The Ratsun

[RichyRich]

Well. Stopped thinking about buying a Zed and actually did. You might recognise this from the classifieds, it is Linton’s second car he was in the process of working on, after the orange 2+2 he splendidly restored. AKA known as “the Ratsun” because it previously came with free rats. 🐀🐀🐀🐀

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RS30-00981 260Z 2 seater

It will take a while, and be very much one step at a time. We’re competent with mechanical things, can get by on electrical bits and pieces, but welding, body work, sheet metal fabrication, and spray painting we will be learning as we go!

Plan is an L26, manual, with some upgrades such as triple webbers, disc brake rear end, and maybe a Subaru A/C system. Yellow, with perhaps a body kit. 

So after lurking around here for a while now, we’re no longer an imposter because we actually own a Z car! Our second Datsun after the 1600. 
 

Cheers, Richard

Edited 1 hour ago by RichyRich

[RichyRich]

Experiments in dealing with rust coming up. Chemical rust removal, chemical rust conversion (iron phosphate and zinc phosphate) and mechanical removal.

Start with small less rusted parts.

Any tips appreciated!

Supplies and advice came from Milsome's Auto paints in Ferntree Gully, they seemed very good.

Edited September 5 by RichyRich

[C.A.R.]

Just media blast it or soak it in a 4:1 Water & Critic Acid solution. 

[RichyRich]

Ok, some pictures of where we're starting from. This was @Linton's second car, that he'd started before his tragic accident. I realise now how much work he'd done. The roof has the worst surface rust, though a few spots on the bonnet might be worse. I think the roof is salvageable, based on no experience but just wishful thinking! 😎 Linton fixed some front end damage to both guards. Fitted a new radiator support panel. Made and installed new rust cuts under the battery, and to the LH side of the firewall. Repaired rust around the top of both taillights and the "slam" panel. (I'd call it the hatch sill?) He also did some repairs to the LH chassis rail, but unlike the other repairs which were highly documented I don't have any pictures of that apart from the very initial condition. So I'm not really sure how deep that repair went. 

Still to do: LH sill and bottom of the A pillar. RH bottom of the A pillar. RH rear of the door, and the RH dog leg. RH front of the door. Two spots on the LH door where I think a chrome trim strip was attached. Dodgy fibreglass repair to correct on the bottom of the LH guard. And the bottom of the support panel inside it no longer exists. 

Plus what I haven't found yet. I don't think the radiator support panel is parallel with the firewall. Not sure how or why, but we might have to install the bonnet to see what the alignment is actually like.

So, that's the fun that awaits. Not sure what we can do ourselves, mig welding sheet metal is new. Ideally we'd practise on offcuts first, and non visible parts of the car.

But next: media blast the whole thing and 2k epoxy is the guidance we've received.

Cheers, Richard 

[RichyRich]

And here's the pictures of the remaining repairs: 

[C.A.R.]

Yep. Just as I remember it.

Get the whole thing media blasted (by someone whos knows what they are doing) and locked up in Epoxy. Then start the repairs. 

[RichyRich]

Well, some good progress:

Front suspension, steering rack, cross member all removed. Rear suspension, diff, hand brake out. (Diff+remaining suspension all came out very easy, guessed the right spot for the jack, which was good because Wick Humble says have a strong helper and all I have is a Cavoodle and a Maltese Shih Tzu, neither with opposing thumbs). Just fuel lines, rear wheel brake lines to remove, simple but pesky grime covered bolts and screws. Think I'll take it too Northern Soda blast in Ringwood for blasting and priming (2k PPG urethane epoxy). Going to visit Saturday and have them blast the hatch first to test them out. Also did a bit of unpicking spot welds, using a combination of 3/8th in drill bit (possibly bigger than needed 🤔) and hand chisel (and need to get an pneumatic chisel (keep forgetting I now own a compressor... 🤷😆). 

Oh. And also bought a second hand rotisserie. Wife approved, but maybe there was a misunderstanding?? 🤔🤔🤔😆Paid $900 for 1800kg capacity. Could buy a 900kg item brand new for $880, but expect to transport on the rotisserie because the blaster doesn't have one, so decided the extra strength was worth $20.

Edited October 16 by RichyRich

[RichyRich]

OK, maybe time for an update.

Purchased a second hand SCA sandblasting booth. My DIY effort at a booth is bigger, but the SCA one works. An important aspect. 😎 (Though I do think DIY special tools are one of the fun parts of auto mechanics, this is I think my first failure…?). 

Cleaned all rear suspension and diff, which is from an auto model and is 3.5 by my calculation. However, rather than buy a 3.9 for my manual conversion, I think I’m going to replace the 195/70/14 tyres with 185/60/14. And then the ratio after the gearbox is the same as a normal manual. However, interested in any significant negative aspects of that maybe I’ve missed!
 

Stripped down both doors, and realised there’s some seals here I don’t have, and also need the handles to open the doors from the inside. Didn’t actually find much more rust than I didn’t know about, don’t believe the skins need to come off. Wick Humble’s book was very helpful for removing the glass, I remember this being a b*tch of a job on the 1600 and N13 Nissan Pulsar. It did take about 30 min for the first door to get the glass out because I didn’t understand what the internals really looked like. Second door was about 3 min. It’s actually a very easy task. I did find once you have removed the two bolts holding the front guide for the glass in place, tipping the entire door 90 degrees on to its front edge so the glass falls forward helped a lot. Then pulling the rear edge of the glass up and rotating out the gap.

And, we spent a bit of time estimating the budget for the restoration, adding up all the costs of parts needed to be purchased, labor I’m likely to require, and tools. It’s at about $30k already…. 

Cheers!

Edited 1 hour ago by RichyRich