1976 280Z Restoration Project

[Namerow]

15 hours ago, wheee! said:

I didn’t stop to get sandblasting pics, but the powder coater did a great job!

Looks fabulous!  Hard to believe you were outdoors doing sandblasting in Ft. Saskatchewan with temps at -25.

A few questions about the paint:

1. What make/model of powdercoat gun did you use?
2. What powder did you use?  Gloss, satin or something else?  Now that you've seen the result, would you make the same choice a second time?
3. How many pounds of powder did you use?
4. Did you experience any difficulty getting the powder to coat the nooks and crannies?  Any special tips to offer?
5. How many times did you need to re-position the IR lamp to get heat coverage for the full surface area?

A few questions about the paint prep:

1. What media did you use for the sandblasting?
2. How much media (lb) do you estimate you used for the job?
3. How much media do you think you lost (not recovered from the catchment box) ?
4. How long did the blasting job take until you were satisfied it was ready for paint?
5. Did you do any final prep to the surfaces before powder application?

[wheee!]

46 minutes ago, Namerow said:

Looks fabulous!  Hard to believe you were outdoors doing sandblasting in Ft. Saskatchewan with temps at -25.

A few questions about the paint:

1. What make/model of powdercoat gun did you use?
2. What powder did you use?  Gloss, satin or something else?  Now that you've seen the result, would you make the same choice a second time?
3. How many pounds of powder did you use?
4. Did you experience any difficulty getting the powder to coat the nooks and crannies?  Any special tips to offer?
5. How many times did you need to re-position the IR lamp to get heat coverage for the full surface area?

A few questions about the paint prep:

1. What media did you use for the sandblasting?
2. How much media (lb) do you estimate you used for the job?
3. How much media do you think you lost (not recovered from the catchment box) ?
4. How long did the blasting job take until you were satisfied it was ready for paint?
5. Did you do any final prep to the surfaces before powder application?

Paint:

1. I use the Eastwood dual voltage gun with the setting on high for most of the work I do.

2. I used the Eastwood gloss black for the cross member. I choose gloss for this part because it is such large item and will be easier to clean in gloss. I like the result and am glad I went that way. The satin will attract more dust I think.

3. This part used maybe an ounce and a half? not sure. The bottle was only a quarter full.

4. Nooks and crannies can be a challenge if you have the charge electrode too close to the piece as it will create a dead zone. I hooked the electrode up about 10" away from the part on welding wire for good conductivity. After that, keeping the voltage high and a high flow rate of powder allows it to get it into most areas. There will always be a few dead spots inside the pieces that just don't get heavy coverage. I can usually touch those hidden areas up with a rattle can to protect the metal. Nothing noticeable. Also, make sure you keep the round dispersion cap on at the end of the gun. It allows the powder to disperse rather than "shoot" out.

5. The lamp was placed in about five position around the piece at each level for about 15 minutes each position. Then raised each time for a total of three heights. (15 total positions) This is a slow way to do powder coat, BUT it allows me to coat almost any size object!

Paint prep:

1. I used Black Beauty Copper Slag. It cuts well and doesn't contain any sand.

2 & 3. I had about 2 gallons of the media in a bucket and ended up wasting about half with the siphon feed gun. Normally I use a cabinet and have no waste, but this was done outside in an open box.... (and it was +2 degrees celsius yesterday when I did it, so I didn't suffer too much!

4. It took about an hour to clean off the part properly, including all the nooks and crannies. I didn't want old oil and grease melting and catching fire, ruining the paint job!

5. I did nothing more than blast the piece off with an air gun before powder coating. The results are phenomenal and I don't think I could have gotten better results with an additional cleaning process. The copper slag does not adhere to the piece and blows away clean.

 

[wheee!]

[wheee!]

Previous owner obviously had some play in the steering rack...


That’s two layers of rubber added to the worn out bushing.[emoji15]

[EuroDat]

9 hours ago, wheee! said:

Previous owner obviously had some play in the steering rack...


That’s two layers of rubber added to the worn out bushing.

Ouch, thatlooks nasty. Looks like the rubber was falling apart in the end.

 

Nice job on the crossmember. Looks neat and I agree with the gloss finish being easier to clean.

[Namerow]

23 hours ago, wheee! said:

Paint:

1. I use the Eastwood dual voltage gun with the setting on high for most of the work I do.

2. I used the Eastwood gloss black for the cross member. I choose gloss for this part because it is such large item and will be easier to clean in gloss. I like the result and am glad I went that way. The satin will attract more dust I think.

3. This part used maybe an ounce and a half? not sure. The bottle was only a quarter full.

4. Nooks and crannies can be a challenge if you have the charge electrode too close to the piece as it will create a dead zone. I hooked the electrode up about 10" away from the part on welding wire for good conductivity. After that, keeping the voltage high and a high flow rate of powder allows it to get it into most areas. There will always be a few dead spots inside the pieces that just don't get heavy coverage. I can usually touch those hidden areas up with a rattle can to protect the metal. Nothing noticeable. Also, make sure you keep the round dispersion cap on at the end of the gun. It allows the powder to disperse rather than "shoot" out.

5. The lamp was placed in about five position around the piece at each level for about 15 minutes each position. Then raised each time for a total of three heights. (15 total positions) This is a slow way to do powder coat, BUT it allows me to coat almost any size object!

Paint prep:

1. I used Black Beauty Copper Slag. It cuts well and doesn't contain any sand.

2 & 3. I had about 2 gallons of the media in a bucket and ended up wasting about half with the siphon feed gun. Normally I use a cabinet and have no waste, but this was done outside in an open box.... (and it was +2 degrees celsius yesterday when I did it, so I didn't suffer too much!

4. It took about an hour to clean off the part properly, including all the nooks and crannies. I didn't want old oil and grease melting and catching fire, ruining the paint job!

5. I did nothing more than blast the piece off with an air gun before powder coating. The results are phenomenal and I don't think I could have gotten better results with an additional cleaning process. The copper slag does not adhere to the piece and blows away clean.

 

Thanks for the insights.  It's additional details like these that help us all to learn how it's done (as opposed to simply admiring the end result and muttering, 'I wish I could do that.')  In my case, I already have the dual-voltage Eastwood gun and have used it -- in combination with oven curing -- with good results on small pieces like the front tow hooks.  However, I've had reservations about trying it on bigger parts and would never have even thought it feasible to do a really big piece like the front crossmember.  That looked like a job for a commercial powder-coating shop.

I have a small blast cabinet and have used it successfully with the lid open to do some work on parts up to the size of the engine valve cover.  However, I've never considered trying the 'bucket-and-box' approach for larger parts.  Thanks for showing that it can be done.  I've used the copper slag media (purchased at Princess Auto) on a couple of parts and found it cuts very fast.  Good to know that the post-blasting surface cleanup need only consist of air-blasting.

Finally, your positive experience with re-positioning the IR light stand for curing powder on a really large part will probably result in a lot of us adding this piece of equipment to our shops.  It would not have thought it possible to get such a nice result by sequential, zone-by-zone heating.  Here, too, thanks for showing that it can be done.

[wheee!]

Ignorance is bliss. I didn’t know I COULDNT do it, so I did....
I am not afraid to try things so I am fortunate to have learned a lot of new skills as I have progressed. The IR lamps are available as build it yourself kits on eBay for cheap. I used a 220v system for maximum power. The stand I made from scrap metal.

[wheee!]

Learned something else yesterday too. The Techno Toy Tuning custom hubs are beautiful BUT they are only manufactured in the 240Z offset. They are supposed to come with spacers for the 280Z application. Needless to say, my package shipped without the spacers and I discovered the issue as I was trying to mount my BBK without luck. 8mm difference in offset means nothing lines up. Good news is they are shipping out the adapter plates for me today.

[wheee!]

On 1/4/2018 at 11:05 PM, EuroDat said:

Ouch, thatlooks nasty. Looks like the rubber was falling apart in the end.

 

Nice job on the crossmember. Looks neat and I agree with the gloss finish being easier to clean.

Thanks Chas! The replacement poly bushing kit for the 280Z is very nice, but the driver side bushing is too wide for the rack and needs to be trimmed down to fit. Not too happy about that. It is also almost a little small for the circumference as well. Might be the wrong part in the energy suspension kit but it is labeled as a 280Z part.

 

The passenger side fits great.

Edited January 8, 2018 by wheee!

[zKars]

240 racks have a narrower driver's side flange on the racks, so maybe your rack is 240 but the bushing is 280? I need to go measure each of them. Hang on.

All that said, the poly bushings are a very very tight fit. Many have trimmed the inside edge to match the chamfered/rounded rack casting down at the bottom of the flanges and I've had to use hose clamps and grease to squeeze those suckers in place. Usually have to use longer M8 bolts to catch the caps without the bushings fully seated then tighten them down to squeeze everything together. Later you can change out the bolts to the right length. 

[wheee!]

Makes sense

[zKars]

Ok, 240 rack left side flange spacing is 1.1 inch, 280 1.35 inch.

This is measured across the flats above the chamfer/curve at the bottom.