280z – Page 6 – the DAILY DATSUN

July 4, 2013July 3, 2013

Shift knob repair

Pretty much since day 1 (Oct of 2011), the shift knob of the 280z has been loose…and eventually flat out threaded.

On a occasion, I’d be in the zone (or maybe secretly racing the car next to me), and in a shifting fury find the shift knob flung off, bouncing around the cabin. sigh!

There are plenty of OEM retro looking Z shift knobs from Motorsport Auto, and a more after market junk you can fill it’s trunk with – so the choice is yours. However, in true Daily Datsun mentality, ‘why replace when you can refurbish’. And of course i wouldn’t mind using the same since it came with the car – call it owner’s nostalgia. :]

With help from my brother Kris, we were able to do just that.

Since the threads of the shift knob were all threaded and gone, it made cleaning out easy. He used a spare stock rod of some hard plastic, hammer-press fit it into the existing hole, and threaded it with a M8x1.25 tap. Add washer with nut, and we’re good to go!

Check it out – brand new again. Shift on!

July 3, 2013

Wear from the car cover

I love my Datsun 280z, so of course, I’m gonna get a car cover for the times i’m out of town for an extended period of time. From rain, sun and the occasional bird mishaps, it should protect it, right?

But goes it protect it from itself?! read on…

So I got a car cover the last time I went out of town, and needed it sooner than I could do mass amounts of research and still have it shipped on time – so off to the auto parts store it went and picked up a Budge “the Shield” car cover.

The Shield seemed like a decent, durable car cover – Tyvek material, elastic edging. It also has a 10 year warranty. For those who are looking to fit a Z, size 4, semi-custom fit worked well.

One thing I didn’t like was that there were no instructions.. haha yes, like most things, “who needs instruction?”. And for a car cover, “who really needs instructions? just put the thing on!”. Well there are two sides to the car cover: the white Tyvek side, and a gray side. There’s a tag that says which part goes in front.. but nothing about which side goes inside or out! Of course, the picture on the box doesn’t help, it looks like grayish-white.

My guess was, white on the outside. The Tyvek on the Shield car cover should be smooth enough to wipe off bird doo-doo, and it’s the best to reflect sun off the car. That protects it from the outside, but what about the inside?

Check out what happened to the rear corners…

Some black wear / residue formed on the car from the car cover… it buffs out, but I reeeaally don’t like that. Seems really counter productive for a car cover. My guess is that it was windy, and the constant shifting of the cover caused the issue. For a box that says Five Gold Star Protection Rating.. it’d give it 3 – works in a pinch, but maybe not on your pride n joy.

June 29, 2013

Zpotted – yellow 350z like me

A few nods from these guys

June 3, 2013

Record breaking day…

Record breaking day…for compliments!

Today was the 280Z’s day, as we got 3 street comments on it’s dashing good looks.

“Such a beautiful Z man.. what what is that? a 280? bet it’s a 280, huh? yeah it’s got great paint on it too..yeah that’s nice” – mustache-man-on-ape-hanger-bicycle. sigh, only in san jose, right? :]

Heading home, I rolled by a guy in a Corvair… guess who it was?! Mel from Mel’s Vairmart (he worked on our ’63 Corvair). We exchanged a few words at subsequent lights – him liking my ’77, and me commenting on his ’66. Then I mentioned we had a ’63. He looked at me with a “i thought i’d seen you before” smile, “hey then i’m probably sure i know you..”. “Are you Mel!? Yeah yeah you met my brother!” He seems like a character. He rolled behind me, and sent that white top down on the brown – sweet.

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On the leg through downtown, I stopped at light next to a dude in a van; elbow hanging out. His stare was melting through his shades, slowly eyeing the front corner panel and making his way to back. I ducked down so i could see him from the passenger side window, and let out a protective, ‘hey’. Like a ‘hey, get your dirty eyes off’ kinda ‘hey’. “Nice car.” *shutter* I swear that light couldn’t turn green fast enough. I thought for sure any minute he was gonna chloroform the Z, and throw’em in the back of his Westfalia.

May 25, 2013

Stopped on San Tomas…

Yep, I got stopped on San Tomas… by an enthusiastic guy rolling in his silver Izuzu Trooper. He was yelling out something, but my window was up – blast manual windows. After getting it open at a stop light, we had a side to side car chat about Z’s. He remarked what a great 280z car I had and that he’s the owner of a ’71 240 Z for which he’s done all the drive train work on. Cheers to another Z kept on the streets, and out of the scrapper! :]

May 19, 2013May 18, 2013

Turning 350z Heads

Hahaha quick post – just the other night I pulled up at stop light to make a left, and the 350z to my right (going straight) was checking out the car (hand over chin)… light turns green, and he’s still there eyeballin’. Not till another car zooms by does he realize that he’s been distracted by an old school Datsun Z.

May 13, 2013

Handle the Door Handle

Sigh – the door handle…

A few weeks ago, I noticed the door handle of the 280z just kinda hanging loose… Still able to open the door, but a loose handle could mean eventual non-working doors, and cross our fingers, maybe prone to brake-ins. If anything else, the tolerances of the Datsun 280z are surprisingly tight in some places, and a loose door handle can actually mean chipped paint! ouch! (you can spot the chip in the lower right).

I took an hour this morning to fix it all up and correct a few things along the way – let’s go!

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Oh, here’s what you’ll need to tighten up a 280z door handle:
– 8mm wrench
– philips screw driver
– flat head screw driver
– paperclip or allen wrench (to get the window crank cotter pin out)

Per the S30 service manual, take off the arm rest, window crank, door escutcheon plate, and don’t forget the door lock post (just twist to take that off). Using something flat, gently pry off the door panel.

Once you have that door panel off, window all the way up, you’ll be able to see the two nuts holding the door handle in. Use that 8mm wrench.

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In the meantime, I also able to finally glue the vinyl covering and lube up the door lock mechanisms.

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When put back together – that door couldn’t close sweeter, and the door handle is perfect.

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Eh.. now for the reason why I noticed this in the first place was the paint chip caused by the loose door handle…eventually have to get to all these stupid paint chips.

April 23, 2013April 22, 2013

Yes, I’m in Z office

Want to excite that drab office? Got a couple of car seats laying around?!

You can only change that computer desktop wallpaper so much and so often – so take it to the next level and make some car seat office chairs! Back in March of last year, I got new seat covers in for the 280z and just had to throw them over the office chair for fun. Well it looks the guy at DIY-Create actually brought it to fruition on Instructables using the actual seat! Seats came from a junked 240z, and I’d say, they’re now getting much more use than left in a yard. Also, you can bring that car you love so much into the home. Enjoy!

And many thanks to DIY-Create for using the seat restore article and mentioning Daily Datsun as a resource!

Instructables – How to Turn Junker Car Seats into Beautiful Office Chairs by DIY-Create
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Turn-Junker-Car-Seats-into-Beautiful-Office/?ALLSTEPS

Getting work done…fast.

April 21, 2013

Historic Japanese Car Gathering – 4/21/13

Daily-Datsun-HJCG-Shokuji-J-Tin-130420 (1) After a fresh wash, we cruised it up to San Leandro for Historic Japanese Car Gathering‘s Shokuji J-Tin event! This year they had folks from Japanese Nostalgic Car and called back an honored guest, “Mary” from the the Ken & Mary Skyline commercials!

It looked like a great time with food / ice cream trucks as well as people and their cars from all over the place.

Though it seemed to be dominated by Datsuns, there were plenty of Toyotas making a scene.

As we rolled up a 350z owner asked if i could park next to him so he could snap some old / new photos – haha hopefully i can get a shot of that from him.

Unfortunately, we arrived ~3pm and got really at the tail end of the event, but we were able to spot a few cars and snap some pics on that beautiful bay area day. Enjoy!

White on gold is always a pleaser.

Rally!

Some RHDs – yes, just check out that Skyline on Watanabe’s… that’s delux.

Rising sun corners on these two Datsun trucks.

Bunch of 510’s getting ready for a ride.

A spectacular looking Toyota Corolla Levin – man that thing was a compact piece of muscle.

This guy just threw his well done 510 right over the speed bump without a care. Sorry, that type of showmanship isn’t for me.

Really nice to see this brown Levin bare-boned and empty. You just get the ideas of restoring running through your head.

A bit more modern classic. Very well kept.

Ah, there he is – just taking in the sun.

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April 20, 2013

240z Steering wheel on a 280z… while keeping the horn pad

A while back I picked up a 240z steering – I just love that wood-grained look (though it is composite). I did a nice refurbish on the 240z steering wheel shortly there after, but never got around to installing it… till this past weekend!

There isn’t much around the forums in the way of doing a 240z steering wheel on a 280z. Actually, it’s probably because in terms of the steering wheel itself, there’s no conversion needed – the 240z steering wheel fits the 280z steering gear exactly. The issue I had was really mating a 280z horn button to the 240z steering wheel!

Check out the visual difference between the 240z (left) and 280z (right) horn pads…

I wish it were that easy of a swap, but upon removing the 280z steering wheel and comparing it to the 240z’s, the difference was apparent. The contact plate has 3 screws in the 280z, and only 2 screws in the 240z’s. This different proved to be all the work, thus having to make an adapter to mate the two.

YES, I could have bought a 240z horn pad (avg $40 – $75), but I have a horn pad…and some metal…and a brain. And i like the challenge! :] Let’s go make a 240z-to-280z horn mating plate!

The 240z steering wheel has two screw holes for the horn assembly, while the 280z has three.

Upon disassembling the 280z horn (three screws), you’ll notice the contact plate has rubber washers and plastic guides (so that the contact plate doesn’t connect the horn pad and steering wheel). On the steering wheel, you’ll see that the 280z has a connection spring (12 o’clock). In the 240z steering wheel picture above, it uses a wire instead.

The horn contact is located here in this pic at 4 o’clock.

Datsun 240z to 280z steering wheel horn mating plate – design plan:
2 3/4″ diameter
3/4″ dia center hole
1 1/32″ distance between centers for 240z mounting holes
1 25/32″ lengthed iso triangle for 280z mounting holes (you can just trace these from the contact plate)

I didn’t have a compass, but I found a Mother’s polish can did the job.

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I had some time, so here’s PDF of the mating plate design in case anyone else wants to use it. It should be to scale – let me know how it goes!

The NIBBLER! Since i don’t have a band saw (nor the room for one), the Nibbler gets all the attention.

Drilled the holes and test mounted the mating plate. Not too shabby. Use drill bits smaller than the screws used in their respective places so they can bite into the metal, make contact, and maintain electrical continuity.

Here it is assembled on the car. Important to note that the 240z wire SHOULD NOT be hanging outside of the 280z contact plate… yeah, your horn will be ringing all day if you do. It SHOULD be connected to the 280z contact plate on the back side. Don’t add anything to the face of the contact plate because you want to have an even surface to make contact anywhere you press the horn button.

Since soldering didn’t work on the contact plate, I simply just protected the mating plate (from further contact), bent the contact wire head, and press fit it under the contact plate.

Tada! installed. love it. and it still goes beep-beep.