I spoke with John from Envirostrip this morning about sandblasting my shell. I wanted to know how much I would save by doing the job myself. He quoted me $2000 gst inc for a sandblast and primer of my shell. It appears I'm not saving much money at all by doing it myself and if I add in the cost of what I earn an hour plus my mates I'm actually losing money. I'm already at $1000 for primer, grit and petrol. All that's left is more petrol, food, beer and time.

Average cost is $2000 to $2500 doing the stripping yourself, cost goes up a lot if he has to remove parts.To get this price the car had to be stripped and be just a rolling shell. John also blasts at low pressure 30psi to avoid any panel distortion. This he can do quite effectively.

Also if you choose to get it powder coated he always uses an etch primer underneath. The only thing I wasn't happy with about his job was that he wouldn't get into the inside of a lot of places.

http://www.envirostrip.com.au/

Address 3 Cosgrove Road

Enfield NSW

AUSTRALIA 2136

enquiries@envirostrip.com.au

sales@envirostrip.com.au

Phone/Fax 02 9642 7533

Mobile 0410620743 or 0433176796

I have attached a few photo's of my passenger side chassis rail, as you can see the long box section that goes into the engine bay was full of rust, the big lunch box size sections next to it were fine. The driver side rail had only just started to go.

This would not be fixed by a sandblaster unless you opened up the rail for them.

Can other K owners go and check the state of their rails please, you can get your finger into the big hole without laying on the ground. I'd like to know if anyone else is having the same problem as me.

i spent the weekend stripping the Bonnet and boot lid with the full complement of POR products

the POR paint stripper worked very well, the thicker you lay it on the better! it does stink though.. it was pretty cool to watch the paint bubble off in large sections. It did take a while to strip the underside of the bonnet.. lots and lots of scraping in very hard to get places.. downside is of course, i couldn't get right into the frame..

marine clean and metal ready went on okay, it is easy to wash into hard to get places.

POR15 grey went on okay as well, just brushed it on as suggested. I didn't get it into the inside frame of the bonnet like i wanted to, i am not sure if i should bother trying to wash it through, it could be a waste, but it is also an area which i would imagine is prone to rust.

I think it was good that i did strip them, there were lots of small veins of rust on the tops, and a fair bit of surface rust on the bonnet frames

not quite finished yet (stripping took all of yesterday, and i only had time to clean and paint 1/2 of it today), but i will get some pics up.. i also tried stripping the front lower valance, but it is a bit of a mess with surface rust.. i think sand blasting is the go for that one..

next weekend, i will look at stripping one of the fenders (we did a bit of work bending/cutting in the guards to fit the front flares)

I think the POR stripper will work pretty well on the engine bay, just not looking forward to all the crevices.. body panels should be fairly easy..

i used about 150mls of POR15 for the bonnot bottom and the boot lid, i think the 4L will go fairly quickly

I also had a fun weekend using POR, did you manage to spray it on your face and hands? I seem to be very talented in that department and can't wait for my first meeting Monday morning.

My bonnet is absolutely rooted with rust flakes floating around the inside of it, it's so bad I feel like getting another bonnet (this is actually the second anyway) as I will have to seperate the frame from the top to fix the rust. The bonus is that I'll know it's fine for 15 years+ as opposed to getting another and having this problem in 2 years.

Aren't you worried about the inside Kent?

I'm kinda considering just spraying por with the spray pot with flexible tip into the cavities and just being done with it. A few really rusty test pieces I por'd came up so good I feel like it would be fine to just brush the loose rust off and por without removing every spec of the rust.

What do you think guys? is the bonnet worth seperating into 2 pieces to totally fix every spec of rust?

I blasted the inner guards and most of the underbody and inside the chassis rails then applied two coats of POR. It looks really good I'll post photo's when the rear is finished. That's 2 full days spent so far just blasting and primering the body I can't wait for it to be finished.

Sandblast the whole engine bay Kent, mine went fine (no warping) and was stripped and sprayed in a day with just me doing it. In saying that I will not be sandblasting any large flat panels from fear of warping.

I am afraid, any compressor spraying (or large areas of sandblasting) is out of the question for me where the car is, so i am going to have to resort to more complex methods

It looks like ppc do a aerosol pass through type spray can, which may allow me to spray the por15 into the frames.. seems $$$ at $18, but i have not seen anything similar so far.

i hope that it is okay to leave the metal bare after metal readying it (and wishing it off), for a week.. hope it doesn't rust up even more!?

it would be quite an effort to seperate the frame and bonnet... if you did, you could look at getting a carbon fibre/fibreglass copy made and bond it to the steel frame that would solve any rust issues !!!

I should be finished my shell shortly, when that's done we will be able to take yours up to Newcastle and do the engine bay if you want. I also have a modified body deadner gun that you could borrow to get into the cavities, it works alright.

It says on the Por instructions that it adheres best to rusty surfaces so I wouldn't worry about 1 week. I did a few test pieces that just had the rust removed by rubbing a hand over them and they came up fantastic with 1 thin coat.

A copy of the bonnet would be great but it is already missing some of the front left corner. It's so bad I'm not sure I should even bother with it.... it has to be pulled apart to be fixed that's for sure.

My bro missed the M3 auction at the insurance place so won't be bringing it into the country. He's gone and bought a M3 CSL now...surprise surprise I'll be aiming to get that over in a year. At least I can book the vert back into the engineers for the engine and suspension mods asap

thanks, i may take you up on the offer of the body deadner gun.. that could be a huge help.

here are some photo's of my efforts last weekend, http://www.project240k.com/images/thumbnails.php?album=30

yesterday we spent stripping the front fenders, and welding up the ex-bogged up rust holes... it certainly slows you down when you hit bog..

I also started stripping the front of the car to see how it would go on the 2-pak, and it came up very well, all the little crevices are a pain, but nothing lots of stripper and wire wool doesn't fix i don't think the engine bay will be too much of a hassle, unless it is bogged up too.. i took some photo's of the fenders and front, but they didn't come out on my phone so i will get them next weekend..

i have almost used the 4L of stripper (probably 300ml left) just on the bonnet, boot lid, front fenders.. but well worth it so far! i am hoping i get a lot better coverage of the POR

you must've got quite a workout, the k having the heaviest bonnets of all the datsuns

it was a lot worse trying to swish a bonnet full of water and marine clean around

you must've got quite a workout, the k having the heaviest bonnets of all the datsuns

Heavier than a 260C or 280C?? How many bonnets have you picked up :squareeye

Anyone want to make a fibreglass bonnet? I'd buy one.

me too .

Someone makes them. Remember the Blue 240K that got sold to a p plater on here, then he started complaining about it being a "death trap". He re-sold it again, but when he sold it it had a a F/G bonnet, as aparently the metal one was so rusty.

So someone must make one.

this one? http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19042&highlight=240k+coupe+blue

Can't stop fantasising about a carbonfibre bonnet as we don't really have enough numbers to warrant building the moulds for the fibreglassing.

I hopefully will be finished the majority of stripping/painting the shell this weekend so you should be able borrow the modified gun next week to get into the cavities Kent.

As it stands i'm going to drop my bonnet, doors and boot lid into Redistrip at blacktown to strip them next week at a cost of $600 gst inc. $2000 to strip a whole car not painted though. I'll then cover them in POR before high build primer. The bonnet will be going to the panel beaters to get welded up the front passenger corner exists no more.