Shan's 1976 2+2 Project...

[Shan]

I have had the car for the better part of 12mnths now - so thought I should start contributing to a journal!
Thought it might help others going down the same path, as well as be a record for my own benefit.

She's still a work in progress, but this is how it looked when I bought her....

Interior, exterior and engine...

Car was in very good condition and had apparently been in the same family for 20years.   There were receipts for body work and various maintenance tasks, although I suspect in more recent years had been somewhat neglected.
She was by no means perfect, but it was a very driveable.

What I disliked the most was the original colour choices - gold and brown interior - yummp. 
Still - I was happy with what I got.

[620Z]

Looks pretty clean and straight.
What you need to do is decide what colour you want the car to be. Then you can work on the interior and carpet to make sure you don't do things twice.   

[Shan]

Yeah - she was straight and clean.   Like you say - put some thought into what changes I wanted to make.
Well and truly down that path....

First thing I needed to do was alter the interior.   I knew I was eventually going to replace the brown poo with whatever original black trim I could find.  My interior trim was in excellent condition, so figured it would take me a while to find suitable replacements in black that were in a similar condition.

So while the search was carried out for original black trim, I started doing some research on vinyl/plastic paint.  I was sceptical about the results, but saw no harm in giving it a crack.

After lot's of forum trawling over the globe, decided to settle on a brand called SEM Colour Coat.   Also purchased their preparation cleaner.  Might have been unecessary to get the cleaner (forums had varied views), but I wanted to make sure this paint bonded as tight as possible.   

I washed all the interior items TWICE over - (wash/dry, wash/dry) and scrubbed lightly with a scourer and then cleaned with SEM prep cleaner to ensure all old contaminants were removed.

I then used my Supercrap Auto cheap ass compressor and paint gun to apply it.

Hmm...I thought I had more before and after photo's....will try to get more up here when I find them...
This should give you an idea of result though:

[620Z]

Yeah they look alright Shan. That's all you need to do for some of those parts. Once back in the car they won't be touched to the paint won't come of or anything. Should be OK.

[Shan]

FYI - SEM Vinyl paint results were surprising.

Seems to bond quite well to the vinyl pieces.   So - all the "soft vinyl" items appear excellent, with a quality bond.

The product is also supposed to adhere to hard plastics, but I am a little suspicious of how "robust" it will be over time.
I think any decent knock or scrape on the plastic will quickly remove the black paint.   I am not given the same impression with the soft vinyl items like shock tower covers etc (maybe they are more pourous?).

Once I have some real life results on how these wear - I will update the journal and review accordingly.

[Shan]

I just realised I was VERY lazy in taking photo's.  Thought I had been on top of that.....oops.

No photo to show, but in removing the above painted items, I had continued to pretty much strip the inside of the car.  All trim aside from roof and dash were pulled out.  I wanted to focus on the floors.  Fortunately my floors were undamaged aside from some surface rust here and there.   

What I noticed was surface rust mostly occurred where the rubber plugs (bungs) appear in the floor.   As the car ages the rubber hardens on these plugs and I am assuming some water slowly creeps in through the bad seal.  It's really the only place water can get in on the floorpan.

Problem I found is the water got through these plugs and then appeared to be slowly creeping under the tar based sound deadener that is all over the floor of the car.  Visually everthing looked perfect, but once I started to pick away at some of the deadener (mostly near the floor plugs), there was some significant surface rust starting "under" the sound deadener itself where the water had been trapped.  I was suprised by how far under the deadener the water had managed to migrate.

I decided to remove this sound deadener from around all the rubber plugs on the floor of the car. I peeled, prised and chiseled the stuff off wherever it rested near the floor plugs.   I did not remove "all" the sound deadener though, I only removed it where I saw the possibility of moisture getting in and being captured underneath.
I left the majority of it on the car.   

I read forums and I know some people remove it all, but I thought the stuff seemed to have been applied VERY effectively at the factory.  I also suspect it actually PREVENTED rust from starting on some of those failed plugs and only started capturing moisture in areas due being subjected to water for the last 7 years or so (at a guess).

So - I removed the deadener only where I saw potential for it to trap moisture.  Left the rest.

I used some silicon and put the old floor plugs back in, I treated the areas where I found rust with a neutraliser and I then proceeded to get the entire vehicle floor as clean as possible. 

I grabbed a hard scrubbing brush, some boiling hot water, and proceed to scrub the entire floor of the car.   Scrub/dry, scrub/dry.  Anything that would not scrub off I picked off with my nails.  I also went over it with wax and grease remover - so I got the floor as clean as humanly possible to make ready for aftermarket sound deadener. 

[benny]

hey shan,

when i did my floors i took off all the deadening then por-15. After that i purchased new rubber grommets/blanks for the floor from clark rubber (weren't very expensive and its my guess that rubber has improved over the decade so shouldn't go as brittle as the last ones!! I also got 10mm foam/rubber with a sticky back on 1 side and a foil on the other side from clark for fairly cheap also!

[Shan]

Hi benny,

Thanks for the tip.  Had no idea you could get the grommets from clark rubber!   Will have a looksy when I get a chance - pull up my carpets and replace the old one's.
Hmmm...seems a lot of people pulled up the existing sound deadener like you have.   
I am confident that water has had no way to get under the remaining deadener in my car.   Aside from the points I mention - my floor was pretty clean.

I also thought that the "more" deadener there was on the car - the better (aside from weight issues). 

After reading about many different type of deadeners/sound proofing, I already decided to go with Dynamat.   I heard other stuff was cheaper, but was harder to apply, had weaker adhesive qualities and was generally considered to be less effective.  Dynamat is NOT cheap though, but I figured if was going to do it, might as well use what seemed to be widely regarded as the best.

It is VERY sticky though!  Applied easily (even over the top of old deadener) and rolled on nice, but I hope to god that I do not have to pull it all up again.....could get VERY interesting.

Anyway, currently have this Dynamat on all my floors and doors. 

Also added it to the back of some of the rear plastic trim.  I found this had the benefit of adding strength to what had become fragile and brittle plastic.  Like re-inforcing it.  Plastic rear quarters in particular benefited and were much stronger when I stuck this to the back.   
So if any of you guys are concerned about the structural quality of your old plastics, add some adhesive soundproofing to the back.  Makes it feel a LOT more solid.

[benny]

yep dynamat is the bomb, would of got that if i could of afforded it!! I found that i had a bit of surface rust forming in between the seams under the deadening so i took the whole lot off!!

[Shan]

Hmmmm....
Between the seams? 

Anywhere in particular you can point me to so I can double-check? 
If I know exactly where a common problem point is, can check it and be sure I did the right thing.

My car floors appeared really clean and mostly surface rust free, but your comment concerns me a little.

Cheers.

[benny]

Mine is a 240z so could be different. By seams i mean where the metal overlaps on the floors. On the 240 there is an overlap just under the pedals thats were majority was then there was a little just behind the seat where the floor ends!! AGain this may be different in the 2+2!!

[Shan]

Thanks for clarifying Benny.
Pretty sure I checked the areas on concern in my 2+2.  If there was a seam - I obviously did not find anything concerning. 
I reckon I would have chipped away the deadener from the seam if I suspected anything.

[Shan]

So.....

Since I had most of the interior out - I decided to pull the dash as well.

There were cracks in my dash which bothered me, so it was going to come out eventually anyway.    Took the dash to The Dash Doctor for a full reco.   Cost a fair bit of $$$, but I reckon the Zed dash is one of the main features of the car - so deserved a bit of attention.

I stripped out all the gauges and gave them a Speedhut face uplift as well.   
http://www.speedhut.com/gauge_products-gauges-ELGLO-auto-Datsun.htm
I know people have already posted about these - so won't go into too much detail.

Also took the opportunity to replace ALL the globes.   The ELGLO gauges I chose light up "blue" in colour, so I also went for a Blue globe to match that.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DATSUN-510-1200-240Z-260Z-280Z-BLUE-DASH-GAUGE-BULBS-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem483b72436dQQitemZ310234989421QQptZVintageQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
I checked into getting my own glass paint and painting my own - cheaper to get them off this guy at ebay.  Can only hope they are ok quality.

I read a bit about LED's and came to the conclusion that I did not understand anything about car electronics.   They require different level of power to run than the normal globes and I think you have to play around a little to get them running with resistors and such.   Too hard.   Added to that, LED's throw light around at different angles to a normal globe, so I read some people had dark sections on their instrumentation with LED.  Anyway - decided to leave well enough alone.
I also read somewhere that painting the back of the gauges with a fresh coat of "white" helps intensify the light.   Was a practical and simple way of reflecting the light from these globes a little more efficiently, so I painted the back of gauges (behind the face etc) with a fresh coat.

Polished the plastics with a light auto polish as well.  Got rid of all the hazing and they came up crystal clear.


 

[Shan]

One more....

[Shan]

I am still deciding what wheels and such to get.   
One day I am all for chopping the guards, getting some ZG's and going some fat 17's, then the next I am thinking I do not like ZG's and want to keep the lines if the car original.
Bit like my girlfriend trying to figure out what dress to wear 
Hmmmm....

So - to give me as much choice as possible - decided to go coilovers.   I did a heap of research on this - forum link can be found here: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,7161.0.html
In the end went Koni yellows with Otomoto HSD Sleeve kit and 5KG springs.
Although I may not be dumping my zed to ridiculously low levels - I also decided I would section my strut tubes whilst they were out of the car - giving me that "extra" bit of flexibility later.
Was all a bit of a mission to be honest.  Once you decide to section - it becomes a bit more complicated.
These are not in the car yet.  I am hoping to christ that I did everything right....

The results were as follows: