1973 Rebuild

[Terrapin Z]

On 12/29/2024 at 4:20 PM, Yarb said:

Did @Terrapin Z contact you yet? Pretty sure he has some or Junk yard Jenny

Thanks for the referral, Looks like he's got what he needed. JYJ is a good source. 

[Matthew Abate]

I am very tired and sore.

What I thought was going to be a three day job ended up being two weeks… because I am a perfectionist. 😕

The installation of the left door window was no big deal, but I wanted the glass to be as clear as I could get it, so I spent six (!) days working the scratches out of what was a B+ window when I pulled it out of a wrecked car a year ago.

I used a combination of diamond polishing pads and cerium oxide, which works well, but there is a learning curve. The right side should only take a day now that I know what I’m doing. It’s now a solid A grade, but I came a little too close to the Nissan etching, so that’s less crisp than it should be. All told there are two 1/4” scratches and some light swirls that I couldn’t get out without risking distorting the glass. Not bad. Acceptable I guess.

Installation was not hard, although I should have brought a second set of hands. I have some alignment issues with the rear corner sticking out and not sliding back enough without help from outside, but I don’t feel like dealing with that right now.

New seals, new hardware, and tons of grease.

Edited January 5 by Matthew Abate

[inline6]

16 hours ago, Matthew Abate said:

I am very tired and sore.

What I thought was going to be a three day job ended up being two weeks… because I am a perfectionist. 😕

The installation of the left door window was no big deal, but I wanted the glass to be as clear as I could get it, so I spent six (!) days working the scratches out of what was a B+ window when I pulled it out of a wrecked car a year ago.

I used a combination of diamond polishing pads and cerium oxide, which works well, but there is a learning curve. The right side should only take a day now that I know what I’m doing. It’s now a solid A grade, but I came a little too close to the Nissan etching, so that’s less crisp than it should be. All told there are two 1/4” scratches and some light swirls that I couldn’t get out without risking distorting the glass. Not bad. Acceptable I guess.

Installation was not hard, although I should have brought a second set of hands. I have some alignment issues with the rear corner sticking out and not sliding back enough without help from outside, but I don’t feel like dealing with that right now.

New seals, new hardware, and tons of grease.

Both sanding/polishing of the glass and installation in the door, dealing with alignment issues are things I did only months back.  Getting scratches out of glass requires a lot of time and hard work.  There are some tricks to follow for alignment.  If I recall correctly, I found that getting the front sash aligned and secured first, while leaving the nuts on the back one loose was best.  The back one wanted to be in a more horizontal orientation.  I believe that one primarily sets how level the window is in the door - in relation to the top of the window frame.  I was able to get the top edge of the window to align in parallel with the top part of the door frame.  

The front sash controls the fore and aft location of the window, but it also determines the path (angle of travel inside the door) the front of the window follows when going up and going down.  For whatever reason, I found that I had to install a couple of thin washers between the sash and the metal inner door structure (on the left door only).  That moved the front of the window outwards just a touch and fixed my alignment problems.

Edited January 5 by inline6

[Matthew Abate]

So close! I have three steps left before I can wrap these dash harnesses and put them into the dashboard for real: installing and wiring my NLR-132 headlight relay, installing and wiring the AILD-1 PWM, and testing everything.

Details in my wiring thread.

Edited January 26 by Matthew Abate

[Racer X]

Been nearly 10 years since you began this journey. It will be very nice when it is finished.

Just think, when these cars were built they rolled off a moving assembly line at a rate around one every few minutes.

[Yarb]

Glad to see you back @Racer X. I understand it’s been quite a journey for you. I hope you are doing well friend.

[Racer X]

2 hours ago, Yarb said:

Glad to see you back @Racer X. I understand it’s been quite a journey for you. I hope you are doing well friend.

Thanks. It has indeed been a journey. Life is a journey, enjoy the ride.

 

[Matthew Abate]

Before I finish up the wiring for the dashboard I want to make sure I’ve done everything in there so I don’t have to pull it again. One of the loose ends I had was to rekey the glove box lock.

@inline6 pointed out that it’s a breeze once you drive the pin that holds the latch in.  Take the cylinder out, swap the wafers to match your key, put the spring in, and replace the cylinder. There’s only one way to put it together once you put the latch in, so then just line up the holes and drive the pin back in. Easy.

Edited February 2 by Matthew Abate

[Patcon]

1 hour ago, Matthew Abate said:

Before I finish up the wiring for the dashboard I want to make sure I’ve done everything in there so I don’t have to pull it again. One of the loose ends I had was to rekey the glove box lock.

@inline6 pointed out that it’s a breeze once you drive the pin that holds the latch in.  Take the cylinder out, swap the wafers to match your key, put the spring in, and replace the cylinder. There’s only one way to put it together once you put the latch in, so then just line up the holes and drive the pin back in. Easy.

Do you have to have the original key to get the cylinder out of the lock assembly?

[Matthew Abate]

No, I had a few made off the code on the door locks. The hatch, glove box, and ignition were all out of other cars, hence rekeying all of them.

But the cylinder comes out without the key. I’m just using it to illustrate how the wafers stuck out before and didn’t after. The latch is what keeps it in the housing.

By the way, I don’t know if it’s difficult to get the pin back in of your pull it completely, but you don’t need to do that to get the latch off.

Edited February 3 by Matthew Abate