Sealing the cowl

I installed a new hood-to-cowl seal today.  The seal is installed using weatherstrip cement.  Because of the length of the seal, application was a bit tricky.  I prepped both the weatherstrip and the mounting area by wiping with denatured alcohol.  I then coated both surfaces with a thin layer of weatherstrip cement.  I also added some painters tape to the area; a trick I learned from a YouTube video.

After another thin layer of cement, I secured the seal to the flange with the strips of painters tape and let it cure.

Once cured the seal was strong.  Another bit of missing rubber restored.

Sticky bumpers

New inspection lid bumpers were installed using weatherstrip cement.  Having never used this type of cement before, the application was not intuitive to me: add a thin layer to both surfaces and let them dry.  Then add another thin layer to one part and mate the parts.  The process worked though and the bond was strong.

Badges Restored

I returned the fender badges to their home today.  For one of the badges that was missing two posts, I used some shortened nails and JB Weld to restore the mounting points.  Newly acquired badge clips were used on the new posts and black silicone coated those posts to ensure that they would not corrode.

Flashback in yellow

I found the below while looking through some photos and thought I'd post them for your amusement.  In 2005 I was looking for a new car and fell in love with a bright yellow Sentra SE-R SpecV.  It was a quick little car and handled really well.  After clocking about 15k miles I decided to add a few bits to make it more fun.  Bits like a cold-air intake, headers, cat-back exhaust, stiffer springs and, of course, a nitrous injection kit.  Not only was planning and installing these upgrades a blast, but the car itself was fun to drive.  Ultimately the G37 took its place, but I'll always hold fond memories of this Sentra.

You can see the fuel and nitrous solenoids above the strut tower brace.  The mixture was injected via a nozzle tapped into the rear of the cold air intake tube just before the throttle body.  Note the painted engine cover!

The nitrous bottle and heater were stowed in the trunk next to the factory Rockford Fosgate subwoofer.

The bottle heater, purge button, and master arming switch were hidden inside the console pocket.  Note the air/fuel mixture meter inside this storage area as well.

The window switch that only allowed the nitrous to inject within a set RPM range.  Injecting nitrous at too low of an RPM or while bouncing off the rev limiter can damage the engine.

To top it all off I had a laptop mount with software that could display vital engine statistics fed from the ODBII port.  This was high-tech for 2005!

A nice Saturday night treat

I started up the 280z for the first time in months today.  While I was pretty confident that it would run properly, there was a hint of doubt since I had many of the electrical connectors off the engine sensors and I had replaced many of the vacuum hoses over the last few months.  I cranked it in the garage and let it run for about 60 seconds before the smell of gasoline was evident. Upon inspection I found that the hose feeding the cold start injector was leaking badly.

I immediately shut-off the engine.  Not having and 5/16 high-pressure fuel hose, I made a run to AutoZone to get some as well as some injector hose clamps.  When I started to remove the hose and pipe assembly, I discovered why it was leaking...  the hose clamp was loose!  I must have loosened it and forgotten to tighten it again.  Duh!  Once I torqued the clamp the leak was gone.  I was lucky the hose didn't blow off while I was running the engine.

Now that things were back together, why not take it for a spin?

I took it "around the block" and got it on the highway as well.  The engine ran really well.  I must have had a vacuum leak previously that I have now sealed.  Unfortunately, the trip was not completely without problem.  My blinkers are on the blink again.  The blinker system in this car first runs through the hazard flashers.  If the switch becomes corroded, the blinkers can stop working.  While I thought this was the issue again, (I've fought this battle previously), I discovered that my issue was actually in the wires near the flasher as when I jiggled them at the end of the trip my blinkers functioned again.  I'll dig through those and figure it out soon.

Amy caught this picture of me when I returned.

I'm wiped

At some point, the wipers on my 280z were painted black.  When I purchased the car, the wipers looked pretty shabby.

I stripped the old paint off the wipers, then primed and painted them.

Once I finished painting the cowl and reassembled, it was time for the wipers to go back into their proper place.

Getting the wipers in the proper position took a few tries; then I realized that the wipers must be keyed to each side.  Once I swapped them I was able to get them into the correct position on the windshield.

More fun with markers

While testing the parking lights I noticed that the driver's rear side marker was not working.  Some of the bulbs in the car are quite old, so I figured that the bulb had simply burned out.  I was a bit surprised at what I had found when I removed the lamp.

I can only speculate that the seal on the lens allowed water into the reflector where it sat for some amount of time.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to salvage the unit, but I thought I'd at least try.

It took 30 minutes of wire brushing, grinding with a Dremel, and polishing with Quick-Glo before I had something that looked like it would suffice.  Much like the front marker lamps, the lenses were falling apart in the rear and I had spares on hand.  I also had spare gaskets and bulbs, so the only part that returned to the car not replaced was the reflector and bulb base.

Lather, rinse, repeat; I did the same to the passenger side although it was in much better shape and just required a little polishing of the lens to make it shine.  Now both markers are looking their best.

Small adjustments

While working on the 280z today I noticed a small nick in the leading edge of my door that I had not previously noticed.  

Then it hit me...  I installed the fenders yesterday and thought to myself that the door seemed pretty close to the fender...  Sure enough, the door was hitting the fender on that leading edge.  I loosened all the fender and headlight bucket bolts, then pulled the fender about a quarter of an inch forward.  I'm glad I did as I was having difficulty adjusting the inspection lid on that side; once I moved the fender things began to line up better. 

After the fender adjustment and inspection lid re-adjustment, I installed the newly painted valences.  From a body panel perspective, the car is now whole again!

Simple markup

When returning the front marker lamps to their home on the fenders today, I took the time to not only polish the reflectors, but also to replace the aged lenses which were falling apart.

If you've read some of my previous posts, you've likely noticed that I find all kinds of uses for a product called Quick-Glo.  While it's intended use as a chrome polish is superb, I've found that it also restores tired looking rubber to a nice black color as well.  In fact, I used it on the PCV and valve cover breather hoses to make them look new again.  In the case of the marker lamps, I noticed that there was some old wax and dirt on the rubber gaskets.  Quick-Glo made quick work of removing the gunk and returning the gaskets to a nice black again.

I'm not off-fendered anymore

I started the job of returning the fenders to the 280z today.  While it wasn't extremely difficult, I will say it took longer than I expected.

The first step was to put down new rubber weatherstripping in several locations.  This was done on the fender support brackets to cushion the fender where it might receive pressure.

More weatherstripping was used on the flange at the rear of the interior side of the fender as well.  This helps seal the inside of the fender from dirt and moisture.

Finally, a strip was placed on the car body that should match the strip applied to the fender.  The two strips together should fill the gap between the fender and the car.  It should be noted that a good closed-cell weatherstrip should be used.  Any other kind might absorb water and cause rust problems in the future.  I used Frost King rubber closed-cell weatherstrip.

New inner-fender mudflaps were purchased to replace the long-since disintegrated units that must have been lost long ago.  The absence of these flaps likely contributed to some of the rust issues I had in the rocker area.

Returning the fender to the car was not difficult, but alignment and positioning took longer than I expected.  After "hooking" the fender over the flange running down the engine compartment, I made several adjustments fore and aft to get the fender lined up with the door and the rocker panel.  The car went up and down on the lift a few times as I got things into position.  Once I was happy with placement, I loosely threaded a new set of stainless fasteners before fully tightening anything.  When it came time to start torquing the bolts, I started with the lower rocker mounts, then moved to the cowl fasteners, door mount, then moved down the engine compartment lip.  I did spend some time cutting up a few of the stainless washers so that they would fit properly on the fender lip; I had noticed that this was done to the previous washers as well.  

After tightening all fasteners on the fender (I didn't use a torque wrench, just tightened to what "felt right"), I moved on to the passenger fender.

Once the passenger fender was installed, it was time for the headlight assemblies.  I replaced the seals that keep them water-tight from the inner fender area; the previous rubber gaskets were definitely no good.  As I began to install the driver's side headlight, I had a difficult time getting the fasteners to line up.  After trying a few times, I realized that the trim ring around the headlight had been installed incorrectly by someone in the past.  I don't understand how this was installed before as the ring was interfering with the fender; I couldn't get it in position at all.  I pulled the trim ring around the sealed beam and rotated it until the all mounting points lined up correctly.  Once I figured that out the headlights went in easily.

The headlight buckets, sometimes referred to on message boards as "sugar scoops", came next.  This is where I was disappointed in the stainless fastener kit I purchased from ZCarDepot; none of the fasteners for the headlight buckets were usable as they were delivered.  The washers on the bolts were too small and the nuts that secure the bucket to the fender were too large.  I ended up using the old nuts and added larger zinc-plated washers to the mounting bolts.  The fender to cowl fasteners also came with useless washers too; I found some nickel-plated washers in my stash that I used for that area.  After some quality time in the wheel well, the buckets were installed.

Next up will be to install the valences.

Pass the bottle!

The washer bottle, complete with new pump, was returned to the 280z today.  With the new pump previously being installed, all I had to do was run the hose and reinstall the washer nozzles.

I used clear vinyl aquarium hose to connect the new pump to the reservoir.

 

Then using a vacuum hose "Y" connector, I split the hose before the first nozzle and ran hose from the two outputs to the nozzles.  The bottle was then returned to it's mounting bracket and the electrical connection was restored.

Wiping away another task

The wiper motor is finally installed after being removed for paining the cowl.  Surprisingly enough, the hardest part was maneuvering the linkage into position while dropping the motor into position.

Before returning the assembly to the car, I pulled the wiper shaft assemblies apart as I noticed they were corroded and difficult to turn.  Using a Dremel tool I polished the shafts and cleaned the linkages.  I then applied some grease to all moving parts.

As a side note I've had that tub of Bel-Ray grease for almost 30 years now.  It's still great stuff!

Stainless steel fasteners were used to secure the motor and pivots to the cowl.

Before calling the wiper assembly installation complete, I had one more problem to solve: the previous grommet at the firewall for the motor wiring was unusable.

The problem with replacement was that the grommet was applied before the large electrical connector was added at the factory.  I really didn't want to remove the connector in order to replace the grommet.  I had an extra hatch plug lying around, and I thought I might be able to stretch the plug around the connector as the plug is pretty pliable and about the same size as the hole in the firewall.  I cut a cross into the thin center of the plug and prepared myself for the fun...

Success!  I was amazed at how much that rubber plug was able to stretch.

Nightcap

As I've said before, sometimes just the small things make me happy.  Like strut tower caps where there were previously none.

A bit of recoil

While reinstalling the various bits in the engine compartment after repainting, I noticed that the coil was looking a bit drab after 40 years.

Why not take a moment to make it look better?  Once again donning my wire wheel on a drill, I quickly removed all the paint and rust.  I then used some caliper paint that has yet to find its way onto my rusty brake drums.  After two coats it looked much better.

Now returned to its home, ready to spark future adventurous trips!

A New Identity (plate)

The old engine compartment identification plate was looking worn and unreadable.  Additionally, it was not the correct plate for my model year (I'm guessing it was replaced when the car was repainted).

I purchased a reproduction blank from ZeddSaver that was period correct for my car.  

I also purchased a 4mm number stamp set as I would need to stamp my own VIN and Engine serial numbers.  Having never done this before, I made sure to practice on a scrap piece of aluminum prior to stamping the new ID plate.  I used some extra door sill plate stainless screws to fasten the plate to the engine compartment.

All propped up and nowhere to go

I replaced the refinished hood support rod tonight.  Since the original support rod clip disintegrated when I previously removed it, I installed a new one acquired from eBay.  Stainless steel screws replaced the original, corroded screws.

 

Clean air

The air cleaner housing has been returned to its rightful place after painting.  Being a major component of the engine compartment, I think things look much better now.  I've been using stainless steel fasteners when returning the components to the engine compartment.

Before

After

After further inpection

I've been repainting a few bits in the engine compartment lately and decided to give the inspection lamp a hit as well.  I think it looks much better now!

Before

After