Mike_F

Another couple of channels I have been watching are Silvester Customs https://www.youtube.com/c/SYLVESTERSCUSTOMS and Wray Schelin's pro shaper https://www.youtube.com/c/proshaper These guys do next level body work. Both are dead against sandblasting, which is interesting. Wray talks about the micro-pitting and warpage, as does Silvesters. I wonder if there are rogue sandblasters in the US that smash the cars with ball bearing sized pellets of sand or something, because the C.A.R results look pretty solid in the photos and he seems to sandblast.

Hey mate, check this vid out - he's attempting to get the undercoating off his US 280z using a variety of techniques. Its entertaining...

Chapter 14: The Double Entendre One of my favourite youtube channels is "Home built by Jeff". Its entertaining, informative, Mrs Jeff is hilarious, and it shows that us backyard guys can do these things pretty well as a hobby. I also love the quote "if its worth doing well, its worth doing twice!". Which brings me to that rusty drip rail thing in the engine bay. I originally tried making it out of a single piece, and I was sooo close. Literally a couple of mm ... but I couldn't get it to sit right. It kept fighting me. It wouldn't sit flat. I hammered, dolly'd, rolled, twisted, yelled and screamed at it - but all to no avail. So I started it again, but used a different technique - I built it out of a couple of pieces and welded them together. So much quicker and looks just as good. While I'm a little disappointed in myself that I couldn't quite nail it from a single piece, I also had to move on... I welded it in, cleaned it up and then nuked that area with Rust Encapsulator. Next Chapter - I'm taking the car back to the future ... way back, to the Fred Flinstone days!

I can't believe how hard he hit the tree, but it looks like he broke his ankle 10 m beforehand. I hope he heals up quickly!

I didn't end up going down - been smashed at work recently and not riding enough to do a solo 4 hour. Did you go for a spin?

I haven't ridden the Cotter Pines trails yet. I am half tempted to head down to Canberra for the Rocky Trail on the 19th of Feb (probably a solo 4 hour), so I might check out Cotter the following day ... if I can still walk...

Anyone else impressed at how clean the garage is? #Respect!

Nice! I'm still in two minds as whether to do the great looking but impractical fender mirrors, or to use the door mirrors that the car actually came with... What were the determining factors for going with the door mirrors for you?

How much did you need to strip off behind it?

You won't know what to do with yourself. You might have to drive the car on the beach a few times, reverse a boat into the water etc ... otherwise you'll be lost! ;-)

Is that a spare by any chance?

There's nothing worse than a crusty rear end! Do you already have a rear valance?

I like the look of those bumpers! I have noticed that mine have 2 vertical things on the front of them (are they called "overrides"??). Does anyone know which years had those vs which didn't?

The weekend just gone involved a bunch of riding, with about 3.5 hours on Saturday and about 2.5 hours on Sunday (mostly volunteering with a school mountain biking clinic). But, there was some Datto action too! Firstly, I seam-sealed in the engine bay (where I had primed) and in the cowl area. I used a "gun" style applicator which came out soooo much neater than the stuff from a tin. Then, while the front was drying I thought I would tackle the back RHS panel, with a goal to weld on the new KV Panel. So, I enthusiastically drilled out the necessary spot welds, and used the angle grinder to cut off the damaged panel (leaving about an inch spare to "play with"). When I test fitted the panel, it looked an absolute treat! I measured from the hatch edge down to the bumper indent at different distances from the bottom edge and compared it with the distances I was getting on the other side, which resulted in the above alignment. It looks perfect! Even the bottom, where the rear valance lines up with the new green goodness, looks perfect! However, rusty demons of dirt have clearly been transforming more of my inner paneling; some of it as a biproduct of an accident at some point, but others because of, well, Datsun. This latter rust, on the inside wheel arch, is going to require me to "raise the Kimono" in order to ascertain how much crustiness is lurking behind that curvy Japanese facade. But rather than cut the outer panel away to see what is behind it, I am instead going to wire-wheel around the inner part of the guard and see if this crustiness comes through. If it goes higher, then I might need a tabco order because creating a replacement panel by hand (no english wheel or bead roller) is beyond me. I think. But, to get the wire wheel in there I need to remove the rear suspension stuff again, which requires wriggling under the car, which I would prefer to do when my wife is around to hear me scream. So, I decided to do some more research and move back to the front. So - remember that point about hating things being half done? Well, yeah, I keep starting things. So, one of the things I half finished (see what I did there? glass half full!!!) was the engine bay. The reason I half did it was due to, well, rust ... on the LHS where the guard bolts on. So, I cut the piece out and fabricated a new part, which was quite difficult, but I'm mostly there! I love those completely arbitrary curves, that serve no purpose other than to make creating repair panels harder. This was very cheesy with lots of holes in that "water channel that leads nowehere" It curves down, and curves in. All for a part of the car that no-one sees! Which is a shame. Almost there! I need a little more fettling until it fits perfectly. Next is to trim it back to size, weld a self-captive nut in the appropriate place, drill some holes for spot welds, apply some weld-through primer and weld it back on. I haven't worked out how I'm going to weld that channel yet, but worse come to worse I'll cut out an access gap so that I can get in there with the welder and a die grinder to cleaner it up, then weld the access flap back on. We'll see. Cheers for now! Mike

Hi Agno, Sorry to hear about your mum. That's terrible that someone chose not to smoke but died from it anyway. I agree with your sentiment on the above comment - I think so many people cling to words from that 0.01% who seem impervious to the negative impacts of smoking, without actually considering the facts/statistics without bias. And thanks for the feedback on the journal so far! I am hoping to have a solid weekend on it, although a bunch of work seems to be at loggerheads next week so I'll probably have to spend some time this week getting ahead of that. Cheers, Mike

Ahhh - the million dollar question. I think I have formulated a plan where I can get it into primer, and maybe even high build, and do all of the sanding and prep without needing a spray booth nor causing danger to myself, my family or my neighbours. Then, once prep work is complete, its time to send it back down to Canberra where my brother has a mate who knows someone, then my people can speak to their people and we can hire a spray booth. I basically don't want to spend all this time repairing panels, skimming, sanding, prepping etc only to have a rubbish paint job due to dust and flies. That'd just make my eye twitch.

Chapter 12 - Glacial Movement is still Movement Its been pretty slow progress on Z of late. I've been heading to and from Canberra every second weekend to visit my mother in hospital (yes, smoking causes strokes), race mountain bikes, help my brother with his house, and even found some time to visit CBR Jeff. With all of those km's being racked up on the car and the bikes, I have managed to move forward with Zee. I figure its better to do bits and pieces than do nothing at all. I welded the bonnet latch bracket back into place: I put RivNuts in place for the Battery Tray using my brothers broken RivNut tool (ie a Hex Bolt with a big free floating nut that to pull against): I have prepared the inside of the cowl area for some seam sealer, and I figured I would do some more seam sealing around the battery tray area (on both sides) where it meets the firewall. But, before I can do that I need to lay down some primer, so I cleaned up the engine bay a bit and primed half of it: Why didn't I just prime the whole engine bay while I was there? Well... 1. I hate having things half finished, and I want to finish the Cowl area off, which has a sequence to it which start with Seam Sealer. So that's priority. 2. I need to repair some of the bracket that the front guard hangs over - the same bracket that is welded onto the strut tower. 3. I would need to get the front suspension components off to do the engine bay in its entirety, which I don't want to do yet. This weekend I intend on being in Sydney, so I want to get a bunch more done - hopefully zip that cowl area up for good. I also want to make a start on that back RH guard now that I have the green repair panel from Columbia, which will remove much of the crumpled mess there. Now, onto a serious note. My mother has finally decided to stop smoking. She is 69 years old, and started smoking when she was about 9. But, unfortunately for my mother, this decision has come too late. In January, 1/3 of her brain was damaged as a result of the blood clot induced stroke. He left arm doesn't work, she's blind in her left eye, and her left leg isn't too good at the moment either - after about 3 months of rehab, she can struggle to pull herself from a seated to a standing position. While she still has her excellent sense of humour, her cognitive ability has suffered significantly - snakes and ladders is a big challenge, as are children's puzzles. She has a very long and tough road ahead of her (years of rehab), and so does my Dad who is always at her side. My message to our Z family: If you smoke, don't wait until a debilitating stroke forces you to reconsider your health choices - because by then its too late for both you and your loved ones who will be looking after you. Giving up smoking will not be easy - the nicotine receptors in your brain, which are like ticks that suck the life out of their host, will fight you at every step. But over time, you will starve them to death and their need for your smoking will become less and less. But, it will be worth it. You'll look back in amazement at how good you feel once you have given it up. And you will have a much better chance at living out your days healthy, and on your terms. Hopefully, for us, that means still hurtling our Z's along winding country roads, windows down, listening to that roar echoing through the trees as we shift back a gear and allow the engine to rev back up towards redline - Grinning from ear to ear as we do it. That should be our twighlight years - doing that, not wishing we could do that. Mike

Ahh - I found this on another forum (see below). It looks like a Zinc Chromate Primer. I think the guy in the last comment (Gerson) might be the owner or at least works there. He recommends "taking it off and respraying with the primer of your choice". https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=495987 Given that Zinc Chromate is meant to be a rust inhibitor, I wonder if its still necessary to repaint the inside of the panels...

For anyone that has used this supplier before, what did you do with the green paint? Did you remove it before putting an epoxy primer over it, or keep it or what? Does anyone know what the paint is?

You did well to get a bike! There seems to be a crazy shortage at the moment - too much demand coupled with supply chain problems == people selling second hand bikes for more than brand new!!

In my infinite wisdom, I used a texta. Which has now completely disappeared. But, I do have 4 spot weld holes! But, those holes seem to "mate" nicely with one another, so I think I'm sorted Also, is it just me or does everyone think this bracket is a beautifully sculpted piece of art? Ok, its just me then.

Chapter 11 - Easter Eggsistentialism I enjoy working on my car - I really do - but sometimes I catch myself chasing my own tail. And sometimes, as a result, things can start to get a bit overwhelming. At those times I like to stop and take stock - I ask myself the important and deep questions like; Why am I feeling this way? What am I concerned about? Is this a problem of my own making, and if so, what is it? How much time is this project taking? Is that the right amount of time? Does time really exist anyway? What is 'reality', and do we truly make our own decisions? And what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow? At the point, I usually realise I am just procrastinating as a result of having too much unfinished stuff on the go while also being super keen to start on the next bit. So, I just need to knuckle down and finish some stuff off! And that's how I spent literally 1 afternoon in Easter. Battery Tray area spot welded in. Tick. Next step, which seems to be the trend, is to bolt the battery tray in place. Hmmm. Scraped back the shonky seam sealer inside the cowl area and repaint. Tick. Allow to dry before doing a better job with the seam sealer. Tick. Finish off the air tube thing. Tick. This is the bottom of it, which will be spot welded to from beneath. Wish me luck with that one... Does this have an actual name, or is "air tube thing" about as good as it gets? Put some paint on the air tube thing. Tick. Put some paint on the inside of the Bonnet Latch Bracket. Tick. So, why haven't I done more? I've been going down to Canberra every second weekend to visit a sick parent in hospital. Bike riding, Bike Maintenance, kids and household maintenance. A cable on my garage door broke. What a pain in the butt that was to fix! But, I have a plan of attack! Utilise 1 hour each evening to do stuff on the car (when I'm working from home). Weld in the Bonnet Latch Bracket. Seam Seal the inside of the cowl while I have full access. Weld in the Air Tube Thing. Weld in the Air Tube Thing Cover. Weld in the Window Wiper Motor Bracket. If I can do that by the end of the week, I'll be happy, because I might be driving back down to Canberra on Friday night (assuming my Outback gets repaired - someone rear-ended me on the M7 a fortnight ago). So, question of the day. I need to weld that Bonnet Latch Bracket in place. I still have indents where the original spot welds were and the associated holes in the bracket, so it should line up pretty nicely. But - how accurate does this need to be? If I get this wrong, will that mean that bonnet won't close, or will close crooked or something? Thoughts? Oh, and I saw these meme which pretty much spells out my Z journey so far.

Battery tray part II Remember when you were in school and you thought "I'm never going to use this! I'm quitting!". Yeah, that was me in Kindergarten. And yet, look at this... I'm using my skills! Thank you Mr's Kindergarten Teacher! This is filling in a "relief cut", because I don't have an english wheel to make nice neat hollows in metal. As a reminder, this is the piece fitting pretty neatly under the battery tray. Once I had the relief cuts welded in, I next had to make the flange, which I did by putting a large piece of metal up against the firewall (held on by magnet), putting the new guard piece in place and then spot welding the two together. Then I took it off, welded the inside, ground back the excess on the top, welded the corner, and then ground it all back into a nice neat corner. Then, it was test fit time again, complete with my magic green battery tray. Then came the scary bit, which was also the slow bit. I cut the original guard away and slowly but surely fit the new panel in, grinding away metal on one or the other until it all fit perfectly. This took me hours, where I must have refit the whole thing about 100 times, slowly but surely inching my way forward. I'm sure "Fitze" would have "cut and butt" and had it done in 15 minutes, but I am far less brave. Once it was in, I tacked it, made sure it fit again, massaged some of the curves so that they flowed without any low spots where the weld was going to go, and then put more tacks in, before welding sections between the tacks. This is how far I got before "Sunday night family phone calls" kicked in. I should be able to finish this off tonight. The funny thing is I was expecting to complete this on Saturday. Yeah-nah. I hope you all managed to stay dry over this crazy weekend, and that none of your precious Z's got flooded! Cheers, Mike

Chapter 10 - All caught up Last chapter we patched the roof skin, and while I was in denial about the need to remove the entire roof skin, I decided it was a good time to tackle that small piece of rust on the firewall. First step was to get the engine and gearbox out. In order to achieve this there were 3 things that I needed; an Engine Mount, an Engine Hoist, and a Son. So, I went upstairs into one of the rooms that I have up there, scrounged around in all of the mess and managed to find a Son. Tick! We then went to Total Tools and bought an Engine Mount, and then swung back via a mates place to borrow his hoist and engine leveler. Interesting fact for the physicists out there, especially those interested in "conservation of energy". When smashing your forehead into a fully loaded engine hoist, there is zero energy transfer. No heat, no movement, not even a satisfying "dongggg". Nothing. Ask me how I know... Anyway, my son and I carefully disconnected all wires and hoses off both the engine and gearbox, and labelled them so that I had a fighting chance of putting it all back together again. For added insurance, I also took a bunch of photos. Some stuff came off easily, and other stuff just fell apart such as the hydraulic clutch hose (that looked as though a rat had eaten it at some point) and some other wires that went into the gearbox. To get the engine out, we first needed to get the radiator out which was pretty easy, and then disconnect the gearbox from the car. I couldn't seem to get the shifter off, but it looked like I had enough room under the car, especially since I had to raise the car a bit anyway to clear the legs of the engine hoist. As it turned out, we made 2 mistakes. Mistake 1, I should have tried much harder to get the gear stick off as that would have made things waaaaay easier. Mistake 2, I put the leveller on back to front (had the handle to the front of the car instead of the back), so after a certain point I could no longer wind the handle. Doh! Lucky there was two of us getting this all out, so one of us could lever down the end of the gearbox so that we could angle it all correctly to come out. But it came out without too much fuss. I also left the headers on because I didn't want to, aherm, exhaust myself. After an evening of hi-fiving, I moved onto the rust! I first had to ascertain what I was dealing with, so I removed the battery tray and also cleaned the paint off 2/3 of the firewall. There was cheese under the battery tray, and more rust along a horizontal line along the firewall, which unfortunately incorporated the bonnet latch mount. Battery induced cheese! Is it battery acid or that battery powder stuff that accumulates on the terminals that causes this? Since, apparently, I was now into taking things off cars that were never meant to be removed, I removed the hood latch mount from inside in the engine bay, and then the wiper engine mount and something on the cowell that was covering the air hole for the heater. No pressure, but if I don't get that back on just perfectly, I won't be able to close the bonnet. Under the air/water cover thing was a rectangular tube which was really rusty on one side. Seam sealer was everywhere, haphazardly applied in big random chunks by a gorilla with parkinsons disease. It was not a surprise that this had caused a build up of crap that had caused things to rust out, and I could now see into the cabin AND into the engine bay from outside the car. That was not good. Air Vent Rust. To tackle this beast, I decided to cut strips out of the firewall, then cut out the rusty cowel behind it, fabricate and weld in new cowel, then fabricate and weld in new firewall. Once I had done all of that, I'll then re-spot weld the firewall to the cowel. Tips for young players: Weld the cowel piece in BEFORE welding in the firewall, so that have better access. Cut the rust out, but make sure I cut far enough back that I can get access with the welder and the sander. get the fit. This first time I fixed the firewall first, and it was a pain in the butt. All welded and cleaned up. I need this pieces to flow the water out of there nicely. \ Firewall patch underway. All cleaned up. The theory worked, but it was a pain in the butt. It was quite hard to get the welder into many of those places (either from above or from below) and even harder to clean it up with any kind of grinding or sanding tool. But, with a tonne of patience, I got there in the end. SO much rust in there. Fabbing the new piece. Bend the outer, weld the inner. Looks just like a bought one. Tadaaa! I now need to make a new rectangular tube, which is fairly easy. This is what it looks like so far. But before I weld that in, and remove my access to the passenger side cowel area, I want to rust protect and seam-seal. So, I then sanded the inside by hand and nuked it all with a rust encapsulator. There's nothing quite like a random piece of poly pipe for getting the perfect corners. Making the new piece. There is also an extra strip of metal inside the cowel that doesn't seem to do much except to funnel water into the join between the firewall and the cowel, but was shaped "just right" to run some seam sealer in there. Channelling the above Ape with a neurological disorder, I attempted to put "brush on" seam sealer there, and failed dismally. So now I need to ctrl-z that piece of work and try again with a caulk gun seam sealer. I love redoing stuff. Now onto the battery tray area. First of all, I know I'm going to have to replace a bunch of that guard, so I made a cardboard design, making relief cuts everywhere to get the right shapes and sticky-taping it together. The cardboard looked so awesome I wish it would weld onto metal, but alas I had to transfer onto 18 gauge and made a piece that approximated what I needed. Its coming along nicely, I think. Then I tackled the rust where the guard meets the firewall. I cut away the guard so that I could access the firewall and then proceeded to cut out the rust. The firewall itself wasn't flush - it was bowed in towards the passenger a fair bit. I hoped that with the heating and cooling of the welding, it would shrink the metal into place, but I wanted it to shrink to the right place, so I set up a dodgy rig to push the firewall to square. Then I welded in my new pieces. To my delight, when I removed my rig the firewall was square again! Yay! Using a level as a lever, so that we can straighten up the firewall from inside the passenger footwell. Firewall is now much better, and I'm ready to finish off the battery tray area. The battery tray itself had seen a previous repair, but wasn't too bad. It needed a tidy up, but instead of using the usual methods I had to my disposal in my garage, I decided to use magic instead. I pulled out my longest screwdriver, waved it in the air like Ronald Weasly, and chanted Rustiest Expeleramous! Booof! To my amazement, a package from Columbia immediately arrived! New battery tray, all the way from Columbia! Glad I didn't try to order coffee... Yeah - creating my own battery tray would have taken waaaay too long. Also, I think i sorted out a lot of my mess on the back right hand side too! Yay! So, now you're all caught up! What is next for me to do on this build? Finish under the battery tray. Re-seam seal the cowel area Finish off the rectanglular breather tube thing and weld that into place. Add some more rust proofing paint around that Weld the cover back onto that thing Weld the wiper mount back into place Weld the bonnet catch bracket back on Tackle the roof skin Tackle a small amount of rust above the rear quarter windows Tackle the back right hand side Floor Pans Doors A question for you guru's: I have noticed that people have taken to bolting on the battery tray instead of welding it on. Why?

Looked like a great weekend, Jeff. I, on the other hand, was down your way over the weekend enjoying East Kowen and helping my brother render his house.