1976 280Z Restoration Project

[Captain Obvious]

I will post pics of my setup tomorrow. Promise. 

[wheee!]

The sheathed portion is 22.5” from the firewall so this looks good if you are 14.5” as the crow flies. Even with a 3” offset, I should have enough to run the cable smoothly. I can adapt the throttle linkage to line up under the cable at the end of the run.

[wheee!]

A little progress tonight on the hood.

[Captain Obvious]

I finally got some pics of my throttle cable conversion uploaded. I put more detail in this thread:
https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/61044-my-throttle-cable-conversion/

But here's a pictorial overview:

Pulled into the abyss.....

 

[wheee!]

Thanks Cap'n!

[zKars]

Question about paint stripping. I see in the early top-of-hood' pictures that the stripper took the first coat and pretty much left the remaining coats.

I have a project going right now that I have to remove a single layer of badly applied paint from the original stock paint. There are several chips out of the top layer, from storage damage,  that I can easily make larger by manually picking more paint off. I don't trust the prep, so that layer has to go.  See below.

Wondering if sanding or a liquid stripper is the way to go to just get that crappy red layer off. Even if it does remove the top layer pretty well, am I risking the effect that the stripper has of releasing the paint bond of the lower stock layers? Any experience?

I rarely remove stock paint, as it is usually very very well bonded to the body, and in this case, this car is as close to rust free and previous body work/repair free as I've seen in a Datsun of any variety. There is no compelling reason to take this one to bare metal. 

Any insight or recommendatoin is of course welcome, but I really just want to hear what Mark experienced when he removed that paint with the stripper, and how the layering removal worked/looked.

Edited November 8, 2018 by zKars

[wheee!]

I’ll respond by saying that the paint stripper does seem to work in layers. The longer you leave it on, the more it removes. I don’t think I would trust it to not remove more than one layer though. I found that the milder versions of Heirloom stripper from Canadian Tire would be a safe start, but I would do small patches and remove it as soon as it starts to bubble.
It does seem to do an awesome job when it gets to the bare metal though! Like a factory fresh panel! And no residual effects when it evaporates meaning no paint bleed later on.

[Mark Maras]

 I removed the top layer of flaky flat black from my 260 using a couple of cheap new HF wood chisels. Very little pressure was needed when I got the angle right. There was very little damage done to the next layer even though I wasn't careful. The next layer was to be sanded. Wear eye protection. The paint chips fly off in a cloud.

[zKars]

9 minutes ago, Mark Maras said:

 I removed the top layer of flaky flat black from my 260 using a couple of cheap new HF wood chisels. Very little pressure was needed when I got the angle right. There was very little damage done to the next layer even though I wasn't careful. The next layer was to be sanded. Wear eye protection. The paint chips fly off in a cloud.

Tha's so cool. That paint must have been put over a layer of vaseline to be that poorly bonded. I am a fan of scraping in other areas such as woodworking,, where the right tool and angle produce an amazingly controlled action to remove coatings. Removing sound deadening is another one.

Maybe the right approach is to find a suffering college student or young painters apprentice who will work for beer and peanuts,, to stand there with the DA sander and do it the old school way. 

Edited November 8, 2018 by zKars

[Zed Head]

I commented above, #2177, about trying to group materials by their "sales" names.  Epoxy, urethane, 2K, etc.  The same thinking kind of applies for stripping paint.  You can have two coatings, or paints, that bond to the same under-layer (aka substrate) at the same level, but will respond differently to certain strippers.  I'd try several different types of strippers on a small spot and choose the one that works best.  That might be good advice in general, I don't know.

Some strippers can affect the bond, some can affect the coating itself, some affect both.

[wheee!]

Cheap top coat on epoxy primer


Heirloom Max stripper.



One minute later


Two minutes


Scrape test at three minutes


More stripper and one extra minute then scraped again.


In the end it recommends leaving it on until the surface is softened then reapply as needed.

[wheee!]

Five minutes and counting...