CroS13

Hey mate how much did outer west charge you to blast the car and have it Epoxy primed? Are you happy with the blasting and priming work they did? I went and saw 2 other blasters, and was about to pull the trigger with stripco in Revesby. They were hesitant to epoxy the car, as they wanted to leave it in bare steel with a phosphoric coating so the panel beater could exactly see any damage on the metal. They said that if its epoxy coated it would mask potential issues with the metal. They only do blasting. The other mob i was going to go with, they blast then etch prime the shell. They wanted to charge me a additional $1000 just for labor to epoxy the car, without materials, which leads me to believe that they were going to outsource the epoxy work to a smash shop they know, so i was hesitant to use them. Outer west was going to be my 3rd option, i had heard 1 good review on them, a mate got his doors blasted there, but i never ended up calling them as i was going to go with stripco. Issue is my painter who was going to epoxy my car at home is going to america for 2 months. So its either wait till he gets back and get it blasted at Stripco, or find another solution. Rudi.

Update 25/3/18 - seam welding done Took the opportunity to seam weld or stitch weld the underside. Did the frame rails, little bit of the fire wall and the floor pans. That's enough for now. Car is booked in to get blasted in 2 weeks time. Here is the video of the work: Rudi.

I was initially going to go with a mob in Blacktown. They are very professional, and their price was reasonable. They assured me they would strip out all the under body sealer, but honestly i was a little sceptical. I was almost certain they wouldn't get it all off properly. Anyway, It would have been $2200 done in a etch primer. I assumed that if i wanted it in epoxy, I'd just have to pay the difference in price for materials but no, they wanted a extra $1000 just to spray epoxy!! My painter mate thinks because of the price, they would be farming the epoxy out to a smash shop and not doing it themselves. I am going to go with Stripco In Revesby. Their quote was only $50 more than what they quoted me 2 or 3 years ago when i did a initial inquiry. I know they do good work. It is around the same price, but with no primer, just done in and coated in a phosphoric etch? called kephos coating? Apparently its good to leave in that until its primed. Anyway, once its stripped mate and i will epoxy the car in my shed. Rudi.

I know, i know! what makes it worse. Now I've essentially done 50% of the hard work anyway, it is getting to the point of being a waste of money getting it blasted because i have stripped so much off manually. But I'll still get it blasted. Bloody wog i am. I hear "very costly and labour intensive for us to remove it" and my arse hole just puckered up! "Not gonna stooge me mate!!!" 2 months later......... (i could have worked overtime instead, and been in a much better position mentally and financially!)

To elaborate on what i said in my video, and to add some more information... The first thing i wanted to try was dry ice. That worked really well for the sound deadener padding on the inside of the cabin. It was really thick, so when it froze it held its integrity and came off in sheets with a chisel and hammer. The issue with the under body stone guard is that it was too thin. So when it froze with dry ice, it would just flake off. I had high hopes for the multi-tool. I found that the blade on it was too flimsy, so it would bend off the sheet metal and not dig in. I even went back to Bunnings and bought a different blade but it had the same issue. The rope wheel on the grinder did work reasonably well, however: It was vibrating badly which really hammered my wrists and hands after extended periods. Doing the wheel wells was tiresome as i was using it upside down. But the number one reason, which i mentioned in the video, is it makes a horrible mess. Now in my job, after laying under a forklift in the middle of a brick yard getting drenched in hydrolic oil on a 40°C day trying to repair burst hoses.... the last thing i want to do is get covered in melted rubber. The dust it would produce was extremely fine, it would get every where and take 2 showers to clean off. I got over it real fast. Heat gun and scraper i found was on par with using paint stripper. I had 4L of paint stripper so i just stuck to that in the end. Apart from the fumes requiring me to wear the respirator, it was relatively mess free compared to the other methods so i just stuck with that. I could get home from work, have a shower and relax a bit, then go in the shed once it cooled down and not get too dirty again afterwards. If someone has a better idea on something that could have worked i'm all ears for next time. I got about 1/4 of the way through the job and realised the under body sealer was still in excellent condition. It was still soft and malleable in 90% of the areas. The thing is i started initial scraping on the outside of the frame rails, the only place it was hard and brittle. So i assumed the rest of it would be the same, i was wrong, that was the only areas it was bad. But i had already done around 20% of it, and thought there is no point half arsing it. Not a spot of rust either, i could have easily re sprayed it black and it would have been fine. O well, job done now i guess Rudi.

Update 28/2/18 - Video 6: Prepping the car for sandblasting. So when my mate came over to look at my car, he instructed me to remove all the seam sealer from inside the cabin of the car, as the sandblaster would not be able to remove it because it was too soft. It honestly took me the better part of a month and then some to remove it all. When i finally thought i had finished, In the beginning of the new year, I went down to the local sandblasters and had a chat. Funny that i initially got a quote from them over 2 years ago, and the price was only $50 more than the old quote, so that was nice! The old boy informed me that i should remove all the under body stone guard / sound deadener. He said he can remove it, but it will be extremely labour intensive and slow, and would add ALOT more to the cost i was quoted. So i went home and removed it all, which took me 2 months... what a prick of a job! Anyway! here is the video: I mentioned it briefly in the video, but i'm thinking of maybe stitch welding the underside of this thing while i got it flipped on its side. I mean, its already nice and clean, easily accessible, i might as well do it now. At the very least, i might do the frame rails. Rudi.

Jeff, quick question. I'm assuming you painted your 911 in a Acrylic paint correct? what paint did you use? Rudi.

Update 26/10/17 - Video 5: garage build and more rust to fix! So the majority of you will have already seen the beginning of this video, because in the first few minutes i just show around the garage and the projects I've been tackling over the last year not car related. Then i tackle some repairs in the rear end. Rudi.

Update 6/10/17 - Building a V8 Forklift!!!! Now for something a little different, here is something out of left field i think you will all be mildly interested in. For those that don't know, I'm a forklift mechanic. This project build started about 3 years ago when one of the managers at work decided they needed something new to promote the business. What to do... shove a 450hp, 383 stroked Chev V8 into a forklift and use it as a promo vehicle! I can't lay claim to doing much on this build, they pretty much lumped it on our fabricator and he had been chipping away at it very slowly over 2 years. a few hours here, a few hours there. They missed 2 deadline years for Bathurst and said right, this needs to be done this year, so our fabricator spent the better half of the last 4 months straight working on this. 383 stroker matched to the factory running gear through a custom adaptor plate. Rear end conversion to Disk brakes to make it do burnouts. My input on the project was getting underneath it and fitting the mast caps because no one else could squeeze under the chassis. That's my pathetic claim to the job haha! Engine: Blueprint engines 383 stroker - 420hp . . Getting close - this was about 2 weeks ago: . And here it is unveiled at bathurst: . 1 I will have to make a video on this thing. Have to gather all the video's from all the boys during the build. Have a few clips of it ripping skids and nearly flipping on its first test run too! Rudi.

Care to elaborate on your process and costs? I had read that recently there was a massive shit show with cars getting pulled apart to check for Asbestos. Apparently there was a massive incident in the building industry, with imported building panelling getting brought over from China, and used at the children's hospital in Perth? So Customs or the Import body, or someone, put down a blanket ban on ALL asbestos products, where until recently you could allow 3% tolerance. So cars were getting stripped, brakes for brake shoes, engines were getting stripped to remove head gaskets etc. One bloke who was the guinea pig, was up so far 15k in costs while his car was at the docks. Did you have to deal with that? Because i hear it was a nightmare. I had considered going through USA to AU also, for another car (not a datsun). And funny enough, other complaints were the same, they were poor on the communication side of things. How much was shipping? and also Fumigation. My mate imported a 32 Ford Tudor, probably 10 years ago now. car cost 32k and he said it was about another 8k in fees, tax, and shipping. Rudi.

Tell me about it. I find myself laying down drop sheets over it when im working on cumbersome heavy parts! I've been told many times... that belongs in the house, not the garage! Hehe yeah i can be found inside the house.... at dinner time! And you would be correct, a hoist was always planned since the begining! cheers! i got a lot of ideas and inspiration from the garage journal forums. It also depressed me, making me realise how poor i actually am! ha!

Update 10.9.17: Shed done! So i reached a milestone last week. I have finally finished the shed... for now.... I celebrated by hanging some memorabilia i had lying around for the last few years, waiting for somewhere to put it. The final piece was the old Japanese flag i have. I scored it from work when it was being replaced by a new one. It had been sitting under my computer desk for around 3 years, waiting for somewhere to go. . As you can see, i also built a brick surround for my Pot belly stove. I also got a custom flue kit made for it, and installed that a few weekends ago. So last week, on a cold Friday night, i celebrated and christened the garage, by cranking up a fire, cracking a few beers and getting some work done, replacing the brakes and coilovers on the silvia. And boy, does the stove throw out some heat! i ended up being in a T shirt and having the windows open it was so hot in there!! . . And here is a photo i took today, with both cars finally resting in their new home: . . The only job left to do is re build the back of the carport. Once that's done, its back onto the zed! Rudi.

Update 22.7.17 - Second workbench done... and a stove? Lots, lots, LOTS been happening in the shed over the last month! Where to begin? I made my second workbench with the help of my mate, who is a extraordinary carpenter. Firstly... acquire toolboxes...... (not that i need anymore...) Start building up the framework: . The basic frame is now complete: Adding some doors, because why not: . Now while this was all happening..... remember this image from a few posts back: . Well my mate helped me pull down the framework, and he took it all home. I only asked for him to make my bench tops and what not from some of the old shed.... So once i had finished the basic framework, he came, took some measurements... and started on his own little woodwork project for me, and started sending me progress pictures: . . And i continued work on my side of things..... getting it ready for paint: . Nice and slickkk! . And today... he came round with the finished wood work... and we got it all put together: . . . And that's the second project done and dusted!! now.... about that stove...... Its very very cold in the garage... much too cold to be working on zeds at night..... i needed some heating. i needed heat... but im a idiot... so what does that mean? No, don't do the sensible thing and go to bunnings and buy a electric heater for $30 and call it a day. No.... go and buy a 80 year coal burning pot belly stove to restore.... which i did....... and after about 6 hours work with a wire wheel: . And then i got a interesting phone call a week after i bought the pot belly stove..... From Perth...... So this old bloke rings me. He saw the advertisement on Gumtree, rang, was told the stove had sold to me, and he promptly asked for my number. Turns out he is restoring a vintage 1930's Western Australia State rail caboose. Apparently this pot belly stove is actually out of a caboose. It is a van guards stove. And he happened to offer me 8 times what i paid for it not 1 week after i got it. His sister lives in Sydney, and came and picked it up the following day, and my wife couldn't believe what the hell just happend! neither could i! And i was left stoveless! but RICH! So i hopped back on Gumtree again, and with 8x the cash i had out layed previously, i found myself another pot belly stove, a GRAND POTBELLY STOVE: And I'm currently working on this little project. I've milled down the un even mating surfaces, cut back all the rust with a wire wheel brush on a drill. Un-froze the front ash door and air control knob. Used a Oxy torch to remove all the snapped bolts that held it together (which was all of them) Last thing to do is make a top hat and chimney spout out of some thick plate steel, and go buy a flue kit! Once that project is done, and im nice and toasty warm in the garage, i might get back onto the zed. But i must admit, I have been having a blast building everything to deck out the garage! Rudi.

Great to see a update George! As one of the twisted old cocks at work once said to me.. "how do you eat a elephant?"...... "One bite at a time". I was feeling equally overwhelmed at the prospect of doing my car, to the standard i know i will end up building it to. It does get you down, i know. But its either you try, and fail. Some people might not think it has been built to the utmost standard. But at the end of the day you will have still built a car that you can enjoy, and drive. And because the body work is already done, Anything you do that might not be 100% can be very easily fixed or touched up at a later stage. Or you can stay paralyzed with fear, and your car will never be complete, and you will never enjoy it. Do you really want a 30-40k paperweight sitting in the garage gathering dust? And its hard... especially now in winter. I struggle to get out of the heated house to go into a freezing cold garage. I have used that excuse too. Anyway..... i found some old photo's of you from back in the day, i was here, but hanging around with Loz's other mates, so before we knew each other properly...... these should give you some motivation to get on with it! . now get on with it! Rudi.

Update 19/6/17: Pimp my shed... then... maybe... the zed! So its been a very very busy month for me. I've been decking out the shed, spending usually a hour or 2 every afternoon chipping away at it. And now i'm about 60% complete. Firstly, i sorted out all that racking: Then on to the first major project. Building a workbench that would also hide my air compressor, saving some room. First step is get some metal, Its a mix of stuff i had to buy and steel i scored from work: building up the frame: Welding on the bench top and adding bracing underneath it: Welding on the side plate: The right hand side needed to be removable, so i could wheel in and out my air compressor, So i drilled into the C channel and tapped the holes, and made a removable plate: building up the frame for the doors: welding on the door skins, i scored the 2mm plate out of the scrap bin at work: door mounted and welded up on the hinges: finished and painted: . . So this was a major hurdle completed. I didn't really know which direction i was going with the bench when i started, i just winged it and went with the flow. Really chuffed how it turned out. It was about 3 weeks of work, 2 hours every day after work and 2 saturdays straight. Next on the list is building another bench for the right hand side of the garage. It will have toolboxes sunken into it, and i plan on inlaying wood into the sides, and into the bench top. My mate is a cabinet maker, and a dam fine one at that. When we knocked down the old garage he took all the 60 year old hardwood framework from it, and said he will make my bench tops out of it. Plenty of work getting done here! and: Yeah, i do have insulation / Sarking in the roof, and i plan on getting something for the walls too. Rudi.

Update 14.5.17: Garage done! Finally! the garage is built! But i still have a while before work continues on the zed. Things to do: 1. Finish building my pallet racking storage, possibly getting another one 2. Build 2 work benches, spanning the full length of the back wall. One to hide my air compressor, 1 for working on and sinking a toolbox or 2 into. 3. Get a hoist put it 4. Maybe start working on the car again? Here she is! Plenty of room to store more zeds! . I went and got about 40 meters of box steel. Should be enough to make all my benches. Also scored the old dexion racking out of the scrap bin at work. have to narrow it down from standard pallet size to about 600mm wide. So yeah, I haven't stopped working. I really need to come out on another cruise, and no George, no mini Rudi's yet! Rudi.

Minor Update 22.2.17: Not dead... still alive.... plenty happning So my last update was around 3 months ago, and I've been real busy in that time. I had a mate who is a car restorer come over, and look over my car, and is extremely happy with the repair work i have done. All i have to do now is go around and fill a few pin holes here and there, scrape the seam sealer out of the corners of the interior and I'm ready for paint. I have already filled all pin holes on the drivers side too. He just came to give me a quote, he is booked for the next 2 years, So i will have to find another painter, but at least i have a general idea what it will cost me. he also fixed my fuel door area where it had sunk in when i welded it, i know a few people commented on that, Gav for instance... Well he grabbed a bricky's chisel and a hammer and beat the hell out of my rear quarter, and in 5 minutes its near perfect... GREAT! but umm.... then everything came to a grinding halt..... i went from this: to....well.... yeah..... And finally, uhhh: So after 2 years battling with council, Late last year i got my construction certificate to build my double garage. Believe it or not, i have spent MORE money, on red bureaucratic tape, to get approval, than the actual cost of the double garage........ flood management reports, storm water reports, survey and peg out of sewer lines....... its been a massive battle! Everything is packed away in the garden shed, Its packed to the roof, so i have no access to anything, and the car as you can see is under half a carport. I wanted to get my new garage built BEFORE i got the car sandblasted, half the reason i had been farting around with the car the last few months. I knew the car would be out in the elements for a few months while i get this sorted. So id rather it be hit by the elements now, get surface rust, whatever, when the shed is done, I will get it blasted, then it can be wheeled back into a brand new garage out of the elements. Also, the head gasket blew on the Silvia over Christmas, and with no garage, no tools, nothing, i could not be bothered attempting to fix it myself, gave it to my mates workshop, he chucked in a Tomei Metal headgasket and ARP head studs. Hopefully she will be safe to 30psi now IF i go E85. But to be honest, I don't want to spend any more money on it. Atleast these mods safe proof it for the power it has. So yeah.... Seem's I'll be out of comission for a few more months yet. Slab should be poured this week or next week, the piers are done already, Shed has a 6-8 week lead time. Rudi!

ummm im 99.999% sure that this car was restored by Mark..... So it would have been done properly. If i recall from following it on facebook, it was a customers car, he either ran out of money or didn't want to complete it, because i remember Mark letting it go unfinished...... Here we go.... I just looked at the facebook link that was in the ebay ad. Some lad's build, his cover photo of the car is from Marks Workshop, look you can see Lucinda and Oscar in the background. Now go back to the Ebay ad, look at the car, shell is fresh painted white with rusted ratty old panels bolted onto it, old doors, fenders, hood and hatch. Its worth every penny BAM! Rudi

Video Update #4: Fixing the rusty roof! Ok well this episode was a long time coming! I know Alex has been eagerly awaiting its release! Don't worry bro, you kept me motivated and productive to smash out this section haha. So this was quite abit of fiddly work, a lot of prototypes before i was happy with the final result. Now this is Done all the major rust (as far as im aware) is completed on the car. There are 2 more spots the size of a 10c piece which i will be able to smash out in 1 after noon. So essentially the car is now ready for sandblasting and to be sealed up. Which leads me to a question. Sydney people, who have you used for sandblasting and were you happy with the results. I think i read PeterAllen used someone in the northern beaches maybe? but i cant recall. I need someone to sandblast the whole chassis and epoxy prime the whole thing + paint the under carriage black. I'm thinking to rebuild the suspension, paint it all, get the diff rebuilt, lower it with shocks and springs, then send it to paint once its a rolling chassis, but i'll talk to my painter about that one. Rudi.

That's the one i posted about on the last page! It was for sale on Gumtree not even 1 day, it was for sale in Engadine for 4k!!! Workmate told me about it, i rang but it was sold. I was going to buy it for the running gear and bin the rest Rudi

ok which one of you bought that 260z 2+2 from gumtree in Engadine for 4k? It had a 308 with 5 speed supra box fully engineered, the ad has already been pulled, it was up 1 day =( (dont think the car was good, it hadn't been registered in 15 years and looked like it came out the bottom of the swamp, was a bin the shell keep the running gear kind of deal)

what a monster first post, how many hours did it take you to write that all up lol! Great start mate, How are you finding the KBS coatings? I started off with Por15 and wasn't happy after getting 1 tin of paint that had gone off, I then switched to the KBS coatings and i have mixed opinions about it. I find its extremely annoying and time consuming to do all the steps with the marine clean, rust blast and paint, making sure everything is 100000% clean, new paint brushes used every time, only to have grit and silt settle in the paint before it cures (probably dusty/dirty garage) and i have never got a flat smooth finish. also it has reacted and formed air bubbles in some sections, which is then easy to peel off. In saying that, im using it on bright clean metal, and i know it works best on old pitted rusted metal as it has something to "grab into" Ive since been trying eastwood frame rail coater and so far im happy with the results. Rudi

Awesome to see an update with your car mate! I know the feeling of being in a rush, my car might be out in the elements for a month or two soon, so i'm rushing to get the rust repairs finished. Are those shorter 240z strut tops for the back end of the car? Rudi

UPDATE 12/9/16 - sneak peek at the roof repairs..... Just thought I would leave this here to show ya'll what im working on at the moment, remaking the pocket that the hinge sits in...... video update to come later...... NEW VS OLD Rudi

Video Update #3: Fixing rust in the hatch. Wow, so its been quite a while since my last update, but going to Japan really got me keen to keep working on the zed, it was just the motivation i needed! If anyone missed that post, i took photos of more zeds than i could poke a stick at, they can all be found in this thread: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/15121-rudis-honeymoon-in-japan-went-to-a-few-workshops-still-married/ But it was time to get back to business, and i decided to tackle some of the rust in the rear hatch area. Next up will be another big area, the back of the roof where the hinge sits. I'm keen to get the metal work done asap, as after a year of battling with council, hopefully i am close to getting DA approval to build a double garage at my place, with enough room to fill it with a few more zeds hopefully! So it would be nice if my car was with my painter when i get approval, so then new garage can be build while i don't have my car. anyway, on to the video! Cheers! Rudi.