Rats ride, a Z31

[Rat1314]

This is just a cut and paste from another site that I'm a member on, the car has been 'finished' for about two years but I am itching to start doing more work on it.

 

 

 

Well I haven't posted anything about my car for a while, Last time I had just started working on the paint and panel. My plan was to strip it all to metal (excluding the interior and engine bay they will be done at a later date) cut out all rust and weld in new steel, and respray.

I think I started working on it in February of 08 and I finished it (finished... Hahaha like its ever going to be 'done') August this year.

Things were a bit slow at first because of where I first had it to work on it, It was put in a friends shed on their property that was about a 15 minute drive away and about 30 minutes from any auto shop. It made things a bit hard to spend the time on the car. After about 6 months I moved to a place that has a garage so I moved my car here and then I got stuck into the car.

Well I'll start putting up some pictures to show you what I've done.

 

This is what it looked like the last time I posted here

 

 

Now is when the fun begins..

Pulling it apart

 

Not too much rust on this fender, the drivers side had none

 

All welded up, all the welds got ground down

 

Inside of the panels after I finished, I coated them with a under body, stone guard, rust proofing stuff

 

Rust on the 'A' pillar, the other side was similar

 

With the paint taken off

 

And this shows just how far up the surface rust goes, again it was similar on the other side

 

All major rust cut out and all surface rust removed

 

And new metal welded in

I kept most of the 'skin' and just cleaned that up and welded it back on, some of the lower sections had to be replaced.

 

Both the front guards have been striped to metal and any dents or rust have been taken care of

It is a big bonnet to take all of the paint off

 

The doors got the same treatment as well, these things are heavy

 

I found the front bumper annoying to strip because it's made of plastic you have to be careful not to damage it but I got it done eventually. I didn't have the proper tools either

 

And it is about here when I got my new place and I moved my car here. Transporting it wasn't an issue, it all went fairly well... I got a car trailer, borrowed a car that was able to tow it and set off. Loaded my car up and on the way back home I saw something fly out of the Z on the trailer. ' Hmmm what could that be... SHIT THATS ONE OF THE T-TOPS!!!'  They look good when they hit the road at 80km/h. Got the car here minus one top put it in the garage and started working on it more since it was so close.

 

Yea the interior was getting really dusty

 

After pulling the windscreen I found a nice rust hole and some bad rust around the base of the windscreen

 

The whole lower part of the windscreen was cut out and replaced, this took a while

Again all of the welds were ground flat and it was smoothed out with filler and painted

 

Filled in the headlight water squirter's and resprayed them

 

All of the door jams on the car were striped and on the doors

 

Cleaned up the rest of the winscreen surround

 

Around the t-tops, these were hard to get too just because of the shape

 

Some rust that was around one ot the tops

 

Painting some of the parts

 

Some parts with a base coat on them

 

My spray booths that I made up

Walking around here at night with the lights off was kind of creepy. It was like something out of the Saw movies

 

My R32 spoiler that I picked up. I thought it was the other spoiler that came with the R32's. Go to http://www.200zr.com to see the one I was thinking of Since I had this one and it only cost $20 I figured I'd make it fit and this one has a brake light in it

 

Test fitting after cutting some of the spoiler

 

Oh and I also striped and repainted the door hinges

 

Lovely rust around the rear lights

 

And a section that I cut out

 

Yep more rust... I'm starting to see a pattern here, rust, rust and... yep rust

 

This part had some bad surface rust on the inside and I thought I might as well cut it out while I as going

 

And as usual everything was replaced with new steel

 

Has just a little but of rust in the rear hatch

 

And it cut out

 

Some in the floor at the rear

 

Filling in the holes from the spioler that I had on there

 

Around the arial was a bit rusty and I wanted to get rid of it anyway so I cut out the rust and filled it in

 

These things are great for stripping paint off metal

 

Filled in the rear vents

 

The rear after I finished

 

Pulled the hatch to get to the rear door jam, this is surprisingly light

 

Working on my spoiler, I had to cut a fair amount of material away to make it fit. That was followed by filling it with a steel plate with bolts welded to, then fiberglassed in place (to hold it to the car) then that was shaped and sanded and filled and sanded and... well it took a bloody long time to make this thing fit lets put it like that. Don't go assuming this is a simple bolt on because it IS NOT!!!

 

Test fitting, now time to strip it and paint it

 

I also picked up some side skirts off a BA Ford falcon. I want to get the ones from the XR Falcons but they are a bit more expensive. So I grabbed these to 'experiment' with and see if they would work before I spent too much money (I have already trimmed them to fit)

 

Thats the difference in length from a stock one to one thats been trimmed to fit, not much since it's going on a 2 door car

 

Some of the trimming I had to do

 

The car base coated

 

Just some more test fitting after the base coat

 

All of the paint to spray my car

 

And this is what 4lt of clear paint looks like

 

After the base coat was sanded, more color was applied, then a clear. All of the paint is acrilic. Next time I will use 2-pac. This was a bit of a trial for me

 

The next day

 

I then had to wet sand the whole car and cut it and then polish it

 

Then started the assembaly.

Since I had this tacho sitting around for a while I thought I would put it in, I never realy liked the digital dash

 

Installing some of the stereo gear

And there are 2 12inch MTX subs in the boot

 

I also blacked out the crome trim

 

My water squirter's finished

 

I also installed a intercooler

 

The brackets to hold it

 

I got a heap if 2.5 inch mandrel bends cheap so I used these as a mock up for a alloy setup

 

And the alloy set up

 

I thought I would put up some of the before pics first

 

And now since I've finished it

 

There will be more....

 

 

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Well I am still alive...

Life has been interesting lately to say the least. I run my own small business and it has been quite busy as well as some changes to the business that I have been doing, I'm also getting married this month (we got engaged last year) so anyone who is married will know no matter how much time you give your self the last few months are a bit crazy. Well back to the car.

So the 300 has been a bit neglected in the way of mods and improvements but I have been driving it a fair bit and I LOVE every minute I'm in it so it's not a total loss. The car is also going to be used in my wedding as well so I'm taking this opportunity to get some other things done as well before the big day.

The first things I done was to get rid of all the accessories on the intake manifold and polish the IC pipes that I had installed and I also finally painted the plenum garnish that I have had sitting on my work bench for 2 years. Yep stuff that will really matter at the photo shoot hey when the hood will never be opened.

How it looks now

 

And I started working on a better sub box design. The first one failed, but the second design came out quite good.

I only finished covering these today, I'll install them in the car tomorrow if I get the chance to.

Here's one finished, It goes where the spare tire would

 

And the two together

 

They aren't 'perfect' but I'm very happy with how they turned out so I can't wait to get them in the car and test them out

 

 

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Well the subs are back in in their new boxes and I am very pleased how they turned out. Much nicer then just the wooden boxes I had in there before.

[Stivva]

Very nice build. I like the seemless sub box design too.

[Nobody]

Wow that's a lot of work. Well done.

[Rat1314]

Thanks it was a lot of work. Although I am planing on stripping it again and re-doing some of the work that I had done and repaint it with 2pac paint (I used acrilic because it was cheaper and easier). I learnt a lot from working on this car and I made some mistakes along the way but I always knew from the start that I would do it all again in a few years just so I can make it right. And all the paint and panel work didn't cost that much $$ just time. I just need to get the 280 closer to finished before I start on it again.

[Nobody]

These cars are never finished are they?