Long time building 240z owner

[Robdog]

Hi Guys,

bought my car some 12 years ago as a rolling shell in Sydney, and from then on I have been lurking in this site, which has been a great resource of information mind you. So thank you for the years of help.

Personal I’ve never driven a zed! That’s right never! but I’ve been compelled since enjoying ownership of a ta22 celica when I was younger,  to complete the resto mod under mostly my own steam (re the duration) after falling in love the the lines of the 240z.

many won’t subscribe to my choice of power plant, however I’ve done my best to leave the body alone. 
Many more years of work to come in my minimal spare time no doubt, but progress is progress. Getting to the stage where I’ll need a professional hand with final body work.

Cheers guys 

merry Christmas 

Rob

 

 

[RunawaySloth]

What an incredible project Rob! Look forward to seeing more. I'm "stuck" with an auto 2+2 which I bought about 25 years ago and only now just starting to get on the road in earnest.

Great work!

[Robdog]

50 minutes ago, RunawaySloth said:

What an incredible project Rob! Look forward to seeing more. I'm "stuck" with an auto 2+2 which I bought about 25 years ago and only now just starting to get on the road in earnest.

Great work!

Thanks very much, in it for the long haul..

[C.A.R.]

Cool project.

But remember to weld the 1/4 panels back on before you drive it.

[Robdog]

Thanks, was planning on some late night open wheel runs lol.

Them’s the parts I’ll be needing help with finishing. Still heaps to do

[RunawaySloth]

4 hours ago, Robdog said:

Thanks, was planning on some late night open wheel runs lol.

Them’s the parts I’ll be needing help with finishing. Still heaps to do

Do you think you'll plug or spot weld them in? Maybe a combination. and some stitching too. MIG, MIG braze or maybe TIG? To avoid any problems of course everything that's going to be in the finished product is best trial fitted, to make sure all the gaps are right and everything's properly aligned. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by RunawaySloth

[Robdog]

Doing what I can from here on out, I’ll try to stay with tig. Never tried oxy before, probably not the time to learn at this stage either. All the outer panels need work.

Thinking I’ll need some advice from a panel beater soon, as I have virtually zero skill with panels. Was happy to do the bottom side, but not the top. Was thinking of painting engine bay myself  as well to move things along though. Not sure if this is a good idea or not?

[C.A.R.]

I would suggest you use MIG to plug weld the panels back on.
TIG'ing plug welds is fraught with difficulty...

[Robdog]

For sure thanks.
The roof needs some careful consideration. It’s been replaced before and when re installed it was mig welded. Had a bugga of a time getting it off. But result was some larger than desirable holes left to repair. I also had a go at making repair panels for rear roof gutters at the hatch. Rust had gone right through both sides.

I’m not to happy with my attempts  and it’s left me a little hesitant to try more outer skin work.
but mig panels back on I’d be ok with. 

[JDM-TOY]

Great build Rob

I also had the pleasure of owning a early RA23 with a S15 set-up. Best cars to drive but like all Jap cars are full of rust. Sometimes I feel that the early TA RA celicas had more rust than other Jap cars...

Enjoy your toy mate 

[RunawaySloth]

13 hours ago, Robdog said:

Doing what I can from here on out, I’ll try to stay with tig. Never tried oxy before, probably not the time to learn at this stage either. All the outer panels need work.

Thinking I’ll need some advice from a panel beater soon, as I have virtually zero skill with panels. Was happy to do the bottom side, but not the top. Was thinking of painting engine bay myself  as well to move things along though. Not sure if this is a good idea or not?

In the smash repair place where panels had to be cut at a certain section we used to mig braze the new sections in and use filler to smooth it out across the joins. It is possible to get bare metal finishes across joins but it can be very time consuming and ultimately in many cases it's not necessary. In the old days they used to lead load it of course Basically melting lead over rough spots and filing them out smooth) which leads to beautiful repairs but these days it's virtually a lost art because of course it is highly toxic and I believe it was one of the factors leading to the stigma of panel beaters being....well... a little slow. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher at the trade school "very carefully" teach me lead loading but I've never ever returned to it or used it for a repair and I can't afford to lose the one or two brain cells remaining up there anyway. When lead loading was "banned" it was replaced by filler. Filler isn't as good however, over a good join or sheet metal patch filler is in most cases a perfectly adequate repair and over small holes there's nothing wrong with a heavier fibreglass filler to bridge it. If you can get all the edges in the right spots they can be used as a guide to get  everything between them right when filling.

I can do that kind of work at home but I'm by no means a master panel beater, the difference being it will take me ten times as long as them to get an acceptable result particularly on more "difficult" parts. Virtually all the work can be done with a small mig with an Argon Bottle and 0.6mm wire, stitch for butt welds and plug welds to mimic where spot welds are. 

With the painting were you having it match the body or were you doing it black or something as I've seen some people do? I'm leaving my engine bay for now and after the body repairs are done and primed, I'll top coat and clear coat/ blend them as practise for doing the whole car. With paint at least if I'm not happy with it I can just scuff it back and take it in for a full respray. But like you half the fun of it is doing what I can myself so I'll at least give it a go. After the blends I'll decide if I want to keep the orange or change in which case I'll have to do the engine bay as well, strip the whole bay etc. I'll probably keep the original colour though as I don't mind it.

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by RunawaySloth

[C.A.R.]

11 hours ago, RunawaySloth said:

In the smash repair place... *snip*.

[Robdog]

17 hours ago, RunawaySloth said:

In the smash repair place where panels had to be cut at a certain section we used to mig braze the new sections in and use filler to smooth it out across the joins. It is possible to get bare metal finishes across joins but it can be very time consuming and ultimately in many cases it's not necessary. In the old days they used to lead load it of course Basically melting lead over rough spots and filing them out smooth) which leads to beautiful repairs but these days it's virtually a lost art because of course it is highly toxic and I believe it was one of the factors leading to the stigma of panel beaters being....well... a little slow. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher at the trade school "very carefully" teach me lead loading but I've never ever returned to it or used it for a repair and I can't afford to lose the one or two brain cells remaining up there anyway. When lead loading was "banned" it was replaced by filler. Filler isn't as good however, over a good join or sheet metal patch filler is in most cases a perfectly adequate repair and over small holes there's nothing wrong with a heavier fibreglass filler to bridge it. If you can get all the edges in the right spots they can be used as a guide to get  everything between them right when filling.

I can do that kind of work at home but I'm by no means a master panel beater, the difference being it will take me ten times as long as them to get an acceptable result particularly on more "difficult" parts. Virtually all the work can be done with a small mig with an Argon Bottle and 0.6mm wire, stitch for butt welds and plug welds to mimic where spot welds are. 

With the painting were you having it match the body or were you doing it black or something as I've seen some people do? I'm leaving my engine bay for now and after the body repairs are done and primed, I'll top coat and clear coat/ blend them as practise for doing the whole car. With paint at least if I'm not happy with it I can just scuff it back and take it in for a full respray. But like you half the fun of it is doing what I can myself so I'll at least give it a go. After the blends I'll decide if I want to keep the orange or change in which case I'll have to do the engine bay as well, strip the whole bay etc. I'll probably keep the original colour though as I don't mind it.

 

I was thinking of doing the engine bay the same as body color. I figured I would like to have a go at paint, plus the engine bay is more or less not completely comparable to the body, particularly with the hood down haha..

engine bay obviously is pretty busy and the eye hopefully won’t be drawn to paint imperfections as much as pipe work etc

In saying that, if I bomb it, I can make the decision to take a different direction at that stage.

[RunawaySloth]

4 minutes ago, Robdog said:

I was thinking of doing the engine bay the same as body color. I figured I would like to have a go at paint, plus the engine bay is more or less not completely comparable to the body, particularly with the hood down haha..

engine bay obviously is pretty busy and the eye hopefully won’t be drawn to paint imperfections as much as pipe work etc

In saying that, if I bomb it, I can make the decision to take a different direction at that stage.

Yeah I reckon that's a good plan. Even a slight mismatch in colour from the bay to the body won't be detectable Perfect test bed really. 

Edited December 23, 2021 by RunawaySloth

[Marty165]

not a car, but a work of art

Edited March 5, 2022 by Marty165

[Oliphips]

On 12/21/2021 at 3:54 PM, RunawaySloth said:

What an incredible project Rob! Look forward to seeing more. I'm "stuck" with an auto 2+2 which I bought about 25 years ago and only now just starting to get on the road in earnest.

Great work!

Me too, will be deleting the back seat though.