bkelly

I planned on not touching my car until the snow melts. Last week it was 50 here and I wound up sanding the entire car down to metal. Today I stripped the rear of the interior. Unfortunately, I think I've got to the part where I have to start spending money. Around here the town is run by a "good old boys club". They use salting the roads to get overtime. It will be sunny out for days and they'll be dumping salt on the roads. There is literally so much salt on the roads it's like driving down a stoned road. Driving on it is hell, it's like trying to stop/turn on ball bearings. Needless to say, the salt isn't completely gone until about May. Then we have to put up with the farmers who track heaps a mud into the road.......

I played the GT4 demo and it seemed like all the cars were drift cars!!! Then I played Forza 2 once and like it so much I bought an XBOX just for that game. Of course I played it for a month and haven't touched it since.

I think Ferrari does something like that with their cars. There was a program on Nat. Geo. about their factory. The whole chassis is dipped in a solution, but they didn't say what it was. Eastwood sells a zinc coating that you can brush on. I wonder if that would be effective? Of course it would require taking everything to be coated down to bare metal.

Interesting. I live in NY so if it's going to work, you can find out here in a short period of time. They dump so much salt on the road, it's like driving on gravel. My 06 has rust on it already! Maybe I'll get a piece of zinc and weld it to the main body of my car. Cars up here usually go 5 years before things get bad, then you can go 5 more before it's ready for the junk yard. My parents just got rid of a Taurus last spring that was 10 years old. Mechanically/cosmetically it was perfect..interior was brand new. The underside of the unibody was completely rotted.

This one is for the techies- Last night I was watching this program on Discovery about how they make stuff. This one was on caskets. Once of the very first things they do is weld a big zinc bar on sheet metal for for bottom. I'm no metallurgist so don't quote me on this, but it's purpose is to stop the outflow of electrons from the metal to stop corrosion. They said it was so strong that it actually attracts them and totally stops the metal from corroding. It got me thinking, why not just buy a big chunk of zinc and weld it to the car? Would that not do the same thing as the casket? If this works, it would seem like you could do this with any car.

With performance it's- cheap, fast, reliable. Pick two. I would highly recommend Rebello for an L6. I've emailed them back and forth a couple times on building an engine for me. Pretty much you tell them what you want out of it and they will build it. If you're looking for all out power and don't care about "purity", then go with the V8. You'd have to build an all out racing L6 for the power you can get out of an stock LS6 engine. Remember, you should upgrade your rear end when putting down that type of power.

I almost got burned on ebay on a purchase. I found a 73 with tripple webbers and some suspension mods that looked to be in great shape. The owner wanted a ton for it and the reserve wasn't met. I emailed him with what I thought the car was worth in that condition and said I'd buy it if he met that price, he agreed. I bought my plane ticket to go fly/drive it home. In the mean time, I asked for a couple more photos. All I got were the same ones that were listed in the auction, but in high res....fishy. The night before I never slept because I had to get up at 4am to get to the airport anyway. So I get out photoshop and start going through the pictures at 2 in the morning. Blowing up the interior, I saw that the dash was totally cracked, steering wheel was shot, and there was no radio. (Just was I need, an 8hr drive and me signing to myself the whole way!) The exterior of the car was in excellent condition. One thing I always look for when looking for a car is check for uniformity. Does the car look "aged" the same all over? Something just wasn't right. I wound up calling the guy at 6AM leaving a message i would not be picking the car up. I was out $250 for a plane ticket, but I saved THOUSANDS in fixing that car up. After that I gave up trying to buy a Z and started looking at Porshes and Bimmers. I got a phone call about a month later about a local Z for sale and wound up buying a low vin 70 for much less than that 73 I was going to buy. Given my experiences with ebay, I'd highly recommend looking elsewhere to buy your car. There are many Z forums on the web with classifieds, that I would trust 10X more than ebay. The most important factor in looking for a car is BE PATIENT!!!! Most of the time, the car finds you.

NOPI has a ton of ricers that like to badge engineer things more than GM. I'd be very careful believing anything I saw on that show.

Saw this over at grassroots and thought I'd pass it along- Coupon code at www.por15.com: PCAA1207 for an extra 10% off, expires 12/14/07

Make sure that you alert your insurance company about it, or even file a claim through your comp. Some jackass hit me in Aug. with my daily driver. He passed me on the right as I was turning right. Allstate is claiming 85% fault, which means I have to pay for 15% of $5000 the repair. I made a claim through my comp, and while I'm out my deductible for now, my insurance is going to bat for me to get the 15% back. I know 2 other people that were involved in a non-at fault accident, the other insurance company tries to only claim 85% responsibility. It must be some industry standard to only claim 85% responsibility. BTW, Allstate insurance is the WORST company to deal with if you get hit by one of their moron drivers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-original-spare-tire-and-wheel_W0QQitemZ130174946513QQihZ003QQcategoryZ66480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem $400 for a spare tire!!!! This is up there with some of the $50k Z's people are trying to sell. Wasn't the original a Bridgestone? I'm so sick people people listing this crap on ebay that I've all but given up on there looking for parts. People think what they have is made of gold just because it's old. If I see one more "RARE!!!!!" I'm going to kill somebody......

I lucked out and the undercoating on mine (what little there is) is rock hard so it comes off with a scraper. My other one was drowned in it. I used a heat gun and a scraper on that. It takes a long time. You then have to go over it with a solvent. Eastwood makes something called undergone I believe that is made for removing undercoating. They also have a POR15 substitute that is cheaper.

Here's what I've got- http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00916706000P?sbf=Brand&sbv=Craftsman&vName=Tools&cName=Compressors+%26+Air+Tools&sName=Blasting+%26+Cleaning I'm using pool sand. I live in the middle of nowhere so the closest place that might have media is about 40 miles away. I can't believe Sears or Home Depot, which are both local, don't stock this stuff even though they sell blasters.

Ok this sounds really stupid because it's only suction. When I pull the trigger, nothing is coming out of my sand blaster! It's a craftman. (3 gal?) Pressure is at 60psi and the hopper is half filled with sand. I know I should be using media but it's just the undercarriage so I don't care about it. Anybody know what's going on?

My restoration is moving much faster than I planned. I'm ready to drop the rear subframe and prep the undercarriage. The only metal that needs replacing is on the corners of the floor pan. What little rust there is is only on the surface in a few places. I am going to be media blasting only the bottom of the car in my garage, using plastic bags to make a skirt around the car to create a "booth", then crawling under that and making one hell of a mess. Once I'm down to metal, what are the steps I should take to finish it off so it won't rust again? As much as I like restoring cars, I don't want to have to go back over this in 15 years. I refuse to use undercoating as I hate the stuff and my car will most likely never even see rain. My first Z had about 3-4 layers of undercoating that trapped in moisture and caused it to rot out. Should I just prime/paint like it is now? How is that rust encapsulator that Eastwood makes?

How about this- I had the opportunity to buy a 67 Mustang that was pulled out of a barn for $7k. It still needed a full resto but it had a 100% solid body. I turned it down but got the job of cleaning it up. It was buffed out, chrome polished, and a bunch of tire shine put on the interior to make it shiney. Pictures were taken on a slightly overcast day but enough sun came through to give it a nice gloss. By the look of the pictures, you'd think the car was brand new!!!! It was listed on ebay and it did $16k!!!!!!! Less than 24 hours earlier it was sitting in a barn covered in crap for 15 years. I could have bought it and made $9k for just spending 4 hours cleaning it. BTW, if I had the room I'd come down and buy yours. I'm looking for my next project already.

I've decided to prime first then do the bondo after the metal work is done. The bottoms of the fenders have a couple rust holes that need to be cut out. After they are primed, the panels will be stored in my house. Metal work will be done next year. It just snowed so my days of working on this car are numbered. (One car garage with no light or heat) Worst case scenario is I have to sand down and reprime the body next year. No big deal. As for the primer, should I use Epoxy or Etch? Or are they the same.....

Here's my take on rust repair. If the car isn't a total wreck you should do it. The problem with old cars is people think they have to get their money back or make money. Why not sink $10k into a car that's "worth" $6k when it's done? If you're going to keep it and drive it, what's $4k? You'll get your money back in use. The good thing about old cars is they very rarely go down in value. You know what's crazy? Buying a new car! I paid $23k for my daily driver 2 years ago, today it's worth $10k! $13k depreciation in 2 years and it's still going to drop! Buy a new Z and it will drop more than a 240 in good condition the second you drive it off the lot!

It's going down to the metal so I'd be using the etch primer. I was wondering when I got to the point where I was using filler, if it should go under or above the primer. The filler that's in the car now was under the primer. It looks like there is two kinds- a blueish gray that is in the dents and a tan that's leveling everything out. The blue is much harder than the tan. Other than that, what's the difference?

Does anybody make a temporary primer? I've started removing the paint from the body/panels....so far no metal work needs to be done! It won't be going into paint until at least next summer/fall so something needs to be put on it to prevent surface rust. I'm not too familiar with auto body products so I have no idea what's out there.

How about a diesel with the rest of the car to go along with it? I'd buy it if it wasn't across the country. $800! http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/car/459385185.html

I would highly advise NOT selling cars on ebay. I've lost over $100 in fees in the past two months. Long story short- I tried selling my Mustang that I don't drive anymore. 91, 19k miles, 100% stock, etc, etc. It's still new. The first time I list it I get about 10 emails asking for stupid trades and all that other BS. So this guy emails me saying its the first time he's bought anything and to walk him through it. So he uses buy it now and since he said he would drive up to pay me in a few days, I waved the deposit. So he gets here and is going over the car with a fine tooth comb. Then he gets all irate with me saying that I lied to him. The AC wasn't converted so that is what he was pissed off about. Even though he legally bought the car AS IS, he refused to buy it unless I knocked thousands off. I almost wound up calling the police on him because he was getting right in my face. So this douche bag finally leaves and drive 8 hours back home because he's a low balling Ahole. I list it again a week later. Again I get literally 25 emails asking for trades and completely absurd low ball offers. This one guy was trying to offer me $5000 and he would drive down TODAY if I accepted. The car is worth $12000. I had 50 people watching the auction and it ended with not one person bidding. Why? All people try to do is deal with you outside ebay and try and get you to sell it at a lower price. Guess who is responsible for the auction fee if you get a dead beat? YOU!!!!!! That's right, if somebody bids and they don't pay YOU get stuck with the fee!! Even though you are required to enter a credit card when you sign up, if you bid on something, no matter how much it is and don't pay for it, the auction lister is liable for the listing fee. Since a majority of people that would buy your car is from out of state, any type of legal action you could take against them becomes so expensive it's not worth it. My advice is to stay the hell away from ebay for selling cars. Use Auto Trader, Craig's list, forums, etc.

I'm recreating the Car and Driver Project Omega car. I need some help finding parts for it. The rarest are the Datsun competition parts. The other things on the car are rare, but pop up frequently enough that I'm not worried about finding them. If someone could help me find the following parts I'd appreciate it. Datsun Comp. 5 speed- Part #32010-E4152 4.44 Limited slip rear end- No Part # Datsun Comp suspension- Part #99996-E3010 I'm not concerned about the money, just finding the parts. I can make more money, Datsun isn't making any more transmissions. If there are any parts out there that are easier to find that can be substituted for these let me know what they are. According to the article, it was built to SCCA C Production specs. What exactly does that mean?

The only place I can think of is Danny's Datsuns. (541) 430-1180 dannye@mcsi.net

Ok, found out some more info on it. It was a C&D project car called "Project Omega". I can't find anything else online, although the stats are listed on a couple sites. I'm getting the magazine that it was originally in so I can make a copy of it. So far I've got my fenders off. Just some minor surface rust that will be blasted away. I'm hoping to get the engine/tranny pulled so that can be rebuilt over the winter. The real fun starts next spring. I'm still trying to figure out how there was a flooring tile under the fender.....