KatoKid Posted June 30, 2012 Author Posted June 30, 2012 Mmmmmm....last post in February, cant believe its been that long! Anyway, after being patient with the panel shop a few weeks ago I cracked it and read the riot act and pushed then to get into my car....they have a lot of cars in the shop and its only a two man show....Glen the beater and Allan the painter but that is testament to the quality of work they do. No Commondores or Falcoons in here its all Rod's or resto's. Paid a visit today and was pleasantly surprised with the amount and quality of work done. First up..... The only accident damage I could see when I bought the car was a minor bingle in the RHF headlight bucket area, it had been repaired before but pretty badly and there was plenty of rust in the triangular reinforcements where the top radiator support panel meets the apron caused by foam being glued to the top of the support to direct more air through the radiator (it had air con fitted). Thanks to Matt (Big Fella) I was able to secure a donor radiator support which I had unpicked and delivered all the bits to the panel shop where they blasted and straightened everything before putting back together and etch priming. Pic's speak a thousand words but needless to say I'm pretty impressed with Glen's work and attention to detail........ Before shots: Quote
luvemfast Posted June 30, 2012 Posted June 30, 2012 Looking good. Funny how they all seem to wait for you to crack it :-\ Quote
KatoKid Posted June 30, 2012 Author Posted June 30, 2012 Next....rear quarters: Blasting revealed that there was significant rust in the lips of both rear guards. There is a big chunky bead of seam sealer that the factory filled between the inner and outer guards all the way around the lip and this just collects moisture and has the obvious effect. I talked with Glen about options and he was adamant that removing the rear quarters was the only way to tackle the repairs properly...rebuilding both the inner and outer guard lips. They have a matching numbers E38 Charger in the shop with the same issue and Glen showed me what they had done and I after seeing this I was convinced that this was the best route so ff they came...... Before's: Quote
KatoKid Posted June 30, 2012 Author Posted June 30, 2012 Not finished yet but well on the way, nearly metal finished with new dog legs added and all the lips rebuilt. Quote
KatoKid Posted June 30, 2012 Author Posted June 30, 2012 The roof skin is coming off next to fix this properly, I could have sworn the roof was good before blasting....... Once the roof frame and skin is repaired the whole car goes back to the blasters for all the newly exposed bits to be blasted and then it will be etched, preped and shot with final colour in these areas before the quarters and roof goes back on. Costly, yes.....but piece of mind in the long run! Quote
Moderators Zedman240® Posted June 30, 2012 Moderators Posted June 30, 2012 This is the ONLY way to do it properly... worst thing about a zed is they rust from the inside out! Quote
mossy Posted June 30, 2012 Posted June 30, 2012 Unreal mate, looks like no short cuts here, this will be mint when its finished can't wait to see the finished product Quote
KatoKid Posted July 5, 2012 Author Posted July 5, 2012 Had to go to the panel shop to give them some progress payment. Roof skin is off alreday, no real surprises. RH side was reasonable but the left needs some work! Quote
KatoKid Posted July 5, 2012 Author Posted July 5, 2012 Ive been slack at home and haven't done much while the shell is away but now things are progressing I'm fired up to get things happening. The engine has been on the test stand for nearly a year, Ive run it a few times just for kicks and to keep it dry and lubed. One thing I hadn't done was check if the engine speed signal from the BMW ECU would drive the Speedhut tacho, turns out after selecting the correct pulse type it works fine. Pretty cool tacho....fully programable, recall, shift lights etc cant wait to drive it for real. Next thing on the agenda: is to strip the engine, do big end bearings, ARP rod bolts, VAC oil pump drive, front and rear oil seals, CO2 blast all the discoloured aluminium housings including the sump, new gaskets where applicable, paint the block etc etc. To do this I had to remove the engine wiring harness, its a one piece pretty big bastard loom and took some doing to remove. Will be stripping out all the non required bits and also doing what's necessary to rewire to suit the Z battery location and to install the ECU inside the cabin as in the BMW the ECU sits in the engine bay. Engine is now on its stand with most bits removed.....looks very naked compared to normal! Sirpent, can you PM me the name of the CO2 blaster you used? Quote
luvemfast Posted July 5, 2012 Posted July 5, 2012 Did you ever trial fit the Bavarian in the Z's engine bay? I don't recall....... :-\ Quote
Riceburner Posted July 5, 2012 Posted July 5, 2012 Wow, this is getting the full treatment and so far so good. Will be a great blend of old and new when it's finished. Quote
KatoKid Posted July 5, 2012 Author Posted July 5, 2012 Did you ever trial fit the Bavarian in the Z's engine bay? I don't recall....... :-\ Simon, yep all the drive train has been fitted, mounts made and aligned so all good. Still lots of detail work to be done but nothing that's likely to cause and serious issues. Quote
luvemfast Posted July 5, 2012 Posted July 5, 2012 Oh that's right. I remember the laser aligning you did now. Shame thd panel beaters going to pull it all straight, now it's all lined up. Lol Quote
KatoKid Posted July 5, 2012 Author Posted July 5, 2012 Not to worry....shes a pretty straight girl. Quote
KatoKid Posted July 19, 2012 Author Posted July 19, 2012 What do you do at night time during the middle of winter......spend hours in the shed cleaning throttle bodies. Mine were pretty disgusting, plenty of built up crud and generally just looked less sexy than they deserved. The BMW process of balancing the throttles is pretty complex, using six probes screwed into the exhaust ports and using CO2 levels to balance.... equipment I ain't got and it also takes a bit of time and thus $$$ to be done by a BMW stealer. So in order to avoid this cost I used some RHS to screw the flanges to once I removed them from the head, otherwise they flop around as the throttle shaft is the only thing that holds them together, this way I can work on them and not disturb the butterfly adjustments. Used a kero based solvent and brushes (mainly tooth brush) to do the cleaning, it was a PITA but worthwhile. Didn't want to use any aggressive chemicals as there are seals for the butterfly shafts and I didn't want to discolour the aluminium finish either. TB's have an injector rail as well as a vaccum rail hence the two sets of ports on each runner. 50mm butterflies and made by Dellorto! Quote
benny Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 they look great kato!! Chemtech make a product called blitz aluminium cleaner, it works great for brightening up the aluminium i have also used soda blasting at home with great results and it just washes off. Quote
KatoKid Posted July 19, 2012 Author Posted July 19, 2012 Thanks Benny, does the Blitz discolour or leave a dull grey finish? Quote
SS30RR Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 wow M3 in Zed..hahhahah best combo ever. is that a 3L or 3.2L?.......man awesome.!! EDIT: God I just saw...3.2L......this thing will pull so hard it will be insane. I had an E36 3.2L M3 just recently and in that car it would pull strong well past 250km/hr in a 1450kg chassis. Quote
KatoKid Posted July 19, 2012 Author Posted July 19, 2012 EDIT: God I just saw...3.2L......this thing will pull so hard it will be insane. I had an E36 3.2L M3 just recently and in that car it would pull strong well past 250km/hr in a 1450kg chassis. Cheers.....hopefully all up weight will be around 1100kg so 350kg less than the donor car. I'm going to gear it pretty short....3.7:1 R200 with 1:1 fifth gear in the ZF 5 speed. Should boogie. Quote
benny Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 just leaves a dull clean finish as if its just left the factory. I found soda blasting then using the blitz worked great and restored manifolds to new Quote
KatoKid Posted July 22, 2012 Author Posted July 22, 2012 Spent too many hours degreasing and cleaning the engine. The exhaust side was pretty easy but the inlet side was a pain, plenty of rust and crap as this is the up side of the engine as it sits canted over towrad the drivers side so it collects all the lovely salted snow and slush off the UK roads. Crazy idea this canting over engines, who would have thought it would take off,bloody Bavarians!! Oh yeah..... the japs who built my car. Any words of advice before I hit it with the spray can? I'm thinking Satin Black from the VHT range....not a big fan of glossy engine finishes. As you can see the cast alloy sump looks like a POS. Its been hot tanked at Peter Orger's but didn't do much to get rid of the dark oxided/staining. I'm looking for the as new factory cast alloy finish and Ive done a fair bit of research. Dry ice blasting was a good initial choice but its too expensive so I'm going to give Hydrablasting a go http://www.southernhydrablasting.com.au/. Anyone had experience with this? Seems like the next big thing in blasting. Quote
peter mc Posted July 22, 2012 Posted July 22, 2012 hi kato mate i love the water jet blaster best finnish i have ever seen we get a lot off parts done Quote
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