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HybridZ

A musician's therapist (The $300 Z)


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He's printing out of ABS. He was actually having some issues at first, warping, not sticking to bed... but apparently a firmware update on his printer solved the problems. PETG isn't as rigid but is more chemically stable (if I remember that right...), so I might use it for some of my fuel line mounts/isolators. My fuel lines are basically just zip tied together right now other than a few key spots where they're on insulated clamps.

 

As nice as it would be to have an off the shelf part or just fab up some brackets, I might take some measurements tomorrow and actually try to design the defrost vents. If they're a total dud, it's a lesson learned and I'm only out a couple dollars in materials to my cousin.


Also spent some time last night replacing the bulbs in the gauges with LEDs. Those green filters are a real pain to remove on the tach and speedo.Almost wished I'd just dumped the money at speedhut gauges already, but you know... budgets.

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T

On 12/5/2020 at 9:38 PM, Zetsaz said:

Cousin sent me a video earlier... 

https://imgur.com/99RAg17

 

A friend in Boise who does some 3D modeling regularly took my measurements and made some small adjustments to my center vent design that my cousin just finished printing. Still has roughly the same angle as the piece I was making, but is a slightly cleaner design overall. Distributor cap coming up next along with some other small things! Will be also be printing me a basic bracket I designed to set my MS3x in the stock location. That being said... if it doesn't work I'm just going to fold some scrap metal and drill some holes in it for the ECU bracket haha. 

 

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That is fantastic...what a resource to have!

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On 12/5/2020 at 11:38 PM, Zetsaz said:

He's printing out of ABS. He was actually having some issues at first, warping, not sticking to bed... but apparently a firmware update on his printer solved the problems. PETG isn't as rigid but is more chemically stable (if I remember that right...), so I might use it for some of my fuel line mounts/isolators. My fuel lines are basically just zip tied together right now other than a few key spots where they're on insulated clamps.

 

 

Ah, that makes sense. ABS is a great plastic, but hard it's to print large models without warping if you don't have a heated chamber. I see he has an enclosure, so that definitely helps. PETG doesn't have the temperature resistance that ABS does, but we're talking 80C vs 100C. Hopefully the inside of our cars is never reaching 80C.

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4 hours ago, calZ said:

 

Ah, that makes sense. ABS is a great plastic, but hard it's to print large models without warping if you don't have a heated chamber. I see he has an enclosure, so that definitely helps. PETG doesn't have the temperature resistance that ABS does, but we're talking 80C vs 100C. Hopefully the inside of our cars is never reaching 80C.

 

He went ABS on this and the distributor cap to be on the safe side. They'll never come close but at least there'll never be a concern about warping over time

 

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1 hour ago, Ryanotown22 said:

That center vent is exactly what I need.  All I have right now is my duct squished into one of the vents coming from my vintage air.  Any chance you would want to print another? 

 

Not my printer, but unfortunately my cousin's printer recently had a torn cable while printing a part (after he finished my things fortunately).

If he gets that in i'm sure he'd be happy to print something for you for the cost of materials/electricity, plus his time to setup, check, and ship it. If you know someone close to you who does it I can also send you the .stl file

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In case you guys didn't know, there are a companies that specialize in instant quotes and rapid turn-around of printed parts. We use Protolabs and Xometry for engineering prototypes that either don't fit on one of our work printers or if it's a large quantity that would overwhelm our few printers.  We also use them for machined parts - especially Protolabs who can turn around a fairly complex machined part in ~3 days if you are willing to pay roughly double the price. Xometry will work with a drawing or sketch if that's all you have but it will cost more and you have to fully dimension the part - they don't yet have the capability of pulling data from your head...although it would be convenient if they could! 😄

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17 hours ago, rossman said:

In case you guys didn't know, there are a companies that specialize in instant quotes and rapid turn-around of printed parts. We use Protolabs and Xometry for engineering prototypes that either don't fit on one of our work printers or if it's a large quantity that would overwhelm our few printers.  We also use them for machined parts - especially Protolabs who can turn around a fairly complex machined part in ~3 days if you are willing to pay roughly double the price. Xometry will work with a drawing or sketch if that's all you have but it will cost more and you have to fully dimension the part - they don't yet have the capability of pulling data from your head...although it would be convenient if they could! 😄

 

That actually sounds really convenient for some things! I will gladly dimension parts all day, half the battle for me is not knowing the software well enough. In my case I'm just lucky my cousin is an engineer and has a printer. I'm in no rush so I'll gladly pay him $10 total in materials and shipping in exchange for waiting a week since it's on his schedule.

 

Despite the fancy parts and recent work, this is still a "budget" build after all haha. Would rather save the money for potential swap... with how much I've changed, I find it hard to justify dumping money at the L series. I'll either leave it as is and just clean stuff up and tune it better, or swap. Was pricing things out and a proper L series build to meet my standards for how I'd use it would cost about as much as a swap. Gotta save that money in case it ever happens haha

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Protolabs is a great company.  I know a lot about them and have talked with their manufacturing engineers about how they can possibly do what they do.  Anyway I won't bore you with my engineer nerdiness.

 

As you've seen from my build thread I've dumped a bunch of money into my little Datsun L so I'm kinda vested in it. I fell in love with my first L28 back in the early 80's and have had one almost continuously since then. It sucks that parts for them are getting so expensive and difficult to find but I figure that if I take care of it, it may outlive me :).  Also, the reality for me is that the car it's just a weekend cruiser and more power is really just wasted money/effort.  It goes faster than I really need it to already.

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Got my parts from my cousin. No control panel yet since his printer broke recently, but that's a final item anyway. Vent is perfect, assuming I don't run into clearance issues, and matching the original angle will let me flip it to get a smoother hose transition. 

 

Couple other oddball parts were supplied too like my distributor cap which is much nicer and has more clearance. Not sure I'll bother smoothing it yet, or even paint it, it's just functional for now. Vent is already drying from paint (cousin was out of black for materials). So far so good! Hoping to make slightly more progress this weekend, since I kind of took a break and haven't moved forward on wiring or anything else. 

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Making slightly more progress on the vintage air today. Struggling to justify buying all new hoses when I'm just trying to get everything to the bulkhead for now, and hopefully (if possible) reusing the original lines on the engine bay side. They already have good clamps right against the frame rails and formed bends in the hardline sections that keep things neater than I could make them.

In the meantime, finally committed to just making extremely basic brackets to offset the included defrost vents. Will have to just deal with the fact that the original openings in the cowl piece won't be fully covered and that's okay. These couple pics are from the first test fit which wasn't enough to get them centered on the openings. Made some slightly longer ones on painted them for the final fit.

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Used two 2" to 2.5" adapters (from Vintage Air, but I ordered through Summit) on the dash to adapt into the stock side vents in the Z. just used a bit of the 2" defrost hose in those sections. The 2" hoses are VERY snug and probably won't slide at all short of a strong intentional tug from me, but I'm thinking I'll use a bit of black duct tape on the 2.5" section on the adapter. Some people have used clamps, but I think it's excessive and will add unnecessary bulk. Also didn't need to reuse the stock diverter pieces since the Vintage air has its own floor vents on the unit. 

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Couple more pics to come! Up next is wiring, and the two AC hoses to the bulkhead and it'll be ready for the dash :)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Hey Omar! Any more updates since this??

 

 

Not just yet. I was debating hacking out some AC hoses for the really short pieces I need on the dash side or just ordering a kit. Most places locally didn't have any hose, so I've just sort of taken a break for the holidays.

Will probably commit to a kit or ordering some by the foot by next week and get back at it. I only have like 4 wires to work out and the hose crimping before I can get the dash back in. and focus on controls.

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I made a grave mistake.. I forgot that Nissan used used metric fittings for the AC (because why wouldn't they?) and I can't just use the original AC lines for the engine bay unless I can somehow remake just the couple of pieces that connect to the firewall or carefully cut the crimped fittings off (?), sooooo.... Time to order an AC hose kit. It's just money right? 

 

Minor progress overall. Drilled holes into the plastic wiring harness block to bolt in the included relays.

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Only minor hiccup... My placement doesn't allow the wires to for one portion of the controls to reach. Instead of cutting and splicing, I'm going to make a short extension/sub harness, since I figure if anything goes wrong with that one control it'll be easier to narrow it down to an extension I can easily remove than deal with shorts or wiring in a cluttered space. 

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Only have the two dash side hoses, 12v+ source, and switched ignition to connect and I'll be ready to get the dash back in and test! (Oh and technically that blue wire in the third pic for the compressor clutch, and a couple of grounds)

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1 hour ago, Zetsaz said:

I made a grave mistake.. I forgot that Nissan used used metric fittings for the AC (because why wouldn't they?) and I can't just use the original AC lines for the engine bay unless I can somehow remake just the couple of pieces that connect to the firewall or carefully cut the crimped fittings off (?), sooooo.... Time to order an AC hose kit. It's just money right? 

Man that sux.  It would have been nice to have that stock look.  Are you using the stock compressor too? Someone might make adapters, it's worth a look around. You might also be able to cut and flare the hard line to mate up to an adapter.

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22 hours ago, rossman said:

Man that sux.  It would have been nice to have that stock look.  Are you using the stock compressor too? Someone might make adapters, it's worth a look around. You might also be able to cut and flare the hard line to mate up to an adapter.

 

Despite the rust, my first shell was suprisingly complete... But did not have the compressor. I haven't bought one yet. Probably won't get it until spring. The original isn't great anyway, but the winter I've saved for anything inside the car. I don't have a garage and my carport is downhill from the alley so anything I have to work on for more than a few minutes outside the car or on the floor isn't a fun time. 

 

I'll check into adapters before I order anything! If not I'll check with a local shop to see if they're willing to modify my lines. 

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