240ZBUILTBYME Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 Any progress is good progress. I keep telling myself that, when progress is so slow (which it always is for me...), you have to consider every little step is still one step closer to the finished product. Well done Mike, what’s you plan for paint? DIY or sending it to a shop? very sorry to hear about your Mum. As someone who is going through something very similar at the moment, I understand the stress and emotions you must have gone through and are probably still going through. Nothing can prepare us for these sort of events. I hope you have a strong network of support in these difficult times. I know for me doing some work in the z is cathartic and has helped me deal with what I’m going through. Hopefully you get more time to work soon. ryan Mike_F 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_F Posted April 28, 2021 Author Share Posted April 28, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, 240ZBUILTBYME said: Well done Mike, what’s you plan for paint? DIY or sending it to a shop? Ahhh - the million dollar question. I think I have formulated a plan where I can get it into primer, and maybe even high build, and do all of the sanding and prep without needing a spray booth nor causing danger to myself, my family or my neighbours. Then, once prep work is complete, its time to send it back down to Canberra where my brother has a mate who knows someone, then my people can speak to their people and we can hire a spray booth. I basically don't want to spend all this time repairing panels, skimming, sanding, prepping etc only to have a rubbish paint job due to dust and flies. That'd just make my eye twitch. Edited April 28, 2021 by Mike_F 240ZBUILTBYME 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agno Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 Sorry to hear about your mother. My mum died from lung cancer back in 2013 after a short battle, she was a passive smoker (never smoked herself). Unfortunately for her she grew up in an era where smoking and second hand smoke was inescapable. Not related to your mother at all but the smokers who argue that they have done it for their whole lives and are still healthy really rub me up the wrong way. Their actions can have a larger impact than them as individuals and the collective impact of their actions are largely overlooked, I call it an of collective responsibility. You could apply the logic of my last sentence e to a lot of other things in life I guess, but I'm waffling. This is a great thread and a great story Mike, thanks for sharing. gilltech, gav240z, 240ZBUILTBYME and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_F Posted April 30, 2021 Author Share Posted April 30, 2021 6 hours ago, Agno said: Not related to your mother at all but the smokers who argue that they have done it for their whole lives and are still healthy really rub me up the wrong way. Hi Agno, Sorry to hear about your mum. That's terrible that someone chose not to smoke but died from it anyway. I agree with your sentiment on the above comment - I think so many people cling to words from that 0.01% who seem impervious to the negative impacts of smoking, without actually considering the facts/statistics without bias. And thanks for the feedback on the journal so far! I am hoping to have a solid weekend on it, although a bunch of work seems to be at loggerheads next week so I'll probably have to spend some time this week getting ahead of that. Cheers, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_F Posted May 3, 2021 Author Share Posted May 3, 2021 (edited) The weekend just gone involved a bunch of riding, with about 3.5 hours on Saturday and about 2.5 hours on Sunday (mostly volunteering with a school mountain biking clinic). But, there was some Datto action too! Firstly, I seam-sealed in the engine bay (where I had primed) and in the cowl area. I used a "gun" style applicator which came out soooo much neater than the stuff from a tin. Then, while the front was drying I thought I would tackle the back RHS panel, with a goal to weld on the new KV Panel. So, I enthusiastically drilled out the necessary spot welds, and used the angle grinder to cut off the damaged panel (leaving about an inch spare to "play with"). When I test fitted the panel, it looked an absolute treat! I measured from the hatch edge down to the bumper indent at different distances from the bottom edge and compared it with the distances I was getting on the other side, which resulted in the above alignment. It looks perfect! Even the bottom, where the rear valance lines up with the new green goodness, looks perfect! However, rusty demons of dirt have clearly been transforming more of my inner paneling; some of it as a biproduct of an accident at some point, but others because of, well, Datsun. This latter rust, on the inside wheel arch, is going to require me to "raise the Kimono" in order to ascertain how much crustiness is lurking behind that curvy Japanese facade. But rather than cut the outer panel away to see what is behind it, I am instead going to wire-wheel around the inner part of the guard and see if this crustiness comes through. If it goes higher, then I might need a tabco order because creating a replacement panel by hand (no english wheel or bead roller) is beyond me. I think. But, to get the wire wheel in there I need to remove the rear suspension stuff again, which requires wriggling under the car, which I would prefer to do when my wife is around to hear me scream. So, I decided to do some more research and move back to the front. So - remember that point about hating things being half done? Well, yeah, I keep starting things. So, one of the things I half finished (see what I did there? glass half full!!!) was the engine bay. The reason I half did it was due to, well, rust ... on the LHS where the guard bolts on. So, I cut the piece out and fabricated a new part, which was quite difficult, but I'm mostly there! I love those completely arbitrary curves, that serve no purpose other than to make creating repair panels harder. This was very cheesy with lots of holes in that "water channel that leads nowehere" It curves down, and curves in. All for a part of the car that no-one sees! Which is a shame. Almost there! I need a little more fettling until it fits perfectly. Next is to trim it back to size, weld a self-captive nut in the appropriate place, drill some holes for spot welds, apply some weld-through primer and weld it back on. I haven't worked out how I'm going to weld that channel yet, but worse come to worse I'll cut out an access gap so that I can get in there with the welder and a die grinder to cleaner it up, then weld the access flap back on. We'll see. Cheers for now! Mike Edited May 3, 2021 by Mike_F 240ZBUILTBYME 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_F Posted June 3, 2022 Author Share Posted June 3, 2022 (edited) Chapter 14: The Double Entendre One of my favourite youtube channels is "Home built by Jeff". Its entertaining, informative, Mrs Jeff is hilarious, and it shows that us backyard guys can do these things pretty well as a hobby. I also love the quote "if its worth doing well, its worth doing twice!". Which brings me to that rusty drip rail thing in the engine bay. I originally tried making it out of a single piece, and I was sooo close. Literally a couple of mm ... but I couldn't get it to sit right. It kept fighting me. It wouldn't sit flat. I hammered, dolly'd, rolled, twisted, yelled and screamed at it - but all to no avail. So I started it again, but used a different technique - I built it out of a couple of pieces and welded them together. So much quicker and looks just as good. While I'm a little disappointed in myself that I couldn't quite nail it from a single piece, I also had to move on... I welded it in, cleaned it up and then nuked that area with Rust Encapsulator. Next Chapter - I'm taking the car back to the future ... way back, to the Fred Flinstone days! Edited June 3, 2022 by Mike_F 240ZBUILTBYME, KatoKid and CBR Jeff 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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