280z rebuild from the ground up

[andres14oj]

dont get me wrong, i spend most of my spare time doing research on all the topics of my interest such as this. i have found a few good threads including a couple in this site, one in which someone mentions the importance of rust prevention afterwards. the thing is that almost not one talks about this on any other thread, yes they talk about the different techniques to stitch and seam weld, the most important areas to weld, preparation and so on. But my main concern would be rust prevention afterwards. One thing that i also found very interesting is the leveling of the car before u start stitch welding, otherwise u may end up welding it crooked haha.

But dont worry, i've been on the forums for long enough to understand how flaming works, im not just running off to another forum asking to be spoon fed.

[andres14oj]

cut out the passenger side quarter panel end, not much rust inthere, lucky.

Im also finally getting the hamg out of my cheap harbor freight portable sand blaster, gotta say, im really excited about it!

i also started working on my painting booth. It will be a "drop down" paint booth, four curtains, 20'x11', wood frame on the bottom, strings and pulleys mechanism. should be able to go up and down since i will be working on different areas at a time with days in between and i cant have it on the way.

[andres14oj]

i havent got any sheet metal to repair those rusted panels

I did finish my painting/sand blasting booth and today i started stitch welding:

i decided to go with the inch on inch off:

sand blasted again and apply por-15 on the welds since it will be sometime before i primer it

Edited May 1, 2013 by andres14oj

[Mikes Z car]

andres14oj,

Thank you for sharing the pictures. Do have to use an air source when you are painting?

Mike

[andres14oj]

i havent used the spray gun on this one, the quick tries i've done have been covered up with spray cans since they're just little spots that i'll end up redoing enyway, permanent paint will be spray with a gun using my 80 gallon compressor. The por 15 i used on the stitch welds was applied with a brush real quick, im still debating on wheter i should use por15 on the stitches only, or stitches and entire undercarriage only, or or stitches and undercarriage and engine bay only, and if i do i would spray it with the gun, that is one of the reasons i aint making too much progress yet, still not sure, i just didnt wanna leave the stitches to corrode without protection.

[andres14oj]

I havent done much to this project. My little bro wrecked his s13 and we've been working on a new shell all summer long, it's all down to the paint job now, but it's all good 'cause it should do me good as practice for my 280 paint job haha, plus i'll master my paint booth...

also, the rb25 stock turbo blew up on my s14, so after finishing with the s13, before going back to 280, I gotta get my s14 (daily) back on the road, but it aint going back to the road in stock form anymore, ohhhh no, upgrade parts for the 25 are starting to pile up, and what a decoration they make

But even with everything going on i have found a few hours to spend on the 280. So i couldnt resist any more and had to weld the roll bar in place haha, not just for the joy of seeing it installed, but also to give a bit more stiffness to the chassis before continuing with all the stitch welding, reducing the chances of welding a twisted chassis. But oh boy do i love finally seeing it welded on!

i also sand blasted and painted my header with vht paint.

I also took my radiator to my workplace to have it re-done. It was actually leaking from one of the lines on the edges, so i decided to remove both tanks, cancel all 6 lines on the edges from the inside re-enforcing the core at the same time, rod it, strip the tanks, put back together and paint. I'll post pics of that later, should probably be done tomorrow.

[Patcon]

You don't have to paint the areas you strip if the car doesn't get wet. Ospho or Eastwood "After Blast" will prevent flash rust as long as the car isn't exposed to the rain. It also means your don't have to deal with the rattle can paint which can cause problems later. FWIW...

Charles

[CG240Z]

Good looking build. I'm in the middle of a 280 build myself. I always enjoy seeing what other people are doing.