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

[George]

Top stuff Gav. Now I see what I'm missing out on.

 

Love the detail of your posts.

[gav240z]

Great work mate, bet it feels great to actually be making something for the car.

Wish I had the time to be part of the course.

 

Top stuff Gav. Now I see what I'm missing out on.

 

Love the detail of your posts.

 

I'm aware that you can buy this patch panel on eBay for something like $80-$100 but I made this for free (aside from the fact that I paid for the course) but if you consider the fact that I get to use all these tools and get an expert to over see what I'm doing and advise on the process this is a much better way to go about it I think. I also know this patch panel will fit correctly since it's made to suit.

 

Mark (the instructor) asked if the other side was rotten also (on the other fender) and I'm pretty sure it isn't but then again I haven't stripped it back to verify, he asked because he said it's often easier to make these things in pairs.

 

However the hard part will be the welding, cause that's when I can mess it all up if I blow a hole in it etc..

 

Finding the time to do the course has been a bit hard but thankfully work lets me leave early on a Wednesday and I've always wanted to be able to do body work on my own cars so I'm enjoying learning these new skills, before it all seemed a bit daunting but now I'm actually looking forward to fabricating other sections also. The door skins should be tricky enough .

[PB260Z]

Finding the time to do the course has been a bit hard but thankfully work lets me leave early on a Wednesday and I've always wanted to be able to do body work on my own cars so I'm enjoying learning these new skills, before it all seemed a bit daunting but now I'm actually looking forward to fabricating other sections also. The door skins should be tricky enough .

 

Yeah the real drama for me is geography, at the moment doing too much travel and can't be certain to be in Sydney - This post comes from Adelaide.

When / if the travel backs off I will enrol.

 

[CroS13]

awesome update man keep them coming!

 

will you be welding it together at tafe too?

 

 

[gav240z]

awesome update man keep them coming!

 

will you be welding it together at tafe too?

 

 

 

Yes the instructor said he can do it if I like, but I feel that's cheating. His preference is for Oxy / Acetylene I asked about MIG since that's what I have at home and he sorta frowned lol... I haven't had much time on the MIG so we will see, but there is actually more prep work to do anyway before I can weld it on, the metal piece behind the panel will need to be sanded down and rust proofed etc..

 

So we shall see, I might practice the MIG on some scrap metal first - I did try MIG years ago but I could definitely use some practice.

[gav240z]

So I'll let the photos do the talking..

 

 

I went to Bunnings and got a long crow bar, and an off cut of wood (2x4) and it came out so easily I was surprised, but that's physics for your Torque = L x Force

 

So now the motor is torn down, apart from the Welsh Plugs and the crank breather shield. Time to clean this thing up.

 

Any recommendations on the best way to clean this? Outsource it? Keeping in mind it would be best to use an environmentally friendly approach.

 

[Agno]

I would get it hot tanked and inspected at an engine workshop before coating all the raw metallic surfaces in WD40 and wrapping it in glad wrap if you don't plan to do much with it in the short term.

 

At least that way you know what you are dealing with when it's time to start

[George]

 

Any recommendations on the best way to clean this? Outsource it? Keeping in mind it would be best to use an environmentally friendly approach.

 

 

DIY 

[Brabham]

Hi Gav,

 

nice work. Having all those tools definitely makes it a lot easier. Would be nice to have an English wheel and jenny at home. With the fender, why did the teacher advise making up a whole lower section as opposed to just patching the hole? Just wondering what the thinking is behind this. Don't hesitate to get him to weld it, there will always be bits you need to outsource, and he probably has 20 years of welding experience. Will be easiest to do other side fender too after you finish this one, always easiest to do other side while it is fresh in your mind.

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Cheers

[gav240z]

If you look at the lower fender area it has taken a beating over the years and it was still a little dodgy looking and wavy to the right of that hole. You could see a tiny bit of filler there also. So rather than spend ages beating the thing into the correct shape and having to do tiny tack welds on the lower 90 degree part of the fender (the bit that gets crushed when people jack the car incorrectly) we decided to just fabricate a new section.

 

I think the other reason was because we might need to do the other side also and as he said it's easier to create these sections in groups of 2.

[PB260Z]

Were you looking for a replacement Ashtray lid ?

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Datsun-240z-early-fusebix-and-ashtray-/261445359542?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cdf5b97b6&_uhb=1

[gav240z]

^Thanks Peter, I believe that seller is the same as the member here:

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,13946.msg149705/topicseen.html

 

I did express interest in some of the interior pieces he has listed, but looks like the seller has decided to go via eBay now.

[PB260Z]

Yeah, I believe you are correct.

I don't remember seeing the ashtray in the original for sale thread.

[Riceburner]

Is that copper on the #6 journal or just rust?

 

Definitely get it hot tanked at the machine shop and get all the factory plugs in the block and crank drilled/tapped while it's there along with any balancing. You can do a final clean prior to assembly at home, they clean them at the shop but I got a fair bit more out doing it in the garage.

 

Have you worked out what you're doing with piston size yet?

[gav240z]

Hey Gareth,

 

That is a form of sludge / rusty crap that was in the bottom block, surprisingly not on #4 but around #5 and #6. When I drained the sump a thick-shake like consistency came out of the pan (oil + old coolant mixed in). Yummo.

 

It should clean off ok though and the crank span freely - no binding etc...

 

In terms of piston size, well the dished ones are not really re-usable (I'm assuming and I dropped 1 from about 0.5m high when getting them out) and it will also depend on the cylinder head I use, camshaft profile and head work as to what I replace them with. I will probably need oversized pistons to suit the new bore although #4 looks not bad to be honest, so I'm thinking of going out to 89mm for the 3.1ltr stroker but will depend on how the block (F54) checks out in terms of thickness etc... I'd be just as happy with a 3.0ltr stroker also to be honest - not going to get upset over 0.1 ltr of capacity.

 

In the old days the combo was L14 rods, LD28 crank and Honda motorcycle XL-500 pistons. But I've not really been looking into it too much yet, just taking 1 step of this rebuild at a time.

 

I have a spare set of L24 rods (6) and 2 sets of L14 (12) rods so pistons that work with that and the LD28 crank will be what I'm after - again everything is going to need to be balanced anyway. I don't think I need the expense of forged but again I haven't really looked into it. Ideally light pistons would be a bonus though.

 

At this stage it looks most likely I'll be using an N42 head. Unless I can source a P90 at a fair price.

[gav240z]

So I didn't get to finish the panel last night at the Tafe course, but I guess fabricating the panel is not that time consuming it's all the other fettling that needs to be done to make everything fit right and clean up the area. This is why buying panels off eBay is ok, but it's only part of the challenge, the real work is all the other stuff that goes on...Anyway some updates for you.

 

So I finished cutting off the bottom section of the panel. Since it is folded over the piece of support metal behind it, you need to sand down the edge of the panel so you can peel the skin off the structure of the panel. I don't have photos of this step I'm afraid, but it's pretty straight forward.

 

The next thing we did was glass bead blast the lower section which was looking rusty as you can imagine. Although not too bad, as you can see in this 'after' photo. There is a couple of small holes from rust.

 

All the crud (that seal material that runs down the inner guard had to be removed and scraped off.

 

The next step was to fire up the Oxy welder and fill in the holes. This was done by heating the metal and using some filler rod to replace the missing material.

 

Then I sanded the area flat (well as flat as possible). Not shown in the photos, but I then painted over the top with weld through primer.

 

Also prepped the new section with weld through primer also.

 

and under the panel where the lip will fold.

 

If I was going to get the instructor to weld it for me, he probably could have done it last night, but I wanted to give it a try and have him watch to make sure I don't do anything too stupid to mess it up. So we will resume this next class in a couple of weeks.

[PeterAllen]

... So we will resume this next class in a couple of weeks.

 

Gavin - Is that the start of a new term? I've finished the painting so I now need to make the interior trim in aluminium as well as some other stuff including frames for the sliding windows. I'll probably enrol for the next term. Are you Tue or Wed night?

[gav240z]

Hi Peter,

Yes he mentioned a date around the 30th as being the first class back, but there was some confusion about this. I haven't actually called to enroll yet, but when I do I should have a better indication of which night.

 

It seems to be dependent on number of attendees as to weather or not they will have 2 classes or just the 1.

[vorn70]

Mate I am enjoying watching you take the first steps with your car. I'm so glad your doing it your self.  Keep up the great work.

[gav240z]

Mate I am enjoying watching you take the first steps with your car. I'm so glad your doing it your self.  Keep up the great work.

 

Thanks, watching your build thread is like seeing into the future, or at least seeing how it could hopefully look if I do things correctly.

 

Just a minor update today. I went to see Ash (zr240) and got these parts off him today.

 

I got them at a great price as Ash looked after me and the ash-tray surround is actually cracked in 2 (but a clean break) and the lid itself is perfect, which is fine for me, since my surround is perfect but the lid is in 100 and 1 pieces.

 

Pretty happy to score that as you guys may know I've been looking and not had much luck when I bid on eBay recently. It's worth noting that there are 2 ash-tray lid versions I don't know what HS30 00150 would have had originally but I'm not going for concourse with this car, just a good solid restoration that is accurate.

 

Here is a photo of something I bought off Dimitri earlier in the year and was hunting for, for several years. A 240z drivers side mirror for the AU market.

 

 

This is for my 72 240z, which I just put a fresh battery in and fired into life a few mins earlier, it hadn't been running for a while. The plan is to drain and change fluids in it and possibly (if I get time) swap in a 240z 5 speed box. I might also do some brake work on it as the rear drums could use some adjustment. I might start an entirely new build thread for that car though.

 

 

[CroS13]

i say yes start a new build thread, the more builds i can eyeball and get motivation from the better!

 

Rudolf.

[gav240z]

So no updates for the last couple of weeks because I was in Melbourne and doing some maintenance work on the 72 Z (Evie).

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,14206.0.html (as a side note I've got some of that old footage of my Z's to upload to the Youtube's soon!).

 

So anyway with regard to the Safari Car (as I call it). I picked up some parts in Melbourne to cart back with me on the drive.

 

1. Triple Mikuni's.

2. N42 Head (the freebie from Lurch)

3. LD28 Crank

4. L14 rods (all 12)

 

I am actually not sure what the next steps of the engine build are, so I decided to start by cleaning up the block and degreasing as much as possible.

 

Some before shots for comparison.

 

 

Mmm look at all that oil and crud.

 

So I tried some degreaser stuff I bought and it was pretty average to be honest, but I also got some Oven Cleaner (Mr Muscle!) and man that stuff rocks the casbah for getting crud off.

I used steel wool to clean up the engine number area.

 

Who would have thought under all that crud was blue paint?

 

 

I also cleaned up the BIG NISSAN valve cover. Got rid of all the old oil under the cover and timing cover (although might use some sand-paper to clean up the water pump area.

 

I also started on the N42 head cleaning it up etc..problem is I don't have a valve spring compressor so I can't remove the exhaust valves. The intake valves were already taken and the camshaft is missing.

 

I cleaned up the chambers with steel wool and oven cleaner - I didn't leave the Oven Cleaner on for long because it can react with alloy as far as I'm aware. Although I doubt this would cause much harm here.

 

I haven't used sand paper (or the wire brush in the photo) on it yet, not sure if that's ok or too rough?

 

Some before photos of this N42 head to show you how clean it looks now vs before.

 

Obviously still some cleaning up to do.

 

1 issue though is that Lurch had mentioned the head had some previous repair work done to it when I picked it up (many moons ago).

 

There was some kind of 'cement' like stuff near the #1 spark plug hole and some previous welding repair work done. When I scraped it 'cement stuff' off you can see a hole under it.

 

This is a photo directly under it. Not sure if this is a coolant passage or what?

 

My questions are:

1. Is this easily fixed?

2. Is this a common problem area on these heads?

3. Is it worth investing money in this head or starting with another?

 

My assumption is that it's not too bad.. but if you have other thoughts let me know?

 

 

[gav240z]

Another quick question, can anyone recommend a brand or type of valve spring compressor that works well on L-series heads? There are a few different designs on eBay. But I figure someone has a preference for 1 that works well?

[Brabham]

Hi Gav,

 

I'd exercise caution with the mr.muscle on alloy, pretty sure it will eat it if left on. My dad tried to clean an aluminium pot with caustic soda and turned it into a colinder! The hole in the head will need to be TIG welded, ask your TAFE teacher if they can do it, if not might see if my welding teacher could do it. Should be worth repairing though.

 

Cheers

[gav240z]

Has anyone had experience with Aqua, Water or Vapor blasting for engine parts?

 

 

Some more examples.

http://www.wetblasting.net/

http://forum.ozvmx.com/index.php?topic=13729.0

 

Would you recommend it for engine parts or is there better alternatives? Also anyone know of a good place in Sydney that does this kind of stuff?