240Z: OEM Airbox Restauration Pt. 1

After the successful restauration of the dome light, i thought i need another project. I opened a random storage bn and the first thing that fell into my hands was the Airbox.
I’m not even sure if i’m going to use the OEM airbox on the finished car. but i thought it’s going to be a fun project anyway. This is how it started:

Afte disassembling it, i quickly went through my various parts collection boxes and found a NOS filter (still in box) and a NOS rubber seal for the airbox.

The original SU / Hitachi Carb insulators were quite brittly and disappeared once you touched them:

At first glance i thought it was just dirty, so i gave it a quick wash.  Then i quickly realized that there are many black dots on the “snorkel” that are baked in. Not sure if this is tar from the road, oil stains or some attemt of a “on-the-car” spray paint job. I also ralized that there are some corroded areas, but nothing that can’t be fixed.

While it was drying, i went through my collection of re-plated fasteners and found some of the fasteners in a nicer, shinier version. It’s damn handy to have boxes full of Z-bolts which have been replated.

Aside from the corrosion, there was a damage to the snorkel. Not sure when or how that happened. but aside from looking ugly, it also didn’t allow the flap to close completely or evenly.

So i used my very limited metal hammering skills to get it straight again. Not this is a mid-process photo, that dent on the bottom right side got corrected later too.

Now the flaps closes nicely again (tent still not fixed).

After realizing that the rubbers are all toast, and the housing needs a repaint / powdercoat anyway, i decided to remove everything and then get some replacement.

This is it for part one. More updates will follow. meanwhile i wait for the delivery of some parts Since i need to take it to the paintshop, i will probably postpone the rest of the project a bit until it fits the timeline with other parts that need to be painted.