Dat73z Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Looking forward to your feedback on the Resurrected Classics seals, I've been meaning considering that or Vintage Rubber. My experience so far with various companies and seals is can be hit or miss depending on the specific seal. Hopefully everything fits up well for you 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 On 6/10/2025 at 1:39 PM, Dat73z said: Looking forward to your feedback on the Resurrected Classics seals, I've been meaning considering that or Vintage Rubber. My experience so far with various companies and seals is can be hit or miss depending on the specific seal. Hopefully everything fits up well for you 😁 I got my hatch hinge seals from Vintage rubber back when those weren't available basically anywhere and they seem pretty good quality. Cheaper reproductions are now available, but after my frustrations with the fitment on a lot of the precision kit I don't think I'd bother. Vintage Rubber's kit is expensive, but it seems like it's far more complete than any other. It has damn near every single piece of rubber you can find on the car. I know for a fact the kit from Resurrected Classics has most of what you could want, but something like the hatch hinge seals aren't in that kit, just as an example. There's one piece that I didn't even have to install to know it's better than most other kits and that's the hood to cowl seal. The Resurrected Classics is a good reproduction of the later style with metal insert so it just sort of clamps on without the need for adhesive. It's longer than necessary though, which isn't ideal for a piece like that where cutting the metal inside is tricky sometimes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted June 30 Author Share Posted June 30 Got the front wildwood brakes installed today! A couple small quirks along the way on my install: First side I installed the rotor on the adapter ring to the hub wrong and the caliper didn't line up. It has two separate mating surfaces, one for a 240z and one for the later 280z hubs. Since I've replaced my 280z hubs with the T3 hubs, I failed to realize they're essentially a universal hub for early and late models which is why they had an extra shim ring of about 10mm to account for where the 280z mounting surface is. I took the ring off, so technically I had to install them where the 240z ones are, unless I wanted to run my rotor ring AND the hub spacer shim that they came with. Avoiding too many unnecessary pieces so I redid that side to mount on the 240z mating surface of the adapter and we were fine. Problem 2 - because I ordered the 280z brake kit, the included hardware also assumes you're still using stock 280z hubs. It's on and worked on my short drive, but I noticed in the picture where they're installed that the bolts don't go all the way out to the mating surface for the wheels. Quite a few threads left unengaged. It's probably safe for the time being, since I thought about the forces on those specific bolts and it's not really in or out since they're perpendicular to the rotational force applied by the brakes. I also didn't feel like I had particularly few threads engaged as I was bolting the rotor to the hub. Probably safe for casual driving, but it's a high priority fix right now to get the correct length bolts from T3 or locally. Better safe than sorry! Other than that I'm really happy. Bled the system with my new Motul brake fluid, which should cope much better with the heat off the turbo vs the cheap generic O'Reilly fluid I had before. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 8 Author Share Posted July 8 (edited) Lots of small fixes the past week: Replaced the glovebox light and made sure it was all working well. Replaced the hatch inner and outer seals. My installation was better, but the Resurrected Classics seal also fit far better, especially the inner. The precision kit felt like it need to be stretched just slightly, but the RC held in place on it's own before adding weatherstrip adhesive and clamping down. The RC seal was pre-cut to provide clearanc for the hinge seals. When I first opened it it seems a bit ugly or poorly done, but after checking fitment it seems to be very well trimmed for correct clearance. Also added new oem style hinge shims when I reinstalled the hatch. The striker on the bottom was adjusted as well. Will need much more work to get the fitment right since the passenger side has a much bigger panel gap despite shoving it over as much as I could, but at least now I can comfortably open and close the hatch without dragging down the seals. Added the rubber stoppers for the door handles to prevent vibration and finally reattached the escutcheon / finisher plastic in the door cups. Looks much tidier and less noisy. Next step here will be to really clean up the door panels from the tiny splatters that I never cleaned from the lizardskin. O2 sensor cable routing was far improved by going through the body harness grommet in the firewall. It's in a safer position away from the driveshaft now. No longer running down the console. Wideband controller grounding was also fixed after I blew a fuse then repeatedly had it blow. Driveshaft was rebalanced. Seems a weight had knocked loose at some point. Was vibrating really horribly on my drive back from SLC with my brother. Replaced the diff pinion seal with a spare I had while the driveshaft was out. New OSG limited slip may not arrive in time for me to rebuild so I wanted to not have that leak in the meantime. Finally added the barb to the turbo intake as a vacuum source for the catch can. Hopefully this resolves any future oil leaking and premature seal and gasket failures. Adjusted the brake pedal travel. The brakes were already a huge upgrade and now it feels even better. Couldn't get it to the FSM's required height, but the suggested pedal height seems excessively tall, so I'll call it good now that the pedal and clutch are even heights and the stoppers are adjusted to make them less noisy. New hardware for the brakes is on the way from T3 and I'm getting some local help to wire up the new electric fans. Futofab HD stub axles arrived yesterday. Very well packaged. The axles should be arriving today, along with the new spare tire from Z Car Garage that will fit in the original spare tire compartment while still working with my new big brakes. More pics and updates to come soon... Edited July 8 by Zetsaz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 More small updates -Wired the stereo yesterday. Already had the rear speaker wires routed since removing the plastic panels is a pain. It sounds terrible 😅 people aren't kidding that the speakers pointing at each other is a poor design. It's okay, but since I only have the two tears right now it sounds very thin. I think I'll be ordering some from speaker panels to fit in the original kick panel locations from MSA. Should help dramatically and wiring will be very easy in that area. Only issue right now is the time keeps resetting on my unit. I thought it was a battery issue or just when cranking but it looks like it happens even if I turn the Key to off for more than a minute or two. -New spare wheel arrived. I think it's now the nicest wheel I have haha. Tire arrives today. I'll get it mounted and report back on how it fits in the stock area. -Futofab axles arrived. The rearend is going to be a big job since I have to completely tear into everything from the diff out so I'm waiting to see if my OS Giken stuff actually ships at the estimated date. If it's not shipping in time I'll just install the axles and save the 3.54 swap until next winter or next summer. -Adjusted the T3 tri bar latch plate. Some of the bolts had come loose in the past several years of driving. -Tightened up some of the oil pan bolts and have basically no oil drips now. I think I was just overly cautious about not over torquing when I first reinstalled the pan after the rear main job this winter. -Current job is figuring out why my horn isn't working. Tested the horn switch with a multimeter and it seems to be grounding fine, ground the horn relay and I can hear it clicking, and also tested the horn directly with the battery and got a plenty loud sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 Horn is working! Surprisingly loud. The issue was the contact that slides against the steering wheel to ground the horn switch. I guess it was bent back slightly (straighter than it should have been) and was not grounding. Took off the multifunction switches to get easier access and just very slightly bent it to make easier contact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dat73z Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 Awesome attention to detail. It's all the small projects that add up and make the build 😁. Do the Resurrected Classics hatch hinge seals follow the curvature of the area and bracket well? I have the vintage rubber seals and they seem slightly too large/bunch up which I don't think trimming would fix. Looking forward to your review of the spare tire as well. I was thinking of getting a full size spare and custom carpet but the hatch of the s30 looks so much cleaner assembled to OE spec imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 10 Author Share Posted July 10 2 hours ago, Dat73z said: Awesome attention to detail. It's all the small projects that add up and make the build 😁. Do the Resurrected Classics hatch hinge seals follow the curvature of the area and bracket well? I have the vintage rubber seals and they seem slightly too large/bunch up which I don't think trimming would fix. Looking forward to your review of the spare tire as well. I was thinking of getting a full size spare and custom carpet but the hatch of the s30 looks so much cleaner assembled to OE spec imo. They follow the curvature pretty well, but it's still getting pulled down a bit even after major adjustments. At this point I think the bigger issue is my hatch and the way it's fitted than the seal. It's dragging just the tiniest but in the center at the top. I know hatch shims would probably completely solve the problem, but my gap between the roofline and the hatch is already just slightly bigger than I want. Might test the skillard hatch shims that go between the hatch and hinge instead of the hinge and body and see how far off it is anyway. Tire for the spare was supposed to arrive yesterday but must have been held up. Should be here soon and I'll take it to get mounted and snap some pics for you. The spare looks so nice and Panasports are great quality. It's so nice that honestly I'm tempted to finally upgrade from my Rotas to the 16" Panasports that X Car Garage sells. Hadn't considered them much before but they look far nicer in person than I expected 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 11 Author Share Posted July 11 Here's a pic of how the hatch is pulling on the seal no matter how well I try to tuck it in right. It pulled the center off the adhesive. I should be able to redo it and try to turn it farther to the front after I try the shims, but it's frustrating to say the least. That said, this is a huge step above how the previous one sat. In mostly happier news the spare tire fits incredibly well. Very happy with it and it all comes clean under the T3 cover. I bought the cover ages ago just to have even carpet in the back, but honestly could never put much weight in the back for fear that it would bend with nothing underneath. Only downside is the 280z tie down hardware doesn't seem to fit well with it. The way the lower piece is shaped raises the screw handle enough that it won't thread in. For now I flipped it and put the freebie shop rag I got at the car show between the wheel and hardware while I find an earlier style tie down that has covers the full hub opening. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 13 Author Share Posted July 13 Tons of work this weekend getting the new axles and rear discs in. The HD outer from futofab were by far the most time consuming part between removing everything, cleaning, cutting for clearance of the new outers, recleaning, the making sure the inner bearing and seal were properly seated. Probably spent about 5-6 hours total just doing that. The axles are greased and in place and I've been cleaning up the garage after all the mess. I was really exited about how things were looking then I realized the rear calipers looked wrong. They were offset a bit too much from the rotor. Checked again and it was super obvious the pads were only contacting the rotor with a bit over half their surface area. Checking the pics on the site it seems clear they sent the brackets for their regular rear brake kit. I'm incredibly frustrated because I did all this work leading into the weekend and now the car is unusable for a few days as a result. I was scheduled for tint on Monday and I'll probably have to cancel. Really hoping they can rectify it and send the correct brackets as fast as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 14 Author Share Posted July 14 Small update from T3 - Called today about the bracket issue, and their service guy on the phone told me the new brackets would get shipped out today. While bleeding the brakes yesterday to get a head start on some of the work left so they'd at least be close I noticed some fluid dripping from the opposite side. After inspecting it looks like the flare for the -3 end on one of my hoses was cracked. I ordered some new ones myself since I don't know if it was an installation error, but it's just one more thing wrong with the rear end. Despite shipping today I know they might be getting it out late enough that it won't actually leave California until tomorrow. Hopefully by Thursday I have a driveable car again. Two weeks until I leave on a road trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted July 15 Author Share Posted July 15 Small jobs today- Replaced that short hardware on the front rotors to hubs I mentioned in a previous post. Included Pic is the size difference. Brakes didn't feel particularly unsafe on my few drives around town, but always better safe than sorry with the most important things like brakes. Second pic shows how the new hardware actually goes all the what out to the wheel mounting surface to engage as many threads as possible Next small job before the correct rear brackets arrive is re-adhering a part of the headliner that is sagging a bit. I think the adhesive didn't cure properly when I installed it forever ago and the intense heat on the roof at one show made it droop. Only fix is to reapply but fortunately it's easy since the rest of it is already adhered well and lined up. Hardest part of the job is centering it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted Friday at 09:16 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 09:16 PM (edited) Car is finally back on the ground after waiting entirely too long on mismatched parts and alternatives when the flare on one brake hose broke. I was worried about the E brake capability based on some reviews but it seems like it's plenty capable on even a gentle hill after adjusting. at worst it's comparable to the original parking brake ability, but with less adjustment to do not. Not that drums were terribly complicated, but adjusting them properly was tedious. Edited Friday at 09:16 PM by Zetsaz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zetsaz Posted Sunday at 08:33 PM Author Share Posted Sunday at 08:33 PM People's Choice at a small cars and coffee in town this weekend. Brakes feel really good. It's weird feeling how firm the pedal is compared to the originals now that it's all stainless hoses and the rear has been upgraded. Even the parking brake is better than I expected! Getting wheels balanced today - I know for a fact one had a couple weights knocked off, I can see where the adhesive was, and I'm still upset about how many weights they used to balance one corner. Someone wasn't doing their job right when they mounted the tires I think, because there's no way you need two long strips on opposite sides to get a wheel balanced. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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