Sunbaked '76 Cali 280z

Robotsan

Club Member
Ive only sprayed a few smaller items with lacquer, the largest being a new starter motor, but it seems to be far less forgiving if you go a tad heavy by accident. Light almost mist coats and probably twice as many than you would with 'normal' paint.

Right ok, I'll do my best to keep it light. Thanks for the tip!
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Got round to stripping the chrome plating off the first of the bezels today, before sending it off to Chrome Spray to be painted. Was a pain in the arse, but it did mostly peel off ok after being bathed in the hydrochloric acid for a week.

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The other one is almost perfect, so I'm loathe to strip it in case the chrome spray results are crap. If they were then I'd only need to source one other good one, is my thinking. So hoping to find a donor part to strip instead.

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I also got the re-silvered rearview mirror back from Mirrorworks today. They said it wasn't possible to get it perfect as the glass was slightly damaged on the back due to age, so there is a bit of clouding around the edge - but it's a hell of a lot better than the big black areas it had before!

I used a heat gun on the casing and that made it soft enough to easily pop the glass back in. Job done!

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Here's what it looked like before:

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Robotsan

Club Member
Decided to try and sort out the stalk switches assembly as I need to put the new 3D printed bit on for the horn, so may as well try and sort it all out at once.

The steering wheel was surprisingly easy to pull off the spindle!

These 3 little rubber washers are goners.. are they that necessary?

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Everything is very crusty and gunky so I guess I'm going to try and completely disassemble it and clean every bit individually. I'm thinking degreaser and electrical contact cleaner would be the best bet?

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uk66fastback

Club Member
Matt lacquer rather than satin for the no. plate holder? I’m sure I’ve read satin was the right finish but wouldn’t swear to it.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Matt lacquer rather than satin for the no. plate holder? I’m sure I’ve read satin was the right finish but wouldn’t swear to it.

Who knows 🤷🏼‍♂️ Its not a very matt finish tbh - looks almost identical to the paint's original kind of satin finish once dried. I'm not building a pure concourse level car anyway so I don't mind if it's not exactly right :)
 

Robotsan

Club Member
First of all... Help! I took all of my indicator and lights stalks & switches apart, thoroughly cleaned them, got the rusty spring assembly zinc plated, and used the new 3D printed horn connector (thanks @Jason McIvor ) and have now put it all back together again.. but now I have the following issues:

1. My headlights now don't work - but the stalk switch does seem to be working as the sidelights and rear lights are coming on.

2. My indicator stalk does nothing. So either A) I've buggered something up in there, or B) it's related to the headlights issue.

3. Horn still doesn't work, but there's a relay click when I press it. Is the little arm meant to be touching the back of the steering wheel the whole time? I presume yes, because it looks like the horn pad moves and makes the connection. So maybe something else is wrong between there and the actual horns.

Before I take it all apart again and look for issues, does anyone have any clues? I don't *think* I've plugged any wires in wrongly as thankfully they're all either colour coded or are specific to each other in size/shape. The only dubious one were the red and black wires going to the ignition barrel. But I presume I got that right as the car is starting fine.
 

toopy

Club Member
2. My indicator stalk does nothing. So either A) I've buggered something up in there, or B) it's related to the headlights issue.
Or looking at it another way, it could be that messing up the headlight flash/full beam wiring has caused the no headlights issue!
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Or looking at it another way, it could be that messing up the headlight flash/full beam wiring has caused the no headlights issue!

Not only very true, but also the conclusion I've just come to myself! Because obviously they're connected aren't they. I'll have to take it all apart again tomorrow... Joy.

Any advice on the horn? Should the contact be touching the steering wheel all the time?
 

Makesy

Club Member
When I first got my Z the relay would click but horn didn't function. It turned out the wires had been unplugged on the horn side.

I'd say check nothing has come loose or gone brittle and snapped between the relay and horn as a first port of call.

You could also rig up a light or something else to test the circuit in case the horn has somehow died
 

Robotsan

Club Member
When I first got my Z the relay would click but horn didn't function. It turned out the wires had been unplugged on the horn side.

I'd say check nothing has come loose or gone brittle and snapped between the relay and horn as a first port of call.

You could also rig up a light or something else to test the circuit in case the horn has somehow died

Thanks, I'll check that today.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
If the relay is clicking then I would say the problem is nothing to do with the switches. It’s at the horn end.

Ah ok, good to know that.

I guess the logic is, the switch is obviously working because the signal is leaving it and making it to a relay?

My electrical knowledge is super basic tbh.. maybe I should see if there's a basics course I can do.
 

MCBladeRun

Club Member
Ah ok, good to know that.

I guess the logic is, the switch is obviously working because the signal is leaving it and making it to a relay?

My electrical knowledge is super basic tbh.. maybe I should see if there's a basics course I can do.
Get yourself a multimeter if you haven't already, you basically test switch live wires and live wires down to earth (earth being your chassis).

Switch indicator on, check it's got a live feed out. All there is to it. When you find a dead wire, that should be live, you've found what parts at fault 👍
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Get yourself a multimeter if you haven't already, you basically test switch live wires and live wires down to earth (earth being your chassis).

Switch indicator on, check it's got a live feed out. All there is to it. When you find a dead wire, that should be live, you've found what parts at fault 👍

Thanks Martin. I have got one, but I've not got beyond testing my battery with it 😂
Just been watching some YouTube videos though so will try some tests like you've just described. Cheers.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
You may find a 12v test light simpler for your purposes of fault finding. A multimeter doesn't put any load onto a circuit (like a test light does) and sometimes you can see voltages or activity on a circuit that can be misleading. A test light is a simpler strategy for simple car fault finding like this.

A 12v Power Probe is also a useful tool. It does the same as a test light but it also allows you to push power onto a circuit or earth onto a circuit. In your case above, you could "push" an earth onto the horn contact itself to see if the horn sounds. Amazon is your friend for a cheapy one.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
You may find a 12v test light simpler for your purposes of fault finding. A multimeter doesn't put any load onto a circuit (like a test light does) and sometimes you can see voltages or activity on a circuit that can be misleading. A test light is a simpler strategy for simple car fault finding like this.

A 12v Power Probe is also a useful tool. It does the same as a test light but it also allows you to push power onto a circuit or earth onto a circuit. In your case above, you could "push" an earth onto the horn contact itself to see if the horn sounds. Amazon is your friend for a cheapy one.

Ah! I do have a test light too. Think I got it to test fuses in my Mini. It's the actual methodology I'm lacking knowledge in though... I.e. what to put where, oo-er!

A power probe sounds like fun though. I may as well have a full set of testing tools that I don't know how to use 😂
 
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