Hardway's Red Rocket 1972 240z Build Thread

[siteunseen]

I wrapped mine too when I first pulled it.  

[Hardway]

10 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

I wrapped mine too when I first pulled it.  

Do you mean wrapped the engine for transport or wrapping the car due to the condition of the paint?

[siteunseen]

55 minutes ago, Hardway said:

Do you mean wrapped the engine for transport or wrapping the car due to the condition of the paint?

Naw, I had some shrink wrap and just wrapped the whole L 2.4 carbs and all when I got it on the engine stand.  No particular reason, I had some shrink wrap and didn't want anything getting in my carbs mostly.  

I do some goofy stuff! 

[Hardway]

Got a few updates.  I sent my stock balancer to Dale Manufacturing to be rebuilt.  You can find him at www.hbrepair.com.  Ran me $130 plus $26 shipping for going there and coming back.  Cheaper than an aftermarket unit and lets me keep the option of running A/C in the future.  The Isky-2 cam is in the head and I will be ordering my lash caps as soon as I get the invoice from Precision Shims in Australia. I also tried scrubbing the engine bay some but after several rounds of just working on the inner fenders, everything still looks to be in a sad state.  A lot of what I thought was dirt and dust is actually over-spray from previous owners.  Part of me really wants to give this car what it deserves, strip everything out of the engine, pull all the glass, make the bodywork right, and get it re-painted.  However, just not sure if that is in the cards right now.  Seems it would be wrong to strip the engine bay and just paint it without making the body better.  Decisions decisions.

[grannyknot]

6 hours ago, Hardway said:

I also tried scrubbing the engine bay some but after several rounds of just working on the inner fenders, everything still looks to be in a sad state.

Some auto parts stores, Carquest for instance can make you up a rattle can of the original colour,  not the ideal method but that engine bay is crying out for a bit of love.

[gwri8]

2 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Some auto parts stores, Carquest for instance can make you up a rattle can of the original colour,  not the ideal method but that engine bay is crying out for a bit of love.

I agree. After all, it's an engine bay and it's going to get dirty again if you intend this car to be a driver .  It's what I did with mine.  Pull everything off one side at a time, do some selective taping, spray it, then re-assemble and move on the the next side.  If you want you can also apply a clear coat.  Just make sure it's compatible with the paint,  ie; enamel or base.  It doesn't have to be perfect, the engine is the main attraction when the hood is open IMO.

[Hardway]

I got the engine back a few weeks ago from the Austin Z Clinic.  Isky Stage 2 cam installed, new timing chain, rails, etc. and everything setup and dialed in for me.  With all the rain we have been having, last weekend was my first chance to clean it up and do some paint work.  The oil pan gasket needed to be changed so I pulled it off.  For all you guys and gals that have been there, you know what it takes to clean and de-grease an engine for paint.  I used a wire wheel on the end of my Makita rotary tool to knock off as much of the oil paint as I could.  I sprayed 3 light coats and 1 wet coat of Old Ford Blue engine paint.  All in all the results came out just as expected... even with no runs and very blue!

[Hardway]

The oil pan took even longer since I had to get the old gasket off.  A previous owner had used liberal amounts of adhesive to hold it in place.  Luckily after that there were no surprises.  The pan itself is in great shape so I am thankful for that.  The bottom of the pan just had a few small pieces of the old chain rails.  Everything was cleaned inside and out.  My wire wheel equipped rotary tool made short work of the left over black paint.  I used the same Old Ford Blue for the pan.  I know it is "supposed" to be black but I just think it all looks better when it matches.  2 light coats and 1 wet coat later, things were look very nice.  With the forecasted sun for tomorrow I plan paint the front timing cover, head, and oil pan support strips.

[calvinhg]

Haha, use that break in the weather as much as you can, I'm up by Bertram and we've had flooded fields over and over.
Great job on the painting, looks really well done.

Sent from my OP 3T using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[Hardway]

As @lordkarma88 indicated, you have to take advantage of the sunshine while you can.  This weekend was no different.  After the honey-do's and Cars and Coffee at COTA, I was back to cleaning, painting and assembling what I could.  I masked off the block to paint the head.  Getting the tape to stick to the cast iron surface was a bit of a challenge but I got it to stay on just long enough to the paint down.  Don't worry about the valve cover, it is next in line to get cleaned and painted but not sure what I want to do with it yet.  The timing cover got the same treatment as everything else along with a new crank seal pressed in.  I bolted the timing cover up along with a new water pump using a new bolt kit from MSA and Fel-Pro gaskets.  I had planned to install the oil pan but the gasket I have must have shrunk or is not the correct gasket because it was too small so that will have to wait.  It is very satisfying to see it start looking like an engine again.  

[Hardway]

The Interpart triple carb intake was just as bad as the rest of the engine.  I do not have a parts washer but used a large tub clean it.  I started with a good soaking of engine de-greaser and proceeded to scrub, scrub, scrub, and scrub some more with various nylon bristle rushes.  Next up was a round of brake cleaner and scrubbing and anything that was left was removed using my wire wheel equipped rotary tool.  I also took some time to wire wheel the carb studs so the threads were nice and clean.  With warm dry weather in the forecast for the next two days I am hoping to lay some paint on it soon.  I am also deciding what direction to go with the carb linkage as what I have is in pretty poor shape.

[Hardway]

Had a super busy week at work last week so this weekend was not as productive as I was hoping.  I did manage to the get the intake painted which came out really good.  While it dried I used my tap to clean out the holes for the mounting studs. M8x1.25 for anyone that needs to know.  This really makes all the difference in the world!  There no shortage of debris in the holes along with some slightly damaged threads, all of which were corrected with the tap.  I used WD-40 to keep it lubricated as I am not looking to cut new threads, just clean up what is there.  Installing the ARP studs was easy peasy.  Hung the intake on for a photo.