Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[Patcon]

1 hour ago, inline6 said:

I am using Nason products for the black paint.  The paint supply place picked the paint code, some Hyundai non-metallic.  I can see about getting the code if you would like to have it.  I mix that with hardener and thinner and apply using a Devilbiss HVLP gun.  
 

Thanks anyway, I don't need the exact code. It was nice and glossy like single stage. I thought it might be. Didn't look like rattle can

[inline6]

The paint shop is done.  They sent me a few pictures.  They are not high resolution.  So, they are all I have for now.  Final tally = $14,079.  And that, for a car that I paid $8900 for, and then put over 2000 hours of bodywork into.  Damn.

 

The hood is not on the car because they said it interferes with the fender bolts.  I suspect they are seeing too much side to side play with the hood bolted to the hood hinges.  I believe the rubber "blocks" that help align the hood when it shuts will keep any hood to fender bolt interference from occurring.

In the end, they couldn't help themselves.  Despite my directions, they did remove the doors.  Thy did this so they could have better access to paint the door frames and door jambs the way they typically do.  Same for the headlight housings and hood - I wanted them painted while in place.  They removed them for painting.  They also sprayed the inside and outside of the car at different times.  They backed out some of the hours it took them to do things their way, (a lot of extra masking) and asked for forgiveness. 

I don't want to sound ungrateful to their efforts.  However, a part of me wishes the effort was more similar to the original factory painting of the chassis.  

I'm looking forward to bring it back and getting started on assembly.

 

[dutchzcarguy]

It's totally worth it, total comes around 25 grand.. i guess.. maybe one day i buy it from you for that? hahaha.. no i need to get rid of one first.. a very nice 300zxtt..

You do a very nice job! as we say in the netherlands: GOED BEZIG!!  👍

[Patcon]

2000 hours of prep is a lot!

Figuring a cheap $50 an hour, adds $10k to the paint job.

As long as the shading all matches, I would have preferred that they paint it the way they did. It's not factory exact, but not everything the factory did was the highest standard. It was done for production and these were cheap cars. They're not cheap cars anymore...

It looks fabulous!!

[grannyknot]

Good paint aint cheap but from your pics it certainly looks like they went about right way. Those doors and fenders are looking pretty flat, did they tell you how many coats of clear they gave it?

[Mark Maras]

 I believe the fender bolts that are now interfering with the hood are supposed to have a shorter head than ordinary bolts.

[CanTechZ]

2 hours ago, Mark Maras said:

 I believe the fender bolts that are now interfering with the hood are supposed to have a shorter head than ordinary bolts.

Hey Mark, had a look at some of the OE fender fastening screws and washers I have and the head thickness is standard for a JIS hex head capscrew. They are M6 and the head is 4mm thick. I did a check and current DIN M6 capscrews also have a head thickness of 4mm. The total height with a lock and flat fender washer is 7.5mm.

 

Here us snippet from the parts book showing the original fasteners:

For interest, I decoded the Nissan part number (08110-61210) for these screws to see if the specs match the screws from my 7/70.

08110-61210 BOLT 

  08 = standardize hardware prefix
  11 = Hexagon bolt, low carbon steel
  06 = 6mm diameter (M6)
  12 = 12mm length
  1   = Zinc cadmium coated
  0  = filler to complete ten digits

Decoding source:

http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=NES_Part_Numbers#Strength

Mine were the same as above except the length under the head is 16mm. They do have the number "4" marking on the head indicating low carbon.

[inline6]

When I delivered the car chassis to the paint shop, there was evidence of past interference between the side edges of the hood and the fender bolts.  Without the rubber "bumpers" in place, a light sideways load on the hood can cause this interference, allowing the head of the fender securing bolts to snag and chip the primer on the hood edge.

 

 

In its as delivered state, they had to address that damage that had occurred on the hood edges.  I don't blame them for wanting to keep that from happening during transit back from painting - to do this, they are leaving the hood off.  When I go to pick up the car, I will bring the rubber blocks and we'll put the hood on because I won't have a safer way to bring the hood back than attached to the body of the car.

Also, I took a lot of a care to put all original fasteners back into their original positions.  So, I think the correct bolts and washers were used to secure the fenders in place on this car.  This is the hardware I used to secure the fender to the unibody:

 

    

 

  

 

[inline6]

14 hours ago, Patcon said:

2000 hours of prep is a lot!

Figuring a cheap $50 an hour, adds $10k to the paint job.

As long as the shading all matches, I would have preferred that they paint it the way they did. It's not factory exact, but not everything the factory did was the highest standard. It was done for production and these were cheap cars. They're not cheap cars anymore...

It looks fabulous!!

Thanks!  I had to redo several parts of the bodywork, and I am (was) slow.  Knowing what I know now, if I had to do it all over again I think I could shave 500 hours off.  Live and learn.

[dutchzcarguy]

21 hours ago, Patcon said:

2000 hours of prep is a lot!

Figuring a cheap $50 an hour, adds $10k to the paint job.

Guys...guys...GUYS!!!    50 bucks times 2000  wakey wakey... how much???  yes a 100 grand not 10k.. 😮  

Now you see why a car restore is never cheap when you want it perfect.  I always say if i get half of what a prof. restorer/painter/technician asks i'm OK with that. (btw i think as i got much praise on my 280zx restore even from a english pro called Trev' !  (look at "trev's blog"at youtube you learn A LOT!!) i did also a good job.

I think my 280zx had easely 2000 hours if i count all the work of finding the parts and getting them and.. and... and...

As i said: that 240 is going to be the bisnizz.. hihi..👍  (I mean perfect car/example of a good restore!)

[dutchzcarguy]

For a (very?) short moment i thought.. AM i wrong? but no... my calculator also said: 50 x 2000 = 100,000 $  🙈

[inline6]

2 hours ago, dutchzcarguy said:

Guys...guys...GUYS!!!    50 bucks times 2000  wakey wakey... how much???  yes a 100 grand not 10k.. 😮  

Now you see why a car restore is never cheap when you want it perfect.  I always say if i get half of what a prof. restorer/painter/technician asks i'm OK with that. (btw i think as i got much praise on my 280zx restore even from a english pro called Trev' !  (look at "trev's blog"at youtube you learn A LOT!!) i did also a good job.

I think my 280zx had easely 2000 hours if i count all the work of finding the parts and getting them and.. and... and...

As i said: that 240 is going to be the bisnizz.. hihi..👍  (I mean perfect car/example of a good restore!)

Thank you for the kind words!  My goal for this restoration has been to restore the car to "new", with perhaps a twist.  I like how new cars today have very straight panels and very little of paint defects from the factory.  My goal for the paint was to elevate the body finish to that level.   

Oh! Yep, at $50 an hour - $100k.  My time log (very loosely approximated by estimating hours per day worked, sometimes very accurate, and sometimes I forget to note it, and have to go back and fill it in) is sitting at 3201 right now.  This doesn't include most of the assembly, which has yet to happen.  It also doesn't include any of the time I spent with restoration related work while on my laptop or internet research, or parts searching, buying, etc.  For every 8 hours I actually have worked on this project, I probably have one to two hours, or more, of research, search, work on spreadsheets, etc. related to this restoration.