240z.drago.com.au - Adventures of rebuilding a 1973 Datsun 240Z

We continued work on the tunnel insulation today, cutting the rear section out of a new roll of the double-fluff-with-bitumen insulation. To stick it onto the tunnel, we used spray on contact adhesive. The glue sprayed on quite easily and once it went tacky, we placed and thumped the insulation into place. After a fare bit of thumping to make sure that it was nice and flat, the insulation was stuck down nice and firm.

We then moved onto installing the vinyls. We started with the roof lining. Once again we used spray contact adhesive, but this time one that is designed for high temperature conditions. We marked the center of the vinyl with masking tape to make lining it up in the car easier. We made sure that the center was lined up right and pressed it to the roof. From there, we worked our way to the driver side and then the passenger side, making sure that there were no ripples. The last step was to tuck it in around the header and and side pillars.

With the roof lining in, the next step for the day was the header trim. For this, we had to first adhere the sponge and then the vinyl. The kit that I had bought needed these pieces to be trimmed to size. Luckily, the vinyl does not need to be glued all over, but installation was still quite tricky. The vinyl is held in place with a plastic molding. But, and here is the tricky part, the molding is hidden by the vinyl. To do this, the vinyl needs to have a double fold. It took us a while to get it right, but in the end it didn’t come up too bad for a couple of amateurs. There are a couple of ripples, but nothing too drastic. We then used contact glue to glue the vinyl to the seam that the windscreen rubber is installed on.

The last vinyl that we installed today was the A-pillar and side trim. Installation of this vinyl was very similar to the header, except that there is a part of it that needs to be folded as it goes over the header trim. With the plastic molding in place, we glued the vinyl in place along the A-pillar. The only thing left to do with this vinyl is to glue it along the door jamb, but this will require loosening off the rear quarter window, so we left it for another day.

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