A much less rusty Z

[thriller]

Welp, first off big thankyou to Dimitri for selling it, my friend for somehow being enough of an idiot to drive with me from Adelaide, to Melbourne, pick up a car, turn around and head straight back, and everyone around Adelaide that I asked for their thoughts.

 

I will be posting detailed photos to my flickr at:

So there will be much more detail there, but too boring to post everything to the forum

 

 

Sitting with Dimitri's 240z:

 

Ready to head back:

 

Who said a 4cyl can't tow a car trailer?

 

Had a good poke around back home. Very good on all accounts, here's the worst of it:

And from the inside:

 

Doglegs have been previously repaired. Not sure how the inside of here will look. Probably worth finding out before paint gets done, just in case. Anyone have a camera that can fit in here or something?

 

A few spots like this around the place

 

And a bit of surface gunk on the rail

 

Can see a few holes appearing in the middle of the lower section, so will chop and replace that area

 

Windscreen seal area is sweet

 

Engine bay overview

 

All those surface spots have been pulled back to bare metal and just hit with some primer for now.

 

 

 

Spend a few days rebuilding and cleaning a heater box with fresh foam etc, connecting loom and sort-of organizing two Z's worth of parts in my pitifully small garden shed + under house storage.

 

Next up will be painting the engine bay, no better time than now. Bought a decent bundle from SCA when it was all 55% off, so have a bunch of gravity fed guns and an OK compressor. Will be closing off some space with plastic sheeting to wheel the Z in and paint the bay.

 

 

No over the top plans here. Just a nice new coat of paint, tidy as hell engine bay + interior, rego and enjoy the crap out of it.

[Retro Z]

Nice purchase. Much much less rust than the other Z.

 

What are you doing with your other shell now that you have this?

[Zedman240®]

Good to see you got home ok... Was sad to see it go but...oh well!

[chris240]

I almost bought this zed about 6 years ago as a 2nd zed when i 1st saw it.. cant believe how much rust it got in the last  year or so.  nevertheless it lived in a dry garage in Canberra since the late 90's where the previous owner stripped it down and stored the parts.. Did you get the original L26 and interior with it ?

Its a very straight body.

Pm me or Simon if you are interested in the cars history.

[KatoKid]

Had a good look at this at Dimitri's, a very good car.

 

Congrats.

[zzzzed]

If you work rely fast. You could put a motor in it and bring it to the all Japan day on Sunday

[thriller]

Retro Z, she'll just sit patiently for a little while longer.

 

Bit peeved I didn't get enough done this weekend as I'd have liked to, but put an okay sized dent in it all.

 

Bought a little sandblasting gun and a bag of media and got to work. Mostly used strip-it discs for the flat areas because my compressor struggled to pump out much more than 60psi consistently. So going was slow. Can't touch it again till the weekend because I stay away from home during the week to save me like 10 hours commuting to uni.

 

Uncovered two nasties, one of which needs attention with an angle grinder and new metal so a little bummed about that but it was to be expected.

 

 

Some bog was covering this, looks like it has been dormant for quite some time. Looks like surface crud that has pitted.

 

 

 

Here's the area that'll need cutting and replacing.

 

 

Need to finish stripping the rest of the rad support, a bit left on the rails, the windscreen cowl area and where the fender bolts onto (stupid nissan plugging up that single drainage hole there ... wtf). Then etch prime all that.

[Fairlady Z]

cool.

 

seems to go well post a pic of the blasting gun. Where did u get the media from and ow much? seems bit courser than mine.

[gav240z]

Nice work, overall looks like a great car. Very little rust really. Oh and those Toyota Tarago's have more torque than you would think, my mum used to have 1. Carried all kinds of car parts in the back lol, 2 motors at 1 stage.

[thriller]

Blaster is one of these bad boys

 

 

Media is pretty course. Though due to the relatively low pressure, very little heat is made so I don't think any problems with warping will happen whatsoever. Will be using strip discs carefully for big flat areas anyway since they're a lot faster/less mess. Blast just in those inaccessible areas. Got a big heavy bag of it for $40 from a blasting place about 5 mins away from my place. Go through it so damn quick though! Not much fun. Won't complain about blasting prices ever again heh.

 

 

In other news, I foolishly went on yahoo auctions today. And spotted a Compe steering wheel. The wheel with this car is kind of shagged anyway.

 

So it's either buy a mint 260z wheel for probably 100-200, or dosh out much much more for a nice piece of history. Might just put a (relatively) low bid on it since I'm not really looking for one right now... Arhhh decisions.

 

 

 

Hopefull will have cowl, engine bay, fender-top areas and rad support all covered in primer tomorrow.

[thriller]

Yeah Gav, they go well! Quite surprised. Happily sat on 100 the whole way home (we think... dash lights had gone out...)

 

 

 

Lost on the compe wheel by 500 yen, good times

 

Bought me some wattyl super etch on many recommendations and the engine bay is now etch primed.

 

 

From here, will need to cut and repair that section on lower rad support, cut and replace that part on upper rad support:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8110/8566811913_637295cde8_c.jpg

 

Also some previous repairs done to the other side of this:

 

 

Not sure how well I trust them. There are some pinholes poking through as you can see... Might be worth pulling it apart and making sure everything is sweet...?

 

 

 

Then I have one big question: Acrylic vs 2 pack?. Need to figure this out reasonably soon so I can put some primer down over the etch. I want to go with the 517 gold the car is wearing now.

 

Obvious pros with Acrylic are:

-Can spray the engine bay without needing booth

-Seems more forgiving to spray it

 

Then 2pac:

-More hard-wearing (though car is a classic so will be better looked after than your modern corolla coming off factory floor, so doesn't matter as much as with new cars).

 

Biggest issue with the 2pack is will be best off with a booth to do the engine bay, therefore may as well get the whole lot painted in one go (rather than engine bay-do interior- paint exterior which I was planning on to reduce chance of scratches & dings). But it seems more durable, and sounds like less hassle to get it looking sweet.

 

Will any one give a much better finish than the other?

 

 

Anyway plan of attack is have the bay rust repairs done, buy some paint & get it looking pretty. Fresh stone-guard paint under the fender too, any recommendations on what to use there?

[thriller]

Finally weekend again! Getting into it...

 

Noticed the underside of this had some surface rust. That coupled with the rust under the bog had me worried so I tried unpicking spot welds for the first time! First 3 or 4 were a bit of a mess and will be a pain to get back together. Most annoying thing will be that they won't look like factory spot welds better than rust though. Glad I did.

 

Most of it hasn't pitted, but will be good to clear out the surface rust before it develops into something severe.

 

 

Also did the same to the other side of previous repairs.... Wish I didn't... blehhhhh! I also was about 10cm too short, the rust extends about 5cm further than where I cut this panel off. There also appears to be very slight surface rust along the channel where water runs a bit further up.... Really don't want to pull the whole lot off. Might run some phos. acid down there or something. Or POR-15 on one of those super extended nozzles? Any ideas? Will definitely be chopping the doglegs off just to make sure there's no nasties under there in future.

 

Previous repair:

 

Spot welds undone:

 

Pulled off 

 

 

 

 

 

Also a note to any 'new guys' (newer than me) looking to buy a cheap Z with the mindset that it will need no work... Don't!  Even if you can't see rust, it's almost definitely still there. Get full photo documentation of any repairs & take along a fridge magnet to look out for bog etc. Take off the fenders, windscreen cowl and everything too if the seller will let you.

 

This is probably the cleanest Z I've ever looked at (for sale), and as you can see still needs a bit of body work here and there. (not having a dig at any of the previous owners, if I'd known it was there I'd still have bought it!)

 

 

 

 

p.s.

Want to get some hi fill primer on the engine bay before the weekend is over, so I have to decide on paint to use. Leaning toward 2pk after reading more about it. Brands? shops etc to buy primers??

[Fairlady Z]

Ryan i buy my stuff from crashsupplies george st stepney i think. Orob bit far from you. ask Paul he will have a better idea near you guys.

 

Regarding that rust under spot welds. 99.99% of monocoque bodies out there even new car will have that. The cars are welded prior priming.

 

I Guarantee you u unspot any section it be the same.its due to welding process. Only way to avoid is to glue it lol.

 

Porsche and german up-market (bmw,merc etc)  cars put special glues or some sort of guey stuff between panels prior to welding. Its conductive so it still welds through and seals it so moisture cannot get in.

 

If even wondered why these cars cost so much this is one reason.

I have never came accros jap or any other manufacturer do this besides BMW,mercedes and i got a porsche manufacturing dvd that they use glue to increase strength of the chasis and to reduce corrosion where welding happens. Its not just a pretty body with powerful engine and big brakes that demands cost body manufacturing is lot more stringent and higher quality.

 

Stupid fords and holdens these days dont boter even sealing the folded joins on the panels. They be rusting like crazy in few years. Cost cutting. At least jap cars still do that.

 

So dont get too concerned over that otherwise start unpicking the entire car and use the german process to re-build it. You be around 50y old but time you restore your z and say 100% rust free and will never rust again.

 

Though saying that ill be using similar guey conductive thing on my rails and under car and wherever ill be replacing panels.  I noticed on s15 around rear wheel arch they used some sort of rubberised sealer And still welded through. So they do it but not entire car just on strategic locations.

[Ledge]

Hi Ryan

There is a weld through primer you can get but where the actual weld happens it

still burns it off.

That's why these day we Seem seal up all that stuff after. it slows the process down.

 

Not sure if i will get there today mate, With Nationals next week and Mt Alma the week after

I'm doing allot of car prep at the moment.

May see you after lunch

 

Cheers Mate

[thriller]

Hey Paul no dramas at all, mainly wanted to double check stuff for next weekend. Will give you a ring this evening then

 

 

I live tues through friday down in magill, so george st is easy, will get onto that this coming week.

 

Won't get too carried away unpicking more stuff, just if there's any evidence of pinholes coming from the other side would be safest to double check. Glue sounds cool! Typical of the Germans to do something like that hah

[thriller]

Well took a break over easter to head to P.I. Cool stuff. Back into it this weekend, aim of the game is to have a fair chunk of the car stripped, etched and primed. then soon I'll get some color made up, have a few test runs on some old panels and have a go in the engine bay.

 

Need to give a few spots a bit of a zing with the sandblaster before I can prime them though, haven't come across anything else that needs replacement yet which is good. Just veyr light pitting. Most of the car seems to be 2mm deep under bog, which is...weird. And very messy. Haven't come across any evidence of crazy hailstorm style dents yet. Just a few here and there that i'll deal with later.

 

 

As you can see there's a fair few little dents around roughly the 2 oclock position of the wheel arch

 

[CroS13]

Hey nice to see these cars build up from scratch! And i like the S13 in the background, whats that got in it?

 

Are they work equip 03's on the front? me likey 

 

Rudolf.

[thriller]

It's so nice working on one that's a clean shell to start with.

 

The 'late model 180b' is a N/A SR model, my first car. Converted from auto to manual, then like all p-platers with s13's I got bitten by a certain bug.

 

Next thing you know it and it has tein coilies, 32 GTR rear swaybar, 32 front brakes with 4stud slotted rotors, cusco caster arms, KAAZ 2-way. Inside has 32R passenger seat, replica bride bucket, nardi 330mm classic. Probably a fair few other little things too.

 

It's really pissing me off at the moment though, muffler is shot so sounds like a riced out lancer (typical sr20 right), doesn't like starting cold and have had a few 'incidents' with static objects so need's a bit of panel love too. Don't have the time to even think about it until this Z is out of the way though.

 

 

On the front of the Z is 14" Hayashi Techno TRV, and I'll have some 14x8 -12 SSR MK2 for the rear with way-too-narrow tires on them which I imported (excuse my one cardinal sin guys!). Not sure if I'll like them in the end, but we'll wait and see.

[Zedman240®]

Good to see you haven't found any nasty things under the paint... hope that's the worst of it.

Oh, found the quarter windows and other bits and pieces for you.

[Scoota G]

Goodness me that's a nice shell.

[THOMA]

Very nice. Posting for updates.

[thriller]

Spent the morning kneeling on the floor smacking the shit out of a little piece of metal with a hammer hahha. Didn't turn out too badly...

 

 

Still need to weld the nuts on and then we're good to go.

Fit is not 100% perfect so need to spend a little bit of time until I'm really happy with it.

 

Really need to invest in a dolly, sandbag and a nice hammer... One day!

 

Also any word on treatment of the inside of panels before welding them on?

 

[zzzzed]

Nice work mate. If you keep that up, you will have an awesome zed

[PB260Z]

Well done,

Full marks for having a go yourself. Before you know it you will be making all sorts of bits.

[benny]

i know scoota uses a copper weld through primer for the underside of stuff.... maybe send him a PM