FRONT BUMPER BAR & REO BAR MAY UPDATE Unfortunately after last months huge achievement of painting my first part which was the front bumper bar's upper support bracket in a gloss black chassis paint, it would seem that the paint that I sprayed on didn't turn out the way I was hoping it would and I am now uncertain as to which direction to go in with regards to fixing all of the issues with the paint coating on the bracket at this point in time. FRONT BUMPER BAR UPPER BRACKET (P/N: 62298-30P00) RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2) As you all know from last months progress report, the upper support bracket was painted in 3 coats of a gloss black spray on chassis paint made by Raptor which looked amazing initially and I was very happy with the fresh new glossy look the bracket now had. To help give the paint the best chance to cure as much as possible, I left the part untouched for about 2 weeks or so which is way more time then the can's instructions indicated with a cure time of only overnight. Once the 2 weeks of cure time was over, I wanted to begin test fitting the upper bracket onto the support bar so I could see the final look of the 2 parts bolted together. I used a threaded stud on the support bar which I believe is an alignment point for the 2 parts as the bare miniumum I could do to complete the test fit. To protect the paint as much as possible, I placed a suitable sized fiber washer around the base of the stud and then installed the nut inplace down as tightly as I would expect the nut to be to secure the bracket inplace. After the successful test fitting of the upper support bracket, I removed the nut without issue but when it came to removing the fiber washer I had put in place to protect the paint, I had found that the washer was now stuck down onto the bracket. After some prying using my fingers the washer did eventually came off but what it did was take a bunch of paint along with it. My assumptions are that for some reason either the chassis paint has not dried fully even after 3 weeks of cure time and or the paint hasn't properly bonded to the metal surface of the bracket which is more likely then the paint hasnt dried, which is still very disappointing considering all of the effort I put into to making sure that the part was cleaned and prepped to give it the best chance of adhesion as possible but it looks like thats not that case. With my June 30th deadline fast approaching me, I dont know if I have the time to strip down and restart the painting process for this part as I am really eager to get my Z back on the road after June 30th. So I may just leave it as it is now and maybe in the future when I've found the best paint products for the jobs I'm doing and I've mastered the art of spray painting parts in the future, I may return to finish this part off for good.
RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW AND AUX FAN UPDATE (PART 3) Like the front bumper bar section unfortunately we have some bad news that has also transpired for the radiator, trans cooler & aux fan section and as you probably would have guessed it, the bad news relates to the how the paint coating has worsened over the last 3 weeks on my original spare set of na radiator mounts. NA RADIATOR MOUNT'S (P/N: 21543-30P00) RESTORATION UPDATE (PART 2) Both of the radiator mounts were spray last month with 3 coats of chassis paint and I was very happy with how the paint finished turned out as I tried to give them a slightly thicker 3 coat which smoothed out the finished compared to the previous parts I had painted before them. To allow the chassis paint to cure as much as possible, both mounts where left suspended in my garaged for about 3 weeks which I thought would be enough time for the paint to cure. Unfortunately for me after those 3 weeks of cure time, while working in my garage I accidently knocked the hanging stand suspending the mounts dislodging one of them from the wire that was holding it in place causing it to fall onto the concrete fall in the garage from about chest height. I knew this wasn't going to be a good thing for the paint coating but a small part of me was hopeful that maybe the "chip proof" paint coating would have held up from that fall unlike what has happened with the the front bumper bars upper bracket and its coating issues. But I of course was wrong and the fall had caused some minor damage to the paint coating including scuff marks and paint chipping which was annoying to see after only 3 weeks of the part being freshly painted but I was intending to spray 1 more final coat of chassis paint to fix up all of the issues that I had noticed and wanted to fix this weekend. So to prevent further damage to either of the radiator mounts, I removed them from the hanging stand and placed both of the mounts onto my workbench to rest ontop of a microfiber drying towel which I thought would be a safe place to put them for a couple days until the weekend. When the weekend finally came around and I went to move the mounts from their resting place, I discovered that they both had stuck onto the microfiber towel and after some gentle pulling they came off but the areas where the paint had stuck to the microfibes of the towel had left a spotted effect of paint removal on the coating. It was a very disappointing thing to see the apparantely durable paint coating be so susceptible to scuffing and paint chips after only 3 weeks of cure time and it was clear to me that I would need to rethink my paint choices going forward. It turns out the manufacture of the chassis paint recommends the use of an engine enamel primer to be sprayed on first before the chassis paint to get the best results even though it doesnt say that on the spray cans instructions so going forward I will need to use this method if I choose to use this chassis paint again in the future.
PARTS ACQUIRED DURING THE MONTH OF MAY Finally after 2 months of no new parts coming in for the project, May has seen a number of big purchases for the project. I had a big parts order from Nissan Japan arrive at the very end of the month which contained alot of the rememaining fasteners and parts needed for putting the car back together. I also purchased a few used parts from yahoo auctions which I have been trying to find that are missing from my Z atm and I also got to purchase avery rare OEM 300ZX optional decal from a local Z owner here in Australia. Front Bumper Bar Spacer (P/N: 62090-30P00) First up we have a brand new item out of my big parts order from Nissan Japan, the front reinforcement bar or reo bar foam spacer part that mounts to the center top of the reo bar and helps to create a slight gap between the front bumper bar and the reo bar. My original spacer and even a spare I picked up on one of my Z parts hunt a few years ago both show signs of slight damage and breakages in the foam and so when I asked my contact in Japan if these were still available from Nissan and they said yes, I decided to just buy a new replacement unit. 2000 Model Black Z Road Wheel Center Cap Set (P/N: 40342-VP100) During the time I was organising the parts order from Nissan Japan, I was lucky enough to find a used set of 2000 model black Z wheel center caps on yahoo auctions which I know are now discontinued from Nissan. Unlike the very common OEM alluminum silver center caps, these black veriants were only available on the 1998-2000 models as an optional extra when new buyers chose to go with the optional set rare OEM polished 16inch factory wheels or possibly when they were purchasing the Version R model where I believe these OEM polished wheels were standard. Though I had brought a brand new set of these black center caps back in 2009, I have been on the look out for a replacement set to have as spares due to the fact that I have unfortunately lost 2 of the original center caps I purchase and that is because they fell out of the center cap holes on my poorly modified TT USDM wheels I've been running on for almost 9 years now. Optional Rear Window 300ZX Decal (P/N: J0310-42P00) The biggest purchase I made this month is for this very rare and discontinued optional rear window 300ZX Decal which I previously had only seen in photos and never in person up to this point. Using the photos I had collected over the years I initially assumed that this part was a plastic panel like the alita 1/4 window shades and it would somehow sit in place on the top section of the rear window. But to my surprise it turns out that this part is actually a decal that is stuck up onto the rear window glass and I just so happened to find a Z owner in Melbourne who had a spare one that he was willing to sell me. Unfortunately I had to purchase it as part of the sell of a complete rear hatch glass which had the decal attached to it. As happy as I was to finally have one of these rare parts in my collection, it was not going to be an easy install for me to attach this onto my Z. The decal I purchased was in pretty average condition and my first thought was to find a method of removing the decal from the glass without damaging it and then stick it to my rear hatch glass. Unfortunately after some researching on the matter I dont believe its possible to transfer the decal from one glass to another without it being damaged or it wont be have the adhesion to be attached to the glass again. So my backup plan was to have my original rear hatch glass removed and then have the spare rear glass with the attached decal installed onto my rear hatch to complete the transfer in a way. But due to the poor condition that the decal is in, I was worried that once I had installed the new rear glass I may experience visibity issues with the decal inplace and I can tell that eventually the overall poor condition of the decal is going to annoy me enough to most likely make me want to remove it in the future anyways. So my new plan is to try and have the decal replicated by a busniess who can design and manufacture all kinds of window decals. I'm hopeful I can get a one to one copy of this decal that I can then freshly install onto my original rear hatch glass and would be the safest and easiest way to have this decal installed onto my 300ZX.
I love the level of effort and detail here, it's all looking great. Have you considered getting a basic compressor and spray gun set-up as opposed to the cans? I used to use cans exclusively myself, but I had a long conversation with my paint shop guy a few years back, who I have/had been using for years. He honestly asked me to consider buying a good value spray gun and compressor. I spent $500 all up, not much in the scheme of things. Paint sprayed out of a gun is a more durable product, as it was explained to me. Since I agreed to try his recommendation I have never looked back. In all honesty, the hardest part of all paintwork is the prep, which you are clearly already putting the effort into. The actual spraying part, even with the spray gun and compressor, is the easy part on small components like you are focusing on right now. Realistically it doesn't take more than 50% longer to paint vs. a spray can method. It has worked out brilliantly for me, no more paint chipping off with the smallest of disturbances to the painted surface. I find the 'real' cure times on spray gun paint, far shorter than can paint (I leave parts overnight before installation), and the quality of finish is far superior. In the long run, after inital investment, the paint for a spray gun will be far more economical too, compared to spray cans. If you are going to continue to paint parts as you have been, maybe consider the step up. I have painted up to and including a 3 stage paint so far (Toyota Golden Pearl 057 on my Landcruiser) with zero issues. Easier than a can!
Thanks mate, it does mean alot to me to know that you liked what I am posting and that you can see the effort I am putting into the project. Its very important to me that I am creating content that is interesting and informative for not just myself but the viewer as well and it means alot to hear a member mention that, so thank you very much. Yes I definately have mate and I do have the basic equipment needed to make a simple spray gun setup out of my single car garage no problems, the issue I am currently facing is primarily paint overspray getting on all of my tools and the walls and concrete fall which I want to avoid as much as possible. Because spray cans don't produce as much overspray as a spray gun does, it just felt more convenient to use them over the spray gun system. I purchased a small table top paint tent to aid the capturing of the overspray paint which did work well but trying to hold a part and then spray paint it inside the tent turned out to be very difficult and unconfrontable during my initial painting attempts. What I'm going to do now, when it comes painting the next set of parts, is im going to try a brush on type of paint coating made by KBS, which is apparantely really tough stuff and because it is so thick and durable it should be alot easier for my to apply the coating and not have any issues with the paint not adheeding to the metal surface as long as I continue to prepare and clean the parts like I have been doing so far. I have seen alot of positive reviews on the product and Ive heard claims of this stuff is better then powder coating which was again another coating method I was also looking into using and I even went as far as buying a powder coating gun but the whole baking part of the process is an issue I have yet to find a solution for which is why I am going to try the KBS coating system first. For the parts I can't use the KBS coating system on I definately want to try and spray a primer coating before I apply a topcoat which I hope will greatly increase the durablity of the paint coating and minimise paint defects and chipping in the future but only time will tell.
I saw that KBS stuff mention by @theaussieshed , looked into myself as a chassis/underbody option for sure. I hear you with overspray, definitely something you have to consider and plan for, but the results from a gun are night and day, so quite worth it. I respect your passion mate, knowing how hard it can be for all of us to put the effort into doing things right. For me, I realised that it is all about how you look at it, I never put pressure on myself any more when I playing with my cars, I just focus on the fun!
So here we are, now 6 months into 2024 and my car is still not back on the road and at the rate that I'm going it could be another 6 months or more before its complete. Because of this fact, I have decided that its time to put aside all of the crazy modifications I had planned for this rebuild and solely focus on putting this car back together again. So going forward I will be checking off each of the sections of the car that I will need to be able to fully reassemble the car back together again like it was before the accident and to try and make things as easy as possible for me, I will be photographing and cataloguing each individual part from each section of the car so I can make sure I have everything single part needed before I attempt to begin reassembling process of the car in a few months time. By the end of this month, I have checked over at least half of the required section I need to complete and this is important because any missing parts I will need I will be purchasing from CZP in my final order for this rebuild in the next month or so and then its full steam ahead with the reassembly of the car. I am hoping that the car will be all back together again within the next 3 - 4 months from now. Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @ADAMZX Instagram: instagram.com/adamzx_z32
OEM CARBON CANISTER RESTORATION PROJECT (PART 4) Starting off this months updates is the carbon canister restoration project which is still not finished yet as I am still currently preparing the canister's mounting bracket for its eventual paint coating which I had to put on hold after last months painting debacle with the Raptor branded chassis paint not bonding to several parts like the radiator mounts etc. Still I was able to get one small task done for the carbon canister's restoration project, which I have been unable to do until now, that task being to cut to length the 3 new replacement silicone vacuum hoses that connect to the 3 hose ports on the top of the canister. These new upgrade silicone vacuum hoses which I purchased back in February, should make for a much longer lasting hose replacement when compared to the original rubber hoses which began to slightly deteriorate on me as I removed them off of the hose ports on the canister. I also cut to length a 4th silicone hose piece that goes with the canister's lower hose port which connects to a special plastic joining hose piece to complete the hose upgrades for the carbon canister.
RADIATOR, TRANS COOLER, COOLANT OVERFLOW AND AUX FAN UPDATE (PART 4) Next we have the cooling system section which is one of the most important mechanical sections I needed to check over to make sure I have everything needed to put the radiator, aux fan, overflow bottle and all of the systems hardware back onto the car correctly as much as possible. AUXILIARY FAN RESTORATION, REASSEMBLY & EARLY VS LATE MODEL COMPARISON (P/N: 21580-51P00) One of the few discoveries I made early on in the rebuild project which I had never noticed before, was the fact that there is a later model variant of the auxiliary fan which appears to have a redesigned plastic housing which provides additional shielding to protect the plastic motor fan from debris that could damage it while driving. So in March of 2022, I purchased a used unit off of eBay from a wrecking yard here in Australia, which I disassembled down to its basic components so I could hopefully try and restore it back to as new condition as possible. The plan for the restoration process on the later model auxiliary fan was going include a deep clean off all of the individual components and hardware using some simple green concentrate cleaner and then some bug and tar remover chemicals to remove years of dirt and grime buildup and staining on the plastic housing before a coating of Megiaur's ultimate protectant was applied to renew the plastic as much as possible. I also wanted to try and restore the gold cadmium plate finish on the top of the fan motor casing and to do that I was intending to spray paint the top of the motor casing in a gold metallic paint coating. The cleaning process on the aux fan's plastic housing and related hardware came out looking great but I was never able to find the time to paint the top of the fan motor casing and with my goals for the project shifting to getting the car back on the road now a priority, I have decided to postpone the painting process of this restoration for now and instead just reassemble the aux fan back together in its current condition. Once the newly restored auxiliary fan had been fully assembled back together again, I took a few comparison photos comparing my original early model unit (89-92) to that of the new later model version (92-00) just so everyone can see the differences. Z1 UPPER RADIATOR SILICONE HOSE PROBLEMS (P/N: N/A) Because I am reverting back to an OEM style of radiator which uses a plastic top and bottom tank design instead of the aluminum type that was on the PWR radiator. I now need to make sure I use the correct hose clamps to suit the change in material that the radiator hose ports are made of, so I don't have a situation where I end up crushing the hose port end on the top tank of the radiator like I did back in 2007. Years ago I purchased a set of later model radiator hose clamps for the upper and lower radiator hoses which changed from a standard OEM double ring and screw hose clamp design to that of a spring type hose clamp design which I believe Nissan did as a way to prevent the above issue of crushing the hose port on the radiator from happening in the future for 300ZX buyers on later models. Unfortunately using these new spring type clamps has created a new issue that I wasn't expecting to have and that is that for some reason I have been able to test fit one of these new spring type hose clamps onto my Z1 upper silicone radiator hose which I have been running on my Z for over a decade now. I first noticed the issue way back in 2015 during my last 100k service interval where I was forced to have to revert back to the use of a standard worm drive hose clamps just so I would be able to finish putting the car back together and I have been wanting to solve the issue ever since then. So I began my investigation into the issue by comparing the hose diameters between the z1 upper radiator hose and my new Z1 lower silicone radiator hose which I purchased in 2022 to replace the previous setup I had been running on my Z which was one of the Z1 lower radiator hard pipe hose kit. First I measured the diameter of the lower radiator hose which I found out to be about 40mm in diameter. When I test fitted the hose clamp onto the end of the lower radiator hose which connects to the bottom tank hose port on the radiator, the new spring style hose clamp was able to fit over the hose without any issues that I could see. Whereas when I measured the diameter of the upper hose, I got a larger hose diameter of 45mm which is at the maximum limit that the new OEM spring style hose clamps are able to expand out to. So why is the upper hose have a larger diameter then that of the lower hose because as far as I know they both should have the exact same hose size diameter. Well I think I now know why. As you can see from the above photo, the Z1 upper hose I installed back in 2012 is flaring out quiet a bit at the end where it is hitting up again the top tank part of the radiator. I'm certain this is the reason that the hose has somehow enlarged itself overtime due to regular heat cycles as I drove the car daily for the next 12+ years. Obliviously if I'm going to use this Z1 upper hose going forward, I'm going to need to purchase a larger sized diameter spring type hose clamp to allow me to clamp the hose down correctly and not have any issues with leaking coolant in the future. But I could also replace the hose with a new one which should allow me to use the current set of OEM hose clamps I have here already but again another issue arises where I discovered that most of the big 300zx parts suppliers online at the moment that I frequently use, only offer the twin turbo upper radiator hose for buyers to purchase which as you all know looks different to that of the NA upper hose normally found on a 300ZX NA engine and the only supplier I have found that sells a NA specific silicone upper hose is Z1 Motorsports. I know that the TT silicone upper hoses on the market can fit onto an NA radiator setup, however my biggest issue with a TT hose is that to me it would look out of place on my car being that it is a factory NA engine setup where you would expect it to have an NA upper radiator hose installed and though I am happy to install TT parts onto my Z for the most part, this is one I just can't see myself accepting long term so I have a decision on what course of action to take over the next few months to finally solve this issue once and for all.
BATTERY AND BATTERY MOUNTING UPDATE (PART 2) A small update for the battery and battery mounting section for this month as I have put all painting restoration work on the spare set of battery hold-downs on permanent hold for the time being. BATTERY HOLD-DOWN GROMMET UPGRADES (Champion P/N: BH002) Now several years ago I came across a very bizarre situation with corrosion forming on one of the battery mounting rod's much like how corrosion forms around battery terminals which as you will see ate away almost all the way through rod leaving me with this. After doing some simple investigation using a multimeter, I found that for some reason a completed circuit was present between the 2 battery mounting rods and along the battery hold-down which I believe caused the corrosion to form. But neither of these parts were connected to any kind of electrical wiring circuit and can I only guess this is part of the chassis's grounding circuit as the battery rod's do make contact with the battery tray which is mounted to the chassis frame. So to try and prevent this circuit from forming in the future and possibly causing more corrosion to form on the either of the two battery rod's. I have installed 2 small rubber grommet's in place where the holes for the battery rods pass through and my hope is that these grommet's should break the metal to metal contact that had been forming the grounding circuit I had detected on the multimeter. Once I have reassembled the car back together again I will make sure to do a test with this new battery hold-down setup, to see if the circuit is still present or not.
FRONT COMBINATION LAMP SECTION UPGRADES During the initial teardown phase of the rebuild project back in 2022, I discovered that both of my original 2000 model front indicator assemblies had suffered some damaged to the plastic housings during the accident and so I purchased a pair of replacement 2000 model indicator assemblies early on in the rebuild. On top of the new indicator's, I was also able to purchase a set of new LED indicator globes to replace the original halogen globes as a way of modernising the indicator assemblies as much as I can. LED FRONT INDICATOR GLOBE UPGRADES (NARVA P/N: 18272BL) One of the few exterior lighting upgrades that I haven't been able to do on my Z so far, is to upgrade the factory halogen indicator globes with LED versions. The reason for this is because installing an LED globe into the indicator's wiring circuit on the 300ZX would cause a rapid flashing issue with the indicator globes due to a lower then expected resistance value that the flasher unit expects to see which in turn dictates when the flasher should turn the indicator globes on and off. This issue can be overcome with the addition of load resisters into the circuit or a replacement flasher relay that is designed to suit LED globes. But recently I have learned about a new style of LED globes that incorporate a canbus module inside the globe housing which will produce the correct resistance value the flasher relay will expect and stop the rapid flashing issue mentioned above. So after some research I was able to find a suitable canbus style LED globe to replace my original halogen globes with for both of the front and rear indicator's and can be plugged and played into the Z without any modifications needed. Also when compared to the original halogen globe, the new LED globe is almost identical in size so there shouldn't be any issues installing these new globes into either of the front indicator assemblies and or the rear tail light assemblies.
INTAKE DUCTING MOUNTING BRACKET RESTORATION (PART 3) The restoration on the intake ducting section has been slow to say the least. I was all ready to paint the mounting brackets last month but I had to put those plans on hold until I got all of the KBS paint supplies I needed in order to paint the brackets with a durable long lasting paint coating. Besides the unpainted mounting brackets, I have everything required to install this section onto the car as it should be from the factory.
PARTS ACQUIRED DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE For this months parts acquisition, I received a very special and as far as I can tell, rare OEM part which ended up coming from all the way in Europe of all places. The path to discovered of this part is a story in itself and I am so excited that have acquired this part for the project. NISSAN SUNNY OEM POWER STEERING COOLER PURCHASE Wow what a journey it was for me to first discover the existence of this cooler using part numbers and fiches online. To finding an actual online store that allowed me to able to actually purchase the cooler from and then to finally receive the part several weeks later. I am over the moon with having this cooler which will be a perfect replacement for my original rusty 300zx power steering cooler which you all know I found out last month had 2 - 3 pin holes in a couple of the piping of the cooler making the unit unusable. Anyways let me go over the process it took for me to first find out that this cooler even existed in the first place as it took me a bit of detective work of using corresponding part numbers from Nissan part fiche websites to find the evidence I needed to know the cooler existed. Starting off with the power steering coolers special rubber mounts that I purchased brand new from Nissan Japan in my latest parts order from last month. These mounts are the only parts still available to purchase for the 300zx power steering cooler setup as of 2024 and once I had the mounts in my hands, I was curious to see if any there were any other Nissan cars out there that may have used these same rubber mounts for a similar or unrelated setup. So after punching the part number for the mounts into google (49733-60Y00) I came across a few cars that do in fact use these mounts and that's when I saw this on a 1990-1992 Nissan Sunny SB13 JDM model. Looks pretty close to the 300zx Illustration of the cooler don't you think? So I put the Nissan Sunny Power Steering Cooler Part Number (49721-60Y00) into google and that's when i saw this photo from a Nissan wreckers in Europe going for only €8 ($15 AUD) lol. Needless to say I was very excited at this point in time but I didn't even know if this Nissan Autoparts store even had one of these coolers in stock and not to mention would they be able to ship it from where ever they were in Europe to me here in Australia. So I emailed them with those specific questions and the next day I got a response and that response was Yes to both. I couldn't help myself and I blindly purchased the item from the store and in total I paid $76 AUD including taxes and freight which is way cheaper then the $400+ I paid for the 300ZX cooler back in 2022. A day or so later I got an email from them, which I had to google translate saying that the part had been shipped off to me but I had no tracking number and no ETA given, so at this point I was just hoping I didn't just get scammed and hopefully the part will actually turn up in about a month or so. But I didn't need to wait too long as a packaged arrived to me several weeks after the email and when I saw the cooler in such a good condition I knew I had found the golden egg I was looking for to complete this mini power steering cooler project.
The pwr steering cooler is interesting. My 2001 KQ Laser SR also has something similar running at the front of the radiator to cool down the pwr steering fluid, I guess the engineers must have thought that this must make some sort of a difference. When I saw it, I was like 'you have got to be kiddin me' LOL. But I have to say the steering remains sharp regardless of how hard the car is pushed. Also using Full Synth ATF for both Z and Laser.
It might have just been Nissan cover their bases for the euro market so that the power steering fluid wouldn't boil while drivers where on the autobarn. Even though I know it's not a system that needs additional cooling here in Australian's hotter climate but it just another optional rare part that I can install onto my JDM z making it that more different and special compared to the rest.
It adds another layer of complexity to the system though. Also, thank you for the light bulb info LED FRONT INDICATOR GLOBE UPGRADES (NARVA P/N: 18272BL)
Surprisingly to add the cooler into my z isn't that hard all I need to do is slice it in-between the hard-line that runs along the front cross member but in order to achieve that I need to swap that na hard-line to a twin turbo version (which I have) and then install it and cut the section out and mount the cooler into place and connect the hoses from the cooler to the hard-line. That's the complex part of the mod which I will have to deal with in the future. My pleasure mate, I don't want to keep all of this information and knowledge I have amassed over the last 18 years or so to myself and I hope to provide as much information as I can on every single part I have purchased and installed on my z in the future. All in an effort to help other 300zx owners as time goes on.
So another month has gone by and I am happy to report that i have been able been making a heap of progress on finishing off as many of the remaining sections I need to complete to be able to be put back together again. First I completed my work on the air filter system making sure I have every part needed to install that system back on the car. Next was finishing off the washer reservoir system and upgrading the rubber hosing while I was at. And to finish off this months blog I had to find some missing components for my new fog light assemblies which I also made some LED upgrades to which I am really excited to see all lite up once the car is back together. Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@adamzx Instagram: instagram.com/adamzx_z32
AIR CLEANER SYTSTEM JULY UPDATE Starting off this months updates is the air filter housing and the air ducting system which I am happy to report is now all accounted for and ready to be assembled back onto the car. New reusable air panel filters, a brand new mass air flow sensor and new hose clamps were all part of the new upgrades I have made to the OEM air filter system which I have been wanting to get finished and installed on the car for almost a year now. K&N PANEL AIR FILTER INSTALLATION (K&N P/N: 33-2036) As I'm reverting back to a factory style air filter housing setup, I also wanted to upgrade as much as possible the OEM paper air filters while I was at it. So a pair of K&N panel filters were purchased and installed into the air filter housing. AIR FILTER HOUSING ASSEMBLY (NISSAN P/N: 16500-40P00) With the new air filters in place, I slotted the new later model top cover of the air filter housing into position and then bolted it down to seal the housing back together. MASS AIR FLOW SENSOR INSTALLATION (NISSAN P/N: 22680-30P00) To finish off the assembly process I installed the brand new none branded mass air flow sensor, which I picked up off of eBay. I am hoping this new MAF sensor which is not a OEM sensor, will perform just as well as a OEM sensor would but if I do find any issues with this new sensor while installed, I will swap it out for my repaired OEM MAF sensor which I will be keeping as a backup just incase. All that is left to do now is to checked over the rest of the piping setup for the air filter system. All of the plastic and rubber hoses where thoroughly cleaned and coated to protect them from the elements. On top of the newly restored hoses, I also replaced as many of the old OEM double ring hose clamps with new Tridon stainless steel hose clamps which have a smoove band design to prevent marking or damaging the hoses in the future. With all of that said and done this section is officially ready to be installed back onto the car.
FOG LIGHTS JULY UPDATE Next we have an update on what is going on with my new replacement set of fog light assemblies which will involve me having to assemble both of the fog lights assemblies from scratch myself as I made the mistake of purchasing each halve of the fog light assemblies separately. I will also have to find additional parts I am missing for the fog lights out of the remains of my original and used set of old fog light assemblies. FOG LIGHT PARTS HUNTING (NISSAN P/N: 26320-30P00 & 26391-30P00) Even though I had purchased both of the 2 front lens and the 2 rear housings for each fog light assemblies, I was still missing a pair of special rubber seals that goes between each halve of the fog lights as well as several mounting fasteners which I need to be able to mount the 2 halves of the assemblies together. Unfortunately from my research the special rubber seals I desperately needed appear to be discontinued from Nissan and the only option I have left is to try and find a pair of them out of what is left of the 3 spare used fog lights I have collected over the years. So I began by dismantling what was left of my accident damaged fog light assembles and as you can see there wasn't much of the assemblies left to really do anything with them. I then turned my attention to pulling apart the 2 spare used USDM fog light assemblies I received as bonus parts from my purchase of the USDM reo bar back in 2021 and even though both of those fog lights were damaged and unusable from a practical standpoint, they were perfect for helping me find what I was looking for. Even my original fog light assembly from when I brought my Z back in 2006 was able to provide me with a spare H3 globe to add to the kitty of parts I was able to collect during the dismantling process. All In all I was able to find 3 usable rubber seals (one had a tear in it though) and more then enough mounting fasteners as well as 2 undamaged H3 globes meaning I could continue with the assembly process if I wanted to. Unfortunately before I went any further with the assembly process, I decided to look into upgrading the fog light globes with LED versions as I am always interested in upgrading the lighting on my car when ever I can and after some quick researching online, I have decided to go ahead with my planned LED upgrades for the fog light assemblies and I'll talk more about that next month.
