Safari Brown... I mean Gold - The NSW Project

[gav240z]

So actual updates on the car, I've started to pull apart the SUs and intake manifold. I originally planned to leave 1 carb alone as a guide/template for putting the other back together, but then I realised that's 2 lots of vapour blasting, 2 lots of yellow passivate plating and 2 trips to each location and back and it was all just getting too hard in my mind.

 

So I decided to bag it all up, take photos of everything and I can hopefully put it all back together again later. Worst case scenario I have the set off my 72 240z now that I put the 44's on it and I can use those as a reference point.

 

Small clips and springs are my biggest concern getting re-plated, so I've tried to disassemble as much as I can but left stuff that looks like it will go missing or get lost.

 

By the way is there anyway to remove the old needles without destroying them? I think carbon deposits means they get super stuck and won't budge.. I've got replacement SM size needles anyway, but maybe there is a trick to removing them without damage?

 

I can't recall if George said you need to spend a lot of time degreasing this mess for best results or not? (Will look in his build thread).

 

Be aware the Z-Therapy rebuild kit, really consists of a fuel hose, clamps, gaskets, needles and nozzles. Other items that would be useful but are missing are:

 

1. The fuel filters that slip over the intake for the fuel bowl fastener. (as you can see mine were filthy!)

2. No rubber isolators etc.. so you'll have to reuse these (for mount of fuel bowl to carb). So be careful removing them.

3. No crush washers - so I'll have to source new ones somewhere (maybe carby specialist?)

4. No floats! Not sure if I'll source new ones, mine seem ok but not sure how old they are?

 

I could not remove the studs from the inlet manifolds (at least not without damaging them with vice grips - even with a rag over the top) and the water inlets are rusted. Lachlan has said to drop them in with him. I guess he will heat them up to extract them?

 

The whole lot with get vapour blasted for that beautiful finish, the fasteners will all be gold passivate plated for OEM look and I'll probably polish up the SU domes to a mirror like finish (not strictly OEM - but I like the look).

 

This I can imagine is all very labour intensive if you paid someone to do it, by doing the majority of the work myself I'm hoping to save a bit of cash, but I think most people who rebuild these don't completely dismantle them like this. (and I can kind of see why)..

[George]

 

I can't recall if George said you need to spend a lot of time degreasing this mess for best results or not? (Will look in his build thread).

 

 

Depends on who you use and how much grease you're talking about. All of the pictured stuff is good to go to the plater in my opinion. I wouldn't waste my time.

 

I did spend a bit of time cleaning the suspension components because they had really caked on thick grease. Any time I spent there was time I didn't have to pay for someone else to do it.

 

With the stuff you've got there it'll just be an acid bath to strip and clean and then plate.

 

Re small parts, it is a bit of a gamble but as long as they wire them up properly they won't loose anything. I've had tiny stuff plated (m2 washers etc) and oddly the only thing that has been lost is one of the window washer spray nozzles.

[gav240z]

Thanks George did you wire everything up or let the platers do it? I guess the things to worry about are bolts that don't have any natural closed circular area for a wire to go through and hold in place.

 

There is quite a bit of grease on the linkage arm that connects to the manifold for the carb drop links. I was going to maybe clean that up as best as possible. I've already degreased a bunch of stuff, but it's amazing how much crap I still got on my hands even after dousing the lot in carbie cleaner a few times. I find that it helps lift the grease for a while, but if you don't remove it right away it sort of sits back down again and as you disassemble there is grease lodged into every corner of a part - undisturbed for some 40 years.

 

Also if I recall it's ok to leave rubber parts and plastic parts during the plating process (as in the process doesn't harm those) is that right? I've removed them anyway in this instance, but good to know for the future - however some cannot be removed like the bell ends (hehe - don't know their correct term)) on the linkages.*

 

They should have made all plastics on a Z out of those accelerator pivot plastics, they seem to never break or get old and crumble.. Maybe it's bakerlite? 

[George]

The platers do their own wiring.

 

Bolts are easy to wire as they have teeth the wire can be wound around. Anything smooth and straight-ish with no holes etc is at risk. Think pins, straight rods etc. I guess this is why they lost my window washer nozzle. It wasn't exactly straight but the surface is smooth so it must have slipped off in one of the baths. This can be avoided by good wiring though.

 

I left some of those ball ends and they were not damaged. The acid isn't too kind to 40 year old rubber but it seems to survive as well. If you can remove it without damaging, do so.

[1600dave]

 

By the way is there anyway to remove the old needles without destroying them? I think carbon deposits means they get super stuck and won't budge.. I've got replacement SM size needles anyway, but maybe there is a trick to removing them without damage?

.

.

.

.

 

I could not remove the studs from the inlet manifolds (at least not without damaging them with vice grips -

 

For stuck / gummed up carb parts, carb cleaner is made for the job. Acetone or wax & grease remover seem to work just as well and are much cheaper. Fill a suitable sized container, let the gummed up bits sit in it for a while, then attack them.

 

 

Vice grips on studs - >

 

Grab two nuts of the appropriate size, screw them on, get two spanners and tighten the nuts against each other. Then move spanner to the "inboard" nut and use it to wind the stud out

Edited May 22, 2018 by 1600dave

[gav240z]

Don't worry vice grip was on non threaded part of the stud. Not that silly. ?

 

Thanks for suggestion on SU needles. I hate breaking stuff when it isn't necessary.

[gav240z]

Kats just shared a nice brochure here (of a Safari Gold 240z).

 

Images rotated.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBaHBx5vqmxWHwZg2

Perfect!

[gav240z]

Vapour blasted SU's and Mikuni's...

[Brabham]

Looks good,  who did you get to do the blasting Gav? How does vapor blasting work, is it just steam or do they use an abrasive? 

Edited July 6, 2018 by Brabham

[gav240z]

I'm not 100% sure on media. Might be glass, I got @Lurch to use his guy. Apparently he is the best. Others don't get the same finish.

I was happy with the E31 head and valve/timing covers he did.

I was going to use a mob in Sydney but decided why risk it? And went with someone who I knew did good work. I also had the intake manifold done and my Nissan 2400 OHC cover.

The fasteners are also getting replated for the SUs.

[Cozza]

They look great Gav.

They’ll look even better assembled and on a car.

any idea of how they would look if the surface was pitted from corrosion prior to the process?

[gav240z]

1 hour ago, Cozza said:

They look great Gav.

They’ll look even better assembled and on a car.

any idea of how they would look if the surface was pitted from corrosion prior to the process?

Still pitted, my timing cover was done and where the water pump goes there is slight corrosion and it's still there after the process, it just looks nicer :).

The only way to remove it would be possibly tig weld, then sand down and then blast?

Attached is an example of 1 of the 44 bodies I had blasted.

This was a rough body I got cheap (incomplete) as a bit of an orphan carb. The damage is on the velocity stack side so not going to be a problem with sealing against a manifold. So it should be ok, but you can also see some light surface issues on the carb body outside of that. These imperfections or deep scratches etc.. still show up. The process is quite gentle on the alloy itself, but scrubs away all the crud and grime (I had already done some ultrasonic cleaning of these carbs before they were sent off - not all of them, but a couple) and the finish after vapour blast is just superior in terms of how good it looks.

Before vapour blast SUs.

Before ultrasonic clean 44 body.

After clean + manual scrub (using toothbrush etc..) to get into all the cracks and using a scribe to remove crud stuck on in those wells..

As you can see it cleaned up ok, but it wasn't the finish I wanted. The finish I wanted unfortunately cost over $600.. oh dear..I am actually planning to run the SUs and rebuild them first, but I figured it made sense to send a bunch of stuff off for blasting all in 1 go. I actually have more parts I'd like to get blasted however.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Nissan 2400 OHC cover turned out, when I got it was painted black, then I used paint stripper to remove it and now I want to see it "restored".

[C.A.R.]

13 hours ago, gav240z said:

I'm not 100% sure on media. Might be glass, I got @Lurch to use his guy. Apparently he is the best. Others don't get the same finish.

It's fine glass media in water, but http://www.woodyshydroblast.com/ have a slightly different process to get this amazing finish (which they keep secret).
Les Collins has used other Hydra Jet blasters but they don't get the same amazing finish as Woody's.

[KatoKid]

Big thumbs up for Woodys...awesome finish on the parts I sent to them.

[gav240z]

More vapour blasting. This time the 2400 OHC valve cover.

[Simestime]

Why did the direction of the breather change?

[gav240z]

I was wondering the same thing, I can only assume the sealant around it got blasted off and perhaps it came loose? Or it was removed and put back on after blasting? Same thing happened with my other cover. Must be a Les Collins mod

[C.A.R.]

I removed it prior to blasting.

[gav240z]

Painted the L24 block today and placed the red wrinkle valve cover on it just to get an idea of how it would look.

I need to send the fasteners and other hardware off for yellow cad plating to be done.

The paint match is pretty good I think, perhaps a little bit darker than the original, but the original may have faded lighter over the years.

[JDM-TOY]

No fucking way, that looks good. Im gald it came your way @gav240z

[gav240z]

haha, wait until I re-plate the fasteners and hardware, I'll get back my vapour blasted timing cover and install new coolant parts like thermostat housing etc..might change out the freeze plugs for fun.

I'll end up spending more money on dressing it up than the block cost me.

Let's just hope it runs ok, will have to test it out soon.

[KatoKid]

I approve of red rocket rocker covers......carry on sir

[gav240z]

Dry mock up of the SU's on manifold... I'll come back to this to add description shortly.. (Z-therapy carbs in the background for reference). I prefer the cad plating on mine! However their bodies are better polished (tumbler I think) and I might polish the domes on mine to spruce them up further.

I have a few washers left over, I think I may have put some washers in the wrong place as the ones left over don't fit the throttle shaft and that's the only ones missing!!

[gav240z]

So you can see some of my progress on the rear of the car in this thread here.

 

Interestingly I tried to buy this panel the other week and got outbid! I just couldn't justify the price of a second hand piece that would still need work.

So I'll persist with this repair for now. Although my OCD means I'm going to be hard to please with this repair work. :). Even though this panel won't be seen once painted etc.. (top half).

A friend in the US has this panel, I just need to get his butt into gear to help me ship it back here...

but like anything you can't wait forever and like I mentioned before, I am happy to practice. My oxy welding skills have improved significantly, just working on these 2 tricky sections. So even if I don't use either, it won't go to waste.

On another topic...

I also tried restoring the washer bottles using the Retr0Bright technique, although it did look "improved" I wouldn't call them restored.

I suspect I didn't have enough "heat" so will need to get more hydrogen peroxide to give it another go. It does appear they "lifted" in colour, but not enough.

This is what I'm attempting.

https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/47489-refreshing-your-windshield-washer-bottle/

Reproduction washer bottles exist here.

http://www.zzxdatsun.com/catRequests.php

But where is the fun in that?

[gav240z]

So didn't know where else to put this, so I'm putting it here.

Another Safari Gold refresh thread.

https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/58568-duffys-171-series-1-240z-build/

Update is: I recently bit the bullet and got myself a decent air compressor along with a bunch of tools. Bought them off a guy who purchased it all new for a Mustang restoration project he had to sell off, lots of it panel beating related tools etc..for literally half the price he paid for most of it. 

A good chunk of the tools I use regularly at Tafe so 1 closer to not needing tafe for the tools, although I can't easily replace my teachers.. yet.