1973 Fairlady Z - refurb and fix

richiep

Club Member
Wowsers. That's serious wedges. Has anyone tried painting / restoring their old ones themselves?
Remember, we are just talking about the JDM specific emblems here; few people outside of Japan and those of us with JDM cars are going to be motivated to seek out the correct “Z” bonnet emblem and pay for them. The “Datsun” export bonnet emblems are much cheaper (although still 50-70 quid).

Rechroming plastic can be hit and miss; newer chrome paints may be the way to go.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Remember, we are just talking about the JDM specific emblems here; few people outside of Japan and those of us with JDM cars are going to be motivated to seek out the correct “Z” bonnet emblem and pay for them. The “Datsun” export bonnet emblems are much cheaper (although still 50-70 quid).

Rechroming plastic can be hit and miss; newer chrome paints may be the way to go.

Ah yes of course. So where's the best place to source a non-JDM emblem, just the US? And the usual sources like Zstore, Zsource etc?
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
On to my leaking speedo drive coupling.

My local Nissan dealer were quite helpful in tracking down the seals for this. One is a structured seal which seals the pinion into the drive housing. The other is simply an O ring that seals the housing into the gearbox casting.

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It’s a super easy 10 minute job to do. The most difficult part is drifting out the small roll pin to remove the drive from the housing.

After 50 miles of driving there’s not a peep of a leak which is great. The same goes for the rest of the car it has to be said. Everything is tight and dry.

Interestingly, when I replaced the reverse light switch I noticed that there is an additional identical switch at the other end of the transmission. This lead me to wonder what it would have been for. Some discussion online points to it being a high gear switch to inform ignition timing and others state it’s a starter inhibitor. All I know is it is open circuit in all states so who knows. Judging by the configuration of the exhaust mount “ears” I have a 280ZX 5 speed. Which is nice.
 
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Kieronpollock

Club Member
Having read all these posts on emblems I’m so happy that my car’s previous owner bought genuine new parts, still in their Nissan boxes - a rare positive of what was a troublesome purchase!
Going on the car in the next week as my restorer pushes hard to get it ready for JDM at Castle Combe
 

richiep

Club Member
He gets my recommendation also. Very good communication and a simple step by step process.
Having looked at the Jesse Streeter websIte, I have to say the YAJ bidding service looks sub-par compared to fromjapan , bidjdm and the others where it’s all in real time, all integrated eBay style. Having to contact them with listing info, max bid, etc? Archaic IMO for dealing with live YAJ bidding.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
Having looked at the Jesse Streeter websIte, I have to say the YAJ bidding service looks sub-par compared to fromjapan , bidjdm and the others where it’s all in real time, all integrated eBay style. Having to contact them with listing info, max bid, etc? Archaic IMO for dealing with live YAJ bidding.

Assuming you’re meaning having to email Jesse with details of what you want so he can do it all for you?

I agree to some extent, but not everyone has the confidence and not everything is bought via bidding. He can negotiate buy it now and also ask questions. Some sellers also prohibit bids from proxy services I believe.

He can also combine orders and repack in the most efficient manner and provide decent shipping prices. Bear in mind it is also up to you to tell him what the value should be for customs and insurance purposes.
 

Robbie J

Club Member
Having looked at the Jesse Streeter websIte, I have to say the YAJ bidding service looks sub-par compared to fromjapan , bidjdm and the others where it’s all in real time, all integrated eBay style. Having to contact them with listing info, max bid, etc? Archaic IMO for dealing with live YAJ bidding.
that's not the point, you are not going to keep feeding realtime bids etc so you need to give him the amount and you win or loose.... try him then when you pay you will understand
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
I was hoping to go out for a spin today and continue to fiddle with the efi but it’s wet and miserable so I thought I’d have a change of scene and tackle the rear hatch.

The window louvre is a bit Marmite and it has to go to allow me to replace the hatch glass seal. This has dried out terribly and is absolutely rock hard. Only the top chrome was still there which is quite sad. Some of the seal had been made good with silicone so it was all in a bit of a state. I was also a little uncertain what might be lurking beneath 🙈

Louvre removed:

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Yum. My faithful Don Carlos came to the rescue with chopping this out accurately and without any damage. I can recommend this as one of the most versatile tools you may ever own.


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And no horrors beneath! Just a light clean up and maybe some zinc primer and Dynax before I clean and refit the glass.

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If anyone has a set of rear hatch chrome that they would be willing to part with then please let me know.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
I know it will make me even more 'popular' than I already am, but the window rubber garnish is Stainless Steel.

Of course you’re right. It is stainless steel.

I value and am grateful for your contribution. I know so little of the model history and there is such unreliable information around. So thank you for all that you have added to this thread.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
I found a little time tonight so I took a mini wire wheel in the die grinder to the lower glass aperture in the rear hatch. I used some Dynax Deox gel that I had laying around prior to knocking it on the head on Sunday and this had done most of the rust removal hence it was just residues and a bit of grot left to deal with. Rather than just bare the odd few bits I stripped the whole lower edge.

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Then a coat of Bilt Hamber electrox. This is a single pack 95% zinc primer that I’ve had good results with over the years.

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I’ll coat this up again tomorrow with a matching metallic. It’ll do for now until we change the colour of the car - which btw - I believe might be 115 Light Blue Metallic?

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The rear glass cleaned up ok. There were some spatter burns from an angle grinder. Not as bad as I’ve ever seen, but just a few to be annoying. These came out ok with a razor blade but it bugs the heck out of me. The only welding I’ve found on the car is a plate less than 4” square on the right front floor. So this means the glass may have come out of something else or have happened whilst at a repair shop and could have been collateral damage. Anyone who grinds near glass should be given a lobotomy. Period.

All strung up and ready to go

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I’m having minor issues with tuning the EFI. It’s running well apart from off idle acceleration is initially lumpy and rich up to 1600 rpm. I am convinced this is because the injectors are low impedance (3 ohm) units. Whilst they test perfectly, I don’t think the ECU is able to stage them correctly. FAST EFI insist they should be high impedance, Zcardepot say they have no trouble with folks running on low impedance. Either way it’s bugging me so more money must be spent. So I’ve ordered a set of new high impedance injectors and an O ring style fuel rail from ProtunerZ in Canada. I ordered them yesterday lunchtime, and initially expecting them to take some time, I got a customs email from UPS today advising me to cough up so they could deliver tomorrow. Who knows, we may just have it nailed this weekend.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
I found a little time tonight so I took a mini wire wheel in the die grinder to the lower glass aperture in the rear hatch. I used some Dynax Deox gel that I had laying around prior to knocking it on the head on Sunday and this had done most of the rust removal hence it was just residues and a bit of grot left to deal with. Rather than just bare the odd few bits I stripped the whole lower edge.

View attachment 50976

Then a coat of Bilt Hamber electrox. This is a single pack 95% zinc primer that I’ve had good results with over the years.

View attachment 50977

I’ll coat this up again tomorrow with a matching metallic. It’ll do for now until we change the colour of the car - which btw - I believe might be 115 Light Blue Metallic?

View attachment 50978

The rear glass cleaned up ok. There were some spatter burns from an angle grinder. Not as bad as I’ve ever seen, but just a few to be annoying. These came out ok with a razor blade but it bugs the heck out of me. The only welding I’ve found on the car is a plate less than 4” square on the right front floor. So this means the glass may have come out of something else or have happened whilst at a repair shop and could have been collateral damage. Anyone who grinds near glass should be given a lobotomy. Period.

All strung up and ready to go

View attachment 50979

I’m having minor issues with tuning the EFI. It’s running well apart from off idle acceleration is initially lumpy and rich up to 1600 rpm. I am convinced this is because the injectors are low impedance (3 ohm) units. Whilst they test perfectly, I don’t think the ECU is able to stage them correctly. FAST EFI insist they should be high impedance, Zcardepot say they have no trouble with folks running on low impedance. Either way it’s bugging me so more money must be spent. So I’ve ordered a set of new high impedance injectors and an O ring style fuel rail from ProtunerZ in Canada. I ordered them yesterday lunchtime, and initially expecting them to take some time, I got a customs email from UPS today advising me to cough up so they could deliver tomorrow. Who knows, we may just have it nailed this weekend.

I've used Electrox recently to restore some rusty bonnet latches on my M3, but it looked a lot darker and more matte than that!? That looks much more zincy! Is it the aerosol one or maybe a brush on?

Here's the parts after the Electrox:

PXL_20220508_121647906.jpg

Yours looks more like these bits looked after I'd given them the top coat?:

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PS I bet you were surprised to find that blue! It's strange that someone actually bothered to paint the undersides of the storage hatches but didn't do that last little bit behind the seats.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
One for the folks that might know…

I’ve found someone who may have early and late type mesh front grilles. Can anyone speculate as to which I would have had originally? The car was manufactured early in 1974.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
I've used Electrox recently to restore some rusty bonnet latches on my M3, but it looked a lot darker and more matte than that!? That looks much more zincy! Is it the aerosol one or maybe a brush on?

Here's the parts after the Electrox:

View attachment 50994

Yours looks more like these bits looked after I'd given them the top coat?:

View attachment 50995

PS I bet you were surprised to find that blue! It's strange that someone actually bothered to paint the undersides of the storage hatches but didn't do that last little bit behind the seats.

My electrox has dried just like grey primer. Very light grey. It’s an old can though.

The vinyl in this area was quite nicely stuck down so I guess they didn’t want to remove it. To be fair I think the first repaint in silver was done relatively nicely hence the reasonable attention to detail with the under bonnet area etc. the later grey repaint was the opposite and thankfully they stopped at the outer body and door shuts.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
I thought it was time for a bit of an update. Apologies it has been a while..

I have been working in my old shed at home for the past 20 years and it's been a useful space, but not ideal. I've got room for three cars plus parts storage and a lot of outdoor space, but the building is hard to heat effectively so is generally cold and damp. The concrete is also marginal so I've never risked having a ramp. As my toy collection gets bigger (Mrs. Behr, if you are reading - this is a humblebrag - I haven't got any more than this car - I'm just making it up), I decided I needed a space to do justice to my projects. Somehere I can convene to do work and have mates come and visit.

So cue the new DatCave. It's a 1,350 sq.ft unit to which I have fitted a 1,000 sq.ft mezzanine with a lift to put cars upstairs. To this I have added a four ton baseless lift and other goodies. My last 4 months have been taken up largely with fitting this out with the ramps, wiring it, plumbing it - etc. But yesterday I found the time to do something car related.

It's not all been without issue. My BMW 2002 decided to reward my good stewardship by emptying both of its brear brake master cylinders over my beautifully epoxied upstairs floor. This has left two nice black tyre tread imprints. Hey ho.

So yesterday I went in to this beautifully organised scene (note my new GMC winter whip which I adore - it has a great story too)

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So the first thing car related: replace the brake servo on the Fairlady Z. I bought this reman unit from Rock ages ago and it has been languishing in the boot. I thought it was time to get it done as I'm keen to get it back on the road. Sadly - and to my surprise - the brake master cylinder has been leaking so I daren't put it all back together.

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Anyways, more to come on this soon. And hopefully some tangible updates on the 280Z.
 
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