gilltech

Gawd. You'd think they'd have an access panel in the floor or something wouldn't you. Q. I see all these modern cars are now keyless. How does one get into the car if the car battery goes flat, or even if the key fob battery goes flat? At least my Falcon and my wife's Mitsubishi still have a keyhole on the driver's door. Curious.

Ditto what AndBir says, my 260 is the same in the doors as his photo - a bitumastic impregnated foam strip which provides both adhesion and also a little spongy 'give'. If you do decide to insert a new foam strip make sure you use a genuine closed cell type butyl rubber. Some of the supposedly closed cell strips on the market for draught sealing in houses etc are not 100% closed cell at all. The last thing you want is water uptake in there. But if it were me I'd look at using a bitumastic sealant of some kind, position and hold the door skin where you want it and use the sealant as an adhesive.

Your 'digression' is fascinating stuff, what a contrast you've been faced with. My father, as a vet, was kept home and restricted to horse-mounted Home Guard service during the WW2 years but hated the Japanese due to the enduring stresses and privations of the war years when everyone in NZ and Australia expected Japanese invasion forces to come sailing over the horizon at any moment. And all too many of NZ's and Australia's fighting forces were occupied defending what were regarded as primarily British interests in the European and Middle Eastern theatres of war. It had quickly become common knowledge of the manner in which the inhabitants of occupied countries and captured combatants were being treated by the Japanese. He lost several friends due to the Pacific conflict, and always resented that the authorities hadn't allowed him 'to do his bit', by that meaning service overseas. He owned numerous Ford and Holden cars for decades refusing to buy anything Japanese made, although very late in life he did finally relent and owned just one which being more compact better suited his needs. I can recall him being mortified, many decades ago, when I'd pointed out to him one day that his National transistor radio, with which he listened to the cricket, despite the 'English' sounding name was actually made in Japan! Oops. One of my grandfathers as a front line medic survived both Gallipoli and the Western Front in WW1 and went off to war again in 1940, sadly succumbing to typhus fever of all things in the Middle East in 1943. Like your father-in-law, he was a medical officer, going off to war with bandages not bullets. We know from his letters home that he treated the wounded from both sides of the conflicts, with apparently no hard feelings towards the enemy despite some of the horrific scenes he must have encountered. He must have been an exemplary character. His loss to his wife and family was profound, it affected them all for the rest of their lives, my late mother never got over losing her dad while she was still a teenager and it haunted her in her final years while succumbing to dementia. As you say, heavy stuff. Again, apologies for being off topic.

No it didn't, praise the lord (and pass the ammunition). But only due to the sheer guts, determination and heroism of the Aussies sent 'up the track' to stop them. I've just finished re-reading 'Kokoda' by Peter Fitzsimons... a great read. Sorry, getting off topic...

Beautiful work. The name of this post is very apt. Am much enjoying following this build. Shows what can be achieved with time and elbow grease.

No, any broken or non-functioning auto parts that I could see no way of fixing by me went in the bin during garage clear outs when shifting house and later crossing The Ditch to here. I have a non-powered aftermarket unit in place at present. FWIW, one of the power aerials I used was retrieved from a 280ZX at a wreckers, it looked the same at the base and all I had to do was alter the wiring plug and it worked fine for many years. So maybe that's another potential source when looking for parts. But I know there were at least two different mast styles, probably no good for 240Zs then.

Interesting. With both of mine there was a stump of the cord left in place and no way that I could see of accessing it. But you've encouraged me to look at it again.

In my experience, twice now, the nylon cord has sheared off up inside the top tip of the metal concertina aerial. No show of fixing that I don't think. And the modern ones are wired differently, as an informative thread on this forum described sometime late last year IIRC.

Nice job!

Check on eBay, there's a front one listed right now.

Same here, I bought an aftermarket front bar but it's too tight between the ends and I can't push the bodywork inwards to suit. Will have to be spread by about 10mm IIRC before I can use it.

Thanks Mike260, I'll bear that in mind, thought much appreciated! I'll see how I go. All good now thanks Mike. With the window still in there's very limited access into that blind top corner. But, finally, after a good deal of cussing and what seemed like an OTT amount of applied force the rod suddenly came free, and the nylon keeper looks none the worse. Replacement handle is on, looks much better, as the chrome on the old one had bubbled. I made sure I wore gloves too as lots of sharp edges, have learnt the hard way previously when working inside doors. Next job is to remove the lock mechanism itself..... Looks like the rear window guide will have to come out first before the lock mechanism can be removed, just so I can examine it to see why it no longer locks. Neither the outside key nor the inner pull knob will operate the locking, so I must assume the problem is in the mechanism itself. Another fun job, not, best saved for another day.

Are you using repro door shells? How well do they fit? Very nice work BTW.

Aha thanks. Obviously am being too gentle, more brute force required! I didn't want to wreck the nylon retainer as my spare doesn't have one.

Today - stuck at home due to Covid-19 'stay home' lock down so trying to keep myself busy - I tried to remove the scruffy LH external door handle in order to replace it with a much tidier one. No joy, I couldn't manage to disconnect it from the connecting rod. Is it supposed to just unclip at the top? I don't want to force it and risk breaking any nylon fittings either end. Is there a trick to this? TIA. Following that task I want to pull the lock mechanism out to clean it as it's not locking either by key or pull knob, so either some internal problem, or it may be it's just gummed up with decades-old and congealed rust proofer, as it used to work. Not a fun job.

A 240Z door will look OK externally but the inside face is wrong as the internal door trim / pull handle etc is different between the 240Z and 260Z styles. Also, the 240Z and 260Z window winder mechanisms are different, both in component geometry placement and the way in which the winder spring mechanism is mounted - have a look at images online and you will see what I mean. Maybe it's possible to do a cut'n'shut of the two types, I'm sure someone will have tried it.

It's the earlier style, identical to my '74. The later style has a circular latch plate on the body door jamb.

Wow. Beautiful craftmanship.

So that's the early style catch and lock pull presumably. I think '74 would be the same.

Ditto. Not much $$$ I'm afraid as work has dried up for me. But I'll appreciate your site even the more as I sit out the next weeks/months based at home.

Love the green, it really pops in the modern automotive world of mostly very bland white/silver/charcoal/black cars. Very much enjoying your build series. Oh, and a garage floor one could eat one's dinner off. Very tidy.

Congratulations, that's great news! Even more reason for you to go to the nth degree to take care of yourself. I have poor lungs from childhood too. Despite many years of distance running you'd think they'd improve but no they have always been poor at O2 uptake, and now in my 60s I get asthma and respiratory illnesses regularly. So the thought of contracting Covid19 terrifies me as I know too well what it's like to struggle to breathe. We're told that the peak is yet to come. But hopefully 80% and more of the population unselfishly will take heed and stay home and not congregate so the curve does indeed flatten somewhat so if we do go down we can receive the care we need and recover.

Hot dipped galv usually starts off fairly smooth and shiny - 'crystaline' as you aptly describe it - straight out of the bath but soon oxidizes and dulls down in the atmosphere. And depending on variables in quality the colour can vary and be patchy much to architects' disgust. Your dull grey gate and post was probably from older stock before it was finally installed. There are also electroplated zinc coatings used for thin steel sections, such as panels eg. a/c ducts. It's a thin more economical coating really only suitable for interior work. It too has a bright shiny 'crystaline' finish, in fact the term is 'spangled' (lovely word!). But again over time the zinc ever so slowly dulls down even in an internal atmosphere. Contrary to what people might reasonably assume, a weathered matt galvanized surface although it looks suitable for paint to mechanically stick to is not the best surface to paint over. In fact, it best needs to be fresh unoxidized zinc, so an aged coating should be taken back to clean zinc - 'sweep blasted' - before applying a suitable primer within hours not weeks or months, that's if one wants to gain maximum durability. Ditto what 1600Dave says. Paint technology has moved on.

That gate and gate post has clearly been hot dipped galvanized during manufacture, where the zinc coating is bonded to the metal in a galvanizing plant's heated dipping bath. It will be inside the tubes as well, anywhere where the molten zinc could flow and reach. It is not a paint coating. Zinc dissolves with rainwater very very slowly over time. Look at corrugated galvanized iron (cgi) roofing once used on old buildings before Zincalume and Colorbond became available. Over time the zinc literally washes off and the roofing starts to go rusty. And so the roof either gets replaced or painted to make it last a bit longer. In that picture above, the post is still fairly sound although pitted but the eyelets have lost their coating and are rusting. The barbed wire has lost its very much thinner zinc coating long ago and is now badly rusted. 'Cold Galv' is a zinc rich paint typically used in the construction industry to touch up areas - brush or rattle can - where hot dipped galvanized steel items have then had to have further work done exposing some bare steel again, such as welding on-site. Often used on long lengths of handrails for example. But a paint coating even in multiple layers cannot match the longevity of a hot dipped galvanized coating so the make-good work will always be a maintenance item. It's not a good idea to paint over a zinc coating because even through the paint it can react with moisture to form the white salt powder you can see in places in your photo, and any paint coating detaches. Obviously zinc coatings used in inland dry areas will last far longer than in areas where there is moisture such as near the coast, areas of humidity, or where there's rainfall, areas where the majority of us live. It has its place but I wouldn't use Cold Galv except in hidden areas not requiring a visible top coat, like inside doors/hatch as you suggest. And I'd coat it in turn with a rust inhibitor such as Fisholene or Tectyl or whatever. As long as it's applied to well cleaned dry steel and is itself protected it should last well. For painted areas exposed to view use a good quality automotive paint system which includes a high quality metal etch adhesion primer. Apologies for the lecture! My 2c worth.

There would be many many hours of work to repair all that mess. If the 260z front clip you're looking at is an early one and fairly good then you'd be better to put that on IMO, quicker and cheaper and a cleaner end result. Disappointing that the firewall is so rotted. Why do you need a new roof - rust, or replacing due to a sunroof? What are the floors like? Rear chassis rails? Hopefully not more of the same. Interesting to see stitch welds in the RH front corner of the radiator support panel. Why? Has the RH apron section beside it been replaced at some stage?