Gauging my work

I pulled the center gauges to complete the LED instrumentation conversion.  The replacement of the bulbs was the easy part; it's the always the things I do "since I already have it apart" that seem to be the most difficult...

Center console trim and heater diverter removed

Since I had things apart task #1: replace the bulbs.  Easy.  The gauges were already out. Done. 

Bulbs replaced and gauges cleaned up

Since I had things apart task #2:  clean the HVAC diverter.  This is the part that "splits" the blower air between the center vents and the vents on the sides of the dash.  Not only was this thing nasty, but the seals had deteriorated and there was 20 year old duct tape residue on one of the outlets.

Yuck!

After much soaking, cleaning, scraping, lather, rinse, repeat... along with generous helpings of Goo Gone...  the diverter was finally clean.  I replaced the seals on both sides with some weatherstripping.  

Let there be clean air!

Since I had things apart task #3:  clean some corrosion from the voltage meter.  This is the task where things didn't go so well.  I'm not exactly sure what it was, but there was some brownish, rust-like corrosion around the charge warning light.  While it wasn't rust, I couldn't tell exactly what it was and I had seen an identical halo around pictures of other Z car voltage meters (ammeters adorned the dashes of 240 and 260 Z's).  

The halo of funkiness

I began with a wet toothbrush in an attempt to remove the gunk, but found quickly that this stuff had loosened some of the white paint nearby!  I decided the best I could do at this point was to paint over what was left of this stuff (losing my CHG label over the indicator) and try to restore any missing lettering and meter markings.  I quickly found that I neither have a brush small enough nor a hand steady enough for this task.  I ended up carving a toothpick to a point, then roughing the end to make a few strands.  I did my best with some white and red enamels, but I wasn't terribly happy with the result.  I'll have to live with it for now; maybe I'll find a solution such as a replacement insert in the future.

Meh, not a perfect repair...

Since I had things apart task #4:  polish the gauge lenses.  If you've read some of my previous posts, I always end any work on the gauges with a nice polish using Novus plastic polish.  In this case, I had already polished the clock, so I polished the voltage/fuel gauge and the temp/oil pressure gauges.  The polish worked well, but without being able to remove the lens from the gauge bezels I couldn't get perfect results around the edges.  They still came out looking great, though.

Back together again

Is it weird that my car received gifts for Christmas?

Would it be odd for a car to receive Christmas presents?  Maybe.  We'll say that the presents were for me instead to make it less weird.

How do I know my dad was involved in picking out my Christmas presents this year?  Because only he would know that I would need polyurethane bushings!

It's the gift that will keep giving all year long, mainly because it will take me that long to install all of the bushings included in this master set!  While the 280Z still handles well, visual inspection shows that most of the rubber throughout the chassis needs to be replaced. 

When working with an old car, hardware tends to be missing or corroded beyond repair.  Not to worry when you have a mega bolt, nut, and washer set at your disposal!

Not to be outdone, Amy (my wife) gave me a genuine factory owners manual for the 280Z.  1976 is a hard year to find for a 280Z owners manual.  I think I may have gotten one of the last few remaining.

I'm guessing that Amy has also accepted the fact that I'm spending more time in the garage working as she gave me some garage-worthy furniture as well...

I need some fresh air

One thing I noticed shortly after I brought the 280Z home was that the driver and passenger fresh air vents did not function (only the center vents blew air).  I previously fixed the passenger side vent when I had that side of the dash apart for other reasons.  Since I had the speedometer and tachometer out for the LED bulb replacement, I thought now would be an opportune time to correct the driver side situation.

I knew the driver side ventilation was going to be interesting.  I had previously inspected the vent and found that I could see the rear dash through the vanes, confirming that there was no duct connected. In fact, the duct that was supposed to be connected to the vent was hanging (seemingly intentionally) under the steering column pointed at the floor.

When I began pulling the duct, I noticed that there was an elbow connected to the duct outlet; the passenger side had no such elbow.  Additionally, the elbow also had an integrated Tee, but there was nothing connected to the additional outlet.  This meant that air should have been blowing into the rear of the dash when the blower was operating.  Notice the words "should have" in the previous sentence...

After removing the elbow coupling I found that the driver side duct was blocked off entirely and intentionally with duct tape!  I pondered this for a moment, but I have no good possible explanation for this configuration.

Upon removing the duct tape, which left a nice reside that one would expect from duct tape of at least 20 years of age, I routed a new duct from the outlet to the vent.  I used some plastic zip-ties to position the duct out-of-the-way, along with some metal tape to ensure that the hanger doesn't wear through the duct.

You can see the factory green quite well in this picture.

I now have a functional fresh air vent on the driver side as well as passenger side of the cabin.

LED there be light!

The instrument bulbs in the 280Z had become quite dim.  I'm guessing that many of the filament bulbs are the same that rolled off the showroom floor when the car was purchased.  The bulbs in the gauges are of a size and wattage combination that isn't too common nowadays and was hard to find.  I became interested in replacing these bulbs with LED counterparts to that I wouldn't have to worry about them dimming over time and replacing anytime soon.

I did some research and found some good candidates at SuperBrightLEDs.com.  I picked up 20 of the 12v, warm, 120 degree LED's in a bayonet base of the proper size.  Since they were only 88 cents per bulb, I picked up a few more than I needed figuring I would get a DOA or two (which proved to be true).

Since I already had the steering wheel off, the speedometer and tachometer would be easy to remove and replace the bubs (each gauge has 4 bulbs).

Since I had these gauges out, I cleaned them up as they had 40 years of dust inside of them.  

The lenses on both gauges also had some deep scratches on the front surface, so I used some Novus plastic lens cleaner, starting with the number 3 polish (deep scratches), then moving to the number 2 polish.  This polish never ceases to amaze me and both lenses came out like new.

After swapping the bulbs I returned the gauges to their homes, replacing hardware that was missing as necessary.  The bulbs are definitely brighter than the previous filament-based bulbs that were replaced, but not so bright that they are obnoxious.

The warm color and 120 degree reflection of these bulbs seems to have been a good choice as the gauges have retained the same color as that produced by the filament bulbs.  I plan on replacing the bulbs in the center gauges at a later date and will follow up with another post when complete.  I already know that I want to address a common issue with the voltage gauge where some type of adhesive or other gunk accumulates around the charge LED (I've seen this condition in several others).

Signaling my intentions

I've had a few issues with my turn signals lately, including not functioning at all and difficulty engaging from the lever on the column.  I solved the "not functioning at all" scenario by cleaning the contacts on the hazard flasher switch.

After some research into common issues with turn signals on the s30 Z's, I found that the switch on the column frequently corrodes due to the open design.  Since I had the steering wheel off, I decided to clean up the mechanism.

The switch was very dirty, as you can see in the above photo.  The turn signal mechanism and contacts were open to the elements and had accumulated 40 years of contamination.

I split the stalks and began cleaning up the turn signal switch mechanism, starting with the turn signal contacts.

I used silicone lubricant spray to clean up the switch, contacts, and mechanisms mainly due to the spray's minimal reaction to plastic.  I used a VOM to ensure that the contacts were conducting properly, then proceeded to clean the rest of the gunk off the mechanicals with a toothbrush.  Everything came out squeaky clean and working properly.

A clean direction

The steering wheel on the 280Z was showing signs of its age.  Since I needed to address a few other issues in that general area, I decided to pull the wheel and give it a fresh coat of paint.

Pulling the wheel was pretty straightforward using a three prong puller.  In fact, the wheel was pretty loose beforehand and rocked a bit if moved from side to side.  I'll admit that I had to google the removal of the horn pad, which I found was to push in then rotate counter clockwise to release.

Steering wheel before prep.  You can see the wear, particularly on the left spoke.

Once removed, I sanded the spokes to roughen the surface.  I did not sand to bare metal, although some places on the wheel had already been worn that far.  I then masked the wheel in preparation for priming.

I used three coats of Rustoleum Bare Metal Primer on each side before spraying four color coats of Rustoleum semi-gloss black.

I then let the wheel cure for a couple of weeks in the basement due to the cold temperatures.   The wheel was then returned to its place in the vehicle after other work in the area had been completed.

Escutche-what?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I found one of the escutcheon covers under the passenger seat.  At that point, I didn't even know such covers existed.  The one that I found didn't stay in place very well, so I decided to fix it.  Once again I called upon my plastic welder and added some bulk to one of the tabs that had been reduced with multiple insert-removal cycles.

Since I was in the area, I removed both escutcheons and polished them with Quick-Glo. 

After some research, I found that the small hole on the rim of the escutcheon is supposed to contain a door handle bumper.  I haven't seen this bumper advertised anywhere, and being such a small part I thought that they must get lost easily anyway.  I decided to make my own by injecting a blob of RTV silicone through the back until a small bit protruded through the hole.

At least I can replace these bumpers easily if they don't last.  I also obtained another cover for the driver side from ZCarDepot.

Now with chrome tip!

Who would have thought that underneath 40 years of road grime, carbon, and miscellaneous goo there would be something beautiful?  The exhaust tip on my 280z looked corroded beyond hope.

Employing sandpaper, a Dremel, a plastic knife, a 3" random orbit polisher, and a product called Quick-Glo, I was able to discover the inner beauty of this item.  I also cleaned the mounting bracket, bolts, and inner surfaces with a flapper sanding wheel on my Dremel, then coated them with exhaust paint to keep them from rusting.

For those that have never used it, Quick-Glo is an awesome product for quickly cleaning and protecting chrome.