Zetsaz

Ran into my first big hiccup. Car won't start. No fuel pressure. No leaks anywhere. Fuel pump priming. After reconsidering how clean the tank is and the new hoses and the effort I made to get any dust out of the vapor tank, I think it's just a clamp on the hose in the in-tank pump that came loose or the hose burst. Dropping the tank tomorrow. Will be a good opportunity to do a manual calibration on my fuel gauge as well. Also washed my Infiniti after neglecting it for the last maybe 4 months and it's really left me wanting a quieter cabin and more speed. So comfortable and quick and reliable, but to really make any big purchases on the Datsun now I'd have to sell it. Guess I'll spend the next year thinking about it and maybe making a decision haha.

Drive back to Washington went without a hitch... mostly. I had a somewhat unfortunate run in with a whole lot of tumbleweed near Twin Falls, and extreme winds on top of 80mph speed limits blew off my driver side windshield wiper. Fortunately no damage to the fresh paint aside from some a few very tiny nicks in the air dam that I'll get some touch up paint on asap. First purchases soon will be protective coating for the front and the vintage air unit. Would love to be able to keep the windows up at higher speeds to avoid the excessive wind noise on longer drives.

I'm unfortunately not near you anymore @jpndave but I'd happily get in on an order if we got one going again.

Used to have one but on the old efi, junky seals, and rotting body it made no difference. Right now I don't even have the MSA tip on, but I'll be putting it on when I get to Washington as well as adding a resonator. City driving is annoying due to the cabin drone. Lizard skin can only do so much All new hoses on it now. Old ones definitely get super hard. Was pretty hard to even get them to come off. I don't think the tank is particularly heavy in mine. At least not heavy enough to justify dealing with vapor and tank pressure issues.

Never have I had such a simple job be so time consuming between having to lower the fuel tank, pull the quarter panel, and cut hoses to length. Some one of the thicker hoses are slightly kinked, but I'll live with it for now. Little victories though. Bottom end of the filler neck is finally actually bottomed out and clamped down, and I have the vapor/expansion tank in. Should hopefully fix a little bit of the fuel smells while I get the other taillight gasket and start sealing up the rear better.

Door switch stopped working entirely yesterday on the way to a quick socially distant meetup with @Jboogsthethug Got a chance to tear it apart and you can see the scorched contacts from years of use and abuse. Also slipped while bending the tabs back and stabbed my finger with the screwdriver... oops. If you happen to do this repair for yourself, absolutely DO NOT lose the spring and ball bearing in the small housing underneath the switch/contact board (and definitely don't stab yourself with whatever tool you're using to bend the tabs) Here you can see the 3 tabs you'll need to bend to access the "seesaw" that grounds the left or right signals (again... don't stab yourself) DO. NOT. LOSE. THE SPRING AND BALL BEARING. If you ever refurbish the hazard switch, it functions nearly identically and also has the ball bearing(but just on/off vs 3 position). When I rebuilt mine I made the mistake of working on it on my patio table and though for sure I'd lost the ball bearing. Fingers for scale. I was very lucky to find it. Here you can see the bottoms side of that board from the first pic. The pivot point is ground and the two contacts determine which side is being grounded. The spring and ball bearing are on a sliding assembly that gets moved by the turn signal arm/handle/whatever you want to call it and assure that it's pressed properly against the contact... which does exactly nothing if it's had 45+ years of dust and gunk accumulated. I scrubbed mine with a green scotch pad, then used a q tip with rubbing alcohol to clean them and the brass underneath was still great. A bit of 3 in 1 oil or wd-40 on the rotating parts and the switch feels great!

Two small but very important fixes today: -The rod between the latch and the door handle handle for the passenger side never turned up... But luckily I still have 4 junky old doors hanging out in/on my old shell that I was able to salvage from. I'm not liking the action right now, but at least it opens. Might just toy with it more later. -My locks on both sides didn't seem to work no matter what I did. Totally stuck. Turned out to be an incredibly easy fix. The countersunk screws that hold the door latch in place are different sizes. Longer one should go on top. Shop just didn't check clearance while assembling. Stuck my phone in the door to get a better view and it became obvious. Trying to find the second window frame upper seal before I put stuff back together so I can call the door seals done.

I love the stock body lines. If I had the budget I would have gone wide body, but all in metal shaped to the cars original lines like MZR is doing with their 50th anniversary cars. For my goals and power this is fine though. I have it at a very comfortable daily driver height and don't even have rolled fenders right now. They were in such great shape I chose to leave them alone. Would have loved to say hi! When I first started the project I wasn't a fan of the brown, but it grew on me and now I'm all in on the brown interior. Fully committed to it when I upholster or replace the interior panels and I'll probably even go with a light tan carpet against darker upholstery.

It had a quick buff but more was done after those pics. The color is Lexus ultrasonic blue 2.0! Not an exact match since it isn't factory of course, but it turned out exactly as I envisioned. Was sort of matching whatever colors were in the sky on the drive home finished late after a long day so I didn't get a ton of pics, but here are a few. It's niece approved! And finally, this is literally the first time I've washed my project. Waxed it after it was put back together. I bought these emblems with some other stuff when Black dragon auto was going out of business and I told myself I wouldn't cover that vent hole with them until the car got paint. Was slightly surreal seeing them in place and driving it home. Still lots to go though! Some door stuff is being finicky, the door seals are... Not ideal haha, and the Hatch seal or some of the new rubber pieces need adjustment. Passenger side looks raised as you get to the bottom. Will probably order bumpers before AC. As great as the car looks, I've always felt the front end especially looks unfinished without them.

Yeah, it's in SLC! Fine... You get some progress pics haha. Most of these don't show the not as nice areas, but you can see the area under the windshield that didn't get color. That one's on me... When sprayed the engine bay in black, I had a pretty defined line there, so the painter kept the line, and I didn't specify that all that area I did want in color. I should have specified since when the cowl is off it just bleeds into the engine bay which wasn't being done. We're gonna paint that area, or at least get a tiny patch with a line that aligns with the fender tomorrow. Other than that, you can also see I swapped over to an oem 240z mirror Never liked the later plastic ones, and all the aftermarket ones I actually enjoyed were way too much, so I had the original holes patched to clean it up for the early style mirror.

Update: wasn't able to finish reassembly today Not a ton more to go, but a few hiccups came up. The tight spots that got missed are being sprayed first thing the morning. That's the smallest issue. Need to pickup some more hardware for the front turn signals the went missing. The biggest issue right now: one of the painter's past employees that's no longer there wasn't responding and supposedly doesn't know where one of the rods for the driver door is that connects the handle to the actual latch to open it. I've been helping reassemble and put on new weatherstripping that was never there when I dropped it off so it all gets put in the right place, but the painter had to call up the past employee and couldn't get a response of how he organized the door parts. 😕 Hoping it turns up tomorrow. Regardless, I am ever the optimist and most of it is looking soooo nice. Other than the driver door situation, they're better aligned than they used to be and the passenger door closes real easy. Excited to finally use the brand new door handles I got from black dragon for $5 years ago when they were closing. It's far from perfect, but for my budget and goals it's actually exceeded my expectations.

In the middle of reassembly. Between the change in personel and the painter trying to finish it for me in the time he had committed to he missed an area under the front windshield and the color didn't spray evenly on the deep end of the fuel area where the fuel door bolts, so hopefully we'll be able to tape up and cover the car and do a quick spray just so we get even color on those tight spots. Hoping to have it out and driving by the end of day either way! Taking some pictures as I go, but it's mostly motivating me to get stuff like carpeting and upholstery done so the outer finish on the paint doesn't look near new against some of the ratty and worn out interior and engine bay haha

I'll have to take a look before I order for sure! I think the mms compression is why android has a reputation of low quality cameras with iPhone users. Even though they compress both directions just so the media message format is compatible with both. Regardless, I'll have better photos and maybe a video after It's put back together.

We. Have. COLOR. Painter sent me some videos but it's pretty grainy. Looks like the video got really compressed when sent in MMS (android problems... I love my phone, but I do acknowledge it comes with some downsides when most other people are using iPhones and media messages default to a dated format that both are compatible with) Will post some pictures tomorrow when I'm at the shop to drop off seals/rubber bump stops and help with assembly to get it back home. Or later today when the painter sends me a few.

Thanks for the kind words! I've followed your thread a bit in the past and actually taken a bit of of inspiration from it and other similar ones that pushed me towards the subtle OEM+ styling with modest upgrades. I'll also hopefully be installing Vintage AC soon before the interior upholstery and carpeting gets done.

Painter had a bit of a waist injury, and was concerned about the paint drying properly due to heat in the times of day he's been available to paint it this week. Car is now moved over to the paint booth after checking and respraying some primer, and color will go on early tomorrow. Reassembly will start Friday afternoon! Getting more and more excited to see it Apparently some of the mechanics and employees at the shops next to his keep wanting to take a look. They're all interested in the car haha. He mentioned today that he's had to shoo some of them away when they keep nagging him about seeing the finished product because he doesn't want them messing with anything.

This is beyond brilliant. I love it!

Doesn't seem unreasonable. Mine is pretty far off the recommended. Your distributor has it's own adjustment built in, and it's possible to install the wheel 180deg off.... and it's possible to install the distributor 180deg off... You have to remember, that the computer can literally place your timing at any degree you want, especially if you're running coil on plug. You could clock the distribor in the completely wrong direction, install the disc upside down, and still get things to fire if you happen to get the correct #1 tooth angle on your settings. The most important thing is that your base timing in your settings that megasquirt is expecting, matches with what your timing light is picking up.

Some older options that were cheaper are unfortunately NLA so this is basically it. Couldn't find any place that had them cheaper 😕 Fortunately that's as spendy as any of the rubber seals and boots have gotten. Most pieces I've gotten in decent kits or very reasonable prices individually. Some OEM bump stops and rubber are only $9 vs $7 for aftermarket in some cases so I've gone OEM where the prices are reasonable.

Thanks! I've realized more and more why some people just go straight to power and don't bother with minor details sometimes. These Hatch hinge rubber seals/boots alone were $140 😬 Also, here's some satisfying finished quarter windows with all new inner, outer, and front seals. Both had broken mounting bolts on the same spot which were a pain to drill out and remove, but now they're ready to go in! Notice the hardened and cracking original seals that weren't doing much of anything anymore. They were breaking into pieces as I was trying to remove them from the glass and felt more like plastic than rubber. No wonder these things get so much wind noise and rust in some areas. The front seal against the door glass frame was especially bad. Basically nothing left of the originals except the pieces of rubber directly in contact with the metal strip. My only frustration right now is that Z Car Depot hasn't sent my other 240z tail light gasket. I ordered an OEM pair a while ago since most places only had one side in stock for aftermarket options. Didn't even matter though because I only got the left side anyway! In an email almost two weeks ago, I was told that it would supposedly ship by last Thursday, but I've yet to hear anything. Waiting to hear from them.

Some pictures if the final block sanding and body work in progress from a couple days ago on the rest of the panels and body vs primer sprayed the end of the day yesterday. Primer is being allowed to fully cure over the weekend before a double check on everything Monday when spraying on the tri-stage begins Occupying myself by fixing the seals on the quarter windows today and replacing the hardware on them. It's feeling more and more like a restoration than mod work lately, but I've actually really enjoyed it. Double checking that I have all the seals and bumps stops replaced in key areas gives me satisfaction the tediousness of custom work doesn't always provide. Care is going to end up a great balance of restomodding Getting closer and closer to assembly!

Got some pics today. Most of the car is now in primer

Oh good! Hopefully the thread is at least useful for someone who ends up finding the problem again and we can try to replicate it if it continues.

Seems to be working for me. I hit the X in the black dialog box that comes up initially and it worked fine linking to your posts. Just tried it again without closing the dialog first and it still works. Your error message that pops up looks like the same thing that shows up on dead links from google or from old forum posts that have a link to something that the hyperlink to has changed since switching servers or whatever maintenance killed a lot of links on here years ago. Seems weird that it's giving you dead links to others' recent posts though.