OK folks, I know I haven't contributed to the forum for quite a while. Its tough when your car is missing for 9 months!

This one is exclusive to us very select group of Series 1 owners, sorry.

As part of my resto effort, replacement of the badly faded hatch grills was certainly called for. Even more important, removing the old ones from the car prior to painting broke the plastic mounting pins so they were toast anyway.

Here are the steps I went thru to install the new grills.

This is the set of parts involved with the grills. Note the very small barrel clips at the ends of the old grill. These clips are used all over the car to attach the various emblems. When the plastic posts broke during grill removal, I located the 4 broken posts and retrieved the barrel clips for future use.



Here are the badly deteriorated gaskets/seals between the underside of the hatch and the plastic rain water collector. They had a thin hard plastic base and a thin layer of open cell foam to seal against the hatch. I did not expect to find 40-year old NOS seals with viable foam so I set out to fab my own replacement seals.



I had some packing material of 3/16 closed cell polyethylene foam to try as a gasket. I marked out the perimeter of the seal area.You can only gasket around the large opening. The smaller opening is the inlet for the cabin flow-thru air.



I glued the cutout to the large opening with contact cement.



When everything was set-up, I cut out the opening and mounting holes.



Here are the old and new grills. Note the 2006 mfg date on the box.



After positioning the collector and small drain tube inside the hatch, secure the collector to the hatch with the C-clips. Here is the C-clip installed on the hatch with the barrel clip inserted. I cleaned these small parts with degreaser then neutralized the rust with Metal Ready. I just did not paint them (This budding garage queen won't see much water!).



After getting all 4 C-clips and barrel clips set-up, simply press the new grills into place.



This is a pretty easy project with a very nice visual reward.

Jim

_________________
Jim Arnett
Richardson, Texas
HLS30-15320 12/1970 (original owner)
ZCON 2015 Gold Cup - Street Modified class

Very nice Jim!

I did very much the same procedure with my restoration, specifically with new gasket material for the plenums.

I did not re-use the C clips that held the grills in place, instead I used press on spring clips from the underneath as I didn't want to harm the paint on the hatch.

The grills and plenums were the early attempt at the Z's "flow through ventilation". While they did work, it was discovered that at speed a negative pressure "bubble" formed at the rear of the car which forced exhaust fumes BACK into the car! That is why starting with the series two cars the flow through vents were relocated to the C pillar.

_________________
John Taddonio
1970 240Z
1977 530Z
1984 300ZXT
zcarnut@hotmail.com
FB: Zccr zcarclubofrochester

Wow good job for Thread Starter, This is can help me to solve my problem, thanks