Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[grannyknot]

The best way to find a pin hole I have found is to pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol or Methyl Hydrate into the tank, it is so thin it will locate any hole in seconds.  It evaporates quickly if you have to weld again.

How is that sound deadener  applied? Schutz gun?

[inline6]

17 hours ago, grannyknot said:

The best way to find a pin hole I have found is to pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol or Methyl Hydrate into the tank, it is so thin it will locate any hole in seconds.  It evaporates quickly if you have to weld again.

How is that sound deadener  applied? Schutz gun?

Thanks for the tip.  Yes, Schutz gun. I run about about 5 feet of clear tube from the gun pickup tube, to another foot long stainless tube that I drop in the container.

[inline6]

Progress (which at times feels absolutely like none) is happening with the body work.  I think.  Though most of it ends up on the floor after sanding, I am now two gallons in on the high build primer and need to buy a third.  That's going to be over $1000 in primer alone.  Not how you should do it folks.  Next time around, I think I will try applying body filler over entire panels and sanding down, followed by a few coats of sprayable polyester filler, followed by the high build primer (just a few coats should be needed).    

Here is a brief video showing the passenger front fender at the critical body line where it starts just above the wheel well opening.  You can see that there is some distortion in the reflection, indicating some more work to be done here.  Not quite there.  Much of the rest of the car is getting to where it needs to be however.  

 

I have been spending time as of late, working on additional panel fit issues.  The cowl panel is a bit of a challenge.  Because it is just a single thickness with no backside reinforcement, the large, flat areas in the front corners are susceptible to moving up and down very easily.  Before final sanding is done on this panel, I will be sure to replace the foam that resides underneath in these areas (proper thickness is important) to allow for proper location of the horizontal surface.  Then final sanding will be done to make these areas nice and straight.  

Inspection doors were hand twisted/straightened for near perfect fit.  These again, are made from single thickness metal sheet with little in their construction to hold them to shape.  Heights of fender top surface, cowl panel surface, and inspection doors were all massaged to make them line up.  I actually had forgotten to fit the gas lid prior to doing body work on it, and laughed at how bad it was when I test fitted it to the car.  Quite a bit of hand adjustment was necessary to give the right profile curvature to match the quarter panel appropriately.  

 

Passenger side door panel gap (with rebuilt hinges is looking good I think):

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by inline6

[inline6]

So after another month of weekends, I have little progress to report.  I have been sanding more, and applying more primer in the quest for perfection.  The panels are slowly being transformed.  

Here is a video of the driver side fender with silicone/wax remover sprayed on to provide shine so the reflections can be examined.  Below the belt line is super straight now.  Above the belt, but still on the side of the fender still needs some straightening.  It has a high spot in the middle of the expanse between the back of the wheel well opening and the back edge of the fender.

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by inline6

[Patcon]

That's good progress. It's time consuming work

[inline6]

In a couple of more hours tonight, I was able to get the driver door, rocker panel, and most of the driver side quarter panel sanded with 240 grit.  The door is super straight.  I am very happy with it.  The quarter panel has a dip at the front that I can probably address when the next round of primer application.  The quarter panel is pretty good, but the belt line in the area directly above the wheel well is tricky and I see a couple of spots that are not quite right.  

Videos:

 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by inline6

[inline6]

Some more progress towards getting this thing painted!  Insert pretty boring videos here: 🙂

Roof panel:

 

 

 

Passenger door - not good enough yet!

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2020 by inline6

[7m-gtte]

Love the attention to detail. Thanks for the videos it helps.

Any tips you've learned that would be helpful? Brand of Sanding block? Paper?

[inline6]

2 hours ago, 7m-gtte said:

Love the attention to detail. Thanks for the videos it helps.

Any tips you've learned that would be helpful? Brand of Sanding block? Paper?

Thanks.  I have learned some things the hard way for sure.

I like this sanding block a lot:

https://www.eastwood.com/contour-rigid-sanding-board-2-75-in-x-17-in.html

It is comfortable to use with both hands for hours at a time.  Even though it was designed to use non adhesive type paper, I have been using adhesive backed.  The rubber "pad" on the aluminum is hard/tough enough that when you pull the adhesive paper off, it doesn't damage it.  

The sand paper I have been using comes in rolls.  I have been getting most of it from TP tools.  I have also been using some 3M "red" rolls that I get locally at a body supply store.

In general, I have had good experience with epoxy primer on bare metal to start before applying filler.  Light sanding with 80 grit and then applying body filler was done next.  Then I used 80 grit on the body filler to shape it, followed by 120 grit on the body filler to get a smoother finish.  120 grit scratches are a lot easier to cover up with primer (or sprayable polyester) without sanding scratches coming though later.

Then, I recommend you depart from what I did and spray several coats of sprayable polyester filler, and then block sand that with 120 grit until flat.  Then, I'd recommend going over it once with with 240 grit to put a smoother finish on it.  Similar to before, the 240 grit finish will fill better when you spray high build primer over it.  Then you can block again with 240 and repeat primer spray, and sand with again with 240 grit until you have perfection.  Then, you should switch over to 400 to 600 for remaining finish work.  It is widely agreed upon that before you put down color, a minimum of 600 grit should be used.  That should be safe - the color will fill those scratches so they are not visible.  This is true for base coat/clear coat (2 stage), or for single stage paints.  

 

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by inline6

[inline6]

I took about a week and a half off and went to Florida for vacation.  Lots of beach, swimming, and biking.  Felt good to set aside this thing for a while.  I am back on it now with blocking and primer application continuing.  Getting panels near perfect is really a lot of work.  

How do you like my spot "welds"?  🙂

    

 

You may recall that I used the Mig welder to attach the cover panels (reused most of the original on right side, and fabricated a new one for the left).  I used rosette welds on the bottom edge (drilled holes and filled them in with weld).  However, I want the original look here on this bottom edge.  Looks pretty good, right?

    

 

All of the ones on the bottom edge where the quarter panel attaches to the rocker panel are fake.  In the third picture just above, the two on the left of the visible joint are fake, the two on the right are authentic factory welds.  To create the fake ones, I waited until I had applied many coats of primer as normal part of doing the body work.  Then, in the original factory locations, I used a dremel tool and a round cutter bit to remove a circle of the primer back down to the base metal.  And then I followed that up with another coat or two of primer.  The spot welds on the wheel opening flange are authentic factory ones.  Only the ones along the bottom edge where the quarter panel attaches to the rocker are fake.  Authentic ones pick up again in front of the visible edge where the quarter panel to rocker panel transition occurs.  

The belt line is looking much better now.  I like how they have turned out.  I won't have to give this line much more attention before painting.  This is the case for both sides of the car, from fender, to door, to quarter panel.  

    

    

    

 

I still have some low spots on the passenger fender and door to eliminate.  After that, I should be able to prep the underneath of the car for undercoating.  The tail light panel hasn't been worked yet because of the interference with the rotisserie.  That will need attention before I can send the body assembly to the paint shop.

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by inline6

[inline6]

It as been a while since I have provided an update.  So, without further delay, here are some pics of the wheels I ordered from Top End Performance.  Steve, if I recall the name correctly, had the best pricing out of 4 or 5 places I checked.  You have to order a set of four though to get the price of  $266 per wheel.  That plus $150 shipping to my zip code...  Oh and they were drop shipped directly from Mas at Panasport.  My quote directly from Mas, by the way was $341.43 plus shipping for each wheel (including 4 lug nuts) - sooooooooo not good a deal. 

 

    

 

Size is 16 X 7.  It will be a while longer before they see actual use!

 

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by inline6

[inline6]

I picked up the cylinder head from my engine builder.  The head is an E31.  I went with the stage 1 cam from Isky (reground from stock OEM cam), along with a set of their valve springs and retainers.  This cam has slightly more lift than the stock cam but the same duration, so the engine will sound stock from the cam point of view.  Custom modified valve guides were installed because what I was able to source was not up to my engine builders standards.  Valves are stainless SI brand for both intake an exhaust.  The intakes are 1 mm oversize compared to stock.  The old valve seats were removed, and new ones installed, exhaust ports were ported where it matters, and intake ports done (lightly) as well.  Combustion chambers were touched some as well, including mild undercutting of the chamber edges to improve flow around the valves at lower lifts. 

This combination of changes was done to attempt to match the camshaft, to take advantage of the higher lift and larger intake valve. Solid dowels were installed on the intake face after it was trued in order to locate the intake manifold plenums for best port alignment.  He is not done with manifold plenums just yet.  There are some slight improvements being made on those as well.

Here are pics of the head:

    

    

    

    

To finish assembly on the head, I have to source some replacement lash pads (on their way to me already) for the exhaust valves which were taller than the intake valves.

Edited December 2, 2020 by inline6