Got a call yesterday from Just Dashes in Van Nuys, California informing me the refurbished dash for my gold 75 280Z is ready!

It's been a very long road to get the dash refurbished. The dash on the 75 280Z suffered from more than the usual cracks, since the car was literally stored outdoors for several years without a windshield, (incredible!) although they said it was "covered." By the time I bought the car in 2015 near Austin Tx, the cover was gone, and the dash was in pretty bad shape. As I refurbished the car in 2019 and 2020, I looked at various options to fix the dash, including doing it myself, but decided I did not have the skill or the tools to give it a proper finish, so I just covered it with a half cover that mostly hid the sins, while I continued to figure out how to get it done right. There were still some minor electrical issues, and the trip odometer is frozen, probably from the water it was exposed to, but I postponed addressing these until I got my dash refurbishment plan in place.

At the Thompson Speedway outing, last year, I finally got over the hump to get it done (“it’s not going to get any cheaper!”), and although the Just Dash option was costly, it seemed to me the best option, from a quality and security point of view. In June, I shipped them one of my "spare" dashes from a 77 280Z that I had parted out a while back that was not nearly as bad, just the usual cracks, since the restoration price depends on the condition of the part. I then waited. In September they finally got to it, and billed me just under $2K, not including shipping (that was $203 more). I paid and then it was “scheduled” for production. In November I called them, “when is it going to be ready?” – “oh, it’s scheduled for production in January.”

Great! Hurry up and wait. Finally got the call yesterday, and I then emailed them a UPS shipping label. In the next few weeks, I will start removing the original dash in the Gold 280. I have a replacement wiring harness that I will also install during the installation of the “new” one! It’s one of the “last” things needed for the Gold 280 refurbishment, but as we all know, they are never really done!

Juan
1975 Gold 280Z
1972 White 240Z
1978 Blue 280Z
1973 Color to be determined later 240Z
1983 Red 280ZX

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Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Wow, they do very nice work! And I'm surpriZed at their price; I had heard they were more costly than that.

Looking at that 3d photo, I'm wondering why you wouldn't just spray a little ArmorAll sealer on that and polish it yrslf? It looks like it should just buff right out! Texas sun is a cruel devil.

What were they able to do about your VIN number? Did it matter to you to make it match the rest of the car?

Frank T

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1970 240Z

Hello Frank,

Oh yes it matters to me!

I removed the VIN number plate before I shipped them the 77 280Z spare dash. The VIN number plate is actually riveted to the dash and it's still there in the original dash in my car. I will simply drill the rivets out and then rivet the VIN plate to the refurbished dash when I install it. I will also probably paint the VIN plate black to make it look a bit more like its original condition.

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Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Vinny did a great job on mine when he replaced my dash. It had been barely readable but he buffed it out and everything came back, including the white "HLS30-".

It can be done.

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1970 240Z

Just dashes is the way to go on these I think. They vacuum form the material over the dash when they redo them, which is the way they were originally done. You get a proper looking finish that way, and honestly I think the price was fair too. It makes a huge difference on the result.

Beautiful dash from what I see in the first photo, would love to see the rest of the car!

Jay

The refurbished dash finally arrived 2 weeks ago, looks great. A week and a half ago I then pulled the old dash, and put the replacement wiring harness on the new dash. I had to stop and temporarily store the dash in the back since I'm in travel now.

One interesting thing I found when I pulled the old dash is that a previous owner had soldered a 12 gage wire direct to the battery (with no fuse!) to either the red-white headlight power source or the red-white ignition switch power source - I didn't take the time to unwrap the harness completely, but the replacement wiring harness did not have this extra wire. I wonder if anybody has seen this before.

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Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Maybe a previous owner had installed a CB radio, auxiliary speakers in the rear deck, a tow hitch, a security system, or something like that? Just a guess.
The Z electrical systems didn't easily lend themselves to additional loads. Owners had to become "creative".

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1970 240Z

I had a 1984 VW Rabbit when I was a teenager that had a similar sketchy wire. It has been placed there I believe to supply power for several circuits after the original radio had been stolen (previous owner told me about the radio theft). Well after a period of time my dash wiring caught on fire but fortunately put itself out without burning up the rest of the car. It happened on a desolate road about 10 pm, dark and no streetlights. Somehow the headlights worked when nothing else electric did. The interior was very dark on that ride home and smelled like hot plastic.

A friend and I dismantled the dash and ended up cutting a large melted clump of wire harness out of there, and when we examined we saw the 12v feeder wire that had been added and spliced to, to supply about 8 different circuits. I had no money but I had one roll of electrical tape and most of a spool of yellow remote wire, might have been 12 gauge. Over the course of the next three afternoons we reran each circuit from the fuse box, no schematic mind you (not that either of us could have interpreted one anyway) and managed to get every circuit to work again, even the trio of gauges by the shifter which hadn't ever worked. Never had another electrical issue for the next two and a half years I drove it but man, the harness was scary looking. All yellow wires and NO labels haha.

Anyway, I suspect that wire in your harness may have been a poor attempt at restoring power to a circuit that wasn't working. I'd also venture a guess that the hot wire may not have needed replacement, but a close inspection of the components (switches, etc) and the connections instead as usually the problems come from those. Judging by your discovery of a hot wire run directly off the battery with no fuse inline, that generally indicates that the installer had no real experience with this type of work - and likely also lacked the ability to trouble shoot malfunctioning electrical circuits.

That's my gut feeling anyway.

Jay

Thanks, Jay. I will replace the dash without this extra cable and take it from there. One more thing to bring this baby closer to its original condition.

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Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Hello Everyone,

Just to update the dash saga and the mystery wire - problem solved!

As reported in the Grossman Nissan Meeting, the dash replacement went without a hitch, until I tried to start the car. The starter solenoid made clicking noises as if the battery was dead, but it was not, it was fully charged. It would only start occasionally. It had low voltage at the starter solenoid, and I checked out completely the starter circuit from the ignition switch, replaced fuses, checked and even bypassed the interlock relay, still bad. Out of desperation I re-installed the mystery wire from the battery plus to the ignition switch white/red wire - then it started just fine.

I do not want to leave it that way, I want it back to stock. So back to the troubleshooting. Going backwards from the ignition switch white/red, the power comes from the fuse link box and the shunt in the engine compartment. I had seen the word "shunt" in the wiring diagram but I did not know what it was or what it did.

Google to the rescue: The shunt is a calibrated resistor that is always in the circuit. The "Ammeter" is actually a very sensitive voltmeter that is constantly measuring the voltage across the "shunt".

On the early cars 70 - 73 the shunt is actually mounted on the back of the ammeter. On the later 260Z and 280Z it is mounted in the engine compartment under the fuse link box. The higher output alternators on the later cars made mounting the shunt in the dash a fire hazard. The later 77 and 78 280Z deleted the shunt as they went with a voltmeter, not an ammeter.

So I got ready to replace the shunt just to see if that was the culprit. I happened to have a replacement shunt in my basement, checked it, cleaned it but before I installed it, just for yucks I decided to clean the connectors in the fuse link box. Guess what - that did it. The car starts just fine now without the extra wire. Just goes to show you the simplest solution is often the one!

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Juan Marcos - 2023 CTZCC President
Gold 75 280Z
White 72 240Z
Blue 78 280Z
TBD 73 240Z
Red 83 280ZX

Great troubleshooting effort on your part Juan! Great job explaining your steps to solve the issue along with the pictures that you provided.

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner

Good work using process of elimination and substitution.
Q: Does your starter have a fusible link?

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1970 240Z

Nice troubleshooting Juan, I'm glad you got that all sorted out. Interesting part about the shunt, didn't know that was the way the ammeter got it's info. Cool.

Thanks for the update.

Jay