Nat0z

Thread necro! Hey guys any updates on this wonderful work/thread. I started out @ home brew level then upscaled. No yellow yet but about to get it happening. Ive found 'low & slow' is tedious and painful and more so inconsistent. Found out last night that my hunch is spot on by achieving much better & brighter results straight from the zinc tank. Huge amps and huge volts (ill discust you all shortly!). Wave it around in solution (manual agitation). Nothing else keeping it submerged, maybe 4-5 dips swishing about 3-5 seconds each. And kapow a nice almost grey-blue film with immediate irredecense. How long and exactly how much current voltage is used depends on how tricky the part shape is and how big. Ie swaybar mount brackets would not cover, no matter what, internally or in the back-bends. Pump up the juice, i get an awesome result and only in a minute or two! Now im not sure why this is, bath resistance/conductivity or temp etc but it works and its the easiest and most consistant results i can attain. I just need to sort out the chromating, local supplier is opposite end of town. But i am now confident after a rinse these will chromate beautifully with all the rainbows as they are already there! On youtube some use alot of agitation, other very little, ie air pump. Others come out shiny and reflective straight outta the bath. Eveything ive read, watched and tried to comprehend say the opposite, but my results dont back it up. I dont believe spending the 400+$ on the local kit (non caswell) is worth it. But it im not going to change if its not neccesary, i will if it is the reason, ie no problems 30$ of vinegar and salt down the drain. I feel once i get the chromate passivate added it may allow even less attention to detail, as ive found so far the low n slow routine was very sensitive to finger prints, now im not as careful, sure to still use gloves and wire up without touching. A bead blast, etch, rinse and plate is all i do, then rinse dip & dry. I expect there to be another 3 more steps with chromating, and how you dry them is quite important for the finish. Happy to discuss more re my findings and share notes! Cheers nathan

Pretty impressive, ive just read the whole 9 pages so far. These parts out of the UK are great too, but only needed some square weld nuts added and they would be perfect. Ive got the front rad panel blank on CAD and have laser cut The prototypes (4x pieces from memory) Amongst other parts like front rails, full- length floor rails, lower rad and engime & gearbox mounts, std and RB versions. New here to classic Z cars, but long time Z man.... Keep up the artful creative, driven, no-doubt by the need for solid metal. Cheers Nat0 Oh and PS the 240z front frame. Rails taper outboard by only 5mm per side where as the 260z from about 75 taper out 10mm per side. As they run a wider & taller radiator. Youll also find their lower rad support drops another 15 or 20mm also. Had to Cad both of them up as i have a bitsa 240 with a 260z front repair which needed a hybrid panel made to finish the structural parta. Fyi.

Monkey, what Cad data did you need? Ive already taken the body diagram i to cad, traced and verified most of the data. Ive made a body jig, which allows me to measure from, similar ro a car-o-liner / global jig. Ive made sil panel clamps which pinch the sill edges(lasercut 16mm steel plates on base plates). Accuracy on jig is <0.5mm, and serves me well. To the point frustrates my mate who bumped my car moving it and now has an alignment issue on one of the strut towers. (bumped frame with a forklift with the lh tower against the hoist!) oouch. Basically ive used a 10mm dia pin which is the 'C' datum and i can use a tape anywhere diagonally to pinpoint with a plumbob or square, to fit a point in 3d space. I think i had some pics on the Aus Z car site somewhere. If not ill post some up here. Nat0z

Stay away from the flapper discs as they tend to grind the parent sheet metal more than desirable. A baced sanding disc 2-3" on a 90 degree die grimder, or a 4-5" backed disc on a grinder, and lern to keep it flat-ish, the biggest trap is to grind till the bead is flush, but as the weld cools it shrimks and pops up the attached sheet, leaving a lil valley on edge of the weld. The other absolute gun tool is a mini 18-25mm wide belt sander, but best if you have experience in using it, otherwise you can dig worse than with a flapper. I see qualified boilermakers and sheet metal guys get it wrong all the time in my lime of work, and many a times need to guide/coach them, which they hate, but love when they get it right, and i dont have to reject their work..... It does pay to get better at the welding, and this will come with time and experience. Nat0