hides rust in the seam between floorpan and firewall, underneath the seats, by the rocker panels and almost always by the drain holes. When you remove all the tarpaper you may be indeed shocked and pleased that you found it before it got worse, as opposed to discovering it by installing Flintstone Brakes. (Where you can put your foot through the floor.) So, welcome to the club. Use the search function and you will literally be inundated with ideas, tips, procedures and all sorts of troubleshooting. Enrique

Please define "Won't Start!": You turn the key in the ignition lock you hear the click of the accessory relay on the passenger kick panel, you turn the key further and you hear a louder click coming from the engine bay area and you can hear the starter engaging and the engine turns over slowly normally and then does / does not kick over, not at all or sometimes. However, since you mention that all the lights on the dash went out, I'm going to presume that you were driving in daylight and as such did not notice if your lights went out, or didn't have them on to notice, that the car ran on but seemed different and that now it won't start....check the fusible link between the battery and the starter. If that fusible link goes out, the car simply has no connection to the battery. The engine, if it was running, will continue to run, just as if you had used a starter trigger. I've not verified the second, but according to the schematic that's what should happen. Enrique

I don't think you can use the first sentence and a Z in the same breath, let alone claim it. The main problem with the tar paper is that Datsun originally put it directly on top of unpainted sheet metal. Then they painted the car. Now maybe by the time the 280's came around they were painting first. Unfortunately the 280's I worked on only needed cosmetic body-work and I left the tar alone so I can't confirm nor deny whether it is there or not. You have to decide. Just be aware that the initial body style Z (Series I and II) is notoriously prone to rust even in storage. The phrase Rust-Free Z is a dead give-away that you ain't checked her out yet. As far as the second sentence, if you had cancer would you opt to NOT do anything because you didn't want a scar? Enrique

Just a couple of thoughts regarding speaker installations: If you are not opposed to loosing the tool box covers, then you can just replace the lids with speaker panels. You'll get two benefits, one a deeper resonance cavity, and the ability to return the car to stock when you replace the tool box lids. If a small degree of modification is acceptable, you could mount on the front of the tool box area. This will involve cutting some sheet metal. One disadvantage is that the speakers will literally be aimed at your butt, not bad for listening to Thus Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey), but subtle jazz or light pop would suffer due to the muffling of the seat and the carpet below. A mix of the two above would involve placing a pair of 6x9 in speakers on the front of the tool box area wired to the lower frequencies of the cross-over, and then a pair of 5¼" mid-range and another pair of 2" tweeters mounted on a speaker panel in lieu of the tool box lids. Insulate the interior of the tool box area with fluffy fibreglass after putting down some tar-mat to the metal and a Port Duct for the Air Reflex of 5 speakers and you would have a small component speaker system. If additional crispness is desired, a pair of 5¼" Mid/Tweet combination speakers could be mounted in the stock locations. The final item would be to locate a pair of 3" or 5" round dual speakers on the underside of the dash (you'd fashion a plate that would attach to the dash and firewall) right by where the fresh air vent controls are. Personally, I feel that adding a ton of base to music requires the volume of air to enjoy it in. The amount of base these kids are pumping serves only to resonate the complete car and not to make it sound better inside. Yes, it may appear to be better, but to a true audiophile it is more muffled and less dynamic than a good home system. However, there will be some that will insist on adding subwoofers. Why not check the amount of space available under the seats? I wouldn't be surprised to find that you could put a 9" or biggger directly under the seat. You could shield the seat bottom and direct the sub-woofer downward to change the directness of the sound. All of this requires a high wattage amplifier, which in turn requires a high wattage alternator and battery. Plan accordingly and effect upgrades as necessary to meet and give a safety margin. Then rock-on down the highway. 2¢ Enrique

Only the very earliest 240's had AM only. That would be 69 and early 70. By the second half of 70 and up they had AM and FM. Still only one speaker, but there was an indicator to let you know the station was a stereo one. The two right most selector push-buttons would change the band to FM and select the selected FM station. Enrique

Tomohawk's idea of some silicone to hold the base plate is probably the best idea. Unfortunately, installing mirrors is a 3 handed operation. One to hold the mirror in place, and the other two to get the plate and the nut onto the screws. The last couple of times that I installed the mirrors, I held the nut between my pinky and ring finger and used thumb, index and middle to get everything aligned then very carefully, while holding the plate with my middle finger, switched the nut to my thumb and index and then got it started. That's the tricky part, once you get the nut on you can tighten finger tight and then insert your socket wrench. The only time that this gets easier is when the window is OUT of the door and you don't have to keep raising and lowering the window. Enrique

I've got a 71 and a 72, but I don't think that's the Hazard Flasher. I may be wrong, but it looks more like the KD Solenoid for the KD switch on an Automatic car. But now that I think back, you might check directly behind the radio on the driver's side. There should be two flasher's there. The Turn Signal one is right by the Steering Column and the Hazard one is closer to the center console. But they both look like standard flashers. Check that out, I'm still betting on it being your flasher that's out. Enrique

Love it! Just think, then we can make our own headlight covers!!! E

My comment regarding bashing each other was, in retrospect, harsher than I intended. I was responding to what, it seemed to me, to be a defensive stance taken by spudea. That I personally wouldn't change my tail-lights to clear, because of my opinion on the look, doesn't mean that properly done it wouldn't look good. The pictures he posted of a 300 and 280 back end show that it has been done and may be acceptable to others. It may be that with some discussion we might find a scheme that would be a "futuristic" (meaning more modern) alternative to the standard taillights. Especially for the newer Z owners who, whether by choice, or being forced to find cheaper alternatives than OEM parts, are looking for ways of making their vehicle their own. If you've seen the new mini catalog by MSA, you'll see the clear turn signal lenses. If you like the look of the side marker like on a SAAB or a VW or some of the other vehicles that have mid-body markers, then that look may be for you. As far as the requirement for a color lens on the back, IIRC, the requirement is for the REFLECTOR to show red from behind, and to be ILLUMINATED red when the brakes are applied. That allows you to have a clear lens, but a red bulb with a red reflector someplace on the unit. As a thought, what about a smaller red lens inside the clear exterior lens? So, sorry if I jumped up and down louder than I intended. Enrique

This silly argument in all it's diverse presentations boils down to one basic tenet we all have: The modification to YOUR vehicle by YOU, only needs to satisfy YOU. That to those of us of an older persuasion (I'm not saying age), the "clear" lenses are more reminiscent of those sun bleached and faded lenses found on really older cars. Whenever you saw an older car with bleached out lenses you knew that it had been "ridden hard". To those of a younger persuasion, the "clear" lens is NOT a distasteful change, hence it's popularity amongst a typically "young" audience or at least those who are willing to embrace new concepts instead of tried and tested methods. So think of the clear lenses like a see-through blouse on a person. On some people it is so desireable that we would deem it mandatory, think Christie Brinkley, Cher, Britney Spears, and Fabio (for those of the opposing persuasion). On other people we would consider it to be an unfathomable breach of the visual senses (and ignoring all the "moral" BS.), there think of your plumber; your local mouth-breathing, beer swilling, never had a bath, naval scratching flea bag acquaintance (and no, I don't want to know) or Phyllis Diller or RuPaul. Where some people are not opposed to the thought, others reject the thought just on the basis of it's concept. You will not get the two to agree, except maybe to agree to disagree. So let's not BASH each other for not caring to do what some people suggest, and then again, don't expect everyone to like your idea if you choose to post it. If we can get past denigrating each other, we might find that we can DISCUSS the concept. 2¢ Enrique P.S.: Personally, I've seen vehicles with the clear lens COVERS and the internal small red lens, and others where the whole tail-light was clear with red BULBS. Some looked sharp, others didn't, in EITHER / BOTH of those categories. Same thing goes for changing out the tail-lights completely.

There is a big difference in the temperatures involved. I don't have my Chem book handy, but LIQUID Nitrogen is (if memory serves) MUCH colder than SOLID Carbon Dioxide. That is because Carbon Dioxide (CO2) does not pass through a liquid state at normal pressures. You have to have an ungodly amount of pressure to keep C02 liquid. It sublimates from a solid to a gas while gaining thermal energy and taking it away from the metal it comes in contact with. Yes it hardens the metal but you'd have to strike it just right at the exact spot that the metal has begun to crystalize (and that takes time) for it to crack it. I'm not saying it can NOT happen, just that it takes very special conditions for the famous shatter the metal with a hammer strike experiment. Enrique

The percentages on the right apply to the number of votes for THAT option to the TOTAL number of options SELECTED. In this voting scenario the percentage doesn't weigh any one option with relation to another, it's simply saying that that option was SELECTED X TIMES out of ALL boxes selected. Since voters could select from ONE to FIFTEEN boxes for their 1 VOTE, each vote WEIGHS differently in the percentage on the right. At the time I pulled the numbers, 72 people had voted, of which 37 had selected Wheels/ Tires and only 3 said NONE, Perfect. The %'s were from the TOTAL number of boxes checked, which was 342. 37 divided by 342 yields 0.10818 which matches the 10.82% listed, so does the 3 at 0.88%. The problem is that the poll does not sum up the number of Total Checked Boxes. Enrique

>emphasis mineTo answer this question: From your first post that says: Since no one had posed the subject of multiple votes at that time, nor had anyone posted that they could or couldn't vote more than once. It is very possible that while you were aware of being able to vote more than once, others did NOT know so, nor think so, therefore that's why you got those responses. Then again, maybe you didn't know about multiple votes and had just tried it and it didn't work, or you hadn't yet tried it and was just presuming that you would not be allowed to. Confused? Yeah, so are the rest of us when you start asking rapid-fire questions that seem to pick up on a thread that no one but YOU is thinking of and then getting upset when the answers don't fit your train of thought. So let's get back to the thread. Enrique

Good Poll. I can see how that other poll regarding Factory or Dealer installed parts or superseded parts was so important. My car has had many repairs that were done with original Datsun parts, but in some instances were considered upgrades to what was done with the car originally. The seats on a 71 do not offer a true reclining mechanism. They are the original tilt the backrest style of reclining (i.e. turn a knob and adjust the angle of the backrest, but not adjust the position of the backrest with relation to the seat). You could not tilt the seat back forward either (to get to the hatch area). The 72 cars had a true reclining mechanism, and you could tilt the back forward. Many original owners effected this change when possible. (I'm not including the Stock Concours Purists) Those were changes that people did to "correct" items they felt were inadvertently "forgotten", "overlooked" or "unfinished" in the original car. Courtesy Lights in the foot area or on the door to illuminate when open are another "upgrade" that uses the stock wiring. All you have to do is add the lights. The door switches will light them and so will the Dome light switch, so this was a "change" without being a modification, but in the pure essence of this poll was made "different". The Heater Control Panel Faceplate is notoriously dark on all the 240's except for the 73 model. That one offered back-light bulbs to illuminate the levers and knob. That also is a change, but again many owners took advantage of it. Custom wheels were such a "standard" part of the dealer package that there are many individuals that are "shocked" to discover how plain the original "D" Hubcaps were, or the subsequent "Z" ones. How many times have you seen ads for the OEM Mag Wheels on a Z? The famous 5 spoke oval hole aluminum wheels with a cap or a spinner were so prevalent that most people just assume the car arrived with them and not that they were one of those "automatic" upgrades by the dealer. In other posts and other sites we've heard of guys that worked at the dealer and were literally chucking brand new hubcaps in the junk because the new owner didn't want them (when he actually did NOT know the car came with different wheels). A friend of mine was told that Datsun expected the car to be sold with the Mag's but had them installed in the US to save $, and that's why dealers did that automatically. Truth or Sales Hype? I wanted to vote, but unfortunately, I'd have to pick each option including the last one. Enrique

You haven't mentioned if the lights operate with the HAZARD switch alone. Simply turn on the Haz Sw, and check your lights front and back. If no light check your Hazard Switch FLASHER Unit. This should be on the passenger kick panel, it is a round barrel shaped tube. The flasher unit by the steering column is for the turn signals. When those guys at MSA refer to the RELAY, they are referring to the FLASHER unit. There are only two RELAY'S in the 240's circuitry for the HORN and the ACCESSORY neither of which are part of this circuit. Now if that fails, then check the Green/Yellow wire going to the turn signal portion of the combination switch and check for continuity to the Hazard Flasher Plug in, connect to the Blue/White wire there. If no continuity, your break is probably where the Haz Flash ties into the circuit (where the Blue/White connects to the Green/Yellow). But check things out first. Enrique

If you do choose to remove them, you will probably find that the paint below has been scratched and weathered such that you will need to repaint. Just a thought to think about. Also, to seal the holes you don't necessarily have to WELD them shut. Although welding or brazing are the best methods to close up holes in the metal, sometimes they can be prohibitive as far as time and cost due to the care required to not warp the sheet metal. You can solder them closed without too much damage to the surrounding metal (other than the paint removal and acid etch). If you do decide to remove them, would you let me know if you would be willing to sell/ship the old pieces to me? Enrique

Ed's guess seems to be on the money from what I remember of USAF markings, although in the Air Force air planes have the year of construction as part of their number. Not sure about vehicles and didn't see a correlation to that that I recall. The "H" on the roof doesn't look like an H, it looks more like a set of Captain's bars. The two little lines between the bars is what gives that away. Some units at Christmas time would have unit celebrations where the Xmas tree would be decorated with personalized items for each of the members of the unit. I still have a little snow sled that was made for me (after a nominal donation) back at Wurtsmith AFB, MI back in the 80's. The markings on the hood are more cryptic. Very possibly they denote a personnel position or a vehicle's use. 2¢ Enrique

Excellently written article and superb use of before / after pictures. Kudos SuperDave When I removed mine, I was able to use the paint scraper method and a RUBBER mallet. The rubber mallet allowed me to strike the metal directly without deforming the metal from the strike. Since I was specifically addressing a "High-Curb" pan hit, the loss of the tar was an added bonus but noteworthy for this application. 2¢ Enrique

A good bump-out man will get that roof smooth enough that with only a skin coat of bondo or high-fill primer will make it so you can't tell it was bumped out. That is standard bumping out procedure. Perfect? I don't think even from the factory they could be considered perfect. Now the main problem is going to be to find a body shop with a true-blue metal man. Sadly these days, they do go for the parts replacers and bondo happy sanders. But as a word of advice and caution, address the mechanicals first unless there is serious rust in the body pan and frame. If that's the case, fix the rust that would otherwise render the shell garbage, then get back to the mechanicals. Believe me, there is nothing sadder than a beautifully painted car...in the boneyard. Enrique

I agree, none of the damage you showed there is terminal. Now go get pictures of the floorpans, the rocker panels, the hatch finisher area, the battery tray etc. Those are the areas where rust can kill the car. As far as bondo...everybody gives it a bad rap, but used properly it works well. AFAIK there are few metalmen here, if any, good enough to give advise on how to straighten the metal WITHOUT bondo. Those thumps on the roof will require a metal man that can shrink the stretch and heat temper the metal once it gets back into shape. Enrique

And that is the exact reason they're trying to pass the law now. The public perception of the numbers of hybrids being bought, used and projected is that it IS low. If they succeed in passing the law when it doesn't matter to the bulk of the public, then when it DOES become important, it's too late. Remember this folks, government has ALWAYS found it hard to rescind a tax, and has ALWAYS been more and more creative in finding new ways to tax us. Since required MPG values have slowly but surely been raised, it has resulted in a small downward trend in the taxes generated from the sale of gas. They're just anticipating how else to tax you. Find out who the author of this bill is and vote him out ASAP. That kind of creative bloodsucking needs to be avoided at all costs. What would be next, a tax based on how many passengers were in the vehicle for those miles? For those of you in other states, pay attention to your state's legislators. They're the ones that are looking for YOUR cash. Enrique

Just a thought to share regarding those who call it a penismobile: Look them straight in the eye and say "Did you know that the only people to equate a car with a penis are those who are seriously undersized themselves?" Or: "You know dude, you really ought to get professional help regarding this penis fixation you seem to have." Or: "Yeah, you're absolutely right. Remind me, you drive a Civic or a Neon?" Enrique

That they're blinking erratically and not in unison with one another may be due to the bulb housing not making proper contact with the instrument housing, bad bulbs with corrosion on the base, the clip on the housing could have been compressed such that it isn't making tension on the housing. In the 240 you would either remove the glove box or the Heater Control Panel to access the back of the 3 center gauges. Give Sblake01 a PM, he has a couple 280's and he can probably help you with the disassembly. Enrique

Guilty as charged! I'll continue to drive my Z to serve my sentence! :laugh: Enrique