Get a grip!

I replaced a missing hardware cover on the driver side door pull.  Another small thing off the punch list.

No trimmings

New and Improved!  Now with more trim!

Treasure hunting

One of the cool things about acquiring a 40 year old car: 40 years of "stuff" to discover in the nooks and crannies!  I was exploring the under-seat areas as well as the storage compartments and discovered the following unexpected treasures:

• Extra wheel chocks (other than those in the original toolkit)
• Two packs of Extra gum, although the flavor did not last an extra long time
• A spring, likely from a seat mechanism
• Various screws and washers
• A broken seat belt adjustment warning placard (I found both parts so I will be able to repair it)
• The passenger door handle escutcheon cover (Don't worry, I had to look it up too: a flat piece of metal for protection and often ornamentation, around a keyhole, door handle, or light switch.)
• An extra lug nut that doesn't fit this car
• One of the outer shift boot clips
• A mystery receipt from Pep Boys in Las Vegas (what was bought in Vegas may have stayed in Vegas).
• 47 cents!  Woo-hoo!
• An extra oil filler cap that looks brand new
• A US Postal Service collectors reference from 1981
• A couple of floor mats
• A cap to something (still working on where it came from, but it looks to be from the car)
• A Cross pen with the initials NLD engraved on the side.  It still writes!
• What looks to be the wiper shaft seals

Rebranding

I returned the rear badges to the hatch after restoring them.  The repaired mounting stud held up well and the 280Z badge no longer rotates!

Bumped!

Another little project done today: new hood adjustment bumpers.  The bumpers installed on the car were interesting; they looked to be plastic caps filled with silicone around the original bumper bolts.

I ordered new bumpers from Black Dragon Auto (closing their doors at the end of the year) for a couple bucks.  After opening the bag, I found that the construction of the units was less than optimal; you get what you pay for.  The rubber bumper was good, the problem was the pan-head bolt and washer used for the adjustment; the rubber bumper would barely stay in place.

I decided to use the new rubber in combination with the old adjustment bolt.  I began by removing the cap and silicone from the bolts.

I then shot the bolts with a coat of paint, mainly to keep them from rusting.

Once dry, I inserted the bolt into the rubber bumpers and returned to the car.  

And that's how you write an entire blog post about something as trivial as hood adjustment bumpers.

Let there be light

I finally reinstalled the engine compartment trouble light after cleaning it up and printing a new lens.  Yes, I even polished the mounting screws.

Dash good!

With my clock project and center dash work complete, I was ready to reassemble the dash.  Upon beginning to insert the glove box, I found that the passenger vent duct had a hole in it.  After patching the hole in the duct, I found another.  Instead of patching that, I thought I'd better just replace the entire duct.  No one carries 2" duct anymore; I guess manufacturers use hard plastic duct nowadays.  I bought the last box of Dorman 2" defroster duct on Amazon.com.  Unfortunately the decline of the brick-and-mortar means waiting for parts before proceeding; luckily I am a patient man...  just don't ask Amy...

I noticed I was missing a couple of screws (no comments) while reassembling the glove box.  For those that critique my odd behavior of taking apart broken things and keeping the hardware: who's laughing now?  I found replacement screws that exactly matched original hardware in my recycle bin!  In fact, I found a bag of new replacement screws for rusty counterparts during my grill installation as well.  For the existing center dash hardware, I used my Dremel to remove the paint from the existing screws and shoot a fresh coat on the heads before cranking them down.

Taking out the tr-ash

Sometimes it's the little things that make me smile.  Like a clean ash tray...

Before: Lots of gunk and surface corrosion

After: Nice and shiny!

It's time for grille-in!

A few weeks ago I pulled the grille on the 280z in order to address some damage.  While I don't know what happened, at some point before I bought the car something hit the the driver's side and mangled the grille as well as breaking the turn signal trim.  You can see that the grille took a beating in the below photos.  You can also see the condition of the paint on the grille: flaking off the aluminum and rust on the steel.

After pulling the upper and lower grilles, I stripped the old paint with a sandblaster and good old fashioned sandpaper.  I then disassembled the upper grille in order to straighten the bent blades.  This was not as easy as I expected due to the rolled edge on each blade, but I kept at it.

Once the blades were straight, I reassembled the upper grille and hit the grilles with several coats of primer.

I then turned my attention to the turn signals.  I knew there would be some work here as the drivers side turn signal (the damaged side) was slightly twisted.  Both signals were a bit dim as well.  Upon removing the lenses, I found the reason why the signals were so dim: the reflector inside the housing had completely rusted, leaving the foil coating barely clinging to the bits of rust.  

After removing the reflector with a Dremel cutting wheel, I used a sheet of aluminum foil folded over many times to create a new reflector.

I had ordered some new lenses and lens gaskets in anticipation of changing them out.  I didn't realize just how much the original lenses degraded over 40 years.  You can't see it in the picture, but the original lens had many "spider" cracks in the plastic.

Now that the turn signals had been addressed, it was time to straighten out the driver's side turn signal mount.  Donning long levers, large pairs of channel locks, and pliers I wrestled the mount into submission and rough alignment with the opposite side.

Once the mount was straight it was time to return my freshly painted grille to its home.  I was excited to see how the car would look with a clean and straight grille.  I wasn't disappointed, either.  I used semi-gloss black which gives the area a nice look.  The turn signals were nice and bright as well!

I bought some time!

With my efforts to restore the clock in my 280z proving to be fruitless, I looked for an alternative.  If I'm not bound to using the original movement I want something that will last and is accurate.  I now found myself looking for quartz mechanisms.  I first thought of adapting one of those battery operated quartz clocks you find in most decorative clocks, but those just "feel" cheap and prone to failure, plus they make an annoying ticking sound every second.  I then turned my searches to automotive quartz clocks.  There are retro kits out there for older American car clocks, but I couldn't find a kit specifically for my Kanto Seiki from Japan.  Surprisingly enough, there aren't that many automotive analog clocks for sale at all anymore; I guess we really live in the digital age.  

After a bit of searching I found this clock that, aside from the diameter, was a close match to the clock in my car.  I decided to take the plunge and I purchased the Equus clock; surely I could make this work!

Equus 8000 Series 2" Clock

I proceeded to remove everything from the old clock and strip it down to the mounting plate.  I treaded lightly and made sure that I could return the clock back to stock form if for any reason this endeavor failed.

Hands and Face Plate Removed

Mounting Plate Ready

I then needed to open the Equus clock to remove the quartz mechanism.  Once I determined that the bezel was simply crimped onto the housing, the removal was easy.  There's no returning this item now!

Now that I had the mechanism out of the Equus clock, it was time to figure out how to mount it on the Kanto Seiki plate.  One of the two mounting holes on the movement lined up perfectly, so I used a long bolt and two nuts to secure that side.  I was not that lucky on the other side, but I found that an old stereo mounting brace from a custom installation in my 1988.5 Ford Escort (long gone) made a perfect mount after a bit of shaping.  Yes, I keep stuff like this mounting brace forever.  In fact, the alarm system in my current truck also came from that car, but that's another story.

Mounting Brackets Ready

After mounting the quartz movement onto the mounting plate and returning the face plate, I was faced with a dilemma.  The original clock hands required some delicate work in order to mount to the much smaller spindles of the new clock movement.  I could use the hands from the Equus clock, but they would need to be painted and might not look original.  After some consideration and examination, I decided to try the Equus hands first.  After all, if they didn't look right I could still attempt to use the original clock hands.  After a couple of coats of flat white model paint on the Equus hands, I put it all together and was ready to see if my Frankenstein clock actually keeps time after the fabrication.

Ready For Testing!

I spun the clock through a 12 hour cycle to ensure the hands did not bind and that the spindles were perpendicular to the face; nothing was dragging and the hands moved freely.  I connected the power and waited 60 seconds...  which seemed like 120 seconds...  tick!  The minute hand clicked off it's first minute in its new home!  

Since the bezel was removed from the clock I decided to polish the plastic lens; it had a few scratches accumulated from years of wiping away the dust with paper towels.  I used some Novus "minor scratch" plastic polish to make the lens look almost new again.  After restoring the bezel though I discovered a problem: the adjustment knob was barely contacting the minute hand and restricting movement.  I spent so much time aligning the mounting brackets that I did not find the task of readjustment appealing.  Instead, I used some tiny washers to space the bezel out just a hair;  this did the trick and the hands were free to move.  The clock is back together now awaiting re-installation in the car.  I've been a bit under-the-weather lately, so that installation will have to wait for another day.

Regardless, the clock turned out great and you really can't tell that the clock hands are not original.  I look forward to seeing the clock in the dash again!

Ready To Roll!

I'm clocking out

Anyone with an s30 knows that it is just a matter of time before their clock stops working.  In my case, the failure of the clock had occurred before I acquired the car.  The clocks in the earlier Z's used a traditional clock mechanism with an electric motor that was continuously winding the spring.  In the later cars (mine included), a circular pendulum driven by an electromagnet was used to keep time.  After some research, I found that the components on the circuit board commonly failed.  The capacitors were usually first, followed by the transistor.  I felt confident that I could restore this clock to working order.

After removing the glove box I was able to access the clock for removal.

I then disassembled the clock.  All was in good shape and things were progressing smoothly.

After removing the wires I was able to inspect the mechanism and the circuit board.  While no glaring issues were evident, I began by replacing the three capacitors.

At this point I replaced the circuit board and applied power to the clock.  The pendulum would begin to oscillate, but eventually slow to a stop.  I still had a chance, though, as the transistor commonly failed according to my research.  I found some C828 transistors (apparently these are not commonly used anymore) on eBay and replaced the existing transistor on the circuit board.

It was now time for the big moment.  Unfortunately it was the same result; the clock would start working but then eventually slow to a stop.  As I pondered how to proceed, I considered the fact that my coil may be damaged as it is very delicate and the wires are very thin.  I considered purchasing a refurbished board from zclocks.com, and while I have read nothing but good things about his work, I would still have a clock that is based on 1970's technology and could suffer a similar failure in a few years.

I then decided to clock out on this effort and take another approach.  Stay tuned for more on my clock saga...  same bat time, same bat channel....

Death by a thousand paper cuts

Note to self...  when using a comb to straighten radiator fins, WEAR GLOVES!  Those things are like hundreds of little razor blades just waiting for your hand to slip.

Coloring inside the lines

Today I touched up the hood emblem on the 280z.  As you can see, the emblem had lost almost all of it's original paint over the last 40 years.

Using a bit of satin black paint, a very fine paintbrush, and a whole lot of steady hand, I was able to restore the emblem back to it's original glory.

Can't find a part? Just print one!

Previously when I was cleaning up the trouble light in the engine compartment, I broke the lens that covers the bulb (heat and time took it's toll on the plastic material and it disintegrated).   After significant searching I was unable to find a source for this part (or even the entire light assembly for that matter).  

Not one to give up, I donned my calipers and began designing a 3D CAD model based on the measurements of the orignal lens.  After a couple of hours, I had a model that looked like it would make a good replacement.

Now that I had the model created, I needed to turn those bits into physical reality.  I don't own a 3D printer, but I do know printing services exist.  I selected a company called Shapeways to materialize my creation.  This company is pretty nifty (yes, nifty) in that they can print in many materials, including metal.  I selected their "Strong and Flexible" material and added a polishing option before finalizing my order.  Two weeks later, I have my creation in hand!

My measurements were mostly spot-on, although the newly created lens was a smidge taller than the original unit; this doesn't bother me.

The current lens does allow light to pass through, but it's slightly porous (will discolor quickly in the engine compartment) and much whiter than the original lens.  I plan on covering the lens with a few coats of clear to seal the plastic and give it more of a polished look.  I may revise the model and order another in a frosted clear plastic material.  

Given the success here, I will attempt to 3D scan the front bumper corners and see if I can print those as well!

My car is addicted to crack

While I have the grille off the 280z for repair, I have been focusing some efforts in that area (posts on those efforts are coming).  While inspecting the turn signal lenses, I found more cracked plastic; this time the plastic trim around the driver's side turn signal.  You can see the crack in the below picture.  Not only was the trim broken, but the plastic has been deformed with a twist that would make repair a bit more difficult.

Once again my airless plastic welder saves the day, or at least the trim.  Using stainless mesh melted into the original plastic, I formed a mechanical bond between the two sides of the break.

Since the plastic was twisted and the break wasn't aligning perfectly on the outside, I had to deal with a significant gap on the "show" side.  

I once again use the Fiberflex rods, this time heating up the rod and letting it flow into the crack and building up material in the surrounding area.

Finally, I sanded the area to smooth out the Fiberflex material, then used the airless welder one more time to blend the repair with the surrounding area.  I'm happy with the result.