EScanlon

Bart; The post you refer to, specifically post #22, explains that it was the PEARL that caused the problems. Pearl, is/was considered a Candy Paint "back in the day" so to speak. (Candies being those paints with color but being transparent/translucent.) Most non-metallic and non-"effect" style paints (color changing, transparent, gloss inhibitors, fluorescent over white base) will not usually be affected from vertical hanging versus horizontal. I've always been partial to painting doors and hoods, etc ON the car, but there are times when that is simply NOT possible or practical. At that time the deciding factor will always be the paint. Fast (Reader's Digest version) explanation: When you spray the paint, due to gravity and static electricity the particles within the paint align themselves in one direction. When shooting at different angles to gravity and general static charges in the air, you end up with different angles of the particles set in the final paint. When you put two of those items in close proximity to each other, then most of the time, it becomes very obvious that they shine, reflect light, or simply have a different "color" while being the same paint from the same shoot. Metallic paints have actual bits of metal flake in them, not in "rock" form, but in tiny flat slivers. They reflect light on the flat surface. When they are sprayed they attain a specific angle, and usually will not "flatten" out any more while drying/setting. This results in different angles of refraction. Pearls also fall into this category. Candie paints on the other hand, are like painting with Kool-Aid. The stuff is transparent and you would think that it shouldn't matter. Well candies are paints that build up their hue by how thick (number of coats) the paint is over a given base color. The thickness of a coat of paint on a horizontal surface is MUCH different than the thickness on a vertical surface. On the horizontal it's simply thick, on the vertical....it runs or sags. (Gravity at work here.) You might think that CLEAR might have the same problems. Well ONLY if you are planning on doing a bunch of sanding to remove orange peel or doing a lot of buffing. Then, it may be problematic. Most problems with clear are orange peel or dry-lining. Then again, gravity can play on that also. Well, I tried for the Reader's Digest version. FWIW Enrique

Oh Boy are you going to get grief from some of us old timers. First off, there ain't no such thing as a Butterscotch Z. The color is GOLD, Safari Gold is another name for it, but GOLD it is. Color code 920. Second, there used to be another member here with the screen name 2ManyZs that is, the exact same name but WITHOUT an apostrophe at the end. Due to many things, he hasn't posted in a while, but he is still a friend to many of us. Here's a link to his profile: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/member.php?u=1499 So, not trying to rain on your parade, and hoping you can see why this might just rub people wrong. FWIW E

Yikes....I'll try to keep the "chapters" more "Reader's Digest" style... One other thought for you Donald. Put the car up on jackstands and remove all the wheels. This way you can get to the rockers, won't have any overspray on the tires (and therefore won't have to mask them off) AND (usually) you'll be at the ideal height for spraying. Also, a quick damp mop of the floor where you'll be painting will help eliminate a lot of the blow dust. E (is this better? )

Top down....again because of the hose drag AND because after holding the paint gun up and out away from your body, after a while your arm gets...very...VERY... tired. By the third coat you'll be using your other arm to help hold the paint gun and arm up. Remember, you want to raise the car up off the floor enough that you can spray to the lower edge of the rocker panels....all the way to the inner seam where they butt up against the floor pan, YET not so high that you need ladders to reach over and paint the middle of the roof. That height, depending on whether you have a bottom cup or a top cup (and hence bottom gun, making it twice as tall as a bottom cup gun), needs to be enough that you aren't straining to reach on the roof, yet not so low that you can't adequately spray the rocker. Since you've already painted the engine bay, and presuming you do not need to paint the underside of the hood, I would put the hood ON the car and paint everything together. Then again, I would also paint the fenders on the car since you've already painted the door jamb area. But that is just ONE method/procedure. Whether you should paint the doors, hatch, hood, and fenders on or off the car is critical only if you are painting metallics or candy paint. Most (and note the use of the word MOST) other paints, do not require that kind of placement. One way I would paint, with hood and hatch off, I would begin my coat of paint in the middle of the hatch area, work my way forward along one side, doing the rear part of the fender on that side all the way to the bottom, then up towards the center of the roof, do that side of the roof and then bring the paint coat back towards the back...shooting a small "freshen" up on the rear panel part that's already been painted and carry it forward to the cowl. Then repeat for the other half of the car starting on the other side of the hatch. If you have the hood and fenders on, you would repeat this basic procedure there. OR But presuming you paint as you have it hanging....Start at the roof, work your way down to one "C" pillar, jump to the other side and do the same, jump back to the first side and continue the paint down that side to the floor and back to the hatch area, jump to the other side and do the same, then the hatch area. Go back to the first side and finish front of rear fender and then door...repeat for the other side. Both those procedures address the "refreshing" of previously laid paint so that you do not have a paint line, since the paint will not have had sufficient time to totally skin and refuse the new paint to blend / melt in. But all of these are MY personal methods and not necessarily what YOU will want to do. Do a mental rundown and if possible a WALK-THROUGH. This way you can note where your hose might get caught, or obstacles to remove, or.... you get my drift? Once the paint starts flowing, there is not enough time for farting around fixing problems. Looking forward to seeing some pics. E

As a suggestion, put some plastic sheeting (12 mil or so, thick enough that it won't flutter with air hitting it) on the sides AND ceiling of your proposed work area. You're looking to make an encloseable area. This will keep the dust and fumes localized AND will stop the dust that is bound to be hidden in the nooks and crannies of the studs from blowing on your finish. Also, once you've shaken the gallon can of paint, BEFORE you add any additives (hardener ~ which may or may not be required on the base coat~, reducer, or other) pour yourself an emergency quart. This quart will be to fix or touch up any problems you may encounter later....voice of experience here. Do the same with the clear. This way you will have the ACTUAL color and clear you used on the main paint job. Put a thermometer IN the enclosed area AND keep an eye on the outside temp especially if you will be drawing outside air to vent paint fumes. I can't emphasize it enough, a sudden change in temperature WILL cause problems in your paint. Especially if it has NOT set...and that can be as much as an hour AFTER you finish painting. Remember, there is a chemical process going on as well as simply "cooking" time (time for the reagents to finish cooling off AFTER the reaction has finished). Changes in temperature during this critical time CAN and WILL result in problems. Again, voice of experience here. I had an Austin Healey literally have the paint DRIP off when the outside temperature dropped 25 degrees in the span of an hour (I was in Michigan at the time) and the MWR supervisor thought that I needed to vent all that paint mist (he turned on the big ventilator fan AND opened up the big outside roll up door so that the fumes would clear quickly). When I got back from the mess hall, the paint could be seen in rivulets all along the bottom edges of the car. NOT a pretty sight. Check the expected temp and humidity range and make sure you have the proper reducer for that temperature range and humidity. Since you've already done some painting, you have a good idea of how and how much your paint gun can cover in a single pass. Before you start mixing paint, mentally run through your procedure to paint the car. Remember that while you are shooting base coat, a dry line isn't too much to worry about, but should still be avoided, but it will cause you a BUNCH of work if you do that when shooting the clear coat. A dry line is when you spray fresh material right next to material that has had a chance to "skin" and begin setting. The new spray will not get a chance to melt into the older and you'll have a distinct line that looks like overspray. That's why you plan the paint pattern out in your head so that you do NOT have to spray fresh paint next to the paint you sprayed earlier in the same "coat". If you don't have a choice as to having to spray onto the beginning of the coat, then you either work real fast to get to the beginning before it skins....OR you work back and forth advancing each side of the beginning spot such that both "sides" of your coat of paint are fresh. Lastly, and this is very VERY important. When reaching over your vehicle to paint the roof, top of cowl / windshield area...WATCH YOUR AIR HOSE!! Some painters wrap the air hose around their arms so that it won't droop down into the fresh paint they've laid down, or mar the previous coat. Don't forget to purge your compressor of any moisture in the tank before you start. Hope this helps; Enrique

It's similar to a carpenter's ruler ... except you don't have to unfold it, you just slide it back and forth a few times, then the heat of the friction makes smoke and ideas pop into your head.... And who is picky? ...should that be 100% original at 58,800 miles, then....or ? E

But if you check Arne's signature block (again....) you'll see he's listing VIN# "HLS30-12746, 10/70, 919 yellow (mostly) - L24 and 4 speed" So we either get on him again about fixing his signature..AGAIN...(), or HE has the higher of the two 70 VINs. Unless, of course, my abacus is wrong, but according to my slide rule (which I have a hard time working) that should be correct. E

OUCH! And that is just too funny now. Thanks for the laugh! E

Thank you John! Not a school teacher, just someone who's been through a couple of "mills" as the saying goes, and just trying to pass on some of the knocks I've received as subtle pushes...hopefully to help someone avoid the knock entirely. If I can describe something, a process, a procedure or even a "look" and YOU as a reader can replicate or visualize what I write...then I've done a good job. Again, Thanks. Enrique

Before you commit to McM-C and trying to figure out how much, which one, etc to buy, why not check with some of the known vendors? Your car being a 77 may very well NOT have the problems of the doors not closing properly. It is the EARLIER 240 vehicles that have that problem. Yours being a 77 should be a 280 and by then the door jamb area was subtly different by being deeper, (I don't remember the specifics, maybe someone else can chime in) such that the gaskets that everyone gets NOW are slightly thicker and cause some problems on the earlier vehicles that did NOT have the deeper jamb. By getting it from the vendors you'll help keep demand of the product up, hopefully encouraging manufacturer's to maintain production but also you won't waste time with possible "fixes" only to be disappointed. The same applies for the hatch seals. Motorsports Auto, Black Dragon Automotive, Courtesy Nissan, Bansai Motorworks, Too Intense Restoration, even some of the e-Bay sellers Schluderm, Reddat, Stockcuz, are good sources of the parts. There are a few more, and I'm sure others will post their preferences and avoidances... You might even save some time, buy the club CD (if you haven't already) and using that micro-fiche get the Part Number and ask at your local Nissan Dealer. You'd be surprised at how many parts are STILL available from them. 2¢ Enrique

Apropos the brakes, I recently had to have the rear cylinders replaced for one of the silliest reasons....I'd been "babying" my car too much. Brake Fluid (DOT 3) can and does absorb moisture. Maybe only a small percentage, but ENOUGH to cause major problems in the rear brake cylinders because...you guessed it, corrosion. It turns out that in trying to be "good" to the car and NOT drive it excessively in the rain, (I'm in the Pac-NW remember? 4-5 mo's of rain!) and generally not abuse it....I'd inadvertently been causing problems. My mechanic suggested that I DRIVE the car on a regular basis AND drive it in traffic that requires STOP and GO as well as the spirited run. (Sounds like keeping a thoroughbred horse!) He mentioned that it was far more problematic to NOT run the car than to let it sit. (Especially if it is not in an enclosed and DRY environment.) His point being that the brake fluid needs to be used, warmed up and allowed to vent / boil out any moisture. Since then, other friends (Beandip, and others) have recommended that the brake fluid be changed periodically just as some of the other fluids in the car, oil, anti-freeze, transmission, differential. So, there you have it.... Enrique P.S.: Ron...shouldn't that have been 180° degrees? .... Still an excellent example of how we get channeled into specific thinking paths and fail to see the exits....

Just a quick note; I think Kats was referring to having ALL the electrical and mechanical components being shown to work and not just installed. I think, and agree with him, that his idea is that it's ok to "LOOK" good, but that it should WORK as it did originally. That, I think, is why he's recommending the 400 meter time standard (closest metric equivalent to the 1/4 mile), to compare acceleration and speed to those times when the cars were new. His comment about "model cars" refers to static display vehicles that are "virtual" vehicles, i.e. not real and not operable. That's why he's recommending the "Stock display class" as opposed to a "Truly stock class". Just what I understood. E

There WAS a change, but right off the top of my head I couldn't tell you when. I believe 71 to early 73 are interchangeable, but the LATE 73 and 74's due to the shock absorbing mounts for the bumpers did differ in shape/placement. Ok, according to the club CD, 17201-E4100 or E4600 should work for cars through 7-73, however the E4600 is the one for "EVAPO", which I take to imply the evaporation tank, hence SMOG tank. Can someone else verify this? Next, let's find him a tank! Enrique

Excellent, sorry to have brow-beat you on the subject. Now your profile says you have a 70, could you elaborate on manufacturing date so that maybe amongst the rest of us we might be able to help you find a fuel tank? It may be that someone out there has one that they wouldn't use on their show car, but would be perfectly fine for a daily driver. FWIW E

Nor Easy....especially for a first time. Theres a couple of ways to "fix" the irregularities, it all depends on what you want to do. One is to overlay a different stripe over the edge between the two, taking painstaking care that it's perfectly straight TO THE BODY and not to the stripe as that is what you are trying to fix. You could use vinyl striping tape to do this, or you could use paint The second is to simply re-paint the stripe. I like both colors you used. Definitely an eye catching green and it is a pleasant shade at that! The silver does look good on it. The picture straight on to the front of the car is the one that makes it look as though the stripes were done in sections and/or by leaning over the car while doing this. Additionally, the reflection makes it look as though the passenger side is closer to the center line of the hood than the driver's side. If you plan on re-painting the stripes, or just add a contrast (and edge blurring/blending) stripe, then instead of applyng the masking tape bit by bit, tape down one end of it, then carefully holding it taut- sight down the tape looking past the tape to the hood. I would do this standing at the front of the car, wiht the anchor point being at the top of the hood closest to the windshield...or even at the top of the cowl. Slowly bring the tape down, keeping it perfectly straight until it just starts to touch the first high point. At that point, reach out and touch and press down on the tape...gently. Then continue sighting for the remainder of the tape. Do the same for the other side / stripe. Step back, and CRITICALLY evaluate the edges. Don't use a straight edge or other mechanical device...this is where your EYE is the tool. Once you have them straight, then rub the tape down to press it on firmly. Hope this helps. Enrique

If you look at the cross section of the seal (or visualize it), it looks like a letter "M". With the leg and the downward diagonal of one side fatter than the other. The fatter one goes towards the door. The thinner one goes on the metal edge around the door opening. The welting then goes on top of that thin leg and diagonal to pinch it onto the metal. I'm answering this way, because the one with the welting (metal clip that's encased in rubber) already attached to the weatherstrip is pretty much self explanatory...gasket towards door. Closing the door after new door seals isn't unusual though. You might have had the door previously adjusted for the previously crushed or missing seal. You now need to adjust for the new gasket's sponginess. FWIW E

Superfunk: While you may think that you are being lambasted for attempting a cheap fix, the problem is that the cheap fix was ALREADY attempted on your tank...and apparently it has failed. Now you want to do a cheap fix AGAIN. The biggest problem here is that you're into "diminishing returns". If you grind what is left of the metal in order for the fiberglass resin, JB Weld or any other substance to attach itself properly....you're removing what little bit of metal may be left. You may open up more holes, or find what is there tearing itself up into even smaller bits. How thin is the metal? Thick enough to hold up under the weight of a full tank? (approximate each gallon at 8 pounds and you can see that 15 gallons is 120 pounds) Or will the first bump cause you to dump or start dripping gas? If you attempt to use fiberglass resin, JB Weld or anything else....how clean do you intend on getting the tank in order to try to get it to stick? If it isn't clean AND scuffed up....that's why the original "fix" didn't work, and why it allowed moisture to creep in and continue rusting the tank. Are you even going to drop the tank to try to do the repair? If not, then you're looking for something to shove up there. Are you simply looking for how big a wad of chewing gum we recommend? Or how many rolls of duct or speed tape you'll need. Your cheapest fix, is to contact a boneyard and see if they can locate a tank to swap in. FWIW E

I'd FIRST address WHY the tank rusted in the first place. No sense in effecting (costly?) repairs only to discover that it re-occurs in a short period of time. Also, just how rusted out IS your tank. Might you be patching tissue thin metal? You know that the tank has been repaired at least ONCE, and you know that THAT ONE wasn't a good repair. Why chance it, find a replacement fuel tank, it might be a pain, but it would be MUCH safer. FWIW E

Check your signature block..... E

It keeps getting listed as 918 Gold, yet I recall Gold as being 920, and 918 being Orange. And then Arne has 918 as Yellow.... Ok, I'm confused.... I found this at Zhome: http://zhome.com/History/ZColorGallary/index.html Is it my monitor and I'm trying to match colors using it or ??? E

Austen; You guys keep fighting the problem but never really identifying what you're fighting. Take the time to remove the cowl, then go one step further and remove both fenders. Yeah, it's a bear of a job, but if your body man got in there and did a good job on the rust in the battery tray, he probably removed at least one of the fenders. Once the fenders are off, take a look at the drain hose that protrudes out from the kick panel. Examine it as it exit the body AND on the inside where it does it's 90° bend. Have someone shine a flashlight INTO the tube. This way you'll see any cracks or holes via the light. Next, take a moment and examine the cowl area using a mirror to look back into the crannies up by the ends of the windshield. If this helps identify a hole, then have that fixed. But you may find that it's as simple as the putty gasket for the fresh air vent, or that the "mushroom" vent cap has a crack or a small rust through. THEN address the dirt that may still be in the cowl and get it clean. FWIW Enrique

Austen: Most (if not all) modern radios (meaning post-1980 or so) had a lead that actuated a FULLY Automatic antenna when the radio was turned on. This lead was typically a blue wire that in turn connected to a blue wire coming from the antenna. Take note however, that the combination requires a FULLY Automatic antenna. The OEM Antenna was termed a Semi-Automatic Antenna in the Stereo Industry (back in the 70's and early 80's) because while it was a POWERED antenna, it still required manual actuation (i.e. via a switch). Additionally, you also control how far up or down you extend it, whereas with a Fully Automatic it goes ALL the way up or all the way down. I'm not sure, but that you could "just manually pull(ed) it up" makes me wonder if the motor and/or the nylon lead are still attached to the mast. It's not normally easy to pull up on the mast tip. Get power to the antenna and hopefully it will operate properly. Be aware that until later in the Z series, the radios were Monaural and not Stereo. That's why so many owners quickly replaced their OEM car radios with more sophisticated units that in turn, caused various modifications to be made to the car. Speakers in the door panels, additional speakers in the rear, antenna changes, cutting out part of the Heater Control Panel, are just the most obvious and prevalent. FWIW E

The last set of weatherstripping I helped install already had that welting attached, i.e. it was one piece welting and weatherstripping. But that's been a couple of years ago, maybe someone else with a more current experience can tell you more. Generally, the weatherstrip cross-section look will look like a letter M with a fat leg on the outside of the interior and a very thin (almost emaciated) side towards the interior. That thin side is first put on top of the metal flange and then pinched and held in place by the welting. E

Austen: Most of the earlier cars had the antenna switch located by the tuning knob. E

Randy...at a guess....the welting? This is a "U" channel of serpentine metal that is usually encased in rubber that is used to secure the original weatherstripping to the door frame. Aside from that....post a picture. E