Back on the body for some final work to the interior before paint. When the shell was blasted we had all of the sound deadening removed so that any rust underneath could be removed and cleaned up. I wanted to maintain the original look of the floors best we could for this rebuild. To do this we replicated the factory sound deadening pads placed throughout the interior with sheets of a 3M material: Sound Deadening

This material comes with an adhesive backed side and a top surface that can be painted. It goes on very easy and can be trimmed down to the correct size with scissors or a box cutter. Once ready for paint the entire interior will get a coat of sealer followed by the silver base color and clear. 

 

It’s crazy how quickly this restoration is happening.... amazing work!

is this your personal car or are you restoring for a client? 

Just out of interest is there a rule of thumb for what you plate in clear and what you plate yellow? Underbody/suspension fasteners seem to be mostly yellow and interior fasteners mostly clear? 

Ryan 

 

7 hours ago, 240ZBUILTBYME said:

It’s crazy how quickly this restoration is happening.... amazing work!

is this your personal car or are you restoring for a client? 

Just out of interest is there a rule of thumb for what you plate in clear and what you plate yellow? Underbody/suspension fasteners seem to be mostly yellow and interior fasteners mostly clear? 

Ryan 

 

Thank you! 

This is a personal car of mine, restoring it with the ultimate goal of finding it a new home when its done. I enjoy building these cars up, but can't keep them all. 

As far as the plating goes, what I have seen is that most exterior applications utilize a yellow zinc (originally a cadmium finish I believe), such has engine hardware, brake lines, and most suspension hardware. The clear zinc (again, I believe this was a cadmium finish) was mostly used on interior items, hose clamps on the HVAC, and dash hardware for example. There were a few exceptions, and I tried my best to plate parts as they came originally. 

My understanding is most industries switched from cadmium plating to zinc due to cadmium being considered toxic. "Yellow" cadmium provided good salt and corrosion  protection for hardware, which is why most exterior hardware was done originally in this finish. With zinc plating today, I don't think there is a substantial difference in yellow vs clear in terms of durability. More or less how accurate you want to replicate the look. 

8 hours ago, CW240Z72 said:

Thank you! 

This is a personal car of mine, restoring it with the ultimate goal of finding it a new home when its done. I enjoy building these cars up, but can't keep them all. 

As far as the plating goes, what I have seen is that most exterior applications utilize a yellow zinc (originally a cadmium finish I believe), such has engine hardware, brake lines, and most suspension hardware. The clear zinc (again, I believe this was a cadmium finish) was mostly used on interior items, hose clamps on the HVAC, and dash hardware for example. There were a few exceptions, and I tried my best to plate parts as they came originally. 

My understanding is most industries switched from cadmium plating to zinc due to cadmium being considered toxic. "Yellow" cadmium provided good salt and corrosion  protection for hardware, which is why most exterior hardware was done originally in this finish. With zinc plating today, I don't think there is a substantial difference in yellow vs clear in terms of durability. More or less how accurate you want to replicate the look. 

Thanks mate, yeah figured that was the basics of it with a few exceptions here and there. Keep up the fantastic work! 

Ryan

Been meaning to update the build. Lately, the body has received several hours of sanding in preparation for sealer and base. So not a whole lot of exciting or interesting photos to post. 

We did get the battery tray welded in. At the moment its being sanded down as well as we get closer to painting the engine bay. 

 

Planning to get the underside completely painted in the coming weeks. Even with painting it in a booth, we'll shoot the body in stages to make it easier, and will be a more thorough paint job this way in the end. 

 

Big jump in progress on the Z this weekend. First round of the 901 silver was sprayed on the body. It's amazing how different this silver looks in photos, and which lighting you have around it. We'll get the engine bay and interior painted next, then on to the exterior. 

Wow, fantastic!

On 11/11/2020 at 1:36 PM, CW240Z72 said:

Huge improvement was made to the Z body. Before blasting the car, we removed the battery tray so that the area around it and underneath could be cleaned up and any rust removed. The battery tray itself was salvageable, but corrosion on the mounting flanges would make welding it back to the body very difficult. As a solution, we order one of the stamped trays from Klassic Fab JDM. Link to their website: 

Klassic Fab JDM

Here's what the area under the battery tray looked like before blasting. You can seem some corrosion between the firewall and under tray area. A part from that this section of the Z was relatively clean all things considered. 

This tray was a very close copy of the original in size, shape, and appearance. I was very happy with the quality of the piece. The owners were kind and experienced with Z cars which is a bonus. 

Once the car was blasted, the area around the battery tray had not rusted through, but did show signs of pitting from corrosion. Mocking the new tray into the box showed that the areas which we would weld were thin and would again be difficult to work with without burning through. Fortunately, Klassic Fab also sells a replacement panel for the under battery tray area. This stamped also copied the factory sheet metal very well, even with the stamped locating pads to weld the wiring tabs to.

While again not entirely necessary to replace both the tray and area underneath it on this car, we wanted to ensure that this rust-prone area of the Z would be good for another 50 years. 

The patch panel was trimmed down to the appropriate size, stich welded in, and body worked for a seamless transition from patch to original steel. I was very pleased with how well the panel matched the factory area. We only needed around 50% of the patch panel to remove all the corroded steel. If your Z is in need of a battery tray and/or the area underneath it, I would highly recommend Klassic Fab and the panels they offer. 

Next we'll burn in the tray for good and weld in the electrical wiring tabs. 

Did you get the arch panel from KF? O dont see where they offer that part anymore.

1 hour ago, DC871F said:

Did you get the arch panel from KF? O dont see where they offer that part anymore.

Arch panel as the metal that goes under the battery tray? Give them a call for that piece. Its a made to order part. 

Interior of the shell was painted tonight. Next we’ll go back and mask off the areas that need to be blacked out, and begin the reassembly process.
 

 

No sound mat on the floor pans and firewall?

1 hour ago, grannyknot said:

No sound mat on the floor pans and firewall?

Sound mat was installed in all the factory places prior to paint (including the floor pans). Firewall will get the fiber backed pad installed on it 

Floors before paint