inline6

Ah... that is pretty slick. A very smart and elegant solution.

Good stuff. CAD skills to even a beginner degree are something I wish I had. While I thought I was done with metal work, I decided to revisit a repair I made to the tail light panel where it forms the ledge inside the hatch opening. My repair in the passenger corner was one of my early metal repair efforts on this car. As I am now focusing again on the tail light panel - it has received the least attention so far, I decided that the inside corner areas were not up to par with the rest of the car. Because the car received a light impact to the rear at some point, the sealer under the ledge had cracked, and gave an opening to moisture. So, in the hatch corners, the metal had obviously rusted in between the panels, causing the ledge (in the corners) to puff up a bit. This area on the left and right is what I am talking about: After cutting away the old panel sections, and grinding away the rusted metal, I used a chemical treatment to neutralize the remaining spots of rust. Then, I fabricated a patch panel. I spent extra time getting the fit as close to dead on as possible. Then, I decided to use the spot welder I bought (a while back now). It does a good job, for sure, but when I purchased it, I was hoping it would replicate the factory welds. Unfortunately, these spot welds are notably smaller in diameter. Still a cool tool though. It won't reach everywhere, of course, so I put a few rosette welds (large round welds next to the mig weld seam) to finish putting welds back in the factory locations. Most of these spot welds are in the factory locations, but I also put a couple of extra ones. 🙂 A whole bunch of pictures follow: After grinding away the extra, I used 80 grit on a DA Sander to give the entire repair area a nice texture. I feel better about this repair than leaving it the way it was. Now, I just have to repeat for the right side. It will take several hours.

While waiting for fasteners to be re-plated, I find myself looking for little projects to complete. I went about restoring the front turn signal assemblies yesterday and today. These front lenses get a lot of abuse... essentially, they get sand blasted over time. These are likely original to the car. They look ok at 10 feet, but get up close and you can see they are quite dull. And, they have taken some impacts from rocks and road debris. The close ups were taken at 5X magnification. I used several grits of sandpaper and performed a wet sanding process. I started with 320 grit, then moved on to 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500. For the first two grits, I left tape in place to protect the lettering. After wet sanding, I buff with Meguiar's compounds and foam buffing pads. #83 first, then #7 "Show Glaze", using different buffing pads to keep from mixing. While I didn't achieve perfection, the results are pretty good. Next up will be the rear tail light lenses. They will be easy in comparison because they don't take the sandblasting impacts like the front lenses.

How do you get drawings like that? Is it some type of CAD software?

Purple power will do that to aluminum. You should be able to glass bead blast it, or possibly scotch brite it to remove the oxidation... and still use your old one.

Note that clicking "watch item" triggers the same thing. The ebay platform has functionality for sellers and they are reaching out to people who have expressed interest - they are more qualified leads after all. Some sellers do, and some do not extend discounts.

I looked around a bit on their site. Looks like the ultimate erector set. There are so many pieces! It would take me hours to look at what all is available and then figure out what I'd need.

Today, I fabricated the front rolling frame assembly. The cross beam is thicker wall that the rear one - it is heavy. I didn't measure it, but the wall is about 3/16" - definitely thicker than the rear one which looks to be about 1/8" wall. When welding the square post to it, I had my little Miller Mig 90 maxed out. While welding, I would sit the end of the nozzle on top of the cross beam and wait and wait, and then kiss the edge of the square tubing and then back over the cross beam... and wait and wait, and then kiss the upright square tubing again. Easily spent 4 to 5 times as long trying to put heat into the cross beam to get penetration. The plates that mount to the car are nearly 3/16" thick. Though the welds could be prettier, I am confident they have good strength. It will be an exciting time when I get to use these as the car will be really close to being ready for paint. 😍

I happened across this and found it interesting. https://www.retrosoundusa.com.au/index.php?l=product_detail&p=363 Classic Auto Sound specialize in "turning back time" on your classic car radio. This conversion features music streaming & hands-free Bluetooth, AM/FM radio, USB & AUX inputs and more. The ultimate in period-look with today's technology. Anyone bought one?

Hmmm. Maybe I should do that. I'm not ready to use these, won't be for a while longer. I'll have to look for suitable "drops" at my local metal store. Those are the leftover bits that they sell for a single rate by weight. Texas Precision Plating got my two shipments ok. Hope they turn my parts around in the early part of January. Once I get them back, I can bolt on inner fender supports, the fenders, and the inspection lids for the last time. Then, I can proceed with the last of the primer coats and final sanding on the fenders. There are still a few other areas to address with further bodywork, such as an area on the passenger door, and the rear tail panel. Getting closer to paint! While the car is at the paint shop, I plan to Black Diamond blast all of the black parts and prime and paint them. It would be easier to drop them all off at a powder coater. But, I figure epoxy primer and paint will be much more durable than the factory's original attempt, but look more authentic. I wish all of my efforts, all of this, was for an early VIN car for value reasons, but hey, 240z's in this good of a starting condition are somewhat hard to find.

A bit more time invested, and I finished the rear one:

Only up for a week - in Roswell, GA. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/596087028318399/ If you get in touch, tell her you saw the link that Garrett posted on the Z forum. 🙂 Garrett

I started a little project to build some frames with wheels assemblies that will allow me to roll the car around easily when it I take it off the rotisserie. Here are a few pics. Rather than make a body cart, I am going to try to get away with just two assemblies, one for the front and one for the rear. The front will attach to the front crossmember support bolt holes on the frame of the car. The rear will attach to the inner control arm pivot areas on the car. I am also making it so that it has two height positions. I found some square tubes and rectangular box sections (scraps) at a local metal supply place. The rectangular box sections are about 55" long and 3" X 1.5". I sourced U bolts with 3" inside spacing to secure the caster wheels. U bolts and some pins for setting the height were sourced from McMaster Carr. I got the wheels from Northern Hydraulic.

I think I found some Koito headlights like the original ones that came on the car new. I went ahead and bought them. I was using this very original 280Z on Bring a Trailer as a reference: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1978-datsun-280z-108/ Here are the ones I bought - these sealed beam bulbs look the same:

So, I got all my parts sent out for plating. $100 in shipping for one box and $146 for the other. $246 in shipping from GA to TX!!! F'rs. Amazon (for shipping) is going to eat them alive before too much longer - both UPS and FedEx.

Enjoyed reading through that. You got some nice results Patcon. I have been tempted to do some on my own, but so far have avoided because I don't see enough pros to counter cons for my situation. Space in my garage is always a factor. Chemicals that get stored for very long periods of time without use are another big con for me. Anyway, I wish I could plate a few things here and there. Good news for me is that Texas Precision Plating (Steve) said I can send my parts to him and they will plate them. I am happy about that. I had boxed most things up already. Yesterday, I "bent" the hard lines that go through the transmission tunnel (brake, fuel supply, fuel return, and gas tank vent) so they could fit in a box. I used the gas cylinder from my Mig as a form, and put one ~180 degree bend in each long hard line. Along with those in a large box, I put a lot of the large parts which are to receive zinc with yellow chromate (gold) packed in their own box. I have two boxes to ship them. The other box is just hardware and small parts and comes to 50 lbs!

I don't care for the comments from the peanut gallery of restorers on these auctions either, especially regarding current valuations, or future valuations, or costs to restore. It is a good entertainment experience to see a nice car or one that is a nice restoration candidate, presented well in the media supplied by the seller, and to see an engaged seller answering questions from interested buyers.

Do you have another restoration candidate in hand? I spend a fair amount of time looking and it seems the reputation of the increase values of these cars has become widespread. Sourcing at decent prices for adequate profit margins seems more challenging? Garrett

Looks good with that lighting. Are you putting it up for sale soon?

He asked if I had them do work for me before, so, I think they are continuing for a few current customers. Also said something about prioritizing local business/clients. Anyway, if I have to go elsewhere, I'll be more nervous about it.

Pictures after using the panel bond. I sprayed the non-bonded surfaces with zinc primer before I bonded the bracket to the outer and inner hatch panels. In other news, I finally boxed up the hardware to send it off to be plated. I called http://www.texasprecision.net/ a few days ago and Steve said they are "not really taking on that kind of work anymore". I told him I was referred by a couple of other 240z people who recommended them highly, and that I would be happy to wait an extended period of time, if necessary. He asked about the condition of my parts. So, I told him that I had done extensive prep and described my process a bit. I offered to send a few pics, which I have done. But, I haven't heard anything back yet. Fingers crossed.

Today, I accomplished another special modification I have had in mind for a long time. With my first Z, I discovered that the rear hatch outer panel is not well supported originally from the factory in the 240z. Pushing on the lock button to open the hatch can (if a little too hard) can cause the outer panel to "oil can" inwards. I have wanted to reinforce the hatch on my first Z for many years, however I was able to take care of it on the Z I am restoring for now, and will do the same on my first Z someday. Making a cardboard template: Transferred the template to sheet metal: I didn't show all here: I welded the box on the one corner, and then used panel adhesive to affix it into place. So, the outer panel will be well supported and have a much nicer feel when unlatching the hatch in real world use.

I agree on the 182,000. If I was serious, I would have located someone in the area to have a look at it, and snap some pictures. Perhaps that is what one or more of the high bidders have done. Hazard switch is odd in this car. Anyone know if that is original? Also, I am a bit confused about the hood. I thought early cars didn't have the corner reinforcements at the back. If Zhome.com site registry is a reasonable thing to go by, it seems that green on tan and blue on blue are rarer combinations than others for 70 and 71. Not going to spend more time looking. Gotta get it out of my head.

Sheesh. That makes no sense at all. Any predictions on the blue one I mentioned? It will sell tomorrow. It is at $15600 now. Transport to east coast states would likely be more than $1200. Incomplete info in the listing. No confirmation that it is numbers matching for the block. Valve cover is correct for the early engine. But, color of the paint on the block looks non-original. Engine may have been rebuilt or replaced. Blue on blue, while not my favorite looks to be rare. Probably not originally an automatic, given the manual shift lever laying there in the passenger compartment. Found myself thinking of this car a lot the last couple of days. Given my current 240z restoration is on year 4, and my 510 waiting for its turn in the garage, I don't want to buy another project. Best to finish my existing ones. I wonder if I will want to do another project after the 510...

Posting this here at least in part to make sure as many people see it as possible - and keep me from buying it. I've studied the pics. Appears to be an original blue on blue car. Seems to me like those are exceedingly rare. Mostly complete. Missing 4 speed trans and air cleaner cover. Not a lot of rust. VIN HLS30 02146 $15k so far. https://www.ebay.com/itm/203698086759?hash=item2f6d5a2367:g:Gm0AAOSwwFFhkY6e