240Z Resto - 01/1970 Car

[Careless]

15 hours ago, Mark Maras said:

 So much for memory. Next time I'll check first. The finish, however, is much like an aluminum color spray paint. Bright but not reflective at all. There are some cold galv. sprays that look similar but most are a darkish flat grey.

 Just had another thought about the original coating on the shields, It's quite possible the shields were aluminized sheet metal. More durable than galv. and might explain the color. I've worked with aluminized wire, vs. galv., on spec jobs. The finish looks and feels like freshly blasted alum. using very fine media.

Yes, I'm beginning to think it's actually aluminized as well. It looks like most aftermarket exhausts after a couple of years (with the exception of weld joints and the pipe seams that turn rusty brown).

I think I'll try to use an abrasive blast on the current shield and ask my plating guy to do a dull plating finish if he can for this particular part. That is if I can't find someone who does aluminizing (which i am going to look into tomorrow).

[Mark Maras]

 The rusty seams and welds would seem to confirm the aluminized coating. Interesting difference between galv. and aluminized steel we found in the wire business. The cut end of a galvanized steel wire won't rust. A cut end on aluminized wire will not only rust but bleed rust color onto the surrounding coating. However, the aluminized coating is superior to galvanizing in most applications.

[Careless]

3 hours ago, Mark Maras said:

 The rusty seams and welds would seem to confirm the aluminized coating. Interesting difference between galv. and aluminized steel we found in the wire business. The cut end of a galvanized steel wire won't rust. A cut end on aluminized wire will not only rust but bleed rust color onto the surrounding coating. However, the aluminized coating is superior to galvanizing in most applications.

 

just to clarify, the rust on welds and seams are those on exhausts- the heatshield i have does not have any weld seams. that, and the tubing i've bought in the passed that does end up like that is sold as "aluminized tubing" lol... and you're right about the cut ends. even slicing a piece of pipe and leaving it in a room with the right amount of moisture will cause it to bleed rust from the end of the pipe.

[bartsscooterservice]

The heat shield seems to be more darker tint gray finish. I used Motip Wheelspray Silver on mine, think it came out fine.

[Careless]

I am trying to avoid painting things as much as possible. I don't like using paint for items that weren't coated from the factory. I think one of the only items I've painted that was supposed to be raw was the exhaust manifold. 

Paint is my least favourite friend when making metallic things look nice. That's why I didn't paint the calipers, and painstakingly removed the paint from the cylinder head. It turns ugly over time and it's not easy to clean. 

So no paint, if I can avoid it.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Careless

[Careless]

Mini-Update:

Been working on this car here, and Zup sent me some much needed stuff to put in place the sound deadening that was not installed in the car when it was repainted. He also gave me great tips on getting me set up to tackle the interior of the vehicle starting from its current stage.

So far I've done the following:

• Attempted to repair steering rack. It came out great... except the pinion was worn out in the rest position and had a noticeable clunk when turning. I am going to attempt to transfer over the guts from the "rebuilt" rack if it's ok, and see how that works. That will allow me to drill out the hole on that rack to accept the oiling bulb. 
  *** SIDENOTE ***  anyone have pics of how the original steering rack boots were attached? Safety Wire? Band Clamps? Can't seem to find the answer.
• Installed some engine bay stuff. Ignition coil, voltage regulator, Inspection lamp, brake vacuum lines, throttle linkage, misc hoses.
• Did a lot of shopping around for other parts.
• Re-assembled distributor, but had issues with the cam weight advance plate (there's a thread I need to update too!)
• Finishing up a purchase for lots'o rubber parts from classiczcar community favourite, Steve.
• Only things left underneath are e-brake cable, speedo cable, KH brake valve and lines, gas tank, and exhaust
• Doing lots of interior research. I seem to be missing some parts (no surprise), but I'm still learning.
• Sandblasted many door/window parts, ready for plating- but that will be held off for a bit...
• Bought the carpet from JIM @ Chester & Herrods. I find it really awesome that an original and integral part of the history of these cars is alive and well (The person. not the carpet), and he is still producing the parts he made back when it all started (the carpet, not the people. lol)
• I've also been shopping for some jute as well. I think I narrowed down my search to the ones I like for matching the ones in this particular car in terms of original colour and weight/construction. I got it close. The variance in old/new jute is too wide of a range to be perfect within, but it's close. Hey- if it's available, I'll use that instead of something that just "does the job".

Speaking of doing the job. I got another one on hand that I'm working on (more on that soon), and I have to extract the spindle pins, so I made this handy dandy spindle pin puller. Just as I was about to borrow some threaded rod from a friend and make my own tig-welded coupling nut to use on the spindle pins (so I wouldn't have to buy or ruin his threaded rod which was for his own custom tool), I walked into his shop and saw his trusty vice in two on the floor... And it was doomed for the garbage bin.

My friend also has a lathe, so I drilled it about 50mm deep on center @ 27/64th inch drill size (it also already had a pilot hole started too). And in the lathe with the machine off and foot on the brake, I tapped the inside at M12x1.25, and it took forever. The steel is very hard (chrome vanadium?), and I had to back the tap out every 1/8th of a turn to clear it out and stop the tap from binding on the swarf/chips. But it all the way in very cleanly at the end of it all, and it went about 40mm deep with thread. My whole right arm felt like I was pitching fast-balls all day.

Then I bought a "tapered needle roller banded thrust bearing". Apparently, banded just means its a thrust bearing set with the top and bottom race encased in a housing rather than provided separately as thrust washers. It's essentially a throwout bearing...  I bought a thrust roller bearing but it was the 3 piece loose set, and the races were too thin and would get caught in the ACME threads. It had a small 1mm deep, 3mm wide step on the back for the bottom race, so I stepped the end of the DOM tube which I bought from the cut-off pile at my local metal distributor for $5, gave it a tap or two with a rubber mallet to get it on there nice and good- and then fuse welded the inside with a TIG welder so that the bearing doesn't go anywhere. I didn't want to ruin the shiny and clean aesthetic of the outside of the tube, so I chose to weld inside by extending the tig electrode farther than usual- but it was a good fuse. I then cleaned up the HAZ marks on the outside by putting it in the lathe and hitting it with some various grit sandpaper- and what you see there is the end result. Probably gonna shark hide it.

It took me a little while, but I don't come across free ACME threaded rod often, and it was $110 for a 3 foot section at the fastener store, so I figured I'd make a proper tool that will outlast many spindle pin jobs.

 

Price List

• TIMKEN T101 Bearing: $20
• 1" ID Seamless DOM Tube (1.5" OD I Believe): $5
• 1" ACME Nut: $5
• Vice Gear Screw: FREE
• Lunch for lathe use: $15

TOTAL: $45 (ish)

 

not including gas driving here and there- but whatever! Lets call it $50 bucks for a tool that will probably last longer than I do. The only thing that I'm not sure of is the ACME nut seems a little loose, but I have the original threaded slug from the vice that I can always cut and grind some flats onto, but it only seemed a little tighter. I'll try this first.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Careless

[Hank240]

Nice work on the car ! Luv the thread. A quick question - can you please give me some more information on the jute - where did you get it, etc. ?

Much appreciated

[rossiz]

love well-made diy tools!

my grandfather was a typsetter (lead letters in wood boxes) and had all kinds of cool specialty tools that he made from various household items to perform tasks for which no tool was available at the time, and i have a few of them even though i have no real use for them - just cool to look at and know he figured out how to solve a problem and made his own devices. one of the tools that i actually have used many, many times is a chisel he made from a table knife - sounds goofy, but it's incredibly handy: the blade is cut square at the top and sharpened, the corners are beveled to blend the blade surface around the corner so it doesn't dig into the material and the back edge of the blade is ground flat as well as the butt of the handle so it can be used to scrape or chisel in either direction. not nearly the level of fabrication you completed, but it's kept in the toolbox and every so often i use it for some odd task and think of him  

[grannyknot]

Is there a sign up list for the spindle pin tool remover yet old buddy old pal? Nice work on that tool.

I made one a few years ago nothing like yours of course, destroyed it trying to get the pins out, now I take them to my local mechanic. He heats them up to glowing red and applies 50 tons of pressure.

[Careless]

21 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Is there a sign up list for the spindle pin tool remover yet old buddy old pal? Nice work on that tool.

I made one a few years ago nothing like yours of course, destroyed it trying to get the pins out, now I take them to my local mechanic. He heats them up to glowing red and applies 50 tons of pressure.

Thanks. That kind compliment earns you the top spot on the sign up list.  

I'm happy to report that the tool worked wonderfully.

Each photo is in order, and has the associated time stamp from when I took the photo.

Setup @ 8:45PM (heated spindle section for 2 minutes with MAPP gas) [no photo]

Started @ 8:47PM (a few turns of the lead screw)

 

Midway Point @ 8:52PM (a checking for binding & reseating, and then a quick reheating ) 

 

She's out @ 8:55PM 

 

View of the threads (well preserved on both ends) 

 

The other side was the first one I did, and it was a little tougher because it was my first go, so setup and greasing and positioning the huge channel locks I was using took an extra 10 minutes of getting used to. The Hex nut is 1.5" on the 1" ACME gear nut, so I couldn't use the 1-3/8ths large wrench. There was no 1-1/2 available so I made due.

 

Since the tool worked so quickly and didn't take much energy from me (i've only so much per day!) I managed to then proceed to remove the entire drivetrain/powertrain and undercarriage/running gear (which was thoroughly soaked in liquid wrench, 2 or 3 times... many cans used).

 

 

This is all for another car that I will make another thread for- but this new tool deserved an update.

 

Amazing what some good tunes and a quiet place to work can do for productivity.

 

Maybe I should transfer this to another thread because it has nothing to do with this car's restoration- but I got excited. 

Edited April 8, 2016 by Careless

[S30Driver]

Wow, what a great tool!  It laughs at those notorious spindle pins!

Put me on that list ...

Interesting that you use liquid wrench instead of Aero Kroil or PB Blaster, but it appears to have worked for you.

[Gav240z]

If you make these tools, I'll definitely buy 1. Very handy to have.