1976 280Z Restoration Project

[Patcon]

I was just thinking about this the other night and I think I will mount the tank up first. Much easier and I figure I will have tent the underside of the car anyway to protect from over spray and trash

[wheee!]

Okay. I can live with that if you can! Lots of masking.

[Patcon]

6 hours ago, wheee! said:

Okay. I can live with that if you can! Lots of masking.

True.

I watched one show where they were painting a hot rod. They drove it onto a piece of plastic. Then pulled that up all the way around and taped it to the inside of the wheel wells and frame all the way around. Paint on the car and no where else

[wheee!]

I think I will set the car up on jackstands and then mask off the car to the floor, taping it down tight. That should keep the bottom clean. I might even wedge some cardboard between the tank and the valance to prevent any chance of contact with the sander.

 

[wheee!]

Replaced the restored sending unit with a new gasket and a new ring! Purty!


Waiting to be attached!...

[wheee!]

Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for all your input and feedback over the last year. I really do appreciate all of you and your opinions.

[zKars]

Merry Christmas Mark. 

[wheee!]

Pushed away from the table, put the turkey down and came back out to the shop today.
Using baseboard material to insulate the Skillard tank straps to the tank. Cut to 1 3/8”

Then assembled the tank with the restored J bolts.

Edited December 28, 2017 by wheee!

[rcb280z]

Excellent use of the vinyl baseboard material!

[ksechler]

Nice work.  I can't wait to see this one done.  I insulated my straps with bicycle inner tubes.  I like your solution better.  

Hey, quick thought.  When you sealed your tank did you remember to poke through the pickups to ensure you didn't seal them?  Ask me why I said that! ;-)

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by ksechler

[wheee!]

Nice work.  I can't wait to see this one done.  I insulated my straps with bicycle inner tubes.  I like your solution better.  

Hey, quick thought.  When you sealed your tank did you remember to poke through the pickups to ensure you didn't seal them?  Ask me why I said that! ;-)

 

I looked at bicycle tubes and was not happy with the way they would lay on the tank. Plus the vinyl baseboard was really cheap and thicker (about 1mm). It also lays extremely well on the tank and is easy to cut in a perfect straight line.

As for the tank, I coated it and then carefully blew out all the vent and pump lines with my air compressor. They all seem to have good flow so I am happy.

I still have to connect the neck line from the tank to the filler door, but I don’t want it in place while I’m doing body work and paint. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to install later.

[Jeff G 78]

4 hours ago, wheee! said:

As for the tank, I coated it and then carefully blew out all the vent and pump lines with my air compressor. They all seem to have good flow so I am happy.

Hopefully everything works with the pickup screen.  When I did my street car tank, I had no issues, but when I did my race car tank, I had pickup issues.  I blew compressed air through the inlet and outlet lines on the tank after coating and all went fine until I tried to race the car.  Apparently, the inlet screen was just clogged enough with POR-15 that it would run fine for a while and then starve.  I'm guessing that blowing the air backwards through the screen opened it via a bunch of "flaps".  When fuel flow was high in race conditions, the "flaps" would suck closed and fuel would stop flowing.  As a short-term fix, I swapped the inlet and outlet hoses and sucked from the open return pipe that sits about an inch off the bottom of the tank.  It worked fine, but I could only get about 12 usable gallons of fuel before I had to pit.  After installing a fresh tank with the proper hose routing, I could get about 14 gallons before it sucked air in the corners.  I then added a 1/2 gallon surge tank and I can now suck all 16 gallons out of the tank.  The surge tank is great, but when it finally coughs, I have about 20 seconds before the bowls are dry and the engine quits.