Sunbaked '76 Cali 280z

Robotsan

Club Member
Been busy boarding our loft the last 2 weekends (partly to give me more storage for car parts!) so no work on the Z recently until today.

Committed to sticking down the trans tunnel trim & reinstalling the seatbelts, then test fitted the centre console - as I wasn't sure if all the extra sound deadening I'd added would stop it from fitting anymore! Thankfully it did :)

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Starting to look a lot more like a car interior now. Off on holiday for a week and when I'm back, it'll finally be time to tackle the seats. Dreading it.

But after that, it's just the rear brakes, new fuel sender, in-line fuel filter, new fuel hoses around the tank, and it should be ready for its maiden voyage!
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Well done. Looking good. I bet you can’t wait to drive it

Thanks man. And yes.. although I actually dreamt about driving it the other night, but in the dream it was like one of those cars from a Charlie Chaplin film - all wobbly wheels, smoke and backfires.. Hopefully not a premonition 😂
 

MCBladeRun

Club Member
Thanks man. And yes.. although I actually dreamt about driving it the other night, but in the dream it was like one of those cars from a Charlie Chaplin film - all wobbly wheels, smoke and backfires.. Hopefully not a premonition 😂
And our, chitty chitty bang bang loves us too...
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Cheers! Yeah can't wait :)

Plugged in all the switches into the centre console again.. and as always, there was some spares 😂

Got the hazards & rear defogger switches in and the relevant lights for them in, but then there's a spare plug which is identical to the one that the hazard switch plugs into.. anyone got any ideas?!

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Gave all the switches etc a good clean as they were absolutely caked in crap.. very satisfying as usual.

The rear window defogger doesn't seem to work, and the same for the seatbelt light.. or does that only function when the engine is running?

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Also got this wiring nightmare hanging about.. which I'm guessing is a load of aftermarket crap for the 80s aftermarket stereo that was in there.. unless anyone recognises any of it?

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Faster Behr

Club Member
My car has 2 or 3 unused plugs in the same area. You could research them in the wiring diagrams if you were so inclined. Or learn by my mistake and don’t go down that rabbit hole if everything is plugged in and working. In fairness my wiring diagram was in a Japanese, but still useful for sorting out more critical issues nonetheless. One of the plugs I recall has 5 or 6 wires, all black with a green stripe! Modern cars are just the same I’ve found. My GMC never came with a heated wheel, but I bought one from a dealer and the wiring plug was already in the column and simply snapped in and turned on.

I would just tear that old stereo wiring out and start again if it were me. I’ve never seen an aftermarket radio wired properly. I fitted a new (fused) permanent live from the battery, picked up a nearby chassis ground and took the switched live from the ignition circuit via another new fuse. All that left then was a couple (or more) speakers to wire up.

Are you converting the headlamp wiring to run via relays? That is a great upgrade and will result in less stress on the fuse box, headlamp switch and headlamp wiring - and give you better illumination to boot.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
My car has 2 or 3 unused plugs in the same area. You could research them in the wiring diagrams if you were so inclined. Or learn by my mistake and don’t go down that rabbit hole if everything is plugged in and working. In fairness my wiring diagram was in a Japanese, but still useful for sorting out more critical issues nonetheless. One of the plugs I recall has 5 or 6 wires, all black with a green stripe! Modern cars are just the same I’ve found. My GMC never came with a heated wheel, but I bought one from a dealer and the wiring plug was already in the column and simply snapped in and turned on.

I would just tear that old stereo wiring out and start again if it were me. I’ve never seen an aftermarket radio wired properly. I fitted a new (fused) permanent live from the battery, picked up a nearby chassis ground and took the switched live from the ignition circuit via another new fuse. All that left then was a couple (or more) speakers to wire up.

Are you converting the headlamp wiring to run via relays? That is a great upgrade and will result in less stress on the fuse box, headlamp switch and headlamp wiring - and give you better illumination to boot.

Ahh really? Someone else has suggested to me that it's the power for the antenna. I've got that knocking about somewhere so I'll see if they're right. I don't have an antenna motor though so won't know if it works!

Yeah I will rip out the stereo wiring, just wanted to make sure that's what it was first 😂 There's quite a few thin little wires that just end, with no terminal or plug too, so I'll try and work out what they are and remove if possible. If not I'll tape then up to be safe.

Yep I'm planning that headlight relay upgrade, but I'll be paying a man to do it, along with a general check up of the wiring in as it's out of my comfort zone but I want it to be safe.

Would the average auto electrician be ok with that, or would I need someone who's experienced with classics?
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Ahh really? Someone else has suggested to me that it's the power for the antenna. I've got that knocking about somewhere so I'll see if they're right. I don't have an antenna motor though so won't know if it works!

Yeah I will rip out the stereo wiring, just wanted to make sure that's what it was first 😂 There's quite a few thin little wires that just end, with no terminal or plug too, so I'll try and work out what they are and remove if possible. If not I'll tape then up to be safe.

Yep I'm planning that headlight relay upgrade, but I'll be paying a man to do it, along with a general check up of the wiring in as it's out of my comfort zone but I want it to be safe.

Would the average auto electrician be ok with that, or would I need someone who's experienced with classics?
Headlamps: you need an 'average auto electrician' who's experienced with classic Datsuns ha ha. The headlamp wiring is a bit different to many classics because the '-ve/earth/ground' is switched to the lamps not the +ve. The +ve is wired to the terminal on the lamp that is normally the 'earth/ground' and then the switch feeds the -ve to the dip/main filament as required. Also the two fuses that protect the headlamps are wired left and right - a safety feature so if a fuse blows you don't lose both headlamps. Most relay conversions I've seen do away with that feature. Just make sure the dip and main are supplied with individual fuses so at least you have that feature e.g. if the main circuit fails you can switch the the dip (and vice versa).

Have a search in the S30 Electrical Section.

If you are paying labour costs this might be a good option:

 
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Robotsan

Club Member
Headlamps: you need an 'average auto electrician' who's experienced with classic Datsuns ha ha. The headlamp wiring is a bit different to many classics because the '-ve/earth/ground' is switched to the lamps not the +ve. The +ve is wired to the terminal on the lamp that is normally the 'earth/ground' and then the switch feeds the -ve to the dip/main filament as required. Also the two fuses that protect the headlamps are wired left and right - a safety feature so if a fuse blows you don't lose both headlamps. Most relay conversions I've seen do away with that feature. Just make sure the dip and main are supplied with individual fuses so at least you have that feature e.g. if the main circuit fails you can switch the the dip (and vice versa).

Have a search in the S30 Electrical Section.

If you are paying labour costs this might be a good option:


Thanks Rob, I had read that about the headlamp wiring - bizarre! I can pass all this onto an auto sparky though and hopefully they will understand.

Thanks for that link.. unfortunately it says its only for the 240. I've had a look for a 280z equivalent but it doesn't seem to have been made.

Could a decent auto electrician knock it all up themselves?

Tbh, I don't plan to be driving this in the dark any time soon anyway so this can wait. Same applies to rain and my pathetic wipers.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Thanks Rob, I had read that about the headlamp wiring - bizarre! I can pass all this onto an auto sparky though and hopefully they will understand.

Thanks for that link.. unfortunately it says its only for the 240. I've had a look for a 280z equivalent but it doesn't seem to have been made.

Could a decent auto electrician knock it all up themselves?

Tbh, I don't plan to be driving this in the dark any time soon anyway so this can wait. Same applies to rain and my pathetic wipers.
Yes a decent electrician would quite enjoy that.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Been ages since I managed to work on the Z at all, but this week I got the chrome-painted rear light surrounds back (I'll post some pics of those up another day), so I want to get the lights all re-fitted ASAP. But before that, I wanted to patch up a little rust patch where the right hand rear light goes.

This is how it looked at first. I could clearly see filler in there, so it was a bit nerve wracking grinding it back .. what if it's all filler?! 😂

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Thankfully, only bits of it were. Luckily there didn't seem to be any sign of rust spreading under the paint. There's no sign of it on the inside either thank god. There's a weird turquoise layer in there, on top of the filler.. guessing some kind of primer?

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Also took the plunge and decided to investigate how much filler there was on the rear quarter and front wing.. I could see clear evidence of it where paint had chipped off, but I didn't like not knowing how much there was, or whether my wheel arch was entirely filler.

This is how the rear arch looked before. Paint peeling off & some surface rust to sort out:

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When I ground down the arch lip with a poly disc, I was surprised to find it was all metal - and the original spot welds all there.

So I ground more off above it, and revealed an entire healthy original wheel arch. Then I sanded back half the dogleg - that's all good too, no rust and all original. But all covered in around 1mm of thick filler and shit silver paint. Very strange.

So I kept grinding more off, heading backwards away from the rear of the arch, looking for rust.. I found the start of a dent instead, so I'm assuming the car had a slight prang on the rear quarter at some point, and they just filled over the entire panel to smooth it out.

I'm just relieved to find no rust or evidence of rust repair.

Btw there's no filler on the door, or below the door on the sills.

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The front right wing has just as much filler on it.. I had this scruff originally which hinted at it..

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But when I ground those spots back there were no dents and no rust. Weird. There is a dent on the same wing so I have to assume it was more damage repair at some point.

But check out how thick the filler is 😯

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I'm just going to give all of these areas a coat or two of epoxy primer for now to stop any rust developing. Then when it finally comes to a paint job I can get the panels sorted properly.
 

Robotsan

Club Member
I’ve found that to be the way they do repairs sometimes, in the US - just ‘bondo‘ the whole panel and sand it down - weird.

Thanks, someone else has said the same thing actually. Ah well, as long as there's no rust I'm happy.

I've now covered all the exposed bare metal with epoxy, as well as grinding back the surface rust on the right hand sill. Gave both sills a good scrub, rust converter and 2 coats of epoxy primer just to be on the safe side.

It's not pretty but it'll do the job! Really shows how thick the filler is:

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Found a bit of surface rust inside the same arch so ground that off and gave it the same treatment...

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And gave the area around the lights 2 coats of epoxy before I reinstall the lights later this week.

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Also cleaned up the door jams and reinstalled the plated hardware :)

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Robotsan

Club Member
Question for you guys - I'm planning on dropping the fuel tank, changing the hoses, installing a new level sender and in-line filter.

Just to confirm, the in-line filter goes between the tank and the pump doesn't it?

I've used 8mm hose for the fuel hoses in the engine bay - can I use the same type for the smaller hoses around the fuel tank? They look very slightly smaller but could be the same internal diameter?

I found this US thread which suggests the hoses before the pump are 10mm which would be bigger though. Confusing.

Then does anyone know the hose size needed for the larger hose (shown below).

I guess I should just try and remove the tank and then work out the hoses needed from there..

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SacCyclone

Club Member
Also a good time to remove the bumper brackets whilst the tank is out.

What are your plans for the intake system??? EFI, triples, etc.....may allow you to bin some of the hoses and connections including the evaporator tank. Check with others who have already been down that road.

Mike
 

Robotsan

Club Member
Also a good time to remove the bumper brackets whilst the tank is out.

What are your plans for the intake system??? EFI, triples, etc.....may allow you to bin some of the hoses and connections including the evaporator tank. Check with others who have already been down that road.

Mike

Thanks Mike, yeah planning to remove those brackets at the same time.

Planning to keep it EFI for now. Then probably switch to carbs next year. So guessing I'll need to keep the evap tank etc until then? I'll do some more research.
 

Faster Behr

Club Member
From memory the tank outlet to pump inlet hose is 3/8” (10mm) internal diameter. It’s typical that the suction side of most pump systems is larger than the delivery side. Fluid dynamics innit.

I’m sure the larger hose you‘ve circled is 5/8” (16mm) internal diameter. I’ll check this out and will confirm tomorrow. I also need to get some myself for this very job. I’ve got the tank waiting to go back in. I treated it with the POR-15 system in November 2021. I’m guessing it’s cured by now 😳
 

Mark N

Club Member
I used 16mm hose on the top side of the tank.
It was a tight fit, hence the cup of hot water.
I didn't cut the hose to length, and left it long, until the tank was installed and the vapour tank was in place.

Tank.jpeg
 
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