240Z Resto - 01/1970 Car

[Patcon]

Motorman7

You are in good company out there on the golf course

[Careless]

motorman7, any shots of the engine up close (particularily the valve cover, and the front of the motor) or any of the underbody? thanks a bunch! awesome fairlady!

 

just got some good news. going to pick up the rest of the plated stuff at 1:00PM! yaaaay!

Edited June 19, 2015 by Careless

[motorman7]

 

 

Edited June 19, 2015 by motorman7

[motorman7]

motorman7, any shots of the engine up close (particularily the valve cover, and the front of the motor) or any of the underbody? 

Here are a couple shots.  Let me know if this is what you are looking for.  Needs a bit of clean-up but not bad for 97K miles.

Edited June 19, 2015 by motorman7

[Careless]

awesome! :-D thanks!

[heyitsrama]

ugh, now i feel like a dumb arse for breaking  like 6-10 body bolts from my car when i was removing the front fenders.. 

 

double ugh when i realized i did not organize the bolts correctly.

 

tripple ugh, when i found a stupid wood screw in the engine bay

 

this restoration is gonna be so much fun

 

And i thought a hybridZ setup was going to be expensive, then all you old people have to show me that OEM is best. RIP wallet, you never were as fat as you thought you were gonna get.

[Careless]

heyitsrama, I'm just a middle-aged insomniac that has no real schedule as far as my day-to-day stuff. I'm kind of "out-and-about" when it comes to doing this restoration. not quite what a lot of you guys doing restos for yourself are going through. but not unlike a lot of them either!

Edited June 20, 2015 by Careless

[grannyknot]

This is a cast aluminum baffle out of an oil pan I'm working on, those oil stains are 28 yr, 221,000 miles old.

The clean spot on the left is 30 sec. of scrubbing with Armour Etch an old toothbrush, the clean spot on the right is 30 sec of scrubbing and left for 9 hrs. Not much difference.

Although Armour Etch is very effective on aluminum it is not designed for it and you can get similar results with an industrial cleaner with Potassium Hydroxide in it.

 

[Careless]

I think that's a little too aggressive- definitely etching, not brightening. The Hydroflouric Acid content must be a little too high for what I'm using the Brightener for. Had they been soiled, the valve and timing covers would definitely need some of that stuff like some of the transmission cases I have here at home, but it was just painted silver and sand blasted... So the vapour blasting is nearly the finish I'd like. If the Aluminum Brightener doesn't work on the small lower thermostat housing (not pictured), I will not use it on the rest of the stuff to be safe. The Vapour Blasting does look really good as is- but just a touch more "shine" or smoothness to it will really make it look factory fresh.

 

I found a NAPA location that has a couple of spray bottles in stock. I'm going to test later if I can get a couple of hours at a friends race shop. I don't want to spray and wash this stuff on my driveway, best to do it elsewhere where there's a hose and some open space and no foliage.

 

I was just de-wiring everything that was plated. Only a couple of items might have to be redone, but everything came out amazing. I was in awe at all it's lustre and beauty the whole time! 

 

Once I get this stuff sprayed and brightened (if it works), I'll be doing the sharkhide dip on the alternator goodies, and dropping those off with Glen @ Vaughan Auto Electric. He has the stator and rotor at the shop, as he took them off the housings for me to get them blasted. He's goign to test the new and old regulators for me, and check that the rebuilt starter has the proper shimming on the bendix gear to make sure it actuates properly. He's very particular about that, so I'd rather he looks at it before I install it.

 

He's also a Datsun owner, and his 240 is always in the shop and is a really nice example of a Datsun as well- but more Resto-mod style.

 

 

As for the intake plenum... that scratch was bothering me, so I went back to the powder coater and asked to see it for a couple of minutes. Went to my car, took out my trusty Milwaukee Cordless Rotary Tool with some dremel attachments, and cleaned it up with a cross-buff wheel before scrubbing it with some green scotchbrite. I made sure to just glide it over the surface and not mess with the contour of the edge of the intake box, as I'm very familiar with grinding tools and porting heads and whatnot... Ended up with this:

 

 

which should cover up with the powder coating way better than this:

 

 

Also, here's one of the 6 boxes of plating stuff that I was tangled in, crying for help from my garage from 3 to 5AM (with a smile on my face because of how shiny they are!)

 

 

Will post the before/after photos of the parts later today when I go to put them back in their little containers for easy transport...

 

On schedule for today is:

- organizing the plated stuff a bit better

- Aluminum Brightener testing

- Perhaps some more tumbling.

- making a brake line straightener.

 

Will be posting info/pics/tutorial on how it's made one it's actually made.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Careless

[Careless]

Having a debate with myself over the engine colour.

 

The datsun TRUE BLUE I've received from Datsun Parts LLC (Now California Datsun) is closer to this colour pictured here:

 

 

Is this the right colour blue? Because some items like the smog pump may have been either sprayed differently from factory, or have been top-coated with something a bit more "sky" like.

[jfa.series1]

Here's my block getting painted with paint sourced from Banzai Motorworks.  I think this color has been authenticated as restoration accurate by ZCCA.  It looks to be a lot lighter than in your latest picture.

[Careless]

That's the colour I've been seeing on other motors as well, but the one I posted I've also seen.

 

Damnit. I don't know what to do now.

 

It looks as if there is some original paint on the motor that is the darker colour, too. So I'm not even sure what the thing came with from factory.