Her Majesty the 26th

[Hardway]

Thank you for sharing all of this @26th-Z and kudos to you for making the car your own.  I know some would run moan and groan about not making it 100% stock when you have everything to do so.  However, no matter how rare or low the VIN, these cars were meant to be driven and enjoyed.  Everything you are doing will make it a fun car to drive.  Plus, if you ever wanted to return it to 100% stock, you could.  Keep up the great work!

[26th-Z]

Thanks for all the great replys.  I drove 26th for years before I took her apart to restore.  I consider her 'my car' and as such do not intend to restore her to stock because I intend to drive her.  I have 27th to restore stock.  That's the plan.  Both cars are originally 907 racing green with tan interiors.  They will be restored that way.  26th is going to get my competition 5 speed and some other nice period correct do-dads like headlight covers and Watanabe wheels.  I'm toying with the idea of recreating the tan interior for 26th in leather.  Something like what Len Welch did.

So today I have a tale of two radiators.  I had the radiator for 26th re-cored some time ago and it has been sitting on a shelf in storage.  I took the radiator out of 27th to find it damaged and had it repaired last week.  My, what has happened to the price of copper and brass!  The radiator for 27th also needed a replacement bottom and before I knew it, the radiator for 26th had a new bottom pipe replaced.  All painted and cleaned up.  New overflow hoses and I have ordered repro decals for both from Banzai.

[AZ-240z]

Hi Chris.  

Glad to hear your plans for 26th and 27th are finally back on track.  As you may know, I had 

reproduced, along with others, the red mastervac decals being sold by Motorsport and Banzai.

More recently I  have made the earlier ‘69-‘70  mastervac decal, also very nice and yet to be offered for sale.

let me know if they would be of interest to you.

the second  photo is an original decal, the first, my reproduction.  Colors, not well illustrated in

the photos, are very accurate.

Dan

 

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by AZ-240z

[Marty Rogan]

Hey Chris,

 

Glad to hear things are looking up for you and you are getting back to working on your cars.  The body on 26th looks like it is coming along nicely!

Marty

[26th-Z]

It has been one long journey.  Three different body shops, years of storage, but she will be coming home next week to begin the reassembly process.  Finally!

[26th-Z]

This restoration shop is a full service business.  Classic Car Restorations in Bradenton, Florida.  Complete services from paint and body work to interior work to full reassembly.  Many thanks to Brian and his crew for excellent work and specific attention to detail.  They fixed some poor welding work and fixed some other metal that had been covered over in Bondo.  Once I get the car rolling and running, she will go back for the interior installation - butterscotch.

For 26th, I chose a two stage acrylic with a clear coat.  The underside is textured in a colorised product called Raptor.  I decided to texture the wheel wells and inner fenders.  The interior finish is just the base coat which is why it looks a little dull

Edited June 10, 2022 by 26th-Z

[inline6]

Can you share any pics of the underside?  I've got Raptor waiting in a box.  I hope to be able to apply it to the underside of the car I am restoring in a few weeks or so.  

[Patcon]

Bradenton,  thats Cleetus territory 😎

[kats]

My dream is trip around the world visiting all my Z friends. I definitely stop and say hello to your 26th and 27th .

Kats

[26th-Z]

Let me begin by saying that this was an experiment to capture what I believe was the original 'finish' of the bottom of an early 240-Z.  Originally, 26th was covered in a dealer applied bituminous undercoating that covered everything down there.  Fortunately, a good amount of original factory build stuff was preserved.  Factory markings and paint dabs, for instance.  When I scraped all that off I noticed a texture to the original paint coating - a real heavy orange peel texture.  27th was not undercoated and exhibits the same.

For 26th, I did not try to mimic any masking of the application that may have defined the areas applied at the factory.  You have to take the car apart or crawl up underneath to criticise.  The Raptor has a lot more texture than I expected however I am quite happy with it.  I think it's going to be a bitch to clean.  Raptor comes in black color and this was mixed with 907 green.  I would say it is a shade darker, but it shows well and I am happy.  Next time, I'm going to thin the paint a little more and try for a smoother texture.

[inline6]

1 hour ago, 26th-Z said:

Let me begin by saying that this was an experiment to capture what I believe was the original 'finish' of the bottom of an early 240-Z.  Originally, 26th was covered in a dealer applied bituminous undercoating that covered everything down there.  Fortunately, a good amount of original factory build stuff was preserved.  Factory markings and paint dabs, for instance.  When I scraped all that off I noticed a texture to the original paint coating - a real heavy orange peel texture.  27th was not undercoated and exhibits the same.

For 26th, I did not try to mimic any masking of the application that may have defined the areas applied at the factory.  You have to take the car apart or crawl up underneath to criticise.  The Raptor has a lot more texture than I expected however I am quite happy with it.  I think it's going to be a bitch to clean.  Raptor comes in black color and this was mixed with 907 green.  I would say it is a shade darker, but it shows well and I am happy.  Next time, I'm going to thin the paint a little more and try for a smoother texture.

Well, it came out very nice on your car.   For the car I am restoring, I share your observations regarding the factory coating having a really heavy orange peel texture.   Raptor liner (it is a truck bed liner), mixed per spec, and as sprayed from their application gun doesn't lay down quite as smoothly as the factory texture, but it is closer than other spray on liner protection coatings.  I researched quite extensively before I decided to buy Raptor liner.  Additionally, however, I have two videos to provide which I found very interesting and which provide information which may help to achieve a finish like the factory coating.  

Jump to 20:50 to see the resulting finish for the tintable stuff this guy achieved with the standard gun that comes with the kit and I think 60 psi at the regulator:

It is still more textured that the factory stuff, but closer than any other bed liner I researched.  That said, here is another video that I found where a guy using Raptor liner over dash parts and achieving a surface that literally allowed the original texture of the dash to show through.  I question the use of this product on dash parts, but I plan to experiment with the same, cheap gun, drilled out nozzle, more reducer and less hardener, as well as different air pressures to attempt to get a lot closer to the original factory look. 

Jump to 11:48: He uses a cheap Harbor Freight HVLP gun with the nozzle drilled out to 2 mm.  And he uses 20% reducer instead of 10% and half to three quarter of the amount of the hardener called for, so that the sprayed material doesn't set up as quickly.  Finished dash is shown closer to the end of the video.

 

Most of the coating on my car is still in good shape.  There are many areas that were impacted at some point, however.  My plan is to try to replicate the original texture in those spots as best I can, probably using the raptor gun and Raptor thinned to 20%.  Hopefully, I can get a good result there, and then, I want to spray a very thin coating over the existing factory coating using the method in the second video.  I hope the new coat won't add any texture, but that it will allow the factory texture to show in the new coat.

Edited June 11, 2022 by inline6

[Marty Rogan]

21 hours ago, 26th-Z said:

It has been one long journey.  Three different body shops, years of storage, but she will be coming home next week to begin the reassembly process.  Finally!

I have been wondering how 26th was coming along.  Congrats on getting the paint done.  It looks great!  Enjoy the re-assembly.