240Z Resto - 01/1970 Car

[Careless]

Vapor Blasted Timing Cover:

 

 

Last photo is of the inside of the cover, as cast. Very close to vapor blasting!

Edited June 18, 2015 by Careless

[Careless]

Vapor Blasted Valve Cover

 

Edited June 18, 2015 by Careless

[Careless]

Clear Zinc Plated Hardware: 

 

Edited June 18, 2015 by Careless

[Careless]

Intake Plenum Acid Dipped:

 

[Careless]

Radiator Fan Acid Dipped:

 

[Careless]

Update (In Words)

 

- I got the parts back from vapor blasting, done by rocketperformance.ca. Brian Holmes took his time to do them well, and the price was absolutely great, and the results speak for themselves. Way cleaner than bead blasting, smooth to the touch, and looks just like the inside of the timing cover. The only thing I need to do is clean them up with some aluminum brightener (aka, phosphoric acid, concrete etcher, etc.), and then wipe them with some baking soda + warm soapy water to neutralize.

Once that's done, they're ready to put the where they need to go. Once installed, a little bit of grease & wax remover (or acetone), and let it evaporate. Then apply Sharkhide when it's on the engine, and she'll look like new for minimum 5 years, provided no fuel gets on it. Right now they might have some finger prints or a little dirt. But they're soooooo nice.

 

- Acid dipped parts didn't come out like that. I had to scrub the ever loving s**t out of them with phosphoric acid and a mix of wire brushes, scotchbrite pads, and steel wool. I didn't like how they came from the acid dipper, as they were dunked in a caustic solution- not an actual acid based solution. There were some deep scratches that I sanded down with 120G pad on an orbital, then moved on up to progressively finer pads. I am just going out the door after this post to drop 'em off at the powder coater with the exact-match paint codes I got for the fan and the plenum that I took a week to hunt down. Will post results and side-by-side with the 71 parts car intake when I get to the shop in a weeks time. The issue with scratches on the intake that were just on the paint ended up being more than just scratches on the paint. There was a ton of little specs of rust that I didn't want to powder coat over. The phosphoric acid and scotchbrite took care of that real quick. I really wish I had taken a before and after. It's a little trick I learned from way back when I had my 260Z. I removed paint and coated the doors with phospho, and they were left bare in my garage for 2 years and never rusted, even on days when I would go in there and everything was covered in moisture/dew during humid weeks.

 

- Hardware that you see so far is just a bit of the clear zinc plated stuff. Mostly oil pan bolts and wire-clamp bolts and washers. I think I'm missing a string of the small washers. Hopefully they can be replaced with some M4 or M5 washers, or maybe they're all there- or still some at the platers. Not sure, but it doesn't look like I got them all back.

 

There was an issue with "bleed out" on the yellow zinc stuff. Essentially, anything with blind holes traps caustic fluid or plating solution, and when they are removed from the plating bath, they end up leaking out the trapped fluid and washing off the dichromate finish coating. So it looks like a very poor plating finish. Not anything like the previous items I had done (brake lines, and transmission plate). Thankfully, they have a muriatic acid solution that they can dip them in for a couple of minutes to remove the plating and try again without damaging anything.

 

I would have done muriatic acid stripping in my garage- but while the chemical itself removes rust and previous finishes, the fumes will rust everything in the garage that's not coated. And I have a couple of expensive 370z/350z transmissions and some engines that I'd rather not test that theory with- so no muriatic acid in the garage.

 

I haven't had that happen with phosphoric acid, so that's why I use that.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Careless

[Careless]

RE: Radiator fan... that last photo I posted was of a grinding mark I saw on the fan, and it's present on maybe 3 of the 7 fins... I was wondering if this is intentionally done by datsun? It was all painted with the original cream/ivory finish, so I don't think it was done afterwards. Maybe poor quality control for that part? It doesn't have very many moving parts, so it probably got an OK back in the 70's. 

Edited June 18, 2015 by Careless

[grannyknot]

Raff, that stuff is too pretty to put in an engine bay. Nice work.

I have had good results using this stuff called  Armour Etch, it is primarily used by glass hobbyist to etch glass but it works very well on aluminum. Ammonium and Sodium bifluoride and some citric acid.

I got mine on ebay.

Looking forward to seeing the Sharkshide.

Chris

[Careless]

The engine bay it's going in is just as pretty, promise! Will post pics when I get the stuff back from the powder coater, etc.

Do you have any photos of the results with the Armour Etch? I see it's nasty on the skin, . 

[motorman7]

Wow, amazing work on everything.  26-th is correct on color and an amazing source of info.  Great to see all of the pics.  Attached is the motor from my 4/70 Z for reference.

[Careless]

Any more pics of your car you can send me? Funny, it's the same colour too!

[motorman7]

Any more pics of your car you can send me? Funny, it's the same colour too!

I have lots of pics of the car.  Just let me know what you would like to see, and I can post them.  Here are a few body shots.